FileView v0.1 FAQ
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Please read "Known Problems.txt" as well.


Q: How do I configure it?

A: Open a supported file and then from the Explorer menu choose "View | Options" or "Tools | Folder Options", depending on which version of Windows you are using.  The settings you can configure are on the "FileView" tab.


Q: Why do the file icons look like folders with a transparent hole in the middle?

A: The way the file icons are created is by taking the normal icon for a folder and drawing an overlay over the top to create the final icon.  However, under Windows XP instead of drawing the overlay in its proper colours it draws it in white/transparent only.  It seems to be because a 16-colour icon is being drawn on top of a true-colour icon and it doesn't do the colour conversion automatically.  You can fix the problem by changing your desktop colour depth to 16-bit instead of 32-bit.  Go figure...


Q: Why do the icons look terrible in tile view under Windows XP?

A: They look like that because the command to get the folder icon has two sizes - "big" and "small."  Small is the usual 16x16 icon, but large is a 32x32 icon - there is no way to get a 48x48 icon, so the 32x32 one is being used instead.  So the icon Explorer is getting is 32x32 and it has to enlarge it so it can be displayed in a 48x48 area.


Q: How come extracting a folder doesn't extract all the files inside it?

A: Some formats contain files which are more conveniently viewed as folders.  So extracting a folder actually extracts it in file form.


Q: I know the internals of a file format - I want to make it work with FileView!

A: You can download the C++ source code of some of the plugins from my web page.  Feel free to copy and modify them to make your own plugin.


Q: When I view a DOS screen in the screen viewer the font is really skinny!

A: There's a problem with the "Terminal" font on Windows 2000/XP in that nine-point is strangely skinny.  I don't know why this happens, but I do know that it can be fixed, because after installing a certain program on XP it goes away (but as yet I don't know which program!)


ART (Build Engine) Files
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Q: The colours are missing!  It's all grey.

A: Make sure the palette file "PALETTE.DAT" is available.  If this file cannot be found then the colours are set to a greyscale.  This file must be in the same location as the .ART file itself.  This can be inside a .GRP or any other supported file, or it can be in a filesystem directory.  But if the palette file is not alongside the .ART file then you won't get any colours.


Q: How come some tiles are really small or blank?

A: Not every space in an ART file has a tile in it, and these blank areas will still appear in the list as tiles that are zero bytes long.  If you try to open one of these tiles it will be a blank bitmap, which will vary in appearance depending on which program is used to view it.


KZP (Ken's Labyrinth) Files
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Q: When I drag and drop the KSM songs into Winamp, nothing happens!

A1: Make sure you've got a capable plugin installed (e.g. AdPlug.)  See my homepage for the URL.

A2: KSM songs don't have any instruments stored in them and so they need the instrument file INSTS.DAT to be in the same folder as they are, otherwise no sound will be heard.

There are two ways to do this - you can extract the .KSM files into a folder, and then copy INSTS.DAT in there as well (INSTS.DAT is in the game folder.)  You will then be able to drag and drop those KSM files into Winamp.

Alternatively, you can copy INSTS.DAT into your Windows temp. directory (Start, Run, "%temp%" will open it) and that will enable you to drag and drop directly from the KZP file.  But if you decide to extract any songs, remember to keep INSTS.DAT alongside (like the first method.)