Apocalypse 5D Online Documentation

Click for helpTroubleshooting

This page describes common problems you may encounter when installing or running Apocalypse 5D. It is split into problems with 3D graphics, with 2D graphics, and installation.

Click the bullet below for the category.

Click to go to solution 3D graphics
Click to go to solution 2D graphics
Click to go to solution Installation

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3D Graphics

Click to go to solution The application display is corrupted.
Click to go to solution When running an application that uses PowerSGL or Direct3D, the system freezes or restarts.
Click to go to solution I am not given the D3D Hal option with the D3D demos.
Click to go to solution When running an application that uses PowerSGL the system restarts.
Click to go to solution The Use Hardware Accelerator option within an application is grayed out.
Click to go to solution The application display is corrupted, textures are corrupted or missing, rendering is corrupted, the machine crashes.
Click to go to solution The Apocalypse 5D Display Properties options are all grayed out.
Click to go to solution Some textures within the game are corrupt.
Click to go to solution All game menus are displayed correctly but when playing a game, it fails to display the screen correctly.
Click to go to solution When running MageSlayer parts of the introduction screens are corrupted.
Click to go to solution I have enabled bilinear filtering in an application, but the graphics still look unfiltered.
Click to go to solution Nightmare Creatures runs slowly.
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The application display is corrupted.

Your graphics system may not support the required DirectX version. Reinstall DirectX 5 by running the program \directx\dx5\dx5eng.exe on the Apocalypse CD-ROM, or installing through the Drivers section of the Apocalypse Home Page.

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When running an application that uses PowerSGL or Direct3D, the system freezes restarts.

You may have installed Apocalypse 5D into a PCI bus slot that does not have bus-mastering capability. Install the card into a slot that supports bus-mastering.

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I am not given the D3D Hal option with the D3D demos.

Ensure that you have the DirectX graphics drivers installed, and that your computer is in a display mode greater or equal to 16 bits per pixel (65,536 colors). If your system reportean Invalid Page Fault or a General Protection Fault, restart your system.

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When running an application that uses PowerSGL the system restarts.

The display driver may not support buffer flipping. To support flipping the amount of free off-screen memory must be greater than the current on-screen memory.

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The Use Hardware Accelerator option within an application is grayed out.

The application is currently set to run in a graphics resolution that cannot be accelerated by Apocalypse 5D. Setting the application’s graphics mode to a lower resolution mode makes the check-box available.

Apocalypse 5D is not being recognised by the system. If you have sufficient technical knowledge, check that it is in System Properties, check the BIOS, IRQ allocations etc, otherwise contact VideoLogic through one of the points listed in the technical support section of the user guide.

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The application display is corrupted, textures are corrupted or missing, rendering is corrupted, the machine crashes.

These are general 3D rendering problems that might be solved by using the Apocalypse 5D Display Properties page.

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The Apocalypse 5D Display Properties options are all grayed out.

You have probably disabled PowerVR with another utility, such as the 3D Control Center (3DCC). Re-enable PowerVR with the utility.

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Some textures within the game are corrupt.

Try adding the game to the application list on the Apocalypse 5D Display Properties page, and switching on Automatic MIP mapping.

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All game menus are displayed correctly but when playing a game, it fails to display the screen correctly.

Try adding the game to the application list on the Apocalypse 5D Display Properties page, and switching on Render Overlap.

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When running MageSlayer parts of the introduction screens are corrupted.

Try adding the game to the application list on the Apocalypse 5D Display Properties page, and switching off Render Overlap. The executable for MageSlayer is called mageslay.exe.

Disabling Render Overlap will make the MageSlayer gameplay slightly slower.

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I have enabled bilinear filtering in an application, but the graphics still look unfiltered.

Try adding the game to the application list on the Apocalypse 5D Display Properties page, and switching on Dithering.

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Nightmare Creatures runs slowly.

Add the switch -NOVBLWAIT to the command line when starting the game. This will increase the speed, but may cause some textures to appear differently.

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2D Graphics

Click to go to solution Display sizes not supported by your monitor
Click to go to solution Corrupt or blank display
Click to go to solution QuickTime movies do not run correctly
Click to go to solution Playing AVI with MS PLUS! pack
Click to go to solution Monitor screen centering
Click to go to solution Xing 3.X
Click to go to solution Windows 95 Screensavers
Click to go to solution Installing Windows 95 with an Apocalypse 5D card
Click to go to solution Adobe Type Manager
Click to go to solution Harvard Graphics 4.0
Click to go to solution Dorling Kindersley
Click to go to solution cc:Mail v6.0
Click to go to solution ActiveMovie
Click to go to solution Apricot MS540 system BIOS upgrade for compatibility with Apocalypse 5D
Click to go to solution Laplink for Windows 95
Click to go to solution Running games without SciTech Display Doctor

 

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Display sizes not supported by your monitor.

Windows 95 does not restrict the generic SVGA monitor settings to a given set of display sizes, so allows any display size to be selected. If you have a standard monitor selected, there is therefore a possibility that you could select a display size that your monitor does not support.

Choose the correct monitor type, or contact your monitor supplier for more information.

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Corrupt or blank display.

Windows 95 does not restrict the generic SVGA monitor settings to a given set of refresh rates, so allows any refresh rate to be selected. If you have a standard monitor selected, there is therefore a possibility that you could restart your system with a refresh rate that your monitor does not support. This usually results in a corrupted or black display in Windows 95. To rectify this problem, restart Windows 95, holding down the CTRL key on your keyboard. This starts Windows 95 in the lowest possible refresh rate for the resolution selected.

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QuickTime movies do not run correctly

If you experience problems when viewing QuickTime movies, run the QuickTime Control Panel from the Windows 95 Control Panel, and follow the steps below:

  1. Run the QuickTime Control Panel, click the More button and click the Video tab.
  2. From within the Optimization section, the Draw Method setting will be set to Video Hardware. Change this to Video Driver.
  3. Close the QuickTime Control Panel.
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Playing AVI with MS PLUS! pack

If you are using a display mode which is capable of video acceleration and you have the Show Window Contents While Dragging option enabled, you will see the accelerated video displaced from the video window while dragging the video window around the desktop. Disable the Show Window Contents While Dragging on the PLUS page in Display Properties.

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Monitor screen centering

Some advanced monitors create a display setting by detecting the horizontal line frequency, and this may change the size and positioning of the Windows 95 screen when task switching from a DOS full-screen session to a Windows 95 session. This problem occurs when the monitor is at the borderline between two settings. To remedy this, use the controls on your monitor to adjust its screen settings.

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Xing 3.X

MPEG clips replayed in modes that are not video accelerated may cause Windows to become unstable. If this problem occurs, change the display mode to one that supports video acceleration.

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Windows 95 Screensavers

If you are using the 'Mystify your Mind' Windows screensaver with the password option enabled, you may see additional lines appear when the password entry window is active. We recommend that you choose another screensaver if you are using password protection.

If you are using 'Curves and Colors' in 65k colors, you may see some color corruption. Select another color depth, or use another screensaver.

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Installing Windows 95 with an Apocalypse 5D card

If you are installing Windows 95 for the first time from DOS, the Windows 95 auto-detection process will Plug 'n' Play Apocalypse 5D as an ET4000 Display adapter and an 'Other device: PCI VGA-Compatible display adapter'.

Although this does not affect the Apocalypse 5D installation or performance, you may want to remove the section 'Other device'. To do this, delete both the 'Other devices' and the GrafixStar - Apocalypse entry in the 'Display adapter' section of your System control panel. After this, Windows 95 will Plug'n'Play the GrafixStar – Apocalypse drivers on the next restart, producing a single entry for the display adapter.

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Adobe Type Manager

If Adobe Type Manager is installed with Windows 95, Apocalypse 5D performance may be degraded.

To maximize performance, make the following changes to your SYSTEM.INI file:

[Boot]
;system.drv=atmsys.drv
;atm.system.drv=system.drv
system.drv=system.drv

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Harvard Graphics 4.0

Running Harvard Graphics 4.0 for Windows in a 24-bit color mode (16.7m colors) causes a series of errors. Use a 16-bit (65k colors) mode instead.

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Dorling Kindersley

On launching 'The Ultimate Human Body' or 'The Encyclopedia of Science' in 16-bit (65k colors) and 24-bit (16.7m colors) resolutions, you may find that the window background color is incorrect.

In addition, when scrolling the window over the body in the 'The Ultimate Human Body', the main window showing the zoomed portion of the selected window may not show the complete image.

Select an 8-bit mode (256 colors) for running these applications.

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cc:Mail v6.0

When using applications with cc:Mail v6 in the background, icons within Windows 95 and other active applications may be drawn incorrectly and, in extreme cases, system integrity problems may occur. This does not happen with earlier versions of cc:Mail.

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ActiveMovie

When displaying accelerated overlay video with ActiveMovie in certain display modes, the video may become noisy when moving the video window around the desktop, or by resizing the video window.

Choose an alternative display mode.

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Apricot MS540 system BIOS upgrade for compatibility with Apocalypse 5D

If you are running a GrafixStar 600 or or an Apocalypse 5D other advanced graphics card with an Apricot MS540 system with IBM SurePath BIOS v1.3 or Apricot 5436 BIOS 5, you get no video output, and the system does not boot:

This is fixed using Patch 237, which has been provided by Apricot Computers Limited / Mitsubishi Electric. This patch contains Flash code to upgrade the system BIOS to v5.07 for both the 5434 and the 5436. The patch can be downloaded from VideoLogic Online website at http://www.videologic.com or copied from the Apocalypse CD in the directory \APOC5D\UPDATES\SN0237\PATCH237\.

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Laplink for Windows 95

When using Laplink for Windows 95 and the Client system has a GrafixStar 600 or an Apocalypse 5D installed, the Client system might lock-up when the host is connected.

This problem can be fixed by disabling bitmap caching in the graphics driver. There are two ways of disabling bitmap caching.

Disabling bitmap caching in systems with SmartTools installed

SmartTools v2.0 or later comes with a feature called SmartMAX. SmartMAX allows you to disable certain parts of the GrafixStar driver. To use SmartMAX, right-click the Windows 95 desktop and click Properties while holding down the CTRL key. In the Display Properties window click the SmartMAX tab and select the checkbox next to "Disable Bitmap Caching". Click OK and restart Windows 95.

Disabling bitmap caching in systems without SmartTools

Add the following entry to the bottom of your SYSTEM.INI file:

[VideoLogic SVGA]
TuningControl=27
RealizeControl=16

Save the changes and restart Windows 95.

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Running games without SciTech Display Doctor

GX6VBE.COM, as provided by VideoLogic in Patch 252, is a DOS Terminate-Stay-Resident program (TSR) that adds UniVBE BIOS extensions to the existing GrafixStar 600 or Apocalypse 5D BIOS. When the TSR is installed, certain DOS games, such as Z or Quake should no longer require SciTech Display Doctor or UniVBE v5.x.

Patch 252 can be downloaded from VideoLogic Online website at http://www.videologic.com or copied from the Apocalypse CD in the directory \APOC5D\UPDATES\SN0252\PATCH252\.

To install Patch 252, copy GX6VBE.COM to the root directory of the hard disk on which you are running Windows, and add the following line to AUTOEXEC.BAT:

c:\GX6VBE.COM

This assumes that the hard disk is your c: drive. Substitute the letter of your disk if it is not the c: drive.

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Installation   

The Windows 95 Device Manager shows a resource conflict between Apocalypse 5D and a standard PCI-to-PCI bridge.

This happens due to a problem some versions of Windows 95 have with PCI-to-PCI bridges. Version 4.00.950b of Windows 95 shows up a resource conflict of the PCI-to-PCI bridge on the Apocalypse 5D card, even though no conflict exists. Your Apocalypse 5D card will not be affected by this conflict and it cannot be resolved by trying to change the resources.