Psycho Rainbow Build 5b
Coded by Mark Litwintschik (PheTiSH@xoommail.com)
http://members.xoom.com/PheTiSH/

Disclaimer:  I take no responsibility for anything
that might go wrong with this software, but the
chances of it doing something wrong are slim.
You are fully responsible for any damage this
software causes directly and indirectly.  If you
do not agree with this then remove the software
from your system immediately.

WARNING: THE SEASURE EFFECT SHOULD BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
I THOUGHT THIS WAS A COOL EFFECT SO I CODED IT IN.
I DO NOT ADVISE ANYONE WITH A HISTORY OF SEASURES TO
USE THIS EFFECT.  THE SEASURE EFFECT HAS BEEN DISABLED
BY DEFAULT.  I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT 
OCCURS BECAUSE OF THIS PLUGIN.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

1. How to install:

Simply unzip ps.dll into your winamp plugins
directory

e.g. "C:\Program Files\Winamp\Plugins\"

Afterward start winamp and click on the Audio Scope
(the wave displayer) with the right mouse button or
press Ctrl + K.  If you clicked with the mouse then
Select the menu option: "Select Plug-in"

A Dialog should show up with a list of plugins
availible to winamp.  Double click on the one that
says "Psycho Rainbow  [ps.dll]"

If an error occurs please e-mail and tell me about
it, otherwise Enjoy Psycho Rainbow!

2. History

January, 23, 1999
Release of Psycho Rainbow Build 5b.  Some bug fixes,
some more to find ;-).  Seasure effect added and new
object engine used to create 3D Objects for the plugin.
The engine "PROBE" or Psycho Rainbow Object Building
Engine will be released soon.  Screen shots will be
availible on my website.

January, 21, 1999
Release of Psycho Rainbow Build 5a

January, 20, 1999
Began Work on Psycho Rainbow Build 5a.  I hadn't
worked on the plugin in months and when I checked
my old e-mail address and saw all the messages I
decided to make a come back.

3. Known Problems:

3.1  Some systems (Windows 95 in question) do not
have the proper OpenGL Libraries installed.  This
will cause Psycho Rainbow to crash (duh, but I 
got a ton of e-mails about it).

To download the OpenGL Libraries download and install:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/opengl95.exe

3.2  Some systems can't run Psycho Rainbow above 8
frames per second.  We don't all own a DEC Alpha
or have an array of Sun Workstations in our
basement, thats why I have coded in options to
enable and disable certain OpenGL features.  Please
play with these to find the best combination.

3.3  Resizing the box to many times eats up memory.
If this occurs simply leave the box at the shape you
desire, close the plugin, then open it again.  If you
have enough video memory free it should perform at a
good rate.

3.4  Using "Src Alpha Saturation" for the source
transparency slows down the plugin drastically.
Src Alpha Saturation was the reason why Psycho
Rainbow Build 4 was so slow.  The only answer I can
give for this one is just don't use it if it's that
slow.  That transparency in combination with any other
seems to be the slowest in OpenGL.

3.5  It says it can't load a file when ever I start the
plugin.  To Solve this make sure object.pro is in the same
directory as ps.dll.  object.pro is the data file for the
object, it contains instructions that ps.dll reads and
follows to create the 3D object.

3.6  I can't see anything.  Goto the configurations for the
plugin.  Turn transparency off or more the colour bars to the
right.

NOTE:  Windows NT has a better implementation of
OpenGL than Windows 9x.  OpenGL was on NT eon's
before 95 had it and the NT version (in my testing)
is much faster.  But then again, NT is much faster
that 9x ;-).

4. Q & A

4.1  How do I get the plugin to run the fast on my
system.

I have found a few tricks for this.  Try running in
16 bit colour mode.  32 and 24 bit colour mode use
to many clock cycles and video memory.  If you put it
in 256 colour mode it will look horrible and run slow
because of the time taken to dither the picture.

Resize the dialog to the size you want, close the plugin,
restart the song and start the plugin again if it beings
to slow down.

If you are under NT then goto the task manager, click
on the processes tab.  In the CPU column, winamp should
have the highest value over all other processes.  If
not then another application is lagging the program.
I'm not sure if there is a utility out there that will
show information like this in 9x because I don't run the
crap OS.

Here's the two best way to speed up the plugin:

1. Uninstall Windows 9x, Install Windows NT 4.0
Workstation.  Microsoft has released press reports
saying NT is 30% than 9x.  I've test numerous pieces
of software against this and I found a Pentium 75
running NT was 1.5X faster than a Pentium 166 running
95 and 1.9X faster than 98.  Plus NT is much more secure
and stable.  As well, NT requires less system resources
than 98, this was the opposite for 3.1 and 95.  I think
IBM wrote NT and sold it to M$, how could they make such
a crap OS then one of the best at the same time?


2. Buy a DEC Alpha and get Visual C++ installed on it.
Then e-mail me and I'll send you source to compile in
native RISC.  Your DEC 533MHz will probably be faster
than a Pentium at 2GHz.  ;-)  For more info on Alpha's
goto:

http://www.microway.com/
http://www.alphapowered.com/archive/alphapowered.htm

5. Contact Information:

If you have any questions or comments feel free to
e-mail me at PheTiSH@xoommail.com or come visit my
website at http://members.xoom.com/PheTiSH/