NAVSYS DEMO PROGRAM
Copyright (c) 1996 by Mark Ewell Smith
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

LEGAL NOTICE

This program and all associated resource files are protected by federal
and international copyright laws.  Unauthourized distribution, modification
or reproduction of any kind is forbidden without written permission of the
copyright holder.

1) Users are granted the right to use this program for their own personal use.

2) Users are NOT permitted to use this program in any "for-profit" venture.

3) Users may make and distribute as many copies of this program as they like
   provided that:

   a) no fee is charged for the program above and beyond costs incurred as
      the result of reasonable transportation or transmission.

   b) all copyright and legal notices (including this one) remain intact.

   c) the program is not modified in any way whatsoever including but not
      limited to the inclusion or replacement of additional copyright or
      legal information, the extension of functionality or the inclusion of
      any virus or other potentially harmful computer program.

   d) the program is distributed in exactly the same form as is found in
      the original distribution packet.

4) The authour makes no claims of any kind as to the suitability or
   reliability of the program for any purpose whatsoever.  The authour does
   not guarantee that this program will operate on any particular type of
   computer or operating environment.  The program is provided "as is" and all
   responsibility for its use lies with the user.

5) The authour shall not be held responsible for any loss of data, moneys or
   any damages whatsoever which may occur as a result of using this program.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

IBM-compatible PC system
80486 or better processor
VGA colour display subsystem
MS-DOS 6.1 or greater
640K of RAM (approximately 550K available at runtime)
Approximately 5MB of hard drive space
SMARTDRV or other disk caching software is recommended but not required
A mouse driver (optional)

INSTALLATION

1)  Unzip the program into a new directory (e.g. - C:\G3DEMO).
2)  (optional) Set up disk caching software and configure for 2MB of DOS
    caching.
3)  (optional) Load the mouse driver.
4)  Move to the new directory (e.g. - CD C:\G3DEMO).
5)  Type NAVSYS and press <ENTER>.

USING THE PROGRAM

Please understand that this is a dramatically crippled version of one part
of one subsystem in a much larger program.  I am providing this limited-
capability application to satisfy the many requests I have had over the past
few weeks for copies.  In short, the program doesn't do much.  It just sort
of sits there and looks pretty.  The engine I have provided is not optimized,
so please be patient:  the program can be a little slow.

NAVIGATION SYSTEM MENU

There are three options available from this menu, but only one is active
in this demo.  Press the STAR ATLAS button to begin.

STAR ATLAS

The system will immediately begin plotting the stars in the current selection
set.  The program comes loaded with a version of the Gliese 3.0 catalogue
which contains all stars within a 25 parsec range of Earth.  This is about
3800 stars.  Users may stop the plot at any time by pressing any key.

There are three options available from this menu:

VIEW PARAMS allows users to set the viewing angles, focus and detail level
of the data displayed.  All data on this screen can be changed.

        X FOCUS, Y FOCUS, Z FOCUS fields indicate the current viewing
        focal point.  The coordinate system origin for this data set
        is on Sol, so these values represent an offset from that origin
        in parsecs.  Note that the focal point is not the same as the
        centre point.  The centre point is the centre of the data set and
        is established in the SELECT SYSTEM operation.

        X ROTATION, Y ROTATION, Z ROTATION fields indicate the rotation
        of the data set along each axis.  Rotation is based on the current
        centre.

        SCALE refers to the magnification factor used to view the atlas.
        Since the data set shows stars within a 25 parsec radius and the
        screen is far bigger than 50 pixels, this factor is used to scale
        up and down the data for easier viewing.

        MIN LUM, MAX LUM fields are used to filter out stars which fall
        beyond a certain luminisity range.  If a star falls within these
        values, a full set of data, including star name, course, distance
        and estimated transit time from the current centre are provided.
        If a star does not fall within this range, it is shown without
        embellishment as a dot or a circle depending on the brightness of
        the star.

        RANGE is used to set the range from centre of the selection set.
        Only stars which fall within the given range are plotted.  The
        range value also controls the size of the orientation sphere around
        the data set.

        VELOCITY is used to adjust the estimated transit time values for
        all plotted stars.  Velocity in this demo is measured in warp
        factors according to the equation:

                velocity^(3.3/((1-(velocity^21.1/10^21.1))^(1/21.1)))

SELECT SYSTEM allows users to select a new system as the centre, refocus
the view on a particular system, view data with regard to a specific system,
and view a list of all the stars in the database by either star name or range
from the current centre point.

The row of buttons across the top of the star system list is used to navigate
through the list.  The buttons correspond to the cursor keys on the keyboard.
Additionally, the ALT-S key will bring up a search window which will allow
users to look for a particular star system by name, assuming the sort order
is set up for name.  To select sort orders, press either they NAME SORT or
RANGE SORT buttons at the bottom of the list.

        EDIT STAR SYSTEM displays the star system form.  Users are not
        permitted to change any values.

        CENTRE re-centres the display set on the currently highlighted
        star system.  Depending on the speed of the machine, this may take
        some time.  Please be patient.

        FOCUS re-focuses the viewing focus on the currently highlighted
        star system.  If the star system is outside the range and data
        set parametres, it will not be displayed, but the focus will change
        never the less.

PLOT COURSE is provided as a demonstration of how part of the navigation
system will work in the larger application.  It plots a multi-segment course
between several stars.

MORE INFORMATION

I wrote this program in a language I designed called SVOCS.  If you would like
to know more about the language, its capabilities, potential applications, etc.
please feel free to contact me at:

        75530.425@compuserve.com
        vladbathory@concentric.net

Enjoy!
