Installing This Demo Make a local directory called OriginFX to which you should copy the OriginFX.zip file. Unzip the file using "PKunzip -d OriginFX.zip". Next enter Windows and make an icon (this process is described below). You should now be able to engage OriginFX. While the actual program supports Windows 3.0 and 3.1, this demo version is catered to Windows 3.1. If you are having art allignment problems, you are probably running in 3.0. When you purchase a copy of OriginFX, be sure and delete this demo before installing the actual program. Enjoy! About ORIGIN FX For over ten years ORIGIN has been creating worlds of adventure and intrigue for users of high end personal computers. Until now, ORIGIN has exclusively been a developer of entertainment software, bringing together the best art, sound and programming in the industry to produce such award-winning games as Wing Commander I and II, Ultima I through VII, Strike Commander and Ultima Underworld. Now ORIGIN delivers to the PC user a utility that is as versatile and exciting as it is useful, a modular screen saver overflowing with the graphics, sound and imagination that has made ORIGIN a world-wide favorite of computer game players and a leader in the industry. ORIGIN FX incorporates images and characters familiar to fans of ORIGIN's game worlds, as well as novel imagery created especially for this unique package. Unlike most screen saver graphics, which depend upon the limited color range of Windows applied on a black background, ORIGIN FX brings state-of-the-art full color graphics to your Windows environment. This system is designed for the high end user. The movies were developed to push the limits of Windows, and many movies should be experienced in 256-color at 640 x 480 to be fully appreciated. However, all movies support every resolution and color mode. Why a Screen Saver? While a good screen saver is entertaining and clever, it can also be useful. Screen savers prevent the burning in of an image on your monitor. Burn-in is caused by the continuous display of an image on the phosphor, until parts of the phosphor are destroyed. This can leave a permanent ghost image on the screen. Protecting your monitor will ensure image clarity and promote the longevity of this valuable computer component. Use of an Engage FX corner or a Hot Key allows you to instantly activate a module when you know that you will be away from your machine for an extended period of time. System Requirements ORIGIN FX requires at least a 386SX with a VGA graphics card and Windows 3.0 or higher, plus a sound card if music and sound effects are desired. A mouse is required to interface with the menu panels. When the install process is complete, an ORIGIN FX icon should appear, showing that your installation is successful. Double-clicking on this icon will activate the screen saver and place an active icon at the bottom of your screen. In the unlikely event that an icon does not appear in the ORIGIN FX group, it is easy to make one. To create an icon: (1) Go to the Windows Program Manager. (2) Highlight the group in which you wish to place the icon. (3) Click once on File. (4) Within File, click on New. This should bring up a very small dialogue box. (5) Accept Program Item to bring up the Properties dialogue box. (6) Label your icon on the Description line. (For example, you might label it ORIGIN FX.) (7) For Command Line, type C:\ORIGINFX\ORIGINFX.EXE (unless you have customized the path, in which case use the path you customized). (8) For Working Directory, type whatever you entered in the Command Line, without the final executable. (Using our previous suggestion, that would be C:\ORIGINFX.) (9) When the Command Line box is filled in, click the Change Icon button. (10) You are shown the default icon for this application, along with any optional designs. Select the one you like, then click OK. The icon you chose will appear in the ORIGIN FX group. Consult your Windows User's Guide if you experience any difficulty. Looking Ahead In the future, ORIGIN will be shipping new movies and upgrades for the ORIGIN FX package. (Some of these will probably be included as part of new ORIGIN games, to be transferred from the new game’s disks into your FX directory.) To add these new features and movies to your existing FX package, you must follow a few easy steps: (1) Run the install program of your new game, as its instructions direct. (2) Double-check your new game's install guide, to make sure the following instructions have not changed. (Of course, if they have, follow those instructions, not these.) (3) Click once on your small ORIGIN FX icon to bring up its menu. (4) Select Reset Defaults, to let FX know that you have new movies to include. (A side effect is that this will reset all of your defaults; you'll want to go back and reset your general preferences and those in each module that you have customized, when you complete this sequence. You will not have to reconfigure your Slide Shows or re-input their paths.) Optimizing Your Environment If your machine supports 256-color mode and you are using 16-, 32,768-, 65,536- or 16.7 million-color modes, we recommend that you change your Windows environment to 256. While 32,768 or greater color mode captures the subtleties and quality of our artists' work, it does not, like 256-color mode, support the palette cycling that enhances many of our most engaging movies. We have worked hard to create a product that is both useful and entertaining to all users of Windows. All the movies will work in any resolution and color mode, but they will be at their optimal performance in 640 x 480 resolution, 256 colors. (ORIGIN FX does not support 32-bit color, monochrome or other non-standard VGA color and resolution modes.) To change your color and resolution: (1) Double-click on the Windows Setup icon in Main. (2) From the Options menu, select Change System Settings. This will pull up your current system settings. (3) Use the drop box next to Display to choose the appropriate mode.You may be prompted to insert a driver disk, which should have come with your VGA card. (4) After making your selection you will be asked to restart your Windows session. Accept this offer and you’ll be instantly dropped into your new color and resolution mode. If you have any difficulty, consult your VGA card's manual. Using ORIGIN FX Once the screen saver is active (see above), click once on its icon for your options, or double-click to activate the “Select Saver” screen. From the minimized icon you will be able to Close the screen saver, go to the Preferences screen, or Select Saver. Important Note: Do not run ORIGIN FX concurrently with any other screen saving program. If you are running Windows 3.1, please be sure that its saver selection is set at None. The Windows 3.1 resident screen saver is under Desktop inside the Control Panel group. Preferences Engagement Delay Engage After_ Engagement Delay is the idle time (in whole minutes) after which ORIGIN FX will be started. This delay time may not be less than 1 minute or greater than 99 minutes. Engagement Delay On or Off Selecting the On or Off button next to the Engage after... edit control allows you to temporarily enable or disable ORIGIN FX without closing the application. Hot Key A Hot Key is used to trigger ORIGIN FX from the keyboard. Any alphanumeric character, in combination with Cntrl, can be a Hot Key. You can also specify that Shift be part of your Hot Key. Thus, for example, Cntrl 3, Cntrl Shift 3, Cntrl T and Cntrl Shift T are all possible Hot Key combinations. Most function keys can also serve as Hot Keys. Any function key (other than F1) can be designated as a Hot Key all by itself. To select a function key for a Hot Key, use the drop-down list (click on the down arrow at the end of the Hot Key box) and click on the function key you wish to use. Hot Key On or Off Selecting the Hot Key On or Off button next to the Hot Key edit control allows you to enable or disable the Hot Key feature without erasing your current Hot Key selection. Disengage Options Disengage after... allows you to specify how you wish to let ORIGIN FX know that you want to return to your application. Click on the check box next to the option(s) that you wish to use to disengage the screen saver. You must select at least one. Disengage on System Activity? For those of you using any program that notifies you with a message box, such as an electronic mail system or a software calendar program that alerts you of meeting times and pending appointments, this is a useful feature. When the Disengage on system activity? box is checked and a message appears, ORIGIN FX will disengage until re-activated. This guarantees that the message will not sit, unseen, behind the activity of your FX module. If Disengage on system activity? is not checked, when a message appears, its message box will still appear over the currently running module, but it may then be cleared away by ORIGIN FX. In the event that you are away from your desk for an extended period of time, this is the recommended setting. Engage FX The upper picture of a computer screen with five buttons allows you to select the “Engage OriginFX...” corner. Then later, if you place your mouse in the corner you designate here, the screen saver will be engaged immediately, and can only be canceled in accordance with the selected disengage option(s). The Engage OriginFX... corner can be turned on or off by clicking the center button. The Engage FX selection cannot share the same corner as the Suppress FX selection. Suppress FX The lower picture of a computer screen with five buttons allows you to select the Suppress OriginFX... corner. Then later, if you place the mouse in the corner you designate here, the screen saver will not be engaged, even when the timer expires. The Suppress OriginFX... corner can be turned on or off by clicking the center button. The Engage FX selection cannot share the same corner as the Suppress FX selection. Sound Options Sound FX: On or Off Many of the movies have sound effects to accompany their animation. These are separate from the musical scores which accompany most of the movies, they are the bangs and whooshes that bring the scenes to life. You have the option to silence them by clicking on the Sound FX box (is your boss nearby?). Sound Tracks: On or Off Many of the ORIGIN FX movies are enhanced by music. These scores, while adding to the beauty and uniqueness of the movies, are optional. If you wish to add music to your multimedia experience, then click on the Sound Tracks box. Sound Use the drop box under Sound... to select your sound card. ORIGIN FX supports Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Ad Lib, Roland and compatibles. If your sound card is not listed, select a compatible card. For example, if you have a Thunderboard, you would select Sound Blaster. Sound Card Setup If you are using a Sound Blaster or Sound Blaster Pro and are not using the default ports, use this button to select the proper IRQ and Port. Accept Preferences When you have made your selections, click the OK button to indicate that you wish to accept the current preferences. This button closes the Preference dialogue box and, if you made any changes, saves the new set of options into a file called OriginFX.ini in your Windows directory. These options are then used the next time ORIGIN FX is started up. Cancel Preferences The Cancel button closes the Preferences dialogue box and ignores any changes that you've made since you opened it. Select Saver Movies Movie is the standard format for ORIGIN FX modules. These modules incorporate color cycling, animation or other internal effects that create a spectacular cinematic display. This option needs to be checked in order to view or select any active ORIGIN FX movies (as opposed to a Slide Show, which displays static images). Available Movies To view the list of movies, click on the drop box under Available Movies. When you have found a module that you wish to run, click on it. Many of the movies will include features that you can adjust. By changing the quantity, speed, color or other variables you can optimize each module to your personal preferences. Adjustments While most adjustments will be self-explanatory, several are described with their movies, below. The best way to select a variable is to play with it. Have fun. Try adjusting the speed or number of objects and test each one until you have composed the module you like best. Test-Viewing the Movies Test allows you to preview a selected module. This is the best way to choose a module. Try testing the same module with its adjustments set at different levels, or test several different movies before settling on one. You can exit from a test by using any of the disengage options you selected in Preferences. Accept Selection When you have made your selection, click the OK button. ORIGIN FX retains your selection as the default whenever you activate it, until you select another default module. Set Preferences The Prefs button at the bottom of the “Select Saver” dialogue box will take you to the Preferences dialogue box (see above). Slide Show Slide Show takes static bitmapped images (*.bmp files) and displays them in sequence. By selecting which images are displayed, for how long and in what order, Slide Show allows you to create your own unique modules from those images already on your machine and from the images in the ORIGIN FX package. The images in a Slide Show do not have to come from one directory; each picture in a Slide Show may have its own unique path. To use Slide Show, check the Slide Show box at the top right of the Select Saver screen and it will bring up the appropriate dialogue box. New To create a new Slide Show, first select New, then name your new Slide Show file. At this point you are ready to select the bitmapped images that will make up your Slide Show. You may select as few as one or as many as forty bitmaps for any Slide Show. Select slides from the Available Bitmaps drop box. Unless you specify that they be displayed in random order, the Slide Show will play them in the order you select. Once you have created a Slide Show, there’s no need to stop. Create several, each with its own theme, each distinctly yours. And each Slide Show is as easy to edit as it was to create (see below). Don't forget to name each one. Available Bitmaps, Add to List and Change Path The Available Bitmaps drop box lists all *.bmp files in the directory currently specified in Change Path:. Whether you are creating a new show or editing an existing presentation, clicking on a file in this list, and then on Add to List, will add it to your slide show in the order selected. A highlighted file will remain selected unless specifically deselected. To increase the number of bitmaps available to you, we have included two of our own. To view these, use Change Path to go to the \ORIGINFX directory and add the *.bmp files to a slide show. Designate your ORIGIN FX directory in Change Path:, and these pictures will appear as available slides. if you wish to add these to a Slide Show of *.bmp files from another directory, don’t worry. Remember that each picture in a Slide Show may have its own unique path. There is never a need to transfer art between directories. Select All and Deselect All These two are actually the same toggle button. If you have any bitmaps selected under Available Bitmaps, this will be a Deselect All button. If no bitmaps are currently selected, this will be a Select All button. Use Select All to highlight your entire list of bitmaps and import them all into a slide show. Use the Deselect All button to deselect all bitmaps highlighted under Available Bitmaps. (If you want to Select All after you have already selected one or more individually, press Deselect All, then Select All.) Display Order Your bitmapped slides can be displayed either randomly or in a sequential order. If you choose a sequential Slide Show, you will probably want to arrange your slides in a particular order. Up and Down To change the order in a Slide List, highlight the slide you wish to move and use the Up or Down button to move it earlier or later in your Slide Show. Cut If you want to remove a slide from a Slide Show, highlight it in the Slide List, then press Cut. Grab FX It is easy to include screen shots from our movies in your Slide Show. The first step is to run the module from which you wish to take screen shots, and hit G to capture any frame that will make a good picture. Even if you have selected Any Key Press as a disengage option (see Disengage Options, above), hitting G during a module will not return you to your application. These images are then stored in your Windows directory and numbered. The first time you capture a screen it will be titled GRABFX_1.bmp, the next GRABFX_2.bmp and so on. To add a captured image to your Slide Show, select the desired .bmp file and use the Add to List button to include it in your show. You may also use these images as Windows wallpaper. The GrabFX files will appear as options in the Desktop setup dialogue box, where you choose your wallpaper. Duration Duration refers to the amount of time, in seconds, that each slide is displayed before going on to the next. Adjust the duration using the up or down arrow to raise or decrease the number of minutes and seconds. This process must be repeated for each slide added to the list. Thus, each image can have a different display duration, all in just one show. Edit Once you’ve created a Slide Show, you can change it. Select the title of the show you wish to change, then click on Edit. This allows you to change the order of slides, remove or add slides and change any of the durations you choose. Take this opportunity to optimize your completed Slide Show. Test Test allows you to preview a Slide Show before accepting it with the OK button (see below). Highlight the name of the Slide Show you wish to view, then click once on Test. One of the most effective ways to create a personalized module is to use Edit and Test until you have created a Slide Show with the exact look and feel that you desire. Accept Selection When you have made your selection, click the OK button. ORIGIN FX will retain your selection as the default whenever you activate it, until you accept another module or display mode. Movies ORIGIN FX has many entertaining movies. The best way to select your module is to preview each using the Test button in the Select Saver dialogue box. While some of these movies refer to characters in the Ultima or Wing Commander series, knowledge of these games is not essential to enjoying the FX movies in which they appear. You can tell which movies have music and/or sound effects by the presence of a Volume slide bar within its Select Saver dialogue box. Main Street uses Sound Tracks Welcome to a day in the life of the Pickax Construction Company. Watch as Joseph Pickax, eating all the while, directs his crew in constructing the brownstones and office buildings of Bigcity, USA. But buildings are only the beginning of what makes a city thrive. Once Joe calls it a day, there is still plenty of activity. Cars, planes, billboards and bus-stops inevitably spring up around any population center, and there’s always plenty of tenants for the apartments that Joe and his company have built. With Sound Tracks on, you'll hear the music of the city developing. Window Washer uses Sound FX and Sound Tracks Vinnie, our Windows washer, is very particular about his work, a real professional. As he cleans the windows of some of downtown’s most prestigious buildings, he is careful not to be distracted or shocked by whatever may lie behind the glass. But you may be! Look in on Vinnie's day as he reveals a glimpse of the strange events that transpire every day in the offices all around you. TroubleShooting Q: I'm running a Windows shell, and ORIGIN FX won't install. What do I do? A: Windows shells, such as Norton Desktop for Windows and NewWave, replace the Program Manager functions and remove the Program Manager from the Windows environment. Our install requires the Program Manager. To guarantee installation, temporarily disable your shell and enable the Program Manager before attempting to install ORIGIN FX. If you are not sure how to do this, please consult your shell's manual. Q: I'm running in RealMode, and ORIGIN FX won't install. What do I do? A: Windows 3.0 runs in three modes, Real, Standard and Enhanced. ORIGIN FX is not supported by RealMode. To see which mode you are in, go to the About Program Manager dialogue box using Program Manager’s Help. This box tells you in what mode you are running. To guarantee that you are running in Enhanced Mode, type WIN /3 when entering Windows. Q: I've been starting up my Windows sessions with ORIGIN FX, but now I don't want to. What do I do? Q: When I installed ORIGIN FX, I decided not to have it start up with my Windows sessions, but now I want it to. What do I do? A: During the Install you will be asked whether you want ORIGIN FX to appear on Windows start up. If at a later time you change your mind, it is a simple matter to change it: (1) At your DOS prompt go to your Windows directory (usually C:\WINDOWS). (2) Type EDIT WIN.INI and go to the line that begins LOAD=. (3) To delete ORIGIN FX from the Windows start up, delete the ORIGIN FX path from this line. To add ORIGIN FX to the Windows start up, type the ORIGIN FX path on this line. (4) Save this file. Q: I've been using ORIGIN FX for awhile under Windows 3.0, and now I've upgraded to a more recent version of Windows. Do I need to do anything special? A: ORIGIN FX configures itself according to the version of Windows that you are running. If you change versions of Windows you will have to re-install ORIGIN FX in order for it to be current with the version of Windows that you are running. Q: I'm running a maximized DOS window, and ORIGIN FX engages when I don't want it to. What do I do? A: To prevent this from happening, simply close ORIGIN FX before entering an extended DOS window session. Q: An icon was not created during install. What do I do? A: You won't get an icon if you are running a Windows shell such as Norton Desktop or NewWave (see the first question, above). Check to be sure that you actually have a Program Manager, then follow the instructions on Page 2 of this manual. Q: I'm working with a shared network copy of Windows, and I can't get ORIGIN FX to work. What do I do? A: ORIGIN FX will not work from a network copy of Windows. You must install a separate copy of Windows on your own system before ORIGIN FX will install. Q: I've tried everything you’ve suggested, and I still can't get ORIGIN FX to work. What do I do? A: ORIGIN Customer Service can be reached at (512) 328-0282, Monday through Friday, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Central time.