CompuServe Messages

Steve– I was wondering if your computers use 256KB cache? The reason I ask is because that's one of the last things I can add to my computer before I give up on my factory installed Cirrus Logic card and go out and buy a new one. I'm having trouble cleanly playing back certain FLIs and FLCs. Some tear at certain points. Some more than others like the clam.flc that you can test render in A:M. Others play flawlessly like the two new ones I downloaded last night from the Playmation BBS (yeah! It's working!!!)…Chatter.FLI and the wonderful New Felix the cat FLC! My computer is a souped up NEC Ready 433es, ISA. I downloaded new drivers from the Cirrus BBS last night and they improved the color slightly to my monitor (an NEC MultiSync 3V), improved the playback of QT for Windows movies and made the display of GIFs lightning fast and sped up the regular Windows screen re-draws. But I still have trouble with certain FLIs & FLCs with your viewer and Dave's Flic Viewer.(The drivers were installed before Chatter and New Felix were downloaded and unzipped and played) I put Drive Rocket software in two weeks ago and dramatically increased the performance of my hard-drive (a standard issue NEC IDE model) with its multiple read and write capability. It improved the play of some Imagine rendered FLIs from here on CI$ and the creative genius of Dave Hofmann. I installed 16 meg of RAM to give me a total of 20 meg. 32-bit disc access is on and virtual memory is turned off (it always slows down render). I increased the number in Pref Hash. And before I ever bought A:M I had souped up my 486SX-33 to a 486DX2-66. Now I've seen that the low end Diamond card has no problems according to previous messages from you. My Cirrus card, especially now with the better drivers and BIOS, can't be much worse and it has 1 meg of DRAM, which is what the low end Diamond card has. And it uses NEC's proprietary Opti-bus & local bus video. I usually run 640×480 in Windows with 16 Million+ colors. I have the same problem when I drop to fewer colors with the tears in the same places. I'm thinking the problem could come from me not having the 256KB cache which NEC sells as a proprietary add-on kit. I know that any tearing I get in QT movies comes at the same time my hard-drive is clicking away. And the clicking of the hard-drive happens some times when I'm playing FLIs and FLCs, but there's not always tearing at the same time and vice-versa. A friend played some of the same FLIs and FLCs on his IBM AT/ISA computer which has 256KB cache and had no problems. He has a low end Paradise card. I want to get the 256KB cache just so my computer will be complete but do you think me not having it is the reason I'm getting the "tearing". I don't want to buy and install a new graphics card if I don't have to. And it would leave more money to buy those future instructional tapes and upgrades! 🙂 Kevin P.S. BTW, the Cirrus is a CL-GD5428.