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Support FAQ
Q: I was asked a user name and password
when I wanted to download the full version, update or an additional
module, but I do not have this information
A: This information is sent via e-mail at the time you register
your program. If you have registered but you do not have this information
please e-mail to support 4windsmj.com and give us some details of your order (your
name, at least).
MPORTANT: Please make sure that
your ISP or spam mail filter does not block e-mail from lagarto.fi or
kolumbus.fi addresses since
support e-mail normally proceeds from these domain names (and not
necessarily from 4windsmj.com).
Q: Where should I enter the registration information I
received?
A: If Four Winds is not yet running, start it by clicking the
Windows Start button, Programs, Four Winds and Four Winds
Mah Jong 2 (you may also have the program icon on your Windows
desktop, in which case you can start Four Winds simply by double clicking
the shortcut icon). After Four Winds is started, choose Register on the Help menu
(menu bar is below the title bar and has the following menu commands: File,
Game, Options, View and Help).
If you still not have installed Four Winds on your system, please download
the setup packet first and install the game.
Q: My
registration number is not working.
A: Check from the About box (accessed by choosing
About Four Winds on the Help menu) that you have version 2 or later (instead of
version 1.x). Note too that both fields in
the Registration dialog box are case sensitive. Please enter the
registration information exactly as it appears in the registration leaflet
(or message you received after having registered your version). If your registration information is lost whenever you quit the game so that you need to enter it again each time you play, please do the following to correct the problem: 1) Close Four Winds 2) Right click on Four Winds launch icon on Windows desktop and choose "Run as administrator" from the context menu that shows. 3) Enter you registration information by choosing Help > Register. 4) Close Four Winds and re-launch it as a regular user.
Q: The game does not allow me to customize the rules even if I
have registered the program.
A: Please quit the ongoing game, if applicable, then choose Preferences
on the File menu and choose "Customized" from the Rule presets
list.
Q: Why should I register the
program?
A: To be able to play complete games, save your games and
to use alternative graphics. And first of all, because it is the right
thing to do, rewards us for doing a good job and encourages us to continue
the development!
Q: The game is too fast (the discards disappear too soon).
A: You can specify the discard delay (the time a discarded tile
stays visible in the discard slot) on the Gameplay option page of
the Preferences dialog box. You can also turn a timer-based game
completely off by specifying 0 as the value of discard delay in this
case you must explicitly indicate that you do not want a discard by
clicking the game board.
Notice too that you can use keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse. E.g.,
to claim a tile, press the spacebar. The message line at the bottom of the
game board displays shortcuts you can use in different game situations.
Keyboard shortcuts are also listed in the online Help choose Keyboard
Shortcuts on the Help menu.
Note too that by choosing Game Controls on the General option
page of the Preferences dialog box, you can customize the most
important mouse and keyboard operations.
Q: The game is too slow (I do not want to wait for 5 seconds
each time a computer player discards a tile).
A: The default game mode in Four Winds is "realistic" in
a sense that the program will not make decisions for you instead, you
must realize yourself when you have a chance to claim a tile and then need
to claim the tile by clicking the discarded tile while it is visible in
the discard slot. If you do not want to claim a tile, you should click the
game board to "accelerate" the game (tell that you do not want
to claim the tile).
On the other hand, Four Winds also supports "auto-accelerated"
games, in which case the computer stops for user input only in a situation
where you actually have a chance to claim a tile and in all other
situations automatically passes a discard. To turn this mode on, check the
Auto-accelerate box on the Gameplay option page of the
Preferences dialog box.
Q: Why is there a few seconds pause after I have discarded a
tile and before the tile disappears from the discard slot?
A: By default Four Winds allows you undo your last discard. Undoing
is performed by clicking the discarded tile while it is visible in the
discard slot. You can accelerate the game by clicking on the game board
that releases the tile immediately. On the other hand, if you do not
wish to use the Undo feature, you can turn it off by clearing the Undo box
on the Gameplay option page of the Preferences dialog box.
Q: I find constant game messages in a message box disturbing.
A: Choose Show Messages on the Options menu to clear
the check mark beside the command. Now most of the game messages are
displayed on the status bar instead of a message box.
Q: I have disabled game messages and made the discard delay shorter, and (auto)accelerate the game to make the game faster, but I still find it too slow.
A: Tile animation and sound effects take some processing and make the pace of game slower. You can use controls under File > Preferences > User Interface > General to adjust tile animation. To make a faster game, set the frequency and frame values for each animation to zero to completely disable tile animation. To remove the "Click" sound, activate the Themes option page, then click "Tile move" in the list of Sounds, and set its value to "-none". You can also change or disable sound effects for other events, like declarations of Chow, Pung and Kong (for each of the four players), to make the pace of the game a bit faster.
Q: I am playing Four Winds on a tablet device but I find it difficult to play the game on my device.
A: Choose File > Preferences and and under User Interface > General tab, check Touch screen friendly. This alleviates certain problems that can exist when playing the game on tablet devices (especially smaller devices). You should also change the default method for discarding a tile from "Right click on raised tile" to "Click on raised tile", and uncheck the Extended confirmation area option, (from File > Preferences > User Interface > General > Game Control). You can also try if changing to one of the four basic boards (under View > Gameboards) with larger tiles allows better playability. It is also advsiable to switch to tablet mode (on Windows 8 and 10) whenever using a touch device since it supports e.g. automatic display of soft keyboard whenever user input is required.
Q: The text and graphics are very small on my display.
A: Starting from version 2.15 Four Winds no longer informs the system to be dpi-aware. This means that you can use Windows 8.1 and 10 app scaling feature to support ultra-high resolution displays and let the system adjust the text and graphics. You can also separately determine size of e.g. menu font, etc., which may be necessary when running the game e.g. on small tablet devices.
Note: In previous Windows versions app scaling was only partially supported, e.g. to increase the font and control sizes, but this often resulted in poor quality, which is why Four Winds supports internal adjustments instead of accepting system-based user-interface scaling. If you run the game on Windows 7 or earlier, and need interface adjustment, and use Four Winds version 2.15 (or later), you should enable internal scaling by using application icon properties. To do that, right click on Four Winds program icon on Windows desktop and choose Properties. Then on Compatibility tab, make sure that Disable display scaling on high DPI settings is checked (in Windows 10 the setting is Override high DPI scaling behavior, combined with the Application sub option). This allows Four Winds to perform its internal scaling. But when using Windows 8.1 or 10 with ultra-high resolution screen, you should turn off (uncheck) this setting and allow system to do the app scaling, instead.
Q: I cannot access the Windows taskbar
when playing with Four Winds.
A: Press Ctr+Esc to display the taskbar, or Alt+Tab to
switch between current tasks. On a touch device, sweep from left to right from the left edge of the screen to reveal the desktop.
Background: When you play with a game board the size of which matches the
screen size (e.g., when the size of both is 1280x800 pixels), the taskbar
is covered by Four Winds main window. If you need to constantly switch
between tasks when you play Four Winds, consider using a smaller game
board (the size of the game board can be changed from the View menu),
or increasing the screen resolution.You can also specify the taskbar to be autohiidden (separately for the desktop and table mode) by right clicking the taskbar and choosing Taskbar settings. This way you can access the taskbar whenever needed simly by swiping from the bottom of the screen.
Q: The taskbar covers the bottom of the full-screen
Four Winds main window.
A: Press and hold down the Shift key and right click
anywhere on the game board, or double click the title bar, or drag and drop the Four Winds window near the top left corner of she screen. This resets the position of the main
window to 0,0 and allows full-screen Four Winds window to cover the taskbar.
Background information: When you play with a game board the size of which matches the
screen size (e.g., when the size of both is 1280x800 pixels), the taskbar
is covered by Four Winds main window, provided that the window is
positioned exactly at 0,0 (top left corner). If you subsequently move the
window, the taskbar is shown on top of the Four Winds main window (this
behavior is intentional and according to the specifications of Windows
operating system).
Note: On certain systems taskbar may remain always on top even if
the above described procedure is carried out. In this case it is
recommended that you either use a smaller game board or turn off the
"Always On Top" property of the taskbar. You can do that by
doing the following:
- On Windows 10 (and 8), right click an empty spot on Windows taskbar and choose Taskbar settings. On earlier Windows versions, right click on empty spot on taskbar,
then click Properties on the menu that appears.
- On Windows 10 (and 8), enable the option Automatically hide the taskbar in desktop mode (or tablet mode, if applicable). On earlier Windows versions, click the Always On Top
check box to clear it.
- Click OK.
Q: The game settings seem to be corrupt.
A: If Four Winds behaves oddly, it is possible that Four Winds specific registry settings have become corrupt. You can reset the registry settings by holding down the Shift key while starting Four Winds. When you do, a dialog box is displayed at the program start-up requiring you to confirm that you wish to reset the registry settings. If you continue to have problems with the rule settings, it is possible that the 4winds.cfg configuration file has become corrupt. You can reset to factory defaults (which results in losing all your customized rules), by holding down the Ctrl key while starting Four Winds. When you do, a dialog box is displayed at the program start-up requiring you to confirm the change. Note that if you have saved games where your customized rules have been used, you can retrieve the rules by opening a saved game, choosing File > Preferences, and clicking the arrow button beside the Rule presets dropdown list and choosing "Save As New Rule Preset". Give the rule preset a unique name and close the Preferences.
Q: I keep on getting identical hands
between deals.
A: Please check that your system clock works and is set to
the correct date (if the clock is stopped or set to a distant future date
e.g. to year 2083 the program's random number generator does not
work correctly, resulting in identical hands).
Q: "Host a new or saved multiplayer
game" option is grayed out in the Multiplayer Game Wizard.
A: Note that hosting a game is supported only in the
registered version of the game. Joining, however, is allowed, though only
one deal can be played with an unregistered copy of the game.
Q: I have problems in joining or creating a
multiplayer game.
A: Please go through the instructions
given in the documentation for setting up or joining a multiplayer
game. For specific problems related to multiplayer games, you might also
want to read the following articles:
Q: Is there a game server I could use to
play online against other people?
A: Unfortunately not, at the moment. If you want to play on
the Internet, you must have a group of 2 to 4 players, one of which
acts as a host (uses the computer to which the other players make the
connection to). The hosting player must deliver to joining players his IP
address after having created the game session. The joining players must
use this IP address when they specify the address of the host. For
details, see the instructions in the FAQ questions above.
For technical support, please fill in the Feedback
form, or send e-mail to support4windsmj.com.
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