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                          Version 1.2x

                            Shareware
                            =========
                       Copyright (c) 1993
                         by Arne Rudolph
                       All rights reserved

                          Arne Rudolph
                        Salvatorstrae 2
                          52070 Aachen
                             Germany

                             EMail:
                   Mausnet: Arne Rudolph @ AC


_Page_1__________________________________________________________

1. Statement

'Before Dawn' is copyright  (c) 1993 by Arne Rudolph - all rights
reserved!

This program is NOT Public Domain! You may distibute it freely as
long as it is free to the customer.  The distribution on PD disks
and commercial mailbox systems has to be authorized by me. I hold
the right to withdraw this authorization at any time.

I, Arne Rudolph,  don't undertake liability for any direct or in-
direct damage, including, but not restricted to,  material or fi-
nancial damage,  caused by the use of 'Before Dawn' or the unsui-
tability of 'Before Dawn' for a specific purpose.


2. Shareware

'Before Dawn' is Shareware! This means you may test 'Before Dawn'
freely for four weeks.  If you decide to use  'Before Dawn' regu-
larly or use it  longer than the specified four week period,  you
have to register as a user. The registration fee is 20 DM!
If you enclose the eqivalent of $20 you will  receive a disk with
the latest version of 'Before Dawn'.
Please don't send cash - a cashable cheque is sufficient!

My bank account:

  Arne Rudolph
  Postgiroamt Hamburg
  Konto-Nr. 554658 - 209
  BLZ: 200 100 20


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3. A brief description

'Before Dawn' is a modular screensaver for all ATARI ST/STE/TT or
Falcon. It uses  GEM-Image  graphics to display  animations while
saving your precious screen. 'Before Dawn' offers three different
modules:

- 'Warp 5 - Mr. Sulu!', a starfield simulation.
- 'Bouncing Hole', a peektrough-hole bounces around your screen.
- 'At the Movies',  a rather complex  module to design  your  own
  animations without any knowledge of C or any other  programming
  language!

All modules allow to load GEM-Image pixel files,  so that you can
alter the  apperance of your screensaver. Example: you would like
to see your company's logo bouncing around the screen,  while the
saver is active? No problem: just scan the logo and change it in-
to the format  'Before Dawn' needs.  You may use any graphic pro-
gram that is able to create GEM-Image files.

This manual will try to explain how to use  'Before Dawn', but it
will try to do so very briefly.  The reason why is, that the next
update of 'Before Dawn' will bring many changes.  This would mean
writing the manual again - a very  difficult task if you're not a
native speaker of English.  On the other  hand there are not that
much foreign customers by now. I hope the information supplied is
sufficient to get to work with 'Before Dawn'.  You will also find
English  resource files and two  IMGs that explain how to  create
animations for the  modules   'At the Movies'  and  'Warp 5 - Mr.
Sulu!' in this folder!


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4. Installing 'Before Dawn'

Copy  DAWN.ACC  and  DAWN.RSC into the rootdirectory of your boot
disk.  Copy  DAWNAUTO.PRG into your AUTO folder.  All other files
may be placed anywhere on your disk.
Reboot your system. After you have rebooted your system, you may
do all necessary alterations in 'Before Dawn'.  Usually the pre-
set options  work fine,  but paths to the  IMG files have to  be
set.


5. How to use the dialogs

'Before Dawn' uses window dialogs. All buttons are selectable by
mouse and by keyboard. If  you prefer  using the  keyboard  just
press the underlined key in  combination with the  ALTERNATE key
to select/deselect the item. The ENTER key on the numeric keypad
skips from one editable field to the next.
'OK'  usually leaves the dialog and accepts all alterations.  It
is by default selectable with the  RETURN  key.  'Cancel' leaves
the dialog without accepting the alterations. 'Set' can be found
in all but the  'Info'  dialog and acts like  'OK'  only that it
does not exit the dialog.


5.1. ''Before Dawn'' dialog

'Module'
  selects one of the modules 'Before Dawn' offers.

'Setup'
  opens the 'Setup' dialog for the selected module.

'Random selection'
  if  selected  'Before Dawn'  randomly  selects one of the three
  modules when it is activated.

''Before Dawn' active after __ minutes'
  if selected 'Before Dawn'  starts saving after  __ minutes  if
  there have been no actions by the user in this period.

'Info'
  vital information about 'Before Dawn' - read this and weep.

'Options'
  opens the 'Options' dialog.

'Save'
  saves all options.


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5.2. 'Options' dialog

'Watch ...'
  selects all the  system events that will be watched by  'Before
  Dawn'.

'Timesharing'
  when selected, 'Before Dawn' not only allows other processes to
  make screen outputs via the AES, but also continuously makes an
  'event_multi'.

'Center dialogs'
  if selected all  dialogs are  displayed  at the  center of  the
  screen.

'Change color index 0 to black'
  the RGB values of color index 0 are changed to black if a  XIMG
  file is loaded.  Usefull if you are using an ATARI in low ST or
  TT resolutions.

'Wake-/sleep corner'
  selects the size of the  wake-/sleep corner in pixel.  The wake
  corner is the bottom left and the sleep corner the bottom right
  corner of the screen.

'Mouse sensitivity'
  selects how many mouse-packets shall be received  until screen-
  saving is terminated.

'Reserve memory'
  reserves memory for IMG caching.

'Sound by ...'
  selects the program that takes  care of the sound effects.  You
  may use PAULA, a player for MOD-files,  or CrazySounds a player
  for samples sold by 'maxon' in Germany.

'Change vectors'
  selects when  'Before Dawn'  should change the  system  vectors
  selected under 'Watch ...'.  Usually  'always'  works fine, but
  some programs just don't like it.  So if you encounter a system
  hangup while  'Before Dawn' activates itself,  try setting this
  popup to 'at boot' or 'after dialog'.


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5.3. Setup 'Bouncing Hole'

'Image-File Selection'
  selects the IMG file to be used by this module. You may enter a
  wildcard to randomly select between more IMGs.

'MOD/HSN-File Selection'
  selects the MOD- or HSN-file to be played.  HSN-file are played
  by CrazySounds whenever the IMG touches a side of the screen.
  Wildcard possible!


5.4. Setup 'Warp 5'

'The galaxy has __ stars!'
  selects the number of stars to be animated.

'Image-File Selection'
  selects the animations IMG file.

'Frames in IMG-file: __'
  selects the number of frames of the animations IMG-file.

'MOD/HSN-File Selection'
  selects the MOD- or HSN-file to be played.  HSN-file are played
  by CrazySounds from time to time. Wildcard possible!


5.5. Setup 'At the Movies'

'Info-File Selection'
  selects the BDI-file that contains all necessary information to
  display an animation. Wildcard possible!
  BDI-files are  created with  EDITOR.PRG  from this archive.  It
  also creates  sound information files called BDS-files,  if you
  are using CrazySounds. BDS-files are loaded automatically.

'MOD-File Slection'
  selects the MOD-file to be played. Wildcard possible!


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6. The 'Movie-Editor'

When using the 'Movie-Editor' you might notice that it's slightly
different in  apperance.  This is,  because I have been using the
MyDial library  instead  of  Chirstian Grunenberg's  Enhanced GEM
library.  This is going to change in the future,  but for the mo-
ment I don't have the time to switch libraries.
What's the idea behind the 'Movie-Editor'?
Earlier versions of  'Before Dawn' had the problem,  that you al-
ways had  to change the  complete setup,  just to load a new ani-
mation for the module  'At the Movies'.  With the  'Movie-Editor'
you may edit an animation, save it into a  BDI-file and reload it
as often as you like.


6.1 The 'Info' menu

You will find vital information about the author of this program
in this menu. Look into this menu at least once a day, otherwise
it might get lonely and start living its own life (and who knows
what will happen then - party time ;-)


6.2. The 'Open' menu

Clicking here will open a GEM fileselector. Select the BDI-File
you  wish to edit.  If you  enter a  non-existant  filename the
editor will keep that name until you try to save it.


6.3. The 'Save' menu

You guessed it! This menu saves the  BDI-file you  have been edi-
ting.  If you have made wrong  entries or no  entries at all, you
will be promted with an alert box.
If you have made  entries  in the  'Sound' menu,  the editor will
save the  corresponding  BDS-file automatically.  So please don't
worry about how to save a BDS-file.


6.4. The 'Quit' menu

This menu  immediately  quits the editor.  If you have  not saved
your BDI-file it is gone.


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6.5. The 'Global' menu

'Start X:' and 'Start Y:'
  define the starting point of the animation.

'Use complete screen'
  tells  'At the Movies'  to  start  animations  not  only in the
  specified  edge of the  screen,  but using all  adjacent sides,
  too.

'Direction: __ degrees'
  the direction, the animations should be moved into.
  Note:  0 degrees ist upward,  90 degrees to the right,  180 de-
  grees downward and 270 degrees to the left.

'Number'
  specifies the number  of animations in the used  IMG file.  See
  MAKEMOVI.IMG for more detail.

'Number of objects'
  specifies the number of objects to be moved around the screen.

'Animation-Image-File Selection'
  selects the IMG file to be used. No wildcards here!

'Author'
  leaves  space for the  author of the  animation to  immortalize
  himself.


6.6. The 'Animation x' menu

'in direction'/'against direction'
  specifies,  whether this sequence should be moved in or against
  the direction specified in the 'Global' menu.

'Stepsize'
  is the size of steps between each painted frame.

'Speed'
  well, its the speed of this sequence.

'Frames'/'Width'/'Height'
  specifies the number of frames  and its  width and height.  See
  MAKEMOVIE.IMG for more detail.


_Page_8__________________________________________________________

'continuous'/'single without stop'/'single with stop'
  selects the way,  this sequence should be animated.  It may ei-
  ther be drawn countinuously, that is it will start at the first
  frame if the last frame has been painted, or it it may be drawn
  once. The last option is divided into two more options. 'single
  with stop'  will draw your animation in the specified  stepsize
  and frequency, but will draw only the last frame, when all pre-
  vious frames have been painted. 'single without stop' will draw
  it in a way so that the first frame is painted in the  starting
  point and the last frame in the opposite corner.

'Frame frequency'
  specifies the  frequency at  which the frames will  follow each
  other. A frequency of 1 means, that each step a new frame  will
  be painted. At a frequency of 2 the next frame will be  painted
  after two steps ...

'Steps ahead'
  when using the 'single with stop' option,  it may happen,  that
  part of the  animation will be drawn  'off screen'.  To prevent
  this,  you may enter how many  steps the first frame  should be
  painted until the animation starts.

'Relative to stepsize'
  means that 'Frame frequency' and 'Steps ahead'  not only depend
  on the number of steps, but also on the size of each step.
  Example: wheels turning realtive to their moving speed.

'Follows animation'
  animations may  follow each  other.  Note: continuous loops and
  animations moving in different directions are not allowed.


6.7 'Sound' menu

You may select one  HSN-file  for each animation.  This soundfile
has to be linked to a frame in the animation sequence.


6.8. 'Test' menu

If you have 'Before Dawn' installed, you can test the edited ani-
mation with this menu.


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7. The end

This  completes  our very  brief  journey  through the  depths of
'Before Dawn'. It is quite  possible,  that there are  still some
questions to be asked  and answered,  but for the  moment this is
all I can offer you.  Try playing around with  'Before Dawn'  and
the 'Movie-Editor' to find out what all these mystic options mean
and how to use them.  This manual may not be one of my best works
in English as well,  but considering that I typed it into my com-
puter in just one afternoon it should  at least help you  finding
your way through the first steps with 'Before Dawn'.
The pictures MAKEMOVI and MAKESTAR may help you, too.

Corrections of this manual  are always welcome!  You will find my
address somewhere at the top of this manual.


Finally  I have to  give some credits to all  those  people  that
helped in one way or the other. In alphabetical order:

    Stefan Becker
    Catch Computer
    Jrg Granzow
    Martin Heise
    Dirk Johannwerner
    Richard Kurz
    Ruth Langohr
    Jens Lehmann
    Michael Schwingen
    Achim Wilhelm
    Ralf Zimmermann

    and all those others who reported bugs and painted these
    stunning animations!

And - last but not least - I  have to give  credit  to  Christian
Grunenberg who supplied the 'Enhanced GEM' library.  I can recom-
mend this library to any programmer,  who would like to have such
neat window-dialogs in his program as 'Before Dawn' has.

That's all for now and don't forget to support shareware!

Aachen, August 26 1993
                            Arne Rudolph