Unfortunately it is a fact of life that some hardware and software combinations, especially newly-released hardware has problems and/or the software provided with it has bugs. You will never completely avoid problems. If the publication is for a specific customer you can liaise with them to establish a common hardware platform and/or then tailor the publication to that.
Please note, however, that we have specifically designed Opus to create publications that will always try to run. They will try to run, for example, even if DirectX is not installed. What does sometimes happen is that a particularly complex publication may lose synchronization or smoothness. Video and sound may become choppy as the program tries to keep up with where it knows it should be. This is especially true if running the publication from CD-Rom.
We have also included a special feature in the publication file which checks to see if the publication crashed last time is was run and provides the customer with some support information and the option to switch off various items which might be causing problems such as DirectX support and Display Mode changes.
Here are some solutions to a number of the technical problems that may be encountered.
Windows v7 has very tight security applied using the User Account Control (UAC) and this can cause some issues with Opus when trying to access supplementary resources such as galleries of components. You can access the UAC via the Accounts section of the Control Panel.
Unless you turn the UAC off completely (setting the slider to the Never position) then Windows prevents any changes to the Program Files directory where you probably installed Opus. This means you cannot install create or install new galleries for example.
The solution is either to turn off the UAC whilst using Opus or to install Opus in a separate directory outside the Program Files one. In some cases you may also be able to install Opus in Program Files but load and save galleries from a different location where the access control is not as strict.
Several popular virus checkers have an option to check files as you use them. This is sometimes called Real Time Scanning or On Access Scanning. Both of these can sometimes cause Opus to run incredibly slowly and even prevent the Actions and Properties dialogs from appearing for several minutes. This often happens after the virus checker has been updated.
To use Opus properly if this happens, you should open the virus checker itself and turn the Real Time Scanning option OFF. You will get a security warning but you will be able to use Opus properly. Eventually this will resolve itself automatically perhaps the virus checker is registering the Opus files as being uninfected. If the problem persists you may need to reinstall Opus.
The most common cause of problems in Opus is bugs in graphics card drivers. Opus, and publications created with it, uses some of the more sophisticated graphics functions provided by Windows and this may highlight failings in the graphics card driver, particularly if the graphics card is a new model and even more so if it is a cutting edge games or multimedia card. It is also a particular problem on laptop computers, which often use graphics controllers built onto the motherboard and pared down to save space and weight.
If you do experience problems then you should try to get the latest drivers for the graphics card and try those. These can usually be obtained from the manufacturer of the card itself via the internet but in some cases the manufacturer may not deal direct and you will have to approach the system manufacturer.
If you are creating publications for laptops we strongly recommend you test a prototype publication on a sample machine
If you try this and the problems continue please contact us for assistance.
Similarly Opus uses DirectX for some of its functionality and therefore the version of DirectX that you have and any failings in the relationship between DirectX and your system components may create difficulties that become apparent when using Opus.
If you have recently installed a new version of DirectX check that there have been no problems reported with the new release and/or try reverting to the previous version.
Otherwise please contact our technical support team so that we can investigate.
Publications created with Opus can run without DirectX if necessary so you can release your publication with confidence. However, without DirectX the publication may run more slowly depending on what you have included.
Note that Microsoft do allow redistribution of DirectX so you can ship it with your publication if you want to guarantee that your customer has it available to install. Visit the Microsoft website for further details.
Some of the functionality and format support in Opus requires Microsoft Media Player 4 or better to be installed. If you have problems playing media files this is the thing to check immediately. The key function that requires this is sound mixing. If you do not have more than one WAV, MP3 or WMA sound file running at the same time your publication will not require Media Player.
If functionality varies from one machine to another it is always worth checking the versions of the above software, especially if a new version has just been installed or if the graphics card is a new release.