Simply House Setup Information We have tested Simply House on a variety of systems without any problems. However, in a few cases, problems were found with the installation or compatibility of certain manufacturer's video and printer drivers. In all cases, these problems can be resolved by installing a compatible driver. Installation error (GPF) ------------------------------------------ We have encountered a few systems which have had a corrupted REG.DAT file. Such a file corruption will cause an error during the installation of Simply House. To remedy this problem, install Simply House again. Video For Windows error ----------------------- We have encountered a problem with a few system's video card drivers. If you experience a GPF error while running Simply House, try changing your WIN.INI file, in your [drawdib] section, to include the following: dva=0 Your WIN.INI should then look like this: ... [drawdib] dva=0 ... ATI Ultra Graphics Adapter and other Graphics Cards --------------------------------------------------- You may encounter problems if you are not using the most current video driver for your video card. Some of the problems known to be caused by earlier versions of a video driver include: - Displaying TrueType fonts larger than 20 points incorrectly - Repainting the desktop bitmap incorrectly after closing a title - Banding problems in bitmaps when displayed in 1,024-by-768 mode Memory ------ Simply House requires at least 4Mb of real memory and at least a 2Mb swap file. A larger swap file may improve the performance of Simply House. Incorrect printing occurs ------------------------- During our printer testing, we encountered a problem with certain printer drivers. We solved this problem by installing the latest printer drivers available for a particular printer. To do this, contact your vendor or the printer manufacturer directly and request that they send you their latest Windows printer driver. Printers that use UNIDRV.DLL ---------------------------- Some printers require the installation of a DLL named UNIDRV.DLL. Printers that use this DLL may encounter problems when printing topics from the text content. To work around this problem, choose Print Setup and clear the Color check box, if one appears (ordinarily, this box is checked during the default setup). Intel Smart Recorder owners --------------------------- Those users using the Intel Smart Recorder using the ir21.dll capture codec may encounter problems capturing video after installing Simply House. To solve this problem, simply copy the IR21.DLL from your installation disks back on to your Windows\System directory. Then modify your SYSTEM.INI file to read as follows: ... [drivers] VIDC.RT21=ir21.dll Simply House Quality Assurance ------------------------------ The multimedia video-audio driver used by Simply House has been tested using the following configurations: Operating Systems ----------------- Simply House has been extensively tested on Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.1.1. Video Cards ----------- Simply House requires video software drivers and hardware that fully support Windows 3.1 standards. The list below shows video systems that have been tested and found to be compatible with the Director driver. Installing the latest available video driver software is generally recommended. Contact your video card manufacturer for information. The following video cards have been tested and give good results: Bus DRIVER Video card Type Date Rev Notes ---------- ---- ---- ------ ----- Actix ProStar VL VLB 8/18/93 1.42 1 ATI Graphics Ultra ISA 3/19/93 2.3 ATI Graphics Ultra Plus ISA 4/25/94 2.3 ATI Graphics Ultra Pro VLB 4/25/94 2.3 ATI Graphics Ultra Pro ISA 4/25/94 2.3 Blackship Color DesignerA3 VLB 7/8/93 1.32 Diamond Speed Star Pro ISA 2/17/94 1.08 Diamond Speed Star VGA ISA 4/14/92 Diamond Stealth 24 VLB 6/3/94 3.00 Diamond Stealth Pro VLB 10/6/93 ELSA Winner2000 Pro PCI 6/23/94 1.22 Hercules Dynamite Pro ISA 12/1/93 2.10 2 Hercules Dynamite Pro VLB 12/1/93 3.00 Hercules Graphite Power ISA 4/6/94 2.10 IBM XGA Display MCA 11/12/93 2.11 3 Matrox MGA Power Graphics PCI 3/28/93 1.42 Media Vision ProGraphics 1280 VLB 9/15/93 1.01 Media Vision ProGraphics 1024 VLB 4/15/94 1.5 Mitac MVA-CL5428-1MB VLB 3/15/94 V1.43 Number Nine 9GXe Level 10 ISA 2/9/94 V3.11 4 Number Nine 9GXe Level 11 VLB 2/9/94 3.10.061 4,5 Number Nine 9GXe Level 14 VLB 4/7/94 3.15 4 Number Nine 9GXE64 VLB 6/22/94 1.19.04 7 Orchid Celsius VLB 10/1/93 1.32 7 Orchid Fahrenheit 1280 Plus VLB 3/1/94 rel 7 6 Orchid Fahrenheit VA VLB 4/29/93 5.01 Orchid Kelvin 64 PCI 3/14/94 1.1 Orchid Kelvin 64 VLB 2/23/94 1.21 Orchid ProDesigner IIS ISA 3/1/92 2.0 Paradise WD90c33 VLB 6/28/93 1.2 Standard 1Mb-24X ISA 3/19/93 1.30 STB Horizon VL Pro VLB 6/29/93 1.3 STB Lightspeed PCI 12/1/93 1.1 STB Pegasus VLB 11/29/93 1.3 TrueVision Bravado 8 ISA 1/15/92 Note 1: Driver version 1.53 sometimes hangs when playing certain Simply House transitions. Driver version 1.42 is recommended. Note 2: Does not always properly display digital video in 16 bit (thousands) and 24 bit (millions) color modes. Note 3: Does not draw extremely wide arcs properly. Note 4: There is sometimes sound break-up or distortion during complex transitions using most sound cards. Note 5: The cursor sometimes disappears when using a large virtual desktop. Note 6: Video snow appears during some palette transitions. Note 7: The version number of the video driver listed is recommended. Sound Cards ----------- Simply House includes sound mixing and playback effects. Pleasing sound effects and sound start-up response time depends on the capabilities of the card and the performance of the system. The following sound cards have been tested and are compatible with Simply House. Sound Card Notes and comments ---------- ------------------ Compaq Business Audio Creative Labs SoundBlaster Creative Labs SoundBlaster Pro Creative Labs SoundBlaster 16 Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE32 Gateway 2000 IBM M-Audio Driver version 1.3 - Note 1 MediaVision ProAudio Spectrum MediaVision ProAudio Spectrum 16 MediaVision ProAudio Spectrum 16 Pro MicroSoft SoundSystem Version 1 MicroSoft SoundSystem Version 2 Orchid SoundWave 32 Reveal Forte 16 Roland Rap-10 Note 1: IBM computers that have the M-Audio sound card should use driver version 1.3 or higher for best results. Older versions of this driver don't play some sounds in Director or AVI movies. The version 1.3 driver does not pass the 16-bit sounds test for Director. Testing revealed that 8 bit sounds are corrupted when played after a 16-bit sound. Thank you. If you should have any problems, please contact customer support at 4Home Productions. The telephone number is included in your documentation.