This Readme file contains all of the last minute information regarding Star Trek: Bridge Commander.
Note for Windows(r) 95 users: In order to view the Star Trek: Bridge Commander QuickStart Guide, you must have a web browser installed.
February 12th, 2002
Table of Contents
1. Minimum System Requirements
2. Addendum to the Manual
a. Hardware issues
b. Game Functionality
c. Gameplay
d. Other
1. Minimum System Requirements
Minimum System Requirements
╖ 3-D Hardware Accelerator (with 16MB VRAM)*
╖ Microsoft(r) Windows(r) 95 OSR2/98/ME/2000/XP operating system
╖ Pentium(r) II 300Mhz processor (Pentium(r) II 450Mhz processor recommended) or Athlon(r) processor
╖ 64MB RAM
╖ 175 MB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files; plus an additional 100 MB for Windows(r) swap file
╖ 100% Windows(r) 95/98/ME/2000/XP compatible computer system (including compatible 32-bit drivers for video card, sound card and input devices.)
╖ DirectX(r) 8.0a or higher
╖ 100% DirectX(r) 8.0a compatible 16MB video card and drivers
╖ 100% DirectX(r) 8.0a or higher compatible sound card and drivers
╖ 100% Microsoft(r)-compatible mouse, keyboard
* A 100% DirectX(r) compliant 3-D video card is required. Star Trek: Bridge Commander uses DirectX(r) 8.0a to support 3-D hardware acceleration. Star Trek: Bridge Commander has been tested on many but not all of the major cards incorporating the chipsets listed below:
╖ nVidia(tm) Riva TNT and TNT2
╖ All nVidia(tm) GeForce chipsets
╖ 3dfx(tm) Voodoo3, 4 or 5
╖ ATI(r) Rage 128
╖ All ATI(r) Radeon chipsets
╖ Matrox G400 & G550
╖ Kyro(r) 1 and 2
╖ Intel(r) i810e
╖ Trident Blade XP(tm)
IMPORTANT NOTES:
In addition to the Minimum System Requirements for Star Trek: Bridge Commander, it is required that your system meet Microsoft's requirements for your chosen operating system.
This product uses Microsoft DirectX(r) technology, which requires your system to have the latest Windows(r) 95 OSR2/98/ME/2000/XP drivers (for video card, sound card and input devices).
Some, but not all, of the cards with the chipsets listed above have been tested on Windows(r) XP. For Windows(r) XP 3D support, please refer to your hardware manufacturer for 100% Windows(r) XP compliant drivers.
2. Addendum to Manual
a) Hardware Issues -
╖ Some older video cards may experience some problems when playing Star Trek: Bridge Commander in 1024x768 and higher resolutions. In the event that any graphical anomalies are seen, try playing in resolutions below 1024x768.
╖ The Enhanced Glows feature of Star Trek: Bridge Commander may cause slowdown on some systems and video cards. For best performance, turn Enhanced Glows off in the graphics options. This should significantly improve performance.
╖ Please note that changing graphics settings will affect load times. If your graphics are set to the "High" setting, expect longer load times.
╖ Some video cards do not support true 32-bit color. If you experience any sort of graphical corruption while playing Star Trek: Bridge Commander in high color, go into the Graphics settings and change the color depth setting to low.
╖ Some videocards may experience problems displaying the dynamic damage textures if the level is set to High. If you are experiencing problems with the appearance of damaged enemy vessels try setting the Visible Damage option to Medium.
╖ In Star Trek: Bridge Commander, more than one function can be bound to the same key. For instance, this will allow you to bind phaser and disruptor fire to the same key to make combat easier for you. Be careful when rebinding keys that you do not assign contradictory functions to the same key press. You can clear the settings for any control from within the configuration menu and this will allow you to completely re-map the keyboard to those that you are most comfortable with.
╖ If you have A3D hardware and you would like to enable it, you will need to modify your options.cfg file. Under the [Sound] section, change the ProviderReserveList option to make it look like so:
ProviderReserveList=A3DHardware
b) Game Functionality -
╖ Please note that the visual damage detail option can affect the difficulty of the game slightly. With visual damage set to "high", ships will undergo model deformation from battle damage. They can even have whole sections of the ship break off, causing every ship system on those pieces to become destroyed. With visual damage set to "medium" or lower, pieces will not break off of ships. This will prevent ships from taking "critical hits" where many systems are destroyed as a piece breaks off - ships will be slightly tougher as a result. The "low" visual damage setting prevents interior deformation - all damage is done to the surface of a ship. Finally, no visual damage will prevent any visual damage from being applied at all. The game tries to simulate the effects of higher visual damage settings when they're off, but you may still notice a slight change in single-player mission difficulty when this setting is changed. (Visual damage is always ignored in multiplayer games.)
╖ At times, you may hear your computer beep during gameplay. This occurs when too many keys are being pressed simultaneously which overrides the keyboard buffer. While it does not adversely affect gameplay, you can avoid this by not pressing/holding down more than three (3) keys at a time.
╖ For best performance, we do not recommend changing your graphics options while a game (Single Player or Quick Battle) is in progress. To change these settings (including resolution and color depth), we recommend quitting out of your current game before you make any adjustments.
c) Gameplay -
╖ When warping into a system of planets, you cannot warp directly to an inner planet. You must first warp to the outer planet of the system you are heading to. Upon arrival at the outer planet, you can then perform smaller warps to get to the other planets in the system you are currently in.
╖ If your shield generator gets disabled during battle, repairing the shield generator will not automatically return the shields to their previous state. Once the shield generator is back online, your shields will begin recharging.
╖ If Felix is set to "Destroy", he will not attack targets until they are within 40km of your current location. This is because phasers drop off in damage with distance, and torpedoes fired from long distances are much less accurate. Felix will wait until the target is in the range where weapons will do the most damage.
╖ Torpedoes fired in dual or quad spreads are less accurate than torpedoes fired individually. When firing a spread of torpedoes, the torpedoes head straight out, slowly spreading apart. After the torpedoes have spread apart, they begin to track their target. Spreads are meant for fast moving targets that cross your path, where a tracking torpedo would miss its target.
╖ There is no limit to the number of ships you can add in Quick Battle. Adding too many ships in Quick Battle will significantly decrease the game's performance.
d) Other -
╖ Under Windows XP, users can have different types of accounts. Only the computer administrator account will be able to run this game successfully. The limited account is intended for someone who should be prohibited from changing most computer settings and deleting important files. Star Trek: Bridge Commander will not work properly for users with limited accounts. If this is the case, change the user's account type to computer administrator, either temporarily or permanently.
╖ Windows XP users with animated characters appearing in search windows may notice flickering in the main menu and, at times, gameplay. Turning off animated characters will eliminate these "flickering problems".
╖ In the Configuration menu, inside Misc. Controls submenu, the key command "Target Nearest Target" appears next to the letter "u". This should say "Target Nearest Enemy".
╖ We recommend that you do not bind any commands to Backspace.
╖ US/UK Keyboard Commands:
Green Alert: !
Yellow Alert: @/" (UK)
Red Alert: #/ú (UK)
Previous Target: Y
Zoom: Z
Zoom In (Magnify): =/Num +
Zoom Out (Reduce): -/Num -
╖ Foreign Keyboard Commands (differences from US/UK):
TM, (r), (c) 2002 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures. (c) 2002 Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. Published and distributed by Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. Uses Bink Video. Copyright (c) 1997-2002 by RAD Game Tools, Inc. This product is intended solely for private home use. Public performance or other use is expressly prohibited.
