@database GMSPrefs
@$VER: GMS Preferences 1.0
@NODE Main "GMS Preferences (c) 1996 - 1998 R. Clark & P. Manias"

                                @{b}G M S P R E F S@{ub}



GMSPrefs is the complete preference system for the Games Master System.
Just load it up, set some options and hit the 'Test' button to see the
results.  Then come back here and have a detailed read of what everything
does.

If you do not have the user keyfile, GMSPrefs will be slightly crippled.
You will see some parts ghosted out, and you will need to register in order
to get these functions.  See the "GMS:REGISTER.TXT" file or visit our home
page for the necessary order form.


        1. @{"How to use GMSPrefs" LINK "Usage"}
        2. @{"Screen Settings" LINK "ScreenSettings"}
        3. @{"General Settings" LINK "GeneralSettings"}
        4. @{"History / Future" LINK "History"}

@endnode
****************************************************************************
@node "Usage" "Using GMSPrefs"
@{b}
                              Using GMSPrefs
@{ub}

GMSPrefs works from Workbench or CLI.  Once loaded you will get a little
window with some buttons and a list box.  Click on one of the buttons to
the left of the list box and you get a description of that preference
editor.  Click on it again to load the editor.

Options at the bottom of the window are:

@{u}Save As Default@{uu}
Saves the preference settings to the GMS:Default/ directory.  Any program
which does not have its own preference settings will get the default
settings.

@{u}Load Default@{uu}
Resets all the settings to those that you have specified in your default
directory.

@{u}Load@{uu}
Loads a game's preference set for editing.

@{u}Save@{uu}
Saves what you have recently edited to a game preference directory.  You
will be asked what directory you want to save the settings to.  You can
either create a new directory or save the settings in an existing game
directory.  If you want to save them for a particular game, make sure that
you get the directory name correct or the game will not be able to load the
settings.

@{u}Test@{uu}
This will save the settings to GMS:Test/ and then run the testing program.
If you're happy with the changes you can then choose to Save them to a
default or game preference directory.


   @{"Screen Settings" LINK "ScreenSettings"}

@endnode
****************************************************************************
@node "ScreenSettings" "Screen Settings"
@{b}
                              SCREEN SETTINGS
@{ub}

Click on the "Screens" button to pop up the preference editor for Screens.
Everything is functional, BUT a warning about the graphics cards:  Although
the preferences support graphics cards, there are no drivers for these
cards yet.  Once drivers start appearing, those particular options will
work correctly.

Here is a description of each gadget on the window display:

@{u}Screen Width@{uu}
This field sets the screen width to a multiple of 16 pixels and ranges from
16 to the maximum width that the Resolution will allow.  For LoRes the
maximum setting is 320, HiRes is 640 and Super-HiRes is 1280.

@{u}Screen Height@{uu}
The height for a screen ranges between 1 and the maximum height that the
resolution will allow.  With Interlaced OFF the maximum settings is 256,
Interlaced ON is 512.

@{u}Depth@{uu}
This specifies the total amount of planes that you want each screen to
have.  This has a direct effect on the amount of colours for each screen.
The default is 5 (32 colours) which is the recommended setting, but AGA
owners can set this value up to 8 (256 colours).

@{u}Screen Offset X@{uu}
This field allows you to adjust the horizontal offset for each screen when
they pop up on the monitor display.  It is recommended that you leave it at
the default of 128, but if necessary feel free to adjust it to suit your
monitor.

@{u}Screen Offset Y@{uu}
This field allows you to adjust the vertical offset for each screen when
they pop up on the monitor display.  It is recommended that you leave it at
the default of 44, but if necessary feel free to adjust it to suit your
monitor.

@{u}Resolution@{uu}
You can select a resolution of LORES (low resolution), HIRES (high
resolution), or SHIRES (super high resolution.  You can only select SHIRES
if you have an ECS machine or better.  This setting directly affects the
Screen Width field.

@{u}Interlaced@{uu}
Interlace can be turned on or off.  If OFF then the maximum screen height
is 256.  If ON then the maximum screen height is 512.

@{u}Chip Set@{uu}
Specify your chip set here, either OCS, ECS or AGA.  Please make sure you
set it correctly, setting AGA on an OCS machine will just crash GMS, it
won't give you magical AGA abilities :-).

@{u}Promotion@{uu}
You can promote the monitor frequency of each game display here.  You can
select PAL, NTSC, DBLPAL, DBLNTSC and VGA.  At the moment only the PAL
monitor driver works reliably, DBLPAL and others are still in development
so use with caution.

@{u}Gfx Card@{uu}
If you have a graphics card then you can say what kind it is here.
Otherwise leave it as NONE.

@{u}Screen Switch@{uu}
When running a GMS program that has taken over the screen, the only way to
temporarily get back to the AmigaOS is to hold Left-Amiga and M.  When you
do this, the AmigaOS display will be returned and the game display will be
hidden from view.  GMS will either place a window on Workbench waiting for
you to click on it, or open a new screen at the back of intuition which
will wait until it gets to the front.  This gadget allows you to specify
what one of these methods you want, either Switch-To-Window or Switch-To-
Screen.

@{u}Screen Type@{uu}
This gadget is very important as it has a definite effect on all GMS
programs.  The screen type changes how the graphics are drawn to the video
memory and this will alter the speed of your GMS programs.  For most Amigas
you will want to leave this at ILBM (InterLeaved BitMap) rather than the
slower PLANAR format.  People with graphics cards can select options such
as CHUNKY 256, CHUNKY 65536 and TRUECOLOUR.

@{b}
                                  BUTTONS
@{ub}
Here's what the buttons do at the bottom of the window:

@{u}Store@{uu}
When you are happy with your settings click on this button to store your
settings in RAM.  Then click on the close gadget to return to the main
GMSPrefs window and Save/Save As Default to save your new screen settings
to disk.

@{u}Reload@{uu}
Reloads the last set of screen settings, useful in case you made a mistake
and forgot what the original settings where.

@{u}Default@{uu}
Resets everything to the internal defaults.

@{u}Cancel@{uu}
Cancels the last set of changes and exits the editor.

@endnode
****************************************************************************
@node "GeneralSettings" "General Preferences"
@{b}
                             GENERAL SETTINGS
@{ub}

Click on the "General" button to pop up the general preference editor.
Here is a description of each gadget on the window display:

@{u}XPK Cruncher@{uu}
If you have XPK installed, enter the 4 letter code that you want your data
files to be packed with.  The default is NUKE.

@{u}Language@{uu}
Select your native language with this button.  Language is application
specific, so not all programs will be able to support your setting.

@{u}Resource Tracking@{uu}
You can turn resource tracking on/off with this button.  Leaving it off
means you cannot use Self-Destruct and some debugging features, but you
will get to save a little speed during initialisations and gain some
memory.

@{u}Task Priority@{uu}
If you plan on running things in the background while playing games, set
this to 0.  Be warned that this will affect performance, so the default of
4 is always a better option.

@{u}Joystick Settings@{uu}
Click on this button to tell GMS what your joyport settings are.

@endnode
****************************************************************************
@node "History" "Revision History"
@{b}
                                  History
@{ub}

V0.1 First release.  Was a single program, little more than a GUI :)

V0.2 Big re-write, first details of the modular system worked out

V0.3 Release with v03B beta, most of the system in place, various bugs and
     incomplete routines.

V0.4 All currently available GPI's supported, Preference handlers in place.

V0.5 Modifications made to directory and module names, defaults in each
     module made.

V1.0 First working version finished off by Paul.


                                  Future


Planned additions:

  CLI ability
  Preference Icon loading, double-click on the .Prefs file and it loads
  GMSPrefs.

@endnode