NOTE: Activision does not provide technical support for this patch, because it is a BETA version. If you encounter any problems, in most cases, they may be remedied by updating your 3D card with the most current drivers, available from your 3D card manufacturer's website.
This BETA patch has been quality checked with DirectX 3.0a. It has NOT been checked with DirectX 5.0, so if you encounter problems with this patch while running DirectX 5.0, you may want to uninstall it and reinstall DirectX 3.0a.
This BETA patch upgrades all US or UK versions of the original or patched Mercenaries and will upgrade your game regardless of whether you are running v.1.0, "patched" v.1.05, "retail" v.1.05, v.1.06, or v.1.08.
This patch is intended for US and UK versions of Mercenaries only. German or Japanese versions of Mercenaries WILL have problems with this patch.
DO NOT run this patch on the retail 3Dfx Edition of Mercenaries. Although your game should not be negatively impacted by this patch, it will NOT give you any sort of upgrade and the patch will not run correctly.
If you experience any difficulties with the patch, please read the sections below that describe 3D accelerator card.
What does the BETA patch do?
This patch upgrades your copy of Mercenaries to version 1.081. The new version 1.081 is Direct3D enhanced and contains the following upgrades:
òAll new high-res (16-bit) graphics òBetter combat lighting òLevel fogging òBilinear filtering òMIP mapping (for 3Dfx, and possibly later, STB Nitro) òMoving skydome with infinite horizon òSeveral mission fixes to make scenarios more playable.
What should I do before installing the BETA patch?
You should run SCANDISK and DEFRAG on your hard drive before patching to improve game performance.
How do I install the BETA patch?
The MD3D1081.EXE file that you download may reside anywhere on your hard drive. Just double-click on the file and follow the on-screen instructions to install.
