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Blood2: The Chosen
Demo Version Readme
Copyright 1998 Monolith Productions, Inc.
******************************************************************
This document contains valuable information about running this
2 Level Demo Version of Blood2 on your PC hardware. It also contains
information about features that can be found in the full version
of Blood2.
******************************************************************
1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
2. INSTALLATION
3. DIRECTX6
4. DIRECT3D
5. BLOOD2 LAUNCHER
6. 3D VIDEO HARDWARE
7. SOUND CARDS AND IMA
8. DISPLAY DETAIL SETTINGS
9. PERFORMANCE TUNING
10. TROUBLESHOOTING
11. CONTROLS
12. WHAT DO I GET IN THE FULL VERSION?
******************************************************************
1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- Pentium 166 or equivalent (Pentium II Recommended)
- Pentium 233 or equivalent for software rendering
- 4MB (or greater) D3D compatible video card recommended
- 32MB RAM
- Windows95/98
- DIRECTX6
- 65MB hard drive space
******************************************************************
2. INSTALLATION
If you gotten this far, you probably already have the Blood2 Demo
installed. If you haven't installed it yet, just extract the
B2DemIns.zip file into a temporary directory and run setup.exe
to begin the installation.
This demo will be installed into c:\games\Blood2Demo by default,
and a Start Menu shorcut will be installed under:
Programs...Monolith Games...Blood2 Demo
Start Menu shortcuts to Monolith websites are also installed, as
is a shortcut to this readme file.
******************************************************************
3. DIRECTX6
DirectX6 is required for this Demo Version of Blood2. You can
get DirectX6 from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/directx
In most cases DX6 will install new video and audio drivers
for your system. If you have not updated your drivers for your
video or hardware recently, we strongly suggest that you update
your drivers, regardless of the DX6 recommendations during
installation.
Although you may not be prompted for a restart after
installing DX6, we HIGHLY recommend that you restart your
computer anyway.
******************************************************************
4. DIRECT3D
Blood2 supports Microsoft's Direct3D 3D Hardware API.
Direct3D provides excellent performance and hardware support
for most 3D video cards. However, you may need to install the
most recent video drivers for your 2D/3D hardware to get the
best performance from Blood2.
For informaton on a specific video card, see the 3D HARDWARE
section in this readme.
For information on sound cards, see SOUND CARDS & IMA.
******************************************************************
5. BLOOD2 LAUNCHER
5.1 Launch Button
Click Launch to start Blood2. The first time you run Blood2, you will
be prompted to select a detail level. This detail setting will
scale the content in Blood2 to increase performance or increase
visual quality. You can change this detail setting at any time
during the game by selecting Options...Display from the in-game menus.
Medium detail is the default setting, and is also a good choice
for most systems. The detail settings are explained in depth in the
section on DISPLAY DETAIL SETTTINGS in this readme.
5.2 Display Button
The first time you run Blood2, we strongly suggest that you click
the Display button in the Blood2 launch box. This will test your
video drivers to ensure DirectX6 compatibility.
Because Blood2 checks the DirectX status of your video card(s)
when you click Display, if you do not have DX6 compatible video
drivers, you may encounter problems. Blood2 uses the same routine
to initialize your video card when you click launch, but by clicking
Display you can see the results. If you encounter problems after
clicking Display (this is rare) please refer to the TROUBLE SHOOTING
section of this readme.
5.2.1 Choose your video card
Display allows you to choose your display device (e.g., the
video card) that you want to use to play Blood2. Only DirectX6
compatible devices will be displayed in the display window. You
can also switch your display device at any time during the game
by choosing Options...Display...Change Mode.
5.2.2 LithTech Direct3D Renderer
To use 3D hardware acceleration (if you have a D3D compatible 3D
video card installed in your computer), choose LithTech Direct3D
Renderer in the Renderers window, and then choose your display
driver (your video card) in the Displays window.
If you are running a 2D/3D video card such as a Riva 128, your
card will show up as "Primary Display Driver". If you are running
a pass-through card such as a 3DFX-based card, it will be listed
below Primary Display Driver as something similar to
"3DFX Interactive Voodoo".
Not all video cards support 3D hardware acceleration. If you are
uncertain about whether your video card has 3D hardware acceleration
features, please refer to your card's documentation.
For more information about a specifc 3D video card, see the
3D VIDEO HARDWARE section of this readme.
5.2.3 LithTech Software Renderer
To run Blood2 without 3D hardware acceleration, choose LithTech
Software Renderer in the Renderers window. Then choose your video
card in the Displays window. If you are running the LithTech
software renderer on a system with multiple video cards, we
strongly suggest choosing your Primary Display Driver (your 2D card)
in the Displays window.
5.2.4 Resolution
You can also set your resolution screen size in the Blood2 Display
Settings. The default resolution for Blood2 is 640x480 16bit.
Selecting lower resolutions (512x384) may increase performance
at the expense of detail. Selecting higher resolutions (800x600,
1024x768) may decrease performance, but may look better.
If you are running the LithTech Software Renderer, we suggest
running a low resolution (320x200) first to test the performance
on your computer.
You can also change the resolution at any time during the game by
choosing Options...Display...Change Mode.
5.3 More Games Button
Click the More Games button to access demos and movies of other
Monolith titles from the Monolith Website.
5.4 Advanced Button
The Advanced Options are designed for advanced users and trouble-
shooting only. Some of the advanced options may not be compatible with
all hardware. Mixing and matching some advanced options may cause
unpredictable results. For the most up to date Advanced Options details,
check out the Blood2 website at: http://www.the-chosen.com.
Disable Sound
This will disable all sound fx in Blood2.
Disable music
This will disable Blood2's Interactive Music Architecture, or IMA.
Some sound cards may have incompatibilities with IMA. Used for
troubleshooting only.
Disable light mapping
Turns off light mapping (a shadow-lighting effect) in all display
detail settings. This option is also available through the in-game
menus.
Disable fog
Disables all atmospheric (not clipping plane) fog. No performance
increase or decrease. Strictly subjective, although may be useful
on cards that "almost" support table fog.
Disable line systems
Disables all line systems in Blood2. Line systems are used for
tracer fire on many enemy weapons. Unlikely to provide any
performance increase, but useful as a troubleshooting item.
Disable model full brights
Some textures/models in Blood2 use a palette technique that makes
certain colors always bright, regardless of the surrounding light
conditions (e.g., making them "fully bright"). This option is also
available through the in-game menus, and is disabled in medium
detail mode.
Disable DirectX6 commands
Use only for troubleshooting. Probably doesn't do what
you think it does.
Enable optimized surfaces
Optimizes the way 2D surfaces (e.g., ammo, health, armor,
crosshair) are drawn. Checking this on AGP cards may
provide a performance increase, especially on Intel i740-
based cards. This option may cause problems on some 3DFX
cards, depending on which drivers are installed.
Enable poly gap fixing
Fixes noticable gapping between polygons on some 3D video cards.
A MUST for Riva 128 video cards. May slow performance on
low-end/older 3D video cards. Not a significant performance
decrease on fast 3D cards. Makes everything look "nicer".
Enable triple buffering
Enables a feature on some video cards that can improve performance.
Most AGP video cards benefit from this feature being enabled.
However, this may cause lock-ups on some PCI video cards.
Enable mipmap sharpening
Sharpens the mipmaps (texures) for some ATI cards. Not really
useful for anything other than making the textures look strange
on most cards.
Enable software pixel doubling--LithTech Software Renderer ONLY
Check this option only when using the LithTech Software Renderer.
Useful for simulating low resolutions (320x200, 320x240) on 2D
video cards that don't support low resolutions in 16-bit color.
If you check this option and have 640x480 16bit selected as your
resolution, Blood2 will simulate 320x240. Can provide noticable
performance increases at the expense of visual quality.
Restore factory default settings
This restores all configuration settings to the original factory
defaults. Resets key configuration, detail level and sound. Useful
if you're mucking around with detail settings and you just want
things back the way they were.
Command-Line
Advanced users only. For more information on this feature,
visit the Blood2 website at http://www.the-chosen.com.
******************************************************************
6. 3D VIDEO HARDWARE
This section contains specifics on 3D video cards, recommended Blood2
settings, and driver information.
For the most up to date information on "Blood2 Certified" drivers, please
visit our driver website at:
http://drivers.lith.com
6.1 3DLabs
www.3dlabs.com/drivers
- Permedia2
Works well, although no lightmapping.
Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW or MEDIUM (lightmapping will automatically
be turned off on this card)
-Turning on Shadows or Model FullBrights may cause texture
corruption/flickering.
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE
6.2 Rendition
www.rendition.com
- Rendition V1000
An older card.
Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW. 512x384
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE
- Rendition V2100/V2200
Works well, supports all features in Blood2.
Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW, or MEDIUM with Light Mapping set to off for
best performance
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE
6.3 3DFX Interactive
www.3dfx.com
In order to get the best performance from any 3DFX-based card, we
STRONGLY recommend that you upgrade to the latest 3DFX reference
drivers.
We have found that the 3DFX reference drivers work very well
under DX6. For the most recent 3DFX reference drivers,
please check:
drivers.lith.com
www.3dfx.com.
- 3DFX Voodoo1
The standard.
Recommended Display Settings:
-MEDIUM, 8-bit textures
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE
- 3DFX VooDoo2
Recommended Display Settings:
-HIGH
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-Check "Enable poly gap fixing" in Advanced Launcher for increased
visual quality with minimal decrease in performance
6.4 nVidia
www.nVidia.com
- Riva 128/128ZX
As of our ship date, we have been testing all Riva 128-based cards
with a soon-to-be released nVidia reference driver. This driver
makes it possible to play Blood2 with all features enabled. Please
check the nVidia webpage or drivers.lith.com for the most up to date
info on this chipset.
Recommended Display Settings:
-With drivers released after 9-15-98, MEDIUM
-With drivers released before 9-15-98, LOW
-Running in HIGH or MEDIUM or enabling LightMapping with the
currently drivers released before 9-15-98 will result in
gray-shaded world polygons. Disabling lightmapping fixes
this problem.
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-Check "Enable poly gap fixing" in Advanced Launcher options
for all versions of drivers. THIS IS A MUST FOR THIS CARD
to remove all polygon seaming issues.
-Check "Enable optimized surfaces" for a slight performance
increase
- Riva TNT
As of our ship date, we have been testing all Riva TNT cards with beta
drivers. We do not anticipate any problems with this card. Please
check the nVidia webpage or drivers.lith.com for the most up to date
info on this chipset.
Recommended Display Settings:
-HIGH, 16-bit textures
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-Check "Enable poly gap fixing" in Advanced Launcher for increased
visual quality with minimal decrease in performance
6.5 Matrox
www.matrox.com/mgaweb/drivers
Please check the Matrox website for drivers.lith.com for the most
recently released drivers for all Matrox products. D3D driver
support is generally good.
- G200 Millenium and Mystique
Recommended Display Settings:
-MEDIUM
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-Check "Enable Triple Buffer" for a decent performance increase
-Check "Enable Optimized Surfaces" for a slight performance
increase
- Matrox MGA-1064 (Millenium II and Mystique)
Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW, 8-bit textures
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE
- Matrox M3D
- You may need to update your drivers through device manager instead
of the setup program that comes with the driver set
- Blood2 detects that this card can't do LightMapping or
"light add poly" and disables both
- May experience texture mipmapping glitches
- Chromed models are REALLY slow, so enabling Environment Mapping through
the menus is not recommended
- Some textures with alpha (4444) draw with alpha blending even if the
alphablendenable state is off
Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW, 8-bit textures
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE--Blood2 detects this card automatically.
6.6 Intel i740
drivers.lith.com
- ENABLE OPTIMIZED SURFACES. We have experienced instability on this card
when Enable Optimized Surfaces is unchecked. We have also experienced
some problems with drivers from various board manufacturers who use
the i740 chipset. The Intel Reference Drivers appear to be the most
stable of the bunch. However, Intel does not recommend end-users
install these drivers. Check with your card manufacturer for
the most recent certified drivers.
Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW or MEDIUM, 8-bit textures
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-You must check "Enable Optimized Surfaces" on this card to avoid
potential lockups
-Check "Enable Triple Buffer" for a decent performance increase
-LightMapping slows down this card big time. Disable it for a
nice performance boost.
6.7 S3
www.s3.com
- S3 Savage
Recommended Display Settings:
-HIGH
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE
- Virge (Diamond Stealth 3D Pro 2000, IMagic 3D)
- Get the most recent drivers from the S3 site. This board was an
OEM video card in many, many PC's. The 3D hardware performance
is questionable, but D3D will recognize this card as a 3D hardware
accelerator.
- runs decent in 320x240
- Lightmapping and screen flash not supported
Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW, 320x240
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-NONE
6.8 ATI
support.atitech.ca/drivers
- Rage Pro AGP 2X
As of our ship date, ATI was in the process of testing beta
drivers that improve the performance on this card dramatically.
please check the ATI website for the most up to date drivers
avaiable.
Doesn't bilinear filter the alpha channel so stuff with alpha
looks all pixelated even though the RGB is all pixelated.
Recommended Display Settings:
-LOW
Recommended Advanced Settings:
-Check "Enable mipmap sharpening" to cure the blurriness of
textures
******************************************************************
7. SOUND CARDS & IMA
Blood2 uses a new Interactive Music Architecture for music playback.
You may experience problems with certain sound cards and music playback.
Upgrading to the most recent drivers for your sound card usually solves
the problem.
For specific information about problems you might be having with your
sound card, check the TROUBLE SHOOTING section of this readme.
For the most up to date information on sound card driver combinations
and settings, please visit drivers.lith.com.
******************************************************************
8. DISPLAY DETAIL SETTINGS
Blood2 contains several detail settings that will affect performance.
You can change these detail settings through the in-game menus by
choosing Options...Display.
You can also choose Advanced through the in-game menus and and tweak
each detail setting individually. Once you choose Advanced and change
a setting, your detail setting will be displayed as "Advanced".
Changing your Detail Setting back to LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH will
reset any advanced options.
Switching detail settings while in the game will result in a restart of
Blood2's renderer, which may take several seconds.
LOW
A good choice for systems near or at the minimum system requirements.
Uses the least amount of texture memory. Turns off just about every
detail option available in Blood2. Also the best choice when using
the LithTech Software Renderer.
MEDIUM
A good choice for most systems. Uses less texture memory than high,
but keeps most other special effects in place.
HIGH
Turns up everything in terms of visual look. Recommended only for
high-end systems with fast 3D video cards. Uses the most texture
memory, but looks the best.
******************************************************************
9. PERFORMANCE TUNING
Game speed and performance are dependent on several different hardware
factors. The 3 major factors that affect performance in Blood2:
CPU, 3D Video Card, and memory.
If you are experiencing slow performance on your system, first try
setting the Detail Setting under Options...Display to LOW. This
setting will have the biggest single impact on performance.
Blood2 will default to using 8-bit (LOW) quality sounds unless you chose
HIGH the first time you ran Blood2. Changing the Sound Quality to LOW
under Options...Sound will save memory and can increase performance.
Turning Music to OFF under Options...Sound may also increase performance
slightly on slower CPU's. If you've turned everything else off and
you're still looking for a couple of extra frames-per-second, set
Music to Off.
Model FullBrights and Environment Mapping can have a large impact on
slower systems. These options are both set to ON when HIGH is selected,
but are set to OFF in MEDIUM and LOW.
Lightmapping can also slow some systems down. The Intel i740, for
example, will see a large performance increase just by setting
Lightmapping to OFF.
For the most recent updates on performance tuning, go to the Blood2
website at http://www.the-chosen.com
******************************************************************
10. TROUBLESHOOTING
Q: Many of the sounds in Blood2 seem to be garbled. What's wrong?
A: If you are running Blood2 on a 3DFX card, your driver may be stealing
some cycles from the bus. Install the latest 3DFX reference drivers
from www.3dfx.com. This should cure the problem.
Q: I installed DirectX6 during the Blood2 installation, but now I can't
use my 3D video card to run Blood2.
A: This is likely the result of non-DirectX6 compliant video drivers.
Please visit drivers.lith.com for the most recent information on
drivers for your card. Or, try reinstalling DirectX6 and updating
your video drivers when prompted.
Q: When I click the Display button in the Blood2 launcher, it pauses for
a long time, and then nothing happens. What gives?
A: Make sure that you have installed DirectX6. If you installed
DirectX6, you may not have updated your video drivers. Reinstall
DirectX6 and update your video drivers when prompted.
Q: I have a joystick plugged into my comptuer, but Blood2 won't
recognize it.
A: Check the joystick configuration in Windows. Go to Settings...
Control Panel...Game Controllers and check to make sure that
your joystick is configured correctly.
Q: I can't switch to some video resolutions that are displayed under
Display in the launcher and in the Change Mode option under the
in-game Display menu.
A: Blood2 uses DirectX to query your card about display resolutions.
Your driver may be reporting to DirectX that it can display at a
certain resolution, even though the hardware does not support it.
This is common on many 2D cards when running in software.
******************************************************************
11. CONTROLS
The default keyboard controls can be customized through the in-game
menus through Options...Controls. To customize a control, select an
action, hit enter, and then press the key, mouse button or joystick
button you wish to change the action to.
Before using a joystick, you must turn on joystick use via the
Options...Joystick menu.
******************************************************************
- 4 customizable characters create out of control carnage!
- 20 weapons to live and die by! Smash your opponents with old favorites
like the flare gun and voodoo doll or make massive mayhem with the new
deathray and singularity cannon.
- 30+ shredding single (and coming soon co-op) play levels
- 10+ fast and furious frag-a-thons for your blood-bath (and coming soon
blood-feud) pleasure.
- Get the most out of multiplay with full GameSpy and HEAT support.
- Level editor and game source free to registered users for the mad
modder in your life!
For more information about Blood2, be sure to check out the Blood2
website at http://www.the-chosen.com
******************************************************************
Blood2: The Chosen
Developed by Monolith Productions, Inc.
Published by GT Interactive
http://www.the-chosen.com
http://www.lith.com
http://www.gti.com
http://www.blood.com