Latest information about Wet Attack The Empire Cums Back 24.09.99 Version 01.02 Introduction: On some computers Bug may hang and walk on the same place without getting any further. In this case you can free him with pressing Escape for several times. We are still working on Wet Attack and improving it after the release. You should look for updates on these web sites: http://www.cdv.de http://www.i-strip.com CONTENT ======= 1.................. Installation 2.................. Hardware Requirements 3.................. Problems with video cards and more 4.................. Where you get drivers for video cards etc. 5.................. Last manual update 1. INSTALLATION =============== 1.1 Put installation CD A in the CD ROM drive. If your system is set on autoplay, wait a few moments till the Wet Attack launcher starts. 1.2 If autoplay is not enabled, open "My Computer" and double-click on the icon of the CD ROM drive. 1.3 In the Wet Attack launcher you have several options. We recommend to use them in the following order: a. Install DirectXMedia 6.0 b. Install DirectX 6.0 c. Install Wet Attack d. Set 3D Options e. Start Wet Attack If you have to restart after the installation of DirectX 6.0, or if you have installed Wet Attack, the launcher will end after closing the respective programs. If you want to carry on with the installation process, carry on with paragraph 2. 1.4 The installation of Wet Attack consists of several components. There are necessary and optional components. The necessary components need about 525 MB on your hard disk (this number might vary slightly with the cluster size of your hard disk). These files have to be on your hard disk, because the access speed on your CD-ROM is not sufficient. The optional components can, but don't have to, be installed on your hard disk. The improve a fluent run of the game and reduce the amount of times the CD-ROM has to be changed. 1.5 If you start Wet Attack the first time, CD 1 has to be in the disk drive. Once you are loading games and playing in other galaxies you only have to insert the CD you have used last. 1.6 If you have more than one CD-ROM drive, e.g. one CD-ROM and one CD-R drive you will have difficulties, if you have used the CD-ROM for the installation and later on try play it on the CD-R drive. If you really want to start the game on another drive or if the order of drives has changed, you need to do the following: a. Change the directory on the hard disk where you have installed Wet Attack. b. Open the file CDROM.LOC with a text editor of your choice. c. Change the drive: enter the new path and the new drive. d. Save the file. This way the drive should work without a problem. 2.) HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS ========================= Minimal system requirements: Intel Pentium(TM) 166 MHz Windows(R) 95/98 32 MB RAM DirectX 6.0 High Colour (16 Bit) video card DirectX 6.0 compatible, with 2MB video memory 100% Windows 95 compatible mouse and sound card (with speakers) 8x CD-ROM drive Monitor which supports a resolution of 800 x 600 pixel in High Colour Recommended system requirements: Intel Pentium II (TM) 400 MHz Windows(R) 95/98 64 MB RAM DirectX 6.0 (or higher) High Colour (16 Bit) video card DirectX 6.0 compatible, with 8MB video memory 100% Windows 95 compatible mouse and sound card (with speakers) 24x CD-ROM drive (or better) Joystick with force feedback 3. Problems with video cards and more ===================================== You should be sensible and consider the ability of your computer when you pick the screen resolution in the starting options. There is not much sense in picking a resolution of 512 x 384 pixel when you have got a HiteC Card with a Riva TnT chip set (with certain monitors that can even lead to a system crash). On the other hand a resolution of 1600 x1200 pixel is not appropriate for a 2D card combined with a P166. The best resolutions on cards with 2MB Video-Ram (not considering the processor) is 512x384, 640x400 and 640x480. Cards with 4MB Video-Ram can go up to 800x600. Cards with 8MB and more can cope with 1024x768 and higher, but you should not enter more than 1280x1024. In general there might always be problems with drivers. On the whole you should keep these rules in mind, especially with regard to the video drivers: - Use up-to-date drivers, but don't update them in excess. - Never use drivers that are still in the beta phase. - Don't use drivers not certified by Microsoft (Tm). - Don't overclock your computer system or the video card because it would get unstable. Some of the tested video cards have shown a weird performance, which sometimes had the following reasons: - Drivers are too old. - Drivers are too new and not yet certified. - Old or faulty BIOS versions. - Drivers are tuned on the chip set, but they don't work properly with the video card. We have found settings to avoid the following problems: Matrox G200 ----------- With our drivers there was a strong flicker in the 3D view when the screen refreshing was set on default. You can only avoid this by checking "Copy" in the same part of the 3D options. Voodoo Video Cards ------------------ When some additional 3D cards with Voodoo chip set were used with 3DFX reference drivers, texture faults with shots and explosions occurred. In this case you should rather use the drivers of the producer of your video card. Sometimes you can minimise these faults by changing the control of the pixel rate for a short time. You might experience difficulties for example with the Diamond Monster 3D in combination with the following drivers: Driver Version -------------------------------------- glide2x.dll 2.46 fxmemmap.vxd 4.10.01.0015 mm3dfx.drv 4.10.01.0016 mm3dfx16.drv 4.10.01.0016 mm3dfx32.drv 4.10.01.0016 Voodoo 3 Banshee Cards ---------------------- With some cards as for example the Diamond Monster Fusion you can have starting problems. To the present day this was just the case with Win98. The program crashes after the second booting screen. We are trying to find the reasons for that at the moment and will provide information about any updates or new drivers on our homepage (www.i-strip.com). ATI Rage 2+ ----------- Old drivers for this card cannot show transparent objects, so it might happen that if the shielding was hit a spaceship disappears behind it. This happened with older video cards as well, such as the Matrox Mystique cards of the first generation. Video cards with SIS chip set ----------------------------- These video cards can show a flicker as the Matrox G200. Just do the same in the 3D view as with the Matrox. If the rest of the program flickers as well, you can toggle the modes of the screen refreshing with F5. If the video card still flickers in the ISO part, start Wet Attack in the starting menu under the entry "Wet-Attack system memory". This way the flicker in the Red Rooms should be gone. Further problems: ================= On some systems (at random) Buck gets stuck at the at the Upgrade Trader on the hangar or at the foot of the spaceship. The program can only be ended with ALT+F4. As soon as we have found a way out of this problem, we will provide an update. Until then the problem can be solved the following way: - Lead Buck through the hangar with several mouse clicks and use the exit then. - As soon as you have got enough money, buy a beam module. With this you can beam yourself into the ship from any part of the hangar. There was a joystick problem that occurred only with ISA sound cards with joystick connection. If you set the audio sample rate of an ISA sound card higher than 22 kHz 16 Bit Stereo, the joystick interface gets wrong values and the battle station will start moving on its own. Depending on the performance of your computer this might already happen even with a lower sample rate. Joysticks with force feedback need a compatible joystick connections (all pins have to be covered). In the beta test we experienced the following effect on some computers: After some of the video sequences were played, the remaining spoken language was played with a wrong sample rate, so it sounded as if somebody had inhaled helium. The reverse effect, that voices are played in a very deep tone, occurred as well. At the moment we are still working on this, but you can remedy the problem by saving the game, quit the program and start it again. As soon as we have found the source of this mistake we will provide an update on our web site. Furthermore it can occur in the same menu that you have to click twice on a file to be able to insert a text. Additional tips: ================ If your computer has a fast memory, e.g. 10, 7 or 6ns SDRAM, you should start Wet Attack by the entry "Wet Attack system memory" in the starting menu. On the one hand the fast memory could speed up the game in the ISO-part. On the other hand some timing-problems could be avoided by it (see SIS chip set). If you are using Windows 98 with an older video card, you should make sure you have current drivers for Win98, because you might not have really compatible drivers yet. As with all products by Microsoft you should download the most up-to-date service packs for your operating system from the Microsoft Windows Update web pages. If you get the error message of the kind "General protection failure..." when you start games (not only Wet Attack), this might be caused by a virus called Win95Spacefiller or Win32.cih.spacefiller. About 80 per cent of all problems we recently dealt with on the hotline of Wet-The Sexy Empire had to do with this! This pest turns up especially on Windows 98 systems. If you have installed DirectX 6.1, it might be the case that your hardware is not compatible with this version. Hardware producers are just working to provide the demanded features in their operation systems and release new revisions of their drivers. Therefore look for new drivers now and then. This is why the installation of DirectX 6.1 not always the solution of all problems, since the producer of your video card has possibly not yet updated the drivers. In this case you can try the enclosed DirectX version 6.0, or even a DirectX Version 5.0 to get stable drivers. You can find the most up-to-date DirectX and DirectXMedia versions in the Internet at: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/default.asp 4. Where you get drivers for video cards etc. ============================================= We have summed up the most important web sites in alphabetical order. We have not included direct links to the support pages, because they might change. Video Cards: ------------ - Acer Peripherals http://www.aopen.com.tw - ATI Technologies http://support.atitech.ca - Canopus Corporation http://www.canopusvideo.com - Creative Labs http://www.soundblaster.com - Diamond Multimedia http://www.diamondmm.com - Matrox http://www.matrox.com http://www.matroxusers.com - S3 http://www.s3.com - STB Systems http://www.stb.com - Trident http://www.tridentmicro.com Sound Cards: ------------ - Avance Logic http://www.realtek.com.tw - Cirrus Logic http://www.cirrus.com - Creative Labs http://www.soundblaster.com - Diamond Multimedia http://www.diamondmm.com - ESS Technology http://www.esstech.com - Jaton http://www.jaton.com - S3 http://www.s3.com - Yamaha http://www.yamaha.com 5. Last manual update ===================== The last information that could not be included in the manual is to be found in the online help. ------------------------------------------------------ Wet Attack Copyright (c) 1999 New Generation Software. All right reserved. The use of names without mentioning the trademark does not question the copyright. Win95, Windows 95, Win98, Windows 98, Windows NT, DirectX, DirectDraw, DirectSound are trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation. All other products are trademarks of the respective company.