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Kompuutteri Kaikille K-CD 2001 #7
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K-CD_2001-07.iso
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Evil Islands
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readme.txt
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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