Welcome to 4view screen saver. 4view will use your pictures to tile a screen image with near infinite variations and interesting, often surreal, effects. The screen saver acts in three separate phases:
1. A picture is loaded from a list of files, a selected directory, or a single file as specified using the configuration screen. Alternatively, the desktop can be used as the source image.
2. A segment of the image is selected at random from the image and tiled across the screen.
3. Depending on the configuration selected, the tiled image may be altered using color or shape deformations. Whether the deformations are made and whether the deformations are color, shape, or both can be configured.
CONFIGURATION HINTS:
IMAGE TAB-
Under the "Image" tab of the configuration screen, select an image file to be used as the source. To add the image to the image list, click "add to list." I do not check for duplicates in the list. That way a picture can be added more than once to allow more frequent viewing of that pic.
Files can be dragged to the configuration screen. The files will be added according to the following logic:
If multiple files are dropped, they will be added to the list no matter where dropped.
If a single directory is dropped anywhere then it will be entered into the directory textbox.
If multiple directories are dropped, only the first will be accepted.
If multiple files mixed with directories are dropped, the files will be added to the list and
one directory will be added to the Dir textbox.
If a single file is dropped inside the listbox, it will be added to the list.
If a single file is dropped outside the listbox, it will be entered into the Picture textbox.
If the "Use Selected" option is checked, then the image listed in the top textbox ("Picture") will be loaded and used as the source image. The image will be displayed once, then tiled, deformed the number of changes selected (see below), then tiled again, etc. If no 4view.ini file is found, then the program will attempt to load the wallpaper you use and the "Use Selected" option will automatically be checked.
If the "Use List" option is checked, then images will be selected from the list box. Images from the list will be displayed in a random order if the random box is checked. NOTE: Double clicking a filename in the listbox will copy that filename to the picture textbox above it.
If the "Use Directory" option is checked, all image files (GIF, JPEG/JPG, BMP, WMF, ICO, RLE, EMF) in the selected directory will be available as the image loaded, either in rotation or in a random order.
If the "Use Desktop" option is selected, the current desktop will be captured and used. Note that if there is a problem loading an image then the desktop will be used.
The "Change Pic Every" box will determine how many times an image will be tiled before going on to load the next picture.
Checking "Keep Aspect Ratio" will "best fit" the image to the screen without cropping it. Otherwise the image will be stretched to fill the screen, resulting in distortion, particularly with a "Portrait" orientation of the image. This setting affects the full image display only. Tiling will be performed on a non-distorted copy of the image.
Check the "Random" box to randomly pick images if the list or a directory is selected.
PROCESS TAB-
Under the "Process" tab you can select whether you want to tile the image only, tile and deform, tile and color change or tile and both color change and deform. Changes to the tiled image are loosely grouped into "Deform" and "Color Change." Deformations will change the actual structure of the image, although there also may also be color changes. Smoothing and sharpening are considered deformations since the underlying bit structure is unchanged. Color changes include rotation, inversion, grayscale, and HSL changes, but also include some edge effect and intensification procedures.
The "Changes per Tile Cycle" box will determine how many deformations will be performed before creating a new tiled image or loading a new image.
The three Timer Interval boxes approximately determine how long the image, tile, and deformation pictures will be displayed. This is only approximate as timing begins only after each phase is completed, i.e. image load, tile, and deformation.
TO USE FOR PICTURE DISPLAY ONLY:
Under the "Image" Tab, set the "Change Pic Every..." box to 0 (bottom left).
Under the "Process" Tab, click the "Tile Pic Only" option.
This will prevent tiling and deforming of the picture.
Clicking the 'View Images Only" button will configure these settings for you.
GENERAL NOTES:
While images are scaled to the screen for the full image display, a full size image is used for the source of the tiled images, unless the image is much smaller than the screen, in which case it is enlarged to allow more variation when tiled. I have found that, for my display settings, using my standard 1600 x 1200 digicam resolution images results in interesting images. 800 x 600 are good, but do not have the variation in appearance as the larger files when tiled. Very small images relative to your screen size will be blocky. The best images to use are not necessarily what would be considered great photography. Images with large areas of the same color, such as pretty pictures with a cloudless sky, can produce featureless tiles. "Busy" images that may be less aesthetically appealing may well produce much better results.
For some sample images to try, follow the link on my webpage to a gallery of 800 x 600 images to try.
Hope you enjoy this screen saver.
Richard E Barlow
Atlanta, GA
4View screen saver is freeware and riskware, provided by fREBieware. No malicious code is included, but use at your own risk. Remember, "You get what you pay for."
