Air Warrior(r) III Frequently Asked Questions Last Update: April 9, 1998 OVERVIEW ======== The FAQ is designed to give you an easy and quick source of answers to the most frequently encountered questions regarding "how to," game features, and game troubleshooting. Note that it does not cover service-specific game launching problems; for these, refer to the Readme.txt file in the \DOCS directory inside the main Air Warrior(r) III directory. The FAQ does not answer every question that may come up with installing, launching, and playing games. For more information, consult the Readme.txt file, post a question on your service's message boards, or send e-mail to: awsupport@gamestorm.com. QUESTIONS ========= ------------- Q: I currently fly Air Warrior II. Do I have to upgrade my system to use Air Warrior III? A: No. The 'software rendering' option in Air Warrior III is the same as Air Warrior II. You will see the same graphics you are used to and get about the same performance. To enjoy the new hardware accelerated rendering, with fully texture mapped terrain and planes, you will need a good 3D accelerator card and a bit more power. ------------- Q: When I run the game with my 3D accelerator video card, the world looks like empty patches of white, blue or dark gray. What's wrong? A: If no textures are being drawn in Air Warrior III, the first thing you should try is a reinstallation of Direct X 5. Odd as it sounds, this has worked in many cases, even when Direct X 5 had been previously installed. If this does not help, your next best step is to visit the web site for your video card manufacturer and download the latest drivers for your card. README3D.TXT has a list of the 3D cards and drivers we used when testing many popular 3D cards. ------------- Q: I cannot get my joystick and other controls to work. What controls do you support and how should I configure them? A: First make sure your controls are configured under Windows 95 (use the Control Panel - Joystick Setup icon). Then select your controls and calibrate them in Air Warrior as well. If you are still experiencing problems, then check the Air Warrior 3D help file under the Setup Controls section. This describes controls Air Warrior 3D supports, and provides special instructions for configuring certain control devices. The information is also duplicated in the file joystick.txt, which is located in the Air Warrior \DOCS directory on your hard drive. The next two questions and answers in this FAQ cover potentially related problems and may also prove helpful. ------------- Q: My joystick works, but it spikes frequently. (and/or) I'm having problems calibrating my rudder pedals. A: If you experience joystick spikes, or have trouble calibrating your rudder pedals, from the Start menu, select Settings, Control Panel, and Game Controllers. Click the Advanced tab, and disable the Poll with interrupts enabled option on the bottom left of the screen. ------------- Q: The game locked up and after I shut it down, and started it again, it no longer detects my joystick. Why? A: This is a problem at the system level of Windows 95 and DirectX 5, but it's easily addressed. In some cases, if the Air Warrior III closes abnormally (the polite term for "crashes"), you may find that your joystick is no longer responding. We have seen this with the Sidewinder 3D Pro in particular. If this happens, select the Start menu, Shutdown, and Restart the computer. In fact it's always a good idea to do this when any program on your computer crashes. ------------- Q: My view settings keep changing at 1 second intervals. Why is this happening? A: Check the "Minimum Frame Rate" option in the Performance settings. Right click anywhere on the screen and select "Setup..."->"User Preferences..." and click on the Performance tab. More than likely this is checked and is not working well with your system. Just uncheck this option to control the view settings yourself (keys 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 during flight). ------------- Q: I use a Wingman Warrior joystick (the one with the rotating knob) and cannot get the knob to function correctly with Air Warrior III as a rudder control device. What can I do to correct this? A: This knob does work reasonably well as a rudder control in Air Warrior 3D if you select Generic Rudder Control and DO NOT calibrate it in Air Warrior 3D. It is better just to use the calibration set in the Windows 95 control panel for the rudder device in this case. Note: The rudder and hat controls only work when connecting the stick through the serial port, not when connecting it through the gameport. See the Wingman Warrior user manual for more information. ------------- Q: My CH CombatStick view switches are not working properly. Any ideas on how to fix this? A: When using the DirectInput driver available from CH Products for the CH CombatStick, the upper-right view switch must be calibrated first. With most other driver choices the two view switches may be calibrated in either order. ------------- Q: I just joined a squadron today and my squad is not displayed with my name on the Kill Board. Why isn't this information displayed? A: Scores, rankings, and squadron information is not updated until the wee hours of the morning. Check the boards again in 24 hours and you will find your squad name and other information up to date for the previous day. ------------- Q: Why would you keep your game interface at 1024x768 and your flight window resolution at 640x480? A: Keeping the flight window resolution set to a smaller size helps improve the frame rate in the game. As you increase the flight window resolution you may see the frame rate slightly decrease. However, game interface art has no bearing on frame rate, therefore you would want to use the highest resolution game interface to get better quality images. If you find that you fly in Full Screen Mode a lot, please read the next question and answer. ------------- Q: When I fly in full screen mode, the cockpit art looks blocky. A: This is because Air Warrior 3D uses the same art file for all view resolutions. In full screen mode, the art must be stretched to fit the screen. If you fly full screen mode at 640x480 often, you can tell Air Warrior 3D to use the high res art (A26____2.art for example) for full screen mode by going to "Setup..."->"User Preferences" and clicking on the "Flight Window Resolution" tab. Select "Allow All Modes" and "Optimize Full Screen Mode". ------------- Q: My frame rate is only 5 to 10 frames per second. What should I do? A: To show your actual frame rate, press Esc-O-D while in flight. Most likely the video driver you are currently running is not the latest DirectX 5 compatible video driver. This is especially true for the Matrox cards. Go to your video card manufacturer's web page to get the latest driver. This should improve your frame rate. ------------- Q: How can I capture an Air Warrior III screen and save it to a file? A: To capture the screen while in a conference room or offline screen, use c, in flight hit F11. This will save the screen, with a DIB extension, in your root Air Warrior III directory. ------------- Q: How do I get sounds and voice to work on my SoundBlaster AWE32 or AWE64? A: In order to get sounds, particularly network speech, to work properly in Air Warrior III, you need to disable a sound processing mode on the card called WaveSynth. It employs floating point processing for sound and can create conflicts with other programs (such as AWIII) that also use a lot of floating point. To disable WaveSynth, go to Settings, Control Panel, and select Multimedia. Under the Advanced tab you should see an option called "Midi device and Instruments." Select it and highlight, "WaveSynth/WG Midi" and click on properties. Then check the box that says "Do not use midi features on this device" and it will disable your WaveSynth without taking it off the system. ------------- Q: The inflight cockpit artwork looks strange in the view mode I prefer using. Is there anything I can do? A: Set the program to optimize for that mode. From the Setup Hangar, select User Preferences, and Flight Window. There are three inflight view modes: Normal (reduced view window, more range reporting information on other aircraft), Combat (larger view screen, digital gauges), and Full Screen (full view window, limited range reporting information on other aircraft). Optimize for the one you use most. You may also need to download higher resolution art for your favorite planes. ------------- Q: I sometimes see a mouse cursor in my cockpit when I fly. How do I get rid of it? A: Some pilots have reported seeing the mouse "waiting" cursor in 2D mode while flying in the full screen view. If you switch to another cockpit view, by hitting either F5 or F6, and then switch back to full screen view by hitting F7, the mouse cursor will go away. -------------