LightShade (Lish) by DVision
..--++ L I G H T S H A D E ++--..
Version 1.15
DVision Software Group 1994
18-09-1994
*********** GENERAL INFORMATION ************
This file is to inform you of our first and newest demo: LightShade.
This demo was actually made in 11 days and 6 hours total (well, with the
revisions and all, it's quite possible it took a bit longer :) and has the
following features:
- 486 or 386 required, preferably at 33 MHz and up
(you don't need a floating point coprocessor, as with the previous
version)
- VGA (a fast VGA is recommended)
- GUS 512Kb, SB or 100% compatible, PAS, Windows Sound System
- Startup parameters to start the demo
- Harddisk installation required
LightShade became 5th on Bizarre '94 (out of 9 :), with 56 points.
Bizarre '94 took place on May 7 & 8 at Nijmegen.
Although we didn't win the contest, we were very proud of our first product.
********** HOW TO INSTALL / RUN ***********
You probably got this demo with the following files:
LISH.NFO = this file
LISHTECH.NFO = how we did it
DVISION!.NFO = what we do and don't
LISH.EXE = the actual executable
DV.000 .. DV.017
= all demo data
to install LightShade, copy these files to a directory on your harddisk.
Now you can type:
LISH <starting point> <music volume>
and the demo should start with a couple of questions concerning the soundcard
you want to use, I/O address, IRQ, DMA and mixing frequency.
The 'starting point' is one of the optional parameters. You can start
LightShade at the following points:
0: start at the beginning
1: start at the CrazyLogo
2: start at the StarField
3: start at the CrossFader
4: start at the Title
The other parameter is the music volume, but you can only set it if you also
choose a starting point. Possible volumes are 0 to 64.
It is wise to give LightShade all your memory, to avoid hangups and
'Error loading ...' messages. LightShade needs about 512Kb of free main RAM
and some EMS (for most soundcards).
LightShade has no demo-looping option (at least not yet).
If you press a key during the demo, it will finish the current event and
then quit to DOS.
We couldn't test LightShade with PAS or Windows Sound System, so you have
to figure out how much memory (conventional/EMS) you need with these
soundcards.
*********** TROUBLESHOOTING ************
Here is a list of things that could go wrong (as far as we tested it) with
the appropriate solution:
P: I get "Error loading ..." messages.
S: You don't have all the data for the demo or you don't have enough free
memory. Try freeing some of the TSR's from memory (review your
AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS). For more information on how to do this,
read your DOS-manual.
P: I get a "MIDAS: out of conventional memory" error.
S: You probably don't have enough EMS-memory. Change your CONFIG.SYS
to install more EMS-memory (1024K should really be enough).
P: One part of the demo goes on too long and the music doesn't fit the
demo anymore.
S: This could be several things:
- you don't have a fast enough computer (or a fast enough VGA)
- you have a very fragmented or very slow harddisk
Try to use a lower mixing frequency: the sound system uses a lot of
processing time.
Try unfragmenting your harddisk (COMPRESS) or use a disk cache like
SmartDrive. If that doesn't work, wait for a newer version or buy a
faster computer.
P: I hear nothing / nothing but UltraClicks.
S: Either you're someone making making fun of us or you have found a bug
we couldn't find. It seems some GUSses are different then others.
Another possible source of trouble may be QEMM. Try running LightShade
without QEMM.
Notify us when it still doesn't work and tell us exactly what your
configuration is and what your TSR's are so we can pinpoint the problem
for the newer versions. For information on how to contact us, read the
DVISION!.NFO file.
P: The program is located on a DoubleSpace disk and it won't run.
(it may be possible you get a 'Stack overflow' error)
S: We don't know why, but DoubleSpace can cause serious problem when you
want to run LightShade. The only solution we know of, is installing
LightShade to an un-DoubleSpace-d disk.
P: I've got a PAS/Windows Sound System, but I can't get LightShade to
produce any sound.
S: Sorry to say it, but that's tough luck... PAS/WSS-support came with
the sound-library we're using (MIDAS Sound System), but we don't have
a PAS/WSS, so we can't test it.
We tested LightShade on the following systems/configs and it didn't cause any
problems with those:
386DX40,ET4000: with/without SmartDrv, with/without Himem,
with/without DOS High&UMB, with/without EMM386
486DX40,Diamond Speedstar: SmartDrv, Himem, DOS High&UMB, EMM386
486DX33,Diamond Speedstar: SmartDrv, Himem, DOS High&UMB, EMM386
486DX33,Trident T8900: SmartDrv, Himem, DOS High&UMB, EMM386
Hope you like(d) it and if you have anything to ask or say about LightShade,
please contact us (read the file DVISION!.NFO on how to do that).
CU.
Simm & SAM / DVision
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