Virtual Encounter Contents
Virtual Encounter Setup

Click on the area for additional information:

Sample setup dialog

How do I...

Copy animations to the hard drive

Basic Troubleshooting

CD titles not showing up

Screen stays blank

Computer swaps a lot

Animation is choppy and/or sound breaks up

Long pause before starting


Animation List
The Animation List

This list shows the animations which are available to you at this moment.

This means that if the CD-ROM is not in the drive, only those copied onto the hard drive will show.

The first column indicates whether the animation is enabled (allowed to play).  If this is the case, an asterisk will appear there.

The second column indicates whether the animation is on CD only (CD) or copied onto the hard drive (HD).

The third column contains the file name of the animation.

The fourth column contains the size in Megabytes (Mb) of the animation.

Double-clicking on an animation title will enable or disable it.  The same result can be achieved by selecting the animation, and using the Enable checkbox.


Browsing the Catalog
The Browser

This button may not be visible if the CD-ROM is not in the drive.

When pressed, it will load up another help file which contains a list of the animations on the CD, a short description, and a sample frame for each animation.


Affect All Animations

The "Invert" button will change the state of all the animations: enabled animations will be disabled, and disabled animations will be enabled.

The "Enable All" button will turn on all animations.

Tip:

 To disable everything, you can "Enable All" and then "Invert All".


Mute

If this box is checked, no sound will be played with the animation.

This option may help low-memory systems, as memory used for the sound is now free to be used for the video.


Shuffle

If this box is checked, the enabled animations will be played in an random order, although the same animation will not play twice in a row (unless it is the only one enabled).

If this box is cleared, the enabled animations will play in the order shown in the animation list.  The last animation played is remembered from activation to activation.


Selected Animation Options

These options only affect the animation currently selected in the Animation List.

If the "Enabled" check box is selected, then the animation will be allowed to play.

If the "On Hard Disk" check box is selected, then the animation is either on the hard disk, or will be copied there when you press "OK", at which point you will be prompted to confirm any addition or deletion of files.

Tip to advanced users:

 If you prefer, you can copy and delete the *.VE files using the File Manager.  These files are stored in your windows directory.


Password Options

Use these options to put a password on the screen saver.

Select the "Password Protected" check box to turn on password protection.  When password protection is turned on, you cannot return to Windows from the screen saver until you type the password.

Press on "Set Password" to assign a password to the screen saver, and complete the Change Password dialog box.  This button is unavailable if "Password Protected" is turned off.


CD titles not showing up
CD Titles aren't showing up in the Animation List

Symptom: Only animations on the hard drive are showing in the animation list.

Explanation: The animation list only displays animations it can currently see.  Only the Windows directory (where animations are copied when "On Hard Disk" is selected) and the CD-ROM is checked.

Cause	Fix
CD drive letter changed	Run the SETUP program from the CD.
CD drive letter unavailable	Verify that you can access your CD drive from the File Manager.  If it is not accessible, consult your CDROM drive's documentation for instructions on how to correct this.
Wrong CD in drive.	Verify that the VE disk is in the CD-ROM drive.

If no animations are showing, it is possible that none have been copied to the hard drive and that the CD is not present.


Blank Screen
Screen Stays Blank

There are a few things which could be the source of this symptom:

No animations visible or enabled:

If your animation list is empty, this means Virtual Encounter has nothing to play.  You should exit from Virtual Encounter' setup, insert the Virtual Encounter CD, and re-enter Virtual Encounter's setup.  If titles are still not appearing, you probably have some trouble with your CD drive.  It is recommended you copy at least one animation to the hard drive.

Insufficient Memory:

Virtual Encounter needs at least two megabytes to run (some more complex animations prefer more memory).  If this much memory is not free, it will ask Windows to swap some of your application's memory to disk.  If there is still not enough memory, then the screen will be left blank.

Increasing the amount of virtual memory (Look in the Control Panel, 386 Enhanced, Virtual Memory) may help if you keep a lot of applications in memory.


Computer swaps a lot

Symptom:  The computer's hard drive is busy for a long time when it is first triggered, on exit or when the password dialog box pops up.

Cause:  Virtual Encounter attempts to get as much memory as it can for its use.  This could mean swapping other applications to disk.  If you have a lot of applications loaded, or do not have much RAM installed on your computer, this can amount to a good amount of memory to move.

Things which can help:

 Permanent swap files are a bit faster than temporary swap files.  To set this up, run the Control Panel, select 386 Enhanced, and then Virtual Memory.

 Consider disabling and EMS emulator or UMB emulators.  The most common are Microsoft's EMM386 and Quarterdeck's QEMM.  If you do not wish or cannot disable them because you need the extra conventional memory for other purposes, disabling EMS emulation may make more memory available to Windows.

 Increase the amount of RAM in your system.  The extra memory will speed up your overall system.


Although both these products greatly help DOS applications which require a lot of conventional memory, they also have a considerable impact on performance.  Furthermore, Windows can use all available memory without these drivers, and will emulate EMS by itself if such is required by DOS applications running in a DOS box.

If you have run a utility designed to increase the amount of available conventional memory (example: MEMMAKER), then one of these products is likely to have been installed.


Choppy Animation or Broken Sound

These are symptoms of poor system performance.

Parts which could slow things down:

CD-ROM	Virtual Encounter Animations can run from a CD-ROM running a double speed or better.  Some CD units, although rated double-speed, only go to this speed in certain conditions.  Running animations from the hard drive should fix this condition.
Low Memory	Some animations require more memory than others (these are usually the larger animations).  Notes on handling these conditions can be found in "Excessive Swapping".
Disk Drive Fragmentation	Severe cases of hard drive fragmentation may slow it down enough to be noticeable in Virtual Encounter.  Defragmenting will fix this condition, and will probably help your overall system performance.
ISA Video Card	Virtual Encounter' high-resolution video requires that the computer can dump to the video card at high speeds, hence the local bus video requirement.  Upgrading your video card will fix this problem, and will probably help your overall system performance.
Advanced users only: DMA contention	We have seen some cases where the audio card and the hard drive controller slow each other down when both are being used at the same time.  This problem is not specific to Virtual Encounter and will usually also show up during under Video for Windows.  The audio card's DMA is usually reconfigurable; consult its documentation.


Long Pause Before Starting

There is a 3 second pause after the first image of the animation is displayed.  This delay allows Virtual Encounter to optimize itself internally.

If the hard drive light is on for a long time before an image starts, this pause is probably caused by excessive swapping.

If the hard drive light is not on during this pause, it may be caused by an audio CD-ROM being in the drive during startup.  The pause is because MSCDEX (part of the CD-ROM driver) tries to get a directory off of it a few times before giving up.