From: kolasing@STRICOM.ARMY.MIL
Subject: TECH:  help needed with i*glasses!
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 09:18:01 EST


   Hi all!

   I recently purchased a pair of the Virtual i*O i*glasses!
   and I absolutely love 'em!  I am a Doctoral student in
   Human Factors Psychology at the University of Central
   Florida and will be using them for my Dissertation
   research on human performance in low-end virtual
   environments.

   Unfortunately I am having just a few teensy problems,
   most - but not all - of which seem to be centered around
   memory allocation.  Before I get into that whole
   discussion, though, does anybody know where I can get a
   copy of Magic Carpet?  Nobody I talk to seems to have
   heard of it and I can't find it in stores.  It sounds
   like something which might be good for my research -
   especially if I can't get these other problems worked
   out.

   I sent this message to some folks at Virtual i*O but have
   yet to receive a response so I figured I'd toss it out to
   ya'll just in case anyone can help.  If you are willing
   to give it a go, just keep reading.....


   First off, I am running a Compaq Pentium with 725 MB hard
   drive and 8 MB RAM.


   I tried out all of the software which came with
   i*glasses! and seem to have several assorted "problems":


   *GRID*
   Works fine! :)


   *FLY, VTV, and VIRTEK 3D-WARE*
        None of these work - they all give "lack o' memory"
   errors in one form or another.
        I just received a copy of 3D-Ware and read the
   instructions where it says about making a boot disk with
   a very basic AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  I made the boot disk
   okay and tried to pare down my CONFIG.SYS and
   AUTOEXEC.BAT files.  I'm not a hacker but I'm not a
   novice either so I only marginally know what I'm doing.
   :) Much to my utter surprise, the system *does* actually
   work with the boot disk I created but, unfortunately, I'm
   still getting the memory errors.  I can send interested
   persons my CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files from the
   boot disk if such information is necessary.  (I didn't
   actually delete any lines, just REM'd them so you can see
   how the system was originally set up before I got my
   grubby hands on it.)  I've run the MEM command both with
   the boot disk and regular windows configurations and can
   send the information it provides as well.


   *VIOTRACK*
   Worked until I put the line 'device=c:\dos\emm386.exe
   auto' in my CONFIG.SYS.  When I dropped the "auto" part,
   it went back to working fine again.  After exiting it,
   though, I always get a message which says
   "create viotrack.ses  DOS error code 5
   runtime error - errorinf.$$$ created".  This doesn't
   appear to be causing any problems - I'm just wondering
   what's up with this.


   *DESCENT*
   Works fine and is pretty darn cool!  When I was playing
   once, however, I noticed that the sound in one ear cut
   out every once and a while but came back when I started a
   new game.  I am assuming that such is the temperamental
   nature of new technology and am not real concerned with
   this.


   *HERETIC*
   Also works fine and is pretty darn cool as well!  When I
   first tried it out, the tracker didn't work.  When I
   tried it again, however, everything worked fine (and I
   ended up playing for an hour and a half!). Again, the
   temperamental nature, I assume, and am not real
   concerned.


   *ASCENT*
   Aaaaccckkkk!  This looks like the *perfect* game for my
   research but I can't get the sound to work!  I've tried
   everything I can think of (which, granted, probably isn't
   a whole lot).
   - Yes, there *is* a SOUND.CFG file.
   - Yes, the .r11 and .r22 files *are* there.
   - I tried reinstalling it.
   - Hitting F4 or M doesn't make a difference.
   - I don't get any sounds when I do the test in the
   'sndconfg.exe' program.  I've tried several different
   settings for all four options (sound card, address port,
   DMA channel, and IRQ channel).  The "environment
   settings" command does not give me the proper information
   since said information is not in my CONFIG.SYS file.  I
   called Compaq to find out what values I should be using
   (16 bit Soundblaster, 220, 1, 5, respectively).  Those
   values don't work either.  In fact, when I have it set to
   *those* values, I get the message
   "T:  sharing violation reading drive c"
   The Compaq person told me that I don't actually have a
   *Soundblaster* but that it should work as one.  Note that
   I *do* get sound and music in both Descent and Heretic.
   Furthermore, everything else about Ascent works just
   fine.


   If you've made it this far, thanks a bunch for listening
   to my troubles.  I look forward to whatever information
   or advice anyone can give me.  I haven't tried calling
   Virtual i*O's customer support yet - that's my next plan.


   Thanks again!
   Gina


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Eugenia M. Kolasinski                                         ~
~ U.S. Army Research Institute                                  ~
~ Simulator Systems Research Unit                               ~
~ 12350 Research Parkway                                        ~
~ Orlando, FL  32826-3276         University of Central Florida ~
~ (407) 384-2372                       Human Factors Psychology ~
~ FAX:  (407) 381-8605                        Doctoral student, ~
~                                       just trying to graduate ~
~ email:  kolasing@stricom.army.mil                             ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~