Please read the on-line Release Notes for more information about the game. You can also access the on-line Release Notes by selecting "Release Notes" from the WheelofTime program group on the Start Menu (make sure you are logged into your Internet Service Provider). We will post technical issues on the Release Notes page as we become aware of them.
Be sure to select the 3dfx video driver at start up. Using the Direct3D video driver with a 3dfx video card may produce graphical anomalies. If you've selected the wrong video driver, you can change it using the Programs : Wheel of Time : Change Video Mode option on your Start Menu.
If you have a combined 2D/3D card like a Voodoo3 or a TNT2 and you are running Windows 95 instead of Windows 98, you will need to set your desktop bit depth to 16 bits to play the game. To change the desktop bit depth, right click on your Windows desktop, select Properties, and then select Settings. Change Colors to 16 bit ("High Color").
You may need to manually enable music from the HARDWARE menu.
If you aren't hearing music in the game, and you have a P2-300 or better with
more than 64MB of RAM, you should turn Music ON from the HARDWARE menu.
Use the Master Detail Control from the HARDWARE menu to tune game
performance on your system.
If the game is running slowly, try adjusting the Master Detail Control down one
notch (from HIGH to MEDIUM or from MEDIUM to LOW). If the game is running just
fine and the Master Detail Control is set to MEDIUM or LOW, you may want to
bump it up one notch to increase the graphical richness of the game, including
higher resolution textures, an increased number of decorations in the world,
greater complexity of the particles in smoke and water effects, etc., etc.
The in-game QuickTime movies may stutter on lower end systems if your desktop bit depth is set higher than 16 bits ("High Color"). To change the desktop bit depth, right click on your Windows desktop, select Properties, and then select Settings. Change Colors to 16 bit ("High Color").
If you're having performance problems using a D3D hardware accelerator video card like a TNT, Rage, or S3, try one or more of the following.
Also, if the screen is too dark in some levels, you can adjust the brightness using the HARDWARE menu or press F11 during game play to incrementally increase the Gamma setting. Note that the screen is supposed to be fairly dark in the second and third levels - you should only adjust the brightness or Gamma up to the point where you can see to get around.
If you are using a resolution higher than 640x480 and your frame rate is too low, try lowering the resolution to 640x480.
There is a new entry in the Wheel of Time HARDWARE menu for Detail Textures. This controls special textures that make textures look less coarse when viewing them up close. If you are having performance problems on the MEDIUM Master Detail Control setting and donÆt want to move all the way to LOW, try turning Detail Textures off first.
If you have music enabled and the game is running slow even with the Master Detail Control set to MEDIUM or LOW, try turning the music off (set Music to OFF from the HARDWARE menu). MP3 play-back both taxes the CPU and takes up memory. Music playback is not recommended for low-end systems with less than 96 MB of RAM.
If you're playing multiplayer Arena or Citadel games on a cable modem, ISDN line, or T1/T3/OC3 connection, you may want to type in NETSPEED 10000 at the console to improve performance (during game play you can press TAB, type "NETSPEED 10000", and press ENTER).
Note: Advanced users can edit System\WoT.ini and change
ConfiguredInternetSpeed=2600 in the [Engine.Player]
section to ConfiguredInternetSpeed=10000 so that NETSPEED does
not have to be set every time the game is launched.
ItÆs possible you may hear static or a buzzing sound if you linger in certain game environments. If this becomes annoying you can turn off reverb by selecting Advanced Options from the HARDWARE menu, clicking on Audio, and setting UseReverb to False. Because reverb contributes to the atmosphere of the game, we donÆt advise turning it off unless the reverb problems significantly deter you from your enjoyment of the product.
Make sure you know the correct password for a password-protected
Internet game session.
If you try to join a password-protected game session without entering a
password, the game will appear to hang. You will need to ALT-TAB out of the
game, right click on the Wheel of Time entry in the task bar, and select
Close.
If your computer's CD drive is set to enter "sleep" mode after a certain
amount of time, this will result in slight pauses at the start and end of
each level as the CD drive must power itself back up and start spinning
before the movies or music files can be loaded. If you find this pause
annoying and have the extra hard drive space, installing the movies and
music to your hard drive will eliminate this problem. You can install the
movies and music by running the Setup.exe program on Disc Two of
the Wheel of Time.
If you are using the space bar as your jump key, and jump just before a level ends, the movie that plays after the mission may be pausing just as it begins. Press the space bar again to resume the movie.
If you experience a crash, your computer loses power or Wheel of Time is somehow shut down abnormally, the next time the game starts it will bring up a recovery window that asks you how you wish to start the game. This window may be hidden on your desktop behind other program windows or the Wheel of Time logo. By clicking on the flashing "Wheel of Time" button on your Windows task bar you can select the Wheel of Time recovery window and then select how you wish to run the game.
The Wheel of Time Level Editor is not a supported product - and it requires some files from certain other Microsoft products (namely Visual Studio) to run properly. For information about where to get the needed files and configure the editor, please see the on-line Release Notes (accessible as an Internet link from your Windows Start menu).
Certain artifacts in the game - Balefire and Fireball - can be used to impart additional momentum to the player if used in ways other than intended. The effect is similar to "rocket jumping" in Quake. Please be advised that you may break some of the game levels by Balefire or fireball jumping (i.e. you may wind up trapped in geometry that you were never intended to access or you might catapult yourself out of the level and drop into space).
Are you running Windows 95 and a 2D/3D card like a Voodoo3 or a TNT2? If so, you should make sure your Windows desktop bit depth is set to 16 bits - see Important note for Windows 95 users with 2D/3D cards above.
Try switching your desktop bit depth to 16 bits ("High Color") - see QuickTime in-game movie performance issues above.
You've timed out from the server - go back to the MULTIPLAYER menu, select JOIN GAME, and re-join the server that dropped you.
There was an error in connecting to the server - hit ESC to go back to the menu and then try joining that game again.
The server is running a different version of Wheel of Time - if it is a later version, you may need to download a patch to make your game compatible. If you're running a later version than the server, then the best thing to do is find another server with the more up to date version of the game.
If the server dropped you in the previous level while you were editing your citadel during a citadel game, then the game may crash when you try to move to the next level or to a new server. This is a known issue and will most likely be patched (even though it affects only a tiny number of users). If this happens to you, you will need to restart Wheel of Time and re-join your game.
You have either timed out from the server or the server has gone down. If it's a time out, you can simply re-join the game in progress. If the server is down, you'll have to wait until it is re-started or find another game.