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 Star Wars: Episode II Unofficial 3D Screen Saver v1.6 for Win9x/NT4/2K/XP
                            by ROBERT BENNETT
                     EMAIL: Rob@UselessCreations.com
                              ICQ# 14073622
                       RELEASED: 20th April, 2002
                 http://www.UselessCreations.com/swaotc
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* ARCHIVE CONTENTS

  SWAOTC3D.zip
    - Star Wars AOTC 3D.scr  (the Screen Saver file)
    - readme.txt             (this file!)


* INSTALLATION

  To install, simply copy the "Star Wars AOTC 3D.scr" file to the windows
  folder (normaly C:\WINDOWS). Then go the Display options in
  Control Panel and in the Screen Saver section select Star Wars AOTC 3D!

  To remove simply delete the "Star Wars AOTC 3D.scr" file from the windows
  folder, but why you want to do this is beyond my comprehension.


* I UPGRADED TO XP AND IT RUNS SLOW! WHY?:

  You're asking me?? Shouldn't you be asking Microsoft??
  Well ok I have an idea. Turns out XP doesn't come with proper video
  drivers for most (all?) video cards. This is easily fixed tho.
  If you go to the website of whoever made your video card (mine was
  www.nvidia.com cos I've got a TNT2, yours could be different), and
  they'll have real XP drivers for your video card. Install them and
  watch the speed increase!

  If its still slow then I can't help you.


* SETTINGS:

  To get to the settings screen go to Display options in Control Panel and
  in the Screen Saver section click on Settings.

  Here you can select the colour of your droid, whether you want the
  countdown to be displayed and if so the date you want it to count to and
  the message you want displayed with it. Here is where you also need to
  tell the program if you want R2 to project AVI movie files, and tell the
  program where they are (see below).

  Now you can also make R2 project your own BMP picture files (see below).


* HOW TO MAKE ARTOO PLAY AVI MOVIE FILES:

  PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. I've tried to make it as easy
  as possible, but if you have problems let me know.

  Besides displaying heaps of pictures from Episode 2, Artoo is also
  capable of projecting AVI video files of the trailers!

  Since these files are kinda large, and not everyone will want to use
  them, they aren't included. For information on downloading them go to
  the website (www.UselessCreations.com/swaotc3d). You don't have to
  download them ofcourse, but they do look kinda cool. You can use any AVI
  you already have aswell.

  Once you've downloaded the files, or found some other AVI files you want
  Artoo to play, simply put them in a directory anywhere on your PC.

  Now go to Control Panel, Display Settings, and the Screen Saver tab.
  Make sure you have "Star Wars AOTC 3D" selected as your current screen
  saver and click on the Settings button. The Star Wars AOTC 3D settings
  screen should now appear.

  In the bottom left of that screen is the area where you set your AVI/BMP
  options. Check the checkbox labelled "Play AVIs/Show BMPs" to enable AVI
  support. There is a big box below that shows a list of directorys and
  drives on your hard drive. What you need to go is go thru and find
  the directory where you keep your AVI's and double click on it. The
  program will tell you how many AVIs it finds in each directory. You can
  also select whether or not you want the AVI's sound to be played (cos
  sometimes I like screen savers to play silently).

  Once you've done that you should be ready to go and Artoo will now
  randomly choose to play an AVI instead of showing a normal still picture.
  You can have as many AVIs in the directory as you like. A random one
  will be selected each time one is played.

  So you could have AVI versions of the trailers from all the Star Wars
  movies, or whatever you like, and they'll randomly be played.

  Please Note that you may need to download additional codecs etc for AVIs
  to be played, depending on where you got them. The best way to check is
  simply to double click on the AVI file itself. That way Windows should
  try and play the file, and if it needs a codec or anything it will
  either get it itself, or tell you about it.


* HOW TO MAKE ARTOO DISPLAY YOUR OWN PICTURES:

  R2 can now display your own bitmap picture files. All you need to do is
  put them all in a directory, (If you want AVI video files to be played,
  the pictures and the AVIs all need to be in the same directory), then
  select the directory on the Settings screen. And make sure you have the
  "Play AVIs/Show BMPs" checkbox checked.

  Your pictures need to be in BMP format for them to work. You can have
  as many pictures in the directory as your like, a random one will be
  displayed each time. If you only want your pictures to be displayed,
  all you have to do is check the "Only Show My Pictures" box. Then none
  of the included Episode 2 pictures will be displayed, only your BMP files
  will.

  NOTE: If you want AVI files to be played, and you want BMP files to be
  displayed you need to put them all in the same directory, then select
  that as the "AVI/BMP Directory". Just trying to make it clear.


* RELEASE NOTES (v1.6):

  Just a quick update to fix something that was annoying me. I had a few
  emails from people who had moved or deleted their picture/avi directory
  and then tried to change it. The screen saver wouldn't let them because
  it couldn't find the directory it was already set for. So thats fixed!

  So I also added heaps of cool new pictures. I hadn't planned on doing
  many picture updates but there have been a lot of good ones lately so I
  figured while I was fixing bugs I may aswell add more.

  Enjoy!


* RELEASE NOTES (v1.5):

  Wow. Huge response to the original release of this one! Everyone seems
  to love it, which I'm always glad to hear.

  There was one bug in v1.0 tho: R2 would randomly get stuck pointing to
  the left of the screen. So thats been fixed. And since I had a heap of
  emails asking for a way to get R2 to display external picture files, like
  you used to be able to do with the old Episode 1 version. Ask and ye
  shall receive. R2 can now display BMP files. Just chuck 'em in the dir
  with your AVIs and off you go. Why BMP files? Cos they're the easiest
  to work with. There's just too many formats to be able to support
  them all. So the easiest wins!

  And ofcourse there's a few new pics added. Enjoy!


* RELEASE NOTES (v1.0):

  Well, well, well. I can't believe its been almost 3 years since
  Episode 1 was released. That means its been almost 3 years since I
  released my first OpenGL 3D screen saver: The Star Wars: The Phanom
  Menace Unofficial Screen Saver. Stupidly long title, but it was pretty
  damn popular. So here we are, Episode 2 is just round the corner and I've
  learnt a heap about things since then. When I did that one I knew
  basically nothing about texture mapping or even how to use normals
  properly.

  So I decided to do a complete remake of that screen saver and release it
  for Episode 2, and here it is!

  It's still the same basic idea: An astomech droid (who looks alot more
  like R2-D2 then it did in the original) rolls around projecting images
  from the upcoming movie in 3D. Biggest new feature is that it can now
  play AVI files aswell. So if you get hold of the AVI copies of the
  trailers he'll randomly play them. Looks cool as!

  Why AVI files? Cos I couldn't find any info on playing MOV or MPG files.
  So there.

  For a remake I can't believe how many weeks of work this took to do.
  The original was done in Borland C++ Builder v4 and I now use
  Microsoft Visual C++ v6 to do everything. A completely different
  product. So I started from scratch and didn't reuse any old code.
  But as a result of it taking so long I left out afew things I wanted to
  include. If there's a good response I'll see if I can keep going on it,
  but it might take til Episode 3 is released to get it the way I want it.

  You gotta admit tho, as the 2nd Star Wars screen saver I've released in
  under a month (and its the shortest month!!), its pretty impressive!

  (Remember the Star Wars 3D Screen Saver is also available, and has been
  hugely popular!)

  Anyway as usual, let me know if you like/hate/use/poke/lick/cough on
  this thing!

  Enjoy!


* CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:

  I'd like to give a huge thanks to Jeff Molofee. Without his tutorial
  I wouldn't have even known where to start with playing AVIs. I've had
  to make afew mods to add sound etc but his tutorial was a great way
  to get started. If you ever wanna learn any OpenGL programming his
  site is the place to go: http://nehe.gamedev.net

  And, as usual, thanks go to Emile from RedWeb Design (the best damn web
  design company on the planet, and pretty damn affordable too! Check em
  out at http://www.redweb.com.au). Without him testing versions of this
  thing I'd have released a pretty buggy version!

  Also, big thanks to all the great Star Wars sites out there. Without 'em
  I wouldn't have been able to find most of the pics in this thing.
  I think the main ones I checked for news were: www.StarWars.com,
  www.episode-x.com, www.theforce.net, www.swmovies.net. Check 'em out!


* VERSION HISTORY

  1.6  20/04/2002  - Bug fix. If you deleted or moved the directory that
                     you had set as your picture/avi directory it wouldn't
                     let you change it to the new one, because it couldn't
                     find the old one. Fixed.
                   - Heaps of new pics added. There are now over 100.

  1.5  13/03/2002  - Small bug fix. R2 would randomly get stuck pointing
                     to the left of the screen.
                   - Ability to have R2 display external BMP files added!
                   - More pics added!

  1.0  28/02/2002  Original Release
                   - Astromech droid rolls round displaying pics n stuff.
                   - 60+ pics included.
                   - AVI support (with sound and some syncing, there were
                     earlier versions without sound that I didn't release)

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Star Wars and everything related is Copyright  LucasFilm.
The screen saver itself is Copyright  Robert Bennett 2002.
This screen saver is meant as a tribute to Star Wars,
no copyright infringement is intended.
This software is FREE and may not be used for profit.
If you like and use it, send me an email!
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This screen saver is provided as is. The author takes no responsibility
for any damage that is done to your system thru it's use.
It works fine for me! If it doesn't for you, it aint my fault!
This product is not guaranteed to save your screen from burn in or any
other form of damage. (eg. feeding it to a scruffy lookin' Nerf herder)
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