Slave Zero(tm) README.TXT August 3, 1999 (c)1998, 1999 Infogrames North America. All rights reserved. This Software is a demo of Slave ZeroTM using the Ecstasy EngineTM. The Software is provided under license by Infogrames North America for demonstration purposes only and may not be copied, distributed, transferred or sold in any manner. The Software is provided "AS IS" and without any warranty of any kind, and Infogrames North America retains all ownership, right, title, and interest in and to the Software, including the Ecstasy EngineTM. Slave Zero is currently scheduled for release in Fall '99 Table of Contents 1. System Requirements 2. Checking video modes 3. Game Options 4. Sound 5. Video 6. Known Problems 7. Contacting Customer Support ********************************************** SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ********************************************** Microsoft Windows(r) 95 or 98. Microsoft DirectX 6 Compatible video and sound card Microsoft DirectX 6 available from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/directx/default.asp Approximately 260 MB of available hard drive space is required. 32 MB of RAM 3D accelerator card w/ the latest DX6 compatible drivers This version has not been fully optimized and requires a PII 233 or equivalent to function acceptably. CONTENTS You may be playing the full version Beta or a 1 mission demo. Neither are the final product. Not all bugs have been fixed. There is still tuning, balancing, and optimizations to do. The final game will include intense multiplayer action, mammoth bosses, greater functionality and of course more missions and a lower minimum system requirement This version has not been optimized and requires a PII 233 or equivalent to function acceptably. SLAVE ZERO CONTACT INFORMATION Technical support questions should be directed to the Infogrames Tech Support department. Contact information is at the end of this readme. For updates, patches, and more information please see the Slave Zero web site: www.slavezero.com Questions and comments are welcome and can be directed to: slavezero@accolade.com *************************************** CHECKING VIDEO MODES *************************************** Slave Zero automatically checks what video cards you have in your machine and what video modes you have available. This can take a couple moments and your screen may change resolutions. There are a couple known problems: 1. 3dfx Quake3 drivers: If you have these drivers installed an error will occur. Getting the latest drivers for your video card from your video card manufacturer can solve most errors. Reference drivers can be used, but it is strongly recommended that you use driver provided by the hardware manufacturer. The latest 3dfx Quake3 drivers are supposed to fix this problem. Verify your version Confirm you are running the latest. * Video Mode Problems * If you have problems with the video mode the game is in and the menu system will not fix it then you can try one of the following options: Open the szOptions.ini file. Find the line "Display Mode Wanted=n". The number corresponds to an entry in the szHardware.ini file. You can open the szHardware file and view the different hardware options we have detected for your machine. Then you can change the number in the szOptions file to whatever video mode you wish. Another option is to set Display Mode Wanted to -1 and the game will find the best video mode for your card. You could also delete szHardware.ini which will force the game to re-check your available video modes and cards. *************************************** GAME OPTIONS *************************************** MULTIPLAYER Multiplayer is not available in this demo. Later demos and the final product will support multiplayer. SAVE and RESTORE The demo has save and load disabled. The final version will have save and restore functional (at any time in the game). OPTIONS All the user modifiable options are available in the application. The controls, gamma, resolution, etc can all be changed in this game. **************************************************** SOUND **************************************************** The Slave Zero demo supports A3D, 3d positional audio, and has EAX support. If your sound card supports these features they will automatically be enabled. You can disable any of them by using our in game menu system or by editing the "\install_path\szOptions.ini" file. You should only hand edit this ini file if you are unable to get into the menu system for some reason. Under the [Audio] section, change the "Use Hardware" key to equal 0 to disable all audio hardware support including A3D, EAX, and 3d positional sound. Change the "Use EAX" key to 0 to disable just reverb. There is a known problem with the Creative Sound Blaster 128. If you have this sound card and experience any problems with the demo, disable the audio hardware option (above). This should solve your problems. There is a known problem with the Sound Blaster Live! 2.0 drivers. If you have these drivers and experience a problem with Slave Zero then install different drivers or disable the audio hardware option (above). There are Version 2.1 drivers available which do contain a fix for this problem. Install the new drivers and this should solve your problems. **************************************************** VIDEO **************************************************** 3D REQUIRED Slave Zero is a 3D hardware required game. This demo version supports most available 3D accelerators. If you experience problems: 1. Make sure you have the latest drivers from the card manufacturer. 2. Verify you are running the demo in an acceptable resolution (try the lowest resolution first) Some 3D cards do not support all the features of this demo. You will get varied results on different 3D cards. If you have an older 3D card the Slave Zero demo may not function at all. The final version of Slave Zero will support more 3D cards with more features. GLIDE DRIVERS To run Slave Zero with Glide (on a 3Dfx card) you need to have version 3.x of the Glide drivers. These drivers should be available from 3Dfx or from your card manufacturer. Be sure to have the latest drivers. RESOLUTION The Slave Zero demo defaults to run in low resolution (640x480). You can change the resolution in the in-game menu. GAMMA If your game is especially dark or bright then you can adjust the gamma. The gamma can be changed in the in-game menu. Gamma does not work for all 3D cards. If you experience problems changing your gamma please make sure you have the latest drivers for your 3D video card. VIEWPORT SIZE If you are using Voodoo 1 or other early generation 3D card, you can improve performance by lowering the viewport size. CLIP RANGE If you are using Voodoo 1 or other early generation 3D card, you can improve performance by lowering the clip range. This will cause polygons to drop out of view at a closer range. SHADOWS You can disable the shadows and other lighting effects to improve performance on all cards. ADVANCED FEATURES If your card supports it, Slave Zero high resolution and bumpmapping. The follow are a list of boards that support both high resolutions and bumpmapping, but most recent boards will support them as well. ATI Rage 128 NVida TNT and TNT2 Matrox G400 3dLabs Permedia3 VIDEO CARD SPECIFIC ISSUES ATI Rage Pro The ATI Rage Pro is a board that does not support all the advanced rendering modes we need to give you the highest graphics quality for SlaveZero. If you have this board or a board with similar limitations, some effects will not draw correctly, and some have been disabled altogether. NVidia Riva 128 The NVidia Riva 128 is a board that does not support all the advanced rendering modes we need to give you the highest graphics quality for SlaveZero. If you have this board or a board with similar limitations, some effects will not draw correctly, and some have been disabled altogether. 3dfx Voodoo1 and Voodoo2 If you are using a Voodoo based 3d accelerator we strongly recommend using the Glide video mode. Using the d3d renderer on these cards will cause a significant performance loss. Download the latest glide3x drivers from your board manufacturers web site. The installer will set up the game to run the Glide version automatically. S3 Savage You may experience "tearing" if using a S3 Savage card. This may be fixed by changing the video option "Wait For VSynch" to ON. This will cause a slight performance hit, but will clean up your display. ******************************************* KNOWN PROBLEMS (not mentioned above) ******************************************* Quake3 reference drivers The 3dfx Quake3 reference drivers are not compatible with Slave Zero. Choppy intro FMA: the intro FMA may be choppy and lose frames. We have a known bug with some video cards associated with this intro. At this time there is no fix for this - we are working with Microsoft and various hardware vendors to find a solution. This will be fixed in the final product. Canyon3D We have special support in this demo for the new ESS reverb technology. If you do not have the latest (correct) drivers for this hardware you could experience audio problems. If you do experience problems either get newer drivers or run the game with audio turned off. ALT-TAB If you ALT-TAB out of the d3d version of this demo, when you come back to the game you may experience texture corruption. If this is the case, change video resolutions to solve the problem. This bug will be fixed in later versions of the game. Renderer did not init This is a common error message and usually means you do not have the correct video drivers. Get the latest drivers from your chip/card web site. For 3dfx chip sets you will usually get best results using the reference drivers (3.x) Voodoo3 The game will crash if the resolution is set to 800x600 when using a Voodoo3. If you do have a crash then you will need to delete the file "szHardware.ini" before running the game again. (If that does not work then delete the file, "szOptions.ini" as well). ******************************************* CONTACTING CUSTOMER SUPPORT ******************************************* Infogrames North America You can ask for help with your Infogrames game by reaching us by Phone, Fax, Online and Mail: PHONE Infogrames can help you by phone between the following hours: Monday - Thursday 8:00am - 5:00pm PST and Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm PST (408) 296-8400 INTERNET website: http://www.accolade.com email: techelp@accolade.com FAX Faxes may be sent anytime to: (408) 246-0231 MAIL Infogrames North America 5300 Stevens Creek Blvd. Suite 500 San Jose, CA 95129 Slave ZeroTM is trademarked and property of Infogrames. Ecstasy EngineTM is trademarked and property of Infogrames. Thanks for playing the Slave Zero.