FAQ and Help
So you’ve got questions. That’s cool. Here’s some information that may help you find the answer!
When I try to run Jardinains 2!, it crashes.
Jardinains 2! hangs when I quit the game!
I changed some options, and now Jardinains 2! won’t start!
I want godlike control over my in-game preferences.
Whoa! The bricks look really weird, like they’re leaking or something!
I’m running Linux and Jardinains 2! doesn’t launch/is slower than molasses in January!
I’m running Linux and my paddle is jumping all over the screen!
I’ve purchased the full copy, but whenever I click the link I got in the mail, it tells me that it is not a valid download link!
This help file doesn’t answer my question!
When I try to run Jardinains 2!, it crashes. If the game doesn’t start at all, or if it crashes shortly after trying to start a game, the most likely culprit is one of the following:
- Your video driver
- Conflicts with other software
- Your DirectX or OpenGL installation
- The age of your computer
- A basic, “onboard” video card or an older 3D card
Now, there are some easy steps you can take to try and rectify the problem you’re having. Follow them in order, as they grow increasingly “substantial” as you run down the list. Please note, too, that these tips are geared primarily for Microsoft Windows users; Mac users tend not to face these issues, and Linux users–you’re largely on your own, I’m afraid. Odds are you know far more about your OS than I do.
- Try rebooting your computer. This is, without question, the easiest first step to take. Chances are it won’t fix the problem, but if it does, you’ve spared yourself a fair bit of extra legwork.
- Make sure your system is up-to-date. Run Windows Update until it says that your system is all up-to-date. Bear in mind, too, that while Jardinains 2! should work on Windows 98 and ME, it isn’t tested on these systems, and support for these systems is limited.
- Try exiting all your other applications and “helper” applications in the system tray. Background applications can sometimes interfere with Jardinains 2!. Try exiting all active applications and turning off/disabling/exiting everything in your system tray (the tiny icons by the clock), then try running Jardinains 2! again.
- Try forcing the game to run in Windowed Mode.You can do this by setting the “isFullscreen” variable in the preferences file to 0. Click here for more information on how to manually edit the preferences file.
- Try upgrading your video driver to the latest “stable” version. This one takes a bit more work, but it’s still fairly easy to do with most systems. Simply visit the support website of your computer manufacturer and look for a section with the word “drivers” or “downloads” in it. At some point, you’ll be asked what model of computer you’re using (usually displayed on the front of your computer case) and which component you’d like to update (usually “video driver”, “graphics driver”, or some similar component.) Follow their instructions for updating the driver, reboot the computer, and give Jardinains 2! another shot.
- Try downgrading your video card driver to an older stable version. The latest video drivers aren’t always the greatest. Sometimes, things that should work get broken when other things get fixed. Following the same process as above, try downloading a slightly older video driver from your manufacturer’s support site. Install, reboot, and try running Jardinains 2! again.
- Re-install DirectX. If you use Windows, try visiting the DirectX website and downloading the latest version of DirectX from there. Install, reboot, try Jardinains 2!.
- Try removing spyware and malware from your system. If you aren’t running two or three virus and spyware checkers already, you probably should be! Check out the Wikipedia article on “Spyware” for some advice on combating spyware, download a few anti-spyware tools, and clean your system. Once you’ve wiped most of the spyware from your system, go ahead and try running Jardinains 2! again.
- Try re-installing Windows. Yes, it’s a drastic measure, but if you really, really really want to run the game and the above just isn’t doing it, you may want to consider re-installing Windows completely. This will start you off fresh and will remove a whole slew of system components that have been updated, added, or otherwise changed during the course of your computer’s use. Re-installing Windows is probably more work than it’s worth to get a silly little game to run, but if all else fails, it’s the best shot you’ve got.
- Swtich to OpenGL. You can do this under the Options – Graphics Driver menu item. If you don’t see this menu item, then OpenGL isn’t an option for you, and you should try the next solution:
- Upgrade (or downgrade) your video driver. Different video drivers will likely fix this problem, as well. Click here if you don’t know how to go about mucking with your video drivers; directions are a little ways down the checklist.
Jardinains 2! hangs when I quit the game! While less of a problem than not being able to play the game at all, this one is still annoying. Fortunately, the steps recommended above are the best way to tackle this particular problem, as well!
I changed some options, and now Jardinains 2! won’t start! This is easily dealt with: simply delete your “prefs.xml” file. Instructions for doing this can be found below.
I want godlike control over my in-game preferences. Fair enough! To manually twiddle and tweak your game settings beyond what the options screen allows, simply go to the folder where Jardinains 2! lives (in Windows, it’s probably C:\Program Files\Jardinains 2\ ; on Mac, it’ll most likely be Applications/Jardinains 2!/ ; on Linux, it’s wherever ya stuck it!) From there, open the “data” folder, then open “prefs.xml” in your favorite text editor (Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on Mac, and…heck, whatever you want on Linux. You all sort out that vi vs. emacs thing on your own.) Once you’ve opened the “prefs.xml” file, you’ll see a bunch of XML tags. Editing these is fairly self-explanatory: you’ll see the value of a setting wedged between “tags”, like this:
<someCrazyPreference>500</someCrazyPreference>
If you want to change the value of “someCrazyPreference” from 500 to 1000, you’d change the above line to read:
<someCrazyPreference>1000</someCrazyPreference>
Don’t change the description of the variable; just change the value that rests between the tags. There’s a fair amount of in-file help there, so read it. Finally, if you change the “prefs.xml” file and the game won’t launch properly, simply delete the “prefs.xml” file entirely and the game will re-create it the next time you run the game. Happy hacking!
Whoa! The bricks look really weird, like they’re leaking or something! Some older graphics cards have problems with DirectX and Jardinains 2! in this regard. While I’m working on fixing this problem, there are a couple easy workarounds you can try:
I’m running Linux and Jardinains 2! doesn’t launch/is slower than molasses in January! Dollars to donuts says that your OpenGL isn’t hardware-accelerated. Jardinains 2! on Linux requires OpenGL 3D hardware-acceleration. Scour Google and the support site for your distro to figure out how to do this; I only got mine working by the grace of the Ubuntu support forums and some lucky Googling. Once you get Linux and OpenGL talking to your 3D graphics card, you should be golden.
I’m running Linux and my paddle is jumping all over the screen! This is a known bug, and I’m working on figuring out exactly why it does this. Stay tuned.
I’ve purchased the full copy, but whenever I click the link I got in the mail, it tells me that it is not a valid download link! There’s a good chance that your mail program isn’t getting the “complete” link when you click it. Instead of clicking on the link in your mail program, try copying and pasting the entire link into your web browser. (Some mail programs don’t like links which contain an ampersand (&), so they only make part of the link clickable while chopping off the rest. This causes the link to work improperly.)
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