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════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ VGAMOIRE v1.6i by Christopher Antos Copyright (C) 1990 by Christopher Antos April 1991 moi│re (mwär, môr) n. [Fr, watered silk < MOHAIR] a fabric, esp. silk, rayon, or acetate, having a watered, or wavy, pattern. _ _ moi│ré (mwär ra', mô-; môr'a) adj. [Fr, pp. of /moirer/, to water < /moire/: see prec.] having a watered, or wavy, pattern, as certain fabrics, stamps, or metal surfaces --n. 1 a watered pattern pressed into cloth, etc. with engraved rollers 2 MOIRE ─── From Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, Copyright (C) 1988 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Questions or Comments? Please write to: Christopher Antos 2115 Windsor Drive Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103-5652 Or send EMail to "Christopher_Antos@ub.cc.umich.edu" ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Please write and make suggestions, complaints, compliments, or even ask questions. Thank you! ─────── CONTENTS ─────────────────────────────────────────────── Registering VGAMoire Release Notes Introduction Installation Using VGAMoire's Features Deinstallation Examples Known Conflicts Special Notes for Microsoft Windows Troubleshooting Version History Summary ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── New information is denoted with vertical bars ("|") in the left margin. ═══════ REGISTERING VGAMOIRE ═══════════════════════════════════ This program is not free, nor is it in the Public Domain. It is a ShareWare program. This means that you can try it out for a reasonable length of time. If it useful to you, or you like it, you need to register it. To do this, print out the file REGISTER.TXT and follow the instructions within it. BE SURE TO READ THE REGISTER.TXT FILE TO FIND OUT HOW REGISTERING WILL BENEFIT YOU AND WHAT YOU WILL RECEIVE! VGAMoire is a very high quality screen saver. If you can find a better one for a lower price, I'd like to know (seriously!). It has features the commercial competition can't even claim to match. I put a lot of time and energy into this product, and I believe anyone with a VGA graphics adapter cannot help but benefit from using VGAMoire. So, please fill out the registration form (in REGISTER.TXT) and register today! You will be notified of any future releases when they are made available. ═══════ RELEASE NOTES ══════════════════════════════════════════ If this is the first time you've ever read the VGAMoire documentation, skip to the section entitled "INTRODUCTION." VGAMoire has been slightly reworked to facilitate future support for other video cards. I make no guarantees concerning multiple video cards, but I will be looking into the possibility. | The [Bn], [Dn], [Fn], [Mn], [Rn], and [Vn] options have been | slightly changed. They take different values now. | | The number of font blocks to save and the number of video pages | to save may be changed even after VGAMoire is installed, | provided you are using Expanded Memory. For those who don't like the Ctrl-Alt-Shift hotkey (or for those for whom it causes a conflict), we've added a really great new feature. You can now configure VGAMoire to use almost any hotkey combination you want to--and you can change the combination even after VGAMoire is already installed in memory! | Take a look at the new [Kc] option, below. A bug which | prevented a custom hotkey from working if anything besides Ctrl, | Shift, and Alt were used has been fixed. If you are using DOS 4.0, see the section "Known Conflicts". VGAMoire is now DESQview compatible! See the section "Known Conflicts" for information on configuring VGAMoire to work with DESQview (if not configured correctly, VGAMoire will cause DESQview to malfunction and, eventually, to lock up). The graphics screen blanking introduced in version 1.4b accidentally scrambled the values in two of the CPU registers, which caused the machine to crash sometimes when VGAMoire restored the graphics screen. This has been fixed. A related bug was preventing VGAMoire from working correctly with Microsoft Word. This bug has been fixed and VGAMoire works as it should. If you have a third-party (non-IBM) SuperVGA adapter, please see the "Known Conflicts" section for information on a possible problem. The system monitor routines in version 1.5 are much improved over v1.4, and provide much greater stability. VGAMoire will not pop up unless it is completely safe to (but be careful when playing video games!--see the section entitled "Known Conflicts" for more information). VGAMoire also switches to its own stack when it pops up, to avoid corrupting the DOS internal stacks. This has fixed some "mysterious" crash bugs. The Ctrl-Alt-Shift hotkey now works even if VGAMoire has been turned off via the [-] option or the Ctrl-Alt-E hotkey. This is allowed so that VGAMoire may be manually popped up even if it has been turned off because its "safety detection" routines do not work reliably with a particular program. The [-] and [+] options now maintain a counter (as opposed to a simple on/off flag as before), so they may be successfully nested within batch files. The [Mn] option was behaving opposite of how it was documented. It now behaves as it is documented. A "diagonal mirroring" feature has been added. Use the [R4] option to enable it. VGAMoire can now make the screen fade to black before drawing the design or when blanking the screen. The current application can continue processing even while the screen is fading out. | The screen also fades in, now. See the [On] option for more | information. Two bugs that caused systems crashes have been exterminated: (1) the screen blanking feature was not correctly restoring the screen, and could cause a system crash or program malfunction; (2) in rare cases, if VGAMoire were popped up at the wrong moment (for example, in the middle of a DIR command), it could corrupt the internal DOS I/O stack, causing a system crash. | VGAMoire can now monitor the COM ports directly for activity! | If the Carrier Detect signal (for telecommunications) is | present, VGAMoire will only blank the screen (allowing the | telecommunications program to keep processing in the | background). If the Carrier is lost (or is just acquired), then | VGAMoire will restore the screen. In addition, VGAMoire will | flash the border color when the phone rings (provided you have a | modem attached to your computer and the phone line)! I find | this quite useful, because sometimes I wear headphones and can't | hear the phone ring. You can also specify which COM ports to | monitor. ═══════ INTRODUCTION ═══════════════════════════════════════════ You've probably seen a lot of other screen savers, and you're probably not very impressed. Many are boring and just blank out the screen--which can even be annoying, because sometimes it's hard to tell if the machine or the monitor are even on! Other screen savers may save the display in memory and draw a moving design until a key is pressed. I have yet to see any other screen saver that saves the FULL display configuration and restores it. Other popular screen savers have a number of tiny but very annoying flaws (eg, they might not save the cursor shape, maybe they don't hide the mouse pointer or save the mouse driver state, perhaps they can't use EMS, they may only save up to four video pages, they probably can't restore the screen properly unless it is in 25-line text mode, etc...) I decided it was time to write a screen saver that restored the screen COMPLETELY. Enter VGAMoire. The moire pattern design was inspired by Magic! (for Microsoft Windows) and Moire (for the Macintosh), two other well-known screen savers. VGAMoire respects data transfer on the COM and LPT ports; can use EMS memory, if available; allows options to be changed while it is resident; can wait up to 30 minutes before popping up its design; can monitor the video interrupt and/or the mouse hardware (it can be configured not to, though) and restart its countdown when activity is detected (though of course direct video access cannot be detected); can be disabled and reenabled from the keyboard or from batch files; can be popped up manually; can run without becoming resident (intended to allow the user to test the different configuration options without having to deinstall VGAMoire between tests); recognizes that it has already been loaded and will not reload itself, even if it was loaded into high RAM via a utility such as 386Max or QEMM-386; allows certain attributes of the pattern to be modified by the user; respects disk I/O requests and restarts its countdown when a disk I/O request is detected. VGAMoire can mirror the design either horizontally, vertically, or both ways (or, of course, not at all). See the [Rn] option, below. VGAMoire can restart its countdown when mouse movement or mouse button activity is detected. In case you are using an old mouse driver and you are experiencing problems, you can try disabling this feature (see the [Mn] option in the "Using VGAMoire's Features" section). VGAMoire will not pop up when it would be harmful to the system to do so. VGAMoire may, however, pop up while some print spoolers are sending data to the printer. This should not ever prove to be a problem (if it does, be sure to let me know!). The only real effect of this should be that the printing is suspended for as long as VGAMoire is drawing on the screen. Printing should resume after VGAMoire stops. If it does prove to be a problem, you might try setting it so it just blanks the screen (which will allow the print spooler to continue processing in the background). See the section "Special Notes for Microsoft Windows," which contains important information pertaining to a conflict between VGAMoire and Microsoft Windows. Other conflicts are described | in the "Known Conflicts" section. The "Troubleshooting" section | discusses what to do to try to help VGAMoire coexist with other | programs when something is going wrong. ═══════ INSTALLATION ═══════════════════════════════════════════ You can install VGAMoire from the DOS prompt, or from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. There are some programs which VGAMoire is known to conflict with, but in most cases, there are simple ways to get around such problems (see the section entitled "Known Conflicts" for more information). Once VGAMoire is installed, you can pop up the screen saver manually by pressing the hotkey (the default is Ctrl-Alt-Shift), or you can let the machine idle for the specified amount of time and let the screen saver automatically pop up. You can press Ctrl-Alt-E to disable the screen saver (though you can still manually pop it up). Pressing Ctrl-Alt-B will reenable the screen saver. (These command keys work indepedently from and override the [+] and [-] options, which will be discussed later). NOTE: some SuperVGA cards have extended text modes (eg. 100, 120, 132 columns as opposed to just 80). Some cards are not fully IBM compatible in these extended text modes, so for compatibility's sake, VGAMoire only blanks the screen in these modes (just as it does in graphics modes). VGAMoire will not become resident unless you specify how many minutes it should wait before popping up. This allows you to try out different options without actually installing VGAMoire. VGAMoire also checks to see whether it has already been installed. If it has, it will display an error message and will not load a second copy into memory. This prevents you from accidentally wasting memory. To install VGAMoire (without specifying any options), type: VGAMOIRE W<n> where <n> is the number of minutes to count down before popping up. If you do not use the [Wn] option, VGAMoire will generate its moire design until you press a key or move the mouse. It will not install itself in memory, though. VGAMoire will pop up after the computer has sat idling for the specified number of minutes. You can force it to pop up on demand by pressing the Ctrl, Alt, and Shift keys together (you only need to use one Shift key, and it can be either one). This Ctrl-Alt-Shift hotkey works regardless of whether VGAMoire has been turned off or not. This feature exists so that you can still manually pop up the screen saver if you have disabled VGAMoire (presumably because its "safety detection" methods do not work reliably in conjunction with a particular application). You can also instruct VGAMoire to use a different hotkey than the Ctrl-Alt-Shift combination. See the [Kc] option for more information on using your own hotkey. NOTE: VGAMoire should not be loaded above any application programs. In other words, the computer may have a heart attack if you load VGAMoire (or any memory-resident utility, for that matter) from a DOS shell. MEMORY USAGE ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── VGAMoire can use different kinds of memory in different ways. When you install VGAMoire, it will take 4.7k of conventional memory, where the main screen saver code resides, plus an amount of memory which depends upon which installation options are given. If EMS memory is NOT used (ie, if only conventional memory is utilized), then VGAMoire will take an extra 1k (approximately) to store the video state and mouse state information. Each video page you want to save takes another 4k. If, on the other hand, EMS memory is used, then VGAMoire takes only 4.7k of conventional memory. Its data is stored in Expanded Memory. Depending upon how you configure VGAMoire, it may reserve as much as 112k of EMS memory for its use. 16k accomodates up to 3 video pages, 32k accomodates up to 7 video pages, 48k will accomodate 8 video pages. For every two blocks of character generator RAM that are saved, add another 16k of EMS memory; so to save 1 or 2 blocks, add 16k; for 7 or 8 add 64k. So, to save 3 video pages and 1 font block, VGAMoire will require 32k of Expanded Memory. If VGAMoire is installed using the [B1] and [O0] options together, it takes only 3.9k of conventional memory; however, VGAMoire must be deinstalled and reinstalled if you later want VGAMoire to draw the moire design or fade out smoothly (this mode saves memory at installation time but is not as flexible as if VGAMoire is installed without using both the [B1] and [O0] options). So, if you want to install VGAMoire so it is able to draw the moire design, but want it to start out just blanking the screen, you will have to first install it with the [B0] option and then send the [N] and [B1] options together. ═══════ USING VGAMOIRE'S FEATURES ══════════════════════════════ To see a list of the command line options that VGAMoire accepts, you can type: VGAMOIRE ? at the DOS prompt. The list will look like this: ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ VGAMoire 1.6i, by Christopher Antos, April 1991, (C)1990-1991 │ │ │ │ Syntax: VGAMOIRE [ options ] │ │ Options must be separated by spaces, slashes, or tabs. │ │ │ │ Summary of options: * = invalid if used with [N] │ │ Bn blank: 0=graphics, 1=always Pn save <n> video pages [1..8] │ │ Cn color sets: [1..5] Rn mirror: 0=none,1=horiz,2=vert,│ │ Dn delay: [0..255] 3=horiz+vert,4=diagonal │ │ E * use EMS Sn color speed: [1..255] │ │ Fn save <n> font blocks [0..8] U uninstall │ │ Kc hotkey Vn video: 0=ignore, 1=monitor │ │ Ln lines: [1..50] Wn wait <n> minutes [1..30] │ │ Mn mouse: 0=ignore, 1=monitor Zc COM ports to monitor │ │ N send options to resident copy - turn off │ │ On fadeout: 0=don't, 1=fade + turn on │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ When installing VGAMoire, you can specify any of these parameters to customize how VGAMoire behaves. Each will be discussed separately, along with some tips and tricks on combining certain options (any of the options may be used with any of the other options, except as noted). To use an option, specify it on the command line. Be sure to put a space between different options, and do NOT put a space between an option letter and the value you are setting it to. Do not type the brackets that are used in the documentation. They are only used to easily distinguish options from other text. Correct: VGAMOIRE C1 M1 Wrong: VGAMOIRE C1M1 Wrong: VGAMOIRE C 1 M 1 ─── THE OPTIONS ──────────────────────────────────────────────── [Bn] If VGAMoire times out while the display is in a graphics mode, VGAMoire will just blank the screen and allow the current application to continue processing. As soon as any activity is detected, VGAMoire will restore the screen. If you want VGAMoire to do this with text screens, too, instead of drawing the moire design, you can use this option. Example: VGAMOIRE B1 This tells VGAMoire to always blank the screen instead of drawing the moire design. To allow VGAMoire to draw the design again, use B0 instead of B1. SPECIAL NOTE: If VGAMoire is installed with both the B1 and O0 options, it will only take the basic 3.9k of conventional memory. If it is installed with B1 but not with O0, then it will take 4.7k. This way, you can force it to be a real memory miser, in case you are really low on memory or don't have EMS. It will not allocate any memory --neither conventional nor EMS (not even if the [E] option is used)-- for a save buffer, and it will not be able to draw the moire design at all unless it is deinstalled and reinstalled without the B1 option. [Cn] VGAMoire has several different color sets it can use. VGAMoire reprograms the VGA's color registers to produce non-standard colors, thus giving truer, better, and more colors than otherwise possible. Example: VGAMOIRE C3 This would tell VGAMoire to use "frosty" colors to draw the moire pattern. Below is a list of possible color sets: C1 - Rainbow C2 - Fire C3 - Frost C4 - Pastel C5 - Glowing red [Dn] VGAMoire is a very fast program because it uses highly optimized assembly language routines (the whole program is written in assembly language) to directly access the VGA hardware, instead of using ROM BIOS function calls to do the job. On most computers that have VGA cards (except maybe some slow ATs or XTs), you will want to slow down the design. You can specify a delay value in the range of 0 (fast) to 255 (very slow). Example: VGAMOIRE D35 On 16MHz PS/2 Model 70's, a good delay value to use is usually about 35 or 40, but of course it depends on your taste. [E] If you have EMS memory, you can tell VGAMoire to make good use of it. Normally, VGAMoire takes at least 8.8k of conventional memory, plus an extra 4k for every extra video page it saves, adding as much as 28k to the basic 8.8k model (which saves only one video page). If you choose to use your EMS memory, though, VGAMoire uses only 3.8k of conventional memory, and uses EMS memory to save the video pages and mouse state. VGAMoire is compatible with EMS 3.1 and higher (it even names its EMS handle under EMS 4.0 and higher). EMS memory is allocated in 16k blocks. VGAMoire allocates one block to save up to 3 video pages, or two blocks to save up to 7 video pages, or three blocks to save 8 video pages. Example: VGAMOIRE E Note that the [E] option cannot be used with the [N] option (which will be explained later). It can, however be used in conjunction with the [Fn] option, which is explained next. Also note that VGAMoire reserves the total amount of EMS that it will use AT THE TIME IT IS INSTALLED. To stop using EMS or to change the number of video pages it saves, you must deinstall VGAMoire and then reinstall it. [Fn] This option tells VGAMoire to save and restore the VGA character generator RAM and the complete video state. You can specify how many font blocks to save and restore (from 0 to 8). If you need this feature at all, saving just one font block will generally be enough. It is only valid when used with the [E] option, so you can't use it if you don't have EMS memory. Example: VGAMOIRE F1 Using this feature allows VGAMoire to correctly save and restore even such non-standard video modes as 60-line displays or 33-line displays. Otherwise, VGAMoire can save all the information except the current character fonts and the screen size (changing the screen size requires loading an alternate font, so the two are really inseparable). Note that when you use this feature, VGAMoire uses an added 16k of EMS per every two character generator RAM blocks you save. So, if you want to save all 8 video pages and all the character generator RAM, you will need at least 112k of free EMS memory. You can save up to 8 of the character generator RAM blocks, but you should rarely, if ever, need to save more than one. You can change the number of font blocks to save by using the [Fn] option with the [N] option. [Kc] This option allows you to set your own hotkey to pop up the screen saver. You can use any combination of the Alt/Ctrl/Shift keys and one "normal" key. You can set it to distinguish between the left and right Shift keys, or you can have it treat them the same. The syntax of this option is very simple. First, of course, comes the "K". After the "K", just type the names of the keys you want to use, surrounding each key's name with squigly brackets ("{}"). Examples: 1) VGAMOIRE K{CTRL}{RIGHTSHIFT}{S} This instructs VGAMoire to use Ctrl-RightShift-S as the hotkey. 2) VGAMOIRE K{ALT}{SHIFT} This tells VGAMoire to use the Alt key and either of the two Shift keys as the hotkey. 3) VGAMOIRE K{CTRL}{F12} This sets Ctrl-F12 as the hotkey. It is also possible to completely disable the hotkey: VGAMOIRE K This disables the hotkey, so that it is impossible to manually pop up the screen saver. To reenable the hotkey, just select a different hotkey. ──── LIST OF VALID KEYS ──────────────────────────────── {ALT} - the Alt key {CTRL} - the Ctrl key {LEFTSHIFT} - the left Shift key {RIGHTSHIFT} - the right Shift key {SHIFT} - either Shift key ──── LIST OF VALID "NORMAL" KEYS ─────────────────────── {A}..{Z} - the letter keys {F1}..{F12} - the function keys {0}..{9} - number keys (NOT the numeric keypad!) NOTE: if you forget what the current hotkey is, just type "VGAMOIRE ?" at the DOS prompt, and if VGAMoire has been installed yet, it will tell you what the current hotkey is. [Ln] You can make the moire pattern have up to 50 lines in it. The default is 25 lines. Example: VGAMOIRE L40 This would make VGAMoire generate a 40 line moire pattern. You must tell VGAMoire to use at least one line (any less wouldn't really make much sense, now would it?). [Mn] If you are experiencing trouble and either do not have a mouse, or have an old mouse driver, try using this feature before giving up. This determines whether or not VGAMoire monitor the mouse hardware for activity (by default, VGAMoire will constantly monitor the mouse for any activity and restart the countdown if it detects any). Example: VGAMOIRE M0 This tells VGAMoire to ignore any mouse activity (VGAMoire simply doesn't bother to monitor the mouse at all). To tell VGAMoire to resume monitoring the mouse, you can use M1 instead of M0. [On] VGAMoire can make the screen fade to black before drawing the design (or when blanking the screen). The current application can even continue processing while the screen is fading out. You can configure it not to, though, if you wish. Example: VGAMOIRE O0 This tells VGAMoire not to make the screen fade out. You can tell VGAMoire to re-enable screen fading by using the O1 option (the default setting). Note that if VGAMoire detects any activity while it is dimming the screen, it will restore the palette and will not blank the screen or draw the design. [Pn] The VGA card has 8 video text pages, although DOS and most of the IBM programs only use page 0 (some programs draw screens on other pages and then transfer them to page 0 to make it seem as though they are drawing the display at lightning speeds. You can use the [Pn] option to indicate how many video pages you wish to save. VGAMoire saves however many pages you tell it to, starting with page zero (the pages are numbered 0 through 7). If you use the 50-line mode ever, you should probably save at least 2 pages. Example: VGAMOIRE P2 This tells VGAMoire to save 2 video pages when it switches to graphics mode to draw the moire pattern. This option can be used with the [N] option if you are using Expanded Memory (see the [E] option). Otherwise, to change the number of video pages that are saved, you must deinstall VGAMoire and then reinstall it. NOTE: if you use the NNANSI.SYS display driver (or certain other "improved ANSI display drivers"), you should be aware that it can scroll the screen at a very high speed by modifying the starting location of the screen display buffer. If you use this feature of your display driver, you should either tell VGAMoire to save all 8 video pages or tell your display driver to scroll text the "old-fashioned way". NOTE: if you use a program that allows more than 25 lines on the screen, you should save at least two video pages, and if you use a program which allows more than 50 lines, you need to save at least 3 video pages. [Rn] This controls how VGAMoire mirrors the pattern. By default, VGAMoire doesn't mirror it at all. You can instruct the screen saver to mirror the design horizontally, vertically, both horizontally and vertically together, or diagonally. Example: VGAMOIRE R2 This would cause VGAMoire to mirror the pattern vertically (top-to-bottom). Use [R0] to not mirror at all, [R1] to mirror horizontally, [R2] to mirror vertically, [R3] to mirror both horizontally and vertically together, or [R4] to mirror diagonally. [Sn] By default, VGAMoire changes colors each time it draws a new line. If you're using a large number of lines, or if the colors are changing more quickly than you'd like, you can make them change slower. Example: VGAMOIRE S3 This would make VGAMoire change colors after every third line. You can use any number in the range 1 to 255. If you were using only 5 lines, and you wanted it to look like the pattern were slowly glowing, you might use a value of 10 or 12 with the [Sn] option. [U] This lets you deinstall VGAMoire. Please see the section "Deinstallation" for more information. [Vn] Some programs which use the video BIOS to write to the screen may confuse VGAMoire into never timing out. If this happens, you can try this option to force VGAMoire to ignore video activity. Example: VGAMOIRE V0 This tells VGAMoire to ignore any video activity. To make VGAMoire resume watching for video activity, use V1 instead of V0. [Wn] As I demonstrated in the "Installation" section, you can specify a number of minutes to count down (Wait) before popping up the moire pattern. VGAMoire can count down anywhere from 1 to 30 minutes. Example: VGAMOIRE W4 This instructs the screen saver to count down four minutes before taking over and drawing the moire pattern. Remember: if you do not specify a number of minutes to count down (it must be a valid value to be recognized), VGAMoire will not become resident but will display its pattern until you press a key or move the mouse. | [Zc] You can tell VGAMoire which COM ports to monitor by | using the [Zc] option. To turn off COM port monitoring, | use Z0: | | VGAMOIRE Z0 | | To specify a port(s) to monitor, give the port numbers: | | VGAMOIRE Z12 | | This would monitor COM1 and COM2 for activity. If you | want to turn of monitoring for a specific port, put a | minus sign before its number: | | VGAMOIRE Z-1 | | This would turn off monitoring for COM1, but would not | affect monitoring for other COM ports. [N] Once VGAMoire is resident, you cannot switch back and forth between using EMS memory or conventional memory (the [E] option). To switch, you must deinstall and then reinstall VGAMoire. However, any of the other options may be changed even once VGAMoire is resident. To change them, just use the [N] option somewhere on the command line. Example: VGAMOIRE W2 N D30 This changes the number of minutes that VGAMoire counts down before popping up to 2 minutes, and changes the delay value to 30. No other options are changed. [-] VGAMoire can be disabled from DOS with the [-] option. This allows batch files to turn off VGAMoire and then later turn it back on. Examples: 1) VGAMOIRE - N This turns the RESIDENT COPY of VGAMoire off (because the [N] option is used along with the [-] option). 2) VGAMOIRE - W4 This would install VGAMoire and set the countdown at four minutes, but would also turn VGAMoire off as it was being installed. For VGAMoire to be able to pop up, it would have to be later turned on, which we will discuss next. [+] To turn VGAMoire back on, use this command: VGAMOIRE + N This turns the RESIDENT COPY of VGAMoire on (because the [N] option is used with the [+] option). Using the [+] makes no sense unless the [N] option is used also, because VGAMoire defaults to being "on". You don't need to do anything to install VGAMoire as "on". NOTE: the [-] and [+] options maintain a counter, so they may successfully be nested within batch files. ═══════ DEINSTALLATION ═════════════════════════════════════════ VGAMoire can deinstall itself and give both conventional and EMS memory it was using back to DOS. Example: VGAMOIRE U The [U] option, just like any of the other options, can be used from the DOS prompt or from in a batch file. If another program has taken over the interrupt vectors that VGAMoire captured, then VGAMoire will tell you and ask if you really want to deinstall it. You can press 'N', 'Y', or ESC. If you hit 'N' or ESC, VGAMoire will print a message saying that it is still installed. If you choose to deinstall it anyway, VGAMoire will try to deinstall itself. This may result in a system crash, depending on what is loaded above VGAMoire. You can allow VGAMoire to deinstall itself cleanly by deinstalling whatever is in memory above it first. If the system does crash, just reboot (or turn the computer off). Note that the system may not crash immediately. ═══════ EXAMPLES ═══════════════════════════════════════════════ Here are some examples for installing VGAMoire: VGAMOIRE W4 P8 E F8 D40 S3 C1 L50 R3 This tells VGAMoire to become resident and count down four minutes before popping up. It will save all eight video pages in EMS memory, and will also save all eight character generator RAM blocks. The delay to slow down the moire pattern is set to 40 (the delay value is not an absolute measure of time, but rather is relative to CPU speed). VGAMoire will change color every three lines, use rainbow colors, and will draw a moire pattern consisting of 50 lines. Finally, it will mirror both horizontally and vertically. This could be called the "full featured" installation, because it makes use of each of the special VGAMoire options. It also uses the least conventional memory (3.8k) and the most EMS memory (112k). A less impressive configuration might be this: VGAMOIRE W4 P2 S3 C1 L20 D50 This would again count down four minutes, but only save two video pages. It would not use EMS memory, so it would take a total of about 12.8k of conventional memory. It would change color every third line, use rainbow colors, and only draw 20 lines in the moire pattern. It would use a delay value of 50 (again, the delay is arbitrarily relative to the CPU speed and follows a roughly linear graph of speed decrease as the delay value increases). Following is a sample batch file to disable VGAMoire before executing an application and then reenable it when the application returns to DOS: APP1.BAT ────────────────────────────────────────────── @ECHO OFF \TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N - >NUL CD\[GAME_DIR] [GAME] \TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N + >NUL As stated previously, some programs may trick VGAMoire into never timing out (never finishing its countdown). Following is a sample batch file that may solve the problem with programs like these: APP2.BAT ────────────────────────────────────────────── @ECHO OFF \TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N V0 >NUL CD\[APP_DIR] [APPLICATION \TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N V1 >NUL Following is a sample batch file to make VGAMoire just blank the screen (instead of drawing the moire design) and allow the program to continue operating in the background (the screen will come back if any activity is detected--mouse, keyboard, disk, serial communications (only through the BIOS), certain kinds of video activity (anything through the BIOS), or parallel communications (again, only through the BIOS)). The batch file then executes an application. When the application is done, VGAMoire is reset so that it will draw the moire design again: APPBLANK.BAT ────────────────────────────────────────────── @ECHO OFF \TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N B0 >NUL CD\[APP_DIR] [APPLICATION] \TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N B1 >NUL ═══════ KNOWN CONFLICTS ════════════════════════════════════════ ─── TELECOMMUNICATIONS ───────────────────────────────────────── VGAMoire is unfortunately unable to monitor serial communications if they are not handled by the BIOS. Many commercial telecommunication programs (such as ProComm PLUS) directly communicate with the hardware, and VGAMoire cannot detect this type of activity. In addition, VGAMoire does not currently detect if the phone rings while the moire pattern is being drawn. We intend to include this feature in the next release, although there is some doubt as to whether it is feasible or even possible. In the meantime, use this sample batch file (TELECOMM.BAT) to run your telecommunication program, so that VGAMoire will not pop up on its own, but if you manually pop it up, it will just blank the screen and allow your terminal to continue running in the background and answer any incoming phone calls: TELECOMM.BAT ────────────────────────────────────────────── @ECHO OFF \TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N B0 - >NUL CD\[TELECOMM_DIR] [TELECOMM_PROGRAM] \TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N B1 + >NUL ─── DOS 4.0 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── To use VGAMoire with the DOSSHELL menu program, you will have to do one of two things. If your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file loads a mouse driver into memory, then you can edit the DOSSHELL.BAT file and make VGAMoire work with it perfectly (instructions are given below). If you do not load a mouse driver into memory, but still want to use the mouse in DOSSHELL, then you have no choice but to configure VGAMoire not to monitor the mouse, otherwise DOSSHELL will have severe trouble responding when you press the mouse button. Aside from this, VGAMoire is fully compatible with DOS 4.0. If you load a mouse driver into memory before using DOSSHELL, then you can simply edit one line in your DOSSHELL.BAT file to let DOSSHELL know this. By default, DOSSHELL uses its own mouse driver, which is incompatible with the software standard for mouse drivers (I don't understand why Microsoft/IBM did it this way--it seems pretty stupid, to me). What you need to do is use a file editor (eg: QEdit, EMacs, VEDIT, or even EDLIN) to modify the line that begins with "@SHELLC" (it will probably be a very long line). Find where it says "/MOS:xxxxxxxx.DRV" and just remove that part of the line (the xxxxxxxx's may vary depending on your system). This tells DOSSHELL that you have your own mouse driver installed, and that it should make use of it. For example, this is the DOSSHELL.BAT file that the DOS 4.0 installation program created for me on my IBM PS/2 Model 70: @SHELLB DOSSHELL @IF ERRORLEVEL 255 GOTO END :COMMON @BREAK=OFF @SHELLC /MOS:PCIBMDRV.MOS/TRAN/COLOR/DOS/MENU/MUL/SND... .../MEU:SHELL.MEU/CLR:SHELL.CLR/PROMPT/MAINT... .../EXIT/SWAP/DATE :END @BREAK=ON To make VGAMoire work with DOSSHELL, I deleted the part that said "/MOS:PCIBMDRV.MOS" so that it looked like this: @SHELLB DOSSHELL @IF ERRORLEVEL 255 GOTO END :COMMON @BREAK=OFF @SHELLC /TRAN/COLOR/DOS/MENU/MUL/SND/MEU:SHELL.MEU... .../CLR:SHELL.CLR/PROMPT/MAINT/EXIT/SWAP/DATE :END @BREAK=ON ─── GAMES ────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Many commercial games are not "well-behaved" programs, in that they take over certain parts of the operating system and just don't respect other programs. With some games, VGAMoire might work perfectly, but with most it won't. Usually, if the screen blanks while you are playing a game, you can try either hitting one of the Shift keys or moving the mouse. If this does not restore the screen, you may have to reboot. For games that VGAMoire doesn't get along well with, you should disable VGAMoire before starting the game (see the "APP1.BAT" example in the "Examples" section). ─── MICE ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── VGAMoire is only mouse-sensitive with Microsoft-compatible mice; it cannot recognize Mouse Systems mice unless they are in Microsoft emulation mode (Logitech and most other popular mice should work fine--if the mouse has a Microsoft emulation mode, make sure you are using it, though). ─── MICROSOFT WORD ───────────────────────────────────────────── A bug in previous versions of VGAMoire prevented it from working with Microsoft Word. This bug has been fixed, and VGAMoire works correctly with Microsoft Word. However, you must configure VGAMoire to ignore BIOS video activity while Word is running. Use this batch file to run Microsoft Word: WORD.BAT ────────────────────────────────────────────── @ECHO OFF C: CD \WORD C:\TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N V0 >NUL IF "%1"=="" GOTO PLAIN WORD %1 GOTO END :PLAIN WORD :END C:\TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N V1 >NUL ─── SUPER-VGA ADAPTERS ───────────────────────────────────────── Some SuperVGA video adapters do not support the screen blanking which VGAMoire is capable of. This problem is known to occur with Tseng Labs 4000-based cards, although the official Tseng Labs techinical reference guide indicates that the video board should be able to blank the screen... If VGAMoire has trouble blanking the display, chances are that you have a video card which is NOT 100% IBM compatible, even if your dealer or the card's documentation says otherwise. If this problem occurs with your video card, please write me and tell me exactly which brand and model your VGA card is, and also which chipset it uses. If there is a great enough response, I will make VGAMoire support those video cards as best they allow. VGAMoire uses the video BIOS to blank the screen, but there are also two different hardware-dependent ways to acheive the same result. The problem with using one of these methods is that some cards support one, some support the other, and some don't support either, and some support both. ─── MULTITASKING SYSTEMS ─────────────────────────────────────── (such as DESQview, TopView, VM/386) Multitasking is hard to accomplish, and some multitasking systems will be able to run VGAMoire while others will not. If your system is not described below, you will have to determine if VGAMoire can be run and, if so, how it must be configured. DESQview - VGAMoire is compatible with DESQview. However, you must set it to always do screen blanking and to ignore the mouse, which you do by using the B0 and M0 options (take a look at the "APPBLANK.BAT" batch file in the "Examples" section). TopView - We have not had the opportunity to test VGAMoire with TopView, but we believe it will behave under TopView the same way as under DESQview. On that assumption, you should follow the directions for DESQview (outlined above) for TopView, DESQview, and any other similar multitasking software. VM/386 - VM/386 works on a different principle than most other multitasking systems. VGAMoire works perfectly with VM/386, but you must install VGAMoire in each virtual machine that you want a screen saver to be active in. So, if you have four VMs running, you will need to install VGAMoire in each of the four VMs. You should NOT install VGAMoire before starting VM/386; install it in the VMs, not in the VM Manager! (This holds true for any TSR program with VM/386). ─── PRINT SPOOLERS ───────────────────────────────────────────── (or some programs taking a long time to print) You may experience problems with VGAMoire when using a print spooler (such as DMP or DOS PRINT). VGAMoire may take over while the spooler is sending data to the printer (depending on how it sends the data). The spooler should resume without any complications as soon as VGAMoire returns control to the current program (if you experience problems, be sure to let me know, so I can work on fixing them!). If you want your spooler to be able to print data even once VGAMoire decides to activate itself, then you must use the [B1] option (see the description of the [Bn] option for more information). Otherwise, printing will resume when VGAMoire is done drawing its moire pattern. ═══════ SPECIAL NOTES FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS ════════════════════ VGAMoire was not intended to work in Microsoft Windows, and it doesn't. Miscrosoft Windows fools VGAMoire and feeds it false information. The result is that VGAMoire may try to pop up while Windows is active, which causes the display to go haywire (VERY) and you have to reboot the machine (actually, Windows is still operating, and if you're adventurous or you know what to do, you can save anything you were working on and exit Windows, which will then right the display). However, if you want to use Windows while VGAMoire is loaded (though you can't use VGAMoire while Windows is active), you can do this--quite easily, in fact. The example batch file shown below demonstrates how to start Windows 3.0 from a batch file and disable VGAMoire while Windows is active and then reenable it when Windows is exitted. Even if VGAMoire isn't loaded, the batch file will still work exactly the same and won't accidentally load VGAMoire. WIN.BAT ────────────────────────────────────────────── @ECHO OFF CD\WINDOWS \TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N - >NUL WIN \TOOLS\VGAMOIRE N + >NUL To use Windows, you would type WIN from the DOS prompt. This will deactivate the resident copy of VGAMoire (but won't display an ugly error message if VGAMoire isn't loaded, because the output is redirected to NUL). Then it runs Windows. When the user exits from Windows, the batch file turns VGAMoire back on, if it is loaded (but again, will not display an error message if it isn't). ═══════ TROUBLESHOOTING ════════════════════════════════════════ When VGAMoire doesn't seem to work with an application you have, here are some things you can try before you give up: If the application seems to work fine, but you just can't get VGAMoire to pop up, then there are two things you can try before you simply disable VGAMoire. First, try setting VGAMoire to ignore video activity, by using the V0 option. If that doesn't help, try telling VGAMoire to ignore the mouse, by using the M0 option. If that doesn't work, then chances are that VGAMoire will not work with that application. If VGAMoire seems to be interfering with the application, or causes the computer to crash, then you can try the above procedure, but it may not help. What you might try is setting VGAMoire to only blank the screen, and not to draw the moire design. Do this by using the B1 option. If none of these things helps, you will have to turn VGAMoire off (see the "APP1.BAT" sample batch file in the "Examples" section). ═══════ VERSION HISTORY SUMMARY ════════════════════════════════ ─── v1.0 ─────────────────────────────────────────── 7/14/90 ─── * Original version. ─── v1.1 ──────────────────────────────────────────── 8/2/90 ─── * Deallocates the environment block to conserve memory. * Support added to save/restore RAM fonts (w/EMS only). * Mirroring feature added. * Improved mouse sensitivity. >>> Possible bug if no mouse driver was installed--fixed. >>> Bug where keyboard locked up if no EMS memory used--fixed. * Only keeps one color set resident--saves memory. * Frost colors added. ─── v1.2 ──────────────────────────────────────────── 8/7/90 ─── * Blanks the screen while changing modes, to avoid ugly screen flicker. * Now makes sure color register 0 (black) is really set to black. >>> Bug in restoring fonts made us never restore fonts--fixed. ─── v1.3 ─────────────────────────────────────────── 8/13/90 ─── >>> The [N] option got broken in v1.2--now fixed. ─── v1.4 ──────────────────────────────────────────── 9/4/90 ─── * Better mouse state save/restore. * Better sensitivity to keyboard and mouse. * Graphics mode blanking added. ─── v1.4b ────────────────────────────────────────── 9/21/90 ─── * Source code reorganized so I can try adding support for other video cards (no guarantees...). * Improved video state save/restore. >>> EMS-related bug fixed. ─── v1.5 ──────────────────────────────────────────── 1/3/91 ─── * Increased stability due to improved interrupt monitoring and stack context switching. * Now DESQview compatible! * [-] and [+] options now maintain a counter. * The popup hotkey works even if VGAMoire is turned off. * Glowing red colors added. * Can make the screen fade to black. * Can deallocate itself even from High RAM. * Now has diagonal mirroring feature. * Can select a custom hotkey. * The parameters have been slightly changed. * No longer beeps if it can't pop up (beeping could cause a system crash under certain conditions). >>> Using our own stack fixed some "mysterious" crash bugs. >>> Screen blanking bug fixed (sometimes crashed after restoring the screen). >>> [Mn] option was reversed, now works right. ─── v1.6i ────────────────────────────────────────── 4/18/91 ─── * Telecommunications support added: o Monitors Carrier signal on given COM ports. o If CD is present, only blanks screen. o If CD is present, ignores disk and video activity. * If VGAMoire is off hotkey is hit, only blanks the screen. * Border color flashes when phone rings (if a modem is connected). * The moire pattern fades in, too. >>> Bug fix: custom hotkeys only worked right if they were limited to combinations of Ctrl, Alt, and the Shift keys. >>> Bug fix: fixed problem which could cause potential DOS instability and eventual crash. ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ I hope you find VGAMoire useful. Thank you for your support. Christopher Antos ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════