Also see: Improving Performance

Make sure the master volume and wave device volume are turned up to reasonable levels. (Set these using your computer's sound mixer application, typically accessible by double clicking the speaker icon in the taskbar.) Also make sure your speakers are on.

If you aren't getting any sound out of jambient, make sure the throttle on your joystick is on full (this controls master volume ), and that the Mix Pad is centred.

If you are not using your CD player to play audio, it is a good idea to mute the CD device--the line going from the CD to your sound card can pick up a lot of noise.

Jambient supports use of multiple sound cards: if you have more than one sound card or device on your computer, you can choose the one to send output to. Jambient also supports the Virtual Audio Cable (www.ntonyx.com ), which lets you send the output of jambient into the input of another audio program, for example, one that adds sound effects to incoming sound. For proper use of 3d sound, you need to tell Windows about your speaker configuration, see Implementation and Configuration of 3d Sound.

Mouse: A mouse is necessary. Jambient makes heavy use of the second button, so two or more buttons are highly recommended. I find it easier to use a traditional mouse (where you move the whole mouse with your), rather than a trackball or pad (where the mouse stays in place and you move your finger or hand over the mouse). A traditional mouse lets you get more of your arm into the music, and mouse clicks tend to be easier, since your fingers are devoted solely to clicking, rather than moving a track ball.

Joystick: A joystick is not necessary to play jambient, but it makes all the difference. A 3d joystick--one that lets you twist the handle while moving in X and Y directions is recommended, since this lets you vary three dimensions of sound at once. A throttle will let you control master volume. The more buttons the merrier. A USB device is better than a joystick port device but not necessary. Recommended: Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital 3d.

Display: jambient gets a lot of control surface onto the screen by using detailed graphics and colour coding. You need at least 800x600 resolution to see all of the main screen, and it looks best at 1024x768 resolution. Although jambient can be used in 256 colour mode, it really should be used with 16 bit colour or better.

OS: Jambient requires Microsoft's DirectX 7.0a or above (get it from their website, it's free) and Windows 95 or 98. 

System memory: jambient will work with 16 meg ram, but 32 is much better. The more memory, the more sounds you can load. For performance reasons, jambient does not stream samples from the hard drive, but loads them into memory.

Soundcard: How much the processor speed effects performance depends on how much of DirectX processing is done by the sound card hardware, and this depends on the sound card and its driver. Get the latest DirectX compatible drivers for your sound card. If you are serious about jambient, get a higher end multimedia sound card, such as a Sound Blaster Live! Value card, or a professional sound card. Generic sound cards, such as those based on ESS chips don't work as well. Note: for proper rendering of sound in 3d, it is important to tell Windows what speaker configuration you are using. See Implementation and Configuration of 3d Sound.

Processor: jambient will work on a 133 hz Pentium, but will of course be much faster on faster machines.

Drive speed: loading samples from slow CD-ROMs, etc., will lead to noticeable performance hits. Put your samples on a fast hard  drive, if you have space.