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Soul Ride | Features | Support FAQ | Downloads


Soul Ride Support FAQ

Video | Controls | Sound

Video

Q. I'm having video problems! The frame rate is really low, or the graphics are screwed up!

A. If your computer uses Windows XP and you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you probably need updated drivers. Here are a couple of the most requested sites for downloading drivers:

If your computer uses Windows 95, 98 or Me, run GLSetup. It's on the Soul Ride game CD. To run it:

  1. make sure the Soul Ride game disk is in your CD-ROM drive
  2. open "My Computer" from your Windows desktop
  3. select the CD icon labeled "Soul_ride" and open it
  4. find the icon labeled "GLSetup.117" or "GLSetup.117.exe" and double-click to run it

GLSetup solves 95% of video problems experienced by Soul Ride users. For more information on GLSetup, or to get the latest version, visit their website at http://www.glsetup.com.

Q. I've run GLSetup, but it still doesn't work!

A. There are a couple of reasons this might happen. It's possible that your video card does not support OpenGL. If you run GLSetup, and it tells you that your display device is unknown, then you're probably out of luck -- Soul Ride will not run with that video card. You might want to try the newest version of GLSetup, which can always be found at http://www.glsetup.com. If that doesn't work, see the next question.

Q. What video cards does Soul Ride work with, and what card would you recommend?

A. Soul Ride has been tested and works well with 3dfx Voodoo2 and higher (including Voodoo Banshee), NVIDIA TNT and higher (TNT Ultra, TNT2, GeForce series), ATI Rage 128 and higher (Radeon), Matrox G200 and higher, and Intel i740 and i810 motherboard video. Soul Ride works, but with some visual quality or performance problems, with the NVIDIA RIVA 128 series and ATI Rage Pro series. Soul Ride may work well with other video cards -- it's all down to the power of the 3D chip and the quality of the manufacturer's OpenGL driver.

If you're looking into a new video card, here are my recommendations in approximate order of cost/quality:

  • 3dfx Voodoo2 or Voodoo3 2000
  • NVIDIA TNT series
  • 3dfx Voodoo3
  • ATI Rage 128
  • 3dfx Voodoo5
  • ATI Radeon
  • NVIDIA GeForce series

There are many perfectly good video cards not on that list, but if you're in the market for a new card, those are the ones I would focus on.

Cards that definitely do not work include:

  • Trident CyberBlade (common in some laptops)
  • S3 Virge
  • Many other older or non-3D cards

Controls

Q. What are the in-game controls?

A. Soul Ride was designed with a joystick or Catapult in mind, but it also works with the keyboard. A future patch will allow you to control the snowboarder using the mouse.

functionjoystickkeyboard
steerleft/right stickleft/right arrows
jumpbutton 1 (usually the trigger)CTRL
grab (while in the air) push stick left/right while holding button 2 (usually a thumb button) hold left or right arrow while holding the SHIFT key
flip push stick up/down while jumping hold up or down arrows while jumping
spin push stick left/right while jumping hold left or right arrow while jumping
Notes:
  • All of the tricks are derived from those controls. The more impressive and higher-scoring flips, spins and air are based on timing, technique and terrain, so keep practicing!
  • With a joystick, you control the boarder's steering by pressing the stick left or right. The steering is proportional, and if you press all the way left or right, the boarder will skid. Partway to either side, there is a sweet spot which makes the boarder carve with the minimum of skidding.

Sound

Q. Why can't I hear the music?

A. The music is played as CD Audio, directly off the game disk. If you can't hear it, there are a number of possible problems. First, make sure the disk is in your CD-ROM drive. Yeah, stupid I know -- but I've done it :). Second, make sure that you can hear CD Audio through your computer speakers. Put an audio CD in your CD-ROM drive, and open the Windows CD Player applet, and try to play it. If the disk appears to be playing, but there's no sound, it's possible that your CD audio cable is not connected inside your computer. Assuming you can play CD's and hear them, the next thing to make sure of is that you close all CD player applets before starting Soul Ride. Soul Ride is unable to control the CD player if another program is already in control of it. So close the CD Player, WinAmp, Media Player, or any other program which plays audio CDs, before starting the game.

It's worth mentioning that it's perfectly OK to start a CD playing in the background using another applet, and then start Soul Ride. Soul Ride will let the CD continue to play, although it does mute the CD audio volume during start-up.

Q. Can I control which song is playing?

A. Yes, there are some secret CD Audio controls built into the game. Press F4 to jump to the next track, F3 to jump to the previous track, or F2 to show track information, if you're playing the official Soul Ride soundtrack.