3DFILES.COM Screensaver Contest. 3\10\99

-Screensaver Name:
	Galaxy

-Installation:
	Simply copy the Galaxy.scr file to your windows\system directory.

-Screensaver API:
	This screen saver was built with Visual C++ using the OpenGL API.  The development machine was a PII 266 with 64-MB ram and a Nvidia TNT video card.  This screen saver requires that your OpenGL driver supports point sizes up to 25 units.  Also your OpenGL driver must support rendering in a window, hence Voodoo1 and 2 are not supported.

-Screensaver Description:
	Galaxy is a fully functioning screen saver that supports passwords and displays at your current desktop resolution and color depth.  This screen saver uses points, some basic physics and random numbers to simulate the structure and motion of a Galaxy.  The Galaxy can be viewed from any angle by using the camera controls:
	Numpad 4 and 6 - spin left and right
	Numpad 8 and 2 - tilt up and down
	Numpad 7 and 9 - twist the Galaxy
	Numpad + and Enter - Zoom in and out
	Numpad . - Return to the original view
	Numpad 0 - generate a new galaxy

	I always liked the way the galaxies looked in movies like 'Star Treck', 'Sphere' and 'Contact' so in this project I set out to duplicate the effect.  I believe that a professional solution would use textured stars and multi colored volumetric fog.  That is something that is beyond my experience at this time however.  Galaxy uses large alpha blended points to simulate nebulas.  To my dismay I found that OpenGL does not perform perspective correction on points so fog is used to provide depth queuing.  I used the OpenGL transformation pipeline quite a bit so this app will be very CPU hungry.  There are 2000 stars in each galaxy, each star requiring a call to glRotate.  I found that 2000 stars was the sweet spot on a PII 266, a pretty average machine now.
	32-bit color is a definite help to this application.  Just view the galaxy from the side in 16-bit mode and you can see all kinds of alpha blending artifacts.



-List Of Known Bugs:
1.) Screen Flickering under the Nvidia TNT Detonator driver when Buffer Flipping is enabled.  I have no clue why this happens; perhaps it has something to do with GL_EXT_SwapInterval?
2.) No configuration dialog.  I really wanted to include one but time and my limited experience did not permit.
3.) The preview of the saver looks very odd because of the small window size.
4.) Bata testing was very limited, just one machine and video card, so I won't be surprised if some bugs do crop up.


-About the Author
	Name:
	Gareth Farrington
	Authors Web Site or Email:
	racer_x@candw.ky
	As we say in Cayman, Web Site "Soon Come".  I hope that I can start one in September when I go to college.  My ISP is the only game in town (Cable and Wireless Cayman) and they charge me $2.00 per hour for Net access so please no frivolous emails.
	I am an amateur programmer and have been using C++ and OpenGL for about a year now.  I find it challenging and fun and I encourage others to give it a try.  Contests like this are a great experience and I congratulate 3DFILES for supporting the programming community.

-COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER:

This screensaver was created for the 3DFILES.COM screensaver contest.
The author has agreed to allow this and future versions to appear on
3DFILES.COM shareware CDROMS distributed by Walnut Creek.

THIS PROGRAM IS FREEWARE AND MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREELY SO LONG AS THIS README FILE IS INCLUDED UNALTERED.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, 
WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF 
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE WHICH 
ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT WILL GARETH FARRINGTON BE 
LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES 
RESULTING FROM POSSESSION, USE, OR MALFUNCTION OF THIS 
SOFTWARE PRODUCT.
