SWIV 3D Windows95 Direct3D Patch v1.0 (Un-supported) Copyright (c) 1997 SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Ltd. This archive contains a new executable and data file to enable any Windows installation of SWIV 3D (or SWIV 3D Assault in the US - released by Interplay) to support Direct3D. However due to the performance requirements of SWIV and compatibility issues on various 3D Accelerator cards & their drivers, not all Direct3D cards are guaranteed to work. Minimum requirements: ===================== Microsoft DirectX 5 (available from www.microsoft.com) Direct3D compatible Accelerator with minimum ** 4MB RAM ** Original version of "SWIV 3D" or "SWIV 3D Assault" Chip-sets that we have successfully tested the patch on: ======================================================== 3DFX Voodoo e.g. Orchid Righteous 3D, Diamond Monster 3D 3DFX Voodoo Rush Rendition Verite 1000 e.g. Creative 3D Blaster PCI Matrox e.g. Matrox Mystique, Mystique2 PowerVR 2 (PCX2) e.g. Matrox M3D Permedia 2 e.g. Creative Graphics Blaster Exxtreme S3 Virge VX Please note that this patch is UNSUPPORTED and we cannot help if it does not run on your particular 3D Card. Installation ============ Simply copy the files in this ZIP file into the directory you have previously installed SWIV to, and run the SWIV_WDX.EXE file to obtain the D3D features. The original executables remain and will still function correctly. Additional Options Available on D3D Version =========================================== Unlike other versions of SWIV 3D the D3D patch has a menu on the games window. This can be accessed by pressing the Alt key while playing the game. The Options on this menu are unsupported and are provided as-is. The game can be played without needing to know about or understand this menu. The File Menu ------------- This menu contains only the Exit option. You can use this to rapidly Exit the Game. In this version of SWIV you can also exit the game using Alt-F4 (The standard Windows Close command). The Driver Menu --------------- This Menu allows you to change the D3D device that SWIV uses to draw the screen. Normally you should not need to touch the contents of this menu. It can be used to select the 3D device SWIV uses if you have more than one Hardware accelerator card installed in your machine. The Render Menu --------------- There are three sub menus with options to configure the visual output of your video card. Since different hardware cards have different feature sets, and each card's performance is affected to a different extent with each option, you can experiment with which options are used to get the best performance for your particular card. The Landscape Render Type Sub Menu ---------------------------------- SWIV has a number of ways to draw the landscape, This menu allows you to trade visual quality for additional speed. The various options here are similer to the Detail Level control in the software only version of SWIV. The Direct Video Writes Sub Menu -------------------------------- SWIV cannot use your 3D card to draw everything, certain things such as the text are drawn in software. The default option here is 'Write Only', on some cards you will have the option for 'Alpha Blending', in this mode SWIV will attempt to anti-alias the text to improve visual quality. The last option is 'Only in Menu', in this mode SWIV will not display any text in game, this should only be used as a last ditch attempt to get more speed out of a slow system. The Bi-Linear Filtering Sub Menu ------------------------------- Some cards give you the option to filter the textures, this gives a cleaner visual effect at the expense of some speed. This Menu will allow you to switch Bi-Linear filtering on for several different types of polygons where your card supports this feature. Stretch Images Option --------------------- The Animations that SWIV displays at the start of the game and between certain levels may not be stored in the same resolution as your card is running in. This option will stretch the animations for a better fit. This option defaults to on. Interlace Stretched Animations Option ------------------------------------- On some video card / machine combinations SWIV may have trouble keeping up with the animations, if this is happening it will result in the animations 'pixelizing'. You can reduce this effect by reducing the amount of data SWIV has to copy to the screen. This option reduces the data by only drawing the orignal pixels in a stretched animation. You could alternatively Turn off the 'Stretch Images' option. Force Key Transparency ---------------------- SWIV will use one of two ways of drawing transparent surfaces depending on the features your 3D card has. If your card has alpha blending capability this option allows you to select the faster (But lower quality) method of 'Key transparency'. Known Problems with the D3D Patch ================================= 3D Blaster The Color-key transparency option does not work. General At certain points on the map in boundary areas, some of the textures become distorted. ---------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1997 SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Ltd. SCi is a trademark of SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Ltd. SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Ltd. is a subsidiary of SCi Entertainment Group PLC. All trademarks are acknowledged. E&OE. ----------------------------------------------------------