Africa Screen Saver(tm) Copyright (C) 1994 by Socha Computing, Inc. This version of the Africa Screen Saver contains all the files you need in order to run it from within Microsoft Windows. Here are the minimum and recommended system requirements for running the Africa Screen Saver, which uses the Wildlife Screen Saver(tm) engine. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS --------------------- * Windows 3.1 or later * 386 or better microprocessor (486 recommended) * 4MB of memory (8MB recommended for anyone using Windows) * 256 color display (or more) * Optional sound card if you want to hear the pleasing sounds of Africa Africa will fill your entire screen for any screen size up to 1,024 by 768 pixels. For screens larger than this, the images will be centered on your screen. INSTALLING THE AFRICA SCREEN SAVER ---------------------------------- 1. Make sure all the files are in a single directory. If these files are on a CD-ROM or floppy disk, make a directory on your hard disk and copy the files to your hard disk. 2. From within Windows, double-click on the SETUP.EXE file. This program does not install the Africa Screen Saver files -- but you must run it before running WILDLIFE.EXE. 3. From within Windows, duoble-click on the WILDLIFE.EXE file. 4. If you want this screen saver to run each time you start Windows, click on the Settings button, then check the option that says "Run Wildlife when Windows starts" and click on the OK button. USING WILDLIFE -------------- We've tried to make using our screen saver as simple as possible, but there are a couple of features that may not be obvious. Preview a Module You can see a preview of any module in two steps. First, whenever you click on a module name, you'll see a small still image to remind you what the module looks like. If you then click on this preview image, Wildlife will switch to screen saver mode and run that module. Using the Randomizer You can have Wildlife switch between your favoriate modules using the Randomizer. The randomzier will be active whenever the name *Randomizer* is highlighted in the list of modules (this name is ALWAYS first in the list). Whenever any module other than *Randomizer* is highlighted, Wildlife will run only that module. Muting Sound If you have a sound card installed Wildlife will automatically play sounds for you. You can turn this feature off for all modules, or just for specific modules. To mute all modules, uncheck the Mute all modules check box. Check this box again to turn the sound back on. You can also mute the sound on individual modules using the Mute check box that appears at the very top of the Wildlife window. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS -------------------------- Q: I can't get WILDLIFE.EXE to run. Why not? A: You probably need to run the SETUP.EXE program. If you're wondering what this program does and why you need to run it, you'll find this addressed below in another question. Q: How reliable is the Wildlife Screen Saver engine used by Africa? A: We're very proud of our screen saver and believe that it is the most reliable screen saver on the market. The Wildlife engine is actually an update of an engine that has been shipping in a commercial product since October 1993. We have had very few bug reports from our many users, and none of the bug reports (knock on wood) have been crashes or reports of damaged or lost data. Here's a bit of techno-babble: Part of the reason for this level of reliability is that all of the Windows knowledge and hairy code is contained in the central engine rather than in the modules. What this means is that any time we fix a bug that appeared in one module, we fixed that same bug in ALL modules. Q: Will the Wildlife Screen Saver engine slow down my other programs? A: Your programs will run at full speed as long as Wildlife hasn't "blanked" your screen. Once your screen blanks, your other programs that are running in the background may slow down a little since Wildlife does require time to animate your screen. For most people, this will never be noticable. However, if you're concerned about slow-downs, you can adjust the Animation Priority in the Settings dialog box to slow down Wildlife's animations while other programs are performing heavy calculations. Or you can temporarly turn off Wildlife by unchecking the On check box that appears at the top of the Wildlife main window. Simply check the On box again to re-enable Wildlife. Q: What is the Wildlife Screen Saver, I thought this was the Africa Screen Saver? A: The name Wildlife Screen Saver refers to the engine, or software, that runs all the modules we've created for the Africa Screen Saver. We know this is a little confusing, but the engine is a general-purpose engine that you can expect to see used by other screen savers in the future, so we wanted to give it a more generic name than "Africa." Q: How do I remove the Africa Screen Saver? A: We hope you'll like Africa enough so you'll never want to remove it. But if this tragic day should ever come, removing Africa is very easy: 1) First, if you have Africa set to start each time you run Windows, display the Africa main window. 2) Then click on the Settings button to display the Settings dialog box. 3) Uncheck the box labeled "Run Wildlife when Windows starts" and click the OK button. 4) Now quit Wildlife by clicking on the Quit button. 5) At this point you can delete all of the files for this product, which should all be in the same directory. Q: What does the SETUP.EXE program do and when do I need to run it? A: The Wildlife Screen Saver engine displays dialog boxes with a nice 3-D effect using a part from Microsoft called CTL3DV2.DLL. If you get an error message from Windows to the effect "...cannot find specified file (or one of its components)" or "cannot find CTL3DV2.DLL", you need to run SETUP.EXE. This program will install the CTL3DV2.DLL file in the proper location in Windows so Wildlife will run properly. For you techno friends: SETUP.EXE will not overwrite newer versions of CTL3DV2.DLL. If you have other questions, please contact us via the Internet: socha@halcyon.com We do NOT provide telephone support, so please (pretty please) don't make us answer the phone only to tell you that we do not provide telephone support.