h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I hear you've been having black Goo problems (you can blame Peta for telling the Gurus). There are two things I can think of that might be happening:

- your web browser is set to override colour settings for all websites to black background. I find this unlikely as you'd surely notice it elsewhere on the Internet
- your monitor/graphics card are set up in such a way that the dark blue that Goo uses appears black - on my monitor it's almost black, whereas on some I've seen it's fairly light blue. This is often a matter of the gamma correction settings. If you have a decent set of graphics card drivers there should be an option under Control Panel->Display (I'm assuming you're using Windows 95 or later here - don't kill me if you're not!) somewhere to change it. If you raise the gamma correct level it will make the Goo appear blue (well, it should) but it will also alter the appearance of EVERY other application on your computer, and may cause all kinds of wierd display errors to happen from time to time.

Oh yes, have you tried fiddling with the brightness/contrast settings on your monitor? I know it's horrendously obvious and all but if I turn mine down far enough it'll even make white go black... And just playing, I turned down the contrast on my monitor and Goo now seems to have a black background...

If you want to make the Classic Goo fan club logo have the right background colour, and it's just your display settings that are the problem, then you can get the colour by taking a screenshot of the screen in your favourite graphics package (or just hitting PrintScreen to copy it to the clipboard) and using the colour picker (assuming it's got one of course).

That reminds me to join the Classic Goo fan club some day...

MaW, I ~really~ appreciate you taking the time to tell me all that, but, I'm a bit of a techno-nerd; I only understood the brightness/contrast settings on the monitor, and believe me, I've fiddled with that.
Now then, if you could just talk me through getting my black goo to blue goo I would be ~very happy indeed~
I mean, step-by-step talking through.
I should add that I am on Windows 98, I have 64MB pc but no paint-shop that I know of, nor a graphics card.
So, from the Start button...{please?} Thank you VERY much

Well if you've not got a graphics card you won't be able to see _anything_ at all, so you must have one... it's the bit that turns what your computer wants to put on the screen into something the monitor understands (to oversimplify immensely - however, I have no desire whatsoever to write an essay on graphics cards right now).

The problem with this is that you may or may not have the capability to do what I'm about to suggest, depending on how your system is set up. That's one of the really irritating things about computers - but I'll do the best I can.

From the Start button, choose Settings, then Control Panel. Control Panel's window should appear in all its glory. You should then double-click on the Display icon, which will make another window appear.

Now, this is where it gets tricky. The Display settings window should possess the following tabs along the top:

Background
Appearance
Web
Settings
Screen Saver

(although not necessarily in that order). There may also be other tabs there. If one of them is labelled "Colour Correction" you want to choose it. I can't say precisely how to change the settings as these things change all the time, but hopefully with a bit of looking and reading any help that might be available, you'd be able to work out how to increase the gamma correction setting. Just make sure it's the same for Red, Green and Blue, or else you'll get purple Goo or something like that (and purple everything else as well!).

I'm really sorry I can't be more specific but without knowing what graphics drivers you're using it's quite hard. If you're feeling particularly industrious you could send me screenshots of the Display Settings window, especially of what it looks like when you select any tabs with names like "Colour Correction" or "Gamma" or "Settings". Or any tabs which have little logos on them - these will be special ones that are likely to contain the appropriate settings.

I'm being a bit vague now aren't I? Sorry. What I do recommend though is that, should you be so lucky as to find an option to change the gamma correction, you remember where it was in case you want to put it back, or better yet, you locate an option to set everything back to the defaults (which is what it's probably on now).

Just to say it again, you want to hunt around for an option to change the gamma correction, and then increase it for ALL channels (if you just increase the red channel everything goes all pink... it's quite weird).

It's most frustrating not being able to be more specific than this. Hopefully your feedback on this should help.

And if you don't have a graphics package then how did you do the Classic Goo Fan Club logo?

I didn't make the Classic Goo log, I just installed it on my page!
I can get the Display Properties box up, just by right clicking on my desktop. The option tabs are: Background/Screen Saver/Appearance/Effects/Web/Settings and that's it.
No colour-correction.
I'll look for gamma- and get back to you.
Thanks for your help.

In the Display: Should it be on High Colour {16 bit}? As that's what mine's on, there are other options, but I daren't change them, in case I do something I can't reverse.

On the Settings tab, in the bottom right hand corner there should be an "Advanced" button - try clicking that & see if the next popup has anything about Gamma or Colour Correction.

;^)#

This doesn't look encouraging... yes, if your colour settings on Settings are on 256 Color or (heaven forbid!) 16 Color you'll want to turn that up a bit to 16 or 24 bit...

oh, yes!
I have that box!
I clicked on "advanced" and got a SiS 6326 Properties box.
There's a Colour Management option tab, in there, it's blank.
An option to ADD at the bottom gives me:
hmmmmm
lots of options....but not in any language that I understand.
I tried to copy & paste with no success...so I'll type them out.
Diamond Compatible 9300K G2.2
Hitachi Compatible 9300K G2.2
Mnb22g15
Mnb22g18
Mnb22g21
Mnebug15
Mnebug18
Mnebug21
Mnp22g15
Mnp22g18
Mnp22g21
NEC Compatible 9300KG2.2
sRGB Colour Space Profile
Trinitron Compatible 9300K G2.2
and there's an option to "add" any of those...

My monitor gives me options of:
High Colour {16 bit}
True Colour {24 bit}
16 Colours
256 Colours
It is currently set to High Colour {16 bit}.

Hope this helps, thanks you guys

*offers more*

*scratches head*

I'm just trying to find out some stuff (anything) about the Sis 6326 chipset

;^)#

Thank you!!!!
I'll be ~very~ grateful!!!

I now know more than anyone could reasonably want to know about how to program that chipset. Unfortunately, none of it is of any relevence as it all depends on how the graphics card manufacturer implements the chipset features.

About all I can suggest at the moment is to check that your monitor/screen is properly defined. It's in the same place as the Colour Correction & should be under a tab called monitor - not knowing what sort of screen you have I'd suggest making sure that it's defined as Plug& Play, Standard VGA or Super VGA.

;^)#

Right...
under Monitor:
It's a Super VGA 1024X768
Under options:
There are 3 boxes;
Monitor is Energy Star Compliant {unchecked}
Automatically detect Plug & Play monitors {checked}
Reset display on suspend/resume {checked}

That sounds like it should work OK.

I suppose it's possible your monitor is unwell - how old is it? Have you ever seen any blue on it?

The background on this pic is pretty close (a bit darker) to h2g2 Goo blue - (URL removed by moderator)


Does it look blue or black on your screen. If it looks black in your browser try saving it to your 'puter & then opening it in a paint program & see what colour it is.

;^)#

I see a black background!
*Paint programme* Hmmmmmmm
My monitor is not unwell.
I see perfect blues...gorgeous blues...just not on h2g2 except that sad smiley! That's blue!

Can't find a paint programme.
Tell me, what colour is that blue smiley to you?
And can you see the black cat smiley? That's invisible to me...

Try Start/Programs/Accessories/Paint - that's where Windows installs a link by default.

The is a light blue - sort of sky blue - to me.

I can see the black cat - though in Goo it's not obvious

;^)#

Start/Programmes/Accessories:
There's:
a} Communications
b} Address Book
c} Synchronize

Nothing else!

Arrgh, it probably wasn't installed with windows then - it's an option.

;^)#