WELCOME BACK!

This is the upgraded version of my realtime gouraud-shading engine.
The program requires a 386/486 with VGA graphics and a mouse or joystick.
To run the program simply type 'fast' from the dos prompt.

This program is copyrighted freeware, you are allowed and encouraged to 
distribute it. You are however NOT allowed to charge for that distribution,
apart from reasonable compensation for your expenses or the usual connect time
charges on electronic bulletin board systems. You are also NOT allowed to
distribute modified versions of this package (executables, data files and this
document).


Features:

- Realtime gouraud shaded 3D objects
- Joystick and mouse support
- You can hop into the cockpit of a space craft and fly around
- fire lasers at enemy ships
- full control over your vessel: pitch,roll,yaw,accelerate and brake 
- radar
- animated starfield background


Bugs: (sadly there are still quite a few <g>)

- In flatshaded mode sometimes the clipping doesn't work and you get 'ghost'
  triangles flying around
- If you or the other objects leave the (quite limited) coordinate space the 
  program will crash sooner or later
- If you let the other ships get too far away from you, there will be a divide 
  overflow and the program will crash (better don't let them leave your radar
  screen)
- clipping on the upper screen border doesn't work too good.
- too much rolling will make holes appear in the background starfield

Controls:

The program starts up in demonstration mode: press [ESC] to continue on to
interactive mode

Joystick/Mouse:

moving left/right lets you yaw your craft
moving up/down lets you pitch 
pressing button 2 on mouse or joystick while moving left/right lets you roll
press button 1 to fire lasers

Keyboard: 

[spacebar] fire lasers
[+/-]      accelerate/brake
[f]        flatshaded mode
[g]        gouraud mode
[m]        toggle other ships movement on/off 
[r]        toggle other ships rolling on/off 
[ESC]      exit program
  
Radar:
The two other ships will appear as dots on the radar screen if they are not too
far away from you.
The position on the radar (left/right/above/below center) shows the position
relative to you (left/right/front/back)
The COLOR of the dot indicates if the object is above or below you:
red means above, blue below. The greater the vertical distance, the darker
the color.


NOTES:

I'am still nowhere near happy with the speed of the program: On a 486 with 
fast VGA it really flies, on a 386/40 it is still quite slow. This brings me
to the program's main flaw: All movement is controlled simply by offsets from
frame to frame, which means on a really fast system it gets nearly 
uncontrollable while on a slowish system you're in danger of falling asleep.
Timer controlled movement is one of the next major changes I'm planning. This 
will provide for the program running at nearly the same speed on various 
systems. The difference will however (quite noticeably) be in the frame rate.

If you like to see what it's all about then, just after leaving the intro,
accelerate a bit until you're quite close to the ship in front of you, 
then stop. Now press [r] to let the ship rotate about its roll-axis. Using the
[f] and [g] keys to toggle between flat- and gouraud shaded mode provides a
quite good impression of the drastical improvement in image quality gouraud
shading offers.

Have fun - Gerhard Skronn


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If you have any comments or suggestions you can e-mail me under the following
address:

COMPUSERVE: [100315,3553]
INTERNET:    100315.3553@compuserve.com

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                            DISCLAIMER

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THIS PROGRAM !
THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 

IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM.
THIS INCLUDES BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED 
INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF
THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS.
