3DS v 3 -vs- Cloaking
11 messages in this thread
(not sure if this will appear above or below the original uploaded text.)
Anyway – the cloaking features buy me back 62+K low RAM, so they're worth the
trouble to get them working properly! Well, at least this one should be fun to
figure out! I've just installed the new "Multimedia Cloacking" kit by Helix
Software, the people that put out 'NetRoom'. I haven't found any problem with
any other problem – except 3DS.EXE! It seems I can hide the disk cache, I can
hide MSCDEx.Exe, (and obviously the cloak "API" driver) but if I try to hide
the mouse, it's blitz city… I get nothing but a blank screen when I load the
program. If I setup special "[Menu]", etc. stuff in the CONFIG.SYS, I can load
the "Microsoft Mouse 10.0" drivers instead of cloaking drivers (which for some
reason say they are "Logitech 6.4" equivalent, but report back v. '8.4' if you
interrogate it – the 'cloaked' drivers, that is) – then everything is just
fine. Go figure…
Mike:
I just loaded Helix Multimedia cloaking thingys, _including_ the mouse driver,
and 3DS (r3) runs just perfectly for me. I'm running a Gateway P5-60.
Dave
This sounds interesting. Can you "cloak" network drivers? I sure could use it
and regain 160k back!
Unfortunately, at present, anyway, no. It only 'hides' three things: the
MSCDEX ROM driver, the Mouse driver and the Disk Cache.
Gus:
You can only "cloak" drivers that are written for the cloaker. They (Helix)
provides all the necessary info in the "Cloaking Developers' Toolkit" (which
includes a debugger. Helix's sales number is 800-451-0551.
Dave
It makes sense. Novell has the same technology (included in Novell DOS 7) and
it is pretty good but no one adopted (which makes it not that good). Its
advantage is that you don't need Novell DOS for it to work. The runtime driver
is free, so in theory, you could use it with any DOS. I guess nobody is
spending any time worrying about DOS any more. Chicago (or whatever is the name
of the week for that thing) will kill all this stuff.
hmmm… (bummer!) I've played around with a bit, and seem to have traced the
other proble I reported to cloaking of the Disk Cache – it it's disables, then
I don't have problems playing *.FLC files, etc. Strange! Seems it needs a bit
of work, yet. (?!)
With all junk like this, memory managers, BIOS/Motherboard type, etc all come
into play. Have you talked to Helix's tech support?
Dave
Yes, but only once, and they're hard to get through to! They say that any
16-bit or 32-bit DOS extender should recognize and avoice the areas they use,
so 3DS and other "hi tech" programs shouldn't be affected. I noted the part
about how it will start with the standard M/S Mouse v 10.0 drivers, but hanfs
with the 'cloaked' mouse, and they're looking into it. I think it's a buggy in
the latest VIBRANT driver or something – I tried loading everything as it was
before (nothing cloaked), and still get random hangs during playback of *.FLC
files – although I've been modeling away all day without problem one…
Hmmmm. I hate tracking these things down. It's one thing to do it in the
normal every-day systems around here (plain old CAD/Windows stations) but you
get to my everything-machine and I dread any upgrade/new addition, etc.
Hope you figure it out!
Dave
Yep – I've traced it down to where it has to be the latest beta Vibrant
Drivers. I take out *all* three 'cloaked' drivers, and the cloaking API, and it
still hangs, but switching back to the previous (beta 3?) drivers makes
everything work just fine – I still have to not cloack the mouse, for some
reason…