Intermission 4.0
Release notes


1) The sound button shown in the User's Guide appears in Intermission ONLY when when you are running under Windows 3.0.  The sound button WILL NOT  appear when you are running Intermission under Windows 3.1 or later.  Under Windows 3.1 (or later versions), Intermission uses your Windows sound drivers to set up sound in the Windows Control Panel.


2) The Intermission engine can function as a Sequencer, randomly picking from the enabled modules.  This feature works when you DO NOT have the "Use Selected Saver Only" box checked.  You configure the amount of time between modules by sliding the "Change After" control.  


3)  By default, the System Monitor checks the COM ports in your system for activity and will blank your screen instead of running modules if it detects communications activity.  System Monitor com port checking can be individually disabled by including the line "COMx=0" in your ANTSW.INI file under the "[Intermission]" heading.  For example "COM1=0" would disable COM port checking for COM1. You must restart Intermission to update the settings.  If you have a COM port open during installation (if you are using a communications program, or WinFax, for example), the Install program will ask if you want to disable System Monitor checking of this COM port. If you click yes, Install will add this line to the ANTSW.INI file in the Windows directory.  


4) Intermission includes an un-install program. Run UNINSTAL.EXE located on Disk 1 if for some reason you need to remove your copy of Intermission.


5)  There are limitations to Intermission's ability to control *.SCR files.  Because these files are executable files in their own right, they can have a mind of their own.  And, while Intermission will play these files, it has little control over them.  There are exceptions, but most SCR files will run in Intermission without any problems.  


6)  To hear sound in Intermission modules, you need to a) make sure the volume is set in the Intermission control panel; and b) either have a sound card and the appropriate drivers, or a PC Speaker Driver installed.  The distribution disks for this product include a PC Speaker driver, as well as drivers for other sound cards.  Remember, that PC speaker drivers (which use your PC's built-in speaker) may cause your machine to pause when sounds are being played.  The wait cursor will freeze.  The sound quality will be marginal. Sound drivers, and installation instructions, are documented in the User's Guide which accompanies this software.  

Many individual modules also include Configuration dialogs which may contain sound options. 


7)  The screen saver delay that is set in Windows' Control Panel will take precedence over the one set in Intermission.  If you have Intermission set to time out in 30 minutes, but your screen saver comes on after two minutes, you should disable the Windows Screen Saver (i.e., set to none).  


8)  If you use a compressed hard drive (using Stacker or DoubleSpace, or another disk compression utility), some ASA modules the (for example, the Opus 'n Bill modules in that version of Intermission) will take longer to load than they would from an uncompressed drive.  This occurs once at the beginning of the animation, when the entire file is loaded into memory.  The actual performance of the animation does not suffer.


9)  You may want, or need, to use the IM-DOS command line switches The switches are as follows [usage: IM-DOS <options>]:


/H      display help text then exit
/Tn     set timeout to 'n' minutes (0-1080)
/Fn     set fadeout to 'n' percent (0-100)
/J[+|-] turn fadeout jumping on|off
/ON     enable Intermission for DOS
/OFF    disable Intermission for DOS
/C[+|-] turn compatibility checks on|off
/R[+|-] turn reboot disabling on|off
/B      fade using BIOS
/U      uninstall Intermission for DOS


10)  If you are using the IM-DOS DOS blanking feature, and run a non-exclusive DOS Box in Windows with the "Blank exclusive DOS boxes" checked, your screen will be blanked by the DOS TSR; if you don't have option selected, your selected Intermission module will blank the screen. 


11)  IMSETUP.COM - This file is intended for use by people who are using Intermission for DOS blanking only.  The IMSETUP command line allows you to configure DOS blanking.  The command line switches are case-sensitive). The switches are as follows [usage: IMSETUP <options>]:


/h	display help text and exit

/t t	set timeout to hours:minutes:seconds  e.g., 5 (5 mins) 
1:30 (1 hour, 30 mins) :30 (30 secs), etc.

/f m	set fadeout to 'm' percent (100% = black)

/K k	set 'fade now!' hotkey to k, where k is Alt, Alt+Ctl, 
or Ctrl then '+letter' or '+f-key' e.g., Ctl+Alt+B, Alt+F5, 
Ctl+F10, etc.

/W pkm  wakeup on Password, Keypress, or Mouse move
password overrides all others

/P word  set password to 'word'. If you set the password, 
make sure to specify the /case and(or) /enter parameters if 
you want them.

/case	  password is case sensitive

/enter  password requires Enter key at end

/on  enable screen saver

/off  disable screen saver

/U  remove resident portion


12)  The After Dark Modules, Vertigo and Modern Art have been known to cause memory "leaks".  An After Dark compatible module in the product Inside Sports can cause Intermission to crash.  The Microsoft module DIMMER.SCR may cause problems.  The Flying Windows screen saver which is included in Windows becomes unstable when it is run under Intermission.  As mentioned previously, we have little control over what SCR files do when they are run in Intermission.


13)  If you experience problems with your palette changing when you are using DOS boxes in Windows, it is probably a driver problem with your "video grabber".  Command line switches may help rectify this problem.  Edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and change the line IM-DOS.COM to IM-DOS.COM /f:100 /j+.  These switches are documented in readme item Number 9.  If the problem still persists, you should be able to force the palette to reset itself by typing MODE 80,50 or MODE CO80 at the DOS command prompt. And, as always, ALT+TAB will return you to your windows session, and leave the DOS box running.  


14)  a) If your network crashes while you are using Novell Password protection, you will receive error messages from Windows.  You will need to reboot your computer and go back into Windows.  The screen will immediately blank, and when you enter a carriage return, your system will return to the state it was in before the network failure.  


15) If you are using 8514A video drivers, and experience painting problems with ASA modules (for example, Rapping Pig, or modules in the Opus 'n Bill collection), the problem should be corrected if you check the "Optimize For 16 Colors" checkbox in the module configuration dialogs. 


16) Notes on using Intermission with Delrina's WinFax Pro.


If the install detects Winfax on your system then it will ask if you would like Intermission to detect faxing activity and add the switch COMx=0 in the antsw.ini file.

If the switch COMx=0 IS FOUND in the ANTSW.INI file, the following occurs when you are running Delrina WinFax: 


a) At Intermission startup, Intermission tries to find WinFax.


b) If Intermission cannot locate WinFax, it tries a second time after 15 seconds (in case both programs are in the StartUp group), and Intermission loads first.


c) If Intermission is still unable to locate WinFax, it will try each time the saver is invoked. When WinFax IS found, the System Monitor activates, and just blanks the screen the FIRST time Intermission blanks. This is to make sure that we aren't blanking in the middle of a Fax transmission.


d) If a WinFax Receive or Transmit happens while Intermission is blanked, Intermission flashes the message sprite "! Faxing" in the upper left corner of the screen. This is followed by a "!wake up" sprite.


e) If Intermission activates while a Fax transmission is happening, the System Monitor will take over and just blank the screen.


17)  *.SCR modules run through Intermission will wake instantly when you have "Wake On Dialog Alert" enabled. 


18)  The configuration dialog for "animation" modules includes checkboxes to "Skip Songs" and "Skip Sounds".  Many modules do not include songs.  However they all use the same configuration dialog.  Checking or unchecking the box in those modules will have no effect.  "Skip Songs" only applies to those modules that include MIDI sounds (for example Cowboy Singer or Rapping Pig). 



19)  The configuration dialog for "animation" modules also includes checkboxes to "Optimize for 16 Colors" and to "Use Real Colors (VGA)".  These options are only applicable if your video drivers or hardware use a palette that differs from the standard Windows VGA palette (most 3rd party video drivers do).  Intermission will default to using the correct palette settings in most cases.  However, some drivers will cause the animations to color incorrectly.  In that case, checking "Optimize for 16 Colors" forces Intermission to use the correct palette.  "Use Real Colors (VGA)" should only be checked when you are using the standard Windows video drivers a) VGA, b) VGA 3.0,  or c) Super VGA 800 x 600, 16 colors.  Some video cards will alter the standard palette settings.  Checking "Use Real Colors (VGA)" will correct that problem. 


20) Some Intermission ASA modules (particularly "Opus 'n Bill" modules) may require up to two megabytes of free memory in order to play the animation.  Should you not have the required free memory, you will see a message indicating that there is a problem loading the module.  


21)  Other Delrina Consumer Software products include Daily Planners for Windows, Macintosh, DOS and OS/2; theme packs including Cathy, The Far Side, Trivial Pursuit Genus and Sports Editions, Tips for Users of Windows, Tips for Users of Word Perfect, and Random House Word a Day; and the Screen Saver, Intermission for Windows and Macintosh and The Opus 'n Bill Screen Saver for Windows and Macintosh. 


22) We'd like to hear from you. Delrina CSD's Testing and Technical Support Department is always interested in hearing from you about any suggestions or ideas for new features you might have. Let us know what you like and what you don't like about our products.  Let us know what we can do to help you work, or, entertain yourself better.  

Write us:  

Delrina Consumer Software Division 
Testing and Technical Support 
11810 115th Ave NE 
Kirkland, Washington 98034-6923

Telephone us:

Main  Office:      (206)820-7007 
Order Center:      (800)395-1546 
Technical Support: (206)820-4102

Fax us:            (206)823-0568

Leave us a message or visit our support forum on Compuserve:

At the Compuserve prompt, type Go Delrina at the prompt to enter the Delrina Forum.   There is a Consumer Division section where you can leave messages, ask questions, and download or read files about our other products. 


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