SPACE Plugin version 0.9b Copyright 2000 by Pascal Dallongeville

SPACE IS NOW INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER !


STARTING SPACE
-------------
Run Winamp, open up the preferences (CTRL+P), go to the Plugins/Visualization
section, and select Space 0.9 as the visualization plug-in. Hit start. 

WHAT IS SPACE ?
---------------
SPACE is a plugin between AVS and GEISS.
You can choose yours effects, transformations, rendering and save
your presets exactly like in AVS. But all effects can be choosing
randomly by the plugin like in GEISS.
This let you create a lot of differents cools presets of your choice.
Once the plugin is started you can acces on a popup menu by right
cliking on the window area of the plugin. This menu let you customise
severals options.
SPACE has severals advantages:
- You have severals display modes (window, fullscreen, docks and BACKGROUND)
- You can change the resolution of the render independently of
your window size (for windowed mode), for instance: you can have
a 800X600 window with a 320X200 rendered effects for better performance
(but this need a fast video card for streched blit).
- Mirror effects that speed up renderings
- You can set all your preferences by a popup menu

CONFIGURATION
-------------
From the popup menu you can:
-Choose your display mode (Windowed, fullscreen, BACKGROUND ...)
-Choose your resolution (in windowed and docked mode only)
-Choose your speed (from slow to realtime)
-Add, Remove, randomly choosing effects (Waveform, cerclewave, ...)
-Choose your render (fade, clearscreen, fade & blur, blur, nothing ..)
-Choose your transformation (enabled, disabled, randomly, ...)
-Choose your mirror mode
-Save, load and load randomly presets

HOTKEYS
-------
* Any winamp key for control winamp
* ESCAPE to quit plugin (fullscreen and dock mode)
* F4 display FPS
* Rightclick for acces to the menu
(in top-left desktop corner for BACKGROUND mode, see NOTES section)

DETAILS
-------
You can customize your effect from the popup menu, there is a lot
of option you can set. I let you discover all the functionalities
of Space Plugin, However if you don't understand some then let's
me know and I will add futhers informations about configuration
in next release.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
-------------------
you must have a directdraw compatible video card with a less directX 4.0
and 16 bpp support with winamp installed on your computer.
Older version (under 0.9) should works with directX 3.0

Strictly Minimum required configuration:
- 486 DX
- 24 Mo RAM
- 2D video card with directdraw support
... but with this you can get maybe one frame per minuts :(

Minimum recommended:
- MMX Processor (run about 60 FPS on K6-2 300 320*200 "Vision Life" preset)
- 32 Mo of RAM
- fast 2D video card for windowed mode

Really recommended:
- PII 450 Mhz or better (to get 60 FPS+ in 400*300 FS "Vision Life" preset)
- 64 Mo RAM
- TNT or better

I get about 65 fps with "Vision Life" Preset (slowest) on
my celeron300@464, TNT2 M64 with 64 Mo RAM in 400*300 fullscreen resolution
and 32 fps in 1024*768 with "Kalei Trip" preset (very cool). 

NEW FEATURES
------------
Space 0.9:

- Remove minors bugs
- Remake the menu because of new feature, it is now harder to use :(
(I plan to make a iunterface in AVS style to have fully configuration esaier)
- Rewritted some blit procedure for better fit to window mode (?)
- fixed some little bugs, now when your desktop is in 32bpp and Space works
in fullscreen mode, it will turn on 16 bit mode when changing to windowed mode.
Now Space works normally even if your desktop is not in 16 bpp when you launch it!
- Added a rotozoom blit feature, which allow to have zoom and rotation reacting with
the music. Unfortunatly rotation seems not works on my video card (TNT2) so
I couldn't test it (wait your feedback ;) ).
- Added 6 transformations: "HoriPersp", "VertiPersp", "CycloFlower", "Illusion",
"SwirlOut" and "Implose". Renamed "RotoSun" transformation in "WaveSun".
- Decompose somes transformations (Zoom in Zoomin and Zoomout ...)
- Added LittleWave, LittleMath and GeoGraphe Effects
- New Presets
- Added a skin for winamp and a theme wor windows especially for background mode
(the skins is in the /winamp/skins directory and the theme is located in the
 /winamp/plugins/space directory)
 

Space 0.82:

- Remove Fast Trans (finally not very useful option and could lead to little bugs)
- Speed Option has changed, now this is a fps limit
- Fix bugs with blend slow and normal blur whan enabled with vertical mirror
- Try to improve beat detecting
- Some others minors corrections
- effects has better reaction to the music (fading colour, size ...)
- Some others minors corrections

Space 0.81:

- Fixed bad center point with transformation
- Added Limit FPS option (in Speed Menu), this is very useful for "Randomly load
Preset" or "Randomly Mirror" option !
- Added Window size in the title in windowed mode
- Little tweaks here and there (i get about 40 FPS in 512*384 FS with "Vision Life"
preset and about 67 FPS in 400*300 FS on my celeron300@464 with TNT2 M64, but i
must switch to 320*240 FS before to get best performance ?? strange !)
- Addest Fast option for Transformation
(few speed up on my celeron: up only to 72 FPS "Vision Life" preset 400*300 FS)
- Remove "Water" and "RotoBrick" Transformation (not in the "Space" style ;) ! )

Space 0.8:

- Added RotaLines Effects
- Added a lot of transformations
- Added shift effects
 (you can choose the direction of the shifting effects in transformation)
- Add Random Load of presets
- Fixed some minors bugs

Space 0.7: (toward Space 0.6)

- Fixed a stupid bug in MMX detection, now space will work on no MMX
processor.
- Added fullscreen mode detection
- Added a option to select two type of color: primary or not ('primary' in effect
menu) -> change the colors taken randomly in Space plugin
- Little changing in confettis effects.
- Change load/save Preset (now, it works with files)

NOTES
-----
- you still have acces on the menu in fullscreen or background mode
(for background mode: you can acces the popup menu by
right-clicking in the left top corner of the desktop (you 'll see
a little box where you can click), winamp window should not be
minimize for it (if you have minimized winamp and restore it, you
won't see the box in the left top corner but you always could
right click on it).
- if you get stranges colors try change to 15/16 bpp mode (Mode555).
- Background mode doesn't works on all video cards, sometimes you get
strange colours (TNT based video card, ...)
- on some video card the blit function is size limited and doesn't
work with very low resolution then some modes like little dock
may appear incorrectly because it use a low resolution (observed
on Ati Rage Pro based card). Others video card doesn't support blit
at all, this mean that all windowed mode will be slower
(windowed, normal dock and little dock) than others modes.
- mirrors mode speed up things and look sometime pretty cool !
- you can remove a preset you don't like just by deleting the
preset space file (.spc)
- Fast Trans may speed up transformations (I think more cache memory
you processor have, more speed up you get...) but it looks a bit less cool :p

TIPS
----
-> higher windows size means more video card power
-> Higher resolution need more CPU power
-> Fullscreen and background are the fastest modes (no big
difference if you have a fast 2D video card (like TNT2).

* I recommend use this plugin with teknos, trance, dance, hard or dream
musics because is very depending of bass and beat you hear in the
music (if music hasn't got any bass, SPACE won't react a lot) and personally
I think it look best between 30 and 60 FPS.
You should try thz background mode with the skin for winamp and theme for window
(you need the support of themes for window to try it) located in the 
/winamp/plugin/space directory, have fun !!

If your computer is too slow, you can try speed up things by:
- choosing AUTO/2 resolution (for windowed mode)
- lower resolution fullscreen mode or 160*100 in background mode
if your video can support it and if your computer is very slow..
- choosing mirror mode (vertical the slowest, double is fastest),
- choosing normal or fast blur instead of slow 
- drop blur rendering ... (and choose fadeout instead)
- Change Computer ;) 
- Somes presets are a lot faster than others: "Fast graph" is very fast, 
 "Bass Trip" is slow because "Fast Grpah" do not use Blur nor transformation
 unlike "Bass Trip".

-If you notice tearing with Space Plugin in fullscreen, try to increase
the refresh rate of directdraw.
For that , go in the "program files\directx\setup" directory an choose
"complementary help" section (the last) and click on the "change" button
(below "msinfo" button), then check the "change by the value" radio button
and fill the edit box to set the new value.
!!!!! ->Be carefull !!
You must set a value than your monitor should support (I have
set it to 120 Hz because my monitor could support 140 Hz in 1024*768 and
I don't use directdraw to resolution higher than 1024*768 in my plugin)
the default value is 60 Hz, my old 15'' works at 87 Hz in 1024*768.
If you set this value at 100 and that your monitor doesn't support higher
than 640*480 at 100 hz, then you won't be able to see higher screen than
640*480 in directdraw.
However for disabled most tearing, I recommend to set this value at 100 Hz, but
don't set this value if you aren't sure your monitor can support it.

-You can decrease tearing too by changing the speed of the plugin, try to adjust
to a value  that seems without (or with few) tearing.

KNOW BUGS
---------
- With windows 2000 in windowed mode, when the size of the windows
is less than 16X16, this give glichts on the desktop (problem of
clipper size i think).
- Sometimes with Win2000 when winamp windows is shade and in normal
size the little dock looks like winamp shade in double size
(don't know why !)

There are surely others and if you find one, please let me know, thanx !

FAQ
---
- Why I can't change option in background mode ?

When Space is in background mode, his window is located at the top left corner
of your desktop and you should keep in mind that winamp window mustn't be 
minimized for acces to space window. This is a little window of 10 * 10 pix
and if you want change option of Space you should right click on it. If you
press F4 and fps doesn't appears, this mean that space window hasn't focus, click
on the top left corner of our desktop (even if you don't see anything, there is
the space window) for give focus to the window and press F4.

- Why I get strange colors ?

Have you tried to check (uncheck) mode555 option in the Display Mode Menu ?
Sometimes in background mode the colors can be wrong because your video
card doesn't support the RGB or YUV overlay function. I haven't idea to fix this 
problem without a big loss of speed... If you have, then say me. Thanx

- Why Space is slower than Geiss ?

Because you use Geiss in 8 bit mode and 8 bit mode is a lot faster than 16 bit mode,
and I should reconize than Geiss is very optimised (I would like to know how is
their map transformation procedure ;) ... ).
However 16 bit mode give the possibility to display more color with blur and fadeout
and it is supported by almost video card (this isn't the case of 24 or 32bpp).
But I have noticed than Geiss could be slower than Space (even in 8 bpp) on slower
computer like K6-233, I don't know why ...

- Why resolution "AUTO/2" is slower than "AUTO" which calculate 4 more times data ?

Because resolution different than "AUTO" use the Streched blit functionality and
some video card haven't got this capabilities (Sis, Cirrus, ...). In this case
use only "AUTO" resolution for better performance.

- When I run the plugin in FULLSCREEN MODE, i get a messagebox saying:
'SetCooperativeLevel DDSCL_EXCLUSIVE|DDSCL_FULLSCREEN: DDERR_HWNDALREADYSET' ?

Make sure you're not using the DIRECTSOUND output plugin underneath Winamp... 
you have to use the WAVEOUT output plugin.

- I have only few resolution than appear for the FULLSCREEN MODE, and I am sure my
video card support more video mode.

Be sure that directdraw is correctly installed, reinstall directx to make sure.
note that you need directX 4 in order Space works (since version 0.9)

GREETINGS
---------
- Thanks to Soren (from Acidspunk) for all his help about transformations
- Thanks to Safai and tosca for the problem with pitch
- Thanks To M.Geiss for his great Geiss.txt ;)))
- And thank you for using my plugin

CONTACT
------
The web site has always the lastest version of Space plugin:
http://www.multimania.com/scalpel/programmation.html

If you have any ideas of effects, suggestions, if you find bug(s)
or have suggestions please send me an email.
IF you have cool Space presets, send me them and I will add them in next release
of Space.

mail: dallongevillep@hotmail.com

If you like it, send money at:

Pascal Dallongeville
18 rue Marcel Poulin
60400 CRISOLLES
FRANCE

It's free but i will be very happy if you give me some (i'm poor) :) !

TERMS OF USE / COPYRIGHT INFORMATION / PUBLIC DISPLAY
-----------------------------------------------------
SPACE is totally free for personal use. No registration is required.
Any commercial use of this program, however, requires the consent of the
author. For large ventures this will involve a licensing fee.  Be wary
that every image or video sequence generated with this program is the sole
copyright of Pascal Dallongeville and can not be reproduced or displayed in public
without permission.

LICENSE AGREEMENT
-----------------
You may personally use and copy SPACE freely.  However, you may NOT charge
money for distributing SPACE. SPACE is free, So don't try to sell it
unless you email me and send me a lot of cash first ;)

DISCLAIMER
----------
The author is not responsible for any damages or loss of data that
occur to your system for using SPACE.  SPACE is distributed freely, and
if you choose to use SPACE, you take all risk on yourself.  If your
system appears to have problems when SPACE is run, you should immediately
discontinue using SPACE.  The author is also not responsible for any
damages to YOU for watching or using SPACE.  If you are epileptic,
have a weak heart, or have any other conditions which might make using
this program dangerous to your health, you should not use this program.