------------------------------------------------------ Sigma Designs Windows 95 README.TXT for REALmagic LITE 7/11/l995 ------------------------------------------------------ (c) Copyright Sigma Designs, Inc., 1995 Congratulations on your purchase of the RealMagic LITE MPEG multimedia playback controller. This file contains important information not available at the time the manual was printed. Please take time to read through it for the latest updates. Software Installation ===================== The Setup works in two phases : setting up the Windows 95 Device Manager and loading the REALmagic drivers in the system. Setup Windows 95 Device Manager ------------------------------- 1- In the Control Panel group, click "Add New Hardware". 2- Choose "No" for "Search for New hardware" option. Click Next. 3- Choose "Sound, Video, Game controllers" from the list of devices. Click Next. 4- Click on the "Have Disk" option. Make sure the REALmagic diskette is in the floppy drive. 5- Enter "A" for the drive letter and click OK. (This example assumes that your floppy drive letter is A:). 6- The dialog box should display the following : Sigma Designs REALmagic Lite Click OK. 7- A window displaying the resources used by the REALmagic board will appear. Choose Next to continue. The resources will be allocated and the REALmagic PNP driver (RMSRVDRV.VxD) will be copied to the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. 8- Choose Finish to complete the first step of the installation. 9- Select shut down the computer. Loading REALmagic drivers ------------------------- 1- Start Windows 95 (if your system does not boot directly into Windows 95.) 2- Choose Start, in the lower left corner, then choose Run. 3- In the command line box type A:\SETUP. (This example assumes that your floppy drive letter is A:.) 4- Follow the instructions given by the Setup program. Choose Install. 5- A window displaying the resources used by the REALmagic board will appear. Click OK to continue. 6- Click Continue to accept the default directory setting (C:\REALMAGC\) or enter an alternate directory name. 7- After Setup finishes copying the files, it will prompt you to reboot the computer. You must shut down the computer and restart to activate the REALmagic board. Changing a Resource (for Advanced Users) =================== If you wish to change a resource (I/O address or/and IRQ number) assigned by the Plug N Play feature of Win 95, do the following : 1- Start System from the the Control Panel group. 2- Choose Device Manager and double-click on "Sound, video, and game controllers". 3- Double-click on "Sigma Designs REALmagic Lite". 4- Select the tab "Resources". 5- Double-click on the required resource. Click "Change Settings". 6- Modify the settings to the required value. Make sure there is NO conflict specified in the Conflict Information box. Click OK. 7- Restart the computer as required in the next dialog box. 8- After Windows 95 startup, select "Border Adjust" in the REALmagic group. You will get a dialog box specifying that the hardware settings have changed and you need to restart the computer. Click Yes. 9- After restarting, the REALmagic board is properly installed to the new resources. ISSUES with PROTECTED MODE 32 bit CDROM DRIVERS: ================================================== Problem: Based on information available from Microsoft: - Windows 95 supports "WhiteBook-compliant VideoCds". This includes the mandatory inclusion of an ISO 9660 volume. - Windows 95 does not run CDi applications. CDi discs, which are not ISO 9660 compliant and use a proprietary "GreenBook" CDi File System, are not supported by Windows 95 except through the use of direct media access via a Real Mode driver. In order to RUN VideoCD, CDi and CDi with GreenBook CDi File System we need to use the Real Mode CDROM driver. This is because the Protected Mode Mini Port Driver provided by Windows 95 supports only the WhiteBook-Compliant Video CDs. Solution: Use the Real Mode CDROM Driver which was set and loaded in your system before you installed Windows 95. During Setup, Windows 95 will remove the MSCDEX.EXE from the memory and it will replace it with the CDFS and the new 32 bit Protected Mode Mini Port driver. Do the following steps: 1. Install the Real Mode CDROM driver. When you run REALmagic SETUP, it will install and/or inform you about the type of the CDROM drive on your system, so you could install it yourself. - In the AUTOEXEC.BAT, remove the REM from the line REM C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:SONY_000 /M:10 /V (or add the line without REM if it is not there) (the above line assumes a Sony drive) - Make sure the proper CDROM Real Mode device driver is loaded in CONFIG.SYS. Double check this with the old copy of the CONFIG.SYS you backed up before installing Windows 95. - If the device needs a Port Address and Interrupt, you need to check EITHER the FMPDRV.INI file in REALMAGC (or the directory of your REALmagic Applications/Drivers) OR select the System option in Control Panel, click on Device Manager tab, Select the REALmagic device, click on the properties button and check the CDROM resources: CDROM Address = Second Input/Output range from top CDROM Interrupt = Second Interrupt request from top 2. In Control Panel, double-click the System option. 3. Click the Device Manager tab. 4. Select the device type CDROM controller. 5. Click the remove button. If the CD-ROM drive is an IDE drive and connected to the same IDE controller of the hard disk (or SCSI drive connected to the same SCSI controller of the hard disk), you will need to remove also the hard disk controller from within the Device Manager. 6. Restart WINDOWS 95. Now, the Real Mode driver is active. NOTE: Make sure you do not have both Real Mode and Protected Mode driver loaded. That would create a conflict, specially when they are both set to different Port Addresses and Interrupt Request Lines. If there is such conflict, upon entering Windows 95, the Explorer might go into an infinite loop (long wait) to search for the CDROM driver. If this happens, press the combination Ctrl+ALT+DEL, Select the Explorer task, and press END TASK. Remove one of the drivers (Real or Protected). SPECIAL NOTES: ============= 1. REALmagic software updates CONFIG.SYS for the SONY CDROM only (for the Lite IDE board only). 2. IDE CDROM interface has the fixed IO address 0x170 and the interrupt at IRQ 15. RealMagic CD Station ==================== RealMagic CD Station is a new interactive utility for Windows which automatically detects and plays different CD formats. It provides a VCR-like interface in a user-friendly fashion and allows the user to playback different types of CD-ROMs including, audio CDs, Video CDs, CD-i movie CDs, and data CDs. It also allows you to create a playlist of your favorite tracks. With some VideoCD 2.0's, you might need to press the Eject/Insert button twice before starting Play. Help for REALmagic CD Station ============================= Windows On-Line Help is available for the REALmagic CD Station from the Control Menu Box or just press key any time. Pull down the Control Menu Box and select Help!. Then select the topic you want from the list. RealSaver ========= RealSaver is an add-on to the standard Windows screen savers that allows you to play MPEG files from your CD-ROM instead of the traditional animation sequences provided with Windows. Palette Problems ================ If you are experiencing color palette problems with some of your software programs, such as wrong colors or posterized images, it is most likely that you have a local bus VGA adapter. Some software does not pass the palette information to the feature connector as the palette changes. Since RealMagic gets the palette information from the feature connector, wrong colors will result. During SETUP, if the SETUP program detects that you have a VLB video card, it will install a fix in the FMPDRV.INI file in the RealMagic directory. FMPDRV.INI is a text file that contains all the essential parameters for your RealMagic's operation. Check this text file to make sure the "PaletteFix" parameter is set to "Yes." If the problem persists, try connecting your VGA display directly to your VGA board, in effect bypassing the RealMagic board, when you are using this software. Another possible solution is to connect the two VGA outputs, one from RealMagic and the other from your VGA board, to a VGA signal switch box. This type of device allows you to switch between the RealMagic VGA output and your VGA board output with a flick of a switch. In other cases, when changing display settings (resolution, number of colors), Windows 95 might not need a reboot. However you will need to reboot in order to activate the REALmagic palette snooper. DOS TITLES ========== The way DOS works has slightly changed under Windows 95. In order to optimize performance of DOS MPEG titles, please run the titles in the real mode MS-DOS: 1- Select Shutdown from the Taskbar (after quitting Windows applications). 2- Select Restart the computer in MS-DOS. 3- At the DOS prompt after reboot, enter the command for the title, such as : C:\>D: D:\>FLASH 4- To start Windows after exiting from the title, type : c:\>EXIT WINDOWS TITLES ============== If you run a Windows title and you get the message "No MPegVideo driver", do the following : 1- In the Accessories group, double-click on Notepad. 2- Choose the File, Open menu. 3- Type C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI in the filename box and press . 4- Go to the section MCI after the line ReelMagic=C:\REALMAGC\MCIFMP.DRV 5- Add the line : MPegVideo=C:\REALMAGC\MCIFMP.DRV (This example assumes that your REALmagic drivers were installed on drive C: in the directory REALMAGC.) 6- Save and Exit from the File menu. Playing DRAGON'S LAIR ===================== Dragon's Lair requires the REALmagic DOS driver to be loaded in memory before it will play. We provide a batch file in the REALmagic directory called DRAGON.BAT that handles all this for you. To play Dragon's Lair, place the CD in your CD-ROM drive and type: CD \REALMAGC and press DRAGON and press Note: the batch file assumes your CD-ROM drive letter is "D". If this is not the case, you will need to use a text editor to modify the batch file. The line which reads: D: should be changed to reflect your CD-ROM's drive letter (e.g. "E:"). Playing THE HORDE ================= Make sure your sound card is 100% SoundBlaster(TM) compatible. Some sound cards, such as the Media Vision ProAudio Spectrum 16(TM) and boards that use the Media Vision PAS 16(TM) chip set, will not work with The Horde (no sound). Crystal Dynamics has provided a fix for this in the form of a new HORDE.EXE. It is available on the Sigma Designs BBS for download. Another sound card, the Sound Galaxy Pro(TM) from Aztech, requires a special command when starting The Horde. Modify the PLAY.BAT file in the \HORDE directory (created by the INSTALL program) to start The Horde with the command line "HORDE /S:SBLASTER" (between FMPLOAD and FMPLOAD /U). Without this command line option, the volume controls of the Sound Galaxy Pro will be set to zero each time you start The Horde. If you use disk caching programs, such as Microsoft SMARTDRV, you MAY experience hanging problems. If you do, try turning off the "write-caching" to the hard drive where The Horde has been installed. For example, if you use SMARTDRV and The Horde is installed on drive C:, use the command SMARTDRV C to turn off "write-caching" on drive C:. REALmagic File Descriptions =========================== The following are the descriptions of the files contained in the REALmagic directory: CDIMOVIE.DRV REALmagic Video CD/CD-I Movie driver CTL3D.DLL 3D Resource for SETUP DIGITALVIDEO.MCI MCI Digital Video translation table (WINDOWS\SYSTEM) DOSMIX.EXE REALmagic Audio Mixer in DOS DPLAYER.EXE Demo CD Player in Windows DRAGON.BAT Batch file for Dragon's Lair DSP.BIN Audio DSP code FIXPAL.EXE Support for high color modes and palettes problems FLYLOGO.EXE Program that displays flying Sigma Designs logo FMPDRV.EXE REALmagic DOS driver FMPDRV.INI Device driver initialization file IMPEG.DRV REALmagic Windows driver MCIFMP.DRV REALmagic MCI driver MPGBKGND.TSK Background Task file helps low-level driver MPGCONF.EXE REALmagic Border Adjustment in Windows MPGDEV.SYS REALmagic configuration device driver MPGSCSVR.SCR REALmagic screen saver MPGTEST.BAT Batch file to test MPEG playback MPGVDD.386 File needed by the driver MPGVDD.BIN MPEG microcode MPGWMIX.EXE REALmagic Audio Mixer in Windows README.TXT This text file contains updates and technical notes RMD.INF Information file for RM Lite RMSETUP.DLL REALmagic SETUP library RMSRVDRV.VXD REALmagic PNP driver RMTESTS.DLL REALmagic tests library RNDV.EXE Program needed by Setup SETUP.EXE REALmagic DOS setup program SETUP.INI Initialization file for SETUP SETUPLGO.BMP REALmagic bitmap for winsetup.exe SSCONFIG.EXE Configuration application for the screen saver TEST.BAT Batch file that allow to run MPEG files TESTFMP.EXE Program to run MPEG files VPLAYER.EXE Video CD Player program in DOS WVPLAYER.EXE REALmagic CD Station program WVPLAYER.HLP REALmagic CD Station help file