Issues you may encounter trying to make the *$!!% thing work!

Unfortunately, making an application run across multiple machines and different browsers isn't easy and may just be plain impossible. As reports come back of problems they will be listed here (with luck with solutions as well).

Screen resolution.

This isn't really a problem but it will make using the applications easier. The higher the screen resolution the better! The software was developed for a 1280 x 1024 monitor. Lower screen resolution means less of the target is displayed at any one time and more scrolling and juggling of windows will be needed. 

Note: Only for experienced computer users!!

Using Windows based machines

  1. On the Windows Start menu, click Settings -> Control Panel.

  2. Double click the icon Display. 

  3. Click the Settings tab.

  4. If the screen resolution slider is set to 1024 x 768 try a higher setting. Most displays and computers support at least a slightly higher setting. 

  5. If the screen goes black DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING! If a screen resolution that is not supported has been selected, after 15 seconds the computer will revert back to its previous settings.

  6. 6. Close the display dialog box.

Out of memory message when running the application.

When running the application via the web and a web browser, the amount of memory allocated is determined by the web browser. This allows approximately eight images of 2M pixels or two images of 8M-pixels to be open at the same time. High mega-pixel images aren't needed. Even for Shotgun-Insight, 4M-pixel images should be fine. However, if more images must be open at the same time, it is possible to alter the system settings as follows:

Note: Only for experienced computer users!!

Using both Internet Explorer and Netscape 6

  1. On the Windows Start menu, click Settings -> Control Panel.

  2. Double click the icon Java Plug-in. If it is not present you will need to download Java - see the browser set-up page for details.

  3. Click the Advanced tab.

  4. In the 'Java Runtime Parameters' box type the following:  -Xms128m -Xmx256m

  5. Close the dialog box.

  6. 6. Close all the browser windows and then re-open it and the Insight application.

The "-Xms128m" means use a minimum of 128MB of memory. The "-Xmx256m" means use a maximum of 256MB. The browser default is 32MB as a minimum and machine dependent for a maximum. Using larger numbers means more images can be open within a web browser at the same time. Only use the following memory steps:

128m, 256m, 512m

The standalone application defaults and is fixed at 256MB which is why it can open so many more images at a single time than the web browser based programme.

For information, a 8M-pixel image takes up 48MB of memory inside the Insight software. Use smaller images if you can!  


 

Java 1.5

Java version 1.5 (also known as Java version 5) is the latest iteration from Sun. 

For some unknown reason it makes the Insight software run slowly with certain sizes of images zoomed to certain levels. The reason is unknown at this point in time. Because of this the download links point to version 1.4.2_07 - the last release of version 1.4. If you don't need Java 1.5 use 1.4.2 until the bugs are ironed out of it.

  

 
 

(c) Dr A C Jones