Carmageddon II - Carpocalypse Now ReadMe

PLEASE READ


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This document contains valuable information about running Carmageddon II - Carpocalypse Now on your PC hardware. It also contains the latest information about the game, information that is not contained in the manual, and the most up to date trouble shooting guide.
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1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

2. DIRECTX6

3. GAME LAUNCHER

4. GRAPHICS MENU OPTIONS

5. NETGAME OPTIONS MENU

6. EXTRA IN-GAME CONTROLS

7. TROUBLESHOOTING

8. KNOWN PROBLEMS

9. QA REPORT ON D3D SUPPORT AND PERFORMANCE

10. 3D CARD SUPPORT SITES

11. FAN SITES

12. CONTACT

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1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Software Mode (320 x 200 256 colours)

- Intel Pentium 166Mhz CPU or equivalent
- 16MB RAM
- Windows 95/98
- DirectX 6 supported Graphics Card with 2Mb RAM
- 200MB hard drive space
- DirectX 6 supported soundcard
- 4 x Speed CD-ROM

Hardware accelerated mode (640x480 16bit colour)

- Intel Pentium 200Mhz CPU or equivalent
- 32MB RAM
- Windows 95/98
- DirectX 6 supported D3D Graphics Card with 4Mb RAM (D3D performance will vary from card to card)
- 200MB hard drive space
- DirectX 6 supported soundcard
- 8 x Speed CD-ROM

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2. DIRECTX6

Carmageddon II - Carpocalypse Now has been optimised for DirectX6, in order to take advantage of this optimisation you are strongly advised to install DirecX6 when prompted to.
DirectX6 will install new video and audio drivers to your system where appropriate.

Hardware Acceleration

Carmageddon II Carpocalypse Now runs in 3Dfx native mode (Glide) and Direct 3D, this ensures that the game provides the best performance on the widest range of 3D video cards.

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3. GAME LAUNCHER

When the game starts it looks at the hardware in your PC and tries to work out the best graphics mode to run in. If your 3D card is a 3Dfx (Voodoo) card the launcher will default to 3Dfx (Glide). For any other D3D compatible 3D cards the launcher will default to Direct 3D. If no suitable 3D card is detected the launcher will default to Direct Draw Software mode.

You may need to install the latest video drivers for your particular card to secure the best performance from the game. These drivers are normally available from your card manufacturer or they may be downloaded from the Internet. (See the 3D CARD SUPPORT SITES below)

It is possible to override the options the launcher selects but we recommend playing the game in whatever default mode is initially presented before selecting any alternate modes.

In Direct 3D clicking on the Advanced button offers extra options. If you have any performance issues in Direct 3D turning off some of these options may improve the games performance.

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4. GRAPHICS MENU OPTIONS

Carmageddon II Carpocalypse Now provides a number of graphic options which can be turned on or off in game. The default options have been set to provide the best performance and look of the game aimed at a target PC. We recommend that you play the game with the default levels set initially. The main reasons you may wish to adjust these options are generally performance related; the greater the graphic details selected in the game the greater the demand placed on your PC. Some options are however more a matter of taste i.e. Animals can be removed from the game.

In 3D games there is always a trade off between performance and graphic detail. A scene in a game is essentially composed of polygons and textures, the more of these that can be displayed in a scene the smoother and more detailed the scene appears. This requires increased processing power (i.e. a faster PC). We have tried to balance these elements in game to give the best gameplay and best visual quality possible. The options in this menu allow you to adjust some of these elements to find a level that's most appropriate for your PC.

Graphics Menu

Car Complexity

Cars in the game have two models a complex model and a simple model; the simple model has fewer polygons than the complex and therefore requires less processing power from your PC however it does not look as good as the complex model.

Selecting the 'Always' option specifies that the game should only use complex car models. This is the most processor intensive option and should only be selected on high specification PC's. Selecting 'Never' means that the game only uses the simple car models, this option may be selected if your PC performance is too slow displaying the complex car models.

Scenery Cut-off / Scenery Pop Up

This option allows you to select how far into the distance Carmageddon II Carpocalypse Now attempts to draw. Setting a 'Far' distance means that the game tries to show all the scenery in game as far away as possible. Again this option is most suited to faster PC's. Setting the distance to 'Near' means that the game does not try to create (render) the scene at the farthest distance.

Shadows

Allows you to select which cars have shadows drawn underneath them.

Sound Detail

This selects the number of channels the audio attempts to use. Reducing the detail in this option may increase performance.

Traffic

Sets the 'drone' cars (normal every day type) on or off. Turning drone cars off may improve performance.

Sky Texture

Draws a nice sky in game.

Darkness / Fog

This sets the 'fogging' in the distance in the game. By turning this option off the game may run faster but it will not look as good.

Gore Level - Choose the kind of carnage you want to see.

Animals - These can be removed from the game if you're squeamish about road kill.

Flame Thrower - One of the user operable power-ups that's optional

in-game.

Explosives - Big bangs or no explosions.

Auto Load

Setting this option to On will load your most recent save game automatically when you start playing Carmageddon II.

Ambience

Sets the ambient sounds in the environment.


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5. NETGAME OPTIONS MENU

This screen allows the host to customise each race to their individual taste. They are given the ability to alter each of the following options:

Show All Cars on Map - this allows you to sneak a peek at where the other racers are currently cowering.

Show Power-ups on Map - shows the goodies that can make all the difference in a race (or not).

Power-up Respawn - after a set time power-ups reappear in the game (or not)

Game Type - Open or Closed Game - in an open game anyone can join in at any time. In a closed game, once the race has started they must wait until the race is over.

Grid Start - A grid start is much the same as in a single player game. Turning this of creates a random start with all the players starting off at random locations scattered throughout the map.

Race Order - Random or Sequential - You either progress through the race list in its set order or move randomly to any one of the races.

Free Power-ups - This options randomly awards the players a 'free' power-up during the game.

Cars - Eagle, Other, All - This allows contestants to be given the option of choosing between being given Max's car, any car except the Eagle, or any car at all. The cars will be allocated at random at the start of each race.

Starting Credits - How much the players have in their wallet at the start of the game.

Target - This defines the goal of each game, and allows you to adjust it. It is context sensitive, so it will allow you to alter the number of kills in Car Crusher, the time target in Fox and Hounds, and the number of laps in a racing game.

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6. EXTRA IN-GAME CONTROLS

HUD (Head Up Display) Complexity

It's possible to adjust the amount of information displayed on screen during the game. There are two reasons for doing this; the first is that reducing the amount of data shown in the HUD may enhance the performance of the game. The second reason to reduce the HUD data is simply to reduce the amount of clutter in the display area.

The F1 key steps through the HUD display options in the following sequence:
No HUD - No status data is displayed during the game.
Minimal HUD - Displays Game Timer, Car Speed, Car Damage.
Full HUD - Minimal HUD + Credits Awarded, Laps Achieved, Check Points Made, Opponent Cars Wasted, Peds Killed, APO Settings.
No HUD + Opponent Status Bar.
Minimal HUD + Opponent Status Bar.
Full HUD + Opponent Status Bar.

MINI-MAP POSITION

You can adjust the position of the mini-map in the game to any location on the screen that suits you. To move the map hold down the Shift key and use the Cursor keys to position it.

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7. TROUBLE SHOOTING

Q: I know I have a 3D card installed but the launcher isn't picking it up and offering me that option as a default.

A: Ensure you have the latest DirectX6 compatible drivers for your 3D card. Check the card manufacturers web site for the latest drivers.

Q: I have a joystick plugged into my computer, but Carmageddon II doesn't recognise it.

A: Check the joystick configuration in Windows. Go to Settings...Control Panel...Game Controllers and check to make sure that your joystick is configured correctly.

Q: Parts of the menu and objects that should be transparent within the game appear dithered (speckled or dotty) instead.

A: A minority of older 3D cards do not support the effects that Carmageddon II uses for transparent objects in the game. To support these cards we have implemented the 'next best' option creating the effect you are seeing. Unfortunately any other solutions are limited by the 3D hardware you are using.

Q: I bought a big car / bus / truck in the game and all I can see is that back of it in the race.

A: The camera in game is 'attached' to your bumper. If your car / truck / bus is too big to see over you need to adjust the 'bumper camera' using the 'up' cursor key to raise the camera view.

Q: The shadows are flickering under my car in a strange manner.

A: This is an artefact of the way that certain D3D cards handle the order in which items are drawn in the 3D scene. In the cards where this is occurring we recommend turning off the shadows option in the graphics menu.

Q: During a game my controls stop working and a message "Task Switched - Running in Background" appears.

A: You have pressed either the 'Windows' key on your keyboard or the 'Alt - Tab' key. Consequently Windows thinks that Carmageddon II is no longer the uppermost Window on your desktop. Using the 'Alt Tab' key sequence should restore the game.

Q: My mini-map has moved, what happened?

A: You can move the mini-map by holding shift and using the cursor keys. This enables you to move it to a location of your choice. If you play the software version of the game followed by the hardware version the mini-map will appear to be in the centre of your screen, this is easily fixed by moving it back to it's original location using shift and the cursor keys.

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8. KNOWN PROBLEMS

Voodoo Rush Cards

We have experienced a problem with the Voodoo Rush card in Carmageddon II's QA period. The in-game cursor area is restricted to a limited window in the menu. Consequently in order to play the game with this card it is necessary to use the cursor, tab and enter keys to select the menu options you require.

Power VR cards

There is a problem in the menu which has not been resolved at the time of the games release. Please check the SCi website for an update which should resolve this problem.

Millennium II Direct 3D cards

These do not support the transparency code used in Carmageddon II. As a result of this all transparent areas in the game (glass/ water etc.) do not look as effective as we would wish.

During Carmageddon II's test period we have noted some problems in-game when the Windows 98 Plus Deluxe CD Player is operating. We recommend closing this application when running Carmageddon II.

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9. QA REPORT ON D3D SUPPORT AND PERFORMANCE

Base PC of 200Mhz AMD K6 with multimedia extensions, 32Mb RAM. No comment means good performance and no reported problems. Since PCs from the same manufacture and the same model performance and compatibility can vary from PC to PC this table is provided purely for information. A particular card's performance can not be guaranteed.


Card Chipset Memory Comments & Recommendations
3D Labs Permedia Permedia 2 4Mb
ATI Xpert@Play 3D Rage Pro 2 4Mb Smoke effect solid
ATI Xpert@Work Rage 3D 2 4Mb
Canapus Pure 3D Voodoo 1 6Mb
3D Blaster Rendition 4Mb
Creative Extreme Permedia 2 4Mb Reduce some in-game features
Diamond Monster 3D1 Voodoo 1 4Mb
Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 S3 Virage 2Mb Not supported
Diamond Stealth 3D 3000 S3 Virage VX 4Mb Not recommended - Use software mode
Diamond Stealth II S220 Rendition 2 4Mb
Diamond Viper V330 Nvidia 128 4Mb
Diamond Monster 3D 2 Voodoo 2 8Mb
Hercules Stingray 128 3DVoodoo Rush 8Mb Problem with cursor in menu
Hercules Thriller 3D Rendition V2000 8Mb
Intergraph Intense 3D Rendition 4Mb
Matrox Millennium 2 2164W 4Mb
Matrox Mystique 1064SG 4Mb Does not support transparency
Matrox Mystique 220 1064SG 4Mb
Matrox Millennium G200 G200 8Mb Some problems with car shadows
Matrox G100 G100 4Mb Does not support transparency
Matrox M3D PCX2 4Mb Front end problems & polygon distortion
Orchid Righteous 3D 1 Voodoo 1 4Mb
Orchid Righteous 3D 2 Voodoo 2 12Mb
Real 3D Starfighter 3D Intel 740 4/8Mb
Riva TNT TNT 16Mb
STB Power Graph 64 3D S3 Virage
STB Lightspeed 128 Riva 128 4Mb
Videologic Power VR 4Mb Problems with polygons

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10. 3D CARD SUPPORT SITES

3Dlabs -
Website: http://www.3dlabs.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.3dlabs.com/drivers/
Email Support: support@3dlabs.com

3Dfx -
Website: http://www.3Dfx.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.3Dfx.com/download/download.html
ATI -
Website: http://www.atitech.com/
Drivers Download: http://support.atitech.com/updates.htm
Email Support: tech_support@aitech.com

Diamond -
Website: http://www.diamondmm.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.diamondmm.com/products/drivers/driver-index.html
Email Support: techsupt@diamondmm.com

EDGE 3D 3000
EDGE 3D 2000
Monster 3D
Monster 3D II
Hercules -
Website: http://www.hercules.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.hercules.com/support.drivers/
Email Support: support@hercules.com

Intel -
Website: http://www.intel.com/
Drivers Download: http://developer.intel.com/design/graphics/drivers

Matrox -
Website: http://www.matrox.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.matrox.com/mgaweb/drivers/drivers.htm

NEC PowerVR -
Website: http://www.matrox.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.powervr.com/315.html

nVidia -
Website: http://www.nVidia.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.nVidia.com/home.html

Rendition -
Website: http://www.rendition.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.rendition.com/rodz/dl.html

S3 -
Website: http://www.S3.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.S3.com/bbs/0main/topindex.htm

Trident-
Website: http://www.trid.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.trid.com/trident/html/DRIVERS.HTM

#9 Visual Technology-
Website: http://www.nine.com/
Drivers Download: http://www.nine.com/support/drivers/index.html

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11. FAN SITES

The web sites listed below are great sources of information about the Carmageddon world. They also contain links to the many other Carmageddon fan sites across the web.

Pedestrian Precinct
http://carmageddon2.telefragged.com/precinct.shtml

The Carmageddon Fan Club
http://www.vip.fi/~jm/cfc/

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12. CONTACT
For support in the UK you can contact the SCi technical support line on:

0171 228 3543

or email

techsupport@sci.co.uk


FURTHER PRODUCT INFORMATION
---------------------------


SCi Website: http://www.sci.co.uk
Stainless Website: http://ww.stainless.co.uk



(c) 1998 SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Ltd. Engine (c) 1998 Stainless Software Ltd. All rights reserved. SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Ltd. is a subsidiary of SCi Entertainment Group. SCi, Carmageddon, Carmageddon II & Carpocalypse Now are trademarks of SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Ltd.




2- Blood II: The Chosen Version 1.0 Readme

Copyright 1998 Monolith Productions, Inc.

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This document contains valuable information about running Blood II on your
PC hardware. For more information about gameplay and general Blood II
information, please refer to the Blood II Manual that came with this CD,
or you can check out the Blood II Online Manual. To access the Online Manual,
click the Help button on the Blood II Launcher, or click Start...Programs...
Monolith Games...Blood II...Blood II Online Manual.
******************************************************************


1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

2. INSTALLATION

3. DIRECTX6

4. DIRECT3D

5. BLOOD II LAUNCHER

6. CONTROLS INFORMATION

7. 3D VIDEO HARDWARE

8. SOUND CARDS AND IMA

9. DISPLAY DETAIL SETTINGS

10. PERFORMANCE TUNING

11. TROUBLESHOOTING


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1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

- Pentium 166 or equivalent (Pentium II Recommended)
- Pentium2 233 or equivalent for software rendering
- 4MB (or greater) D3D compatible video card recommended
- 32MB RAM
- Windows95/98
- DIRECTX6

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2. INSTALLATION

If you have autoplay enabled, just place the Blood II CD into your
CD-ROM drive and wait for the onscreen prompts. If you do not
have autoplay enabled, run setup.exe from the root directory of
the Blood II CD.

The Blood II CD must be in your CD-ROM drive in order to play Blood II.

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3. DIRECTX6

DirectX6 is required and will be installed automatically during
a Normal or Minimum install of Blood II. You can also choose to
install DirectX6 through the Custom install option.

In most cases DX6 will install new video and audio drivers
for your system. If you have not updated your drivers for your
video or hardware recently, we strongly suggest that you update
your drivers, regardless of the DX6 recommendations during
installation.

Although you may not be prompted for a restart after
installing DX6, we HIGHLY recommend that you restart your
computer anyway.

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4. DIRECT3D

Blood II supports Microsoft's Direct3D 3D Hardware API.
Direct3D provides excellent performance and hardware support
for most 3D video cards. However, you may need to install the
most recent video drivers for your 2D/3D hardware to get the
best performance from Blood II.

For links to the most recent video/audio drivers, please check the
Blood II Online Manual, or visit the Monolith drivers page at
drivers.lith.com

For informaton on a specific video card, see the 3D HARDWARE
section in this readme.

For information on sound cards, see SOUND CARDS & IMA.

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5. Blood II LAUNCHER

5.1 Launch Button

Click Launch to start Blood II. The first time you run Blood II, you will
be prompted to select a detail level. This detail setting will
scale the content in Blood II to increase performance or increase
visual quality. You can change this detail setting at any time
during the game by selecting Options...Display from the in-game menus.

Medium detail is the default setting, and is also a good choice
for most systems. The detail settings are explained in depth in the
section on DISPLAY DETAIL SETTTINGS in this readme.


5.2 Display Button

The first time you run Blood II, we strongly suggest that you click
the Display button in the Blood II launch box. This will test your
video drivers to ensure DirectX6 compatibility.

Because Blood II checks the DirectX status of your video card(s)
when you click Display, if you do not have DX6 compatible video
drivers, you may encounter problems. Blood II uses the same routine
to initialize your video card when you click launch, but by clicking
Display you can see the results. If you encounter problems after
clicking Display (this is rare) please refer to the TROUBLE SHOOTING
section of this readme.


5.2.1 Choose your video card

Display allows you to choose your display device (e.g., the
video card) that you want to use to play Blood II. Only DirectX6
compatible devices will be displayed in the display window. You
can also switch your display device at any time during the game
by choosing Options...Display...Change Mode.


5.2.2 LithTech Direct3D Renderer

To use 3D hardware acceleration (if you have a D3D compatible 3D
video card installed in your computer), choose LithTech Direct3D
Renderer in the Renderers window, and then choose your display
driver (your video card) in the Displays window.

If you are running a 2D/3D video card such as a Riva 128, your
card will show up as "Primary Display Driver". If you are running
a pass-through card such as a 3DFX-based card, it will be listed
below Primary Display Driver as something similar to
"3DFX Interactive Voodoo".

Not all video cards support 3D hardware acceleration. If you are
uncertain about whether your video card has 3D hardware acceleration
features, please refer to your card's documentation.

For more information about a specifc 3D video card, see the
3D VIDEO HARDWARE section of this readme.


5.2.3 LithTech Software Renderer

To run Blood II without 3D hardware acceleration, choose LithTech
Software Renderer in the Renderers window. Then choose your video
card in the Displays window. If you are running the LithTech
software renderer on a system with multiple video cards, we
strongly suggest choosing your Primary Display Driver (your 2D card)
in the Displays window.


5.2.4 Resolution

You can also set your resolution screen size in the Blood II Display
Settings. The default resolution for Blood II is 640x480 16bit.
Selecting lower resolutions (512x384) may increase performance
at the expense of detail. Selecting higher resolutions (800x600,
1024x768) may decrease performance, but may look better.

If you are running the LithTech Software Renderer, we suggest
running a low resolution (320x200) first to test the performance
on your computer.

You can also change the resolution at any time during the game by
choosing Options...Display...Change Mode.



5.3 Customize Button

Use Customize to add in additional resources and levels for mods,
patches and multiplayer. Please visit the Blood II website
www.the-chosen.com for the most up to date customize information.


5.4 More Games Button

Click the More Games button to access demos and movies of other
Monolith titles. All titles are available at your local software
retailer.


5.5 Help Button

Click the Help button to access the Blood II Online Manual.


5.6 Multiplayer Button

Click the Multiplayer button to start the Blood II multiplayer wizard.
For details on setting up multiplayer games, refer to the Online
Manual.

5.7 Advanced Button

The Advanced Options are designed for advanced users and trouble-
shooting only. Some of the advanced options may not be compatible with
all hardware. Mixing and matching some advanced options may cause
unpredictable results. For the most up to date Advanced Options details,
check out the Blood II website www.the-chosen.com.


Disable Sound
This will disable all sound fx in Blood II.

Disable music
This will disable Blood II's Interactive Music Architecture, or IMA.
Some sound cards may have incompatibilities with IMA. Used for
troubleshooting only.

Disable movies
Disables the Monolith Logo, GT Interactive Logo and Blood II Intro from
playing every time.

Disable light mapping
Turns off light mapping (a shadow-lighting effect) in all display
detail settings. This option is also available through the in-game
menus.

Disable fog
Disables all atmospheric (not clipping plane) fog. No performance
increase or decrease. Strictly subjective, although may be useful
on cards that "almost" support table fog.

Disable line systems
Disables all line systems in Blood II. Line systems are used for
tracer fire on many enemy weapons. Unlikely to provide any
performance increase, but useful as a troubleshooting item.

Disable model full brights
Some textures/models in Blood II use a palette technique that makes
certain colors always bright, regardless of the surrounding light
conditions (e.g., making them "fully bright"). This option is also
available through the in-game menus, and is disabled in medium
detail mode.

Disable DirectX6 commands
Use only for troubleshooting. Probably doesn't do what
you think it does.

Enable optimized surfaces
Optimizes the way 2D surfaces (e.g., ammo, health, armor,
crosshair) are drawn. Checking this on AGP cards may
provide a performance increase, especially on Intel i740-
based cards. This option may cause problems on some 3DFX
cards, depending on which drivers are installed.

Enable poly gap fixing
Fixes noticable gapping between polygons on some 3D video cards.
A MUST for Riva 128 video cards. May slow performance on
low-end/older 3D video cards. Not a significant performance
decrease on fast 3D cards. Makes everything look "nicer".

Enable triple buffering
Enables a feature on some video cards that can improve performance.
Most AGP video cards benefit from this feature being enabled.
However, this may cause lock-ups on some PCI video cards.

Enable mipmap sharpening
Sharpens the mipmaps (texures) for some ATI cards. Not really
useful for anything other than making the textures look strange
on most cards.

Enable pixel doubling--LithTech Software Renderer ONLY
Check this option only when using the LithTech Software Renderer.
Useful for simulating low resolutions (320x200, 320x240) on 2D
video cards that don't support low resolutions in 16-bit color.
If you check this option and have 640x480 16bit selected as your
resolution, Blood II will simulate 320x240. Can provide noticable
performance increases at the expense of visual quality.

Restore factory default settings
This restores all configuration settings to the original factory
defaults. Resets key configuration, detail level and sound. Useful
if you're mucking around with detail settings and you just want
things back the way they were.

Command-Line
Advanced users only. For more information on this feature,
visit the Blood II website at www.the-chosen.com.

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6. CONTROLS INFORMATION

Customize your keyboard and game device controls through the game Options
Menu. This section lists only those options omitted from the manual.

Shift/I change cursor - scroll through several options and select

Use your 'use' key to restart a level after player death in single play, and to
respawn in multiplay.

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7. 3D VIDEO HARDWARE

This section contains specifics on 3D video cards, recommended Blood II
settings, and driver information.

For the most up to date information on "Blood II Certified" drivers, please
visit our driver website at:

drivers.lith.com


7.1 3DLabs

www.3dlabs.com/drivers

- Permedia2

Works well, although no lightmapping.

Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW or MEDIUM (lightmapping will automatically
be turned off on this card)
-Turning on Shadows or Model FullBrights may cause texture
corruption/flickering.

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE


7.2 Rendition

www.rendition.com

- Rendition V1000
An older card.

Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW. 512x384

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE


- Rendition V2100/V2200

Works well, supports all features in Blood II.

Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW, or MEDIUM with Light Mapping set to off for
best performance

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE


7.3 3DFX Interactive

www.3dfx.com

In order to get the best performance from any 3DFX-based card, we
STRONGLY recommend that you upgrade to the latest 3DFX reference
drivers.

We have found that the 3DFX reference drivers work very well
under DX6. As of our ship date, the latest 3DFX Voodoo-1 and
Voodoo2 Reference Drivers are contained in a \3DFX directory
on the Blood II CD. You can update your drivers from the CD or,
for the most recent 3DFX reference drivers, please check:

drivers.lith.com
www.3dfx.com.

- 3DFX Voodoo1
The standard.

Recommended Display Settings:
-MEDIUM, 8-bit textures

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE


- 3DFX VooDoo2
Recommended Display Settings:
-HIGH

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-Check "Enable poly gap fixing" in Advanced Launcher for increased
visual quality with minimal decrease in performance


7.4 nVidia

www.nVidia.com


- Riva 128/128ZX

As of our ship date, we have been testing all Riva 128-based cards
with a soon-to-be released nVidia reference driver. This driver
makes it possible to play Blood II with all features enabled. Please
check the nVidia webpage or drivers.lith.com for the most up to date
info on this chipset.

Recommended Display Settings:
-With drivers released after 9-15-98, MEDIUM
-With drivers released before 9-15-98, LOW
-Running in HIGH or MEDIUM or enabling LightMapping with the
currently drivers released before 9-15-98 will result in
gray-shaded world polygons. Disabling lightmapping fixes
this problem.

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-Check "Enable poly gap fixing" in Advanced Launcher options
for all versions of drivers. THIS IS A MUST FOR THIS CARD
to remove all polygon seaming issues.
-Check "Enable optimized surfaces" for a slight performance
increase


- Riva TNT

As of our ship date, we have been testing all Riva TNT cards with beta
drivers. We do not anticipate any problems with this card. Please
check the nVidia webpage or drivers.lith.com for the most up to date
info on this chipset.

Recommended Display Settings:
-HIGH, 16-bit textures

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-Check "Enable poly gap fixing" in Advanced Launcher for increased
visual quality with minimal decrease in performance


7.5 Matrox

www.matrox.com/mgaweb/drivers

Please check the Matrox website for drivers.lith.com for the most
recently released drivers for all Matrox products. D3D driver
support is generally good.


- G200 Millenium and Mystique

Recommended Display Settings:
-MEDIUM

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-Check "Enable Triple Buffer" for a decent performance increase
-Check "Enable Optimized Surfaces" for a slight performance
increase


- Matrox MGA-1064 (Millenium II and Mystique)

Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW, 8-bit textures

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE

- Matrox M3D

- You may need to update your drivers through device manager instead
of the setup program that comes with the driver set
- Blood II detects that this card can't do LightMapping or
"light add poly" and disables both
- May experience texture mipmapping glitches
- Chromed models are REALLY slow, so enabling Environment Mapping through
the menus is not recommended
- Some textures with alpha (4444) draw with alpha blending even if the
alphablendenable state is off

Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW, 8-bit textures

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE--Blood II detects this card automatically.


7.6 Intel i740

drivers.lith.com

- ENABLE OPTIMIZED SURFACES. We have experienced instability on this card
when Enable Optimized Surfaces is unchecked. We have also experienced
some problems with drivers from various board manufacturers who use
the i740 chipset. The Intel Reference Drivers appear to be the most
stable of the bunch. However, Intel does not recommend end-users
install these drivers. Check with your card manufacturer for
the most recent certified drivers.

Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW or MEDIUM, 8-bit textures

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-You must check "Enable Optimized Surfaces" on this card to avoid
potential lockups
-Check "Enable Triple Buffer" for a decent performance increase
-LightMapping slows down this card big time. Disable it for a
nice performance boost.

7.7 S3

www.s3.com

- S3 Savage

Recommended Display Settings:
-HIGH

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE

- Virge (Diamond Stealth 3D Pro 2000, IMagic 3D)

- Get the most recent drivers from the S3 site. This board was an
OEM video card in many, many PC's. The 3D hardware performance
is questionable, but D3D will recognize this card as a 3D hardware accelerator.
- runs decent in 320x240
- Lightmapping and screen flash not supported

Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW, 320x240

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE

7.8 ATI

support.atitech.ca/drivers

- Rage Pro AGP 2X

As of our ship date, ATI was in the process of testing beta
drivers that improve the performance on this card dramatically.
please check the ATI website for the most up to date drivers
avaiable.

Doesn't bilinear filter the alpha channel so stuff with alpha
looks all pixelated even though the RGB is all pixelated.

Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW

Recommended Advanced Settings:
-Check "Enable mipmap sharpening" to cure the blurriness of
textures

******************************************************************

8. SOUND CARDS & IMA

Blood II uses a new Interactive Music Architecture for music playback.
You may experience problems with certain sound cards and music playback.
Upgrading to the most recent drivers for your sound card usually solves
the problem.

For specific information about problems you might be having with your
sound card, check the TROUBLE SHOOTING section of this readme.

For the most up to date information on sound card driver combinations
and settings, please visit drivers.lith.com.

******************************************************************

9. DISPLAY DETAIL SETTINGS

Blood II contains several detail settings that will affect performance.
You can change these detail settings through the in-game menus by
choosing Options...Display.

You can also choose Advanced through the in-game menus and and tweak
each detail setting individually. Once you choose Advanced and change
a setting, your detail setting will be displayed as "Advanced".
Changing your Detail Setting back to LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH will
reset any advanced options.

Switching detail settings while in the game will result in a restart of
Blood II's renderer, which may take several seconds.

LOW
A good choice for systems near or at the minimum system requirements.
Uses the least amount of texture memory. Turns off just about every
detail option available in Blood II. Also the best choice when using
the LithTech Software Renderer.

MEDIUM
A good choice for most systems. Uses less texture memory than high,
but keeps most other special effects in place.

HIGH
Turns up everything in terms of visual look. Recommended only for
high-end systems with fast 3D video cards. Uses the most texture
memory, but looks the best.

******************************************************************

10. PERFORMANCE TUNING

Game speed and performance are dependent on several different hardware
factors. The 3 major factors that affect performance in Blood II:
CPU, 3D Video Card, and memory.

If you are experiencing slow performance on your system, first try
setting the Detail Setting under Options...Display to LOW. This
setting will have the biggest single impact on performance.

Blood II will default to using 8-bit (LOW) quality sounds unless you chose
HIGH the first time you ran Blood II. Changing the Sound Quality to LOW
under Options...Sound will save memory and can increase performance.

Turning Music to OFF under Options...Sound may also increase performance
slightly on slower CPU's. If you've turned everything else off and
you're still looking for a couple of extra frames-per-second, set
Music to Off.

Model FullBrights and Environment Mapping can have a large impact on
slower systems. These options are both set to ON when HIGH is selected,
but are set to OFF in MEDIUM and LOW.

Lightmapping can also slow some systems down. The Intel i740, for
example, will see a large performance increase just by setting
Lightmapping to OFF.

For the most recent updates on performance tuning, go to the Blood II
website at www.the-chosen.com

******************************************************************

11. TROUBLESHOOTING

Q: Many of the sounds in Blood II seem to be garbled. What's wrong?
A: If you are running Blood II on a 3DFX card, your driver may be stealing
some cycles from the bus. Install the latest 3DFX reference drivers
located on the Blood II CD. This should cure the problem.

Q: I installed DirectX6 during the Blood II installation, but now I can't
use my 3D video card to run Blood II.
A: This is likely the result of non-DirectX6 compliant video drivers.
Please visit drivers.lith.com for the most recent information on
drivers for your card. Or, try reinstalling DirectX6 and updating
your video drivers when prompted.

Q: When I click the Display button in the Blood II launcher, it pauses for
a long time, and then nothing happens. What gives?
A: Make sure that you have installed DirectX6. If you installed
DirectX6, you may not have updated your video drivers. Reinstall
DirectX6 and update your video drivers when prompted.

Q: I have a joystick plugged into my comptuer, but Blood II won't
recognize it.
A: Check the joystick configuration in Windows. Go to Settings...
Control Panel...Game Controllers and check to make sure that
your joystick is configured correctly.

Q: I can't switch to some video resolutions that are displayed under
Display in the launcher and in the Change Mode option under the
in-game Display menu.
A: Blood II uses DirectX to query your card about display resolutions.
Your driver may be reporting to DirectX that it can display at a
certain resolution, even though the hardware does not support it.
This is common on many 2D cards when running in software.

Q: I can't get my 3D card to work with Blood II no matter what I try.
A: There is a DirectX diagnostic tool that is installed when you
install DX6 during a Blood II installation. You can access this
diagnostic tool in Program Files...directx...setup....dxdiag.exe. Please refer to
the help file that accompanies dxdiag.exe for more information
on using it.

******************************************************************

Monolith is dedicated to supporting its products! For the most up to date
information on patches, updates, drivers, multiplayer and add-ons, please
visit the Blood II Website at www.the-chosen.com

We hope you have as much fun playing Blood II as we had making it.

Blood II: The Chosen
Developed and Published by Monolith Productions, Inc.
www.lith.com
www.the-chosen.com
www.lithtech.com
www.captainclaw.com
www.rageofmages.com
www.getmedieval.com
www.blood.com

******************************************************************

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