       Library Computer Access and Retrieval System (LCARS) Screen Saver
                               Version 1.20
                  Copyright (c) 1997, 1999 by Steven W. Bownas
                           sbownas@compuserve.com
               http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/sbownas

         For free distribution only - see License section for details.

Contents
--------
  General Information
  Displays
  Installation  <--- Read this if you need help setting up a screen saver
  Settings
  Technology
  License
  Feedback and Support


For up-to-date information or to download the current version, please visit
my Web site:
  http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/sbownas 


General Information:
--------------------

This program is a Windows screen saver module that generates LCARS displays
similar to those seen on the "Star Trek" TV series and movies.  Each display
is animated, with moving graphics, scrolling data and changing colors.

The Library Computer Access and Retrieval System (LCARS) is the computer
interface used by Federation starships on Star Trek: The Next Generation,
Voyager and Deep Space Nine.  Michael Okuda designed the LCARS format and
creates the actual displays used on the Star Trek sets.

Star Trek is (c) copyright Paramount Pictures Corporation.  For more information
about the Star Trek TV series and movies, see:
  http://www.paramount.com

I think this is the best (only?) free LCARS screen saver you will find!


Displays:
---------

Version 1.20 of the LCARS Displays screen saver provides the following displays.
Each is listed as it appears on the main Settings dialog.  You have to use your
imagination to "read" the displays, but this is how I came up with them:

Shield Status
   This resembles a display seen at the Engineering station on the bridge of
   Voyager (ST: Voyager) at the bridge Engineering station.  Similar displays
   appear on the Defiant (ST: Deep Space Nine) and on the Enterprise E (ST:
   First Contact).

Biomolecular Scan
   This resembles one of the screens in the doctor's office on ST: Voyager.

Warp Drive Status
   I made this one up, but it loosely resembles the status displays in Main
   Engineering on the Enterprise D (ST: The Next Generation).  It uses the
   purple and gold colors seen on ST: First Contact and on some ST: DS9
   Defiant controls.

Standard Orbit
   This resembles a screen often seen on a starship, shuttlecraft or runabout
   bridge in ST: Voyager, ST: DS9 and ST: First Contact.

Federation Logo
   I made this one up, but it vaguely resembles the screen you see before a
   character accepts a subspace message.


Installation:
-------------

Installation instructions vary slightly with different operating systems.  The
basic steps are 1) copy the file to your computer, and 2) select LCARS as your
primary screen saver.  Details follow:

1. Decide which version of the saver you will use - 32 bit or 16 bit.  If you
   have Windows 95 or newer, or Windows NT 4.0 or newer, use the 32 bit version
   named Lcars32.scr (although you could use either one).

   If you have Windows 3.11 or older, use the 16 bit version named Lcars.scr
   (you cannot use the 32 bit one).

   If you have a Windows NT 3.51 or older, you might be able to use the 32
   bit version, but probably must use the 16 bit version named Lcars.scr.

2. Copy the screen saver file Lcars32.scr (or Lcars.scr) to one of the three
   directories where Windows looks for screen savers:
     a. C:\Windows
     b. C:\Windows\System
     c. C:\Windows\System32   (Windows NT only)

   Your actual drive letter and directory name may vary, but here are the
   defaults for different Windows versions:
     Windows 95/98    c:\Windows,  c:\Win95
     Windows NT       c:\WinNt,  c:\Windows
     Windows 3.1      c:\Windows
     Win-OS/2         c:\OS2\MDos\WinOs2

   All versions of Windows require screen saver files to be in one of the
   three directories and will not use them if they are anywhere else.

   Although it does not matter which one you use, you should put it in
   whichever one already has some .SCR files in it.

   NOTE: If you have two operating systems (like Win95 and NT) on the same
   computers, you must install a copy of LCARS for each one.  Windows doesn't
   share.)

3. AFTER you have copied the .SCR file, set LCARS to be your current screen
   saver:

   Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.x:
      1. Right click on the desktop, select "Properties" from the menu that
         appears.
      2. Click the "Screen Saver" tab on the dialog that appears.
      3. Scroll through the drop-down list box on the left that lists screen
         savers.  Locate and select "LCARS Displays (32 bit)".
         (On Windows 98 systems, the name appears as "Lcars32".)
      4. Click the "Settings" button if you would like to change the settings.

   Windows 3.x, NT 3.5x, Win-OS/2:
      1. (Win-OS/2 only) Run a "Win-OS/2 Full Screen session".
      2. Double click the "Control Panel" icon (usually in the "Windows Main"
         group).
      3. Double click "Desktop".
      4. Locate the "Screen Saver" section near the middle of the "Desktop"
         dialog.  Select "LCARS Displays" in the "Screen Saver" combo box.
      5. Click the "Settings" button if you would like to change the settings.
         (See the section below for more about that.)

  Special note for OS/2 Users:
     You can (sort of) run the saver on the OS/2 desktop as well.  First,
     follow the instructions above to set LCARS to be your Win-OS/2 screen
     saver.  Then, run Windows Program Manager on the OS/2 desktop and minimize
     it.  Whenever Program Manager runs the saver, it will "save" your OS/2
     desktop.

     The only problem with this technique is that since Win-OS/2 does not "see"
     activity on your OS/2 programs, it thinks you're not doing anything and
     runs the saver frequently.  As soon as the saver kicks in, it sees the
     activity and goes away again, but it's still annoying.  You can improve
     it a little by setting the timeout limit rather high.


Settings:
---------

After you install the LCARS Screen Saver (described below in "Installation"),
you can customize some of the settings if you want to.  There are two settings
screens, Main and Advanced.

It is perfectly safe to try changing the settings - none of these will "break"
the saver, Windows, or your PC.  If you don't like a new setting, just change
it back.

The LCARS screen saver keeps its settings in the file LCARS.INI under the
Windows directory.  If you delete that file, it will use the default values
instead.  (Just in case, the default for each setting is listed here too.)

Main Settings:
  Displays  (default - All checked)
      Check each display that you want to see.  The saver chooses random
      displays from the ones you checked.  You can use this to make it always
      play your favorite or to turn off the ones you don't like.

  Animate Displays  (default - checked)
      You can uncheck this to turn off the animation, but it's not much fun.
      If you are worried about CPU usage, see "Advanced - Frames per Second"
      below.

  Seconds per Screen  (default - 30 seconds)
      The saver stays on each screen for (about) this many seconds.  If you make
      it too short, each display may not have time to cycle through its whole
      animation.  If you make it too long, you get tired of seeing the same
      display all the time.

Advanced Settings (click the "Advanced" button from Main settings):
  Frames per Second  (default - 2 frames per second)
      You can speed up the animation by adding more frames per second.  How fast
      it can go depends on your computer.  At some point, the PC will not be
      able to keep up and higher values won't make any difference.  (Actually,
      it looks pretty silly above 15 frames per second anyway.)

      WARNING:  The faster you go, the more CPU resources you will use.  If you
      are running other programs in the background, you probably want to keep it
      down.  DO NOT run it really fast on a network server, or you will get what
      you deserve.

  High Color (default - checked 32 bit, unchecked 16 bit)
      Video display adapters on PCs can be set to use different numbers of
      colors.  The minimum is 16 (VGA), but nearly all Windows PCs support 256
      or more colors.  Newer display adapters can support thousands or millions
      of colors, and Windows 98 and later do by default.  Older Windows versions
      usually default to 256.

      16 or 256 color display adapters cannot depict colors exactly, so they
      "dither", or mix pixels of different colors so the overall result
      approximates the desired color.

      The default "Low" colors on the LCARS Screen Saver are tuned to look okay
      when dithered on a 16 or 256 color display.

      The "High" color mode uses fancier, more subtle shades of the colors.
      They look great on a display configured to use thousands or millons of
      colors.  Some people even prefer them on a 16 or 256 color display despite
      the dithering.

      I strongly recommend that you try the "High" color setting and see if you
      like it.

      You may want to increase the color depth of your display adapter.  (On
      Windows 95 systems, right click the desktop, select "Properties", then
      choose the "Settings" tab.  You can change color depth there.)

      No matter what your color depth, you can tune them quite a bit by
      adjusting the brightness and contrast knobs on your monitor.  Increasing
      the contrast while slightly lowering the brightness makes it easier to see
      subtle differences in the colors.

  Federation Logo Text
      Whatever text you put here appears below the UFP logo on the Federation
      Logo screen.  I suggest you enter something here, unless you like my
      default.


Technology:
-----------

The program generates the graphics at run time and draws them with Windows API
functions.  This makes the program file pretty small, keeps it from using very
much memory when it runs and helps it work equally well with different display
resolutions.

Bitmapped images would provide better color and far more detail, but they
would not scale to fit screens of different sizes and would take much more
space in the program file.

The screens do not have much text.  That's because it is easy to generate
random scrolling numbers, but it is hard to generate sensible, non-repeating
text without writing it in advance and storing it in the program.

I developed the screen saver with Borland C++ 4.0 for Windows running on OS/2
version 4.0.  I developed the 32 bit version using the command line compiler
that comes with Borland C++ Builder 3.

I have tested it under Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, NT 3.51, NT 4.0, Win-OS/2
3.0 and Win-OS/2 4.0.

It will work on any PC running Windows 3.1 or higher.  It has run (although very
slowly) on a 386 16 mhz with 2 mgb RAM.  Of course, it performs best on a 486
with 4 mgb RAM or better.


License:
--------

This program is for FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY!  You may make and distribute as
many copies as you like as long as you distribute this readme file along with
the program.  You may not charge a fee for copies!

You get this program "as is" with no express or implied warranty. I take no
responsibility for any problems you might have while using it.


Feedback and Support:
---------------------
The program is a single Windows screen saver file.  You do not need any DLLs or
other files.  As long as you put it in the right place, it will appear in
Windows' list of screen saver choices.

If you change the settings, it stores them in the Windows LCARS.INI file.
It will run fine without them, using the default settings instead.

I have tested it extensively under Windows 3.11, 95 and 98, Windows NT 3.51
and 4.0, and OS/2 3.0 and 4.0 (both desktop and Win-OS/2).

Before you report any problems or bugs:
  1. Read this ReadMe file carefully!

  2. Check my World Wide Web page:
       http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/sbownas
     Perhaps your problem has already been reported.

If you have suggestions, problems that aren't explained on the web site,
or just want to say hello so I can see how far the program has travelled
from Ohio, USA, send an e-mail to me at:
  sbownas@compuserve.com

Have fun!

this file written 3/17/1997, revised 01/01/2000
