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Text File | 1997-11-04 | 15.9 KB | 374 lines

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jane's Combat Simulations: Longbow 2 v2.07F ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (C) 1997, ORIGIN Systems, Inc. This document may not, in whole or part, be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or machine readable form without prior consent, in writing, from ORIGIN Systems, Inc. ORIGIN Systems, Inc. believes the information contained in this document is accurate and reliable. ORIGIN Systems, Inc. reserves the right to update this manual at any time and without notice. To find out the latest information about Longbow 2, as well as other Jane's Combat Simulation products, please check out our Internet Web site: http://www.janes.ea.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This file has been provided as a supplement to any documentation for Longbow 2. It details last-minute information, as well as some of the most common questions and answers. To print a hardcopy of this file, click on File and select Print from the menu above. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I. New Features and Manual Updates -A. New Information -B. Documentation Updates II. Troubleshooting -A. Joysticks -B. Resizing Desktop -C. Third-Party Screen Savers (Windows 95) -D. DirectX (Windows 95) -E. Autorun (Windows 95) -F. Frame Rate Help -G. Additional Help III. Improving System Performance IV. Customer Service / Tech Support ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I. NEW FEATURES AND MANUAL UPDATES: A. New Information: - When you complete a campaign and save your progress, your savegame will be deleted since the campaign has been completed. - You can change your pilot's callsign, squad name and division without erasing the pilot record. If you change the pilot's name, it will replace the pilot record. - When using the SMALL install size, users may occasionally experience slight hesitation in flight when a speech phrase is loaded off of the CD and played. With the NORMAL and LARGE sizes, those speech files are copied to the hard drive and there is no pausing. If you have enough hard drive room, and you object to the pausing, we suggest use of the NORMAL option. - The pop-up boxes with menu selections (e.g. the Multiplayer options menu) can be cycled through backwards by holding down the SHIFT key and left-clicking. - While in the in-flight NAV map (ALT-N in flight) hitting Pause Game will pause the entire game, allowing you to study the map and make adjustments without worrying about flying over a SAM site or other threat. - When you generate a random mission, if you choose random enemy quality, you may be given CAT III enemies which will not be too challenging for the experienced player. For a good challenge select CAT II (medium) or CAT I (hard) enemy quality. - You can create your own unit insignia. To do so, create a 256 color bitmap file and copy it into the Janes\Longbow2\PData directory. Name the bitmap file the name of your unit. For example, if your unit is the 5th Armored Battalion, rename your BMP file to 5th Armored Battalion.BMP. The pictures look better if they are square. The picture will be resized auto- matically, however, you may get better results if you resize it to 60x60 using a graphics editor. - The summary panel of the mission planner can be used to quickly edit mission data. Look for subtle underlining of fields that you can click on to activate drop lists. - In multiplayer mission planning, the CP/G edit field is only active when at least one human player is not assigned to a seat. One of the unassigned players can then be assigned to the CP/G seat by the helicopter's pilot player. - In multiplayer mission planning for two team scenarios, data changes by the opposing team are indicated by small red icons on the summary panel. This is to alert you that your computer does not have these changes yet. Although you are not allowed to see the opposing teams flight plans, the game engine on each player machine needs this data to properly create the mission. Wait until the opposing team has sent their changes and the red symbols have disappeared before leaving the mission planner. - In the game, the various maps are refered to with both a name and two numbers in parentheses. Here is how to interpret the different numbers: In Game Map ------- --- NTC (0,0) National Training Center AZR (6,0) Eastern Azerbaijan AZR (3,0) Central Azerbaijan AZR (0,0) Western Azerbaijan B. Documentation Updates: - The Azure Rune (NTC) campaigns have been renamed from "Friend vs. Friend" to "US vs. US Equipment" and "Friend vs. Enemy" to "US vs. Russian Equipment." - The industry videos are not available. - There are no scrollbars in the Jane's Book text windows. To view the text, use the PG UP and PG DOWN keys or push your mouse forward to move the text up, and pull it backward to move the text down. - Multiplayer games are designated by a large dot instead of an X. - If you add a new waypoint before a waypoint with a preset loiter time (e.g. a recon waypoint) you must move the loiter time from the new waypoint back to the original action point. See the manual for instructions on how to do this. - While in the virtual cockpit (F4) view you can snap your views in different directions by holding down the ALT key and using the numpad direction keys (2, 4, 6 and 8). For example, to look back and right, hold down the ALT key and simultaneously press the numpad 2 and 6 keys. When you release the keys, the view will snap back to the front. - The AI pilot ratings are listed in parenthesis after the pilot's callsign. These ratings begin at 0% and increase as the pilot gains experience. The better the pilot does, the more the number will increase. If they do poorly, this number can decrease. - When you enter Instant Action it will retain whatever flight and realism settings you have. It will, however, turn the Invulnerable and Infinite Ammo options ON. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- II. TROUBLESHOOTING A. Joysticks: If you experience any problems with your joystick or other input devices while playing the game, please refer to the Longbow 2 Windows help file for troubleshooting hints. We have written several files for programmable joysticks for use with Longbow 2. These files are located in the JOYSTICK directory on Longbow 2 CD 1. Please see the joystick.txt file located on Longbow 2 CD 1 for more information. B. Resizing Desktop: With some video cards, the desktop will occassionally be resized to 640x480 resolution when you exit the game. If this occurs, restart your computer and it should be restored back to your original graphic settings. C. Third-Party Screen Savers (Windows 95): We recommend that you disable any third-party screen savers (e.g. After Dark) while playing Longbow 2. If you have a third party screen saver running in the background you may experience some problems with the game. Please refer to the screen saver documentation for information on how to disable it. D. DirectX (Windows 95): When playing in Windows 95, Longbow 2 requires DirectX 5 drivers to run the game. Please see the Longbow 2 Install Guide for more information regarding DirectX. E. Autorun (Windows 95): If you experience problems with the autorun menu no longer appearing, when you insert CD 1, run the game by clicking on your Windows start button, select Programs..Jane's Combat Simulations..Longbow 2.. Longbow 2. Once in the game, exit back to the operating system. This should restore the autorun feature. F. Frame Rate Help: ** For optimum Longbow 2 performance, your machine should be optimized. For tips on this, see the Improving System Performance section below. Longbow 2 supports a wide range of machine performance levels as specified in the minimum and recommended machine specifications on the box and in the Install Guide. Additionally, players tend to have differing preferences in the trade-off between visual look and frame update rate. For some, frame rate is everything and they are willing to give up some visual quality to achieve this. For others, visual quality is paramount and frame rate is incidental. Most players are somewhere in between. To properly support this range of machines and preferences, the graphics in Longbow 2 are designed for easy customization. This section will describe how to best adjust the parameters to suit your machine and personal preferences. Remember, though, there is no free lunch. You cannot expect to get fast frame rates and ultimate visuals on the minimum spec machine. When you installed Longbow 2, a rough performance metric was run that set an initial condition for the graphics detail of either LOW, MEDIUM, or HIGH. To change this, type ALT-O while in flight or on the base, and select GRAPHICS and then choose LOW, MEDIUM, or HIGH. Click on ACCEPT to save the changes and fly the game. Working through these options will allow you to experience the full range in the trade-off of visual quality versus frame rate performance. Once you have settled on the rough setting, additional tweaking can be done through the use of the CUSTOM settings. Again, go to ALT-O, select GRAPHICS, and then select CUSTOM. The new screen will show a number of sliders and option boxes that are marked according to the rough setting you chose previously. You can adjust these and see the results on the screen in flight. The most important slider for performance is the HORIZON DISTANCE. Changing it will have the most influence on the nominal frame rate of the game. Note that the rough setting of "LOW" does not even bottom out this slider. Setting "LOW" graphics and then moving it all the way to the left is especially useful for those that try to run this product on a below-spec machine or just prefer the ultimate in fast frame rate. Also, TERRAIN DETAIL (the polygonal complexity of the terrain), TERRAIN LIGHTING (real-time lighting), and SKY TEXTURE (on/off) all affect the nominal frame rate. In certain situations, the frame rate may slow down when there is a lot of visual activity on the screen. OBJECT DETAIL can be turned down to fix this in situations where there are many objects on the screen. It is also useful to turn this setting to its lowest when you are having performance issues in the Virtual Cockpit (you should also turn COCKPIT ROTOR off). SHADOWS, EXTERNAL STORES and OBJECT LIGHTING also have a significant effect on frame rate when there are many objects in the scene. Finally, when there is lots of smoke or tracer fire slowing things down, you can adjust this back by tweaking SPECIAL EFFECTS, SMOKE DENSITY, and SECONDARY SMOKE EFFECTS. Note: The TERRAIN RESOLUTION option under BASE SCREENS in the ALT-O Options screens controls the visual quality of terrain texture. Changing it will alter the installed size of the game and the amount of time necessary to decompress new battle maps, but will have little significant effect on the frame rate of the game. G. Additional Help: For additional help and information on the game, please see the Longbow 2 Windows help file. To open this file, insert the Longbow 2 CD 1 into the drive and the autorun should come up. Select Help. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- III. IMPROVING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE: Windows has several hardware options available to optimize performance. Go through the following steps in order to check these options. 1. Right-click on the My Computer icon. 2. Left-click on the Properties option. This will open the System Properties box. 3. Left-click on the Performance tab. 4. Left-click on the Graphics button and move the Hardware Acceleration slider to None (this may not work with some video cards). 5. Left-click on OK. 6. Left-click on the File System button. Move the Read Ahead Optimization option slider to Full (Hard Disk tab). 7. Left-click on the CD-ROM tab and move the Supplemental Cache Size slider to Full. 8. Make sure the Optimize Access Pattern is set correctly for your CD-ROM speed. 9. Left-click on OK, and then on OK again. 10. Windows 95 will then display a message stating you need to re-boot your computer before these changes will take effect. Left-click on YES to re-boot your system. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. CUSTOMER SERVICE / TECH SUPPORT: If you have any further trouble or questions, please feel free to contact us in any of the following ways: ORIGIN Phone Tech Support: (512) 434-HELP (512) 434-4357 ORIGIN FAX Tech Support: (512) 795-8014 ORIGIN Web Tech Support: http://www.origin.ea.com/tech ORIGIN Internet Tech Support: support@origin.ea.com ORIGIN Internet FTP Site: origin.ea.com ORIGIN Tech Support Mailing Address: ORIGIN Systems C/O Customer Service 5918 West Courtyard Drive Austin, TX 78730-5036 * Longbow 2 Web Site: To find out the latest information about Longbow 2, as well as other Jane's Combat Simulation products, please check out our Internet Web site: http://www.janes.ea.com * Janes Web Site: http://www.janes.com * Customer Support around the world: You can also reach our other Customer Service departments located globally. Please consult the list below for the nearest office to your location. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Arts Ltd PO Box 835 SLOUGH SL3 8XU ENGLAND Telephone: 01753 546465 EA UK Internet Tech Support: uk-support@ea.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Arts France Centre d'Affaires TΘlΘbase 4 Rue Claude Chappe 69771 Saint Didier au Mont D'Or Cedex Telephone: 04 72532500 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Arts GmbH Pascalstra▀e 6 52076 Aachen GERMANY Telephone: 02408 940 555 EA GmbH Internet Tech Support: desupport@ea.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Arts SA Edificio Arcade Rufino Gonzßlez 23 bis. Planta 1¬. Local 2 28037 Madrid SPAIN Telephone: 1304-7091 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Arts Sweden Business Campus JohanneslundsvΣgen 2 19481 Upplands VΣsby Sweden Telephone: 08 590 30151 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Arts Victor Inc 2-4-12 Jingumae, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo 150 JAPAN Telephone: 813-5410-3111 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Arts Pty Ltd P.O. Box 432 Southport QLD 4215 AUSTRALIA Telephone: 1 902 261 600 (95 cents per minute) ITM 7 days a week 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM If you are under 18 years of age, parental consent required ----------------------------------------------------------------------- We would like to thank the Jane's Simulator Pilots who have sent in their questions, comments and excellent suggestions from all over the world! We hope you enjoy Longbow 2 and continue to send the critical commentary and "wish list" requests that make Jane's Combat Simulations the best that they can be! Read me file written by: Courtney "Irasthmus" McMillan and Myque "Perky" Ouellette. Edited by: Tuesday "Vyper" Frase and Kevin "Fiend" Kushner. -Good hunting. Out.