Options Dialog box

This dialog box allows you to change some of the main options in the game, all of these options are saved so that when you open Jigsaw Mania again your changes will not be lost.

Overview Window section

Show simple view if there are over x pieces in play
When you open a new puzzle it will compare the number of pieces in the puzzle to the value in this edit box, if the number of pieces in the puzzle is greater than this value then the overview window will switch to 'Simple mode'. Because the overview window takes a lot of your computers power it is recommended that you switch to Simple mode if your puzzle has more than around 350 pieces, this way the program will continue to run smoothly with thousands of pieces. For more information on the Simple mode see the Overview Window.

Always show simple view
Clicking this will always show the overview window in the Simple mode, this is recommended if you have a slower computer or if Jigsaw Mania does not run smoothly.

Preview Window section

If preview image is too large
For a description of the difference between the two settings see the Preview Window.

Piece beveling options

Bevel the puzzle piece edges
If enabled, this will create a beveled effect on all jigsaw pieces. This makes the pieces look more 3D, but it will also increase the puzzle loading time slightly. We recommend that you leave this enabled.

Bevel amount
You can adjust this slider to set the amount of beveling which is applied to each piece.


General options

Ghosted preview transparency
This allows you to change how 'see-through' the Transparent preview is. If set to 0%, then it will be completely transparent, and a setting of 100% will make it completely opaque. You will only notice the effects of changing this if you have the ghosted preview option turned on.

Allow piece rotation
If piece rotation is enabled, all the pieces in your Jigsaw will be randomly rotated 90 degree turns. You can rotate pieces 90 degrees by either double-clicking on them, or by selecting one or more pieces and pressing the space bar. Pieces must be of the same orientation to fit together, however they don't necessarily need to be the correct way up, you can solve the jigsaw upside down if you want.

Piece rotation makes the game a lot more difficult, but it also adds a whole new dimension to the game play. Note that having rotation enabled will quadruple the time it takes for Jigsaws to load, however, after the initial loading time it will take the same time to do things as a normal Jigsaw. It is also worth noting that turning rotation on or off will reset the current progress on any Jigsaw, so don't try enabling rotation half way through solving a Jigsaw as you may loose your progress. This option is off by default.

The options dialog box can be opened by going to: Options->Preferences...

Clear download cache
When you download new Jigsaws using the Jigsaw Browser feature, their filenames are stored in a list so that Jigsaw Mania knows which files you have downloaded. This enables the Jigsaw Browser to hide the Jigsaw sets which you have already downloaded.

The "Clear download cache" button clears that list so that you can download any Jigsaws, even if you have downloaded them in the past. This may be useful if you accidentally delete some Jigsaws and need to download a set again. It makes no difference if you download the same Jigsaw more than once, it will just overwrite the old Jigsaw (but not the saved game).

Performance options section

Keep Ghosted preview in system memory
Enabling this stores the ghosted preview image in system memory instead of your video card's memory. Sometimes, if you are trying to load a very large Jigsaw, or if your video card does not have much RAM, the ghosted preview image will not display correctly or will be corrupt. Turning this option on may slow down Jigsaw Mania a little.

Keep all surfaces in system memory
Enabling this option will store all images in system memory and will not use your video card's RAM. Turn this option on if you see any kind of image corruption occur, whether you will need to do this or not is largely dependant on your video card, the better it is the less likely you will need this option. Also, the larger the Jigsaw the more video RAM it will use so you may need to use it for big Jigsaws.

This option is off by default as storing images in Video RAM is usually much faster for drawing to the screen. Using system memory on the other hand tends to be slower at drawing but more reliable (images never become corrupted). This will depend on your video card, experiment with this option and see which is best for you.

Show progress bar while sorting Jigsaw Collection
When you first browse your Jigsaw Collection, (usually from the wizard screen), it can take some time to sort your Jigsaw collection and to generate/load preview images for each. This loading time will be longer depending on how many Jigsaws you have in your collection.

If this option is turned on then a progress bar will appear to show you how much there is left to load. Some users experience problems with this option turned on, however recommend that you do not turn it off unless you need to.

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