Screensaver Settings

The Surf3D screensaver settings panel lets you select different animated display modules, randomize views, chain multiple agent modules for more screensaver variety, set up password control, turn on display information captions, look at the documentation for particular screensaver agent modules, and access the Surf3D editor. Modules are not set up to automatically go online unless you use the editor and tell them to go online while in screensaver mode. This way, you can start by enjoying the screensaver without using it online.

How does the Surf3D Screensaver work?
 Open the Display Control panel by selecting Settings on the Windows Start menu bar.

Select the Screensaver tab, and then select Surf3D.

Click on Settings on the Display Control Panel.

The Surf3D setting panel will appear.  There are several controls:

Select Module brings up a file selector window to pick an agent module to run in the screensaver.

The file selector will show agent folders first.

Scroll to the right to see icon files with the .XO file type (use only demo agent modules if you want to try the Force Chain slider).  

Select any agent e.g. the demo2.XO module.

For more info on the individual agent module you are using, click on the Module Info button.  

What is the Randomize Timer?
To see a variety of views using the screensaver mode, you can move the Randomize Timer slider to the right a few pixels.  This will more quickly change web views.  

Moving it further to the right will keep each view on screen longer before changing to another view.

When the Randomize Timer slider is all the way to the left, the Randomize function is turned off and you will only see a single cyberspace view.  

When the Randomize Timer is on, it will generate random views of cyberspace based on the agent module database, and will also randomly insert any of the 8 saved views that are provided within each agent (click Edit Module and open the graphical display screen enough to see the toolbar buttons 1 through 8).

What is the Force Chain True Timer?
Force chain only works if you have installed the Surf3D application into its suggested location ˆ the Program File folder.

Force Chain gives you the ability to force a module to stop and start another module automatically in a chain.  The software provides a Force Chain set of agent modules, called demo.xo, demo2.xo, demo3.xo, demo4.xo, and demo5.xo.  When demo.xo (the default agent module) is loaded.

The Force Chain slider in the screensaver Settings panel, when moved to the right, increases the length of time each agent module shows its view (or multiple views if you have also have the Randomize Timer slider a little to the right.

What is Caption Enable?
The screensaver Setting control panel provides a button to show some general information for each view that is being displayed in screensaver display mode.  Click the box on to see the captions.

What is Password Enable?
The screensaver can be used to protect you from others accessing you computer.  Select a password and when you return and interrupt the screensaver, you must enter the password to break out of the screensaver and get back to the desktop. The password must start with a letter.

To fully access using the agent ONLINE, you will need to open the editor by clicking on Edit Module, and then clicking OK.

To better understand what your screensaver agent can do, click on Module Info, which displays details for the particular Agent you are viewing as a screensaver. If you wish to use the Agent on the web, select Edit Module, and that will open the Surf3D software development tool and runtime controls for your use.

When you click on Edit Module, a brief explanation page will appear that describes the Editor. When you click the OK button the editor will open. Note: if you have an Agent already open in the Surf3D Editor mode, the screensaver cannot operate.

You can have more than one Agent running at once. Each Agent opens its own Editor. The Editor is where you configure the operation of Surf3D Agent modules that are used by the screensaver. Using the editor you can load, edit, save, and run the modules directly on the web.

Alternatively, the editor may be run as a stand-alone application outside of the screensaver Settings by running the program NAV8.EXE which is located in the directory where the screensaver is installed, which by default is C:\programs\surf3d .

Screensaver Modules are Agents.
Modules that are created with the editor may be used in several ways:

1. Use as a screensaver module.
2. Run as an Agent by double-clicking on the module's Icon
3. Use scheduling programs to launch the module as an Agent
               (such as the scheduler built into Windows).
4. Open and use directly in the Editor.

Modules that are run outside of the Editor will act as Agents. To access modules directly from the desktop (or other locations) create shortcuts and then drag or copy them to the desired location. Note: Surf3D modules use a .XO file extension.

Outside of the screensaver, multiple modules may be run simultaneously as Agents - limited only by resources and bandwidth.

You can open a particular agent suited to a particular web site.
If you are at Ebay, select the Ebay agent you want from the file selector. All packaged agents are specialized web-macro agents that automate some part of the browsing process at some web site beyond what the site or IE or Netscape can do for you.

With an agent newly opened, you should see a small icon tool-bar over a graphic window.

Rollover slowly on each toolbar icon to see the pop-out label name.

Click on the the 5 left most icons to toggle close or open the different Surf3D editor control panels.

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