Graphics & Animation Help

Contents:

• Slow Animation - General Guidance
. Required Display Settings
• In-Game Screens Not Completely Visible (cut off)
• Determining Display Adapter Information
• Gathering Viewer Diagnostic Information
• Slow Animation Possible with Windows XP Service Pack 3

Slow Animation - General Guidance

There are many reasons why the horse racing animations may run slow. Here you'll find the basic reasons and some probable solutions.

• You've recently upgraded your operating system from either XP or Vista, but did not upgrade computer hardware. Most computer manufacturers give you just enough hardware to support the operating system that originally came with your game. If you've recently updated your operating system, chances are our game engine will not be able to pull the required resources from your computer to operate smoothly.
• Your computer is operating multiple programs simultaneously, whether intentionally or not. A lot of computers run multiple programs simultaneously. When playing our game, please make sure that all other programs are closed including Outlook or any other program that will be utilizing computer resources. It is also possible that your game has adware or malware installed on it. These programs can also utilize computer resources and slow down your game. Use a good antivirus program to scan your computer.
• If you have not restarted your computer in a while, it may require a restart to get maximum performance from our game engine.
• Some computers just do not have enough RAM and memory, or the right graphics card. Even a brand new computer might not have the necessary hardware including the right graphics card to run our 3D game engine or any 3D game engine efficiently.
• Old computers (4 years old or older) have a tendency to run animations slower for a lot of technical reasons.

There are several things you can try that might enhance the performance of our game engine and provide a better virtual animation display.

1. Restart your computer.
2. Run a virus scan with a good antivirus program. You may have adware or spyware hogging computer resources.
3. Close all other programs except our game.
4. From our main game screen, if you click on the Edit tab (from the top navigation) and choose the Options dropdown, uncheck some of the viewer settings including Complex Shadows, Draw Trees, Draw Buildings, Lightning. Try unchecking one or a combination of these options to see if that helps.
5. From the main game screen, click on the View tab, mouseover the bottom option (Screen Size of Game" and try reducing the game size from full-screen to medium or small. This might also help.

If none of these options help, continue to read the rest of this section that might provide further information or guidance on how to improve our game animations on your computer. One final thing we suggest is tapping the F4 key at the start of the race. Each tap should increase the game speed. You should also note that the F3 key, when tapped, will slow down the race.

Required Display Settings

Summary:
• 32-bit Color Quality / Depth
• Optimal Display resolution is 1024 x 768. Lower resolutions wont work; higher resolutions may slow down the animation graphics.
• Font Size Normal - 96 DPI
• Graphics Hardware Acceleration must be ‘Full’

Details:

1. Right click on an open area of the desktop and choose Properties. The Display Properties window should be loaded.

2. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab

3. Choose 32 bit Color Quality

4. Choose a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or better.

CAUTION: higher levels of resolution MIGHT cause the application to slow down. If the application runs painfully slow and you are running at a high resolution such as 1280 x 1024, try changing the screen resolution to 1024 x 768 and see if that helps.

5. Click the ‘Advanced’ button and make sure you have selected the Normal (96 DPI) setting.

If you have a wide monitor and a computer that can adequately display the race animation at a higher screen resolution, you may be able to use the Large (120 DPI) setting.

6. Click on the ‘Troubleshoot’ Tab and make sure Hardware Acceleration is not set to None. Full hardware acceleration is recommended.

7. Exit the Advanced tab and click the Appearance tab. Make sure you have Normal font size selected.

In-Game Screens Not Completely Visible (cut off)

Certain monitors, especially new high-resolution monitors, are automatically set to a DPI of 120, which may or may not cause a display issue for our in-game screens. Certain screens may appear to be cut off or appear to have certain navigation controls missing, such as Continue buttons, etc. If you are experiencing this problem, more than likely it is due to your monitor's current DPI setting. Modifying your DPI is simple and takes about 10 seconds and will not affect any of your computer's functions or operations.

If you’re running XP, in a blank area on your computer screen right click and then click Properties. The Display Properties box should pop up. On the top navigation click Settings. After clicking Settings, on the bottom row you should see a tab called Advanced. Simply click on the Advanced tab and you’ll see a DPI setting dropdown. Set it for normal or 96 DPI. Click OK or Apply, which closes out the screen, click on OK for the Display Properties screen. Run your game and you should have no issues.

If you’re running Vista, right-click on an open area of your screen, choose Personalize on the left sidebar. You’ll see a link that says Change DPI. Click and change the setting to 96. Click on OK or Apply. Your game should operate with no issue.

Determining Display Adapter Information

If your settings are all correct and the animation is still slow, you will need to gather some information on your Display Adapter and send it to us.

1. Click the System Info button in the lower left corner of the startup screen. You should get a window entitled “System Information” which has left and right panes.

2. In the left pane, click on the ‘+’ in front of ‘Components’, and then click ‘Display’. The right pane should now show display adapter information.

3. Take note of the Name, Adapter Type, Adapter Description, Adapter RAM, Installed Drivers and Driver Version. Email us with that information.

The graphics card manufacturer's drivers might not be installed. You may need to go to the manufacturers website - usually NVIDIA or ATI - and download and install the drivers appropriate for your display adapter card.

It might also be necessary to get the create date of the driver. To get the driver date:

1. Right click on an empty area of the desktop and click properties; then click the Settings tab.

2. Click the Advanced button and then the Adapter tab.

3. Click the Driver tab and take note of the Driver Date and Version. Email us with the Driver Date and Version.

Gathering Viewer Diagnostic Information

1. From the main menu select Help, Set Viewer Diagnostics On.

2. Run a race. You can fast-forward through the race more quickly by repeatedly pressing F4.

3. While on the Results screen, click the Continue button. The Race Setup screen should be loaded.

4. Click the Back button to exit the Race Setup Screen. You should now see the main menu screen.

5. From the main menu select Help, File Checker. This should load the File Check utility.

6. Click the Send Email button and follow the prompts to send us the email.

Slow Animation Possible with Windows XP Service Pack 3

If you have Windows XP Service Pack 3 you may experience slow animation. There are certain configurations of display adapters and old drivers that perform fine under Windows XP until Service Pack 3 is installed, after which the race animation is perceptibly slow. In that case you will need to use the above help topics to determine your display adapter information and drivers and upgrade them.

If updating your drivers does not help, then we would recommend removing Service Pack 3. One customer removed Service Pack 3 and the graphics animation returned to normal.

Hint_If you game animation is running slow for just the first few seconds of the zoom down and the very start of the race here are a few things a user can try . 1) Once the 3D animation page begins to load (right after the key board hints page) minimize that page while it begins to load . Wait 2-4 seconds then open full screen and the race should run fine . You may have to play around with the amount of time you keep the window minimized (This will depend on you computer and 3D graphic capability ) Please try different times until you find a time that works best . we know this is not the best fix but will help for users with long delays at the start of each horse race in our virtual racing game