The geometry games share a common foundation, and this FAQ applies to all of them. In the questions and answers below, the term application refers to whatever application you are currently using, such as the Torus Games, KaleidoTile or Curved Spaces.

G1. My question doesn’t appear on this FAQ. What should I do?

First take a look at the application’s built-in Help menu. If it doesn't resolve your question, please submit it via the Geometry Games Contact Page for a more-or-less prompt reply.

G2. I'd like to use KaleidoPaint on my Macintosh or Windows computer. Where can I find it?

The publicly available KaleidoPaint runs only on iOS. A Mac version exists, but has not yet been released. The problem is that drawing with a mouse is much harder than drawing with your finger.

G3. When I paste an image onto a face of the polyhedron in KaleidoTile, the image’s transparency gets lost. What must I do to preserve transparency?

To paste a partially transparent image onto a face in KaleidoTile, you must

• use a Macintosh (not a Windows PC) and
• copy the partially transparent image from a web browser (such as Safari or Firefox) or other graphics program that properly copies transparent images.

M1. What version of Mac OS X do I need?

• Mac OS 10.5 to run the oldest versions (OpenGL 1)
• Mac OS 10.6 to run the older versions (OpenGL 2)
• Mac OS 10.7 or later to run the old versions (OpenGL 3)

W1. I downloaded application.zip without difficulty, but when I unzip it I find only the supporting files (Languages, Help, Textures) — the program itself seems to be missing. Where can I find it?

Windows has marked the file application.zip as “blocked” because it was downloaded from the internet. To unblock it, right-click application.zip and choose Properties. At the bottom of the Properties windows you should see the message “Security: This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer”. Click the Unblock button sitting just to the right of that message, then click OK. The file application.zip is now unblocked. Unzip it and you should find the program itself (application.exe) as well as all supporting files.

W2. The application tells me it Can't find an “OpenGL driver” for my 3D graphics hardware. What is an OpenGL driver and where can I find one?

Geometry Games software uses the standard cross-platform OpenGL graphics library, which in turn uses your computer’s graphics circuitry to draw the games. A piece of software called an OpenGL driver forms the bridge between OpenGL and the graphics hardware. On most home computers this all happens automatically and you never need to think about it. Computer manufacturers like HP and Lenovo pre-install a high-quality OpenGL driver on every machine they ship, so if you bought a standard PC, the geometry games should run fast and well. If, however, you installed (or re-installed) Windows yourself, then please read on…

Microsoft Windows comes with a driver for OpenGL 1.4, which is far too obsolete to be usable. If you installed Windows from a distribution disk, you got Microsoft’s crummy driver.

To correct the problem, you need to download a good driver from the web site of the company that manufactured your graphics processor. To determine who manufactured your graphics processor, go to Start : Control Panel : System : Hardware : Device Manager, click on the ‘+’ next to your computer’s name to see the list of hardware types, and then click on the ‘+’ next to Display Adapters to see what graphics processor your computer has. Most likely you will have Intel Integrated Graphics, an AMD graphics card or an NVIDIA graphics card. You’ll see its model number as well, which you’ll need momentarily.

Intel Integrated Graphics. Go to Intel’s download page, select your preferred language, and either

• let the Intel Driver Update Utility update your drivers automatically or
• look under Find by Category, set the product family to Graphics, select your product line and product name, and follow the instructions to install the graphics driver manually.

AMD. Go to AMD’s support page, click the button Find your driver, select your model number and operating system, and you’ll arrive at a page where you can download a driver and find installation instructions.

NVIDIA. Go to NVIDIA’s site and select your country (or closest match). In the likely case that you have a GeForce GPU, go to the Drivers menu and select GeForce Drivers to download the driver installer; when the download is complete, double-click the .exe file to install the new driver. In the unlikely case that you have a non-GeForce GPU, then from the Drivers menu you should select All NVIDIA drivers, then select your graphics processor’s series (for example, an NVIDIA GeForce 6200 counts as the “GeForce 6 Series”) and operating system, and you’ll arrive at a page where you can download a driver.

W3. Why did the application stop working when I upgraded to Windows 8?

If your computer has an Intel 4 Series Express chipset, the problem is that Intel provides no Windows 8 compatible OpenGL driver for it. If you have an Intel 4 Series Express chipset, the best solution is not to upgrade to Windows 8. If you've already upgraded to Windows 8, you may download an unofficial OpenGL driver.

If your computer has some other chipset (other than Intel 4 Series Express) please report your problem using the Geometry Games Contact Page.

[Return to Geometry Games home.]