fORCE ANSi ViEWER v1.4 You should now have a copy of fORCE ViEW v1.4, written by Red Haze/fORCE (Darren Hazelton) in August 1995, in South Australia. This viewer is designed to be distributed with fORCE ANSi Packs to view their wicked ansi art, but I'll quite happily allow you to look at other peoples' ansi, although I don't know why you'd want to anyway. :) System Requirements: Any 8086 compatible computer with a standard VGA graphics card. A sound card is nice, but optional. A monitor also helps. The [boring] Instructions: When you run fORCE ViEW, it can accept some command line parameters if you want to. If you don't give any parameters FV will try to initialise your sound card (if it is GUS/SB/SBPRO/SB16 compatible) and start playing some kewl musik written by oZoNE/fORCE. (MikMod is used, courtesy of MikMak.) If you have problems with sound, you can disable it with the parameter "/n", which must be the first parameter if you are going to use it. e.g. FV /N You may also need to use this parameter when running FV under Windows 3.x, because it causes my configuration to crash. (SB16 in Windows for WG 3.11) DesqView supposedly works okay. If you have a list of ANSis you want to look at and then exit from FV, just type their names in after the "/n" if you have it. Wildcards may be used. The extension .ANS is assumed if none is specified. e.g. FV c:\ansi\* d:\force\kewl.ans This will display all the .ANS files in C:\ANSI, then D:\FORCE\KEWL.ANS, while playing music. While viewing a "slideshow" like this, press [ENTER] or [SPACE] to go to the next picture. [ESC] will cause FV to exit, even if there are more pictures to show. You can also use any of the keys described later while in slideshow mode. NB: If you speficify .S3M files on the command line, they will be shown as text instead of being loaded as music. This may change in later versions of FV. If you don't specify any ansi files on the command line, FV will go into the "front end" mode, where you can navigate around the current directory. The arrow keys move the cursor around. [HOME]/[END] jump to the top/bottom of the list respectively. [PGUP]/[PGDN] goes up/down the current column one page at a time. When you press [ENTER] a number of things may happen depending on the type of file the cursor is positioned on. If it is a .S3M file, FV will try to load and play it. Any error messages will be displayed, hopefully allowing you to try to fix the problem. EMS memory will be used if it is detected, leaving conventional memory for ANSi pictures. I am not sure what will happen if the size of the song is larger than the amount of memory on a GUS sound card, but I guess someone will find out sooner or later. :) (MikMod will probably report an "Out of GUS memory" message.) Also, if you try to load a 16 channel S3M on a 286 with a SB16, good luck because the music will probably break up badly when MikMod tries to play it at 16 bit stereo 44.1kHz. You have been warned! Any other type of file will be loaded as text, using ANSi colours if they are available. If you select a directory, FV will change to that directory for you. If you select a drive, FV will change to that drive. A new feature is that the file list will be sorted alphabetically when they are loaded. Cursor movement is also greatly improved. A number of extra keys are available while you are in the file selection screen. [F1] displays help, including a list of all the keys. [F1] or [ESC] exits this mode. [F2] toggles the ANSi displaying screen mode between 25 and 50 lines. The current setting is displayed on the status bar. [F3] allows you to select a new file extension filter. e.g. *.TXT Press [ENTER] to accept what you have typed in, or if you want to cancel it press [F3] or [ESC]. Wildcards may be used. [F4] displays info and greetz. [F4] or [ESC] exits this mode. [ESC] quits FV, although this feature seems quite useless. :) If you have selected a file to load, FV will show the percentage of the file loaded at the top of the screen, and any errors which may occur during loading. The most common problem is not having enough conventional memory free to load the whole picture, although you will be able to view the portion of the which did fit in memory. In later releases of FV, it may use XMS/EMS memory to store the image data. Once the image is loaded, you can scroll up and down it by pressing either [UP]/[DOWN] to scroll slowly, or [PGUP]/[PGDN] to scroll quicker. [HOME] and [END] will immediately display the top or bottom of the image respectively. [F2] can be used to toggle the screen mode between 25 and 50 lines at any time. [ESC], [ENTER] and [SPACE] will take you back to the file selector. You may experience flicker as you scroll the image (especially in 25 line mode, while playing a S3M and using the up/down arrows), so try using 50 line mode and/or running FV without music. (Command line parameter for this is "/n".) I have yet to work out a solution to this problem, which happens even on some Pentium 90's. :( Also, the faster your computer the smoother it will appear to scroll with the up/down arrows, because I have timed FV to go at a certain speed and it will skip "frames" to keep at the desirable rate of movement. Disclaimer: This program is guaranteed only to take up space on your computer. Any extra functionality should be considered an extra bonus. Legal Stuff: This program cannot be altered in any way without the written permission of Darren Hazelton. No fees may be charged for fORCE ViEW except the nominal cost of distribution, unless other written arrangements have been made with me. You may copy fORCE ViEW as many times as you want, and distribute it as much as you want. By using fORCE ViEW you are agreeing to these terms and conditions. Comments: If you find any bugs, or have any comments or suggestions, send them to: redhaze@student.adelaide.edu.au or Red Haze in BloodNET. Improvements since fORCE ViEW v1.2: () = Version it changed in. (1.3) Bugfix for fast computers, where the image got stuck at the bottom. (1.3) Improved file selection keyboard routines, sorted file list and added option to jump straight to the root directory. (1.4) S3M Playing! There is now a kewl song by oZoNE/fORCE which plays if you have a SB/GUS compatible sound card, and you can also play any other S3M files you want, if you have enough memory free. FV uses MikMod by MikMad/HaRDCoDE '95. (1.3) Changed (hopefully improved) the scrolling acceleration parameters. (1.4) Probably some minor bugs which have been ironed out. Known Problems: - The music may not work under Windows (3.x at least) with a SB compatible card. - The scrolling can be jerky and flicker while scrolling with (and sometimes without) music playing. - It hung ChowderHead's DX4, but have no idea why, because it worked the next time he tried it. - The entire file may not fit into memory if it is too large. This may get fixed in later versions. Finally: I hope you enjoy the fORCE ANSi Pack #4! We're gettin better and better. SAUCE00fORCE View Doc Red Haze fORCE 19950907A3P£