PixelToy 2 Manual

Introduction
PixelToy isn't a game, nor is it a screen saver, nor a paint program -- but it has aspects of all of these. Think of it as a very interactive lava lamp! With PixelToy you can watch and fiddle with an endless variety of beautiful, mesmerizing moving images. Warp, blur, melt, and distort any picture in your library. Create QuickTime movies out of any PixelToy display. Best of all, if you pop in an audio CD, you can watch PixelToy's patterns dance to the music!

PixelToy is shareware: you can use it as long as you like without paying, but many features are disabled until you do. Shareware registration costs $15, for which you receive a personalized registration code to unlock the disabled features.

Requirements
PixelToy 2.1 requires a Power Macintosh, QuickTime, and Appearance Manager.

System 8.0 and newer include both QuickTime and Appearance Manager. If you have a Power Mac but only have System 7.x, you can download the Appearance Manager here. Consider upgrading to a more recent version of Mac OS, while you're at it.

About Windows
Windows Reference
PixelToy's windows allow you to quickly and easily control the graphic display with windows corresponding to each menu on the menu bar: Options, Actions, Filters , Colors, and Sets. Additionally, a Color Palette Editor window lets you fine tune your current color palette with great detail.

About Actions
Actions Reference
Actions are the shapes PixelToy draws on the screen; filters affect the trails they leave on the screen. PixelToy 2.1 has eight kinds of actions you can mix and match. You can adjust each action as described in the Text Options, Particle Options, and Misc Options windows. The images below are of each action using the Rainbow color palette and the blur filter.


Bouncing Lines	Wander Balls	Insect Swarm	Raindrops

Sound Wave	Doodle	Text	Particles

Bouncing Lines bounce off the walls and floor, slowing down gradually until they disappear to be replaced by new, fast ones.

Wander Balls wander around aimlessly.

Insect Swarm consists of one queen bee and any number of worker bees who incessantly follow her. The queen can either chase the mouse cursor or (if you're not feeling like constantly interacting with it) she will chase a random point. Any worker bees that catch up to her disappear and are replaced with a new bee at a random position.

Raindrops are random circles that splat all over the screen like fat raindrops.

Sound Wave is a drawn waveform similar to an oscilloscope display, based on your computer's audio input. You can have a horizontal sound wave and/or a vertical sound wave. Most Macs have the capability to use either a microphone or an audio CD as audio input; you can use the Monitors & Sound control panel to select what to use. Your Control Strip may have an audio input control as well. Note that your Mac may automatically switch to audio CD input when inserting an audio CD.

Doodle is used to draw on the PixelToy window with the mouse. Like any drawing program, the mouse button controls whether your 'pen' is touching the 'paper'.

Text is a very versatile action, with its own Text Options window. You can use text in any size or font, and choose from six different behaviors. Brightness and size can also be controlled individually by sound input.

Particles are also an extremely versatile action, with their own Particle Options window. Particles can be used to make waterfalls, fountains, snowstorms, bug swarms, and more. As you probably expected, you can also make them react to sound input as well.

About Filters
Filters Reference
While the actions keep the screen filled with interesting things, the filters warp, blur, melt, fade, and otherwise alter what's on the screen. You can have any number of filters on at a time, but usually one is enough for a cool effect. The filters menu is like a series of switches; selecting a menu item turns it on, selecting it again turns it off. Some filters are far more appropriate in some situations than others; for that reason, in the previews below the yin-yang is stationary in some and moving in others. In addition to these preset filters there is a custom filter which will let you create even more.


Blur	Blur More	Fast Blur	Blur/Sink	West Wind

East Wind	Horizontal Smear	Vertical Smear	Diagonal Smear	Zoom In Fast

Zoom In Smooth	Zoom Out	Horizontal Spread	Vertical Spread	Fester

Fade	Kaleidoscope	Melt	Watercolor	Shimmer

Vertical Split/Blur	Horizontal Split/Blur	Erase

About Color Palettes
Colors Reference

Color palettes directly affect everything you see in PixelToy. A color palette is a collection of 256 colors. In the Color Palette Editor window, colors are displayed from upper left to lower right, in the same order one reads the words on a page. You can change individual colors in a color palette, but you'll get the most appealing results by setting only a few colors, far apart, then blending them together. Blending is achieved by clicking on a color and dragging to another color; while dragging, the affected color entries are outlined in white. You can avoid using the Color Palette Editor entirely by generating random palettes until PixelToy comes up with something you like.

Once you arrive at a color palette you want to keep, you can save it and give it a name. You may also delete color palettes; there is no restriction on deleting palettes that come with PixelToy, so be careful! The 'Grey' palette, however, is permanent. You can cycle forward and backward through your list of color palettes.

Technical note: all color palettes you save are stored inside the PixelToy application as 'clut' resources.

About Sets
Sets Reference
So you've got the perfect combination of actions, filters, options, and color palette? A "Set" can store all of this information under a single name. When PixelToy is launched without a specific sets file, it will automatically open and use the Default Sets file. If you want to use a different Sets file, just double-click it or drag-and-drop it onto PixelToy. Once you are using a sets file, regardless of how it was opened, any additions, deletions, and renamed sets are automatically updated when you quit PixelToy. To create a different Sets file from the Default Sets, either duplicate the Default Sets file in the Finder, or select Save Current Sets As from the File menu in PixelToy. When PixelToy opens a Sets file via drag-and-drop or double-clicking it in the Finder, it automatically uses the first set in the file. You can disable this in the Preferences dialog.

When saving a set you can add an optional comment. Using the set will then automatically display the comment. You can disable this automatic comment display in the Preferences dialog.

When selecting a set from your Sets window, all local settings are changed to those stored in the set. The window's title changes to the name of the set. If you do anything that changes the settings from those stored in the set, an ellipse ("...") is added to the window title to let you know that your settings no longer match those of the set you last loaded.

Aside from the usual organizational commands (add, delete, rename), you can start a Timed Set Cycle. This simply lets you set up PixelToy to cycle forward through your sets with a delay of however many seconds you wish. Selecting this command again will stop it. Note that you can still use PixelToy normally while a Timed Set Cycle is in effect.

To move a set from one Sets file to another, first go to Preferences and turn off "Use First Set of Opened Sets". Now you can open a Sets file and load a particular set. Then double-click the Sets file you want to move it to, then "Add this set...".

Registration
PixelToy doesn't use nag screens, nor is there a time limit on how long you can use PixelToy without paying for it. However, there are a number of features you get when you pay the $15 registration fee: Allows you to use the control windows, set longer palette transitions than 5 frames, create up to 16 text objects, create up to 16 particle generators, creating sets, and the color palette editor. Additionally, movies have the word "pixeltoy" in the lower left corner until you register. Finally, paying for PixelToy enables me to keep refining and improving the program!

The easiest way to pay for PixelToy is via a secure web page.

Otherwise, paying for PixelToy is still pretty easy - open the Register program found in the same folder as PixelToy. Enter your name and e-mail address, and change the quantity from 0 to 1. Save, Print, or Copy the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to the company which handles the shareware registration, Kagi. If you're going to pay by Credit Card, you can e-mail or fax the data to Kagi. Their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. For e-mail, you can Copy the data from Register and paste it into the body of an e-mail message, and send it to sales@kagi.com.

Payments sent via e-mail are processed within 3 or 4 days. You'll receive an e-mail acknowledgement when it has been processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days, and if you provide a correct internet e-mail address, you'll receive an e-mail acknowledgement.

If you are paying with Cash or Check (US Dollars), you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form. You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries, but checks must be drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies.

If you don't have an e-mail address (gasp!), you'll need to select Postcard Receipt when ordering so that Kagi can give you your registration code to unlock PixelToy. Once you've got your registration code, go to PixelToy's Register command under the Apple Menu, and enter your User Name and Registration Code exactly as it appears on the e-mail/postcard.

After you have registered PixelToy, please do not distribute the PixelToy program to others unless you unregister it in the Register dialog box.

Miscellaneous
Performance: PixelToy will run in any resolution and color depth, but you can improve its speed by making its window smaller. If you use your system in greater than 640 x 480 pixels (who doesn't?), lowering your monitor resolution to 640x480 pixels will help a lot. Lowering the color depth to 256 colors will usually dramatically improve PixelToy's speed as well; you can make PixelToy automatically switch your main display to 640x480 and/or your preferred color depth in the Preferences dialog box. PixelToy also runs MUCH slower if part of its window is obscured by another window. If you have the enviable problem of PixelToy animating too quickly, you can also specify a speed limit in the above mentioned Preferences dialog box.

QuickTime: Creating movies is easy. See the reference for the Create Movie command for specifics.

WWW: PixelToy's web page can be found at http://www.lairware.com/pixeltoy.

Technical Support - Suggestions - Comments: Is PixelToy misbehaving? Having trouble creating the effect you've got in mind? Are you using PixelToy for something bizarre? Have a killer sets file you want to share? Got an idea for PixelToy you'd like to see added to a future version? Send e-mail to Leon McNeill.