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Troubleshooting / frequently-asked questions about Geiss
(screensaver version)
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INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE WEB AT
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~geiss/inst_ss.html

THE MOST RECENT TROUBLESHOOTING/FAQ INFORMATION IS AT
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~geiss/faq_ss.html

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Before e-mailing me, please MAKE SURE you've done the following:
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   -read this entire FAQ.  It is short.
   -downloaded & installed DirectX 3.0 or later.  About 50%
       of problems are solved by this!
   -downloaded the latest version of the Geiss screensaver
   -if the bug persists, then please e-mail me, and mention
       that you have tried these 3 things.  My e-mail address
       is in the 'about' box of the config panel.  Thank you.

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Requirements:  Windows 95 or 98
               DirectX 3.0 or later
               Pentium-200 or faster

Recommended:   Sound card
               CD-Audio cable            

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Problem:   When I run the screensaver, it gives me an error that 
           says "DSERR_BADFORMAT".
     
Solution:   This is a common problem.  You probably 
   have an "Open Program" sound effect turned on, and you
   need to turn it off.  Go to the control panel, double-
   click 'Sounds', and scroll down to "Open Program."  Make
   sure that there is no sound associated with opening a
   program - if there is, turn it off.  If this still
   doesn't fix the problem, make sure your sound card
   supports 16-bit, 44100 Hz, stereo sound (99% do - only
   very old cards are at risk here).  As a last resort, try
   to locate the most recent drivers for your sound card.
     

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Problem:   I don't see any reaction to sound (during the screensaver). 
Problem:   I don't see a waveform on the screen (during the screensaver).
     
Solution:   

   -Hopefully you realize you need a functioning sound
      card for this to work.

   -Make sure that Windows' volume settings are at about
      50% for your microphone, CD-audio, and line-in.  Do
      this by clicking the Start Menu button, then going to
      Programs, Accessories, Multimedia, and finally, Volume
      Control.  Then adjust the appropriate slider bars (to
      about half-way).  If any are missing, go to the Options
      menu, select Properties, then scroll through the list
      and select (check) whatever is missing (e.g. microphone,
      cd-audio, etc.).

   -Also try this: from Windows' volume control, on the menu 
      click Options/Properties, select 'Recording', and hit OK.  
      Now make sure that each [recording] channel has the 
      "SELECT" box checked next to it, and that the volumes 
      are all set to 50% or higher.

   -If that doesn't work, and you are trying to get sound
      from an audio CD in your cd-rom drive, you might be
      missing a <EM>cd-audio cable</EM> which connects your
      cd-rom drive to your sound card.  It is easiest to
      check first if the sound works with, say, a microphone
      before checking for the cable.  If the microphone works
      (i.e. you see a sound wave on the screen when you speak
      into it), then you're probably missing the cable (they
      run about $5).  If the microphone doesn't work, keep
      troubleshooting.

   -Make sure you have the most recent version of the drivers
      for your sound card.  Also make sure the sound card is
      less than 5 years old (it must be able to handle 16-bit,
      44100 Hz, stereo sound).  

   -Make sure you have at least DirectX 5.0 or later installed.
      If it's been a long time since you installed it, try
      installing DirectX 6.0 fresh.
     

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Problem:   I select a new video mode, but it just goes back to
           the default every time.

Solution:   None - your video card doesn't support that mode;
   you must pick another.  Older video cards can't properly
   enumerate what video modes they support, so they just list
   them all.  If you have one of these video cards, you might
   have to dig around to find a video mode that really works.
      

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Problem:   I can't get the screensaver to use password
           protection.
Problem:   The screensaver's preview window doesn't show
           anything.

Solution:  Darn right it's broken - the screensaver doesn't
   support passwords or a preview.  Sorry, I have classes to
   study for!  :)
      

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Problem:   Geiss gives me an error message that says "Ordinal
           Not Found - The ordinal 6 could not be located in
           the dynamic link library DSOUND.dll."

Solution:  You need to download and reinstall DirectX 3.0 or
   later.  You can download DirectX 6.0 from Microsoft on the
   web at http://www.microsoft.com/directx/download.asp .


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Problem:   When I try to run Geiss it gives me an error box that
           says, "Geiss executed an illegal instruction at..."

Solution:  You probably have version 3.60 of Geiss and a Cyrix
   5x86 processor.  This was fixed in Geiss 3.61.


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Question:  Are you going to make a 3dfx version, or support AMD's
           3dNOW! instructions?  It would be a lot faster.

Answer:    No - 3dfx is not applicable to this program.  Geiss
   is neither polygon-based or sprite-based, and therefore the
   hardware acceleration of 3dfx or other 2d/3d systems would
   offer it no benefits.  In addition, it is mostly integer
   math, and 3dNOW! is only good for floating point math (which
   is much, much slower to start with, so I won't be switching
   to it!).


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Question:  Why does it run so darn slow?

Answer #1: Have you tried 8-bit color?  This is the target
   color depth for the program.  Higher bit depths (16,24,32)
   are there for posterity and the age of 1-gigahertz machines.
   They require 3 times as much processing: one for each red,
   green and blue buffer, as opposed to one monochrome
   (paletted) buffer in 8-bit modes; and then the blit (image
   copy) to the video card has to send about four times the
   volume of data every frame.  As you can see, 8-bit color
   is going to be a lot smoother.

Answer #2: Have you tried a lower resolution, like 640x480,
   or tried setting your "vertical screen size" to about 50%?
   The image is smooth enough that once you're at 640x480,
   you can't see much of a difference between it and higher
   resolutions.  Also, the 50% vertical screen size saves a
   lot of CPU time and makes a cool letterbox effect.

Answer #3: Are you running an AMD or Cyrix (as opposed to
   Intel)?  That could be it.  I've been able to tweak the
   main loop to very high frame rates on the Intel, but no
   matter what I try for the AMD, I can't get the same
   performance out of it.  The AMD and Cyrix are good
   processors, but for this specific muscle of the processor,
   they don't hold up as well.  Other related hardware
   could be RAM... slow RAM will hurt you, or a slow or
   small L2 cache will hurt very bad.  Also, a cheap
   motherboard with a slow bus could drop performance too.
   Your video card shouldn't make a huge difference, though,
   as long as it has EDO or faster RAM, and is PCI or AGP
   (AGP is not taken advantage of yet... anybody want to buy
   me an AGP motherboard & video card so I can do it? :).
   Also, a 3d-accelerated video card will make NO difference..
   What you see in Geiss right now is not hardware accelerated
   (nor can it be).

Answer #4: Don't forget to minimize other windows first...
   this can make a huge difference, especially under '98.

