Crystal_Lattices Version 2.15 Stereoscopic Educational Software for the Amiga Software and Manual by David M. McKinstry Copyright 1987-1991 User Instructions for Crystal_Lattices Crystal_Lattices is a computer simulation of three-dimensional crystal lattices written for the Amiga. The simulations permit you to observe stereoscopic views of any of the fourteen Bravais lattices with a variety of orientaions. You will be able to accomplish changes in orientation with either a joystick in the second mouse port, or by using the cursor keys to emulate a joystick. Furthermore, you will be able to move the image away from you (further behind the screen) and toward you (so that if comes on your side of the screen). It is hoped that this flexibility will enable you to find a comfortable viewing position for any lattice you are studying. Also, once the program is executing you may wish to adjust the intensity and contrast of your monitor to give you the most comfortable viewing for the images produced. Since the simulations are done using two-color stereoscopic techniques, the 3-D glasses are relatively inexpensive. The glasses simply consist of a red filter for your left eye and a green (or blue) filter for your right eye. Both have been used successfully. Although the colors used were chosen for a green filter on the right eye, a light blue or blue-green filter works just as well. Even if you are missing one eye, or for some other reason do not have binocular vision, you can still use these simulations. Simply place either color filter (the one with which you can see best), over your good eye, and block off vision to your weaker eye. The ability to rotate and move the images will still give a good illusion of depth. In general, it is recommended that you keep the images in motion prevent confusion that might result if the images are stationary. As already mentioned, a joystick is a desirable (but non-essential) option. If you have a joystick, please plug it into your second mouse port before turning on your Amiga. A very desirable option is sound, since there is a fair amount of narration that is provided. Although duplication of much of the narration will be printed on the screen as it proceeds, it is easier to listen while watching other things (mouse movement, menus, graphics, etc.) than to be reading and miss something. If you don't have your speaker hooked up, please do so before turning on your computer. If you don't have a speaker, you will probably have to go through the tutorial on the use of the Amiga with this program several times. It is assumed that you already know enough about the Amiga to have it properly turned on and set up for your particular use. However, further special considerations and assumptions follow: It is assumed that your Amiga has at least 1 Meg of RAM. It may be possible to run this software with only 512 K of RAM, if nothing else is running, and you have not added buffers for your floppy drives. However, that is probably pushing it too much. It is also assumed that you have all the libraries, devices, and fonts associated with version 1.3 or 2.0 of the Amiga operating system (i.e. AmigaDOS and related workbench with KickStart or ROM Kernel 1.2 or later). Crystal_Lattices will operate as intended with KickStart 1.2 or later and Workbench 1.3 or later. Crystal_Lattices will also determine whether your Amiga is running with NTSC or PAL and act accordingly. That is, different aspect ratios are provided for the graphics when you have booted with PAL mode than with NTSC mode. Specifically needed in your operating system are the following items that come on the release workbench disk for 1.3 or 2.0. In the fonts director of your system disk you should have: diamond.font and within the subdirectory diamond, 12 and 20. ruby.font and within the subdirectory ruby, 15. All of these fonts are present with the standard release workbench. However, note that the fonts drawer on your workbench boot disk for 2.0 is empty as it comes, and will have to have the above fonts copied to it if you are booting from a floppy drive. In your libs directory, you must have the translator library and the diskfont library. These are needed for the narration and fonts. In your devs: directory you need the narrator.device. As already stated, all these exist on the standard release system disks. If you have two floppy drives just place the Crystal_Lattices disk in your second floppy drive, and boot with your standard workbench disk. The executable file is in the root directory of the Crystal_Lattices disk and may be accessed from CLI, or the workbench. If you prefer to type in commands just type in and enter the following: df1:Crystal_Lattices If you wish to place this program somewhere other than in df1: you will have to include the appropriate path. Hard disk users may wish to copy it and its icon to their hard disk. It's easiest to do this by dragging the icon from the floppy disk to the drawer into which you wish to place it on the hard disk. Many people prefer to use the workbench. If you do, just double click on the disk icon to open its window, and double click on the pair of 3-D glasses to start the program. The program will start in the usual manner, display a title page and request you to press S or C to set or clear the Sound Option. Do so to continue into the program. A page telling what menu options are available will then be displayed. It is strongly suggested that you follow through the tutorial on the use of the the Amiga mouse and keyboard as it relates to this program. Just use right Amiga - G to start this tutorial. Once the tutorial has started, do not touch the keyboard or mouse, until it's done. The same applies to the other tutorials under the Information menu. These tutorials will tell also tell you how to turn off the Sound option. Note that General takes about 6.5 minutes to complete, Options takes about three minutes, and Animations takes about 5 minutes. Don't attempt to run other user-involved programs at the same time, or you may conflict with the tutorials. By that, I mean that you could run a print job or compile as a background task, the tutorials are running, but don't do anything that requires use of the keyboard or mouse. Doing so could lock up the mouse, and require a reboot. Single Drive Users If you happen to have only a single floppy drive and no hard disk (perish the thought), you have several options. Just two of them are: 1. Copy the program Crystal_Lattices and its icon to a working bootable Workbench disk, or 2. Boot with your normal 1.3 or 2.0 Workbench disk, and once complete, remove the workbench disk to insert the Crystal_Lattices disk to execute Crystal_Lattices. Start up the program by double clicking on its icon, and pay attention to the requestors. After loading the program, the workbench disk will have to be placed back in the drive so its devices and libraries can be accessed. Cautionary Notes The tutorials take over control of the mouse. Don't attempt to use the mouse while a tutorial is running, or the program may 'lock up' with the result that you will have to reboot your system. If you get into a tutorial accidentally, or for some other reason wish to abort that tutorial, just press the 'Esc' key. This will break you out of a tutorial or out of any animation sequence to take you back to the Menu Options page. Note that all selections must be made from the Menu Options page, with the exeception of the Sound option which can be toggled on or off when a tutorial is being provided. Everyone Be certain to pay careful attention to the tutorials provided within the program. This is especially true if you are new to the Amiga. However, even if you are an expert, you will need to study the 'Options' and 'Animations' items in the 'Information' Menu. Command Key Summary Note that the following summary can be obtained by using the Help key from the Menu Options page. Key(s) Function Help Command Key Summary Esc Back to Menu Options Page Cursor Keys Simulate Direction of Joystick A Moves Lattice Away from You R Returns Lattice toward You If you don't like to use the mouse, or are having difficulty with your mouse, you may use 'hot key' combinations of keys to make your menu choices. These are accomplished by pressing down the Right Amiga key (i.e. the key just below the lower-left of the right shift key), and then simultaneously pressing the key listed after it. The commands used in this program are as follows: The following are under the Options Menu: Right-Amiga-S Sound Right-Amiga-N Non-Primitive Cell Right-Amiga-P Primitive Cell Right-Amiga-V Translation Vectors The above four choices toggle the corresponding option to its opposite state. For example, if the sound option is on it will be turned off at the completion of any current narration. The sound option can be toggled from within a tutorial, so that you can speed up the reading of instructions. Any of the above four options should be chosen before beginning an animation, since they will determine the nature of the images produced, or whether a narrative will be provided in the case of the sound option. Right-Amiga-Q Quit the program Of course, the meaning of this is obvious. It is also possible to terminate the program by clicking the left-mouse button on the 'Close-Window gadget' at the upper-left corner of the Menu Options page, as well as by using the pull-down menu for Quit. When an option is active, a check mark will appear beside it in the menu. The following are under the Information Menu: Right-Amiga-G Begin the General Tutorial Right-Amiga-O Begin the Options Tutorial Right-Amiga-A Begin the Animation Tutorial Right-Amiga-C Display Chip and System Information The following are under the Animation Menu: Right-Amiga-T Triclinic Lattice Right-Amiga-1 Monoclinic Primitive Lattice Right-Amiga-2 Monoclinic Body-Centered Lattice Right-Amiga-3 Orthorhombic Primitive Lattice Right-Amiga-4 Orthorhombic C-Centered Lattice Right-Amiga-5 Orthorhombic Face-Centered Lattice Right-Amiga-6 Orthorhombic Body-Centered Lattice Right-Amiga-7 Tetragonal Primitve Lattice Right-Amiga-8 Tetragonal Body-Centered Lattice Right-Amiga-E Simple Cubic Lattice Right-Amiga-B Body-Centered Cubic Lattice Right-Amiga-F Face-Centered Cubic Lattice Right-Amiga-R Rhombohedral Lattice Right-Amiga-H Hexagonal Close-Packed Lattice This software should work in any multi-tasking situation, with the exceptions already mentioned.. However, if you are running any other software that uses the joystick, note that this program reads the hardware registers for the joystick and keyboard directly when within an animation sequence. This is done to be certain that the Esc key is aways recognized, and provides faster response when reading the cursor keys to simulate the joystick. Thus, if an animation is running in this program while another program uses the joystick, it is assumed that the lattices are to be rotated. Likewise, if you were to press the escape key on another window or screen, it would be recognized and take you back to the Menu Options page. Obviously, running other tasks in the background will slow down the animations. Note that the two custom screens used for the animations are linked together so it is possible to drag them up and down (and if operating under AmigaDOS 2.0 with horizontal overscan, horizontally as well). This would make it possible to look at a rotating lattice, while observing the Workbench Screen in the background. Bugs. None known. (They're all features.) However, note the cautions already listed. Also note that under the Chip and System Information Menu, the screen will flash when CPU speed is being determined. This is because all DMA is turned off during the short test sequence(less than 0.1 seconds). Also note that, if you're fortunate enough to have a 68040 in your Amiga, the timing will not be true but will instead give you the clock rate at which a 68020 or 68030 would have to be running, to complete the test loop. I hope that you will all enjoy and learn from this program. Please send any comments, bug reports and constructive criticisms to me at the following address. David M. McKinstry Physics Department MS #68 Eastern Washington University Cheney, Washington 99004 Phone (509) 359-6958 or DIMMCK on Bix, or DMCKINSTRY@EWUVMS on BitNet. Note that I do not log onto BitNet nearly as often as I log onto Bix.