				+-----------------------------+
				| W I N A M P   G O E S   3 D |
				+-----------------------------+ v1.0
			"Your favorite plug-in for your favorite skin!"

				  Done by Zsolt Nagy, 1998-99.


First of all I would like to thank you for downloading this plug-in. I hope you will enjoy it as
much as I enjoyed making it. Please read everything carefully in this text. It contains some useful
information on how to configure and get the plug-in to work correctly.

--------------------
-=* Introduction *=-
--------------------
Winamp Goes 3D is an OpenGL based visual plug-in for Winamp, the most popular media playback for
Win32 platforms. It requires that your graphics card supports OpenGL hardware acceleration. It also
requires that "opengl32.dll" and "glu32.dll" are present in your windows system catalog.

------------------
-=* Disclaimer *=-
------------------
THIS SOFTWARE IS FREEWARE. IT IS FREELY DISTRIBUTABLE PROVIDED THAT IT IS SUPPLIED IN AN
UNMODIFIED FORM. THIS SOFTWARE COMES WITH NO WARRANTY. IT MAY NOT BE SOLD OR IN ANYWAY
PROFITED FROM IT WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR.

!!!EPILEPSY WARNING!!! THIS SOFTWARE CAN GENERATE FLASHING PATTERNS WHICH CAN BE DANGEROUS TO
SOME PEOPLE. THE AUTHOR TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DAMAGES CAUSED BY THIS SOFTWARE. IF YOU
DO NOT AGREE WITH THE ABOVE YOU MUST IMMEDIATELY REMOVE THE SOFTWARE WITH ALL OF ITS COMPONENTS.

However if you find this plug-in interesting and want to support the further development of
it, please send your appropriate donation either as a check, international money order or
concealed cash. Small or large, all donations are welcome. Thank you in advance.

To make sure that you have an unaltered version of the plug-in, download it from the official homepage:

	http://www.student.tdb.uu.se/~m92zna/wg3d

--------------------
-=* Requirements *=-
--------------------
This plug-in requires:

	* A PC with Win32 based operating system like Windows 95/98/NT.
	* Winamp MP3 player (any version should work.)
	* Graphics card supporting OpenGL with "opengl32.dll" and "glu32.dll" present in your windows
	  system catalog.

--------------------
-=* Installation *=-
--------------------
If you downloaded the plug-in as a ZIP file, then simply unzip it into your Winamp Plugins
catalog. Afterwards make sure that your Plugins catalog contains the following files:

	vis_wg3d.dll

	vis_wg3d/Pulsar01.bmp
	vis_wg3d/Pulsar02.bmp
	vis_wg3d/Pulsar03.bmp
	vis_wg3d/Pulsar04.bmp
	vis_wg3d/Pulsar05.bmp
	vis_wg3d/Pulsar06.bmp
	vis_wg3d/Pulsar07.bmp
	vis_wg3d/Pulsar08.bmp
	vis_wg3d/Pulsar09.bmp
	vis_wg3d/Pulsar10.bmp
	vis_wg3d/Skin.bmp
	vis_wg3d/readme.txt

Note! It is essential for the plug-in to work correctly, that the files

	Pulsar01.bmp - Pulsar10.bmp, Skin.bmp

are contained in a subcatalog (of the Plugins catalog) named "vis_wg3d".

---------------------
-=* Configuration *=-
---------------------
In this section I would like to explain a couple of things regarding the configuration of the
plug-in. But before I do that, make sure that you use 16-bit color mode for your desktop.
This because many graphics cards are optimized for 16-bit but less optimized for 32-bit. Now
the configuration of the plug-in is done by starting it, then right clicking on its display.

 * The first thing that needs to be explained is "Winamp 3D->Static" vs. "Winamp 3D->Dynamic"
menuitems. If you choose "Static", the plug-in captures the Winamp window and use it from there
on. On the other hand, if you choose "Dynamic" then the plug-in takes new snapshots as soon as
possible. If you don't see any difference in speed between static and dynamic, then use dynamic.
However if you want to improve the speed, you should choose static. It is not as nice as dynamic,
but hey it's something. Oh! Before I forget, if you put anything (the cursor not included) in front
of the main Winamp window, it will show off in the plug-in. This is due to the API function
StretchBlt(), which is used to get the contents of the Winamp window. It means that in fullscreen,
the best you can have is static 3D Winamp, where capturing occurs before going to fullscreen.
However this also produces some interesting effects, like watching

	Winamp in Winamp in Winamp ... ad infinitum

This is done by activating dynamic 3D Winamp, deactivating the others. Also deactivate "Stroboscope",
"Rotate->Winamp Logo/3D" and "Winamp Logo/3D Beat". Then finally dock the plug-in into Winamp by
"Dock Into Winamp". There are other effects of this kind! Can you find them?

 * The second thing is the "Color Mapping->RGB", "...->RBG", "...->GRB", "...->GBR", "...->BRG"
and "...->BGR" menuitems. These can be chosen only if any of "Winamp 3D->Static" or
"Winamp 3D->Dynamic" is active. For those unfamiliar with basic color theory, it can be
mentioned that the letters RGB stand for Red, Green and Blue. These are the color components
of a pixel on the screen. Now by choosing let's say "Color Mapping->BGR", the plug-in maps
RGB to BGR. That is the Red values of the main Winamp window will be the Blue values of the
reproduced 3D Winamp in the plug-in. In a similar fashion, Green goes to Green and Blue goes
to Red.

	R -> B
	G -> G
	B -> R

If you want the exact color representation of the Winamp window, you must choose
"Color Mapping->RGB" which is the default. That is R -> R, G -> G and B -> B.

 * The third thing that needs to be explained is the "Resize Window->1x1", "...->1x2", "...->1x3",
"...->2x1", "...->2x2", "...->2x3", "...->3x1", "...->3x2" and "...->3x3" menuitems. It came to my
mind that most of the time I (and hopefully you to) do not want to resize a plug-in window to an
arbitrary size, but to a multiple of the Winamp window. Therefore I decided to implement the
following method. Suppose your main Winamp window has size (width)x(height) and you have chosen
"Resize Window->2x3". This will resize the plug-in window to (2*width)x(3*height), that is the
new width will be 2 times the width of the Winamp window and the height 3 times the height of the
Winamp window.

Finally observe that you can move the plug-in window by left clicking on it and while holding down
the left mousebutton drag it into new position. I also included docking to and into Winamp.

BTW, my favorite configuration is to activate the pulsars and the oscilloscope, deactivate the
others. Also activate stroboscope and fullscreen.

--------------
-=* Future *=-
--------------
The further development of the plug-in depends mainly on two things. Financial support and free
time. My plans for the future are to speed up the dynamic 3D Winamp. Moreover I would like to
include a user interface for controlling the player from 3D Winamp.

At the moment the size of the texture used for 3D Winamp is 256x128. I would like to reduce it
to at least 128x128 or maybe even to 128x64. The problem is the StretchBlt() API function.
Since it does not use anti-aliasing, there would be just to much loss of data. The modes for
StretchBlt() are just CRAP. What's the point with the HALFTONE mode anyway, it's just useless?
Or maybe I'm missing something.

------------
-=* Bugs *=-
------------
I was working hard on removing all the bugs. At the moment of writing there are no known bugs.
If you found one, please mail it to me. Tell me also your system configuration, CPU type,
graphics card, operating system and anything else you find important for bughunting.

I have however discovered one thing regarding hardware acceleration. I don't know if it is some
bug in Winamp, but sure it isn't a bug in Winamp Goes 3D.

The problem is that when you start an OpenGL based plug-in, sometimes the hardware acceleration
fails to kick in. This is NOT due to Winamp Goes 3D since this happens to other OpenGL based
plugins too. I have discovered a solution to this. Try running the plug-in first and then the
music, not vice versa. You can also try to restart Winamp. This strange behavior is not due to
the graphics card driver/BIOS nor type of graphics card. Do you get the same behavior sometimes?

---------------
-=* Contact *=-
---------------
You can contact me by E-mail:

	m92zna@student.tdb.uu.se

Please state your subject like "Winamp Goes 3D Bug Report" or something similar regarding the
plug-in. Otherwise the mail might disappear among all the junk mails I usually get.

For donations you can contact me by regular mail:

	Zsolt Nagy
	Stenuddsvgen 4
	632 39 Eskilstuna
	Sweden

For all of you thinking ... this is not a Swedish name? You are right it is Hungarian.

Please visit the Winamp Goes 3D official homepage:

	http://www.student.tdb.uu.se/~m92zna/wg3d

*=----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------=*
										Zsolt Nagy
										Uppsala, Sweden
										17 March 1999
