Digital Workshop

Opus, like all multimedia authoring tools, uses a number of established Windows technologies to ensure smooth, reliable playback of publications.

For example, the Windows Media Player engine (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10/default.aspx) is used to decode and display video files.

DirectX (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx?url=/windows/directx/productinfo/overview/default.htm) is used to handle animations and page/object transitions.

As publications can often be very graphically intensive, Opus also needs to establish an effective channel of communication with the currently-installed graphics drivers.

If Opus encounters problems communicating with any of these components, you may experience performance issues, video playback problems, crashes upon publication launch and/or glitches with the Opus editor, often resulting from corruption of the Opus registry settings.

If you are experiencing any of these issues, we strongly recommend updating your graphics drivers and installing the latest versions of DirectX and Windows Media Player, even if you believe the latest versions are already installed (as this should repair any corrupted files).

To update your graphics drivers:

- Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > System
- Select the Device Manager tab (if you are using Windows 2000 or XP, you will need to select the Hardware tab and then click the Device Manager button)
- You should see a list of hardware types currently installed on your machine. Click on the plus-sign next to the Display Adapters entry to display the corresponding component
- Make a note of the make, model and any other information displayed
- Now visit the manufacturer's website (in most cases, this will be either www.nvidia.com, www.ati.com or www.matrox.com) and click the Download Drivers link on the homepage
- Follow the on-screen instructions to locate the latest drivers for your model of graphics card. Once located, download and install the drivers using any advice given on the manufacturer's site, then restart your computer when prompted

If you have any problems locating the latest graphics drivers, please contact support@digitalworkshop.com with the make and model of your graphics card and which version of Windows you are using (along with an overview of the problems you have been experiencing) and we will be happy to help.

To update DirectX:

Please visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/direct ... /downloads and follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the correct version of DirectX for your version of Windows. Please ensure that you restart your computer when prompted.

To update Windows Media Player:

Please visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... nload.aspx and follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the correct version of Windows Media Player for your version of Windows. This update should not require a restart.

Once all necessary updates have been applied, I would recommend initialising the Opus registry settings to repair any corruptions which may have resulted from communicating with the previous components.

To initialise the Opus registry settings:

- Ensure that Opus is not running

- Click Start > Programs to open the program group

- You should now be able to see an entry for Illuminatus Opus, Illuminatus Opus Pro, Opus Pro XE, Opus Pro 04 or Opus Pro XE 04, depending on which version of Opus Pro you have installed. Please click on the relevant entry to display its submenu

- Position the cursor over the Opus application shortcut as if you were going to launch the program, but do not click on the shortcut

- Position two fingers over the Ctrl and Alt keys in the bottom-left of the keyboard

- Left-click on the application shortcut to launch the program, then immediately depress the Ctrl and Alt keys simultaneously and keep them depressed

- A prompt should appear on-screen asking if you wish to clear the application registry settings. Click Yes

Now load in your publication and try to reproduce the issues you previously experienced. If the problem persists, please contact support@digitalworkshop.com with details of the problem and the steps you have taken to reproduce the error. We will try to determine the cause of this issue and offer you a solution or workaround as soon as possible.