rec.autos.simulators

1.  I am having some difficulty with dialogue boxes in GP2 which appear
'read only'.

a. The first is the one called Advanced Control Method.  I cannot change
any information on this screen.  I select Joystick from the Standard
screen,and go to the Advanced screen. Even though it now displays
Joystick, I am unable to modify any settings for the Joystick (like
digital or analogue for example).  The same is true when Keyboard is
selected, no Advanced setting can be modified.
Anyone experienced this?

b. The second problem is a screen resolution one.  My screen & video
card are capable of at least 800 * 600 under Windows 95 (I run GP2 under
Win95). However, in GP2 there is a screen which offers a choice of VGA
or SGVA (this is the same screen which displays the frame rate). This is
set to VGA for some reason and it will not move to SVGA when selected.
Any clues?  My frame rate is around 22.  My video card is a 1MB TSeng
labs card.

2.  I have a servicable analogue joystick. However, when I attempt to
calibrate it there is no Y axis movement detected, so the calibration
fails.  The game port is part of my Galaxy Pro iii Sound Card.  Any one
experienced anything like this?

Thanks in advance.
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=======================================================================

I would not run GP2 under Win 95, run it from dos, you will get much
better results.
You may need to set-up separate autoexec.bat and config.sys files to load
your mouse, joystick, sound, cd-rom drivers from dos.

If you still have these problems after running GP2 from dos....

You may have an uncompatible soundcard? does it work in other games?

Your joystick port may be disabled? does it work with other joysticks? in
other games? can you enable it?

You may have an incompatible video card? does it work ok with other
programs?

You may have old drivers for these devices, get the newest versions of
each driver.

Are you sure your looking at the right places, in the right screens in
GP2 to do what your attempting to do? Have you read the manual?

When redefining control devices via the advanced control method screen,
you should first choose one of the not used buttons, then you can
customise away to your hearts content.
Make sure you set the control device to the correct settings, eg:-
digital (switched) or analogue, then calibrate the control device, then
save the settings, giving them a new name is helpful.

I can only assume if GP2 will not let you choose svga, its because your
running under win 95 or your graphics card is not set to use svga?
normally if all is well, you can switch between vga and svga, and alter
which graphics you want on or not to get a decent frame rate, (22fps is
good by the way, if you can get that in svga mode you are laughing).

More info would help diagnosing in faults.

d:~)

#:~>  **Peter**

[snip]
This problem turned out to be the Joystick after all!
Yes, that was the problem I was using the Joystick selection rather than
the (rather counter-intuitively named) Not Used selection. I have now
configured my homemade steering wheel and it works fine.

[snip]

Are you suggesting that under Win95, selecting svga in GP2 is not
possible?

At the time I run GP2 (I'm running under Win95) the OS is running at
800*600 SVGA, so I presume that the card is set to use it.

To be acurate its actually 21.3.  Am I likely to increase this by
running under DOS.

Many thanks for you helpful suggestions.

regards,
mart
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=======================================================================

No, I'm suggesting there may be a conflict between your video card
running under win 95, and running GP2?
I would always run GP2 from dos, even though I know many people who do
successfully run GP2 from Win 95.

There is a small performance increase if you run from dos, and NO
possibility of a conflict, if your not running Win 95, you cannot
conflict with it!!!!!

Agreed, so your video card appears to work ok, so that cannot be the
problem.

You may not actually get increased framerates, but there is a small
performance increase.
Purely because running from dos means your pc is only running GP2 nothing
else.
If its running Win 95 also, (even the background), some system resources
are being taken up.

I have not had any personal experience of your particular video card? it
might need a newer driver/patch to work with GP2? Try contacting the
video card maker or Microprose or one of the GP2 web sites for more info.

d:~)

#:~>  **Peter**

On Tue, 15 Apr 1997 07:45:05 +0100, Martin Hugh Rogers

You can check if you have Vesa Support by using the Microsoft
Diagnostics program (MSD.EXE)

Regards,
David

The best thing to do is buy a new video card and then not
worry about it.
I just bought the STB Lightspeed 128-bit/2mb of MDRAM.
I'm getting 5 to 7 more frames per second with more
graphics turned on....

most of the time we all feel the need for more speed!!!!!

                        Doug(2cool4u)Maer