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1994-02-02
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Sections:
OVERVIEW
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
DEFAULTS
OVERVIEW
Most of the facilities in form can be specified in one of three ways,
1. Through command line switches, use form -? to get the most
upto date list of these.
2. Through an environment variable FORM, i.e. if you always use the
command line switches "-res2 -w" you can use the command
"set FORM=-res2 -w"
3. Through the FORM section of the sstools.ini file, virtually all
the command line switches have their equivalents in this section.
They are described below.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
A usually full and usually correct set of command line switches can
be obtained by entering FORM -? on the command line. You will want to
redirect the output to a temporary file as there is plenty of it.
SSTOOLS.INI
The options here are listed with their SSTOOLS.INI equivalent, place
these in the [FORM] section of your sstools.ini file. Form will look
for SSTOOLS.INI in the directory specified by the environment
variable SSTOOLS, then it will look in the same directory as
form.exe, and finally along the path.
Screen
------
These command line switches affect how form uses the screen display
-q[0|1|2|3|4|5]
quality=[0|1|2|3|4|5]
Quality, very crude, try it on a single sphere and see
what you think. Affects screen and VIVID output.
-display[1|2|3|4]
display=[on|off], display_type=[WIREFRAME|FLAT|GOURAUD|PHONG]
This flag tells FORM to draw your form at the end.
This is on by default, there are four drawing styles:
1 : display at end Wireframe
2 : display at end Flat
3 : display at end Gouraud(default)
3 : display at end Phong
-k[+-]
pause=[on|off]
Pause after each screen display.
-spin=number
COMMAND LINE FLAG only.
What do all computer graphics people do with an image
when they are bored? They spin it! Give a number and
FORM will display (and save if asked) the image so
that it turns a full circle in that many frames.
Not very useful without the -save= and -k- flags
if -save specified Files are named with trailing digits, i.e.
spin=9 takes save=abcdefgh and produces abcdefg#(.gif)
spin=9999 creates abcd####(.gif)
-ifp=number
ifp=number or InterFramePause=number
pause on text screen between each frame for this long ,
allows you to read the stats predicting length of time to
completion.
-angle=number
view_angle=number
initial rotation of screen view around y axis
-res[1|2|3]
screen_res=[1|2|3]
the screen resolution used to display the form.
1 : screen display is 320x200 (default)
2 : screen display is one of 640x350, 640x400 or 640x480
depending on your video card and available extended memory
3 : screen display is one of 800x600, 1024x768 or 1280x1024
depending on your video card and available extended
memory.
-res=WidthxHeight
This allows you to specify a screen resolution
explicitly. The actual screen resolution used is the
"best fit". The form will be displayed in the middle of
the real screen.
-float[+-]
float_render=[on|off]
This flag tells FORM to use a floating point scan line
conversion method, it improves the quality of the display
at the expense of speed. Only use on a 486 or when you
are planning to save high(ish) quality pictures to disk.
-vesa
vesa=[on|off]
Use a vesa driver if found for Video Control, on by
default. This switch is provided since the autodetect
routines crash Windows normally!
steps:
1. load your vesa driver if need be
2. go into windows (if you want)
3. run "form -vesa" (is default)
There usually isn't any apparent slowdown.
You can use your manufacturer supplied Vesa driver, or a
public domain one such as "UNIVESA".
While a VESA driver is not required by FORM for most VGA
cards it is advisable to install one if you have one. For
example FORM mistakenly thinks that my machine at work
can use 800x600, but it can't. Installing the supplied
vesa driver cures this problem and FORM correctly uses
640x480. Sometimes FORM will crash if running under
windows, this is caused by the autodetect methods,
installing a VESA driver before I run up windows cures
the problem.
-skeleton[+|-] (or -skel[+|-])
displays a bare bones skeleton preview (alpha)
-bios[+-]
Bios=[on|off]
When this is enabled FORM uses bios to draw to the
screen, and even uses bios to switch to 320x200. Turn
this flag off for more speed. You may need to leave this
flag on if you are having real trouble.
-modex
ModeX=[on|off]
When enabled and -bios is NOT enabled FORM will use a VGA
ModeX method of accessing a 320x200 screen, this is
faster than BIOS and a little slower than standard
access, works on my notebook.
Memory
------
These switches determine how FORM will use your memory
-dos[-+]
useDos=[on|off]
Use DOS memory for Z buffer (fastest)
not using DOS memory for ZBUFFER @ 320x200 can get round some
odd memory problems.
-ems[-+]
useEMS=[on|off]
Use EMS memory for Z buffer (next fastest)
-xms[-+]
useXMS=[on|off]
Use XMS memory for Z buffer (next next fastest)
-disk[-+]
useDisk=[on|off]
Use DISK memory for Z buffer (slowest)
WARNING: doesn't check disk space first, just assumes you have a
100Gb disk!
-cache_lines=<number of lines>
cache_lines=number
How many lines per disk cache unit (default 10) (not really too useful)
Output
------
These switches determine how FORM will save your form to disk.
-pov[-|+|1|2|3]
pov_output=[on|off], pov_type=[UNNESTED|DESTED|DECLARES]
If enabled FORM will produce a file called TEMP.POV
suitable for use with formvue.pov and the raytracer POV.
The output file can be in one of three "styles".
- : no temp.pov output file
+ : produce a temp.pov file
1 : the form is made of individual objects, there is no heirachy
of objects, they are all specified relative to "world
coordinates"
2 : the form is made using composites, there is a strict
heirachy of objects which matches your input form file.
3 : the form is made using #declares (default), again there is a
strict heirachy of objects which matches your input form
file right down to the names, this file is quite compact
(relatively speaking), and it is fairly easy to apply
textures in the right place. This output style can also create
bounding boxes, speeding up raytracing a few times, although
I'm informed that POV2 does a better job on its own.
-pov_version=[1|2]
pov_version=[1|2]
change pov version that the output is intended for only
tested version 2 tested lately.
-bound_torus[+|-]
bound_torus=[on|off]
output bounding boxes around toruses
independant of bounding_boxes flag (invalid for pov1 output)
-bounding_boxes[+|-]
bounding_boxes=[on|off]
output bounding boxes on the objects, applied at every named
object level.
-pov_declare_all_prims[+|-]
pov_declare_all_prims=[on|off]
use declares for primitives, simplifies changing the basic
objects in POV.
-vivid[-|+|1|2]
vivid_output=[on|off], vivid_type=[UNNESTED,NESTED]
- : no temp.pov output file
+ : produce a temp.v file
1 : output file is made of individual objects (can have textures)
2 : output file is made using include files (NO textures)
-dxf[-|+|1|2]
Don't bother trying this option unless you absolutely must.
-plg[-|+]
plg_output=[on|off]
If enabled FORM will produce a file called TEMP.PLG
suitable for use with rend386 software.
- : no temp.plg output file
+ : produce a temp.plg file
-save, -save+, -save+filename, -save=filename, -save-
save=[on|off], save_name=filename
When enabled FORM will display your form at the end,
and save the screen display to a file called TEMP.GIF
or TEMP.TGA, unless you specify a different filename
-w[+|-]
SaveBackgroundAsWhite=[on|off]
save background as white -w[+-] flag
-g[+|-]
SaveAs=[GIF|TGA]
If saving save the screen to a GIF file
-t[+|-]
SaveAs=[GIF|TGA]
If saving save the screen to a TGA file
-aspSave[-|+filename|=filename]
saves final zbuffer to filename (default "temp.asp")
to fully disable use -display- -aspSave-
General Switches
-path=dir1;dir2...
path=dir1,dir2...
Include directories to search for FORM files.
-debug Guess what this does!
-dump [-|+]
Dump=[on|off]
Produce a Debug Dump at end
-v [-|+]
verbose=[on|off]
Overly Verbose and useless output
-update_ini Form will write back any options that occur after
this switch to the [FORM] section of your SSTOOLS.INI
file.
WARNING, may not work!
-? Help
==========================================================================
DEFAULTS
========
The default for every flag in FORM is
Numbers in brackets indicates default value if turned on using "-option+"
Flag | default | SSTOOLS.INI
======================#================#====================
Screen
------
-q | 0 | quality
-display | on (3) | display
| | display_type=GOURAUD
-k | on | pause
-spin | off | -
-ifp | 10 | ifp or InterFramePause
-angle | 0 | view_angle
-res | 1 | screen_res
-float | off | float_render
-vesa | on | Vesa
-skel(eton) | off | -
-bios | on | useBios
-modex | off | ModeX
Memory
------
-dos | on | use_dos
-ems | on | use_ems
-xms | on | use_xms
-disk | on | use_disk
-cache_lines | 10 | cache_lines
Output
------
-pov | off (3) | pov_output
| | pov_type=POV_DECLARES
-pov_version | 2 | pov_version
-bound_torus | off | bound_torus
-bounding_boxes | off | bounding_boxes
-pov_declare_all_prims| on | pov_declare_all_prims
| |
-vivid | off (1) | vivid_output
| | vivid_type=VIVID_UNNESTED
-dxf | off (1) | dxf_output
| | dxf_type=DXF_UNNESTED
-plg | off | plg_output
-save | off (temp) | save
| | save_name=temp
-w | off | SaveBackgroundAsWhite
-g | on | SaveAs=GIF
-t | off | SaveAs=TGA
-aspSave | off (temp.asp) | -
General
-------
-path | empty | path
-debug | off | -
-dump | off | Dump
-v | off | Verbose
-update_ini | - | -
----------------------------------------------------------------