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Text File | 1993-05-09 | 15.9 KB | 361 lines

-------------------------------------- Digital Aesthetics V2.0 UNREGISTERED -------------------------------------- By Greg Grove Freely Distributable ⌐1993 GVG Productions -------------------------------------- Introduction from the Author: ----------------------------- Digital Aesthetics is a program for WB2 and up which will simulate an audio environment of your choice. The audio information to render these environments though your speakers is encapsulated in files called "EMods" or "Environment MODules"; two short ones have been put in this package. With DA, you can control various aspects of these EMods, and link EMods together in a list to be played in sequence. The interface allows much flexibility in how EMods are played. Digital Aesthetics takes very little processor time, and is meant to be used to provide a soothing background in which to work. Additional EMods are available when you purchase the registered version, (see DAReg.txt). Requirements: ------------- ╖ ReqTools.library - This library is written by Nico (yes, Nico IS his first name!) Franτois and is freely distributable. It allows for the nice file-requesters used by DA. The newest version is enclosed. ╖ Commodities.library - This library is distributed standard with WorkBench 2.0+. It must be present in the LIBS: directory. ╖ OS2.0x or above - I wished to make use of the new features available in the new operating system, so unfortunately development of the 1.3-compatible version has ceased. Apologies to those who do not have 2.0x or above. Setting up Digital Aesthetics: ------------------------------ Double-click (from WorkBench) or 'Execute' (from CLI) the 'Install_Libs' program. This script will install all necessary libraries into your 'LIBS:' directory, if they do not already exist. To install DA on your hard-drive, simply drag the DA2.0 drawer to a directory on your HD of your preference. To add the EMods, drag the EMod drawer onto a directory on your drive. I M P O R T A N T To be able to utilize EMod icons, you must add the following line some- where in your startup sequence: "PATH <directory where DA.exe is located> ADD" Your computer must be rebooted for this to be in effect. After you have done this, you may click EMod icons from anywhere and they will still be able to find DA.exe! Starting up: ------------ Once DA and its files are settled into place, double-click the DA icon, or call it from CLI. A window bearing the familiar Digital Aesthetics logo will appear. This window posesses numerous gadgets, each of which is explained in the following section. A unique aspect of this program is its (sometimes sarcastic) status line. Located at the bottom of the main DA window, it will contain text to update you on the current status of the program, as well as any events that took place not important enough for a full-blown requester. The Gadgets: ------------ Using a system I call KOBAL (no, not the archaic computer language; KOBAL is an acronym for 'Keyboard Oriented Button Activation Link'), you can activate almost any button with the keyboard as though you were using the mouse! The key you must press is denoted by a line under a character of the button's name. Holding down the key causes the button to be held down. If you decide you do not want this button to be put in action, press another key without releasing the original key. Then release both, and the operation was cancelled! Gadget descriptions follow: ╖ Chip - A Read-Only Chip memory meter. Chip memory is what DA uses the most of as EMods, when loaded in, will occupy it. Keep track of your Chip memory with this meter ╖ Fast - This shows your current free amount of Fast memory. DA will use Fast memory whenever possible, but, again, Chip memory is its primary hunger. However, the EMods have been designed so that they will NOT take up more than 200K of precious Chip. ╖ Total - Your total amount of free memory is displayed in this gadget. ╖ Settings - This button will bring up a window allowing you to choose the general settings and defaults for DA (which will be saved in the prefs file) ╖ Play - This is a cycle gadget which allows you to select how EMods are to be played. Possible selections are: Once - Only one EMod will be played over and over. Sequence - Your list of EMods will be played in sequence. Once the end of the list has been reached, DA will start from the top again. Random - Your EMods will be played in a random fashion. Because I got tired of predictable random number routines, I wrote one which would base its numbers off of the current time! ╖ Open Window on Start-Up - Not checking this box will prevent DA from opening up its main window the next time you run it. Instead, it will check your prefs and simply start playing EMods! If DA encounters any errors along the way, (e.g. you haven't selected any EMods to play in the prefs file), the Main Window will open anyway, with a sarcastic comment awaiting you in the status line! ╖ Use Title-Bar when Playing - If selected, a small 'Title-Bar' window will appear when EMods are playing. This bar will display some items of information. When the EMods are loading or decrunching, it will notify you. (Future versions will have a graph of how much has been loaded in this title-bar). Also, the name of the current EMod as well as its playing time will be shown. If you are playing EMods in sequence or at random, pressing return will skip to the next EMod. ╖ Flash Pointer when decrunching - This will simply flash your pointer when DA is decrunching a compressed EMod. ╖ Use Double Buffering - When playing EMods in sequence or at random DA will be loading the next EMod to be played before the EMod currently playing is finished if this box is selected. You should only consider this if you have adequate free memory. If you do not, DA will not begin loading until the EMod currently playing is finished and its memory released. This option will only really be of interest to those running off floppy drives. ╖ Defaults - This button brings up a window which will allow you to define traits which all EMods will be given as defaults when they are added to your list. Information on these traits are given in the 'Edit' gadget explanation. ╖ Use - To save the settings you have chosen in memory, press this button. For your settings to be saved to disk, use the 'Save Config' menu item under the 'Project' menu. (See the section 'Menus') ╖ Cancel - Pressing this will cause the settings you spent your precious time selecting to be lost. Note that the 'Defaults' window has separate 'Use' and 'Cancel' buttons. If you select 'Cancel', but you 'Use'd your defaults, they will not be lost. (Back to the Main Window Gadgets...) ╖ About - This button will reveal program information. ╖ Hide and Play - This will, with all of the settings and EMod(s) you have defined, begin the playing procedure! If you have no EMods, the status line will notify you! (See the section 'Playing EMods') ╖ Add - A file-requester will appear, from which you are to select EMod(s) to be added to your play-list. Once you have done so, they will be checked to make sure they are valid, and have the default settings applied to them. ╖ Del - The currently selected EMod will be removed from the list, (not deleted physically). If the EMod is resident, the memory it is using will be freed. ╖ Clr - All EMods in your list will be removed if this button is pressed. ╖ Swap - To get your play-order fine-tuned just the way you like it, you can swap two entries in your list! Select one EMod, press 'Swap', select another, and the two will switch positions. ╖ Edit - This button will bring up the EMod-Editor window. An explanation of the gadgets this window possesses follows: ╖ Name - The name of the EMod you are editing! ╖ Path - This EMod's full pathname. ╖ Size - How much Chip memory this EMod will take when playing. ╖ Type - Shows what kind of EMod this is. ╖ Make Resident - This button will make the EMod being edited resident in memory. Its data will be loaded from disk and safely stashed in memory. Further accesses to this EMod will look in memory. Pressing this again will free the memory it used. You should have a plentiful supply of memory to make use of this feature. If an EMod is resident, its name in the Name gadget will be followed by an asterisk. All resident EMods will go to chip memory so this option really should only be considered if you have 1 meg of chip or more. If DA cannot allocate chip memory at any time, ALL resident EMods will be removed from memory. This feature had been disabled in the Unregistered version. ╖ Default Settings - This button will apply the default settings to this EMod. ╖ Volume - This slider determines the relative volume the EMod will play at. ╖ Pitch - You may alter the relative frequency of the EMod with this slider. ╖ Time - The time (in minutes) this EMod will play can be chosen with this slider. ╖ Use Low-Pass Filter - Checking this box will turn on the filter when playing this EMod. (The filter will reduce the anti-aliasing distortion sometimes present, but will reduce the clarity as well) ╖ Use - Applys these settings to your EMod. ╖ Cancel - Will dispose of these settings. (Note that the Window's close gadget will always act as a 'Cancel') Menus: ------ DA does not have many menus at the moment. There are two main menus: Project ╖ Load Config - This will revert your settings to those saved in 'Da.prefs'. (This feature is disabled in the Unregistered version.) ╖ Save Config - This will save your preferences to a file called 'DA.prefs' in your 'S:' directory. The EMod list, the EMods' preferences, the general settings, and your selected defaults will be saved to this file. Thus, the next time you load up DA, you will find it in almost exactly the same state as you saved it! (This feature is disabled in the Unregistered version.) ╖ Quit - This terminates the DA program. The close gadget on the Main window shares this function. Help - (Menu has been disabled in the Unregistered version.) ╖ Open Regular Doc - This menu item will execute the CLI command: 'muchmore DA.doc'. ╖ Open AmigaGuide Doc - This item will execute the CLI command: 'amigaguide DA.guide'. Both forms of documentation run asynchronously (ie DA can still be operated while the documentation is running. Playing EMods: -------------- When you select the 'Hide and Play' gadget on the main window, the process of randomizing and playing EMods will be initiated. If you had selected to play EMods once, the EMod that was selected before DA went into the playing state will be loaded in and sent through your audio- channels forever (or until you bring back the DA main window). If you had selected to play EMods in sequence, the first EMod on the list will be loaded and played for the duration you selected. After it has completed, (or almost completed if you selected to Double-Buffer), the next EMod in the list will be loaded, and so on. If you had selected to play EMods at random, the same process as playing in sequence will be executed, but EMods will be chosen at random. (Note that when I say 'load', 'decrunch' is applied in addition, if applicable). To get back to the main window, you can press the right mouse button, (if you have a title bar window), press the Hot-Key (Left-Alt, Left-Shift D), or use Commodore's 'Commodities Exchange'. For best sound: --------------- ╖ Use Mono, not Stereo sound. EMods are not designed with stereo in mind. ╖ Do not have your output device's volume too high ╖ Use a 100+ Watt Stereo!!! Alternative execution of Digital Aesthetics: -------------------------------------------- If you want to play one EMod quickly and easily, simply click its icon. DA will be loaded in and disregard the EMod list in the prefs file. It will start playing that EMod (in title-bar form if you had so selected in the prefs file). From CLI you can use the syntax 'DA [EMod]'. Multiple EMods are not yet supported from this type of execution. Big thanks to the following people: ----------------------------------- Teijo Kinnunen - For the freely-distributable player-code Nico Franτois - For the freely-distributable ReqTools library Chris Ransdell - For bearing with me and helping to test this program Lance Farrell - For some ideas to be implemented Last Word from the Author: -------------------------- I hope that this documentation has covered everything you need to know. If you find any bugs or are uncertain of how to utilize a certain feature of DA, write to: or call by modem: Greg Grove Metropolis BBS PO BOX 4361 (503) 389-5404 Sunriver, OR 97707-1361 14,400bps/24 hrs Or E-mail evermic@prism.cs.orst.edu and he will forward bug reports or suggestions to me.