What Intro for Windows 95/NT

(c) '96/97 Niklas Beisert / pascal / indep. coder

This is NOT a cubic team & $eeN production, only the original intro for DOS was done by cts. 

copyright license:

•	This material is not freeware. You are allowed to copy it without retrictions for non-commercial use.
•	No payment of any kind may be charged for this product or any combination of products or services including this product without our authorization and official written license.
•	Commercial use, especially the industrial manufacturing on any data storage media and their distribution without the expressed permission of the producer, is strictly prohibited.
•	This program or the data files contained therein may not be altered or modified without the permission of the author.
•	You take full responsibility for the operation of this software and any consequences thereof. We the creators can not accept liability for damages or failures arising from the use of this software.

genaral info:

This little two effect intro was junked together in two days on the Summer Encounter '96 in Denmark by submissive and DOJ / cts and pascal. It won the 2nd place in the intro compo at SE96.
Now it has been ported to Windows 95/NT. I hope it works with Windows NT, there is no reason why it should not. I've tested it with Windows 95 on a P120, 24MB, ET4kw32p.

So, why did I port this intro to Windows? Because BG is my god. I love him so much, and I want to show everyone how good w95 is. erm. NO! not quite! ;) DOS is a nice OS for demos. You can do nearly everything you like, but you also have to do everything yourself. ie you have to support several sound and graphic cards. Windows does all this for you, you just have to accept that your demo might run a little slower. Windows demos have many more potential users than DOS demos. (all the settings, GUS (&SB) only, univbe, ...). I am quite sure, that this Intro works on most P90s with 16MB and Win 95 installed. Furthermore I needed some experience with Windows coding, and well it's quite easy, even without visual stuff. This intro is rather a quick hack of the original version, there are several things that could be improved, but I don't think it is worth it... :)

potential FAQs:

•	What can I do when the intro is running.
ESC to stop, left button to pause/unpause, right button to minimize.
	
•	Windows sucks and is slow.
Sure it does, but all alternatives have disadvantages, too. It's not hard to make fast demos with windows, all this was done in about 3 days and it was my second real windows program in years. It does not look too much like a windows program, but it works... :) Stop telling shit about Windows, and try. I don't like the many aspects of windows programming. it only makes your program much more compatible.
	
•	Hey this Intro looks like shit and is slow.
The intro was optimized for 15 bit display modes. If you use a different color model, Windows has to convert every pixel to the screen color model. If you use less than 15 bits per pixel, the colors have to be reduced and you see less than you were supposed to. So click the right mouse button at the desktop, select properties, settings and select High Color (16 bits). I'm not sure if Windows always uses 15 bits per pixel, as it does on my machine. It might run faster on your machine if set "16 rather than 15 bits" in the What setup dialog. 
	
•	The intro is slow anyway.
Reboot and only run the intro. could help. Turn down the sound settings, (ie: Quality Mixer, interpolation, sampling rate)
	
•	Sound does not work or intro does not start.
I do not check for supported sound formats. CD quality is supported by every modern soundcard, so I do not see the point. You can change the settings in the setup dialog, if nothing works, select "no sound".
	
•	When I start the Intro, it shows a messed up window and does nothing. When I select fullscreen, nothing happens and everything is strange.
Just have patience, and sit back. It will start some seconds later. I did not care to paint the window while initializing. After half a minute you may start to worry.
	
•	Fullscreen is slow like hell. As well as when I resize the window.
Windows has to scale the graphics to make them fit. This takes very much time... :( I do not use DirectX / DirectDraw, because it does not give me a 320x240x16 mode on my machine. This is really a pity.
	
•	What is that internal color conversion?
Might be faster, might be slower... try it.
	
•	Why not use DirectDraw?
As I said: There is no 320x240x16 mode. All in all there not enough lowres modes. Furthermore DirectDraw seems to be a bit instable sometimes. Argh. I'd really like to use DirectDraw. Why did Microsoft make such a crap out of it? I use the StretchDIBits function to display the graphics, and it is very fast if no color/size conversion has to be done. Great function, really. I just cannot do good fullscreen with it. 
	
•	How do you do all this?
The source will be released (without music code). It will not be commented, sorry... Try to understand and you'll learn something from it. I'll also make a description later. If you want to improve it (maybe directdraw support?? :) ), do so and tell me.
	
credits:
•	doj for the tune.
•	submissive for the 2 320x240x24bit groupname pictures, and the 2 wobblers in the middle of the intro.
•	pascal for lowlevel fx/gfx/sfx code, xfade, ? wobbler and the cool wobbling tunnel at the end, windows port.

contact us:
•	pascal: nbeisert@physik.tu-muenchen.de
•	submissive/cts: 100121.2450@compuserve.com

greets:
  feel greeted