VIRTUAL CORSICA

How many pictures can you see?

photo in GIF format photo in Interlaced GIF format photo in JPEG format photo in Progressive JPEG format

Pic 1
If you cannot see the first picture which is a GIF file, then you are browsing with graphics turned off. This is fine, but not much fun in Virtual Corsica!

Pic 2
Pic 3
If you can see the first picture but not the second, which is Interlaced GIF, or the third, which is a JPEG, then there is something weird about your browser setup. You need to enable JPEGs as all the pictures in Virtual Corsica are in Progressive JPEG format. JPEGs are 24-bit colour and to make sense of them you need to have your monitor set to display at least 256 colours. "True" colour (16- or 24-bit) is a bit better if possible.
If viewing using a 256-colour display, your Netscape browser should be set, under Options/General Preferences/Images, to 'Dither'.

Pic 4
If you can see the third picture but not the fourth, then your browser does not support Progressive JPEGs. Please upgrade to Netscape v2.01 or Explorer v3.02 or later, or any other browser which supports Progressive JPEG.

VIEWING - you may find that loading appears very slow because several pictures are loading simultaneously. To overcome this in Netscape, under Options/Network Preferences, set the number of connections to 1. This will ensure that the pictures load sequentially, top down.

SPEED - most of these pages contain 3 photos, each on average 25000 bytes. So for maximum enjoyment, a reasonably fast Internet connection is necessary.
Many computers are fitted with a modem of speed 14400. This will be rather slow unless you take every step possible to optimise the performance of your modem.
Make sure that compression, if available, is turned ON. (If compression is not available, make sure your modem is correctly identified in the configuration files - ie, not simply 'Hayes generic').
Having done this, try increasing your connection speed in your provider's setup files. You should be able to get a 14400 modem to connect at 57600 - this is the maximum possible performance, with a following wind, from your equipment, and should improve your enjoyment of these pages considerably.
Of course if you have a faster modem, the same general advice applies and you should be able to achieve an even faster connection.

Virtual Corsica is an extension of . . . Francis and Sheila's Virtual Alps