DC 95 Overview
        What Is DC 95 ?

Welcome!

DC 95™ is Hercules’ latest generation of graphics tools and utilities for Windows users.  Brand new for Windows 95, DC 95 works exactly like the Display Properties  “applet” that you use to change your desktop area, screen saver, and other desktop attributes.  In fact, even though DC 95 duplicates many of the functions of the Display Properties dialog box (in addition to adding many features not provided by Windows 95), you may still continue to use either tool interchangeably.

Like the Display Properties applet, DC 95 uses a collection of “tabs” (Microsoft calls them property sheets) to organize functions and features.  Not only is this an efficient way of presenting information, it also allows us to extend DC 95 by adding more tabs without changing the way that existing tabs work.

You can use the menu below to learn more about each of the tabs offered with this version of DC 95.  You can also select the Contents button, above.  If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know.  You can view complete contact information by selecting the Reach Us  button.

The Screen Adjustment tab lets you adjust your screen size and position with a few clicks ofyour mouse.

The Refresh Rate Meter tab lets you verify that you’re getting the best refresh rate possible for acrisp, stable display.

The Speedy tab lets you launch Speedy, one of the toughest graphics benchmarks around.

The Zoom In tab contains our screen magnification utility. You can use it to magnify any portion of your screen by uo to a factor of eight.

The Reach Us tab is a quick reference to all of our support services.If you’ve got a World Wide Web browser, you can even use it to takea tour of our site without using any connect time.


Change The Refresh Rate

Use this control to pick the vertical refresh rate at which you’d like to run your Hercules product.  The refresh rates offered will depend on the product you’re using and the viewport size you’ve selected (or, if you’re not using a viewport, the desktop area).  The refresh rate at which you’d like to run is stored along with your color palette, desktop area, and viewport area settings.  Once you’ve chosen a new refresh rate, your display will use this refresh rate at this viewport/desktop/color palette settings until you choose a new refresh rate.  In other words, rebooting or shutting down your PC will not require you to choose your refresh rate again the next time.  If you use the default choice of Auto, Windows will use the refresh rate for the monit.

Important Note: For most purposes, the default Auto setting will be your best choice.  However, in some cases, Windows will not contain an entry for your monitor in its database, and in a few instances, the information that Windows 95 has for your monitor is incorrect, and your monitor is actually capable of being run at higher refresh rates.  In either of these cases, you can use this control to override the default setting.  However, it’s possible to use this control to select a refresh rate which is beyond your monitor’s capabilities.  After you choose your display options and click on the Apply or OK button, DC 95 lets you “preview” your settings and restores your previous mode after a few seconds if there’s a problem, but there still exists the remote possibility of damaging your monitor by using this or any other facility that affects the refresh rate.  If you are unsure of what refresh rates are supported by your monitor, please refer to your monitor’s documentation or contact the manufacturer.


Reach Us

This tab contains complete instructions for contacting Hercules.  You can also view this information by clicking here or on the Reach Us button above.

If you have a World Wide Web browser, selecting the “Click here” button near the bottom of the tab launches it and displays an index of many of the services on our world wide web site.  Doing this doesn’t connect you to our site, so you can take a brief tour of our site without incurring connect charges.  However, selecting some of the links on our index will take you to our site, so be sure to set up your Internet connection before proceeding, if necessary.

The “click here” button works by launching whatever application you have set up to use files with the extension .HTM.  If you haven’t added your browser to the registry, you can view the index by launching your browser manually and opening the DEFAULT.HTM file in the Hercules folder.


How To Reach Hercules

Here’s how to contact Hercules:

Via telephone:

Technical support: 800-323-0601 (toll-free in North America)

or 510-623-4215

Toll-free fax-back service: (800) 711-HERC

Sales hotline: 800-532-0600

Main number: 510-623-4230

In Germany: +49-89-8989-0228

Via fax:

In the United States: (510) 623-1112

In Germany: +49-89-8989-0585

Via the Internet:

World Wide Web:	www.hercules.com

FTP: 	ftp.hercules.com

e-mail:	support@hercules.com or

sales@hercules.com

We also offer the Hercules Information Server.  Subscribers automatically receive notification of new drivers and software for their Hercules product.

CompuServe:

GO HERCULES

BBS:

In the United States: (510) 623-7449

In Germany: +49-89-8989-0576

Our mailing address:

US Office:

Hercules Computer Technology, Inc.

3839 Spinnaker Court

Fremont, CA 94538

German Office:

Hercules Computer Technology, Europe

Bussardstr. 5

D-82116 Graefelfing

Munich

Germany


The Hercules Information Server

If you have an Internet e-mail address, we invite you to subscribe to the Hercules Information Server.  Once you’ve joined, you’ll automatically receive e-mail whenever new software for your Hercules product is available, or if there’s other important news.  This is a free service, except for any charges from your service provider or online service for the time you spend reading your mail.

There are four mailing lists:

The Dynamite list is for owners of products in the Hercules Dynamite family.

The Graphite list is for owners of products in the original Hercules Graphite family (products based on IIT AGX chipsets).

The Stingray list is for owners of products in the Hercules Stingray family.

The Terminator list is for owners of products in the Hercules Terminator family.

How To Subscribe

To subscribe, send Internet e-mail to the following address:

update@hercules.com

with the following in the body of the message:

subscribe [list name] your name

For example, if your name is Mary Smith and you own a Terminator 64/Video, you might send us a note like this:

To: update@hercules.com

Subject:  [you can leave this blank]

subscribe terminator Mary Smith

How To Unsubscribe

Unsubscribing is even easier.  Send a note to the same update@hercules.com address with the word “unsubscribe” followed by the name of the list in the body of your message.  For example:

To: update@hercules.com

Subject:  [again, you can leave this blank]

unsubscribe terminator


Refresh Rate Meter

The Hercules Refresh Rate Meter allows you to test the vertical refresh rate you are currently using.  It is especially helpful when used in concert with Screen Adjustment to tune your display for optimal refresh rate performance.

Higher refresh rates deliver more vibrant and stable images that are easier to work with for extended periods.  In general, higher refresh rates deliver better displays.

Click on the COARSE button to get an approximate reading of your system´s refresh rate.  Click on the FINE button to get a more accurate reading.

The COARSE measurement will take approximately 3 to 5 seconds to complete while the FINE measurement takes between 30 and 40 seconds.

Note: when you are running in an interlaced mode, Refresh Rate Meter will give a reading of approximately 87Hz in FINE mode.  While this is technically correct, it may be misleading.  A non-interlaced display, even one that is running at 60Hz, will always look better than an interlaced display.  In interlaced mode, the electron gun completes a top-to-bottom pass of the screen approximately 87 times per second, but since it takes two passes to draw the screen, the entire display is only updated 43.5 times per second, giving you an effective refresh rate of 43Hz.


Screen Adjustments
Screen Adjustment

This tool provides digital controls for your analog monitor.  You can use it to change the size and position of the image on your screen, save the settings to disk and set up your display driver to use them every time it boots.  It’s useful for minimizing the amount of “black space” around the edges of your display and getting the largest display area possible.

The buttons on the Screen Adjustment tab have the following effects:

Expand the image vertically

Move the image up

Compress the image vertically

Move the image down

Move the image left

Expand the image horizontally (widen the image)

Move the image right

Compress the image horizontally (narrow the image)

When adjusting the display, you can click on the “Undo” (or hit the U or Alt-U key) to undo the effect of the last adjustment you have made.  Hitting U is useful if clicking on one of the buttons causes the display to go blank, lose synchronization, or otherwise become unreadable.

To restore your display to the state it was in when you launched Adjust, click on Reset or hit R or Alt-R.

Clicking “Okay” or “Apply” will automatically save your configuration.  The next time you restart Windows in the same resolution and pixel depth, the adjustments you have made will still take effect.

Two other important notes on Screen Adjustment:

•	This tool works by modifying internal registers in the graphics card.  Its range is limited, and it has no way of seeing what your display looks like.  If you find that it is ineffective at giving you the display you want (for example, if the image is too large and the software controls can only expand it so far, or if using this tool causes noticeable screen flicker), try using your monitor’s hardware controls.  In particular, many monitors display a shrunken image when they are driven at or near their published maximum scan rate or refresh rate.  In most cases, you will be able to use some combination of Adjust and the monitor’s hardware controls to expand the image to your liking, but if not, use the software that came with your graphics card to select a monitor configuration that uses a slightly lower scan rate and/or refresh rate.  Because of the great variety of monitors, we cannot guarantee that you will be able to use Adjust by itself to obtain a perfect image at all resolutions.  Adjust is not a universal replacement for your monitor’s hardware controls.

•	Lastly, Adjust individually tunes each combination of resolution and pixel depth.  Adjust should be run once for each graphics mode under which you use Windows.


 Speedy

This tab lets you launch our Speedy benchmark program.

Quick start: click on the “Go!” button to start Speedy.  After about a minute of calculation, the SPEEDMARK=… line in the center window will be replaced with a fixed number.  You can exit Speedy by hitting F10.

Speedy has its own set of complete documentation.  To view it, hit the F1 key while Speedy is running.


 Zoom In

This tab controls Zoom In, our screen magnification tool.  Zoom In is a powerful utility that takes the form of a window.  As you move the pointer around your display, the area around the pointer is magnified and displayed in the Zoom In window.

Since Zoom In is a separate application, you can close Touch 95 after you’ve launched Zoom In.

Zoom In has several options.  You can click on the Configure button within DC 95 and select your settings; they’ll automatically be saved when you exit DC 95.  You can also choose options on the fly from within Zoom In’s system menu.

Zoom In’s options include the following:

The Hot Key is the key sequence you can use to bring up the Zoom In window after you’ve minimized.  This is convenient when you’re using Zoom In for precision work but you don’t need the Zoom In window to be visible all the time.

The Zoom Level is the magnification factor.  You may set any value between 1x, where the Zoom In window simply contains a duplicate of the area around your pointer, to 8x, where the area around your pointer is magnified by a factor of eight.

The Cross Hair is an indicator of where your pointer is located in the Zoom In window.  This feature can be useful when you’re doing precision, pixel-level work (for example, in a paint program) and you need to know exactly where your pointer is.  It can be disabled entirely by selecting “None.”

Panning controls the way that Zoom In follows your pointer.  When you select the Continuous Pan option, the center of the Zoom In window always corresponds to the exact location of your pointer.  When you select the Edge Pan option, the Zoom In window does not scroll until you move your pointer to the edge of the area being magnified.

The Zoom In window may be scaled to control the area of the display that you want magnified.


Vertical Refresh Rate

Often referred to simply as “refresh rate”

The number of times per second the electron gun in your monitor retraces the screen.  A vertical refresh rate of 76Hz means that the electron gun completes approximately 76 trips from the top to the bottom of the picture tube every second.  The higher refresh rate, the more stable the display.

Hz is short for “hertz” and means one cycle per second.  The term is named for Heinrich Hertz, a German physicist born in 1857.


OK Button

Pressing this button accepts the changes you’ve made within the DC 95 environment and exits DC 95.  The Apply button does the same thing but does not cause DC 95 to exit.


Cancel Button

This button discards any changes you’ve made and exits DC 95.


Apply Button

Pressing this button accepts the changes you’ve made within the DC 95 environment.  It does not cause DC 95 to exit.  The OK button does the same thing, then exits DC 95.


Help Button

This button launches the help file for DC 95.  It displays the table of contents, which you may also view by clicking the Contents button, above.

For context-sensitive help, click the Help button found within most of DC 95’s tabs.