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Turnbull China Bikeride - Disc 2.iso
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Text File
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1997-01-23
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3KB
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88 lines
Thing for replacing the desktop boot screen
===========================================
That's what it does. It plots a pretty picture of your choice over the Acorn logo
which appears when your computer starts up.
The 'Germs' module chooses a picture at random from a predefined directory containing
one or more pictures, then displays it on the screen at boot time. Nice 'n' simple
so far. It will only work on Risc OS 3.50 and above. Its behaviour on earlier versions
is undefined (i.e. it'll crash).
Setting it up
=============
You need to provide Germs with a directory of sprite files. This directory can be
anywhere on your hard disc but it must contain ONLY sprite files. You can't even put
subdirectories in there. Why? You just can't.
The sprites ought to be compatible with the screen mode your machine starts up in.
Thus if it starts up in 256 colours, you should include 256 colour sprites. The size
of the sprite is not important, since Germs will centre sprites which are too small
and will shrink sprites which are too big.
Once you've got a set of directories, you need to install Germs in your PreDesk
directory. On my system this is
:4.$.!Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk
Just copy the file 'Germs' and the file 'Germsetup' into there.
You need to edit Germsetup so that it points to the directory where your sprites are.
Thus if (as in the file supplied) your sprites were in the directory
ADFS::Harddisc4.$.pics
your Germsetup file would read
Set BootUp$PictureDir ADFS::HardDisc4.$.pics
Set BootUp$PicturePath ADFS::HardDisc4.$.pics.
That's it. Now do CTRL-Break and be amazed as one of your pretty pictures appears.
Sort of Technical Bit
=====================
Just in case you're wondering. Germs does not *Screenload the sprite file. This method
has two problems:
1) *Screenload forces the machine to change to the same screen mode as the sprite
2) You can't scale or position the sprites using Screenload
What it does is to create a temporary dynamic area in which to store the sprite and then
plots it from there, removing the dynamic area when it has finished.
I did try to get the RiscOS 3.60 version to plot JPEG files instead of sprites, but
it seems that the JPEG SWIs don't work in this situation. They all return 'Abort on
Data Transfer' which is rather annoying, really.
Disclaimer
==========
This program is supplied 'as is' with no guarantee of its suitability for any purpose.
I will not be held responsible for it or anything that may happen due to its use or
misuse. So there.
Public Domain Notice:
=====================
Germs is phase N of Fat German Productions' plan for world domination.
This software is released by assent of the Fat German and the Great Green Gollywog.
Consultancy was supplied by The Vibrating Bum-Faced Goats.
This software may be freely copied and used, as long as the following conditions
are met:
a) That this notice is distributed unchanged with every copy.
b) That the application is supplied with unchanged versions of all files.
c) No charge is made for the distribution. Public domain libraries may make
a small charge to cover distribution costs.
d) If you insist on using it, do so with good humour and don't hit people.
Copyright Notice
================
There isn't one. Do anything you like with it. Just don't blame me when your feet turn
green and explode. Oh, and don't sell it. This is not for sale.
Fat German Productions,
99B High Street
High Barnet
Herts EN5 5UZ
England
email : mgreenwo@madge.com