Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul ====================================================================== Public Demo version February 2001 Contents of Readme ================== 1. Demo System requirements 2. The Story... 3. Difficulty Levels 4. Gameplay 5. Hints 6. Multiplayer Game 7. Hints about game settings 7.1 Game Options in the Initial Menu 7.2 In-Game "Options" Which Affect Frame Rate 7.3 Windows swap-file parameters 8. Possible technical problems 9. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 10. Developers feedback ====================================================================== 1. Demo System requirements =========================== Minimum configuration: Windows 95/98/ME/2000 DirectX 7.0 Pentium II 300 MHz 64 MB RAM AGP 3D graphic accelerator 8 MB video RAM Sound card 120 MB free hard drive space is required. Additionally, 300 MB of uncompressed hard drive space is highly recommended. Recommended configuration: Windows 95/98/ME/2000 DirectX 8.0 Pentium III 450 MHz 128 MB RAM 4x AGP 3D graphic accelerator 32 MB video RAM Sound card Recommended video accelerators: nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce, Riva TNT2, Riva TNT; 3dfx Voodoo 5, Voodoo 4; Matrox Millennium G400, G200; ATI Radeon, Rage Fury, Rage 128; S3 Savage 2000, Savage 4; 3DLabs Permedia 3; Power VR 3. Accelerators supported with some limitations: 3dfx Voodoo 3, Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo II; Matrox Millennium G100; ATI Rage Pro; nVidia Riva 128, Riva 128ZX; Intel i752 (i810), i740; S3 Savage 3D; SiS 620v; 3DLabs Permedia 2; Power VR 2; Number Nine Ticket to Ride; Trident Blade 3D. Unsupported accelerators: 3dfx Voodoo Graphics; ATI 3D Xpert; S3 Trio 3D. Note for Intel i740 users: Official Intel drivers for i740 are not fully compatible with DirectX 7.0, which results in the game error when entering a game zone, after a large amount of textures is loaded into the video memory. However, in the DirectX 8.0 this incompatibility seems to be fixed. In Windows 98 and windows 2000 the game can be started without problems (in 640x480x16 screen mode), but we cannot recommend using this accelerator because of its color depth, anti-aliasing and video performance limitations. ====================================================================== 2. The Story... =============== Your main character awakens among ancient ruins amidst a wild, seemingly deserted land named Gipat - an island floating in an astral halo. Who is he and how has he arrived here? All that's left in his memory is a vision of a tiny winged creature, which disappeared as soon as he fully regained conscience. How is he to survive and reach someone who could unwrap the mystery of his identity? He's not particularly tough, and his light clothes could hardly be called armor. He's only equipped with a small hunting knife and a couple of minor spells. The most important task now is to find other people who might be able to help... ====================================================================== 3. Difficulty Levels ==================== This preview version of the game includes two difficulty modes, Novice and Normal. Normal mode represents the game as originally envisioned by the game designers. Novice mode reduces the difficulty of your encounters with the enemy (increases the damage you do to them, and decreases the damage your characters will take from the monsters), in order to allow you to see more of the game quickly. ====================================================================== 4. Gameplay =========== As you regain your awareness, the game will give you hints on how to master the game interface and how to improve your chances for survival in the hostile world of Evil Islands. It's important for you to read and understand the tutorial pages to fully understand what the game has to offer, and what your character can do. ====================================================================== 5. Hints ======== Stealth and guile often succeed where a frontal approach will fail! An ogre's not someone you want to fight so early on, maybe sneaking would help? Similarly, goblins are rather narrow-minded individuals. They like hanging around bridges and making sure that nobody crosses them ... however, that doesn't mean there's not another way to the objective... Listen carefully when you're given a quest... even the smallest detail becomes highly important when it means the difference between triumph and serious injury (or even death!) The shopkeeper in the city becomes an important "ally." After you do him a favor, he'll make his facilities available to you to create some improved equipment. ====================================================================== 6. Multiplayer Game =================== The multiplayer game is not included in this demo version and is available only in the full game. ====================================================================== 7. Hints about game settings ============================ For most users, the default settings will work fine. However, if you experience problems with graphics performance, or display errors, we have provided a variety of options for you to tailor the graphics to best suit your preferences and hardware configuration. There are two places to set options: In the initial screen, and in the game itself. 7.1 Options settings under the initial menu a) Terrain quality ================== Low - switching details gradation at distances of 55 m and 90 m accordingly; no waves. Visual quality is good. Medium - switching details gradation at distances of 90 m and 120 m accordingly; no waves. Visual quality is very good. High - switching details gradation at distances of 90 m and 120 m accordingly; waves. Visual quality is very good. FPS increase: High => Medium ~70% increase Medium => Low ~20% increase Switching from High to Medium settings provides little visual difference, but increases frame rate significantly. b) Lighting frequency ====================== Rare - once per minute. Low visual quality but takes virtually no processor time. Medium - once every 10 seconds. Better than Low but still leaves some visible artifacts. Frequent - once per second. Best possible quality. FPS increase: Frequent => Medium ~20-30% increase Medium => Rare ~10-15% increase c) Texture quality ================== Low - poor quality, minimum video memory usage. Medium - medium texture quality, higher video memory usage. Suitable for video adapters with 8 to 16 MB of RAM. High - best possible texture quality, highest video memory usage. Recommended for video adapters with 16 MB RAM or more (preferably 32 MB or more). If you have a video card with a lot of memory, this setting has little impact on performance, since all textures will fit into video memory. However, if this setting is too high for your system, performance will drop drastically because textures will be swapped in and out of video RAM. d) Filtering ============ Point - poor picture quality Bilinear - good picture quality Trilinear - very good picture quality In terms of frame rate, differences between Point and Bilinear values is almost negligible; when changing from Bilinear to Trilinear values, frame rate may drop by 30%. e) Mipmapping ============= When switched off, this reduces video memory usage by about 25%, but decreases picture quality significantly. f) Dithering ============ Improves picture quality in 16-bit color mode. On most cards, this does not impact video performance. g) Stretch video ================ This option stretches in-game video sequences to take up the full screen. With some video adapters, enabling this option will cause movies to play slowly or erratically. h) FPS Independent cursor ========================= Reduces frame rate by approximately 20%, but ensures that cursor is redrawn ~16 times per second, independently from fps. Recommended for slower computers. i) Color depth ============== 16 bit - good speed and acceptable quality 32 bit - with almost all video adapters (except ATI Rage 128) fps drops by approximately 50%, but picture quality improves significantly. 7.2 In-Game "Options" Which Affect Frame Rate For most systems, we recommend enabling only Character Shadows, as shadows from objects and trees take a lot of video memory (and a good deal of processor time, depending on Lighting frequency). However, if you have a really fast (800+ MHz) machine, with a high-end video card, enable all the shadow and lighting options for maximum picture quality. 7.3 Windows swap-file parameters To ensure that the game runs smoothly, we do not recommend setting the Windows Swapfile manually. Ideally, you should have between 300 and 500 MB of free disk space available when launching the game. Defragmenting your hard disk can also have a significant impact on game performance; the game runs much better when the computer is in well maintained. Finally, we do not recommend installing the game on a compressed drive. This can have a significant impact on performance. ====================================================================== 8. Possible technical problems ============================== Video ===== nVidia - Best results are obtained by using the Detonator3 (Version 6.31) from nVidia. The Microsoft drivers included on the Windows2000 disk will not work optimally, and may cause the game to fail. 3dfx - The 3dfx Banshee may cause graphic errors in Evil Islands. It doesn't support full-screen mode for this game, and will show a visible flickering square around the mouse cursor. Intel 752 (i810) - This card may display corrupted graphics, however it will work correctly when the latest (Version 6.1) drivers are installed from Intel. This driver may be downloaded from http://appsr.cps.intel.com/scripts-df/Detail_Desc.asp?strState= LIVE&ProductID=178&DwnldObjID=1859&strLangs= Diamond/S3 Savage4 video adapater - This card will display corrupted graphics on the global map if you are running the leaked drivers (Version 8.20.33). Using the official drivers (Version 8.20.30 and 8.20.31), the problem is addressed. These drivers may be downloaded from https://archive:archive@ranger.s3.com/ Diamond/S3 Savage2000 - This card may not work correctly in fullscreen mode. Changing to the windowed mode in the initial menu will address this problem. Sound ===== If you have a Creative SB Live! installed on your computer, we recommend using the "Safe mode" for sound in the initial option screen. Mouse ===== If you are using a wheel mouse with OEM drivers installed, and the mouse-wheel zoom function fails to work, we recommend uninstalling the OEM drivers. Windows 98 or 2000 will use its built-in mouse driver for maximum compatibility. Be advised that changing your mouse driver may affect other features of your particular mouse. Background applications ======================= We recommend against switching to other applications (by using Alt+Tab) while the game is running. In addition, before launching the game, we recommend closing all other applications (especially Microsoft Outlook), to maximize system free resources. ====================================================================== 9. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) =================================== Q: Does this game support hardware Transform and Lighting (T&L?) A: This game does not support hardware T&L. We have implemented a proprietary software T&L engine, specifically optimized for the game. Future products will incorporate T&L technology. Q: Why is support of Voodoo 1 and 2 accelerators limited? A: The primary reason support for these cards is limited is due to the way they divide memory into video and texture memory areas. This interferes with the way we handle 2D screen elements, particularly the cursor. Other than this, the accelerator works fine with the game. However, we still cannot recommend this card for use with Evil Islands, due to the fact that it is too slow to run the game well. =========================================================================== 10. Developers feedback ====================== Nival Interactive and Fishtank Interactive companies do not guarantee full operability of demo version on all hardware and do not supply technical support for preview and demo releases of the game. However, we greatly appreciate all notes and bug reports. Nival Interactive: support@nival.com Fishtank Interactive: support@fishtank-interactive.com Our web sites ============= http://www.evil-islands.com http://www.fishtank-interactive.com http://www.ravensburger.de/interactive http://www.nival.com ENJOY THE GAME! Copyright 2001 Nival Interactive, Copyright 2001 Ravensburger Interactive Media GmbH All rights reserved Fishtank Interactive is a registered trademark of Ravensburger Interactive Media GmbH