MacWorld 1999 July/Macworld (1999-07).dmg/Serious Software/Bliss Saver 2.2 demo/Bliss Saver 2.2 PPC Demo/BlissSaver Demo Manual/BlissSaver Demo Manual.rsrc/TEXT_1415_Hardware Requirements.txt

Text File | 1999-05-10 | 5KB | 41 lines

Hardware Requirements

Processor Requirements
Bliss Saver needs a color Macintosh or later model to run. There are two versions of Bliss Saver on the master disk: 68K and PPC. The PPC version is for the newer Power Macintosh models, and the 68K version is for older 68K-based processor models.

System Requirements
Bliss Saver requires Macintosh System 6, System 7, or Mac OS 8 or later to run.

Disk Drive Requirements
Bliss Saver requires about 1.4 megabytes of hard disk space. You need either a floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive to install Bliss Saver; please specify your preference when you order.

Memory Requirements
Bliss Saver comes preset with an appropriate memory allocation for most configurations. If you get a message from Bliss Saver saying it needs more memory, you can allocate more memory to Bliss Saver in the Finder. Quit Bliss Saver, select the Bliss Saver application in the Finder and choose Get Info from the File menu. In the Info dialog for Bliss Saver increase the memory allocation by 500-1000K. If you have a 19 inch or larger screen, or you are using a lot of Bliss Saver plug-ins, such as Waves of Bliss or Geometric Bliss, you will probably need to increase the memory allocation.

Color
For true Bliss, you will need a color Macintosh capable of 256 colors in the Monitors control panel (8-bit video).

Color Monitors
Ideally, Bliss Saver uses color table animation technology that requires the color monitor set to 256-color mode to work. If you normally work in a color depth other than 256 colors, simply check the Auto Color Depth box in the Preferences dialog (‚åòU). Bliss Saver will make sure that color depth is switched to 256 colors for animation, and switched back when you leave screen saving mode.

Millions of Colors
Although 24-bit color cards let you see more colors on the screen at one time, color table animation cannot be used to make the colors flow on the screen. This is a limitation of the way video cards store the color information for the screen for 24-bit and 16-bit color. If the monitor has a maximum of sixteen colors, then Bliss Saver will still animate the colors, but the range of animation will be limited. Even with 24-bit color, Bliss Saver creates fabulous images. The Bliss Gallery collection (available from Imaja) includes a set of paintings specifically designed to take advantage of the millions-of-colors mode. You can also create your own with Bliss Paint.

Grayscale Monitors
On a grayscale monitor, the color synthesizer creates shades of gray based on the translation of the color synthesizer values to gray. The shades of gray are animated through the painting just as the colors are.

Black & White Monitors
Bliss Saver can be used with black-and-white monitors. If your monitor and video card support grayscale, then Bliss Saver can animate the gray tones through the painting. If your video card only supports black-and-white monitors, then the painting will not be animated, although the sequence of drawing will still take place. The value of color generated by the Color Synthesizer will be painted using 64 levels of gray patterns. There are two modes for using black-and-white in the Preference dialog: Patterns and Dithering. See the Screen Saver Preferences section for more information. The Bliss Gallery collection (available from Imaja) includes a set of paintings specifically designed to take advantage of black-and-white monitors.

Optional Multiple Monitors
Bliss Saver works well with multiple monitors. For instance, you may have two monitors, one color and one monochrome. The black-and-white monitor will be the secondary screen. Using the Monitors control panel, move the menu bar to the black-and-white screen. Restart the computer. Start Bliss Saver. The Bliss Saver painting window will fill the entire color monitor. The menus and the other Bliss Saver control windows, such as the Color Synthesizer window, can be used on the monochrome monitor without covering the Painting window.

Floating Point Unit (FPU)
The Bliss Saver‚Ñ¢ 2.x 68K application takes advantage of the FPU (Floating Point Unit math co-processor) built into some 68K-based Macintosh models. The FPU greatly increases the speed of certain types of drawing computation in Bliss Saver, such as fractals and wave patterns. If the FPU is present, Bliss Saver automatically uses it for these tasks. The PowerPC processor in the Power Macintosh series always has fast floating point processing built-in; on Power Macintosh models you should use the PPC version of Bliss Saver.

Note: The previous version Bliss Saver 1.0.x included a special FPU version of the Bliss Saver application. This is no longer needed in Bliss Saver 2.x because of the integration of the FPU optimizations.

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