PC Gamer 2.14/1997-03_Disc_2.14.iso/cgdemo/english/readme.txt

Text File | 1996-07-16 | 18KB | 348 lines

A-10 II -- Silent Thunder v1.0A
README 5/8/96


About This Document:
This document contains last-minute information about A-10 II -- Silent
Thunder and other information about the program not found in the on-line
documentation.  In addition to troubleshooting tips found in this document,
Sierra has included other documents that will outline technical tips and
gameplay questions specific to the following topics:  Sound and Music
(please see SOUND.WRI), Joystick (see JOYSTICK.WRI) and Video (see VIDEO.WRI).
Should you experience any problems with Silent Thunder, please refer to
these files for additional help on answering questions about the game and
solving technical difficulties.   For the answers to Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQ), see section VI.

Note:  All comments marked WIN 3.1 apply to all versions 3.1 or higher.

========================================================================
                TABLE OF CONTENTS

        I.              MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
        II.             GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
        III.            GENERAL GAME ISSUES
        IV.             WINDOWS 3.1 ISSUES
        V.              WINDOWS 95 ISSUES
        VI.             GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING (FAQ)
        VII             GAMEPLAY TIPS
========================================================================


I.    MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

PROCESSOR               486 DX 66
OPERATING SYSTEM        Windows 95, WIN 3.1 or higher
MEMORY            8 Mb RAM
KEYBOARD                AT
CD ROM                  2x or better
SUPPORTS                Joystick, throttle, rudder pedals, sound card


II.     GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
* Windows colors:
Silent Thunder will play most consistently if you have your video mode set
to 256 colors.  If you have Windows set to HIGH COLOR (16 bit) or TRUE COLOR
(24 bit), the cockpit of the A-10 itself will play normally, but certain
graphic screens may have odd colors, or may appear mostly black.

* Joystick Calibration:
When Silent Thunder is played under WIN 95 it uses the joystick support built
into the system.  For this reason your joystick must be enabled and
calibrated from the desktop before running this Simulation.  To do this click
 on the START button on the WIN 95 task bar.  Move your cursor down to
SETTINGS on the popup menu, and then select CONTROL PANEL.  In the control
panel window, one of the choices should be JOYSTICK.  Double-click on the
joystick selection and follow the instructions.  Refer to JOYSTICK.WRI file
for more information.

Both WIN 95 and WIN 3.1 users should also use the JOYSTICK CALIBRATION
selection of the preferences menu in the sim. To use this feature simply
press <SHIFT> <P> to bring up the preferences menu, and select CALIBRATE JOY.
and calibrate the joystick normally. You may find it necessary to periodically
recalibrate the joystick during long play sessions.  Note that it is still
advised to calibrate the joystick in Win95 prior to using this feature.

* The "Jukebox" for CD audio:
The Silent Thunder CD contains twelve original songs in CD audio format.
These songs can be played as you play the game, or may be played separately
using your favorite CD player utility.  To play the songs within the game,
make sure that MUSIC ON is selected in preferences, and click on the JUKEBOX
button to select a track.  You can also use the Jukebox to play your favorite
audio CD.  In order to play CD AUDIO your system must have a CD-AUDIO cable
coming from the CD-ROM player to the sound board, or a cable coming from the
head phone jack to the back of the sound card, or a speaker hooked up to the
headphone jack on the CD-ROM player.  If the Windows CD Player is active, you
must deactivate it before the Jukebox will work.  WIN 95: If you have
autoplay enabled for audio disks, holding down the SHIFT key while inserting
a new CD will prevent the CD Player from launching.  Should the CD Player
launch, simply ALT+TAB to the CD Player, close it, and the Jukebox will
function normally.  For more information on sound please refer to the
SOUND.WRI file.

* If The Game Is Slow
If the game runs too slowly on your system, we have incorporated several
detail options that when disabled will help increase the speed of the game.
These options are located in the game preference menu  when you press Shift+P
during a mission.  Lowering detail features and changing the screen
resolution to low res will increase frame rate. If you still find the
game to slow, disable sound from the preferences screen and run the game from
a window.  Following the suggestions in the Memory section may also help
increase the performance of the game.

* Utilities
Be sure to close any other CD player utilities before starting Silent Thunder
 -- These utilities will interfere with the operation of the Jukebox.

Animated Cursors:
We have found that animated and 3D cursors exhibit some erratic behavior when
used with Silent Thunder.  To avoid these problems, simply double-click the
MOUSE icon under Control Panel, select Pointers, and choose the Windows
Standard.


III.    GENERAL GAME ISSUES


MEMORY ISSUES
Silent Thunder requires 8 MEGABYTES of physical memory to run.  To ensure the
best configuration for the game, Sierra On-Line recommends that you disable
screen savers, utilities, Shadow ROM, and additional applications that are
running.  This configuration will free up all system resource and will
increase performance in the game. WIN 3.1:  It is not recomended that you run
in High Res if you have only 8Mb of memory.  If you wish to run in High Res
and have only 8Mb of memory, you may need to disable sounds for Silent
Thunder to operate properly.  Silent Thunder will not function properly
without Virtual Memory enabled.

VIRTUAL MEMORY SETTINGS --
WIN 95 -- Check your Virtual memory settings on your system.  Click on the
START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL.  Click on SYSTEM, PERFORMANCE, VIRTUAL MEMORY,
and make sure the system is set up for "Let Windows manage my Virtual Memory
Settings".  If you still experience memory problems you may need to free up
some hard drive space to enable Windows to use it for virtual memory.  Note:
If you have less than 8Mb of free space on your HD, virtual memory behavior
can become erratic.

WIN 3.1 -- We highly recommend the use of a permanent swap file to minimize
potential problems and increase system speed, both in Silent Thunder and
other applications. To change virtual memory, go to the CONTROL PANEL, located
in MAIN. Double-click the 386 ENHANCED and choose Virtual Memory.  Here you
can examine your current settings.  To make changes, click CHANGE.  The ideal
swap file size is at least the size that Windows recommends, based on your
system configuration. Remember that a permanent swap file takes up hard drive
space, so do not make this file size larger than the space you can comfortably
spare on your HD.  If your hard drive space is lower than the amount needed to
create a swap file, it will be necessary to free up space on your hard drive.

BOOTDISK INSTRUCTIONS -- A bootdisk maker has been include on the CD-ROM.  In
DOS type X:<ENTER> (where X is the letter of your CD-ROM drive).  Then type
ts\bootdisk<ENTER> and follow the on-screen instructions.  If this resolves
the problem start the system every time with the bootdisk when you want to
play Silent Thunder.


IV             WINDOWS 3.1 ISSUES


WIN32S       In WIN 3.1, Silent Thunder uses the new WIN32S libraries.  These
libraries will be installed when you install Silent Thunder and will require
you to reboot your system.  Silent Thunder will not run in WIN 3.1 without
the WIN32S libraries.

SHARE AND INSTALL       Prior to running the install for Silent Thunder under
Windows 3.1, make sure you have SHARE enabled.  This is necessary for all
system files to be properly updated.

If your system does not currently have SHARE installed, or if you are
uncertain whether SHARE is currently installed, exit Windows, and from the DOS
prompt type: SHARE <ENTER>.  Restart Windows then run the Sierra Setup.
If you have already installed Silent Thunder, run the MSETUP.EXE located in
[CD]:\WIN32S\DISK1 (where [CD] is the drive letter of your CD drive).  You
can verify that WIN32S is running properly by selecting the option to install
the game Freecell.  If Freecell.exe loads and runs properly, WIN32S is
correctly installed.  Silent Thunder should now run normally.

CD AUDIO  To play the CD music in Silent Thunder, you must have the MCI
CD Audio drivers enabled.  To add the MCI drivers, go into the CONTROL PANEL,
click on DRIVERS, and click ADD.  Select [MCI] CD Audio from the list and
follow the onscreen instructions.

VOICES  Due to the constraints of the WIN 3.1 sound system, you will not hear
the briefing and in-flight voices when playing in WIN 3.1.

ONLINE MANUAL    The online help system uses the new 32-bit version of Windows
Help.  If you run the help file from the ? icon in Silent Thunder, the help
system will function normally.  However if you double-click on the help file
from File Manager it will launch the standard 16-bit help viewer that is
shipped with Windows 3.1, and the Online Manual will not function.  You have
three options to solve this problem:

1)    Always view the Online Manual using the ? icon from the game.

2)    From your File Manager, change the association for HLP files from
WINHELP.EXE TO WINHLP32.EXE.  NOTE: This will cause all HLP files to be viewed
under the new 32-bit executable.

3)    You can RUN WINHLP32.EXE and OPEN the appropriate .HLP file manually.
These files are located in a directory reflecting the language that the game
is being played in (for example, ENGLISH for the English help file).


V.      WIN 95 ISSUES


* DirectX install:
DirectX is a series of WIN 95 extensions, including DirectDraw and
DirectSound, which improve video and sound performance.  These extensions
should be present on your system before running Silent Thunder, and will be
installed or updated by the Sierra Setup program, as needed.

In WIN 95 the DirectX install will inform you if it detects hardware that is
not compatible with DirectX.  This applies primarily to sound cards which do
not have hardware support for DirectSound.  If the installer lists *NO* under
the DirectSound choice you should make sure DirectSound is disabled from the
Preferences menu prior to entering the sim, and you should adjust the Sound
Delay (see below) from the Preferences menu in the sim.

The DirectX install also detects whether you have DirectX previously installed
on your machine and gives you the option of updating to newer files, should
your files be older than the current version.  Updating may not be necessary
in order for Silent Thunder to run properly, unless the DirectX installer
marks the CERTIFIED DRIVER column with a "NO."  This indicates that the
system has checked your version of DirectX and found that it doesn't conform
to current standards.  Check the VIDEO.WRI file for further information about
the DirectDraw component of DirectX.

Before updating DirectDraw over existing drivers, check your video card
manufacturer's instructions.  Some newer video cards use custom video drivers
and updating these with standard Win95 drivers can cause problems.  If you are
in doubt, contact your video manufacturer before updating DirectDraw.
Addresses and phone numbers for major video card manufacturers are listed in
the VIDEO.WRI file, which is located in the A10II directory.

* Full-screen Mode:
For Silent Thunder to function in full-screen mode, you must have DirectDraw
installed.  Sierra's Setup utility should autodetect for DirectDraw and
install it, if necessary, when you install Silent Thunder.  However, you must
reboot before the changes can take effect.  To use DirectDraw during the
game, go into the preferences menu from the main screen menu.  Activate the
full screen option.  For more information about DirectDraw or for video
troubleshooting tips, see the VIDEO.WRI file.

*Sound delay setting:
Users who have sound cards that do not support Direct Sound and who have not
enabled Direct Sound  may find that delays between actions and the
accompanying sound are rather long. To help alleviate this problem we have
added a new selection to the preferences menu that allows you to adjust the
length of delay to suit your sound card.  To use this feature simply press
<SHIFT> <P> to bring up the preferences menu, and choose SOUND DELAY.
Follow the onscreen instructions to set the delay to the minimum that your
sound card will support.  We have found that the default value, 12, works on
virtually all sound cards, however some newer cards will allow the user to set
the values to 4 or lower.

"Powertoys" and Silent Thunder:
Many WIN 95 users have the popular Powertoys accessories installed as part
of their default Startup options.  We have found Powertoys to be quite safe
and stable, however two of the utilities, XMOUSE and FLEXICD have some
potential to cause minor difficulties with Silent Thunder.  As noted above,
if Flexicd is active, you will be unable to use the Jukebox function in the
Simulation.  Users of Xmouse may find that Silent Thunder will behave
erratically if the mouse cursor is placed outside the program window.  We
suggest you disable these two utilities while playing.  To close Flexicd,
right click on the CD icon on the taskbar and select EXIT FLEXICD.  To close
Xmouse, double-click the Xmouse icon (usually in the CONTROL PANEL directory)
and click REMOVE.  Both can then be restarted normally when you are done
playing.


VI.      GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING (FAQ):


QUESTION:    I have selected full-screen mode from preferences in the main
menu.  When I fly a mission, the game crashes or hangs.  What should I do?

ANSWER:         The most likely cause is that your video card doesn't support
DirectDraw.  In preferences, turn off full-screen mode, and try again.

QUESTION:       I want the cockpit of the A-10 to fill up the whole screen,
but DirectDraw doesn't work on my machine.  What can I do?

ANSWER:         Change your Windows screen resolution to 640x480.  The sim
will then run as a full-screen window.

QUESTION:    I notice a delay between an action (like firing the Avenger)
and the sound that is related to it.  What is the problem?

ANSWER:         DirectSound is quicker under Windows than using the normal
sound card drivers. You may be able to minimize this problem by using the
SOUND DELAY (see section V) settings in preferences in the sim.

QUESTION:       I am having problems with views using the "hat" for my
joystick; views are behaving erratically, or sticking.

ANSWER:         Some joystick "hats" do not respond well under WIN 95.  To
correct the problem, go to the joystick setup in the Joystick Configuration
menu in the Control Panel and create a custom setup that does not have support
for the "hat."  You may wish to contact your joystick manufacturer to see if
they have an updated driver or a solution that will allow the "hat" to
function properly.

QUESTION:       I'm running in Hi Color (16 bit) and the game runs slowly.

ANSWER:         HiColor mode takes up enough system resources that some
machines may run Silent Thunder slowly.  The easiest solution is to switch to
256 colors.

QUESTION:       The game is all in German (or French).  What did I do?

ANSWER:         Our install checks for the regional settings on your
computer.  If it is set to German or French, it will install the German or
French manual. Change to ENGLISH (USA)   before installing.

QUESTION:       I'm playing off of a removable drive and get unusual lockups
or sound effects and voices sound funny.  What is the problem?

ANSWER:         Silent Thunder "streams" a lot of data off of the HD when it
is playing. Removable drives often run significantly more slowly than fixed
HDs, and it may be taking too long for data to load.  We do not recommend
installing on these drives.


VII.     GAMEPLAY TIPS:


Fly The Training Mission -- In training no one shoots at you, and you get the
opportunity to attack a variety of targets.  It's a good chance to hone your
weapons skills.  You can also create a custom loadout and test the
effectiveness of different weapons in a safe environment.

Learn Your Weapons -- Different weapons have different advantages.  If all you
ever use are Mavericks and Sidewinders, you'll be missing half of the fun.

Stay Low -- SAM radar can't pick you up through hills or mountains.  The lower
you fly, the closer they must be to detect you and the shorter time they have
to fire.

Get Ready -- When making an attack on a target, select your ordnance in
advance; you may not have time when the fur is flying.  Use your Avenger for
those quick shots in order to avoid having to change selected weapons.

Sometimes, Slow Is Good -- Slowing down over a target may seem like asking for
trouble, but sometimes going a bit slower may let you hit all of your targets
in one pass and avoid the need to fly back over the target, actually lowering
the time you spend in the enemy's sights.

Don't Be Ashamed To Run -- Helicopters are more maneuverable than you, but
slower.  Dashing away can sometimes allow you to reposition and bring
Sidewinders to bear without getting blown out of the sky.

Most of all, have fun -- That's what Silent Thunder is all about.






Copyright 1996    Dynamix, Inc.