Dinosaurs: README.TXT Contents
PSS ID Number: Q104211 Article last modified on 07-09-1998
====================================================================== 1.00 WINDOWS kbreadme kbmm
| The information in this article applies to: |
| - Microsoft Dinosaurs for Windows, version 1.0 |
SUMMARY
This article contains the complete text of the Microsoft Dinosaurs version 1.0 README.TXT file.
README.TXT
Contents of the Microsoft Dinosaurs README.TXT file Microsoft Corporation June 28, 1993
This file contains additional information about Dinosaurs not included in the User’s Guide.
To read this file on-screen, use the Page Down and Page Up keys. You can also print the file by choosing the Print command from the File menu in any Windows word processing program. If you open this file in Windows Write, Microsoft Word, or another word processor, it will be easier to read if you select the entire document and format the text in 10-point Courier.
This README file contains important information on the following topics:
Section Description
| 1 | DEMONSTRATION MODE How to make Dinosaurs automatically and randomly demonstrate all of its Dinosaurs. |
| 2 | RUNNING IN LOW MEMORY OR RUNNING SLOWLY How to make Dinosaurs run on low-memory machines. |
| 3 | CD-ROM PROBLEMS Hints on solving problems accessing CD-ROM drives. |
| 4 | PRINTING AND COPYING How to print and copy Dinosaur screens. |
| 5 | VIDEO DISPLAY PROBLEMS Images don’t display properly or video driver errors. |
| 6 | AUDIO PROBLEMS Some common sound problems and how to fix them. |
| 7 | MSDINOS.INI AND COMMAND LINE OPTIONS What the MSDINOS.INI file contains; options that control the way Dinosaurs runs. |
| 8 | RUNNING UNDER MICROSOFT WINDOWS NT Getting the movies to work; video support. |
| 9 | DINOSAUR MOVIES How to run movies in a window or full-screen. |
| ========== 1. DEMONS ========== | ======================================================= TRATION MODE ======================================================= |
| Dinosaurs begins an if you hav minutes. | has a demonstration mode for use in stores which automatic random “slide show” of the dinosaur pages en’t used the program for a specified number of |
| You can se starting D which you and specif slide show Dinosaurs again to d | lect demonstration mode by pressing CTRL+ALT+R after inosaurs. This will display a dialog box in can turn on the “Start random automatically” check box y the number of minutes to wait before starting the . After demonstration mode has been selected, will remain in that mode until you press CTRL+ALT+R isplay the dialog box and turn off the check box. |
| ========== 2. RUNNIN ========== | ======================================================= G IN LOW MEMORY OR RUNNING SLOWLY ======================================================= |
| Dinosaurs pictures. you encoun doesn’t ha improve yo | uses your computer’s system memory to display If you find that Dinosaurs runs slowly or if ter out-of-memory errors, Dinosaurs probably ve enough memory. Consider doing the following to ur computer’s performance: |
| * Close a | ll unnecessary applications. |
| * Determi by typi need a use Din memory, you add | ne how much total memory your computer has available ng “mem” and pressing ENTER at the DOS prompt. You minimum of 4MB (4,000,000 bytes) of total memory to osaurs. If you do not have at least 4MB of you will not be able to run Dinosaurs until more memory. |
| * If you permane Windows | are running Windows in Enhanced mode, set up a nt Windows swap file on your hard disk. See your documentation for more information. |
| * If your 4MB of display change Setup p documen | computer runs at 20MHz or slower and you have only RAM, it is advisable to use a 16-color driver for your , even if you have a 256-color graphics card. You can the display driver by running the Microsoft Windows rogram from DOS or from Windows. See your Windows tation for more information. |
| * Defragm defragm | ent (“clean up”) your hard disk by running a entation program. |
| ========== 3. CD-ROM ========== | ======================================================= PROBLEMS ======================================================= |
| NOTE - Do your CD-RO playing a Random mod | not remove the Dinosaurs compact disc from M drive while Dinosaurs is in the process of sound or displaying a new picture, or is running in e. |
| If the Din that it ne see a mess files. To | osaurs program cannot find the data files eds from the Dinosaurs compact disc, you’ll age that asks you to select the drive containing the find the source of the problem, do the following: |
| * Make su inserte | re the Dinosaurs compact disc is correctly d into the CD-ROM drive. |
| * Make su the com drive l the Win assigne the Dis letter. | re that the Dinosaurs program is looking for pact disc on the correct drive. Check to see if the etter for your CD-ROM drive has changed. You can use dows File Manager to determine which drive letter is d to the CD-ROM drive. The Select Drive command in k menu will say “CD-ROM” next to the CD-ROM drive |
| * If you drive i on. If points CD-ROM | have an external CD-ROM drive, make sure that the s connected to your computer, plugged in, and turned you still see the error message after checking the above, check the documentation that came with your drive or contact the company that supplied the drive. |
| * Make su MPC-com than on disc at CPU ban your CD require the per | re that your CD-ROM drive is MPC-compatible. An patible drive “has an average seek time of less e second and can transfer data from the compact 150K per second while using less than 40% of the dwidth.” Check the documentation that came with -ROM drive to make sure it meets these ments. An incompatible CD-ROM drive will slow down formance of Dinosaurs. |
| ========== 4. PRINTI ========== | ======================================================= NG AND COPYING ======================================================= |
| All screen on the typ screen may and printe printout m | s in Dinosaurs are large color pictures. Depending e of printer you have, printing a picture of the take several minutes. Also, screen resolution r resolution are often not the same, so the resulting ay not match the quality you see on the screen. |
| You should If you hav upgrade yo bought the possible t | be able to print grayscale images from Dinosaurs. e a black and white laser printer you might need to ur printer driver; call the dealer from whom you printer or the printer manufacturer. It is also o print Dinosaurs screens in color on a color printer. |
| Because th copying or close all | e pictures can be quite large, you may have difficulty printing in low-memory conditions. In this case, other running applications and try again. |
| ========== 5. VIDEO ========== | ======================================================= DISPLAY PROBLEMS ======================================================= |
| Dinosaurs mode. The running in If your co will suppo Windows Se at its hig for inform | will run in 16-color or 256-color screen program will automatically detect whether you are 16- or 256-color and display pictures accordingly. mputer is running in 16-color mode, and the video card rt 256 colors in 640x480 resolution, you can run tup to change the screen driver to see Dinosaurs hest image quality. Check your Windows documentation ation on changing video drivers. |
PROBLEMS WITH THE DISPLAY IN DINOSAURS
If you encounter problems displaying images or videos when running Microsoft Dinosaurs, check the currently installed video driver:
1. Run the Windows Setup application.
2. Locate the Display driver item in the application
window.
If the display driver item is VGA:
* Try running Windows in Standard Mode by typing
WIN /S from the DOS prompt. If Standard Mode Windows
works, try starting Windows in the enhanced mode with
the following command:
WIN /D:XV
If this solves the problem, make the following
modifications to your SYSTEM.INI file in the [386Enh] section:
EMMEXCLUDE=A000-EFFF
VIRTUALHDIRQ=OFF
If the display driver item is NOT VGA:
1. Choose Change System Settings from the Options menu.
2. Change the Display setting to VGA.
3. Choose OK and restart Windows.
4. Run Microsoft Dinosaurs and determine if the
display problems still occur. If the problem still
exists follow the suggestions described for VGA
drivers, above.
If the problem is solved, this would indicate that your current video driver selection is experiencing problems rendering images in Dinosaurs. You might want to consider choosing another video driver (if available) provided by your video card manufacturer. To do so, run the Windows Setup application. If the problem persists, contact your video card manufacturer for updated video drivers.
| ATI PROBLEMS |
Microsoft Dinosaurs is incompatible with some advanced features used by some video cards such as the Mach32 chip set running the ATI drivers.
For Dinosaurs to run on the ATI driver the “256 color palette” control in the “Advanced features” of the “ATI Control Panel” needs to be set to ON. See your video card documentation for more information.
=========================================================== 6. AUDIO PROBLEMS ===========================================================
Audio problems can have many causes. Other applications that play sounds may interrupt sounds in Dinosaurs, because your computer cannot play two sounds simultaneously. This is generally a temporary clash that will resolve itself. However, a few applications that play sounds, such as some screen savers, may remove audio capability from all other Windows applications. If you suspect you have such an application, turn it off or do not run it while running Dinosaurs.
| SOUNDS PLAY, BUT NOT VERY WELL |
Sounds that are distorted or “fuzzy” have several possible causes. The most likely one is simply that your speakers are not of high quality. Low-frequency sounds, such as the dinosaur roars, may not reproduce well on some equipment.
It is also possible that the software settings on your sound board are causing distortion. For example, if the sound card volume or “WAVE file input” is set to near its maximum, it will produce amplification distortion, just as it would on a stereo system. To find out how to change your sound board settings, check the documentation that came with your sound board.
Your CD-ROM drive should be MPC-compatible. An MPC-compatible drive “has an average seek time of less than one second and can transfer data from the compact disc at 150K per second while using less than 40% of the CPU bandwidth.” Check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive to make sure it meets these requirements. An incompatible CD-ROM drive may work but give lower-quality sound or cause the sound to be interrupted while playing.
| SOUND DOESN’T PLAY AT ALL |
If you don’t hear any sounds, make sure that the volume for your speakers is set to an audible level.
If the volume is set to an audible level and you still hear no sounds at all, something may be wrong with your sound board setup. Check to see that the driver is installed correctly and, if necessary, reinstall it. Refer to the documentation that came with your sound card for more information on installing audio drivers.
Please note that Dinosaurs requires an MPC-compatible sound board to be installed and is not intended to run with drivers which use the PC internal speaker, such as the unsupported “PC Speaker” driver. Such a driver will in most cases not play any sounds, and if the driver setup option “Enable Interrupts” is not checked, the system may crash. Check the “Drivers” configuration in your Windows control panel. If you have both a sound board and the PC Speaker driver installed, it is preferable to un-install the PC Speaker driver.
| MEDIA VISION CARDS |
A small number of Media Vision sound card drivers (Pro Audio - Spectrum cards) may cause problems. If you have a Media Vision card and don’t hear sounds, try upgrading your driver. You can find updated versions of the Media Vision drivers in the XFILESdirectory on your Dinosaurs compact disc.
The following text (between the asterisks) contain installation instructions from Media Vision. If you have any problems, call the Media Vision Technical Support telephone number listed below.
*******************************************************
NOTE from MEDIA VISION: "Before adding and/or updating
Media Vision device control software for Windows 3.1, it is
important to first remove any Media Vision drivers that are
currently installed. After removing all drivers - there
typically are four installed:
1. Pro Audio/CDPC Wave/Midi/Aux
2. Pro Audio/CDPC Mixer
3. Voyetra/Media Vision OPL# Stereo FM and
4. Media Vision Mixer Control
Restart Windows and load the new drivers using the Control
Panel. This additional step is necessary since the Media
Vision drivers share the services of a dynamic link library
that can only be unloaded by restarting Windows.
Media Vision's device control software for Windows 3.1
supports the following audio adaptors:
* Pro AudioSpectrum 16
* Pro AudioSpectrum Plus
* CDPC and CDPC XL
To load the driver for one of the products listed above,
from the Drivers applet in the Control Panel select the
'Media Vision Pro Audio/CDPC Wave/MIDI/Aux' driver.
However, if you have an original Pro AudioSpectrum, from
the Control Panel select the 'Media Vision Pro Audio
(Orig.) Wave/MIDI/Aux' driver.
If you experience any difficulty loading and/or using any
of the Media Vision drivers, contact Media Vision technical
support at (800) 638-2807"
*******************************************************
Please note that these driver programs are not part of the Microsoft Dinosaurs product. Microsoft makes no warranties or claims regarding the quality, stability or performance characteristics of driver programs, which are included AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. The included driver programs are the latest releases available to Microsoft, and are included for your convenience only. Should you experience any difficulties with the driver programs, please contact the manufacturer.
=========================================================== 7. MSDINOS.INI AND COMMAND LINE OPTIONS ===========================================================
The MSDINOS.INI file is installed by Dinosaurs on your hard drive. This file contains information on the default screen position for the Dinosaurs window (where you last left it), the default drive letter for the Dinosaurs compact disc, and the default network connection if you are running Dinosaurs from a network server.
If you add “-d<drive letter>” to the command line, Dinosaurs will look for its data files on that drive rather than on the drive specified in the MSDINOS.INI file. For example, if you add “-de”, Dinosaurs will look for its data files on drive E.
=========================================================== 8. RUNNING UNDER MICROSOFT WINDOWS NT ===========================================================
Microsoft Dinosaurs was released before the final version of Windows NT, thus Dinosaurs has been tested only on Beta versions of NT. There are two potential problems with Dinosaurs running under NT: first, there is no VGA support for Dinosaurs; if you are running NT you need to be using VGA+ or better display to use Dinosaurs. Second, the CompacVideo driver used for movies for NT was not completed by the time Dinosaurs shipped.
================================================================= 9. DINOSAUR MOVIES ================================================================= The Dinosaur Movies play full-screen by default. Some video drivers don’t play movies properly full-screen (on a black background). If MS Dinosaurs detects a problem when playing movies it will switch to playing movies in a window.
If you would like to switch between playing movies full-screen or in a window, change the “VideoInWindow” line in your MSDINOS.INI in your WINDOWS directory as follows:
VideoInWindow=0 (This will make movies play full-screen)
VideoInWindow=1 (This will make movies play in a window)
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Additional reference words: 1993multi media multimedia multi-media Readme.wri dinos C ====================================================================== ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1998.
