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Twilight II Manual
Twilight II
Twilight II version 1.99 is currently regarded as BETA software--
while it has been tested by a number of people, it is not guaranteed
to have been tested with every init, desk accessory, application, or
control panel. Thus, some untested interactions may occur and cause
problems. Such problems may include, but not limited to, crashes, bad
printouts, lockups, or the like. Further, a nice installer program has
not yet been written, forcing you to manually copy files to install
it.
As such, you are using this program at your own risk. If you notice
problems. Please also see this manual's section of known
quirks/problems before installing and before reporting anything.
For the best online communities, drop by http://delphi.com for the
Apple II community there. [And it's free if accessed via a
cookie-supporting web browser, or you can pay $35/year for telnet
access and file downloads.]
_________________________________________________________________
Table of contents
* 1.1: Starting Out
* 1.2: Vital Information & System Requirements
- Section 2.0: Installing Twilight II
* 2.1: Activating Twilight II
* 3.1: Key Concepts & Terms
* 3.2: Compatability
* 3.3: Using Twilight II
* 3.4: The Setup Window
* 3.5: Info on various modules
- Section 4.0: Other Information
- Section 5.0: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
* 5.1:I'm in a GS/OS desktop-based program by the screen won't
blank while the program is busy. Why not?
* 5.2: No matter what I do, Twilight II will never blank on its
own; I must always move to a blank now corner. What is going
wrong?
After installing Twilight II, my computer sometimes crashes or
hangs for no reason. Why?
* 5.3: How come after Twilight II background blanks during
printing, my printout turns all black?
* 5.4: What does "Unknown error $0120" mean?
* 5.5: When the Twilight II icon appears during startup, the
computer beeps and then the icon is crossed out. What is
happening?
* 5.6: When I run my telecommunication program with Twilight II
installed, some of my incoming characters are lost. Why does
this happen and how can I fix it?
* 5.7: Twilight II's WatchCursor option does not work in one of
my programs. What is wrong?
* 5.8: What does Error $0201 mean?
* 5.9: Cool Cursor Control Panel (CCCP) is forcing background
blanks or causing problems
* 5.10: Some modules aren't using TrueType Fonts
- Section 6.0: Thanks & Credits
- Section 7.0: About DYA & Twilight II distribution policies
_________________________________________________________________
Section 1.0: Overview
Twilight II safeguards your valuable monitor from phosphor burn-in, an
irreversible condition that occurs when the same image has been left
onscreen for so long that it becomes permanently etched into the
monitor glass. Twilight II presents an elegant solution to this
problem, automatically protecting your screen by changing the image
being displayed in many different selectable ways after you do not
interact with the computer for a specified amount of time.
Twilight II works with all GS/OS desktop programs (such as the Finder,
AppleWorks GS, GraphicWriter III, Platinum Paint and many others);
program switchers such as The Manager and Switch-It!; all text
screen-based programs (such as ProDOS 8 gems like AppleWorks classic
and ProTerm 3, and GS/OS text based programs like Orca/Shell and
GNO/ME); and also with other programs such as Publish-It!
Our goal is to make the best featured screen saver possible, enabling
you to use your computer more productively. Twilight II has been in
the making for over two years and this represents an enormous amount
of effort of many different people.
.
_________________________________________________________________
Starting Out
Before attempting to use Twilight II, please at least glance through
this section first so that Twilight II is installed properly and you
have a general idea of what is happening. This will save you much time
in the long run.
Twilight II employs the concept of screen saver modules. When it is
time to blank the screen so that burn-in does not occur, in a
GS/OS(tm) desktop based program Twilight II will use the currently
selected module (or a randomly selected module if several are
selected.) Each module is responsible for the effect performed when
the screen is blanked (e.g. Fireworks, Mountains, Snow, etc.)
It is your choice which modules you want to install -- if you want to
install them all, or install some or none of them. If you choose to
install no modules, however, the screen will always be made pitch
black when it is time to blank and no special effects or animations
will be possible. The only advantage to not installing all the modules
is that Twilight II will take up less space on disk.
Twilight II also is able to run all Phantasm effects through a
Twilight II module called PhanTom. If you are a Signature GS owner
upgrading to Twilight II, you can still use all your old effects!
_________________________________________________________________
Vital Information
Manual Terminology and Conventions
Keys on the keyboard are referenced in italics by the name printed on
them (e.g. Shift, Option, J, etc.) The Open-Apple key is referred to
as the Command key.
Names of disks, files, and directories (folders) on disk are printed
in italics.
Keyboard equivalents, where available, for controls and buttons on
screen are listed to the right of the titles of the controls.
Steps to follow are indented and numbered. For example:
1. Purchase Twilight II.
2. Use the Installer for easy installation onto your system.
3. Never worry about screen burn-in!
Note: Important or special information appears in boldface notes such
as this.
System Requirements
To use Twilight II you need:
* An Apple IIGS
* System 6.0 or 6.0.1
* Two 3.5" Floppy drives or one 3.5" drive and a hard disk drive.
[Hard Drive strongly recommended, as a full installation of all
modules and addon graphics is about 2.4MB]
* A minimum of 150K RAM free for use by Twilight II. (A good
indication of how much memory you have available can be obtained
by selecting "About the Finder..." and noting the display of
available memory.) If less than 200-250K is free as reported by
the Finder, many modules may have reduced performance or be
unrunnable.
While 1.125 megabytes of total RAM might suffice on a stripped
down system, to best use Twilight II, 1.5 megabytes of memory or
more is recommended. The more desk accessories, fonts, inits,
control panels, and system sounds you use, the less free memory
will be available for use by Twilight II.
_________________________________________________________________
Installing Twilight II
Twilight II v1.99 is distributed as a set of 4 .shk files: the Base
distribution (core CDev, documentation, icons, etc), Modules 1 (all
but 5 of the modules), Modules 2 (the 5 biggest modules), and addon
graphics used by several of the modules. While only the core CDev is
needed, you'll see the most by installing everything.
First, if you have previously installed Twilight II v1.0 or 1.1, your
setup options are not saved in a compatible format, and will have to
be redone. Delete the Twilight.Setup file from your disk in the old
modules folder before continuing.
While the modules directory, the core CDev or the addon graphics are
not required to reside on your boot disk. The core CDev should be
installed to the boot disk if you want to have Twilight II
automatically usable after boot. Copy the 'Twilight.II' control panel
to the cdevs folder inside the system folder on your boot disk. [In GS
terms, '*' is your boot disk, so that above folder is *:System:CDevs:]
This base distribution also includes an optional 'T2.Icons' file which
can be copied to the icons folder of your boot disk if you want. Also
included is a 'T2.Clock.Font' file which can be copied to the
- :System:Fonts folder. That is a font which includes very large
numbers and a colon suitable for use in the Fading Clocks module. As
it only contains those characters, it is quite small. You may pick
your own font to use instead, should you choose.
Also included in the base distribution is a Spectrum XCMD by Ewen
Wannop which is an update to the 'TwilightII' XCMD which shipped with
Spectrum 2.1. You do not need Spectrum to run Twilight II; this is
just an update to provide better control over it. [If a version of
Spectrum later than v2.1 is already on your system, this XCMD should
be on there, and you do not need to install it. Having not owned
Spectrum prior to v2.1, I do not know and cannot say when XCMDs were
first supported. You should contact Seven Hills Software for an
upgrade to at least version 2.1] Read the documentation contained in
the 'SpectrumXCMD' folder in this distribution, and copy the XCMD from
that hierarchy to the XCMDs folder under the Addons directory where
you installed Spectrum to.
Next, pick a place for the modules to be installed to. Modules 1 is
currently 731K when uncompressed, and Modules 2 a further 607K on
disk. All modules used by Twilight II must be present in the same
directory to be usable. The recommended place for this modules path is
- :System:CDevs:Twilight: -- simply decompress the two modules .shks
into the CDevs folder on your boot disk. However, if you choose to
place the modules elsewhere, you will be required to tell Twilight II
where you located it later with the Setup:Advanced Options screen.
Modules can be added to, deleted from, activated or inactivated using
quality GS/OS file manipulation programs, such as the Finder. Do NOT
use a copy program from ProDOS 8 like Copy ][+, or files and/or disks
will be corrupted.
The addon graphics take up to 1027K on disk, and are used by Fish,
Globe, Movie Theater, Toast, and YouDrawIt. While Movie Theater can
play animations already present on your system, and Globe can manually
animate part of the screen, the other 3 of those modules require
graphics arranged in certain places, and will not be usable without at
least one picture file designed for them. You do not need to place
those graphics on your boot disk, but you will need to manually set up
each of those modules to use the directory you chose.
If you decompress the gshk to *:System:CDevs:Twilight:, Fish, Globe,
and Toast will automatically recognize the picture files, and be able
to run without any setup required. [There may be additional setup
items you may still want to investigate, such as the ability to use
random files from the directory for that module's pictures.]
Finally, after installing all of these files, you should reboot to be
able to use Twilight II, though you can also use the method of
double-clicking on the 'Twilight.II' CDev from the Finder to manually
install it after boot. If your modules are not installed to the
default location on your boot disk, you will need to select 'Setup',
then 'Advanced Options' from the top menu in the setup window, and
then the 'Set It' button for alternate module path. A reboot is
required for your alternate module path to be recognized, sorry.
Using Sound Patcher
Sound Patcher is a simple program included in the base distribution
that allows you to harmlessly modify the Sound control panel that
comes with System 6 to allow the assigning of specific sounds to
"Screen Blanking" and "Screen Unblanking" events. This patch is not
required to run Twilight II, but it may add to your enjoyment of the
package. Twilight II generates these events whenever the desktop or
text screens blank or unblank, with only two exceptions. First, when
you preview a module by clicking "Blank Now" from the main window,
these sounds will not be generated. Also, the sounds will not be
played when you are running a ProDOS 8 program and the text screen
blanks.
Using Sound Patcher is easy. Just follow these steps:
1. Start up your Apple IIGS as you normally do.
2. Launch the Sound.Patcher program, from wherever you instructed the
Installer to put it, or from directly off the T2.Install disk.
"Patch..." from the File menu will automatically be chosen, and
the following window will soon appear.
3. Locate the Sound control panel in the CDevs folder of your boot
disk, select it, and click open.
In a few short moments, the operation will be complete. You can now
open the Sound control panel and assign sounds to your new Twilight II
events.
After using the Sound Patcher program, you do not need to keep it
around on disk-- its work is done.
_________________________________________________________________
Activating Twilight II
The System 6 Control Panel desk accessory must be always installed for
Twilight II to operate, with no exception.
If Twilight II was copied to the System:Cdevs folder of your boot disk:
Twilight II will be automatically activated during boot and ready to
use after you restart your computer.
For future reference, you can prevent Twilight II from loading by
holding down the Control key when you start the computer. This will be
visually indicated by a red 'X' being drawn over the Twilight II
bootup icon.
If the Control Panel was not copied to the System:Cdevs folder of your
boot disk:
You will have to manually activate Twilight II each time you boot your
computer. You can do this by double-clicking from the Finder the
Twilight.II control panel icon wherever you chose to install it to.
This will also open the main Twilight II window at the same time.
Note: After Twilight II has been activated, you must keep the disk it
is on write enabled for Twilight II to function correctly
_________________________________________________________________
Opening the Main Window
At any time after Twilight II has been activated, to open the main
Twilight II window, follow these steps:
1. Choose the Control Panels item from the Apple Menu.
2. Click the Twilight II icon to select it.
3. Click the Open button.
Alternatively, if the "Install T2 NDA" option is on, you can simply
select the Twilight II item from the Apple menu.
As a shortcut, you can also press Command-Control-T, Command-~ or
Command-` to open up the main window. (These equivalents are only
available when not already in use by the application running when you
press them.
_________________________________________________________________
Reference
This section describes every aspect of Twilight II in detail. If you
have any questions about a particular feature, the answers are
probably here. Once you have familiarized yourself with a few
concepts, using Twilight II will become largely intuitive. Refer to
this section when any questions arise.
There are a few frequently used terms and ideas that will benefit you
by familiarizing yourself with. You might want to quickly glance over
a few concepts presented in this section before fully experimenting
with Twilight II.
_________________________________________________________________
Key concepts and terms
When your Apple IIgs has not been used (interacted with) for the
amount of time specified in Setup:Options, Twilight II blanks
(animates or moves around) the screen to protect your monitor from
permanent phosphor burn-in, a condition that occurs when the same
image has been left on screen for too long a time.
Types of Screen Blanks
There are two distinct types of screen blanks:
Background Blank
The screen is made entirely black (i.e. no special effects or
animations are run) and the program you were using continues running.
So if you were printing or copying files when the screen blanked, the
printing or copying will not be interrupted. Background blanking is
used all the time in text mode-based programs.
Foreground Blank
The screen is blanked using the effect module(s) selected (one of
those selected is picked and run), and the program you were in stops
running. Because foreground blanking takes control of the computer, if
you were printing or copying files when Twilight II kicked in, the
printing or copying would be interrupted and would not continue until
the screen was unblanked (i.e. a key was hit, the mouse moved, etc)
Foreground blanking is not available in programs that use the text
screen; foreground blanking is only used in desktop based programs
that run under GS/OS.
Note: You can have the best of both worlds in regards to background
versus foreground blanking. See Options: Watch Cursor in the next
section.
_________________________________________________________________
Compatibility
Twilight II is very AppleTalk and AppleShare friendly. It can be run
off a network without interference with network communication. Also,
when a server shuts down, Twilight II will not crash or hang.
Being very stable, Twilight II should not interfere with any
applications. The screen can be blanked under the few different types
of programs listed below.
Mouse screen corners can be used in all of the types of programs
below. However, corners assigned to foreground blank now will only
work in desktop-based programs. Also, when corners are used in other
than desktop-based programs, you must position the mouse exactly in
the corner to achieve the desired result. We are investigating
workarounds to make this easier for the future.
Desktop-based
Desktop-based programs run under GS/OS and are easily identified by
the standard Apple menu bar, interface look and feel. Examples
include: GraphicWriter III, Platinum Paint, AppleWorks GS, Finder,
Installer, GS Shrinkit, Foundation, Switch-It, and many others.
Twilight II is most flexible under such programs -- both background
and foreground blanks are possible.
Text mode-based
Text mode-based programs can run under either GS/OS or ProDOS 8(tm).
The classic desk accessory menu that appears when you press
Command-Control-Escape is an example of text mode, as are Applesoft
Basic, AppleWorks Classic, ProTerm, the Orca/M shell, GNO/ME, and many
more. In text mode based programs, Twilight II will automatically
perform a background blank when the computer has not been interacted
with for the amount of time specified. Foreground blanking is not
possible, so you will never notice any special effects being performed
by Twilight II in text mode based programs.
Low-Res, High-Res, and Double High-Res Mode-based
ProDOS 8 programs such as Publish-It!, use the low-resolution,
high-resolution, or double high-resolution graphics modes can also be
blanked by Twilight II. When it is time to blank, Twilight II will
clear the screen to black in the background, thus allowing the program
running to continue. No special effects will be performed in these
programs, in order to ensure full compatibility.
_________________________________________________________________
Using Twilight II
Each time Twilight II is opened, you will see a window similar to the
picture at the bottom of this page.
The Main Window
Changes made to Twilight II's main window will not take effect until
the window is closed. For example, if you make Twilight II temporarily
inactive, these changes will not take effect until the main window is
closed.
Unfortunately, at times, this logic can be somewhat confusing until
you adjust to it. For instance, if you previously had the Fireworks
module selected and then you open up Twilight II, select Cyclone, and
move to a foreground blank now corner, the screen will blank using
Fireworks, not Cyclone, because the module change does not take effect
until the main window is closed.
List of Installed Modules
The names of all the modules currently installed in the Twilight
folder will appear in this list. Modules currently selected as toggled
on will have a small box to the left of their name. Two modules will
always be present in this list (even when the Twilight module folder
is empty) because they are internally built in; their names are
italicized to denote this. These modules are Background Fader and
Foreground Fader.
Background Fader is special because it always does a background blank
(allowing the program running to continue after the screen has been
set to blank by Twilight II) when the time to blank has elapsed,
instead of blanking in the foreground (where the program running would
be interrupted until the screen is unblanked.) For this reason,
Background Fader is also underlined.
Foreground Fader will also make the screen black, but like all modules
(other than Background Fader) it will interrupt the program running
with Twilight II blanks the screen in a desktop-based program.
Note: Any modules in the list that appear dimmed (gray and not
selectable) all the time are not compatible with your version of
Twilight II. Contact DigiSoft Innovations for information on upgrading
to the latest version of Twilight II.
About Module
Command-? This button gives information on the currently selected
module and displays the current version of Twilight II. About
information is not available in 320 mode programs, the selected module
is internal (i.e. italicized), or the setup window is open. When about
module is not available, the button will be dimmed or will produce a
warning alert when clicked.
Blank Now
Command-B Blank now gives you a preview of the currently selected
module's special effects. Previews are not available of the Background
fader.
Setup
Command-S Clicking on the setup button will open the Twilight II setup
window which allows you to configure how each module operates to suit
your tastes. Not all modules support being set up, but most do. You
can set up each module independently of every other-- so when you
change the setup of one module, the setups of the other modules aren't
lost. In addition, if you boot your Apple IIGS off a multi-user
AppleShare(R) network, each user can have their own, independent set
of Twilight II preferences that don't interfere with anyone else's!
Setup data under normal conditions is saved in a file called
Twilight.Setup in the Twilight module folder. (If you are on an
AppleShare network, it is saved to your user folder on the server.)
Setup is only available in 640-mode desktop programs. When not
available, the setup button will appear dimmed or will produce a
warning alert. If setup is clicked when a module that supports setup
is selected, then Twilight II will directly open the setup screen for
that module. Otherwise, the setup window will be opened up to the
corners screen.
Purge Twilight II
Command-P This button allows you to quickly remove Twilight II from
memory. After selecting this, your computer will behave as if Twilight
II was not installed (as if you held down Control during boot to
prevent Twilight II from loading, or if Twilight II was not installed
in your boot disk's CDevs folder at all).
This option only affects memory-- Twilight II is not deleted from your
disk. To reactivate Twilight II, you can either reboot, select the
Twilight II icon from the Control Panels desk accessory, or
double-click on the Twilight II icon in the Finder.
Random Mode
Modules listed with a box immediately left of their names (use the
Toggle Modules button to turn that on or off) are counted as being
usable for the Random Mode of Twilight II. The Background Fader
module, due to its nature, is not available to be toggled. When it is
time to blank, one of toggled modules will be chosen at random and
used.
Some modules may behave differently or have special options in random
mode. Short Out, for instance, will short the screen to black and then
immediately run another random module. Otherwise, it will short the
screen to black and delay until a key has been pressed.
Modules can be automatically shuffled in random mode after a certain
preset amount of time. For information on this, see the Setup:Advanced
Options window.
Twilight II Active
Command-T This control allows you to temporarily turn off Twilight II.
The screen will not blank once Twilight II is inactivated in this
fashion, but all memory allocated by Twilight II will be kept in use.
Toggling this option is the functional equivalent of pressing
Shift-Clear until the border color flashes. See Miscellaneous
features: Temporary Deactivation for more information on this feature.
Note: the status of this option is not saved to disk. The next time
you turn on or restart your computer, Twilight II will automatically
default to being active again.
_________________________________________________________________
The Setup Window
The setup window, shown below with the options screen, provides a
great deal of flexibility in customizing Twilight II. Three setup
screens are built into Twilight II and will always be available:
Screen Corners, Options, and Advanced Options. Other setup screens
will depend on which modules you have installed. Three controls will
always be available at the top of the setup window:
Setup
The Setup popup control is used to select the module or options to be
configured. After a module is selected from the Setup Control, you can
make changes to the controls created that will affect the operation of
the module.
Save
Command-S After you have made changes to a module's setup screen, you
must click the save button for your changes to be remembered. This
takes a little while getting used to, but allows you the flexibility
of not saving your changes if you ever mess up. Twilight II can remind
you when your new settings have not been saved; see Warning Alerts
later in this document. Save will not be enabled (selectable) until
you have modified a setup screen.
Test
Command-T The test button allows you to instantly see how your setup
changes will affect a module. Upon clicking test, first your changes
are saved, and then a 'Blank Now' of the module being set up is
performed. Test is not enabled when configuring the screen corners,
options or advanced options.
_________________________________________________________________
Screen Corners
The screen corners setup screen, depicted below, allows you to give
each of the four corners of the screen a specific function. There is a
slight delay of a couple seconds before Twilight II will react to the
mouse being placed in a corner. Four functions can be assigned:
Disabled
Twilight II does not behave any differently when the mouse is in the
corner.
Never Blank
Twilight II will never blank the screen when the mouse is in the
corner. The cursor will change into a crossed out Twilight II icon to
visually indicate this.
Foreground Blank Now
Twilight II blank the screen immediately using the currently active
effect (or randomly from among the toggled modules). The program that
was running will be halted and will not resume until it is time to
unblank the screen.
Background Blank Now
Twilight II will immediately fade the screen to black, but the program
that was running is not stopped. So if you go to a background blank
now corner while copying files in the Finder, the screen will fade to
black, but the copy will not stop. With foreground blank now, the copy
would have stopped until the screen is restored.
Options
This setup screen allows you to customize many features of Twilight
II. These features are as follows, with keyboard equivalents where
available listed with the feature name.
Mouse Movement Unblanks Desktop
Command-D When this control is unchecked, the mouse will not be
allowed to restore the screen after the screen has blanked in
desktop-based programs.
Menu Bar Box
Command-M When checked, Twilight II will flash a small black square in
the upper right corner of the top menu bar of desktop-based programs
to alert you that it is active. This square might seem to visually
appear to interfere with some programs that have many menus spanning
across the entire screen, but no permanent damage can ever be caused.
Install T2 NDA
Command-I When checked, Twilight II will always install a shortcut New
Desk Accessory (NDA) item in the Apple menu that will open up Twilight
II directly, bypassing the Control Panels desk accessory. Twilight
II's handy NDA will have keyboard equivalents of Command-Control-T,
Command-~ or Command-`. Each of these equivalents is only available if
it is not already in use by the desktop application currently running
when the key combination is pressed.
Warning Alerts
Command-A With this option enabled, Twilight II will alert you when
any of the following situations occur:
* A setup screen has been modified and the changes have not yet been
made.
* Blank now has been pressed, but the Caps Lock key is down and the
caps lock "lock" option is on.
* Purge Twilight II has been selected.
* Setup or About module has been clicked in a 320-mode desktop
program.
* Setup has been clicked and the currently selected module does not
support setup.
Prohibit Sound
Command-P Many modules have sound effects to accompany their effects.
While these sounds normally can be toggled on and off in each specific
module's setup screen, this option enables you to quickly and easily
prohibit sound use in all modules at once.
Low Memory Mode
Command-L Low memory mode was designed for users with less memory
free. With low memory mode on, Twilight II uses 32K less memory than
normal. The only disadvantages are that some modules might run
slightly slower, and the few modules, such as Impulse 3-D that require
a special feature called shadowing to work right will be slightly more
likely to produce error messages when run.
Beeping Unblanks
Command-B Through this option, Twilight II can be told to unblank when
your computer beeps. If the screen has been background blanked, in
either a desktop-based or text mode-based program, and the application
emits a system beep (which may cause a specific sound effect to be
played if the System 6 Sound control panel is installed), Twilight II
will unblank the screen when this option is on. This option may not
work with every program, but virtually all Apple IIGS-specific
software should be compatible.
Use QuickResponse
Command-U Twilight II incorporates a revolutionary new method to
detect keypresses without interfering with your computer and the way
you use it. However, this technique requires that you must be running
a ROM 01 or ROM 3 Apple IIGS (required anyhow for System 6) and an
Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) keyboard, such as the detached keyboard that
came with your computer. If these requirements are not met, you should
not have this option enabled.
Caps Lock "Lock"
Command-C When checked, the position of the Caps Lock key becomes
important, because it 'locks' the current state of the screen when it
is in the down position. With this option on, if the screen is
unblanked, and the caps lock key is pressed down, the screen will
never blank until Caps Lock is returned to the up position. Similarly,
if the screen is blanked, and the caps lock key is down, the screen
will not unblank until Caps Lock is released.
This is a very versatile feature. One nifty use is to use Caps Lock to
stop the screen from accidentally unblanking. For instance, you might
want to watch the snow fill up your desktop. Use this feature to stop
you from accidentally restoring the screen (and stopping the snow!)
Several game modules may also require you to press Caps Lock down to
be able to interact with them.
Text Screen Blank
Use this option to tell Twilight II which types of text mode-based
programs you want the screen to be background blanked in. The
following options are available: blank all programs that use the text
screen (e.g. Applesoft Basic, AppleWorks Classic, ProTerm, the Orca/M
shell, GNO/ME), or only blank GS/OS text mode-based programs (Orca/M
and GNO/ME from the above list), or never blank text mode-based
programs.
DoubleClick Function
What double-clicking on a module's name (in the list of modules on the
main Twilight II window) will do can be adjusted with this control.
Double-clicks can either be ignored, toggled, set to blank now, close
Twilight II, or setup the selected module. If you're setting up a
module which does not support setup, Twilight II will select the
"Screen Corners" setup screen for you.
Watch Cursor
Twilight II can be set to behave differently when the on-screen cursor
(in desktop programs) is a watch. Twilight II can either never blank
in these cases; or automatically background blank; or be ignored so
that a regular blank occurs (blank normally). This is a very powerful
feature.
With this option set to background blank, you could be in the Finder
and walk away while it's doing nothing, and a normal blank would occur
(using the active effect module.) Then you could instruct the Finder
to copy some files, and walk away, and automatically since the cursor
has turned to a watch, Twilight II will do a background blank so the
copy can continue. (Similar situations happen during many other
operations such as printing with most programs, or shrinking and
unshrinking files with GS Shrinkit.)
As you can probably tell, in most instances you will want to leave
this option set to background blank. But there are a few special
instances when you may want to have Twilight II set to not blank when
a watch cursor is on-screen. Some older Apple printer drivers do not
like the screen being made blank during printing and will print a
constant stream of black after the screen has background blanked
during printing. If you notice this happening you will want to set
this option to never blank.
Minutes Before Blanking
This control allows you to set the default number of minutes of no
activity that Twilight II will let elapsed before automatically
blanking the screen. To change the value, you may either press the
up-arrow or down-arrow on the keyboard or click on the little up and
down-arrow icons.
Setup: Advanced Options
This part of the Setup Window contains extra options added since
Twilight II v1.1.
SHR Corners Active
When this options is enabled (checked), the screen corners as set up
in the Setup:Screen Corners are honored. When unchecked, that is the
equivalent of setting all 4 corners to disabled.
Swap Modules Every XX:YY minutes
This option lets you force a module change after a specified amount of
time in a foreground blank. If there are multiple modules toggled
active, and the current one has been active for the specified time, it
will exit and another random module from those toggled will be run.
Certain modules that do small things like Short Out may exit before
the specified time period, and if a module has put up an error message
(usually due to lack of memory or inability to find files it wants)
will always exit after about 25 seconds.
Use Different Module Path
This option allows you to set the directory where Twilight II looks
for all its modules in. The "(Default)" path is selected by default,
and is *:System:CDevs:Twilight: (* is the boot disk). With the 'Set
It' button, another directory can be specified. All your modules must
reside in the same folder. After changing the module path, you must
reboot for Twilight II to recognize it.
_________________________________________________________________
Info on various Modules
The setup screens of each installed module will vary. Most options are
self-explanatory for the most part, but a few modules require extra
elaboration.
Fish, Globe & Toast
These three modules can take GS graphics files ($C1 uncompressed SHR
screen image or APF) with specially formatted graphics to animate
with. Fish and Toast require pictures with things in the right places
to look correct, while Globe can animate part of the screen if it does
not have a picture. You should look at the 'FishPix', 'GlobePix' and
'ToastPix' directories and files within from the T2 graphics pack for
examples as to how the graphics must be formatted. If you think you
can draw, and want to let others view your creations, please send any
submissions to nathan@visi.com.
MenuWiper Blanker
As noted by this module's "About" box, this blanker requires MenuWiper
2.0 from Softdisk Publishing. If not installed, it will do nothing.
Movie Theater
Movie Theater allows you to display PaintWorks (filetype $C2) type
animation files when it's time to blank. This popular file format can
be viewed and created with programs with programs such as DreamGrafix,
PaintWorks, and Platinum Paint. You should select animations that
modify the contents of the screen enough to prevent burn-in.
PhanTom
PhanTom lets you use all effects from the Phantasm screen saver (part
of Signature GS) with Twilight II. Phantasm effect modules have a
filetype of "GS/OS Shell application" ($B5, or EXE). Included with
Twilight II are a variety of freeware effect modules you can use with
Phantom. (All Phantom effect files installed by the procedure outlined
previously in the section Installing Twilight II are installed in a
folder named Phantom.Effects, in the Twilight module folder.)
The setup screen for Phantom has three controls: demo, configure, and
select effect. Before blanking with Phantom or using demo or
configure, you should select an effect to use by clicking the select
effect button or pressing Command-E. 'Open' the effect you want to
use. be sure you are selecting a valid effect! Then click save to save
to save the selected effect. Most Phantom effects do not support
configure, so if you click it and nothing happens, do not be alarmed.
To preview effects we recommend you use test (or blank now) rather
than demo, because some modules may not demo correctly.
Roller
This module had an annoying beep on entry, plus occasional reports of
crashing some systems. I do not have source to it, and have not had
time to rewrite it. Thus, it is shipped as disabled in this
distribution. If you want to try using it despite the warnings above,
you can manually enable it from the Finder just like you would any DA,
init, or CDev.
SLED (Super LED Message)
While there is no official documentation on this module, the
'SLED.Messages' folder included with the SLED module has a number of
examples of messages. Play around with them in a text editor to learn
what can be done.
YouDrawIt!
The YouDrawIt module allows you to use any Apple IIGS paint program to
design graphics that will be animated when the screen is blanked.
Enclosed with the Twilight II distribution are what we feel represent
the best assortment of animations previously drawn by average users
like yourself! Use them for ideas and examples. (These are part of the
Twilight II graphics distribution, and can be installed where you
want)
There are two types of animation picture files for use with YouDrawIt:
normal animation template files (ATF's), and extended animation
template files (EATF's.) The only difference is that ATF's allow 14
frames of animation and EATF's allow 28. (Because of this, EATFs can
also take up twice as much space on disk). These are standard Apple
Preferred Format (APF) pictures-- make sure you tell your paint
program to save ATFs/EATFs in APF for use with YouDrawIt. We recommend
you use a nomenclature of giving the filenames of ATFs a suffix of
".ATF" and the filenames of EATFs a suffix of ".EATF" to prevent
confusion.
To set the animation that will be used when it is time for YouDrawIt
to blank the screen, click the 'set animation path' button on the
YouDrawIt setup screen, or press Command-A. Then 'open' the animation
file that you want to use. ATF/EATF file can be located on any disk,
with one restriction: they must be on a disk present when YouDrawIt
blanks the screen. If YouDrawIt can't find the currently selected
ATF/EATF, you will get an error. This won't hurt anything, but an
error message is a lot less interesting to watch!
Creating your own animations for use with YouDrawIt is a fun and
enjoyable experience. Blank versions of these picture templates are
included with Twilight II. They have filenames of Blank.ATF and
Blank.EATF. To create your own animation, do the following:
1. Load up either of these blank templates into your favorite paint
program that supports APF files.
2. Draw each frame in the boxes provided.
3. Fill in the box (using the paint bucket tool or the like) next to
the number of frames in your file. You may fill it with any color
other than the color that was there to begin with.
You can now select the picture file from YouDrawIt. When the screen is
blanked, your animation will be run.
_________________________________________________________________
Other Information
This section contains miscellaneous features, tips and hints not found
elsewhere in this manual.
Temporary Deactivation
To temporarily deactivate Twilight II at any time after loading, press
and hold down Shift and Clear (on the numeric keypad) until the border
color flashes. Twilight II's overhead will then be minimized and the
screen will not blank, but no memory will be freed. (To free memory
after loading, you must purge Twilight II.) If you press Shift-Clear
you can toggle Twilight II back on. The border will flash a different
color to inform you that Twilight II is being reactivated. The colors
the border will flash will depend on what color your border normally
is.
The status of this operation is also reflected by the Twilight II
active control on the main window and is not saved to disk.
Restoring Default Settings
If for some reason you should ever want to restore Twilight II to its
default settings, simply delete the Twilight.Setup and Twilight.Data
files located in the same folder as the Twilight Control panel.
Control-Booting
You can force Twilight II not to install itself by holding down
Control while the computer is being started. To denote this, a red 'X'
being drawn over the Twilight II bootup icon. This feature will only
work when you have Twilight II installed in the CDevs folder of your
startup disk. For control-booting to work, Control must be the only
key held down during startup, and you must hold it down before
Twilight II loads.
Modules With Sound Effects
Due to the architecture of the GS, it is not always possible for some
modules (e.g. Fireworks) to always play their digitized sound effects.
Whether the sounds play or not depends on what program you are
currently running, in the same way that system sounds configured with
the Sound control panel do not play all the time.
Disabled Modules
Any Twilight II module can be made inactive with a utility such as the
Finder. After a module has been made inactive, it will not appear in
the main window's module list in any way. The icons of disabled
Twilight II modules have a red 'X' drawn over them so they are easily
distinguishable from the Finder.
As the speed of opening up the Twilight II window has been greatly
sped up since v1.1, this feature may not be as useful anymore.
Random Mode Special Behavior
Some modules have special features or behave differently in random
mode. Modules such as Headlines, Mountains, String Art and Plasma have
options to quit to the next module after one headline, mountain,
string art or plasma screen has been generated (when more than one
module is toggled only). Short Out and Color by Color will
automatically quit to the next module when run with more than one
module toggled. Meltdown will quit to the next module after a few
minutes in random mode instead of flipping the screen upside down. You
can combine these options for some really neat effects! Here are some
ideas you can try; these are just a few examples-- the possibilities
are endless!
* Select Short Out with any other module. If Short Out comes up
first, it will short the screen out and then run the next module.
For example, select Short Out with String Art. After one string
art has been completed, the screen will short out and another
string art will be created.
* Select Mountains with the Color by Color module. After one
mountain screen has been generated, the screen will fade out,
color by color. After all the colors have faded out, another
mountain scene will be rendered!
* Select Plasma and Worms. If Twilight II runs Plasma first, one
plasma screen will be drawn, and then Worms will draw over the
plasma.
Delayed Blanking during Printing
When the screen blanks during printing, you may experience a several
second delay before the screen is blanked, and before it is restored.
_________________________________________________________________
Appendix 1: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
I'm in a GS/OS desktop-based program by the screen won't blank while the
program is busy. Why not?
Twilight II does everything possible to blank the screen in as many
programs as possible. However, due to the design of certain programs
and the architecture of the Apple IIGS, Twilight II is unable to blank
or animate the screen in all programs all the time.
A general rule of thumb, true most of the time, is if you are able to
in some way interact with the program you are running, the screen will
be able to blank. For instance, the screen can be blanked during
printing because you can always cancel the printing with
Command-Period; the screen is able to be blanked during copying files
with the Finder because you can click the cancel button to stop the
copy; the screen can be blanked in the middle of programs such as
AppleWorks GS and GraphicWriter III because you can select something
from a menu or type a key that the program will recognize. Whenever
the desktop program running will recognize your input, Twilight II
will usually be able to blank the screen. (Note that in text
mode-based programs, the screen is always able to be blanked at
virtually any time.)
Programmers are encouraged to follow a few simple guidelines to allow
the fullest compatibility with Twilight II, so the desktop screen can
always be blanked. See Writing Twilight II Savvy Programs in Appendix
II for more information.
No matter what I do, Twilight II will never blank on its own; I must
always move to a blank now corner. What is going wrong?
After installing Twilight II, my computer sometimes crashes or hangs for
no reason. Why?
Several different things could be happening. For some reason, the
Twilight.Setup could have gotten corrupted. This might have happened
for a number of reasons, such as if you turned off the computer or hit
Command-Control-Reset to reboot while the Twilight II main window was
open -- be sure to always close Twilight II first! In this case, you
should try deleting Twilight.Setup (which is created in the same
folder as the Twilight II Control Panel, or your user folder if you
are on an AppleShare network) and rebooting. (Note that all your saved
setup will be lost and must be reset to your preferences)
Another possibility could be that there is a conflict between Twilight
II and one of your installed inits, desk accessories (DAs), or control
panels. We have tried to minimize and correct all such
incompatibilities as possible, but nonetheless some may still exist.
To see if there is such a conflict, try starting your computer with
Apple's self-booting System.Disk that is a part of System 6. This disk
will only have Apple's programs installed. When the Finder comes up,
locate the Twilight.II control panel icon and double-click to install
it. If the screen will now blank on its own and no problems occur,
then you definitely have a conflict between Twilight II and an init,
DA, or control panel. The next step is to locate which file is
conflicting; to determine this, try deactivating each of your inits,
DAs, and control panels and then rebooting. Eventually, you will find
the one conflicting with Twilight II.
If you suspect that Twilight II is conflicting with a specific program
or init, you can control-boot (by holding down control at startup) to
stop Twilight II from installing into memory, to see if your
suspicions are correct. If you notice Twilight II inhibiting any other
programs from working properly, be sure to report this to us so we can
work at fixing the problems or creating workarounds.
Please report any problems noted to Nathan Mates via email to
nathan@visi.com . Any reports given elsewhere may be ignored or worse.
Please learn to follow simple directions by the authors.
How come after Twilight II background blanks during printing, my printout
turns all black?
Some older, somewhat poorly written GS/OS printer driver make certain
assumptions about the state of the computer during printing. If you
are using one of these drivers, you have several options:
* change the WatchCursor feature (in Setup:Options) to don't blank.
* always move the mouse to a never blank corner before printing
* turn on caps lock "Lock" (in Setup:Options) and press Caps Lock
before printing
* deactivate or purge Twilight II before printing and reactivate or
reinstall after the printing is done.
* update your printer driver; all drivers from Independence and
Harmonie will work fine. Apple kinda forgot to update their
drivers for System 6.0.1, so a GUPP patch by Nathan Mates might be
the solution - last GUPP release to public was v1.07.
What does "Unknown error $0120" mean?
The Control Panels window occasionally gives this error if there is a
severe RAM shortage. Try freeing up some memory.
When the Twilight II icon appears during startup, the computer beeps and
then the icon is crossed out. What is happening?
Twilight II has encountered a serious error while starting up. Because
the error occurred during boot, Twilight II has no way to tell you
what happened, so installation and activation are skipped. If you
would like a more descriptive error message, double-click the
Twilight.II icon from the Finder or use the graphical Control Panels
window. Twilight II can often be restored to working order by deleting
the Twilight.Setup file in the same folder as the control panel. This
will fix many situations, but is not a cure-all. Also make sure the
disk Twilight II is on is not write protected.
When I run my telecommunication program with Twilight II installed, some
of my incoming characters are lost. Why does this happen and how can I
fix it?
Twilight II 1.0 and 1.1 were not as well behaved in this regards than
the current version of Twilight II. If you are using Spectrum 2.x,
then use the Twilight II XCMD included with it (or the updated XCMD
distributed as part of this package) to turn Twilight II off either
whenever Spectrum is online, or when it is running. After installing
the new XCMD included in this Twilight II distribution, the options
will be available from the Xtras/Options (or Xtras/File Transfer
Options) menu. If you choose not to install the new XCMD, you can open
an Editor Window (command-E), type this as the first line in the file:
"external TwilightII" (no "s), and hit command-- (command plus the
minus key just left of the zero key). It is recommended that you
choose to 'Inactivate Twilight II while using Spectrum' for best
performance..
Ansiterm is handled automatically, and no problems have been reported.
With ProTerm, you should use the Shift-clear to manually fix things,
or Setup:Options to set Twilight II only blank in GS/OS text mode or
never blank text mode at all.
The technical cause of this problem is that your system is getting
bogged down with too many interrupts. You have too many inits, desk
accessories, control panels, etc installed and they're all competing
for the same limited resources. This problem is most likely to occur
on slower systems with fast modems and lots of inits, etc. installed.
Your choices are several:
* Try deactivating or deleting some of your least used inits, desk
accessories, and control panels. It is hard to tell which of them
are most likely to combine with Twilight II to slow down your term
program, so you might have to use trial and error.
* Temporarily deactivate Twilight II by unchecking the Twilight II
active checkbox on the main window (or pressing Shift-Clear)
before running your term program.
* Purge Twilight II (or hold down Control during startup so Twilight
II will not install) before running the term program.
* If your term program runs under ProDOS 8, you can probably press
Control-Reset directly after launching the program. Twilight II
will now be inactive until you quit back to GS/OS.
Twilight II's WatchCursor option does not work in one of my programs.
What is wrong?
This option (having Twilight II automatically background blank or
never blank when the cursor on-screen is a watch) only works with
programs that use the standard method of displaying a watch.
Fortunately, the majority of all programs work just fine. However,
there are a few programs that insists on displaying a watch in a
nonstandard way (e.g. GraphicWriter II, HyperCard IIGS).
Unfortunately, there is no way for you to make these programs work
with Twilight II's WatchCursor option. If this disturbs you, we
encourage you to contact the publishers of programs such as these and
tell them you'd like to seem them fixed.
What does Error $0201 mean?
In general, this is an out of memory error. If this happens when
launching a ProDOS 8 application, this tends to mean that some program
as forgotten to release memory allocated in the first 128K of ram,
which is required for ProDOS 8 stuff. Some reports have come up that
0201s may occur on their system after using Setup a lot from within
UtilityLaunch, but this has been unable to be replicated well enough
to find and fix any possible bug in either Twilight II or UL.
Cool Cursor Control Panel (CCCP) is forcing background blanks or causing
problems
Various versions of CCCP could do various things with Twilight II; it
has been reported that the cccp from GS+ Magazine V5N3 forces a
background blank of Twilight II during printing, even if the Twilight
II setup has the wait cursor set to "Don't Blank". Twilight II honors
requests from other programs over the setup, sorry.
Some modules aren't using TrueType Fonts
[Note: the commercial software _Pointless_ by WestCode software is
required for a GS to use Truetype fonts at all; see Joe Kohn's
Shareware Solutions II at http://www.crl.com/~joko/ for pricing and
availability.]
Certain modules like Fading Clock and Headlines allow you to specify
what font you wish to have things displayed with. It has been noticed
that if a TrueType-only font and size (i.e. no bitmap exists for that
size) is selected, it will occasionally be drawn as an ugly scaled up
'Shaston' (GS default font) versus the expected TT font. After a few
requests for the font, Pointless may give the module a nice font as
expected.
This appears to be a bug in Pointless, and has not been investigated
further as it is only the occasional graphical quirk. Select a font
and size for which you have a bitmap if you don't want to be bothered
by this. Pointless can render off a font in the style and size you
want if desired-- see its control panel menu.
_________________________________________________________________
Thanks To...
* Joe Wankerl (KFest '92 Debugging sessions, feedback, testing)
* Jim Murphy (DataField, help, phone calls, testing)
* Derek Young (support, writing some cool modules, KFest, great help
at the October Expo!, etc)
* Matt Keller (some great art, icons, support, etc.)
* James C. Smith (more awesome modules, installer scripts, much
more)
* Michael Lutynski (testing, support, awesome T2 $C2 made with
Animasia 3-D!)
* Matt Deatherage & Dave Lyons (answering many questions and/or
putting T2 thru its paces!)
* Eric Shepherd ("Quotes" module, ideas, testing)
* Greg Templeman (lots of bug feedback, ideas, "product champion!")
* Marc & Tammy Wolfgram & Collings (more ideas, support, booth
sharing at AEE & AEW, great printing and fonts help)
* John Pothier (most conscientious! testing)
* Nathan Mates (some cool modules!, v1.99/2.0 fixes, 2.0 manual
update)
* Seth Ober, Mark Ranes, Andy Poly, Chuck Newby (beta test)
* Bryan "Zak" (HIG advice too) & Joe Schober (AO Support too)
* Steve "Diz" Disbrow (GS+ support)
* Jim Mensch (core of "Tiler")
* Dan Zimmerman (System 6 support, testing)
* Dan Wellman (support, feedback, KFest '92, etc)
* Andy Wells (more ideas, testing)
* Dino Bagdadi (ideas, testing)
* Scott Gentry & Marty Knight (AO support, at one time or another)
* Don Zahniser, Aaron Pulver, Eric Shepherd, Dan Krass, Nick
Heywood, Ryan Suenaga, Geoff Weiss, Mike Searl, Mitch Spector,
Brian Uhreen, Tim Kellers, Tony Ward, Jeff Robertson, Tony Diaz T2
v1.99 beta testing. [Probably left out someone from that list.
Sorry!]
* you our customers
* And anyone accidentally forgotten who helped in this massive
undertaking!
_________________________________________________________________
Credits...
* Twilight II Control Panel: Jim R. Maricondo
* Twilight II Manual: Jim R. Maricondo
* Color by Color, Cyclone, Drip Drop, Fading Clock, Fireworks,
Headlines, Inverter, Life, Mountains, Plasma, Scanner, Scroll,
Short Out, Snow, String Art, TunnelVision II, Twilight: James C.
Smith
* Impulse 3-D, Meltdown, Moire, Spirographics, Strobe, Universe,
YouDrawIt!: Jim R. Maricondo
* Movie Theater, Phantom: Jim R. Maricondo and Derek Young
* Puzzling, Worms: Jim R. Maricondo and Jonah Stich
* Dissolve, Kaleidoscope, Static: Derek Young
* Tiler: Jim R. Maricondo and Jim Mensch
* Quotes: Eric Shepherd
* Clocks, Fish, Flames, Globe, LED Message, Minehunt, MiniFireworks,
Modern Art, MultiTris, Perspective, Power Grid!, Sharks and Fish,
Snowflakes, Spirals, Swirls, Toast, Tunnel Game, Voting: Nathan
Mates
* Installer Scripts: James C. Smith
* DataField Control DefProc: Jim Murphy III
* Sound Patcher: Jim R. Maricondo
* Version 1.99/2.x Control Panel Update: Jim R. Maricondo
* Version 1.99/2.x Control Panel tweaks, bugfixes & manual update:
Nathan Mates
* Updated Spectrum Twilight II XCMD: Ewen Wannop.
Some modules contain material from the Orca/C Run-Time Libraries,
Copyright (c) 1987-1989 Byte Works, Inc. Used with permission. This
document was originally written, edited and composed using Apple IIGS
and Macintosh computers, using a variety of commercial and custom
programs. Final editing and page layout for v1.1 manual were done
using Aldus PageMaker 4.2. Version 1.99/2.x manual converted to html
and text by Nathan Mates.
_________________________________________________________________
About DigiSoft Innovations
Quality Software Without Copy Protection
DYA, which originally stood for "Digital Youth Alliance," was founded
in January 1990 to join the efforts of several people to create
quality programs for the Apple IIGS. Presently, DYA has faded to two
members busily trying to complete their educations.
DigiSoft Innovations is a small business formed in January 1992 by
DYA, to handle marketing, distribution, and promotion of new DYA
products, the first of which is Twilight II. We are a small group of
die hard Apple II hacker-enthusiasts who love expanding the known
'limits' of the Apple IIGS in the fields of animation, sound,
education, entertainment and productivity. We strive to create high
quality products at modest prices. But, producing quality programs
requires much time, and if we cannot make enough money to make it
worthwhile enough to continue pouring so much time and effort into the
Apple IIGS.
Twilight II Distribution Policies
Currently, Twilight II is in beta format, and I do not want this
distinction to be lost from it.
Other user groups, etc, please contact me first for permissions.
General policies will be: (1) distribute the latest version of
everything without modification, (2) no more than $5/disk (US Dollars)
and no more than 4 disks total.
Twilight II is officially copyrighted freeware. The core CDev and many
modules are by Jim Maricondo (some tweaks by Nathan Mates), plus
additional modules copyrighted to their authors as listed above in the
credits section. It is NOT to be sold. Yes, this is a big change from
Twilight II v1.0 and 1.1, but the bottom has unfortunately fallen out
of the GS market, due to people's unwillingness to buy things to
support the Apple II.
To help support the Apple II, please send encouraging notes to Apple II
software authors, and respect all author's copyright and monetary
policies. If the author asks for a shareware fee, then PAY UP already.
It appears than many are not wanting to spend money on their GSs,
which is sadly unfortunate. Nobody wanted to buy the next to last
ZipGS accelerator from Alltech for almost a year, but when it was gone
and no accelerators were available, suddenly the waiting list was
almost into the triple digits deep.
A special message to all Apple II computer model users
If you want things for your computer, you should get them before
everything is totally gone. Don't miss out on an offering by waiting
until the next day to get it. If you do, it might be gone. Producing
new things is about 1% inspiration and 99% presspiration. Those doing
new and inovative things for the Apple II computer models are usually
doing it as a labor of love for the computer and for the computer users.
With the new programmers and new inovative concepts the best is yet to
come.
Charadriidae - The Piper