MindRover:The Europa Project Demo Release Notes, 12/99 Up-to-date info can be found at our website. Please read this file and come to our website for more updated information! http://www.mindrover.com -------------------------------------------- Copyright CogniToy, LLC, 1999. All rights reserved. -------------------------------------------- NOTE: First time users: PLEASE try the tutorial! Pressing the function key F2 will toggle the tutorial prompts on and off. Use the F1 key to get help on components and scenarios in the game. The help was written for the full game. Most of the components and scenarios are not available in the demo. --------------------------------------------- Contents of Release Notes: - System requirements - Install - Uninstall - Running MindRover - Compatibility issues - Graphics card support - Known bugs - Contacts at CogniToy ------------------------------------------------ System Requirements ================================================ The minimum system requirements needed to run the MindRover demo are: * 200MHz PC running Win95/98/NT, (300Mhz recommended) * 3D graphics accelerator card (such as Voodoo1, Voodoo2, Voodoo3, Riva TNT, Banshee, ATI Rage 128 and Rage Pro series) * OpenGL driver for graphics card * 32 Mb RAM (64 Mb recommended) * 30 Mb harddisk space * 4x CDROM * 16-bit "high color" color mode * Sound card is optional but highly recommended. NOTE: OpenGL is an evolving standard, and graphics card manufacturers are constantly updating their support. Please see below for more information on supported graphics cards. Install Instructions ================================================= To install the MindRover demo, run SetupMRDemo.exe. This will prompt you through the installation process. The default directory is c:\Games\MindRover. Mindrover adds files only to its install directory; it does not touch your system directories. If you have a beta version of MindRover installed please uninstall it first (see below). Old vehicles will not work with the shipping game or demo and may cause the game to crash. If you have a full version of MindRover installed, you can install the demo to get the extra levels. You must install it in the same directory as the full installation, or the existing game will no longer work properly. If you have version 1.00 of MindRover you will also need to install the mini-patch for v1.00 for the game and demo to co-exist. If you have made registry changes to get MindRover to work better, you will have to make them again. Uninstall =============================================== To uninstall MindRover use the 'Add/Remove Programs' which is found in the Windows Start menu, Settings, Control Panel. It will not be able to uninstall folders where your vehicles have been saved as well as a few other files. Any files you created while playing MindRover will not be automatically deleted. You will have to remove them manually. It is safe to simply delete the entire MindRover directory. Running MindRover ================================================= To start the MindRover demo, you can click on the Windows Start button, Programs and navigate to the folder where MindRover's icon was installed by the installer (MindRover by default). Click on the MRDemo entry to start the game. We strongly recommend that you close down as many other programs as possible before running MindRover, especially if your machine has only 32 megabytes of RAM. There is an in-game tutorial that will prompt you through your first uses of MindRover. Just press F2 to activate the tutorial prompts. "Tutorial: Getting Started" takes you through the creation and programming of your first rover. We have included two pre-made vehicles which you can examine and modify to learn more about programming. The first vehicle is called Hover_Sumo and can be found in both the Battle and Sports scenarios. The second vehicle is called Hover_Blaster and can only be found in the Battle scenarios. This vehicle uses a rocket launcher which is not legal for the Sports scenario. Please come to our website to exchange ideas, comments, and to get updates: http://www.mindrover.com/ MIDI Music ================================================= In an attempt to keep download size small, we have included three of the songs from MindRover's soundtrack in MIDI form. If you have a wavetable MIDI card, these sound pretty good. If you have an older sound card with poor MIDI support, they might sound pretty bad. Many MIDI sound cards support multiple output systems. If you click on Start Menu, Settings, Control Panel, and then choose the Multimedia icon, there is a MIDI tab in that dialog box, which may show several MIDI devices. Try different ones to see how they sound -- you might be surprised! MindRover's actual soundtrack in the full game is CD-quality Redbook audio, with almost forty minutes of custom music. Compatibility Issues ================================================= ---- Windows 95 and sound cards ---- We have found problems with the way in which we handle sound volume control under Windows 95 and some sound cards under other operating systems. If MindRover crashes with a "MixerVolume" error, please run the "NoMixer.reg" file that comes with MindRover. This will prevent you from using MindRover's volume controls, but the game should run properly. ---- Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 ---- If you are using one of these operating systems and you are NOT using a 3dfx video card, please run the "noWgl.reg" file that comes with MindRover. This will prevent a crash when MindRover attempts to initialize the video system. ---- No sound card or serious sound problems ---- If your system has no sound card at all, or one that has serious compatibility issues, you may run the "noSound.reg" file that will prevent MindRover from using the sound card entirely. Graphics Card Support ================================================= We have tested this release of MindRover on a wide range of 3D graphics chipsets. Most video cards are now supported by GLSetup.exe, which can be obtained online at http://www.glsetup.com. If you are not sure of the status of your OpenGL installation, please run it and follow directions. Note that GLSetup requires DirectX 6 (in some cases, DirectX 7) to be installed. If you need it, you can get the latest DirectX drivers from Microsoft's web site, or on many other game CDs and demo CDs, such as those which come with gaming magazines. MindRover installs using a resolution of 800x600. If you have a Voodoo I or another graphics card that only runs 640x480, then click on the 'set resolution 640x480' found in Start menu, Program Files, Mindrover. Note that some fonts are difficult to read in 640x480. If you have a graphics accelerator card that supports a higher resolution, you can get that by clicking on 'set resolution 1024x768'. These files can also be run directly from your MindRover root folder by double clicking on the desired '.reg' file. MindRover's video mode changes don't work correctly with some of the graphics cards we've tested. In these cases, the resolution changes correctly, but the MindRover window is shifted and you can only see a corner of it on the screen. To work around this problem, manually change your desktop resolution (using the Windows Control Panel, click Display, and then choose the Settings tab) to be the same as MindRover's resolution. ---- 3dfx Voodoo 1, Voodoo 2, and Rush ---- 3dfx has recently changed the way drivers work for these older cards. The new drivers are still rather buggy. If you have the old drivers and were using them with MindRover, they will still work fine and we don't recommend that you change them at this time. If this is the case, then you should run the icon called "Old 3dfx drivers", which will set up MindRover to use the old drivers. If you've already upgraded to the new drivers that are compatible with "Quake 3 Arena", you may find that they work well for you. To use them, run the icon labeled "New 3dfx drivers", which will set up MindRover to work with these newer drivers. Be forewarned that we have had significant problems with these drivers at CogniToy. Should you find that the game crashes frequently, especially when entering or leaving the game console, try the old drivers (see above). Choosing this selection will ONLY change the driver for MindRover; other games will not be affected. If you have a Voodoo 3, Banshee, or other 3dfx card not listed above, the newest standard drivers work fairly well. You can ensure that you're using the standard OpenGL driver system by clicking on the icon labeled "Standard OpenGL drivers". We have experienced crashes on exit from MindRover using the Voodoo 3 and Banshee cards. This is a driver problem. ---- ATI Rage Pro and Rage Pro LT and Mobility ---- Currently the Rage Pro will sometimes produce an "Illegal operation" message when you exit MindRover. Sometimes this may result in a nasty white-noise picture on your monitor. ATI is working on this. You will have better luck if you set your screen resolution to the same resolution as the game (800x600 as default), before running the game. Also, on the Rage Pro LT, there is a perspective correction problem which results in some polygons taking on new shapes in the scenarios. ATI does have a new dll to fix this problem, but it was not yet publicly available as of the date of MindRover's release. Finally, the Rage Pro boards sometimes lose their textures. If this happens you will notice one or two strange textures and the longer you play the more you will lose. Unfortunately, you must reboot your computer to reinitialize the ATI driver's texture cache before it will display the game correctly. ---- Matrox G200 and G400 ---- As of the date of MindRover's release, the latest Matrox drivers are not compatible with MindRover. Matrox has identified the problem and expects to release new drivers that fix the problem soon. Please check their web site, or www.cognitoy.com for the latest information. Known Bugs ================================================= Turn all other applications off for better performance. Please see the full known bugs list in the Bug Report Forum at: http://www.mindrover.com/forums Contacting Us =========================================== Please use the Forum at our web site for ideas and comments. http://www.mindrover.com/forums We'd love to hear from you! Contact information is available on our web site. We even use telephones from time to time: tel: 888-788-1792 (US and Canada) tel: 978-264-3945 (anyone) fax: 978-264-3946 Our address: CogniToy, LLC 236 Central St. Acton, MA 01720