miro Computer Products AG 01/07/1997 Version 2.00 miroCRYSTAL VR2000/4000 ======================= Important hint for DC30 and PCTV users: ======================================= The recent introduction of Microsoft´s DirectX technology has made it possible to use the free memory of a graphics board for an overlay by transferring the video data directly via the PCI bus. In addition, DirectX introduces many new functions which are especially suited for computer games. New technologies, however, may also lead to problems. On some earlier systems the combination of DirectX-3, the optimized miro drivers, and the DC30 board may cause trouble. For this reason, miro has decided to offer two driver concepts: the optimized ones and drivers which have been especially designed for Digital Video applications. For this reason digital Video users (DC20, DC30, PCTV) will find a special Digital Video driver version in the \Disksets\DVEDRV\ directory on the installation CD. In addition to the miroCRYSTAL VR2000/4000 system software, this CD contains the following components: Windows 95 ---------- 1. Microsoft DirectX 2. ActiveMovie 1.0 Windows NT 4.0 -------------- 1. DirectDraw compatible Display drivers Windows NT 3.51 ---------------- 1. Display driver CAD drivers ----------- 1. Autocad 10, 11, 12, 13 2. DOS Version 3D-Studio Windows 3.x ----------- 1. Native S3 driver 2. S3 Refresh 3. S3 VBE 3.x 4. Galileo Configuration Tool OS/2 Warp --------- 1. Display driver Important hints on Windows 95: ============================== miroCRYSTAL VR is a state-of-the-art highly-integrated graphics adapter which also includes a 3D Engine. To achieve the complete functionality, however, the "DirectDraw" system extension by Microsoft is required. Since Windows 95 does not include DirectDraw yet, you should first install the complete "DirectX" software on your computer. You can install "DirectX" easily using the "WINDOWS 95 driver" install option in the SETUP-MANAGER menu of your CD. After you installed "DirectDraw" via the "DirectX" installation, you should install the miro graphics drivers which offer high refresh rates and optimize the graphics output. Installing the miro graphics drivers and miroWINTOOLS for Windows 95: ===================================================================== Note: You can install the miro Windows 95 drivers either using the setup program on the supplied CD or the Display icon contained in the Control Panel. These miro Windows 95 drivers are only suited for the miroCRYSTAL VR2000/4000 boards in the single-screen solution. The so-called Twinface mode (dual-screen solutions of two of these graphics boards or combinations of different boards) are not supported!!! Important hints on the installation and the re-installation: ============================================================ Note: With early Windows 95 versions, serious problems may occur with the automatic hardware detection when re-installing Windows95. You can avoid this Windows 95 problem by disabling the automatic detection using the "Hardware assistant" and selecting "Standard graphics board" under "Graphics board" (also see 4.). In later Windows 95 versions this error has been corrected. 1.) Please do not use the miro Windows 3.x drivers under Windows 95. If you have done so already or tried to do so, make sure that all old miro Windows 3.x drivers and entries will be removed from the SYSTEM.INI file. 2.) If you use a miro monitor or a multifrequency monitor, we recommend to use the Miromon.inf file contained on this installation CD. Using Miromon.inf guarantees that the special parameters suited for your monitor are used. In the "Display Properties" dialog, select "Change configuration". By clicking "Change" in the "Monitor" field, you go to the monitor model selection. By clicking the "Have disk" and the "Browse" buttons you go to a file selection window. Select the installation CD under "Drives" to go to the miroCRYSTAL VR installation directory. In this way, the mirodisp.inf and miromon.inf files are automatically selected. Click "OK" to go to the miroMONITOR selection list. Select the monitor you use. Note: Please do not try to "soup up" your monitor by selecting frequencies which exceed the monitor´s frequencies. In this way, you will definitely damage your monitor. These cases are not covered by the warranty! Please make sure that no old OEM*.INF monitor file is located in your Win95\INF directory. These INF files are ASCII files you can view using the Notepad. Before removing these files make sure that you do not delete the wrong files. If you use the miro monitor files contained on the original Windows 95 CD, we recommend again to use the monitor files on the installation CD. 3.) For each graphics drivers installation Windows 95 creates a new OEM*.INF file in the Win95\INF directory. Windows 95, however, does not remove the old OEM*.INF files. Please make sure that only the current OEM*.INF files are located in the directory and remove the old files. In this way, you can avoid all possible problems! 4.) With the currently supplied Windows 95 version, it may happen that after having installed miroCRYSTAL VR, Windows 95 starts with an error message (only 16 colors are available). In this case, Windows 95 does not detect the S3 ViRGE processor. After having installed the miro software this will not happen again. If it is not possible, however, to select the resolution and number of colors, you can use the miro tool kill3d.exe. This tool resets your computer to its initial state it was in before the graphics software has been installed. After restarting Windows you can install the graphics board as described above. Please only use the kill3d.exe program in exceptional cases. It is no substitute for the deinstall program contained in the miroCRYSTAL VR program group. 5.) If you want to update or reinstall the drivers, please remove the old miro software using the deinstaller program mentioned above. To remove all system files, first close the miroPINBOARD. LIMITATIONS =========== In general, dual-screen solutions (Twinface) with this graphics board combined with other miro graphics boards or with boards of other manufacturers are not supported!!! Video & Your miro graphics adapter offers very high image refresh Multimedia rates which relieve eye-fatigue during the daily work with application software. This can, however, lead to problems when playing back AVI or MPEG files. To solve this problem, the miro PINBOARD offers you the miroVIDEO button. This optimizes the image refresh rates for multimedia applications (miroVIDEO DC10/DC30, miroMEDIA PCTV). If there are distortions in the overlay image (stripes), use this button. Games under Some games for DirectDraw use screen modes which are not DirectDraw available when the miroVIDEO button is enabled. In case of problems, simply disable the video optimization. 640x480 If you cannot switch to the TV mode in this resolution, enable TV Underscan using the miroPINBOARD. miroSCREEN Do not use this tool with fixed-frequency monitors. You should ADJUST not select image sizes and positions which deviate too much from the default settings because otherwise you may damage the monitor. You cannot use miroSCREEN ADJUST simultaneously with MPEG or TV output. While miroSCREEN ADJUST is running, please avoid switching the resolution with miroPINBOARD or Windows95. Under VGA2TV it is not possible to alter the image size using the miroSCREEN-Adjust tool. You can, however, adapt the image position to your TV set. Extreme image positions may lead to distortions. Please only use miroSCREEN-Adjust in the TV mode when your image is not centered sufficiently. DirectX A DirectX application may notify you that the used driver has not been tested with DirectX. When the program asks you, if you want to replace the tested driver by a tested one, please answer NO. Please check after having installed games under Windows95, if the miro driver is still active after restarting your computer. If not, you may have to reenable or to reinstall the driver. Xing! Player If you want to output an MPEG movie on a TV compatible device, first start MPEG on your computer monitor and then switch to the TV output. Also switch off the hardware acceleration in the XING-Setup. Please do not use a virtual TV Screen during playback. AVI & TV In case you want to output an AVI movie on TV in the full- screen mode, enable VGA2TV under DOS. Windows NT 4.0 The current Windows NT 4.0 version does not yet support Direct3D. This means that programs, especially games using this interface, are not operational under Windows NT 4.0. We recommend to use the Microsoft "Service Release I" for NT 4.0. VGA2TV When using VGA2TV (see manual) it may happen that the wrong character set will be selected when switching to the DOS full-screen mode. Enter "mode co80" to achieve a correct 80x25. Hints on Windows 3.x ================ You can also use your graphics adapter under Windows 3.x although under restricted conditions. Please note the following hints. 1.) Because Windows 3.x is not capable to detect a new graphics adapter, change to the Windows directory under DOS and call "Setup". Select "Display" using the arrow up/down keys and select the "Other" option which requires the disk provided by the device drive vendor. 2.) Now you can easily install the graphics drivers from the disk or the supplied CD-ROM. If you are using the installation CD, please enter the complete driver path, e.g. D:\Disksets\win31\.. . The driver is, however, not called "miroCRYSTAL VR2000/4000" but ViRGE which is the name of the graphics processor. 3.) After this installation all possible resolutions will be displayed. These can, however, be changed and adapted anytime. You should change the resolution under DOS. 4.) Now install "Galileo". This tool allows you to change the settings. Higher image refresh rates =========================== IMPORTANT! Using the "S3refrsh" program requires some caution. ========== In your own interest, please only select image refresh rates which are compatible with your monitor. Please refer to your monitor manual for the characteristics. 1.) To achieve higher image refresh rates, use the "S3refsh.exe" program which is located in the Windows 3.x directory. Copy this program to the hard disk and start it. 2.) A screen which a list of refresh rates on the left-hand side will appear. Above you will find all possible resolutions. The mouse or the keyboard lets you select desired image refresh rates. 3.) After you made all settings, quit the program by clicking the "Exit" button. If you want to the settings are saved in the "autoexec.bat" file so that they are available after the system startup. 4.) Restart your system. Windows now works with the desired settings. OS/2 Warp ========= 1.) Start OS/2 in the VGA mode and open the OS/2 window (task bar). 2.) If you want to install from disk, this disk has to be called "S3 DRV1". Switch to drive A:\. Use Setup.cmd, to start the installation. 3.) Press the "y" key to confirm. Now all system files will be copied. Important: The disk must not be write-protected. 4.) Perform a system shutdown and open the "System configuration" folder. Here you will find the "Display Driver Install" icon. Double-click this icon, to call a dialog you can use to make monitor settings. Select "Primary Display". After confirming, a driver list will appear which includes the new driver name "S3 Virge [32 Bit] Version 1.00.08". This driver has already been selected. 5.) The following dialog selects the monitor values. Please confirm the choice and click "Install". Again, restart the system. 6.) Under System configuration\System the window at the top displays all resolutions and the window at the bottom displays all possible image refresh rates. 7.) Another tip: The "Screen" tab has another page you can enable at the bottom on the right. Here you can view all data of the selected settings. In addition, a new monitor name has been added: "Custom:Full S3 Chip Capabilities". This monitor offers the maximum refresh rates you can select in the first page of the screen menu. OTHER LIMITATIONS ================= miro Computer Products AG always tries to support a wide range of languages. Because other manufacturers do no share this opinion, the "ActiveMovie" and "DirectX" is only available in English.