--- ASW 1.0a Release Notes ---

Welcome to Authorware Star for Windows!

These notes contain up-to-date information on
several topics. In some cases, these topics are covered
in the printed documentation, but in other cases
the information is too recent or too specific. Take a
moment to become familiar with the contents listed
below:

- Support for Multimedia Extensions 1.0
- ASW uses the APW.INI file
- Audio support
- Graphics Support
- Video overlay support
- Tips for enhancing performance
- Tips for cross-platform development


Support for Microsoft's Multimedia Extensions 1.0
----------------------------------------
Included on your Utilities diskette is a User Code library
file called ASWMME.UCD. This DLL contains a collection of
functions for addressing specialized areas:

- MIDI playback
- External audio playback from disk
- CD-audio playback and control
- Animation player

Information on the functions in ASWMME.UCD is provided
in both Chapter 6 and Appendix D of the Authorware Star 
Reference Manual.

Please note: YOU MUST HAVE MULTIMEDIA EXTENSIONS 1.0
TO USE THESE FUNCTIONS. Contact Microsoft or its OEMs
for more information on how to obtain the Multimedia
Extensions and/or the Multimedia Development Kit (MDK).

ASW 1.0a uses the APW.ini file
--------------------------------------
Please note that the ASW 1.0a now uses a file called APW.INI 
instead of a file called ASW.INI to store user preferences.  
 
Audio support
--------------------------------------
If you are using sound, please note that there are two
sound drivers included:

ASMMSND.SDR -- Works with Microsoft's Multimedia
Extensions (MME) to Windows, which provides support for 
any sound card that is written to its standard. Vendors 
working with the extensions are Creative Labs (SoundBlaster 
and SoundBlaster Professional), MediaVision (Pro Audio
Spectrum), Meridian (SoundBYTE) and IBM (M-Audio).
Please contact these vendors regarding compatibility
information. MME version 1.0 is now released and in the 
hands of these manufacturers.

ASSBISA.SDR -- Provides direct support for Creative Labs'
SoundBlaster card from within Authorware. It operates
independently of the Multimedia Extensions and works
properly with both the AT-compatible and PS/2 Micro
Channel versions of SoundBlaster.

Both drivers are copied into your ASW directory during
installation. The install routine will automatically install
ASMMSND.SDR in a file called APW.INI in the WINDOWS directory, 
which contains a section called [SOUND] for identifying the
appropriate driver settings.

See the section on Sound in the Chapter 6 of the ASW 
Reference Manual for more information.

Graphics Support
----------------------------------------
ASW now imports DIB, BMP, PCX, PICT/PICT2, Windows Metafile, 
TIFF and EPSF (preview image). RLE files may also be imported 
but they must first be renamed with a DIB or BMP extension.

TIFF Importer - The TIFF importer supports all compression types
per the TIFF 5.0 specification: Uncompressed, PackBits, CCITT, 
and LZW compression. Images with color depths of 2 and 3 bits are
converted on import to 4 bits; images with 5,6, and 7 bits are
converted to 8 bits. For performance reasons, 24-bit images are
automatically dithered to 8 bits. There is a maximum size limit
for TIFFs of 1280 x 1024 pixels (at any color depth).

NOTE: Some TIFF images are "chunky" (red, green and blue stored
for each pixel) while others are "planar" (i.e., red, green and
blue values stored separately). ASW's TIFF importer supports chunky
images, but not planar ones.

EPSF importer - While Encapsulated PostScript files are intended
primarily for output devices, they usually contain screen-based
versions of the graphic for display purposes. These "preview files"
are in either TIFF or Windows Metafile format. Therefore, the EPSF
importer relies on both the TIFF and Metafile importers (ASTIFF.IMP
and ASMETA.IMP) to import this preview image into ASW. Only the
preview image is imported, not the actual PostScript commands.
EPSF files contain a "bounding box" that defines the limits
of the image (for placement on page layouts). ASW's EPSF importer
looks at the size of the image rather than bounding box coordinates
in the PostScript file.

Video overlay support
----------------------------------------
Authorware is working with numerous vendors of video overlay 
hardware to ensure that their specific DLLs and drivers supplied
can be integrated at the author level without programmer assistance. 
The following vendors have confirmed that their DLLs have been
written as Authorware UCDs (User Code files) and can be loaded
directly into ASW via the "Load Function..." entry under the
"Variables" menu:

Videologic--DVA 4000
VideoMail--VMC-1E
New Media Graphics--Super VideoWindows

Other vendors are working to incorporate driver support for 
Authorware in the form of user code libraries (UCDs) but have not 
confirmed support at this time. For more information, contact the 
specific hardware vendors and inquire whether their cards include 
Authorware UCDs for driver support.

Tips for enhancing performance
------------------------------------------------

Use the Preload function -- The Preload function is especially
useful in performance tuning.  Its main function is to allow
you to load in graphics, movies and sounds at a time of your
own choosing, so that they are ready when needed. This is
very helpful for working with networks and CD-ROM where
disk access can slow performance. But there is an added 
benefit: bitmaps loaded via the preload function are kept in
memory in a format that draws faster to the screen. You should
preload bitmaps that will be drawn more than once. A bitmap
that you use as a background will be redrawn every time you 
erase anything on top of it, so performance is improved by
preloading.

Use 16-color graphics where appropriate -- The current generation
of video cards are about twice as fast in 16-color mode as they
are in 256-color mode. If a graphic looks good in 16 colors, create
it that way. It will take up less room and display faster.

Use rectangular, opaque bitmaps -- Color bitmaps draw faster if
you set their mode to "opaque" and they are rectangular. This is
not always possible, but to the extent that it is, you will see faster
display of bitmaps. As long as the outside edge of the rectangle is
not white, making the bitmap opaque will increase drawing
efficiency 2 to 3 times.

Avoid "banded" bitmaps -- If working with bitmaps that come
from converted Macintosh Authorware files, make sure they
are not "banded".  In Authorware Professional for Macintosh, 
certain imported bitmaps display as a series of horizontal bands.
Use "Select all" under the Edit menu: if the graphic has more than
three handles per side, then it is banded. For best performance
under ASW, group these bitmaps together before converting.

Use automatic erasing -- In addition to the standard Erase icon,
you can also set Interaction responses and Decision branches to
erase automatically (before/after the next selection or upon exit).
Automatic erasing allows you to clean up a whole sequence of
displays at once and is worth investigating. It is also faster than
using multiple Erase icons.

Erase objects instead of masking them -- Some authoring tools
erase screen objects as you display new ones over them.
Authorware manages objects in layers. If you allow graphics to
pile up on top of one another, it can impact performance. The
preferred method is to erase the graphic and then redraw it if
needed again. Authorware has numerous automatic erase options
for making this easy (see above).

Erasing over opaque rectangles -- Generally, if you erase a graphic,
Authorware needs to redraw the objects underneath. However,
if it fits with your design, you can speed up erasing by covering
complex displays with an opaque rectangle. Authorware
detects the presence of this type of display and does not attempt to
redraw any graphics underneath that it knows are covered. This
means that objects on top of the opaque rectangle erase faster.


Tips on cross-platform Development
----------------------------------------------------
Appendix G of the ASW Reference Manual covers cross-platform
development issues. The following tips are a supplement, and
constitute new information not included in the manual.

Color mapping -- The ASW 256 color palette is similar but not
identical to the Macintosh System palette. The key difference is
that Windows has 20 "system colors" it reserves for its own use.
These colors must be present, leaving 236 colors remaining that
can be mapped to Mac system colors. This means that some 
converted Mac displays may lose colors in ASW, depending on
color ranges used on the Mac side. The colors are lost permanently
in your ASW file when you convert using this default.

To prevent this from happening and override the default, place the
following entry into your APW.INI file:

[Color]
PreserveSysColors=No

This suppresses the Windows system colors and provides a
palette that is nearly identical to the Mac palette. Convert using
this palette. You will get much better color mapping, but may
notice a slight palette shift as you enter and exit ASW and the
Windows system colors are remapped to the closest available
colors.

Line and frame patterns -- The Macintosh supports patterns on
lines and frames (such as thick boxes or ovals).  Windows does
not. Line and frame patterns on APM become solid when converted.

Outlined and shadowed text -- These text attributes are not supported
in Windows. Outlined or shadowed text will appear bold in ASW.

Banded opaque bitmaps -- Bitmaps pasted into Authorware for
Macintosh from certain graphics programs may appear as a number
of horizontal "bands". These bands can cause opaque bitmaps to
appear as transparent on the Mac (a known problem in APM). In
ASW they appear properly opaque, which means they may look
different on the two platforms. If a converted bitmap has unexpected
white areas, try changing the mode to transparent.

Inverse and erase modes with color graphics -- When inverse or
erase mode is used with color graphics, the resulting colors will
be different on ASW than APM. These display modes work 
consistently in monochrome, but the two platforms have different
rules for creating inverse and erase modes for color.

Window height with full screen and menubar -- Files set up for
"full screen" on the 13-inch Macintosh monitor fit almost
perfectly on a VGA display. However, the default menu bar on
Windows is one pixel smaller so there is an extra pixel of screen
height available. This often appears as a white line at the bottom
of the converted file. To resolve this, set the background color in
the ASW Setup dialog, or stretch the background graphic (if it is
a drawn rectangle; stretching a bitmap will cause it to draw more
slowly).

DisplayIcon function -- There are subtle differences in the way
the DisplayIcon function call works in APM and ASW. In APM, 
DisplayIcon follows the erasing rules of the original display icon
it is redisplaying. As a result, automatic erasing doesn't apply to
DisplayIcon in APM. But in ASW, DisplayIcon follows the same rules
as an actual display. In most cases, this difference will not be noticeable,
except that explicit erases are no longer required when DisplayIcon is
used.

Date of revision: 4/24/92

