VIRTUAL WORLD PILOT ISSUE This readme contains the most up-to-date information with regards to the installation and usage of the iView 1.0 browser for the Virtual World publication. Please read this file completely before proceeding to install or use iView. CONTENTS ======== 1. About Virtual World 2. System Requirements 3. Installing iView 1.0 4. Using Virtual World 5. iView Settings 6. Questions and Answers 1. About Virtual World =================== Welcome to the world's first virtual publication on a CDROM. This pilot issue of Virtual World includes iView 1.0, an extremely user-friendly page-oriented browser which, amongst other things, simulates a page-turning effect to enhance the realism of reading the virtual publication. You will find no buttons, menus, windows or dialog boxes that are so typical of today's CDROM applications. Instead, you will be able to use just the most simple commands to flip to the next or previous page, to the contents page or the next section. To play or stop an audio or video embedded in a page, simply allow them to play or stop automatically, or click on them once to start and another to stop. Refer to the "Using Virtual World" section for the full list of commands that you may use with the iView browser. 2. System Requirements =================== Minimal: ------- MPC-1 Specifications Processor : 386 and above 100% IBM PC-compatibles Memory : 4 Megabytes Video : SVGA (640x480x256 colors) Harddisk : 3 Megabytes of free harddisk space CDROM Drive: Single-speed (150Kbs transfer rate), Single Session Sound Card : Required if you wish to hear sounds from the magazine Recommended: ----------- MPC-1/MPC-2 Specifications Processor : 486+ 100% IBM PC-compatibles Memory : 8+ Megabytes Video : SVGA Windows Accelerator (640x480x256+ colors) CDROM Drive: Double-speed (300Kbs+ transfer rate), Single/Multi- Session Sound Card : Windows 3.1* -compatible stereo sound card 3. Installing iView 1.0 ==================== It is extremely easy to install iView 1.0. Use the following instructions: 1. Run Windows 3.1*. 2. From the Program Manager, click on the File menu item and select Run... 3. Type: X:\SETUP at the prompt, assuming that your CDROM drive is drive X . 4. Follow the instructions to install iView onto your harddisk. Notes: - You will NEED Video for Windows 1.1* if you wish to enjoy any of the many videos that are embedded in the Virtual World publications. Please do not uncheck the Install Video For Windows 1.1* option if this is the first time you are installing a Virtual World publication. - Use the Install Publication Icon option ONLY if you do not have enough disk space on your harddisk. This option merely creates an icon in your Program Manager for the publication in the Virtual Publications Folder. If you change your video drivers or switch resolution without the publication CDROM in your CDROM drive, you will probably lose the icon picture. Note that installing the iView browser will take up less than half a megabyte of harddisk space. - The pilot issue of Virtual World has been optimized for a screen display of 640x480 resolution (with 256 colors). Please change the resolution of your display if you are using resolutions higher than 640x480. This is to ensure the maximum readability of the magazine. If you wish to retain your higher resolutions, the Virtual World publication will be centered in the middle of your monitor. - If you have a high or true color card, it is recommended that you use the 640x480x32K (or higher) resolution for your windows display. 4. Using Virtual World =================== The iView 1.0 browser comes with the following simple commands: 1. Before reading a publication, make sure you have installed it properly into your windows environment using the above installation procedure. Check that the publication CDROM is in your drive. To read the publication, double-click on the its icon in the Program Manager. 2. To flip to the Help page while reading the publication, press the key. 3. The cover page will ALWAYS auto turn to the contents page if you do not respond within half a minute. 4. The mouse cursor will change to icons that represent the function of specific areas as you move the pointer around the publication page. 5. To turn to the next page, move the mouse to the right border region of the publication and click on the left mouse button. Alternatively, press the arrow key on your keyboard. 6. To turn to the previous page, move the mouse to the left border region of the publication and click on the left mouse button. Alternatively, press the arrow key on your keyboard. 7. To enter the quick "browse" mode to scan the pages quickly, click and hold on the right mouse button while the pointer is in either the left or right border regions. To momentarily stop the browse mode, simply move the pointer away from either border region, WITHOUT letting go of the left mouse button. To re-enter the browse mode, move the pointer back into either border region. The browse mode will end only if you release the left mouse button. 8. To flip to the contents page from ANY page, double click on the left border region or press the arrow key while holding down the key. 9. To flip to the next section from ANY page, double click on the right border region or press the arrow key while holding down the key. 10. To stop reading the publication, double click on the top or bottom border region or press the key. 11. To toggle sound on or off, press the key while holding down the key. 12. To set the autoturn mode on, which will allow the pages to turn automatically after a delay of about half a minute (read the "iView Settings" section for information about how change this delay), press the key while holding down the key. This autoturn mode will end if you click the mouse's left button or if any key is pressed. The direction of the page turn will depend on the direction of the last page turn before the autoturn mode was initiated. 5. iView Settings ============== This section is meant ONLY for users who have some understanding of how to modify Windows 3.1* .INI files, and who NEED to change the default settings of iView for some reason. For most users, iView's default settings will be satisfactory. iView will look for users' preferred settings stored in a file named IVIEW.INI in the following order: 1. The user's Windows directory. 2. iView's current working directory. If you do a full installation of iView onto your harddisk, the setup program will automatically configure and copy a IVIEW.INI file to your Windows directory. You may modify the settings in this file to suit your needs. If you choose the Install Publication Icon option during the setup process, no IVIEW.INI file will be copied over to your machine. If you still wish to manually change the iView settings, you must first copy the IVIEW.INI file that is found in the VWORLD directory at the root of the publication CDROM to your Windows directory. The following is an explanation of the profile strings in the IVIEW.INI file. Values shown in all capitals are the default. Please do NOT change the values of strings that are not documented in this readme file. Note that 1000 milliseconds = 1 second. [IVIEW] PUB_PATH= {location of directory on Virtual World CDROM} This directory should be of the form X:\VWORLD where X is the drive letter of your CDROM drive. AUTOPLAY= {TRUE|false} This enables the autoplaying of media objects each time you turn to a page that has any media object. We strongly recommend that you leave this option set to TRUE. AUTOTURN= {true|FALSE> This switches ON|OFF the autoturning of iView on startup. Please read the "Using Virtual World" section on how to use this option. AUTOPLAY_DELAY= <2000|number of milliseconds> This sets the number of milliseconds before the autoplay of media objects is initiated. The default value is 2 seconds. AUTOTURN_DELAY= <30000|number of milliseconds> This sets the number of milliseconds before the autoturn of a page is initiated. The default value is 30 seconds. Set this value to a higher number if your reading speed is moderate. PAGETURN_DELAY= <800|number of milliseconds> This sets the number of milliseconds that a page turn will take. The default value is 800 milli-seconds (< 1 second). Set this value to a higher number if you wish to slow down the page turning effect. You should not set this to a value smaller than 100 milliseconds. IGNORE_BUSY_CLK= If this option is set to TRUE, mouse clicks registered while the hour glass cursor is ON will be ignored. 6. Questions and Answers ===================== Q: I selected the Install Video For Windows 1.1 option in the installation program. However, the installation only sets up iView and did not install Video for Windows. A: On certain machines, you may encounter a problem starting the installation of Video for Windows 1.1 automatically using the iView installation program. In such a case, please retry the installation of iView again. If Video for Windows does not install, you may install it manually by running the SETUP.EXE program from the WINVIDEO directory on the Virtual World CDROM. Q: When I double-click to go to the next section or to the contents page, I only get 1 or 2 page turns to the next or previous pages instead. A: Try setting your double-click time SLOWER using the mouse settings program in the Control Panel of your Windows 3.1 Program Manager. Note that for a double-click to register properly, you should not move the mouse between each click. Q: The videos seem to take a long time to load before it plays. When the video plays, the motion seem jerky. A: There are 2 possible reasons for the degradation of video playback on some machines. The amount of memory is the usual cause for slow video loading. If you have less than 8 megabytes of memory, Windows will have to swap out as much virtual memory as possible in order to read in the the video. This becomes more apparent on larger sized videos. You may want to increase your RAM to more than 8 megabytes to get better performance for your general multimedia needs. Another possible reason is the speed of your CDROM drive. If your CDROM drive is single speed and you are using a computer that is slower than a 486, the videos will be jerky during playback. Note: ==== * Windows 3.1 is registered by Microsoft Corporation. * Video for Windows 1.1 is copyrighted by Microsoft Corporation.