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Text File | 1997-10-02 | 15.3 KB | 329 lines

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Readme for the PowerVR(TM) GLQuake/GLHexen II Driver Public Release 1 Copyright (C) 1997 NEC Electronics Email comments and reports of bugs to john_smith@el.nec.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Included Files 3. Requirements 4. Installation 5. A Note for PCX1 Users 6. Using Different Screen Resolutions 7. Adjusting the Screen Brightness or Gamma 8. Performance Tuning 9. Compensating for Sound Stuttering 10. Known Issues and Problems With This Driver 11. General Issues with GLQuake/GLHexen II 12. Legal Stuff 1. INTRODUCTION This is the first public release of the GLQuake/GLHexen II driver for PowerVR. With this driver you can now enjoy the improved graphics quality of the OpenGL versions of Quake and Hexen II on your PowerVR card. This driver, or an updated version of it, should also work with most, if not all, coming games based on the Quake engine. This driver is unsupported. However we welcome any comments or reports of bugs that you may have. These should be sent to the email address above. NOTE: This driver is not an OpenGL driver. It is only an implementation of a subset of the OpenGL API, sufficient to run GLQuake and its derivatives. It is not certified by Silicon Graphics Inc. and has not passed any OpenGL conformance tests. Do not attempt to use this driver with OpenGL applications other than those based on the Quake engine, or those which claim to work with a "GLQuake driver". 2. INCLUDED FILES OPENGL32.DLL - The GLQuake/GLHexen II driver SBARFIX.EXE - A small application to patch older versions of GLQUAKE.EXE so the status bar displays correctly. README.TXT - This file. 3. REQUIREMENTS This driver requires the following to be installed and running on the system: * Any version of Windows 95 * DirectX 3.0a or later * PowerVR Windows 95 drivers version 4.0.0a or later. The following is also required for GLQuake: * A full registered version of Quake. GLQuake does not work with the shareware version of Quake. * A GLQuake distribution archive. These are available from ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/unsup in the archives starting with "GLQ". e.g. GLQuake 0.95 is available in the archive GLQ8_27.ZIP. This driver does not work correctly with the very first release of GLQuake (GLQUAKE1.ZIP). * If you wish to run GLQuakeWorld, you will need the latest QuakeWorld distribution archive. GLHexen II doesn't require anything extra other than the game or the demo of the game. The following is the recommended minimum system requirements: * A Pentium 133 or better CPU. * 32 Megabytes of RAM. * A PowerVR PCX2 card such as the Apocalypse 3Dx or the Matrox m3D. NOTE: Because this driver uses the FPU (floating point unit) of the CPU extensively, current non-Intel x86 compatible processors require a significantly higher clock rate than 133 MHz to match the performance of a Pentium 133. 4. INSTALLATION WARNING: Do not copy the driver into your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory as this will prevent other OpenGL applications running on your system, including the Windows OpenGL screen savers. For GLQuake: * Install the full version of Quake. * Put the GLQUAKE.EXE file from the GLQuake distribution archive into your Quake directory. * Put the OPENGL32.DLL file from THIS archive into your Quake directory. Do not use the OPENGL32.DLL file included in the GLQuake archive as this is not for PowerVR. * If you are using version 0.92 (GLQ3_11.ZIP) or 0.93 (GLQ3_28.ZIP) of GLQuake, you must also put the SBARFIX file included in this archive into your Quake directory. Once you have done so, run it from the Quake directory (you can do this by double clicking on SBARFIX in Windows Explorer) and follow the on screen prompts. * You may wish to create a shortcut on your desktop to GLQUAKE.EXE to make it easier to launch in the future. * You can now start GLQuake by running GLQUAKE.EXE. For GLQuakeWorld: * Follow the instructions for GLQuake, except put GLQWCL.EXE from the QuakeWorld distribution archive into your Quake directory as opposed to GLQUAKE.EXE. For GLHexen II: * Install Hexen II or the Hexen II demo. Do not start the game just yet. * Put OPENGL32.DLL from this archive into your Hexen II directory. You will need to overwrite the existing driver which is not for PowerVR. * You're ready to go. 5. A NOTE FOR PCX1 USERS GLQuake and its derivatives require bilinear filtering for implementing lighting. Unfortunately PCX1 does not support bilinear filtering and as such, the lighting in Quake does not look as good. In addition, performance on PCX1 is significantly slower than on PCX2. Apocalypse 3D users may wish to take advantage of Videologic's limited time upgrade offer to the Apocalypse 3Dx. The competitively priced Matrox m3D also provides a possible upgrade path. 6. USING DIFFERENT SCREEN MODES WARNING: The latest versions of GLQuake do not work with resolutions above 640x480. Until this issue is resolved you will need to go back to version 0.93 (GLQ3_28.ZIP) to use the high resolution modes. This driver will support 16, 24 and 32 bit color modes with resolutions up to 1024x768, including running in a window. To use these modes, you must start the game with the -width, -height and -window command line options. For example, to run GLQuake at 800x600 in a window, you should start the game with the following command line: glquake -width 800 -height 600 -window We strongly recommend trying the game at 800x600, especially if you are running a lower end system. The reason for this is that the playability of the game can actually be increased due to a more consistent frame rate. The slower parts of the game run at about the same frame rate as the lower resolutions, while the peak frame rates are not as high. To switch between 16, 24 and 32 bit color depths, you need to change the color depth of your desktop. GLQuake/GLHexen II automatically run at the color depth of your desktop. Do not be afraid of 24 bit mode if you are running at lower resolutions. Providing your 2D video card is reasonably fast and has enough memory to support the specified mode with triple buffering, 24 bit mode incurrs little or no performance hit. The following modes are some of the modes available on common 2D card memory configurations: 2 Megabyte 2D card 4 Megabyte 2D card 320x200, 16 bit, triple buffered 320x200, 16 bit, triple buffered 320x200, 24 bit, triple buffered 320x200, 24 bit, triple buffered 320x200, 32 bit, triple buffered 320x200, 32 bit, triple buffered 512x384, 16 bit, triple buffered 512x384, 16 bit, triple buffered 512x384, 24 bit, triple buffered 512x384, 24 bit, triple buffered 512x384, 32 bit, double buffered 512x384, 32 bit, triple buffered 640x480, 16 bit, triple buffered 640x480, 16 bit, triple buffered 640x480, 24 bit, double buffered 640x480, 24 bit, triple buffered 800x600, 16 bit, double buffered 640x480, 32 bit, triple buffered 1024x768, 16 bit, single buffered 800x600, 16 bit, triple buffered 800x600, 24 bit, double buffered 800x600, 32 bit, double buffered 1024x768, 16 bit, double buffered 7. ADJUSTING THE SCREEN BRIGHTNESS OR GAMMA On many systems, the default brightness of Quake is too dark. Unfortunately GLQuake does not support adjusting the brightness of the game. This is mainly due to a common limitation in the drivers of most 2D cards, preventing an application from changing the cards gamma settings. A couple of potential workarounds are: * Increasing the contrast and brightness settings on your monitor. * Some 2D cards allow boosting the gamma via the Windows 95 Display Properties page. Sometimes these setting won't "stick" between changes in resolution, so you might have to switch to the resolution you want to play at (e.g. 640x480), adjust the gamma, then start the game. 8. PERFORMANCE TUNING While the performance is generally very good, for serious deathmatch play every little bit of extra performance counts. The following tips can be very helpful: * If you have a system with good FPU performance such as an Intel CPU with a high clock speed, try running at 512x384. * Because of the large amount of memory that the game uses (especially GLHexen II), there can quite often be considerable paging to disk causing annoying pauses in the game. These can be minimized by making sure no other applications are running in the background. Modifying your virtual memory settings to use a large permanent swap file can also increase performance. Virtual memory settings are adjusted in the System applet in the Windows 95 Control Panel. You should also run Disk Defragmenter on your hard drive before creating a permanent swap file. * +gl_keeptjunctions 0 will reduce the polygon count in the level and can give as much as a 20% performance increase. The negative side is that small cracks appear along the edges of some polygons. This option will not take effect until you restart the level. The following only applies to GLQuake: * On lower end systems the default lighting method is the fastest (+gl_flashblend 1), however on faster systems the full dynamic lighting (+gl_flashblend 0) usually performs better. This is because the PowerVR architecture allows the CPU to update the light maps while the hardware is rendering. * Disabling the "palette" effects (+gl_polyblend 0) can make the frame rate more consistent. These effects are used to indicate getting shot (the red flash), underwater etc. However in serious death match game play they offer limited useful feedback. 9. COMPENSATING FOR SOUND STUTTERING When running on slower systems, the frame rate can drop considerably in some places causing the sound to start stuttering. Some Quake TC's (total conversions) with very high polygon counts are very prone to this problem. To compensate for this, try using the console command _snd_mixahead 0.15. If there is still some stuttering, use the command _snd_mixahead 0.2. You should choose the lowest _snd_mixahead setting which works for you as larger numbers cause noticeable delays in the sound effects. 10. KNOWN ISSUES AND PROBLEMS WITH THIS DRIVER * On some systems, switching between GLQuake/GLHexen II and other Windows applications via Alt-Tab causes problems. You may not be able to switch back to GLQuake/GLHexen II. To prevent frustration, once you start the game, do not switch to another application. Also take care that other applications running in the background are not going to put up a message box and steal the "focus" away from the game. If you do find yourself switched away from the game and at a Windows desktop, you should press Ctrl-Alt-Del and end the game this way as attempting to switch back to the game can sometimes cause the system to crash. * In parts of VERY complicated levels, some things may not be drawn on the screen. This has only been observed on some Quake TC's, or when the r_novis 1 option is used in GLQuake. It is caused by the internal buffers of the driver being exceeded. We have intentionally not fixed this problem, as when this happens, performance is unacceptable and a fix would waste valuable memory, reducing the performance of playable levels. * Occasionally small square regions may become darker or lighter than the surrounding areas of the screen. It often gives the appearance of black squares flashing on and off. This has been corrected in the Windows 95 drivers and will be available in the 4.0.1 Windows 95 driver release. 11. GENERAL ISSUES WITH GLQUAKE/GLHEXEN II These issues are not specific to this driver: * You must have the Windows desktop set to a High Color (16 bit) mode to start the game. Also, you should not try and start the game from full screen DOS box. If you get the message "No RGB full screen modes available" this is most likely your problem. 12. LEGAL STUFF 1) SINGLE COPY LICENSE: You may download one copy of the information or software ("Materials") found on the PowerVR site on a single computer for your personal, non-commercial internal use only. This is a license, not a transfer of title, and is subject to the following restrictions: you may not: (a) modify the Materials or use them for any commercial purpose, or any public display, performance, sale or rental; (b) decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble software Materials; (c) remove any copyright or other proprietary notices from the Materials; (d) transfer the Materials to another person. You agree to prevent any unauthorized copying of the Materials. 2) DISCLAIMER: THE MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF ANY KIND INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NONINFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL NEC ELECTRONICS INC. OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF INFORMATION) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE MATERIALS, EVEN IF NEC ELECTRONICS INC. HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS PROHIBIT THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. NEC Electronics Inc. further does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the information, text, graphics, links or other items contained within these materials. NEC Electronics Inc. may make changes to these materials, or to the products described therein, at any time without notice. NEC Electronics Inc. makes no commitment to update the Materials. 3) COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK INFORMATION: The glquake drivers and this text is Copyright 1997 by NEC Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. PowerVR, PowerVR Ready, Apocalypse 3D and Videologic are trademarks or registered trademarks of VideoLogic Ltd. (United Kingdom). All rights reserved. Used by NECEL with permission. PCX1, PCX2 and NEC is a trademark of NEC Corporation (Japan). All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows and Direct3D are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Hexen II is a trademark of Raven Software Corporation. Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. Silicon Graphics and OpenGL are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Matrox m3D is a trademark of Matrox Graphics Inc. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.