PC PowerPlay 27

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Text File | 1997-07-08 | 20.5 KB | 576 lines

FLYING CORPS(tm) This readme.txt file is available in other languages. Look in the relevant sub-directory of the game. The following languages are available: Language Subdirectory\file English english\readme.txt French french\readme.txt German german\readme.txt Italian italian\readme.txt Spanish spanish\readme.txt Portuguese brazil\readme.txt History. -------- v1.1 3D card support, numerous fixes, improvements suggested by users *****see notes below***** v1.00b Demo - Contains a fraction of the landscape available in the full game. v1.00a Patch to include fixed views and various other view problems. v1.00 Big Demo v1.00 Compiled December 1996 ------------------------------------------- CONTENTS ------------------------------------------- Using the V1.1 Patch file Backing up the V1.1 Patch file Running on a Pentium 90 Important DirectX Notes Joystick Support FAQ's (technical issues) FAQ's (in-flight & other gameplay issues) View Keys Version 1.1 June 1997 - 3d cards - bug fixes - improvements - switches - f22 pro and tqs config files Customer Service Information ------------------------------------------- USING THE V1.1 PATCH FILE: 1 Install the game ------------------ You should install Flying Corps as either MEDIUM or LARGE before applying the patch. To run the new version of the game under Windows 95 you will need to install DirectX Version 3 (or later). There is a copy of version 3 of DirectX on the V1.00 CD (fly\directx3). However we recommend that you download the latest version from the Microsoft Website. 2 Preparation ------------- The patch has been distributed in a number of different ways: As one 3Mb file(FC_11_UP.ZIP) ----------------------------- 1 Make a temporary directory on your hard disk, eg tempdir 2 Unzip the contents of the file into the temporary directory. You should unzip the file using the -d option which creates directories, eg pkunzip -d fc_11_up.zip tempdir\ 3 Move to the temporary directory or browse to it using Start:Run. As a directory on a CD-ROM -------------------------- 1 Move to the directory on the CD-ROM which contains the patch or browse to it using Start:Run. As three floppy disks --------------------- 1 Insert disk 1 and change to A: or B: As four zip files ----------------- 1 Make a temporary directory on your hard disk, eg tempdir 2 Copy fc_11a.zip,fc_11b.zip and fc_11c.zip onto the temporary directory 3 Unzip the fourth zip file to the temporary directory, eg: pkunzip -d fc_11i.zip tempdir\ The -d option is very imporant, it creates directories. 4 Change to the temporary directory or browse to it using Start:Run. 3 Installing the Patch ---------------------- The command required to install the patch is: srcdir\FC_11 targetdir -srcdir is the drive and/or directory containing the patch files - this is optional if you are already in that directory; -targetdir is the drive and/or directory containing the MEDIUM or LARGE Flying Corps install. e.g: install from current directory to C:\ROWAN\FLY FC_11 C:\ROWAN\FLY e.g: install from floppy A: to C:\ROWAN\FLY A:FC_11 C:\ROWAN\FLY e.g: install from CD-ROM D: to C:\ROWAN\FLY D:\PATCHES\FLYCORPS\FC_11 C:\ROWAN\FLY e.g: install from TEMP directory to current directory \TEMP\FC_11 A small number of checks will be performed before copying will commence. Any savegame files will be deleted. Old savegame files will not be accepted by the new version. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BACKING-UP THE PATCH You may wish to keep this patch on floppy disks so that you can conveniently reapply it if you have to reinstall Flying Corps for any reason. To make a floppy patch disk set from the zip or cd directory, type: mkfloppy a: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ RUNNING ON A PENTIUM 90: If you intend to use Flying Corps with a Pentium 90, we recommend that you try running the DOS version. On a Windows 95 system, this means "Restart in DOS Mode". Follow the instructions in the Technical Supplement for INSTALLATION UNDER DOS. IMPORTANT DIRECTX NOTES (Windows 95 Users Only): To run the Windows 95 version of Flying Corps you will need to use DirectX components. You may already have DirectX installed. We offer to install DirectX 3.0a during the installation process. IF YOU HAVE PREVIOUSLY EXPERIENCED PROBLEMS WITH THE USE OF DIRECTX, WE STRONGLY ADVISE YOU TO SKIP THE DIRECTX INSTALLATION. IN THESE CASES, PLEASE ATTEMPT TO USE THE DOS VERSION OF THE GAME BY RESTARTING IN DOS MODE. See INSTALLATION UNDER DOS in the Technical Supplement. JOYSTICK SUPPORT Basic 2-direction, 2-button joysticks are supported. In addition, Throttle, rudder and 4 buttons can be supported through the full PC joystick port. A coolie hat compatible with Thrustmaster or Flightstick standards is also recognised. If you have more advanced joystick and throttle hardware which plugs into the keyboard port then you should use the software provided with the hardware to program the coolie hats and additional buttons. We have provided the files ROWAN.B50 and ROWAN.M50 to program the Thrustmaster F-16 and F-22 sticks. These are text files that can be converted for use with similar hardware. We advise you to continue to access the throttle through our analogue interface. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (TECHNICAL ISSUES): Q. What level of install is recommended? A. The MEDIUM level is recommended. The SMALL does use less hard disk space but you will encounter delays as sound effects are loaded in from the CD. Q. Running under Windows I sometimes get an out of RAM error. A. Your hard disk may be full and so Windows cannot page out. Q. I installed the game in Windows then played the game under DOS. The game played ok but I didn't get any sound. A. The DOS install includes a sound configuration stage. By installing under Windows, this stage was bypassed. To configure the sound after installation, run the DOS install program THAT IS ON THE HARD DISK in the Flying Corps directory. A. If the game freezes when playing under Windows, press the ENTER key to attempt to return to Windows. If this happens it is safest to shut down before playing again. Note1: Do not play Flying Corps with other applications loaded. Note2: Disable Windows screen savers when playing Flying Corps. Q. Running under Windows 95, the game seems to slow down when the music starts and the music seems fragmented. A. If you experience this problem then you most probably have a SoundBlaster card fitted. Either play the game with music disabled or use midi output or try the DOS version of the game. The music requires 18+ channels which can be supplied by a SB16 card in mono. Q. Sometimes after flying straight and level for a period the game pauses while the CD is accessed. Can the pause be eliminated? A. On some machines the cache-ing of the CD can interfere with the spooling of the landscape data. Experience has shown that this effect can be reduced or eliminated by one or both of the following actions: reduce the size of the CD cache, disable SmartDrv cache-ing of the CD. The size of the CD cache can be reduced by editting the MSCDEX line in your autoexec.bat file. Find or add the /M parameter. Try /M:1. You may also be able to modify the CD cache by editting the appropriate line in your config.sys file. SmartDrv cache-ing of the CD can be disabled by either removing the SMARTDRV line in your autoexec.bat file or placing it before the MSCDEX line. In Windows '95 look in Start:settings:controlpanel: system: Performance:filesystem: cd-rom Reduce the cache size to Small; reduce the access pattern to double-speed. These modifications may reduce the efficiency of some other software so remember to reverse them if you find this is so. OTHER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Q. Why do my aircraft numbers change from mission to mission? A. We change the numbers to be appropriate for each mission. The player can then go to the squadron screen to override these defaults. Q. If I am not in command, which position do I fly? A. This depends on how many aircraft are flying on the day. Until you get squadron command you will be in flight B. However if only one flight is going up on the day, then you will be bumped into Flight A. Select the squadron icon to see the flight details for the day. Q. What does the Assigned aircraft message mean? A. This means that the computer has information about the aircraft that the ai has assigned to the player. The assigned aircraft is the best option for the player to attack, however the player can please himself whether or not he takes the advice. To padlock on the assigned aircraft press f5 when the "Assigned Aircraft" message is displayed in yellow. Q. Why does the second line of messages on the info line get printed in different colours? A. The messages to the left are brighter because they are the most recent messages. Messages to the right could be very old. Q. Why doesn't the aircraft fly straight and level when I take my hand off the joystick? The aircraft will fly straight and level when under keyboard control. A. WW1 aircraft were tail heavy and forward pressure was required on the stick. In particular, on the Camel this pressure was not necessary at the end of a patrol because the centre of gravity changed as fuel was used up. On our model, you will find that the effect is most noticeable at low altitudes and disappears at high altitudes. Trying to fly an aircraft from the keyboard is tricky. The pilot needs help and so most of the time we automatically trim the aircraft whenever he releases a control key. This trim is disabled when the aircraft is at a steep roll or is about to stall. If you want to try keyboard control without the trim, then configure the joystick as normal but fly using the keyboard. Q. Take-off: Sometimes I pull back on the stick and don't go up. A. Possibly you are trying to drag the aircraft into the sky by pulling hard on the stick. The aircraft tail is probably digging into the ground and so the aircraft is being slowed down. Q. How does the inside padlock view work? A. If enemy aircraft are not in view, then there will be a red flashing arrow indicating the direction to turn. Most of the time you can manoeuvre so that the arrow is at the top of the screen and pull back on the stick. This is not always possible in WW1 fighters because of their low power. If you get disorientated then swop to the outside padlock view. The buttons on 4 button joysticks have been programmed to allow you to flick between inside and outside padlock views. Q. Pressing tab when flying gives accelerated time. The display changes to a map which shows the route, waypoints and an aeroplane icon indicating the progress of my aircraft. Why does the aeroplane icon sometimes not follow the route? A. The icon will move away from the straight line route if there is an interesting item nearby. An example would be for the aircraft to follow a railway line that runs parallel to the route rather than follow the route itself. Q. Why can't I do a snap or flick roll in any of the aircraft? A. This manoeuvre consists of pulling back on the stick until the wings are nearly stalled and then applying full rudder. If the joystick is not correctly calibrated it is sometimes not possible to move the elevators sufficiently to generate the stall. You can see if this is the cause of the problem by trying the following test: go to a scramble mission and get straight and level get the angle of attack indicators up on the top line of the screen (press I key) roll the aircraft into a 90 degree roll pull back on the stick as far as it will go One or both of the angle of attack indicators should go red and the aircraft should enter a spin. Release the stick to recover. You can use opposite rudder to exit the spin quicker. If you don't get a red indicator then you need to recalibrate the stick. We have found that it is possible to get false readings during calibration if the stick is moved quickly and bangs against the stops. When you recalibrate try moving the stick slowly. Also, check that the joystick position icon covers the whole box area during the final test phase of calibration. Q. Why do I start to roll quickly when I push the stick forward when in a steep dive? A. When trying to maintain a steep dive it is likely that you will be flying with a negative angle of attack. Push too far and it is possible to stall the wings and if there is any difference between the lift on the two wings a spin is induced. Q. Why can't I do a snap roll on the Camel when Gyroscope effect is enabled? A. Possibly you haven't done 180 degrees of the roll before the nose starts to come down. The gyroscope effect will then oppose the roll. One technique used by WW1 aviators was to remove power just before entering the manoeuvre. The gyroscope effect is then reduced and also the asymetric rigging designed to oppose the engine torque helps the roll. Q. Why does the aircraft icon on the in-flight map sometimes cycle between two waypoints? A. The two waypoints will be the beginning and end of the patrol. NOTES ON VERSIONS v1.00a View keys This version contains the following additional view keys; Home ........ Front inside cockpit view Page Up ..... Right front inside cockpit view Page Down ... Right rear inside cockpit view Delete ...... Left rear inside cockpit view Insert ...... Front left inside cockpit view The camera will only remain on these views while the keys are held down. Releasing the keys will cause the camera to revert to the previously selected view. Holding down the Num Lock key in conjunction with the above keys will produce a version of the view with the camera pitched upwards. Left and right views from the cockpit are available by holding Alt-4 and Alt-6 respectively. The versions of these views with the camera pitched upwards are duplicated on the following key combinations; Ctrl-8 ...... Front cockpit view Ctrl-9 ...... Right front cockpit view Ctrl-6 ...... Right cockpit view Ctrl-3 ...... Right rear cockpit view Ctrl-1 ...... Left rear cockpit view Ctrl-4 ...... Left cockpit view Ctrl-7 ...... Left front cockpit view ------------------------------------------------------------------------ V1.1 June 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3D Cards 3D cards are supported using Windows 95 Direct3D. On 4Mb 3Dfx and Rendition cards, there are two significant improvements: improved framerate 16 bit colour The 3Dfx can be used at 640x480, however on a 4Mb Rendition card the resolution must be dropped to 320x240 to avoid "texture swopping" when flying long distances. The higher resolution is possible on the 3Dfx card because it supports 8 bit imagemaps. The Matrox cards are not supported on this version. They do not support all the features required and hence more investigation is required. Select your 3D card by going to the graphics options (grid icon) from the Preferences screen in Flying Corps. When you select the line that displays the current resolution, a list of drivers is presented. If the driver for your card is not present or is "greyed-out", please read "3Dfx.txt". ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bug fixes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Certain missions crashed after reloading a save game. 2 First Patrol scramble mission crashed when played first on loading the game. 3 AI aircraft do not spin as regularly as they did. 4 AI aircraft used to have different performance to player's at higher altitudes. 5 Sometimes aircraft didn't format on take-off. 6 Crashed on pressing home and regroup key at particular times. 7 AI aircraft now make a better attempt to escape from a descending turning fight that used to result in them hitting the ground. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Improvements ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Ctrl P duplicates "Print Scrn" key. "Print Scrn" key does not work in Windows 95. 2 Joystick/Keyboard control is loaded in at runtime. Different joystick routines can be selected at runtime. Under W95, 3 joystick drivers are available: DOS driver standard driver Force FX driver The standard driver has a noticeable effect on the framerate whereas the DOS driver does not. However some users will find that they cannot calibrate when using the DOS driver. The Force FX stick gives feedback: to reflect dynamic pressure and control surface deflection changes during machine gun operation to indicate pre-stall buffet 3 It is now possible to access squadron screens when not a squadron leader. 4 It is now possible to view the Hospital and Fatalities lists. There are new icons on the Squadron Formation screen. 5 The CD seek has been further tuned and the glitch after returning from a pause has been eliminated. 6 The ] key can be used for dropping bombs. This is in addition to the number pad enter key. 7 It is now possible to enter the 3d graphics config screen from the main menu. 8 The screen wobbles on landing. 9 The install error messages have been improved. 10 The screen shot file format for 16 bit screen shots is uncompressed tga. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Switches ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another screen of configuration options has been added: translucent smoke: on/off gun jams: on/off ([ key to unjam) tail heavy: on/off Black out when injured: on/off Mid air collision: on/off Priority message: on/off Healed pilot destination: either squadron reserve or Corps pool AI complex model: some or all time Stick stiffness: on/off Pause on entering 3d: on/off In V1.00, a pilot returning from hospital would go to the Corps Pool of reserve pilots. This "healed pilot" was only available to the player after another squadron pilot is killed or injured. Now, by using the Healed Pilot destination switch, it is possible to choose to make a "healed pilot" return to the squadron reserve. The player can then promote him into an active position by editting the flight lists. If you have the FX Stick then it is possible to select Stick Stiffness "on" to get feedback to reflect dynamic pressure and control surface deflection changes. A switch has been provided because we have had to tune the effects and what works on our stick may not work on yours. We would be interested in your comments. Some users experience a "black screen" on entering the 3d because their system does not switch modes quickly. By turning on "Pause on entering 3d", you can wait for your machine to stabilise before starting the mission. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ F22 Pro and TQS config files ------------------------------------------------------------------------ These have been supplied by Len "Viking1" Hjalmarson - lenh@cyberlink.bc.ca CUSTOMER SERVICE DETAILS In the United Kingdom - Customer Service Hotline: 0181 343 9143 (Mon-Fri 9:30-6:00) Fax: 0181 343 7447 email: support@empire.co.uk Our Address: EMPIRE INTERACTIVE 677 High Road North Finchley LONDON, N12 0DA In the U.S. - Customer Service Hotline: (301) 916 9303 (Mon-Fri) Fax: (301) 916 0437 email: empire@erols.com Our Address: EMPIRE INTERACTIVE 13220 Wisteria Drive Bay N-2, Germantown MD 20874 Please refer to the EI website (http://www.empire-us.com) as the US Office is moving during the Summer of 1997.