PC Player Special 1999 #1

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Total Air War Demo Version 26th July 1998 Thank you for installing Total Air War (TAW) Demo. This file contains the very latest information on installing and running TAW Demo. Please read carefully before installing the product. 0. Quickstart & Key Guide ------------------------- Quickstart: -Press 'SHIFT s' to skip to next event. i.e. the start of the runway or the next group of enemy aircraft Taking off: -Press '[' and ']' to start the left and right engines. -Press 'SHIFT =' ('+') to increase power to 100% military power. -Once airborne, press 'g' to raise the landing gear. Steering: -Use the cursor keys or joystick to steer the aircraft. Combat: -Press 't' to build a shoot list. -Press 'Return' to select Air-to-Air weapons or 'Delete' for Air-to-Ground. -Pressing 'Spacebar' will fire the currently selected weapon. -Press ';' to release Chaff and ''' to release a Flare. Landing: -To land at an airbase you must first request permission: -Press 'Tab', then '1', '2' and '3' for a Direct Approach Landing. -Your HUD will automatically switch to the Landing HUD - so fly down the ILS corridor, touching down on the runway. -To slow down mid-air, press 'b' to toggle your air brake. -Press 'Shift -' ('_') to decrease power and the '[' and ']' to switch off your engines. Other: -Press '`' to thrust vector at low speeds. -Press 'v' to toggle night vision. -Press 'p' to pause the action. Smartviews: -Press 'F1' to toggle cockpit view -Press 'F6' for a fly-by view 1. Setup Issues --------------- Windows 95 and Direct X5.2 -------------------------- TAW has specifically been designed to take advantage of the features provided by Windows 95. TAW requires the 'Direct X5.2' component of Windows to operate. The TAW setup program can install this for you. System Requirements ------------------- CPU: Pentium(R) P166 or equivalent RAM: 16Mb. HD SPACE: 70Mb (20Mb for the compact installation + 50Mb Free Space) CD: 2 x CD-ROM drive. VIDEO: 800x600 in 16bits (65536 colour) on the Windows desktop. SOUND: Sound Blaster 16 compatible or Windows Sound compatible sound card. MOUSE: Microsoft Mouse or other Windows '95 compatible device Recommended specification: CPU: Pentium(R) P200 or higher RAM: 32Mb HD SPACE: 205Mb (155Mb for the typical installation + 50Mb Free Space) CD: 8 x CD-ROM drive. VIDEO: 3DFX or AGP bus based 3D accelerator video card SOUND: Creative Labs AWE32 or AWE64 card with 512k of memory. MOUSE: Microsoft Mouse or other Windows '95 compatible device For Multiplayer: MODEM: 2 players over minimum 9,600 BPS modem. A 28,800 modem is highly recommended. NETWORK: 2-8 players over Windows compliant network. SERIAL: Both machines must use the same parameters in the dialog box (Discounting COM port number). TCP/IP: The joining players must provide the 4-dot IP address or the domain name of the host computer. 2. Windows AutoPlay ------------------- Some Windows 95 machines do not support AutoPlay. If this is the case with your system you will need to double-click on the icon for your CD-ROM / DVD drive to install the game. The CD-ROM / DVD icon can be found in 'My Computer'. 3. Installation --------------- The TAW setup program should run automatically on insertion of the game CD-ROM disk into the CD-ROM drive of your computer. If TAW is already installed on to your computer then you will be asked if you want to run TAW, alter the game configuration or reinstall the game. If you chose to install the game follow the simple on screen prompts. Refer to the TAW manual for more detailed installation instructions. 4. Uninstalling Total Air War ----------------------------- TAW can be uninstalled in two ways: Select the uninstall program from the Start->programs->D.I.D->Total Air War menu. This will remove the main TAW program and data files. You can also uninstall using Add/Remove programs in the control panel: Select the "Add/Remove Programs" from the Control Panel and highlight "Total Air War" component before clicking the "Add/Remove" button. This will remove the main TAW program and data files. Please note that files created by the user while playing the game (such as ACMI files) will remain after removing TAW. These can be manually deleted. 5. Notes On CD-ROM and DVD Drives --------------------------------- If you perform a 'Typical' installation on your machine you do not require the TAW CD to be present in the drive to execute the TAW program. However if you have 'Music' selected you may notice a loss of quality without the presence of the TAW CD. If you perform a 'Minimal' installation the TAW CD is required in the drive to play the game. If you have multiple CD-ROM or DVD drives you must place the CD-ROM in the drive from which TAW was originally installed. The CD-ROM is also required to be present if you perform a 'Custom' installation and do not select the 'DID.DAT' data file for installation. 6. Windows 95 Keyboards ----------------------- Newer keyboards have 'Start' and 'Windows' keys. If you have problems with these keys disrupting play by returning you to the Windows desktop you can disable them using a program called W95keyremap.exe. This can be found on the following Internet site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/kerneltoys.htm 7 Notes For Voodoo Graphics (3Dfx) Users ---------------------------------------- F-22 TAW supports 3Dfx Glide 2.43 and higher. Voodoo Graphics users must have this updated version of Glide installed on their system. To install the updated Glide run time driver kit, run the grt243.exe file in the 3Dfx folder of the F-22 TAW CD. 8 Notes For Voodoo Rush Users ----------------------------- As with Voodoo Graphics, Glide 2.43 or higher is required to run the Glide version of F-22 TAW. You should also obtain up to date DirectDraw/Direct3D drivers, as those included with DirectX 5.2 may cause problems when switching between in game 3D and the user interface. These should be available from your vendor, the card manufacturer's web site or 3Dfx's web site. 9 Notes for nVidia Riva 128 Video Card Users -------------------------------------------- Users of the nVidia Riva 128 who replace this device with another video card will have to remove or rename the 'nvidriva.128' file which is present in the 'DID\TAW\program' directory (or wherever TAW was installed to). If this file is not removed then visual anomalies may be present when running TAW on the new video card. 10 Notes for Users with Permedia II Chipset Video Cards ------------------------------------------------------ There has been a problem reported with Permedia II chipset cards during the testing of this product. If, while flying the plane, you enter into the options menu (shift + æOÆ) and return to the main game you will experience graphical anomalies. To prevent the problem we recommend that the options menu screen only be accessed from the main menu. 11 Notes for Users with Matrox Video Cards ------------------------------------------ During testing it was found that scroll bars can not be scrolled using the slider within TAW without causing an illegal operation. This can be fixed by turning down hardware acceleration in the Control Panel settings for your video card. 12. Wireplay Notes for Residents of the United Kingdom ------------------------------------------------------ Provided on the CD for your convenience is the client software for the Wireplay multi-player gaming service. This can be installed as part of the TAW setup. Wireplay is the high performance gaming service provided by BT in the UK. No Internet connection is required, allowing for the fastest, smoothest game play youÆll find anywhere with just a modem and a phone line. For information about availability in other countries, checkout www.wireplay.com. WIREPLAY: Digital Image Design is not in any way associated with the Wireplay service. Any request for information concerning the Wireplay service should be directed to Wireplay on the following number +44 (0)345 577 577. 13. Notes For Users of Union Reality Gear Hardware ---------------------------------------------------- Total Air War supports the Union Reality Gear device. In order to use this device you must first install Total Air War and then run the æureality.exeÆ program that is located in the æUreality\english\Æ directory on your game CD-ROM. Within the game the Gear is used to ælookÆ around the cockpit of your F-22 aircraft in the virtual cockpit view. This view is accessed by pushing the æF1Æ key (which also toggles the full HUD view). 14. Game Crash Issues --------------------- If at any time during the game, you experience a crash, we recommend you reboot your system before you try to restart the game. If you do not reboot your system, you may encounter problems caused by the original crash. During testing a problem was found on some machines running MS-Fax and/or MS-Phone. If a fax or phone message is received while using TAW the game may crash. We recommend disabling MS-Fax and MS-Phone while Playing TAW. We recommend that users of video capture hardware and software do not run them simultaneously with TAW. During testing we found that some video capture hardware crashed the TAW program while capturing an AVI. During testing a problem was found with the modem multi- player section of TAW. If there is a physical loss of connection (such as unplugging the modem from the telephone socket) while playing multi-player then TAW may crash. 15. Game Performance -------------------- The TAW program is very intensive on memory, hard disk and CPU. Before running the game it is strongly recommended that you close all other applications. The more memory you have available the less time the program will spend accessing the hard disk. 32mb of RAM is a fair amount to have but the game will take advantage of more. For best performance accessing game data from the hard disk perform a 'typical' installation or ensure that the DID.DAT is installed on the hard disk using a custom installation. If you suffer from prolonged loading periods try de- fragmenting your hard disk using the Microsoft de- fragmentation tool. This can be accessed from the start menu by selecting 'Run' and typing 'defrag' [Return]. You can also reduce loading times by having a permanent swap file on a separate physical drive to the drive that TAW is installed. Changing the configuration of the Windows swap file should only be undertaken by advanced users. DID will NOT accept responsibility for any problems caused by changing Windows configurations. The frame rate of the program is determined by the resolution, graphical detail, video card and processor speed. If you find that the frame rate is low then try removing graphical detail in the options screen. If you find that the frame rate drops dramatically when explosions are taking place then try reducing the explosion detail in the options screen. Some video cards don't give very good performance via Direct 3D. You can improve performance with these cards by switching to software rendering in the options screen. You may find that this is a good course of action if your frame rate produced by your video card is not sufficient to be able to play the game. We also recommend that you use Software rendering if Direct 3D rendering results in a blank screen. 16. Sound Cards --------------- Music: To get the best from the in-game music you need an AWE 32 or better, with at least 512k of RAM on board. Make sure that the AWE card's Wave Effects Synthesis option is selected as the default MIDI device in the Control Panel Multimedia settings. To check, go to Start->Settings->Control Panel->Multimedia->MIDI, and select MIDI for Creative Advanced Wave Effects Synthesis. Speech: The speech requires that the DSP Group TrueSpeech decompression CODEC is installed. This is normally installed by default by Windows 95 setup, but may not be on your system. To check this, go to: Start->Settings->Control Panel->Multimedia->Advanced->Audio Compression Codecs. If the DSP Group Codec is not there you will need to install it from your Window 95 setup disk. To do this go to: Start->Settings->Control Panel->Add Remove Programs- >Windows Setup. Double-click on Multimedia (you may need to scroll down) and make sure Audio Compression is checked. Press OK, and follow the instructions from Windows. Cockpit speech may be disabled by setting BETTY=0 in the game.cfg file. 17. Joysticks ------------- TAW can be controlled using keyboard but we strongly recommend that you play with a joystick. TAW will make use of whatever joystick device is currently configured through Windows. Total Air War has been designed to work with Win95 flight stick support (DirectInput). All flight sticks, and controllers that support DirectInput will therefore work with this product, and must be configured in æGame ControllersÆ, within the æWin 95 Control PanelÆ. DirectInput in this game supports three axis functions and four buttons. More than four buttons on your flight stick will mean that it must be programmed. If you have a programmable flight stick: 1. First assign functions to its buttons with the utility software supplied with your flight stick (consult your flight stick documentation for more details). 2. Click on ADD, in Game Controllers, from the Win 95 Control Panel. Select from the list, the description which best defines your flight stick. On most flight sticks you will only be able to define two buttons, on programmable flight sticks all buttons left undefined will still send their programmed keystrokes. If your flight stick does not appear in the selection, click on ADD NEW, Win 95 may then ask if you have a standard, or game card controller port. After determining which port, Win 95 will attempt to auto detect your flight stick. 3. Your selection should now appear in the game controllerÆs window, under controller. The status should be æOKÆ, if it not, it is possible you have selected the wrong option and Win 95 has been unable to find your flight stick. Try another flight stick option, or contact your flight stick manufacturer for an update disk. 4. When your stick is detected, Win 95 will take you through a Calibration Wizard to set up your flight stick and buttons. Note: Only one application can make use of a game controller at a time. If another game is running at the same time as Total Air War then you may not be able to use your game controller. Force Feedback joysticks: Force feedback was added to F22 TAW to increase playability and give force feedback joystick owners an advantage over standard joystick players. Force feedback is implemented in F22 TAW using I-Force. This means that some joysticks may not be able to fully realize the quantity of simultaneous effects that have been integrated. Effects are generated for: - Inertia on joystick control based on Indicated Air Speed i.e. the faster the plane goes the stiffer the stick becomes (as per most fly-by-wire planes). - Varying effects to signify the release of weapons. - Varying effects for airbrake, undercarriage, plane hit, ejecting, plane destruction, etc. Do not calibrate force feedback joysticks using the in-game options button. Windows95 will not allow the user to calibrate their currently used joystick. Windows98 *will* allow the user to calibrate their joystick but upon returning to F22 TAW the game will have to exit. 18. ACMI -------- Files from the ACMI feature of the game are saved by default in the ACMI directory of the TAW installation. These '.ACM' files can be exchanged with other TAW players. Simply copy the files in to the ACMI directory on the target machine. Also we have also included a number of example ACMI files for your viewing pleasure. 19. Multi-player ---------------- If playing a serial connection multi-play game then we advise that both players use the same hardware or software rendering setting. When playing over the Internet you can use the Custom Combat button to lock the game and hence prevent more players from joining the present mission or subsequent missions in this session. You can then select any of the preset missions or a custom combat mission. If playing over KALI95 you must use the following settings in the game configuration box: Program field: Ensure that the path points to and includes 'f22.dat' within the PROGRAM directory instead of '_f22.exe'. (e.g. c:\program files\did\taw\program\f22.dat). Arguments field: "did=" followed by the pathname of the did.dat file. You can also put " KALI" in this box after the did.dat pathname in order to reduce the amount of packets sent over the connection. This will help the performance of multi-play co-operative missions. The æTime warpÆ feature can only be used by the player that is in the LEAD plane. The Difficulty level is set independently by each player. 20. Player Additional Information --------------------------------- Autopilot taxing: While using the autopilot taxing feature it is still the players responsibility to avoid collisions with other aircraft. If a collision is likely, the player must disable the autopilot and resume manual control of the aircraft. World updates: Occasionally when you launch an F-22 mission you will see buildings smoking. These buildings have not necessarily just been destroyed, the smoke is intended to give you an indication of which structures have been attacked since your last visit to that airbase. Campaign pilot ratings: When starting a campaign, your current score and ranking are carried in at the start of the scenario. Please note that your main player log rating will not be updated until you win or lose a campaign. Saving an unfinished campaign will NOT update your main player log. Ratings and scores are stored separately while the campaign is running. War room mission roster: The mission roster in the War Room shows ALL allied missions ready for takeoff. When you press 'Fly', not all of these mission will appear in the mission selection screen. Missions will not be available if there are insufficient resources for your flight to be included (e.g. a refueller mission may takeoff without an escort). Time skip: Time skip will advance time at a very fast rate. Even though you will not come out of a skip in a dogfight, you may appear quite close to the enemy and therefore compromise your stealth. It is advisable to only use time skip when the airspace along your route is clear. Agm65g maverick and static targets: The AGM65G will normally be used to destroy mobile targets. However, it is also possible to attack static targets, such as buildings, by using the Lantirn (Attack MFD - keypad 3). To successfully target a static with a maverick the Lantirn needs to be in 'FREE' mode with AGM65Gs selected. You can then target and destroy static's in the same way as with normal laser guided bombs, e.g. GBU24. 21. Manual Addenda ------------------ Currently there are no Manual Addenda. 22. Troubleshooting ------------------- "TAW does not take advantage of my 3D accelerator card": Select the 3D accelerator hardware option in the options screen. "TAW displays the error 'Unable to create a 16 texture surface' when I select a mission": This error occurs when using Direct 3D if your video card is incapable of playing the game with 3D acceleration. To solve the problem reload the game and select the options screen from the main menu. On this screen is a software rendering option, selecting this will solve the problem. "While playing TAW the game frequently accesses the hard disk": This is because the TAW program uses the Windows swap file when your PC does not have enough main RAM to contain the whole game. The situation can be improved with the following measures: * Add more RAM to your PC. * Turn off speech * Turn off sound effects * De-fragment your hard disk (this may have negligible effects) "When I run the game it gives the error 'Dibsection creation failed'": If you receive this error message when running TAW it means that not enough memory is available to the program. This problem is easily solved by freeing up space on your hard disk. Approximately 50-120 megabytes of free space is required to run TAW. This amount varies depending on machine RAM and your installation options. "When I run the game it gives the error 'Not enough memory for file'": This error is caused by lack of swap space. See the previous paragraph for more details. "When I run the game it gives the error æCreateWinFont() - Font creation failedÆ": This error will occur when more than 500 fonts are installed on to your system. To cure the problem reduce the number of fonts installed on your system. These fonts are kept in the æWindows\fontsÆ directory. "I can't free up enough space on my hard disk for the swap file to play the game": Change the game options to turn off speech and sound effects. This may reduce the swap space requirement of the game to the point where it can be run on your particular PC. "I can not change my in game options because I don't have enough free space to run the game": Re-run the TAW installation program from the TAW CD-ROM. Select the option to change game options and then make your adjustments. You can also change game options by manually editing the game.cfg file which is present in the program directory. "TAW takes a long time to return to the Windows desktop after quitting": This is because the TAW program requires a lot of swap space. Windows recovers this space before returning you to the desktop. "TAW Does Not Work With My Joystick": Your joystick must be configured using the 'Game Controllers' section of the Windows control panel. The joystick that you intend to play with must have a Controller ID of 1. The controller's ID can be viewed by clicking on the Advanced tab of the 'Game Controllers' window. "Power management causes problems with my computer when running TAW": Certain PC configurations may experience problems with power management while playing TAW. If your machine has problems then refer to the technical documentation supplied with your computer or contact the vendor who supplied your PC. "The Anti-Aliasing option appears in the game options screen but does not work": The Anti-Aliasing option can only be used if your 3D accelerator video card supports this feature. However this option is always shown in the options screen. "Sometimes the game minimizes when loading": This is known problem that happens on a small number of systems. Click on the Total Air War task on the task bar to continue. "When playing multi-player the server machine slows down": Playing some of the Co-Operative multi-play missions with a modem or serial cable can cause massive slow-down on the server's machine. This is unavoidable and is due to the amount of objects in the mission. If you have selected a compact installation and attempt to start the game without the CD inserted in the drive, you will receive the error message "Unable to find file views4.dat in F22 data directory". To rectify simply place the TAW CD-ROM into the CD drive. If you encounter a problem during start up (for example - the MIDI device is in use by another application), on occasions if you choose to return to the desktop, F22 will not terminate correctly. Check the close program window using CTRL, ALT, DEL and if F22 is still present simply highlight it and select æEnd TaskÆ. "The music volume slider within the options menu seems to default to 95% even though I set it to 100%": This is only a visual error, the music is actually set to its highest level. "The MIDI Volume Slider Bar has no effect in the options screen": This is a known problem found on some manufacturers sound cards. The MIDI volume can still be adjusted using the windows volume slider bar. "My resolution changes to 640x400 from 800x600 when I change from Hardware to Software in the options screen": To rectify these problems simply go back into options and select the required resolution. "In the options screen the text is too big to fit on the buttons": This is a known problem and is caused by having the Windows font size set to æLarge FontsÆ. This can be changed from the Display Properties æsettingsÆ tab. You can access the Display properties from the control panel. "After entering the ACMI screen using the Shift-A key combination normal key-pushes appear to be shifted": This is a known problem and can be resolved by pressing and releasing both shift keys in turn. "After finishing playing TAW some of my icons on my desktop have moved": A rare problem has been reported on some machines where desktop icons have been found to have moved up the desktop after a TAW play session. This problem has never been replicated at DID and we currently have no solution. "Sometimes after selecting demo from the main menu the game crashes": A problem has been reported on some keyboards where, if the spacebar is pushed during mission load the game may crash or become inoperable. Please note, ALT \ TAB and CTRL Esc functions will not work in 3D when running the software in Glide. If you wish to shell out to the desktop while in 3D, simply access the in game map using the DEL key from the Num keypad, and use the function from there. Additionally to return to the game click on the TAW task in the task bar; returning to TAW using ALT \ TAB may freeze the product. Please Note, there has been a rare problem reported during testing where TAW refuses to shut down correctly if all the sound options are turned off in the options screen. If you encounter this problem, the program can be shut down manually from the æClose ProgramÆ window (accessed by pushing Alt-Control-Delete). For more information on the æClose ProgramÆ dialog consult your Windows Documentation. 23. Updates and Patches ----------------------- Any TAW updates that are made will be available from the internet at: http://www.did.com 24. Technical Support --------------------- DID employ a group of professional support specialists to support DID's products. They are ready to help you with any problems that you may encounter during the installation and use of TAW. Before contacting Technical Support we recommend you check this readme file for solutions to any problems you may encounter. When contacting Technical support please try to provide us with the following information: The make of your machine. The brand and speed of your CPU (For example: "233MHz Intel Pentium(R) II"). The amount of memory on your machine (For example "16mb RAM"). The amount of free disk space (For example "352mb"). The make and memory of your video card(s) (For example " ATI Xpert@play 4mb "). The make and model of sound card (For example "Creative Labs AWE32"). The make and model of joystick (For example "ThrustMaster F-16 FLCS"). You can contact DID's Technical Support department using Email, Post, Telephone or Fax. By email: techsupport@did.com To contact by post: Technical Support Digital Image Design Tannery Court Tanners Lane Warrington Cheshire England WA2 7NR When calling by phone try to be near your computer. France 04 72 53 32 00 Germany 06103/334444 (15:00 - 19:00) UK 01925 454123 (10:00 - 17:30) USA 408 2891411 (08:00 - 17:00 pacific time) 25. Feedback ------------ Let us know your thoughts about Total Air War. Many features (such as the Campaign System) were developed as a result of feedback from our EF2000 and F-22 ADF products. You can contact the TAW Development team directly: By Email: F-22@did.com By Post: F-22 Team Digital Image Design Tannery Court Tanners Lane Warrington Cheshire England WA2 7NR 26. Useful Information ---------------------- The DID web site contains a wealth of information and is an excellent starting point for virtual fighter pilots on the Internet. Point your browser at: http://www.did.com This site contains links to F-22 and combat flight simulator related information. Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. * Third-party brands and names are the property of their respective owners.