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Text File | 1997-11-13 | 17.7 KB | 433 lines

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - Windows 95 DEMO Coming soon ----------- This demo lets you explore one of Turok's massively huge levels. The full retail version will feature: * All 8 levels * Many nasty bosses to destroy * Complete online help manual * Option to use higher quality sound * Stereo sound * Improved controller support * A few surprises IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING ELSE, READ THIS ------------------------------------------ You may experience difficulties running Turok if you don't have the latest drivers from the manufacturer of your 3D accelerator card. Drivers were being changed right up to the last minute as testing with Turok revealed problems with various cards. Typically, the chipset makers expect you to go to your card manufacturer for the latest drivers for their card. Although the chipset makers supply the 3D chip and driver software to card manufacturers, the manufacturer may tailor the driver to their particular board configuration, so the safest place to go for drivers for your board is the card manufacturer. In some cases, however, the chip maker also manufacturers the board. The following is list of web site addresses from which you can obtain the latest drivers. Also, www.acclaimnation.com will contain an updated list. If Turok has problems running under the drivers you installed with your card, contact your card manufacturer for the latest version. ATI Technologies www.atitech.ca Canopus www.canopuscorp.com Creative Labs www.creaf.com Deltron Technology www.deltrontech.com Diamond Mulitmedia www.diamondmm.com Elsa www.elsa.com Hercules www.hercules.com Intergraph Computer Sys www.intergraph.com Jazz Multimedia www.jazzmm.com Leadtek www.leadtek.com Matrox www.matrox.com miro Computer products www.miro.de Number Nine, www.nine.com Orchid Technology www.orchid.com Sierra On-line www.sierra.com/hardware/ STB Systems www.stb.com TechWorks www.techworks.com Video Logic www.videologic.com Supported chipsets ------------------ Usually, but not always, if a board is based on one of the following chipsets, Turok will run on it. 3Dfx Interactive Voodoo Graphics 3Dfx Interactive Voodoo Rush 3Dlabs Permedia2 Permedia 1000NT (320x240) ATI Technologies 3D Rage Pro NEC Electronics PowerVR PCX2 Nvidia Riva 128 Rendition Verite v1000 (320x240) Rendition Verite v2100 Rendition Verite v2200 Matrox MGA-1164SG DirectX 5.0 must be installed ----------------------------- You can download dirextX 5.0 at: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/default.asp Minimum CPU speeds ------------------ For 3Dfx chipsets, 100 MHZ minimum, 133 recommended. For NEC PCX2 chipsets, 166 MHZ minimum, 200 recommended. All others, 133 MHZ minimum, 166 MHZ recommended. Video Performance settings -------------------------- Prior to starting Turok, you can choose various video options on the Video/Performance Settings menu. Except for the Render Overlap option, checking one of the available options will enhance some element of Turok's look, but, depending on your 3D card, may result in some decrease in performance (speed). In many cases, Turok can detect your current 3D video card, select the best combinations of performance options for it, and show these the first time you select this menu item. If Turok is not able to determine your card, you'll see "Unknown card, select from list." Scroll down the list to find your card. For cards that are specifically listed under Video performance, stay with our suggested settings. For a card that is not listed, determine the card's chipset and look for an "unlisted" entry for that chipset. E.g., you've got a 3Dfx Voodoo Rush-based card that's not shown in the menu. Select "3Dfx Voodoo Rush Unlisted" and use those recommended settings. Finally, if you have a card with an chipset that's not listed above as being supported, and you want to try Turok, check all the options below and run the game. If you encounter problems (visual or performance), try un-checking things. If things look fine, but speed is an issue, the two most likely (and usually safe) things to do are shrink the screen size (+/- numeric keypad keys), or go to a lower full screen resolution. Again, check acclaimnation.com for the latest list of supported cards and patches. Brief descriptions of the options: Bilinear Filtering -- Smoother look, reduces "blockiness". Mip Mapping -- Reduces "shimmering" or "dancing pixels" (e.g., the ground at the horizon).in far away objects. Full Screen Tinting -- With this checked, when you're underwater, e.g., the whole screen is tinted a blue, watery color (more realistic). Some cards take a performance hit when doing this. Fog -- Things on the horizon appear gradually through a "fog" as you approach them. Turn this off, and far away objects "pop up" instantly into view. Fancy Plant -- Some cards don't do a good job of handling one of Turok's more complex plant models. Turn this off to replace this plant with a less complex version of the plant. Fancy Sky -- Same deal for the sky. Render Overlap -- This one is tough to describe. Turning it off or on might get some performance increase, but at the possible expense of screen artifacts or "tearing". Filtered Plants -- Some cards display an outline around plants when this is checked. Turn it off if the outline bothers you. Custom APIs ----------- Most people will have only one 3D card/chipset in their PC. The Video Performance menu will show that chipset's driver with a check mark to show it's the driver being used. E.g., if Turok is running under Direct 3D for your chipset, you'll see: Primary Display Driver (Direct3D) checked. Turok has been optimized for certain chipsets, and will automatically detect them use their native API for best performance. E.g., if you have a 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics chipset, you'll see Custom 3Dfx Driver checked. Currently, Turok has custom drivers for 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics, 3Dfx Voodoo Rush, and NEC PCX2 chipsets. Custom ATI version ------------------ As of this writing, you can expect a custom version for the ATI Rage Pro chipset in mid-December 1997. Recommended settings exist for this chipset in the Video Performance section. However, Turok will not run properly without the drivers to be made available mid-December. Online manual ------------- A complete manual for Turok can be accessed as a Windows Help file, either from the START/PROGRAMS/... Programs, ... menu, or from Turok's opening screen (Help on the menu bar). Video card drivers must be installed ------------------------------------ Drivers for your 3D graphics card must be installed prior to running Turok. You typically do this when you first install the card. If you haven't installed the drivers, a message to the effect that no hardware accelerator cards or drivers were found will appear when you start Turok. DirectX 5.0 must be installed ----------------------------- This happens as a normal part of the Turok installation process. Drive space ----------- Turok requires about 42 MB of hard drive space to install. In addition, during gameplay, Turok requests 30 MB of virtual memory from Windows. Depending upon how much RAM you have, Windows may need to increase the size of your swap file to accommodate this request (this usually happens automatically). If this results in not enough disc space, Turok will let you know with a message. If you have another drive or partition with 42 MB free space, you could try installing Turok there instead of the default location on C: (where your swap file probably is). This will free up space on C:, allowing your swap file to grow larger, and, hopefully, Turok to run. Turn off other applications --------------------------- Other Windows applications left running while playing Turok could be using system resources that would improve Turok's performance. Also, if another application grabs Windows' focus (e.g., announcing email), Turok will simply disappear and will need to be re-started. Another example: if you remove Turok's CD while playing the game, and insert an audio CD, your CD player application will take control to play the CD, killing Turok. Turning music volume off may improve performance ------------------------------------------------ Turok reads music (not sound effects) from the CD during gameplay. Each time the music changes (not very often), the game will pause for a bit while the CD seeks to the new music. Setting music volume to its lowest setting will prevent this. You'll still have sound effects. Don't press the PAUSE key ------------------------- It may have unpredictable effects. Command line options -------------------- -noRoll Disables jump left or right when double tapping the strafe key. To use this option, you must create a Windows shortcut to Turok.exe, then right-click the shortcut and select "Properties". Click on the "Shortcut" tab and add "-noroll" after turok.exe in the "Target" section (be sure there is a space between "turok.exe" and "-noroll"). The "Target" section will then look like: C:\Program Files\Acclaim\Turok\turok.exe -noroll Then, run Turok via the shortcut. -alldrivers As mentioned above, most people will have a single 3D chipset in their PC and Turok will automatically use it. However, it's possible for two or more 3D chipsets to co-exist in one PC. If you have two 3D chipsets installed, and one of them is supported by Turok via its native API, Turok will show only the native API version in the Video Performance menu, as it will result in best performance. Otherwise, Turok will run under the Direct3D driver. If you have three or more chipsets installed, Turok will display all possible drivers on the menu, with the preferred driver checked. However, at this point, you can check/choose another driver (typically Direct3D). HOWEVER, we don't guarantee operation under a non-suggested driver. Finally we get to the -alldrivers option. If you're a real control freak, you can set this command line option and all possible drivers will always appear for selection. -enableHardwareMixing This command line option that will allow the sound card to mix the sound channels rather than allowing DirectSound to mix the sounds in software. Hardware mixing generally will give a better mix IF it can mix all the needed channels in hardware; otherwise, it will have to use software and/or hardware mixing, or worse yet, drop sounds; all of which can slow the game down and give a bad sounding mix. If your soundcard can handle mixing up to 16 channels (and has enough memory on board to mix them all), this option could possibly increase game speed and give better sounding effects. -output11k -output22k -output44k Although you can select 11Khz or 22Khz samples in the game menu, by default all sounds will mix into a 44Khz output buffer. Depending on your sound card, changing the output buffer's frequency (especially if it matches the selected sample's frequency) may speed up the sound mixing. -disableambientsounds Turns off ambient sounds (animal noises). Could improve performance on slower machines. Strafe Modifier and Look modifer toggle keys -------------------------------------------- On the joystick/pad and mouse setup screens, you can set the Y Axis Behavior (forward/backward movement of the stick or mouse) to either cause Turok to look up/down or move forward/backward. You can temporarily swap these behaviors by pressing and holding the Look Modifier Toggle key (default: P) on the keyboard while moving the controller in the Y axis direction. E.g., if the controller's Y axis movement normally moves Turok forward/backward, he will temporarily look up/down if P is being depressed. The same approach applies to X Axis Behavior (side-to-side movement of the stick or mouse) which can be set to rotate or strafe. Pressing and holding the Strafe Modifier Toggle key (default: O) on the keyboard while moving the controller in the X axis direction will temporarily swap behavior. Y Axis Looking -------------- In Setup for joysticks and mice, there is a Y Axis Looking option. This changes how Turok looks up/down when directed by joystick/mouse movement in the Y axis (and there are two ways Y axis movement can cause Turok to look up/down: either the Y Axis Behavior has been set to look up/down, or the Y axis toggle key, mentioned above, is causing Y axis movement to look up/down). If "forward looks up" is checked, Y axis movement in the forward direction will cause Turok to look up. If "forward looks down" is checked, Y axis movement in the forward direction will cause Turok to look down. 11 KHz, 22 KHz, and Mono options -------------------------------- Under Audio in the setup screen (click on Sample Frequency), you can choose from sounds sampled at either 11 KHz (good) or 22 KHz (better). Default is 11 KHz. Depending on your total system configuration, using 11 KHz sounds may result in fastest performance. Try 22 KHz and choose. Selecting Mono may also improve performance. As with all options, they will be saved whenever you save a game. Quitting Turok ------------- You can quit Turok at any point by pausing and returning to Windows via the Turok menu system, or by pressing Alt F4. Boards running with a PowerVR chipset ------------------------------------- Screen size adjustment (numeric keypad +/- keys) doesn't function. However, several screen resolutions are available. 3Dfx chipset boards ------------------- 3Dfx boards have an "Ignore Vblank" option. Checking it could improve speed noticeably,especially on faster machines, but you may see visual screen "tearing" occasionally. ESS Technologies sound chips ---------------------------- There may be compatibility problems with using a digital joystick motherboards/with cards that use sound chips from ESS Technologies (random false joystick input resulting in spinning around and other wierd behavior). If you experience this problem and you have a chipset from ESS Technologies, contact your computer vendor for the latest drivers. Direct3D initialization errors ------------------------------ The process of initializing a 3D card to run under Direct3D involves many steps. These error messages are provided to help you troubleshoot in case the Direct3D initialization fails. In general, if you receive a Direct3D initialization error message, you should try to run Turok again with a lower screen resolution Some Direct3D errors (especially #4, #7 and #15) result from having too little memory on your 3D accelerator card. You should try to run Turok again in a lower screen resolution (lower screen resolutions use less memory on the 3D card). Errors #1 and #3 may mean that you do not have the latest version of DirectX installed (DirectX includes Direct3D). The correct version of DirectX was shipped with the Turok CD-ROM; you should try to re-install Turok. Some errors (especially #10) may be a result of a conflict between your desktop's color palette and the color depth of the buffers that Turok is trying to allocate on the 3D card. The desktop's color palette is set in the Display Properties window, available by choosing Start -> Settings -> Control Panel and then double clicking the Display icon. Choose the Settings tab of the Display Properties window and select High Color (16 bit) in the Color Palette drop down menu. Changing this setting may require you to restart your computer. You might also try running Turok in a different screen resolution. Here are the Direct3D Initialization errors follow. NOTE: (#) represents an error code that will be returned that may help in trouble-shooting. 1. DirectDrawCreate failed. Turok requires DirectDraw to run. 2. SetCooperativeLevel failed (#). Could not set DirectDraw into exclusive mode. 3. QueryInterface failed (#). Turok requires DirectX 5.0 to run. 4. SetDisplayMode failed (#). Could not switch to requested screen resolution. 5. CreateSurface failed (#). Could not allocate frame buffer from 3D hardware RAM. 6. GetAttachedSurface failed (#). Could not allocate frame buffer from 3D hardware RAM. 7. Z-buffer creation failed. 3D hardware does not support 16-bit z-buffer. 8. Z-buffer allocation failed (#). Could not allocate z-buffer from 3D hardware RAM. 9. AddAttachedSurface failed (#). Could not attach z-buffer to frame buffers. 10. CreateDevice failed (#). Could not create Direct3D device data structure. 11. CreateViewport failed (#). Could not create Direct3D viewport data structure. 12. AddViewport failed (#). Could not attach Direct3D viewport data structure to Direct3D device. 13. SetViewport2 failed (#). Could not set viewport registers. 14. SetCurrentViewport failed (#). Could not set the current viewport. 15. Insufficient texture memory (# bytes) was detected to run TUROK. The reported code number in many errors may be useful if you need to call technical support. ComCtl32 -------- This program will be installed prior to DirectX if needed. If the ComCtl32 installation process returns a message asking if you want to re-boot, DON'T. Just continue on with the install process through DirectX installation. DirectX may ask you to re-boot, and you should do so. If DirectX doesn't ask you to re-boot, but ComCtl32 did, finish the install process and then re-boot (to finalize the ComCtl32 process).