                                     3Star

                                A 3D Starmapper
					
				     V1.1

                          Copyright 1997 Nicholas Law

                                     Manual 


Table of contents:

1.0 Overview
        1.1 Distribution / Copyright / Legal

2.0 Running 3Star
        2.1 System requirements
        2.2 Installing
        2.3 Files
        2.4 Command line switches

3.0 Using 3Star
        3.1 Basic operations (rotating)
        3.2 Icon operations
                3.21 Display options (zooming, # of stars displayed, line
                range, labels)
                3.22 Individual star operations
                3.23 Saving settings & screens

4.0 Miscellaneous Information
        4.1 Performance Issues
        4.2 Known bugs
        4.3 Contacting the author






















1.0 Overview

3Star allows the user to interactively rotate over 300 stars in real time 3D

                              Features include:

 Every star accurately placed to the limit of the Gliese 3.0 catalogue
 Draw lines between stars of a specified distance
 Display only stars under a certain magnitude
 Complete icon driven interface - no keyboard input except to quit!
 Save settings & any screen
 Every star can be labelled on screen
 Center the screen on any star
 Zoom out to 100 light years from the sun, zoom in to 0.5 light years
 View detailed information on any displayed star
 SVGA 256 colour graphics

        1.1 Distribution / Copyright / Legal

        3Star is a freeware program and is freely distributable. That said,
        if you found this program useful and/or enjoyed using it, please
        tell me at 3star@dial.pipex.com 

        This manual, all included files, and the 3Star program are all
        Copyright (c) 1997 Nicholas Law

        This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
        but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
        MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
        
	All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

        CWSDPMI is Copyright (C) 1995,1996  Charles W Sandmann (sandmann@clio.rice.edu)
                                            1206 Braelinn, Sugar Land, TX 77479
        Updates for CWSDPMI are available from www.delorie.com


2.0 Running 3Star

Type 3STAR in the directory in which you put the files.
3Star needs some kind of DPMI host so it should be run in a Windows DOS box.


To quit, press <ESC>

        2.1 System Requirements

        3Star should run well on this class of system:

         Pentium 75 or better
         4mb Memory.
         SVGA Graphics card - 640x480 in 256 colours. Vesa 2.0 required
         Mouse

        2.2 Installing

        Just place everything in the zip file into the same directory and
        3Star should find everything.

        2.3 Files

        The following files should be in the zip file:

         3STAR.EXE.................The executable file
         3STAR.DAT.................Data file for all the graphics
         STARS.DAT.................Star positional data
         3STAR.TXT.................This manual

        2.4 Command line switches

        To run 3Star, type 3STAR in the director where you placed it (wow!).
	
        The only command line switch is /RESET
        This deletes any previously saved settings and should return your
        copy to just-installed condition.

3.0 Using 3Star

My advice is simply to experiment. The manual is here if you cannot work out
how to do something, but you cannot break anything by trying it out.

        3.1 Basic Operations

        Rotating the stars:

        To rotate around the displayed stars, hold down the right mouse
        button and move the mouse in the direction you want to go around the
        stars.

        3.2 Icon Operations

        This is an ASCII approximation (very approximate!) of the icon layout
        in 3Star:

   Ŀ
                                                                     
         1            2            3            4            5       
                                                                     
                                                                     
   Ĵ
                                                                     
         6            7            8            9            10      
                                                                     
                                                                     
   

        3.21 Display options

        Icons 1 & 2: These control zooming. To use hold the left mouse button
        down on the icon. The big 'plus' (#1) zooms in, the minus (#2) zooms
        out. If the zooming seems a little slow at first, do not fret - it
        will accelerate!

        Icons 3 & 4: These icons control the upper magnitude limit of the
        displayed stars. This has the effect of altering the number of stars
        the program displays. 3Star is initially set to display a relatively
        small number of stars - to increase the magnitude limit click and
        hold the left mouse button on the icon with many stars (#3). To
        decrease the limiting magnitude do the same with the icon with few
        stars (#4).

        Icons 6 & 7: These control the range of the lines drawn. Initially
        no lines are displayed (a range of 0). To increase the line range
        hold the left mouse button on the icon with lots of lines (#6). Lines
        will be drawn from the central star to all stars which are in view and
        in range of the lines. The range is shown in the bottom left hand
        corner of the screen. To reduce the line range, click and hold on
        the icon with fewer lines (#7).

        Icon 9: This controls the labels displayed on screen. If labels are
        shown (default) all stars within 30 light years of the camera are
        labelled. Click the icon once with the left mouse button to remove
        labels, click again to show labels.

        3.22 Individual Star Operations

        To center the screen on another star, click icon #8 once then click
        on the star you want to center. If you click on the icon and change
        your mind, simply click on the icon again to cancel.

        To view detailed information on a star, click on it with the left
        mouse button.

        3.23 Saving settings and screens

        If you want to quit the program but want it to return to exactly its
        present state the next time it is run, click icon #5. If the save is
        successful "settings saved" will appear below the icons.

        If you want to remove the settings you saved, either save new ones
        over the previous settings or run 3Star with the /RESET option to
        return all options to just-installed status.

        To save a screen, click icon #10. The screen (without the icons) will
        be saved in the current directory in the next available file name of
        the form SCREENXXX.PCX. The filename is displayed after saving is
        complete.

4.0 Miscellaneous Information
        4.1 Performance Issues

	N.B. V1.1 is a significant upgrade on V1.0, with a speed increase of
	over 100% on almost all systems.

        I have only tested 3Star on Pentium class computers on which it
        runs at a reasonable speed with all stars displayed. Other CPUs may
        run significantly faster or slower. These are the main strategies
        for speeding up 3Star:

         Reduce the number of stars by adjusting the upper magnitude limit
	  downwards.
          This should give the greatest (and easiest) speed improvement.

         Do not display labels. Having to draw an extra string for each star
          really slows the program down!

        4.2 Known bugs

        The only currently known bug is that some stars may appear black due
        the occasionally odd way the Gliese 3.0 star catalogue gives spectral
        data. If you notice this, please send me the star name!

        4.3 Contacting the author

        E-mail me at: 3star@dial.pipex.com
        WWW Page: http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/road/xpa18/index.shtml
