Thriller 3D Windows 95 Drivers and Tools Version 0.85.3596 Installation Guide June 30th, 1998 CONTENTS Introduction If You're Updating From An Earlier Release Running The SETUP Program What's New In This Release Known Limitations How To Contact Hercules Introduction ============ This guide contains the information you need to install our Windows 95 drivers and tools for your Hercules product. If You're Updating From An Earlier Release ========================================== If you already have an earlier version of our Power Drive Windows 95 driver installed, you should run the UnInstall program located in the Hercules PowerTools program group before continuing. Doing this removes the previous release of software from your hard drive, as well as all old references to the drivers and utilities in your configuration files. The UnInstall program will also change your display driver back to the standard VGA driver. After running the UnInstall program, restart your computer. You will be asked for the first diskette of the new Hercules software. Windows 95 will install the new driver. When asked to restart the computer, select "No". You will now be ready to install this new software for the Windows 95 desktop. Running the SETUP Program ========================= If you received this software release on diskettes, you'll find the SETUP.EXE program on Disk 1 of our Windows 95 Driver and Utilities diskettes -- the very same diskette that contains this README.TXT file. If you've downloaded our software from one of our online services, you'll find the SETUP.EXE in the archive -- it will be in the same directory as is this README.TXT file. To install the driver and utilities, just run our SETUP.EXE program. If you run it from the task bar, make sure you type the entire path to the directory that contains SETUP.EXE. Otherwise, you might accidentally launch somebody else's setup program. SETUP.EXE can install the Power Drive driver, our new Touch 95 and Hercules Entertainment Center utilities, or both. To automatically install everything, choose the "Typical" option when using Setup's "wizard" installation interface. There's nothing more to do! What's New In This Release ========================== 1. Available video memory is now correctly reported to DirectX applications for 4MB and 8MB boards. This corrects problems running games above 800x600x16bpp (such as white textures in Tomb Raider 2). 2. The Advanced Settings tab no longer resets the monitor to 60Hz when clicked. 3. Magenta or pink icons in Word and Outlook have been eliminated. 4. Business.xls and Scientific.xls (Excel macro benchmarks) no longer crash the system. 5. Winstone 98 stability issues (crashes) have been corrected. 6. A problem with the mouse pointer position with Brooktree TV-out has been fixed. 7. A possible fatal exception during reboot after first installing the drivers has been eliminated. 8. Possible noise appearing at lefthand side of screen when switching refresh rates at 16bpp has been eliminated. 9. Several Windows 98 issues have been addressed. Therefore, Windows 98 operation is now much more stable. However, in a multimonitor configuration, the Thriller 3D must be the primary display adapter. Therefore, two Thriller 3Ds may not work properly together in a system, but the Thriller 3D should work with another type of display adapter, such as an S3 ViRGE (or any other adapter that supports multimonitor as a secondary adapter). Known Limitations ================= 1. TV Out feature only supports 640x480x16bpp mode. 2. DOS box on TV Out mode will cause some unexpected problems. 3. Mouse pointer trails don't work with the Windows Standard (hardware) pointers. Choose a software pointer set instead, such as 3D or Animated Pointers. 4. Icons in tasbar or open window are distorted when changing color depth from 16bpp to 8bpp or 32bpp, if Windows is not restarted. 5. The exit window on the windowed mode of Shivers 2 is the wrong color if Shivers 2 is not run in 8bpp mode. Running Shivers 2 in 8bpp, as recommended by Sierra, eliminates this problem and enables all special effects in the game. 6. When inserting TriplePlay 98, the autplay program starting up causes a GPF. 7. When running Doom, and doing at least one ALT-TAB, and then exiting crashes the system. 8. Textures do not display properly in Winter Race 3D. 9. The system may freeze when scrolling or dragging Netscape 4.04 (or other applications) when custom cursors (such as those that ship with Microsoft Plus!) are enabled. To work around this problem, go to Control Panel->Mouse and click on the Pointers Tab. Choose "Windows Standard" from the Scheme drop-down list and click OK. 10. Drawing anomalies on some planes in Microsoft Flight Simulator 98. 11. Wave or other sounds stutter when scrolling in Netscape or other graphics-intensive program. 12. Screen flicker at 1152x864x32bpp at 75Hz and 90Hz is apparent when dragging windows or scrolling. This may also appear at 1600x1200x16bppx75Hz. Hercules is on an aggressive schedule to provide solutions to known limitations whenever possible. If you encounter a problem, please contact us to ensure that you are using the latest software. How To Contact Hercules ======================= Here's how to contact Hercules: Via Telephone ------------- Technical support: 800-323-0601 (toll-free in North America) or 510-623-6050 Toll-free fax-back service: 800-711-HERC Sales hotline: 800-532-0600 Main number: 510-623-6030 In Germany: +49-89-8989-0228 Via Fax ------- In the United States: 510-623-1112 In Germany: +49-89-8989-0585 Via the Internet ---------------- World Wide Web: www.hercules.com FTP: ftp.hercules.com e-mail: support@hercules.com or sales@hercules.com CompuServe ---------- Forum: GO HERCULES BBS --- In the United States: 510-623-7449 In Germany: +49-89-8989-0576 (analog) +49-89-8989-0234 (ISDN) Our mailing address ------------------- US Office: Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. 3839 Spinnaker Court Fremont, CA 94538 German Office: Hercules Computer Technology, Europe Bussardstr. 5 D-82116 Graefelfing Munich Germany Please see our Installation Guide for complete instructions on "How to contact us", or click on "Reach Us" within Touch 95 or Hercules Entertainment Center. We'll be happy to help you with any questions or difficulties you may have. We've set up a page on our Internet World Wide Web site just for Windows 95 users. It contains the latest information on Windows 95 drivers and utilities as well as answers to our most frequently asked questions. You may want to check it first before contacting us. The URL is: http://www.hercules.com/support/Win95/ *** End of File ***