The Alone In The Dark launcher has a 'Video Options' button that lets you enable higher-quality shadow rendering. However, not all graphics cards are capable of running
in this high-quality shadow mode. If you choose this option and you receive an error
message, your machine probably cannot run in this mode.
Please note that the following cards require you to alter your display settings for high-quality shadow mode to work correctly:
Matrox G400 / G400-MAX / G450
1) Right-clock on a blank area of your desktop, and select 'Properties'
2) Select the 'Settings' tab
3) Click the 'Advanced' button
4) Select the 'Options' tab
5) Locate the option 'Use 32bit Zbuffering', and make sure it's enabled
Kyro II
1) Right-clock on a blank area of your desktop, and select 'Properties'
2) Select the 'Settings' tab
3) Click the 'Advanced' button
4) Select the '3D Optimisation' tab
5) Select the OpenGL tab, and select 'Custom'.
5) Ensure that the 'Use application specified buffering' option is selected
TROUBLESHOOTING
---------------
PROBLEM: Movies are choppy/jerky, or the sound cuts in and out
Ensure you have installed up-to-date drivers for your graphics-card; see the 'Drivers' section for further details.
If you have a DVD drive, check if DMA is enabled. On Windows 95, 98 and ME, you can do this as follows:
1) Open the 'My Computer' icon on your desktop
2) Open the 'Control Panel' within this
3) Double-click on 'System'
4) Select the 'Device Manager' tab
5) Double-click on the 'CD-ROM' icon (may also be labelled 'DVD-ROM')
6) Double-click on the icon representing your DVD-ROM drive that appears below it.
7) Select the 'Settings' tab
8) If the 'DMA' checkbox is ticked, then DMA is enabled. Otherwise, you can try
enabling it
Note enabling DMA may or may not be supported by your DVD-drive. If enabling it doesn't improve the quality of movie playback or causes problems, you should disable it again.
PROBLEM: The game runs slowly or jerkily
Please check each of the following:
- Does your system meet the minimum required specification (listed at the
top of this file)?
- Have you installed up-to-date drivers for your graphics-card? It is very
important that you do so; see the 'Drivers' section for further details.
- Are you playing in high-quality shadow mode? This will cause a noticable drop in
performance, and you may wish to disable it
- Do you have a virus-checker enabled? Virus-checkers can seriously affect gameplay
performance, and you may get better performance if you disable it while you
play.
- If you're running Windows95, Windows98 or WindowsME, try pressing
CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up a list of running tasks. If there is an entry named 'ati2evae', end this task, since it will seriously affect the performance of
Alone In The Dark 4.
PROBLEM: The game won't run at all, or quits unexpectedly
Please check each of the following:
- Does your system meet the minimum required specification (listed at the
top of this file)?
- Have you installed up-to-date drivers for your graphics-card? It is very
important that you do so; see the 'Drivers' section for further details.
- Do you have a working soundcard correctly installed in your system?
- Have you chosen the high-quality shadow option? If so, switching this off may
fix your problem.
- Do you have OpenGL drivers for your version of Windows? Note that some vendors do not supply certified drivers for all Windows versions (eg S3 Savage 3D with Windows2000 or
WindowsME)
- Are you running Windows NT? Alone In The Dark 4 will only run on
Windows 95, 98, ME or 2000. It is untested on Windows XP.
SPECIFIC CONFIGURATION PROBLEMS
-------------------------------
ATI Rage Pro + Windows ME
If you experience problems with this setup, please try downloading the display driver version 4.11.2628 from the ATI website (see above for a link to the ATI site).
Windows95
If you are running the original version of Windows95, you may need to install a
system-upgrade to run Alone In The Dark 4. Please check the Microsoft website
(http://www.microsoft.com) to download the latest Win95 update.
Voodoo3 3500 + Windows2000:
If you encounter problems with this combination, you may need to install the Voodoo3
3000 drivers. You can then reinstall the Voodoo3 3500 drivers to regain the full
functionality of your card.
Savage 2000:
If you enable high-quality shadows on this card, it will run, but at an unplayably slow
rate. The Savage2000 does not properly support the high-quality shadow mode, so please
avoid selecting it if you have this card.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
-----------------
If you experience a problem that none of the above helps you with, you can contact Infogrames Technical Support. The contact number is listed at the back of your game manual.
