Apocalypse 5D Online Documentation

Click for helpFrequently Asked Questions

This page gives the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions when using Apocalypse 5D.

Click to go to answer How do I know if Apocalypse 5D is working?
Click to go to answer Why doesn’t MechWarrior 2 work with DirectX3?
Click to go to answer Which games are available/being developed for PowerVR?
Click to go to answer What causes the most common Apocalypse 5D error messages?
Click to go to answer Can I turn Apocalypse 5D on and off?
Click to go to answer Why don't wave sounds work after playing Wipeout?
Click to go to answer Why do I get the message ‘Change to 8 or 16’ when I install SmartTools 95?
Click to go to answer What advantages does 4 MB of DRAM give, and how do I upgrade?
Click to go to answer Is Apocalypse 5D VESA 2.0 compliant?
Click to go to answer Is Apocalypse 5D DirectX compliant?
Click to go to answer Why does my monitor lose its picture or get a distorted screen, and is then forced to VGA?

Games FAQs
Click to go to FAQs Quake
Click to go to FAQs Tomb Raider

 

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How do I know if Apocalypse 5D is working?

Run through the series of tests available on the Apocalypse CD-ROM.

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Why doesn’t MechWarrior 2 work with DirectX3?

This is because the file DPLAY.DLL in DirectX 2 was renamed DPLAYX.DLL in DirectX 3, and MechWarrior 2 looks for DPLAY.DLL. If you had DirectX 2 on your machine before you installed DirectX 3 then you won’t have a problem, but if you went straight to DirectX 3, then simply copy DPLAYX.DLL as DPLAY.DLL in the Windows SYSTEM folder to correct the problem. (In DOS you can do this directly by typing COPY DPLAYX.DLL DPLAY.DLL. In Windows you need to copy DPLAYX.DLL into another folder, rename it as DPLAY.DLL, then copy it back into the SYSTEM folder.)

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Which games are available/being developed for PowerVR?

The PowerVR web site holds the definitive list of PowerVR games. If you want to buy a title, the PowerVR Direct web site shows which titles are available for retail.

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What causes the most common Apocalypse 5D error messages?

Error Message

"LS_ERROR 8 BMAP ERROR Bitmove 256 (DDER_UNSUPPORTED)"

Problem

You are running a display mode with 256 colors.

Solution

Change your display mode to one of the supported 65 thousand or 16 million color modes.

Error Message

"Failed to create the D3DRM device from the clipper. D3DRMERK_BADDEVICE."

Problem

Your graphics card does not have enough memory to support the display mode resolution.

Solution

Change your display mode to a lower resolution.

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Can I turn Apocalypse 5D on and off?

Yes, for Direct3D, by turning the PowerVR HAL on or off in the Apocalypse 5D Display Properties page.

The PowerVR Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) controls how the PowerVR hardware and the Direct3D software interact.

To access the PowerVR HAL:

  1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and click Control Panel.

  2. Double-click the Display icon.

  3. Click the Apocalypse 5D tab. The Apocalypse 5D Display Properties page is displayed.

  4. Select or deselect Enable PowerVR HAL.
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Why don't wave sounds work after playing Wipeout?

This is a problem with Wipeout, in that it sets your WAV file volume to zero.

To correct this, when you have finished playing the game, double-click the loudspeaker icon at the bottom right corner of your screen, and reset the slider control for wave sounds to its previous level.

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Why do I get the message ‘Change to 8 or 16’ when I install SmartTools 95?

You are trying to install SmartTools 95 without VideoLogic’s Apocalypse - GrafixStar drivers on your system. Follow the driver installation instructions in the Apocalypse 5D late breaking information, and install our drivers before installing SmartTools 95.

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What advantages does 4 MB of DRAM give, and how do I upgrade?

The extra 2 MB adds the following modes:

1024x768, 16.7million colors, 43i - 85Hz
1152x864, 16.7million colors, 60 - 70hz
1280x1024, 65 thousand colors, 43i - 75Hz
1280x1204, 16.7million colors, 43i
1600x1200, 65 thousand colors, 48i

The memory upgrade is available from VideoLogic dealers. For Apocalypse 5D the qualified memory devices for upgrades are Mosys MD908AJ-5-120 (those used for GrafixStar 600 Pro), and we strongly recommend using the VideoLogic upgrade kit.

Our technical support line is getting an increasing number of calls from customers with GrafixStar cards that have been upgraded with unqualified memory. Unfortunately this invalidates the warranty on the cards and our technical support teams have to refer the customer back to the original supplier of the memory upgrade for technical support.

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Is Apocalypse 5D VESA 2.0 compliant?

Apocalypse 5D has VESA v2.0 support built into the graphics controller.

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Is Apocalypse 5D DirectX compliant?

DirectDraw and DirectVideo support is built into the Windows 95 drivers.

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Why does my monitor lose its picture or get a distorted screen, and is then forced to VGA?

On a low specification monitor, the default refresh rate chosen by our drivers may exceed the monitor’s capabilities, causing it to lose synchronisation. The symptoms are usually:

To correct this, when starting your PC, hold down the CTRL key until Windows has finished loading. This sets the monitor at the lowest refresh rate for the current display mode. You can now see the picture, so that you can change the refresh rate in the Display Properties Control Panel to a more suitable value (i.e. lower than the rate that corrupted your display).

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Games FAQs

The following FAQs are those most commonly dealt with by VideoLogic Tech Support.

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Quake

Make sure you have followed the installation procedures of the Apocalypse card, especially taking note of Bus Mastering, and that the CMOS PCI Latency settings are set to 80.

On Cyrix Processors (and on Intel Processors less than P166 MMX), GLQuake and GLHexen II run OK, but you will notice large slowdowns in large areas, in areas with large amounts of sky showing, behind doors leading into large areas, around corners leading into large areas, and rooms with a large area underwater.

There are a number of ways to improve the speed of GLQuake:

  1. Check the mode that window is running in. Try not to exceed 800x600 resolution Windows mode. The GLQuake engine defaults to 640x480 and the color depth you have your desktop set to. Make sure you have your desktop set to no more than 16 bit color.

  2. Change resolution to 512x383. You can even set the resolution to lower levels (320x240 or 320x200)

  3. How much memory does your graphics card have? If it is a 2MB card, you may want to consider upgrading the memory in the card to 4MB. GL is very memory intensive and the more you have, the better.

  4. Try adding more memory to the general heapsize of the game by adding the following lines to the command line using -heapsize xxx where xxx is the amount of memory in KB. So on a machine with 32MB of memory this can safely be set to 28,672 (28MB) this leaves enough memory for Windows to hide, although on machines with more this can be set higher.

    A good startup line would be:

    -heapsize 28672 -width 512 -height 384

  5. Leave at least 100MB free on your hard disk; for swap files.

  6. If you are experiencing sound break up, add the line S_PRIMARY 0 at the 'console' during the game. If this doesn't work, run the game in compatibility mode. This may affect performance but should correct the sound problem. This sound error is inherent in the game and applies to Sound Blaster Pro cards and compatibles.

  7. Check the glnotes.txt readme found in the GLQuake download. This contains target line and console commands that can affect the game performance, dependent on the machine.
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Tomb Raider

The following problems are due to the game having to run in a DOS environment and not in Windows. All of them are solved using the new Tomb Raider Windows patch:

If the Tomb Raider opening icons spin uncontrollably or you cannot control the character, this is an inherent problem with the game. This only applies to a small number of controllers. There is no fix.