DWI - Frequently Asked Questions
v1.50

How do I run DWI with command line arguments?

Right click on the .EXE file, and select "Create Shortcut". A new file called "Shortcut to..." will appear in your folder. Right-click this file and go to "Properties". You'll see one text box labelled "Target:" that points to the .EXE file. Go to the end of this text and add the command line arguments there. So to run the program in SDL, fullscreen mode, add " /sdl /fullscreen".

Click "OK" and start the program using the Shortcut. You can rename the shortcut if you like.

Another method is to use a batch file. A sample one, "DWI-sdl.bat" is included. You can view it in a text-editing program like Notepad.

I have a Voodoo video card and DirectX 8.1, but the graphics look poor. Why?

Most Voodoo cards can't support large textures or textures with translucent pixels, so graphics quality will be lower. But framerates should be better. You can still use SDL mode if you prefer, by using the "/sdl" command line option. This keeps the graphics at full quality, but because it's software based, it's not as fast as DirectX mode.

When I try to run DWI, I get a message saying "A certain .DLL file, D3D8.DLL, was not found". What's wrong?

You don't have DirectX 8.1 installed. Get it from Microsoft's website

How do you select drop arrows / left-right-mirror-shuffle / speed multipliers?

After you select the song the program will show you the number of feet for each level. If you press the 'select' button (default is TAB for Player 1, INS for Player 2) and use the up and down keys to choose a multiplier. Each has an Icon to let you know what you're selecting.

Are .dwi files the same as .msd files?

The formats are very similar. When we were adding in the new features of DWI (Hold Arrows, Solo Mode, Background animations, etc.) we knew we needed to change things in the file, which meant choosing a new extension since the stepfiles were now proprietary. You can rename a .msd file to a .dwi file and play it in DWI, but GAP values from .msd files will not work very well with DWI; so if you're converting your old MSD files you'll have to Use The Force and set new GAP values for each file.

I have graphics files for songs - what do I do so DWI will show them correctly?

DWI uses PNG format to display graphics. There are many programs available to convert files to PNG format including IRFan Viewer (freeware) and Adobe Photoshop. The bmp2png program included with the program is actually used to convert a whole bunch of bmps to a png to be used for animation, and we apologize for the confusion that may cause.

Background files should be 320x240 in size (although in v1.20 and higher they can be of any size), and banner files need to be 175x175, with that special Magenta colour around the outside. Take a look at the 'default' PNG files for the backgrounds and the banners to see how they need to be.

The arrows are not in time with the music during the game, how do I fix this?

The GAP tag in the .dwi file controls the sync of the arrows for each song. If the arrows are already going past the target arrows at the top before the beat hits then increase the GAP value to a larger number. If the arrows haven't quite reached the target arrows when the beat hits then decrease the number. Changing the number by 30-70 each time is usually a good idea, unless the arrows are far out of sync. To make sure the GAP value is just right try playing the song with a 2x arrow modifier - that will help show you if the arrows are off.

I own more than one mix of songs, how do I put them into different collections?

Create another folder in the 'Songs' folder for every collection you have, just like the Default folder. It's also a good idea to also have a separate folder for each collection of Music files. DWI will display the files in separate collections in the song select screen.

Can you play DWI with a dancepad? How is it configured?

Absolutely! In fact it's alot easier to set up a dancepad with DWI than with other simulators. You don't have to run Joy2Key, and you don't have to re-map the buttons (but if you've already re-mapped the buttons for another sim that shouldn't be a problem). All you need to do is have the pad's driver set up correctly; we'll have a section on doing that set up later - in the meantime check out the forums on The Melting Pot if you need help setting your pad up.

Once your pad is set up correctly go into the Options menu and select Gamepad Configuration and select which player's controls you want to define. As it asks you for Up, Down, etc just step on each of the pad's buttons. Most dancepads have 'Select' and 'Start' buttons on them, so set those as well.

SimWolf, February 2002.