Terracide - Internet Demo Version (c) 1997 Eidos Interactive. Produced by Simis Developments. [INSTALLATION] This Terracide demo will only run under Windows 95. To properly install and run this demo, you must run the 'setup.exe' program in the 'Terademo' folder. Once you have run setup, you can delete the Terademo folder from your hard drive. If you have problems running the demo, after completing the setup program, make sure you have the very latest drivers for your 3D card, and the latest version of Direct X (v3.0a). See the Technical Help section of this file for additional information. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [PLOT] After the mass exodus from Earth to form the galaxy-wide Terran Colonies of the New Age, the little bluish-green planet which was the source of all human life, began to be ignored. The colonists, seeking out new homes in planets undreamed of by those left behind, made their bases in strange, beautiful, but unforgiving worlds. The harsh winds and extreme temperatures of these planets altered and mutated them. They were forced to use machines to enhance their senses, purely to survive. Now these colonists are returning home, to reclaim their birthright. But they have changed. Speeding through the solar system towards Earth is a flotilla of spaceships, harboring deadly crews of robots, mutated humans and semi-alien lifeforms. Their brute force is too much for the massed Terran forces; only a single, one-man ship could hope to slip through their scanners and infiltrate their craft to destroy them from within. That craft is yours. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [KEY CONTROLS] Up Arrow dive Down Arrow climb Left Arrow turn left Right Arrow turn right (a mouse or joystick can be used to control the ship as well) A accelerate Z reverse/decelerate D roll Q fire main weapon (centrally mounted) C fire 2nd weapon (right mounted) X fire 3rd weapon (left mounted) F flare (unlimited, but uses lots of energy) E detonate (guided missiles only) Space strafe (hold down and press Left, Right, Up or Down) Delete strafe left Page Down strafe right Home strafe up End strafe down (or POV hat on joystick to strafe) Alt pause/bring up window menu 1-7 weapon select (press same key to cycle through all weapons in group) Shift + 1-7 select 2nd weapon (right mounted) Ctrl + 1-7 select 3rd weapon (left mounted) 0 remove weapon TAB + Space/POV look around G zoom in V external camera view W waypoint I score info / on keypad life panel on/off (shield/munitions/charge) * on keypad weapons panel on/off - on keypad auto leveling on/off + on keypad auto pitching on/off Y network score T network message Shift + F1-F9 taunt Ctrl+Shft+F2-F5 change team (can only change teams with 0 points) You can reconfigure these keys within the game. Press ALT to bring up the menu, select Options, Configure Controls, Configure Keys. Select Configure Mouse/Joystick to set up the mouse or joystick. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [HUD INFORMATION] On the HUD you can find the following: Munitions Indicator - Munitions are the actual amount of ammo you have; all of the weapons use a shared munitions store. More powerful guns use more munitions, and need to be kept stocked up by picking up munitions crates. You start with no munitions and a maximum of one bar on the HUD. If you manage to get the pickup to increase maximum munitions, you can get up to 3 bars worth of maximum munitions. Shield indicator - The state of your ship's hull, which is decreased by enemy fire, radiation and electricity, and restored with armor pickups. The shield indicator starts off green (full strength), and the skull's head slowly turns red, then black. Once entirely black, you're toast. Your maximum shields can be increased by finding the right pickup. This pickup will display plus signs on either side of the skull's head and slow down the color change on the skull. Charge indicator - The amount of power left in your firing mechanism. This is drained each time you fire a weapon or flare, and gradually recharges to full power again. Firing large amounts of rapid fire projectiles will stop you from firing repeatedly, as the charge struggles to regenerate. On the HUD, the charge indicator starts with one full bar of charge. The photon weapons use charge alone, all other weapons use munitions to fire. Weapon type indicators - Displays which of the 21 weapons you have acquired. Each of the icons for weapon types has 3 lights above it, corresponding to the normal, rapid-fire, and scatter-fire versions of the guns. If the light is off, you do not have the corresponding gun. If the light is red, you have the gun but it is not currently mounted. If the light is green, the gun is mounted on the central gun mounting. Conversely, if the light is shaped like a left or right arrow, the gun is mounted on the left or right gun mount. Pickup indicator - Appears when your ship is close to a pickup. The indicator is made up of two sets of concentric circles, which display the relative location of the pickup. When your ship is close enough, the pickup will begin beaming aboard your ship. The left-hand bar shows the time left until the pickup is successfully grabbed, and the right-hand bar shows the time until the pickup explodes. External force indicator - Appears on screen when your ship is being affected by wind or gravity. Compass - This is a 3-dimensional heading cube, which indicates the direction you're facing. (N)orth, (S)outh, (E)ast, (W)est, (U)p and (D)own. Waypoints - If you find yourself unsure of where you're going, you can drop a waypoint. This is a small object which will stay in place no matter where you go, so you can tell if you've previously been in an area when you return there. The waypoint emits a sound to alert you when you are close to one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [PICKUPS] Pickups are spinning objects which appear after destroying enemies and can also be found around the levels. They may be weapons, munitions, armor, extra mounts or powerups to increase your maximum capabilities. When your ship is close to a pickup, the proximity radar will show you its exact location. Hover close to it and the pickup will be teleported inside your ship. Pickups explode a few seconds after being released by enemies, so get to them quickly, or you'll miss out. The following pickups are available in the game: Weapons Additional weapons. Armor Repairs damage caused to your ship. Munitions Munitions are required to fire non-photon guns. Weapon Mounts Enables 2nd and 3rd weapons to be mounted to the ship. You start the game with a single, central gun mount. Two more can be added to the left and right, allowing you to fire 3 weapons at once. You can select a specific weapon for each mount. Plus-ups These will increase the maximum values for one of the following: Charge, Munitions, Shield. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [TECHNICAL HELP] DirectX Installation -------------------- You will need version 3.0a of DirectX to run Terracide on your machine. This is Microsoft's system which ensures Terracide will run on all machines, whether unaccelerated, MMX accelerated, or 3D accelerated, and you should install the latest version of DirectX(V3.0a) over any earlier versions you have on your machine. Any of the initial graphical options can be changed during the game, by using the 'Graphics Configuration' menu. These options will then be saved on exit and used in future games of Terracide, so you will only have to configure your options once. If at any stage a configuration is obtained that does not work properly, and cannot be rectified using the configuration option, deletion of the 'Teracide.cfg' file from your 'Windows' directory will reset the graphics config to the initial settings the next time that Terracide is run. DirectX Troubleshooting ----------------------- When you first try to run Terracide, if you find an error message saying 'unable to initialize DirectX', or you find that your graphics card is running incorrectly (glitching, excessive slowdown), then it's strongly suggested that you contact your hardware manufacturer or use the Internet to download the latest drivers for your graphics card. You can find the latest links to working drivers via the Terracide website at: http://www.eidosinteractive.com/terracide/terracide.html Please note that the release version of Terracide will include a drivers directory with the latest video drivers, including 3D card drivers, allowing you to run Terracide without any trouble. For the MMX version of Terracide, it is important to remember to install the MMX option when installing DirectX. NOTE - if your MMX doesn't appear to work, try reinstalling DirectX and leave the MMX box unchecked. First-time graphics settings ---------------------------- When you first run Terracide, if you have a 3D accelerator card and Terracide can detect it, then Terracide will inquire whether to attempt to use this or run in software (non-accelerated) mode. If you have an MMX chip, Terracide will initially start up unaccelerated, and you can change to the MMX version by going to the 'Graphics Configuration' menu and selecting the 'Software MMX emulation' option. - The initial resolution for the unaccelerated version of Terracide is 320x200. However, if your graphics card is unable to run in this resolution, Terracide will then default to 640x480. - The 3D accelerated version of Terracide will start at a resolution of 640x480 with all of the rendering and filtering capabilities enabled, although this may depend on specific 3D card capabilities. Increased speed using bordering ------------------------------- Pressing the '-' button will reduce the size of the rendered screen within the window. Pressing '+' will then increase the screen size again. Changes occur in 1/8ths of the window size and the minimum width is 1/8th of the window size. This is very useful if you have a graphics card which is unable to run below a certain resolution and you want Terracide to run faster. NOTE: The best alternative way to gain an increase in frame rate is to turn the HUD off in the options menu. Terracide Graphics Configuration Menu ------------------------------------- The graphics configuration menu is accessed through the 'Game' menu, Graphics Configuration option. You will be able to optimize the speed of the game by altering the detail levels in the graphics config. The configuration options are grouped into four options. Click on a tab to select the page of options associated with it. The tabs available: Screen includes resolution, colors & software/3D card Details controls levels of detail of explosions Texture controls various detailed texturing options Advanced Filtering controls bi-linear filtering (smoothness) When you have changed the options required, click on OK to apply them. Most will come into effect immediately. Clicking CANCEL will resume without any changes. We should emphasize that, in the majority of cases, Terracide will start with the correct configuration. But if you wish, you can reconfigure any part of Terracide to increase the overall speed and frame rate. A conventional Terracide user should only have to use the Screen and possibly the Details menus, but the more technically minded can play with any of the more complex drawing features of Terracide. Screen ------ This is the most important menu, and allows you to switch screen resolutions, 3D emulation modes and color levels. When you first run Terracide, you may want to go to this menu to decide which resolution is best for your machine. Driver Allows you to switch between software, MMX, and 3D hardware modes. Full screen The game can run full screen or in a window. Video Modes Lists the available resolutions to run Terracide. The lower the resolution, the faster Terracide will run. Higher resolutions may require you to select a lower texture detail level from the Texture menu. Colour Detail Options for amount of colours being used in the game when running Terracide unaccelerated - 16 bit hi-colour is recommended. Details ------- Screen Size Increase or decrease the screen size. Decreasing the screen size will increase the speed of the game. Explosions The default is minimal - increase the detail on faster machines for a spectacular time! Particles Toggles the colored nature or existence of particles given off by the rocket and your ship's engines. Brightness Adjusts the brightness level of the screen. Texture ------- This is a detailed menu dealing with texturing - generally this should only be needed for the more technically-minded user. Listed below are the most important options. Texture Detail This is especially necessary if your graphics card has a limited amount of memory on it. This option may also be needed when running at high screen resolutions. Gouraud Shading Light levels are shaded smoothly when enabled - turning this off may lose visual quality but increase speed. Filtering Smoothes textures when they are close to the viewer - turning this off may speed things up. This should be turned off for the unaccelerated version. Dithering Improves color resolution when smooth light shading is enabled - turning both this and gouraud shading off may increase the frame rate significantly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [3D CARD SHORTCUTS] Terracide has special command switches for many of the 3D graphics cards. You should use the shortcuts provided to run the game properly on your particular graphics card. The command line switches are as follows: Terracide Rendition '-FDRENDITION' if your 3D graphics card uses a Rendition chip. Terracide ATI 3D Card '-FDRENDITION' if you have an ATI card with a RAGE II chip. Terracide Matrox 3D Card '-FDMATROX' if you have a 3D-accelerated Matrox graphics card. Terracide PowerVR '-FDPVR' if you have a PowerVR card. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For the latest news about upcoming product releases, game hints, free demos and more, be sure to check out the Eidos Interactive web site: www.eidosinteractive.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for checking out this demo. The full retail version includes: 20 levels spread across seven ships including a huge space station 21 different weapons Graphics that push your 3D card to the limit Scorching CD Soundtrack Full network play with up to 16 players And much much more... Yours, The "Terracide" Team. (c)1997 Eidos Interactive