Welcome to the Black Lodge, an HTML Art project devoted to the filmmaker David Lynch ! Should you wonder what this site is about, or should you meet immediate problem, this page should help : it's a shorter, troubleshooting-focused version of a broader FAQ page contained in the "about" section of this site. Below are the most common questions :

	What is the point of this site ?
	Where am I and where can I go ?
	It doesn't seem to work on my browser ?!
	What are the best general conditions to browse your site ?
	I have Internet Explorer, should I set something ?
	Sometimes nothing happens and there's no way out ?!
	What's the best screen resolution to browse your site ?
	How do I report a bug ?
	Do you have any contact or relation with David Lynch ?

This section is a FAQ, so feel free to help making it as useful as possible. If you think some other information should be stored here, or if you want to give me your opinion about this site, please do not hesitate to mail me.

The goal of this site is to build a virtual persistent world out of several different creations by David Lynch that share some very strong elements. Indeed, there are in the films I've chosen to include in this site (namely, "Eraserhead", "Lost Highway", "Blue Velvet", "Twin Peaks", "Fire Walk with Me" and "Mulholland Drive"), characters, stories, places, and a general mood that, I feel, belong to the same consistency.

The idea is then to recreate this specific world from which David Lynch takes his visions and ideas, and enable you to visit it. In that aspect, this site was greatly inspired by the similarities between the HTML link structure and the popular interactive books of the 1980s, the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books.

Unlike in those books or in an adventure video game, however, there is no real purpose in your wandering. The pleasure of experiencing a virtual immersion into David Lynch's world, admiring his visual compositions, his special dream-like atmosphere, his strange or moving characters, is the key to understand this site.

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You are here, at the very start of the site (bookmark it if you want to, you won't come back here otherwise), and you can go three ways from there :

1) This "help" section, of course, presenting the general features of the site, and (obviously) helping you with important browser settings and troubleshooting.

2) The main "journey" section on the left, that will lead you to David Lynch's universe. You will see Fred and Renee Madison there, watching a videotape. After the TV screen comes to life, you'll be able to click it and enter the scene it plays. If you don't like a specific scene (it's randomly chosen), use the TV buttons below to select the next or previous one. Then, you'll be in.

3) The "site core" section on the right, the most "normal" part of the site. You'll find there information (about me, David Lynch and his work, and this project), chapter stops for the "journey" part, a few links, and a guestbook.

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The main concept of this site is to be an immersive, interactive experience into a filmmaker's universe. To reach this goal, I had to use at their fullest some web design tools that few other sites do use much, or at all. Hence problems.

So... this site uses popups (disable your popup manager to enter the "about" section, there's no advertisement anywhere in batbad.com), frames, some CSS, Javascript (for random elements and JPEG animation), Flash (mostly for sound), and also huge Flash/Javascript interaction through fscommand and ActionScript, themselves working through Java.

Most browsers have all those features (enable them through your option panels), and have them working more or less properly - but Flash/Javascript interaction. This causes a few problems in some browsers, like Opera, and leads to some pages being nothing but dead ends. The latest version of the most popular browsers should work perfectly, though : this site works with Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Firefox (on Windows anyway, I don't know about Macintosh).

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Since 2006, this site is compatible with every popular browser : Internet Explorer for Windows, Firefox, old versions of Netscape. It should also work under Mozilla and other browsers. As far as I know, it doesn't work under Opera.

This site uses sound, coded as MP3 through Flash - it has to be installed so the site works, and you really shouldn't switch the sound off while you browse this site. I've captured a lot of music and sounds from Lynch's work (and used a lot of others) to keep that typical Lynch atmosphere as intact as possible, and myself, I've even connected my PC with my stereo. I assure you this greatly improves the impact of some scenes !

You should use the latest versions of your browser and Flash. I work from those and make sure the latest versions work, so if you experience bugs, maybe this is the reason. I also advise you not to let other browser windows opened while browsing this site, otherwise some Flash animations may get slower.

Finally, it's of course better if you have a broadband Internet access, but apart a few heavy pages, I've been careful to limit file weight.

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Yes : first, check your cache settings. In most cases, animation in this website uses JPEG images and Javascript : JPEG images are preloaded, then displayed by the script at the rate I've coded. This allows better interactivity and image quality. Now, Internet Explorer sometimes has the bad habit to reload images that were preloaded, just in case they were updated during the few seconds between loading and display - which may cause choppy animation.

So, to prevent this, go to "Tools", under the "General" tab, in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, click on "Settings", and choose "Automatically" for the "newer version of stored pages" checking - if it's not already been done.

Then, you might want to get rid of that image toolbar which may appear every time you point at a picture. For this, go to the "Tools" menu, click the "Advanced" tab, and disable the "Enable image toolbar" option under the "Multimedia" section. You will have to restart the browser so that it's correctly set.

As stated under the "it doesn't seem to work on my browser" question, Javascript and Java also have to be enabled, your popup manager to be turned off, and the Flash plugin to be installed. Don't worry, it's probably already the case.

And finally, it's better if you don't have other browser windows opened (especially if there's some Flash in it, Internet Explorer doesn't handle very well several Flash files playing at the same time), and if the main Black Lodge window is set at full screen (just by pressing F11).

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Three possibilities here : check your modem status or the browser status bar to see if everything has been downloaded yet. If the browser is still loading HTML, images or sounds, the navigation may be paused - just wait. The same solution applies if there are dialogues or special events (remember, Lynch likes slow shots, so my site has slow moments as well).

Another common situation may be that you just haven't noticed the right way out. Like in an adventure game, try to explore the image and look for something to click on ! And finally, remember that going in circles isn't really being stuck - something *will* eventually happen.

The last possibility might be, well, a bug. In that case, please mail me the address of the bug and your computer configuration (see the "how do I report a bug" question).

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That's the beauty (forgive my pretension here) of my site ! Actually, any screen resolution from 800x600 to 1600x1200 pixels should work, because I've designed the HTML so that it fits your browser window no matter what - even with unconventional proportions. I never saw this elsewhere so far.

This is something that's quite spectacular to check if you're using Internet Explorer on Windows and you've activated the "Show window contents while dragging" option in the "Effects" tab under the "Display Properties" panel : while changing the size of the window, you'll see the HTML page change and fit accordingly.

Walls will expand, furniture and characters will move to fill empty space, and all maintains a consistent visual composition.

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First, are you sure it's a bug ? Please read the questions in this FAQ related to technical problems before you send me a mail !

Then, I have to know *everything* about your browsing conditions : what operating system runs on your computer ? What Internet browser, and what version of that browser ("Internet Explorer" isn't enough, I have to know if it's, say, version 6.0.2800.1106) ? How fast is your Internet access, what version of Flash do you use, do you have special Internet settings, like an unusual cache configuration ?

You must also know, as I've stated under the "it doesn't seem to work on my browser" question, that this site just can't work with browsers that do not support Macromedia fscommand and ActionScript. Popular browsers (Internet Explorer and Firefox) do support it, but some others (Opera) do not. So, if you use an uncommon browser and are stuck after two pages, reporting a bug is irrelevant : you browser simply does not support the Macromedia plugins.

Yet, if it apparently does, and you do see something that shouldn't happen, thank you very much for mailing me !

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No, I don't know David Lynch, nor any of his friends.

As described in the "about" section on the right of the main page, I'm just a web designer who had, at a moments of his life, a lot of time on his hands and a lot of admiration for David Lynch and some of his work. I created this project out of the desire to build a persistent, interactive and consistent web world with some of his creations, which, I believe, have very strong links one with another. I think it's beautiful.

If you, on the other hand, do know David Lynch, I'd of course be delighted to know what you or he think about this site ! Please do send me a mail - and expect a quick answer !

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