LexEyes 1.0

Disclaimer
THIS SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS," AND COPYRIGHT HOLDERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR THAT THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY THIRD PARTY PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS OR OTHER RIGHTS.
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION.
The name and trademarks of copyright holders may NOT be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to the software without specific, written prior permission. Title to copyright in this software and any associated documentation will at all times remain with copyright holders.


Using LexEyes

LexEyes is a small toy which has no real purpose. All it does is displaying a window which contains one to thirtytwo eyes which follow
your mouse. Right click on the eyes to

- Select whether or not the eyes are on top of all other windos
- Select whether or not LexEyes should be run automatically on startup
- Choose a new skin
- Quit the program

Clicking on the eyes and pressing ESC will also quite the program.
To move the eyes simply click and drag on any visible part of the graphics.


Distribution Rights

Distribution of a modified version of LexEyes (this includes distributing the executable with new or modified skins) requires
always my explicit permission.
If you want to put an unmodified version on your private or non-profit home page, that's ok for me, as long as you link to my 
site (http://www.steinke.net) next to  the LexEyes download link.
If you want to distribute the unmodified version on a magazine CD, please contact me first. 

Distribution via a commercial site or in a commercial context requires my explicit permission. If you're in doubt, make sure
to ask me first.


What's New?

Version 1.1 
Skinloading is now much faster. Eye border detection should work better now.

Version 1.0
Initial Release



Creating Skins

Creating a new skin is easy. Create a new directory inside the skins subdirectory and give it the name of your skin.
If you want to call your skin "ubercool" simply create a subfolder "ubercool" in the skins folder.
Inside this directory only one file is required:

main.bmp
This file contains the image of the skin (say the eyes). Here're a few things you should keep in mind:
The "white" of the should always be a single color (check the eyebg.bmp descriotion below to see how you coould create a skin
with a colored eye background).
Pretty much in the center of the "white part" place a single pink pixel (rg: 255,0,255). For each pink pixel one moving pupil will be
created. The maximum amount of pupils per skin is 32.

mask.bmp
In order to create a more interesting (ie non-rectangular) window you need to place a mask.bmp in your skin folder.
In that image all transparent pixels are white (rgb: 255,255,255) and all opaque pixels are black (rgb:0,0,0).
The mask.bmp should have the same size as the main.bmp

eye.bmp
The default pupil might not be interesting enough for you. By placing an eye.bmp in the directory you can ensure
that this image will be used as pupil (as long as no special pupil image is available for that eye - see below).
Areas which should not be drawn must have a color of bright pink (rgb:255,0,255)

eye1.bmp - eye32.bmp
If a bitmap with a name of eye1.bmp to eye32.bmp is available it will be used for the corresponding eye.
If you want to use eye.bmp for all pupils but pupil number 12, simply provide both eye12.bmp (for pupil #12) and
eye.bmp (for all other pupils).
Counting of eyes / pupils starts at the top left and goes on right -> down.
Areas which should not be drawn must have a color of bright pink (rgb:255,0,255)

eyebg.bmp
If you want to have a colorful eye background (say if pure white seems to be too boring for you) you can
provide an eyebg.bmp. This image will be displayed wherever the main.bmp has areas for the eyes.
The eyebg.bmp should have the same size as the main.bmp file.


Contacting Me

You can send email to spellcaster@web.de but it might take some time before I answer. I don't check that
email address very often (normally every other day - at least once a week).


Credits

The "Glibber" skin was made by Kirsten Engel.
The "Tux" image created by Larry Ewing. 
The "deamon":  BSD Daemon Copyright 1988 by Marshall Kirk McKusick. All Rights Reserved.
The "Dust Puppy" image created by Illiad. 

All other skins made by Lennart Steinke


In Closing

I want to thank the Allegro community for the best multimedia library around. Allegro is just an awesome work.
While I have used only a small subset of it's functionality in this program (mainly image loading) it still saved
me a lot of time.


Regards,

Lennart Steinke
(spellcaster)