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Comanche 4 Demo Readme Thank you for trying Comanche 4 Demo. Contents: ==================== Quick Start Targeting Modes Weapons Video Test 16-bit Issues Video Options Anti-alias Joystick Performance Tweaks Keyboard Reference Benchmark Recommended Sound Setup Virtual Memory General Troubleshooting Technical Support Quick Start: ==================== Single Player: 1. From the Main Menu click the Single Player button. Next choose your default view. Press Accept. 2. Select the mission "Silver Strike" and read the mission briefing. 3. When you are finished reading, press the Accept button and wait for the mission to start. 4. Once the mission begins, increase altitude (SHIFT key). Try to stay low to avoid enemy fire. The CTRL key lowers your altitude. Raise your landing gear. (G Key). 5. Turn the Comanche (Mouse left or right) until you are facing the waypoint #1"lollipop". These waypoints are your guide to each objective in the game. 6. Move forward (W key) and follow the waypoints. 7. Check your Tactical Situation Display screen on the right side of your control panel for targets. Enemies appear as red symbols on your scope. Turn the Comanche until the dots you wish to target are at the top of the map. This means you are facing them. 8 If there is a target in range you can right click to get an Active Lock. A special symbol will appear over the target. Any weapons you fire will now go towards that Lock. If the target is outside your weapons side-to-side field of fire, the symbol will turn gray. By firing without an ActiveLock, your weapons will fire straight at your targeting crosshair. If there are multiple targets you can right-click a few more times to cycle through multiple targets until the appropriate one is selected. Left click to fire a weapon. 9. Your current weapon and its ammunition are listed in the lower right corner of your screen. To pick different weapons press the following keys: 1. 20mm cannon - This gun has 500 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition and points wherever the pilot is looking. 2. Hydra Rockets - These low yield, unguided rockets are good for jeeps and ground troops. 3. Stinger Missiles - These heat- seeking missiles are most often used to eliminate air threats. 4. Hellfire missiles - Guided missiles that require an Active Lock to find a target, but can destroy almost anything. 10. The direction to your next waypoint will be indicated by a numbered caret (^) attached to the Compass Heading Tape at the top of your screen. Turn until the caret and the number are directly in front of you. You will now be facing the correct direction. Follow the waypoints and eliminate any hostiles you encounter. 11. Be sure to protect friendly forces. If your crosshair turns red, you are pointing at a friendly unit. Follow any command given over the radio. New objectives can crop up at anytime. Targeting Modes: ==================== Comanche 4 features two different methods of targeting. NEAREST TARGET mode allows you to specify exactly which enemy to target. Just aim your crosshairs at a target and press the Cycle Target key (or right mouse button). The Comanche's targeting computer will lock onto the specified enemy and attempt to maintain that lock. At any time, you can specify a new target by placing the crosshairs over a different enemy and pressing the Cycle Target key or right mouse button again. This mode works best when using the mouse in first and third person views. CYCLE TARGET mode allows you to cycle between a few of the highest priority targets within your view. The Comanche's targeting computer determines target priority by considering each enemy's distance from you along with its lethality. Pressing the Cycle Target key (or right mouse button) cycles between the highest priority targets. This mode works best when flying with a joystick. In either mode, press the Break Target key (Caps Lock) to break the current lock. With no target lock, all weapon aiming is done manually. With all weapons, the targeting cursor will turn yellow to indicate that you have a good bead on an enemy target and will turn red to warn you when you are aiming at a friendly. Weapons: ==================== 20mm Cannon The triple barrel Turreted Gun System (TGS) is a chin mounted 20mm cannon. With a slew of 240 degrees from side to side and 60 degrees vertically, the cannon can draw a bead on just about any target that you can see from the cockpit. It is useful against both air and ground threats to a distance of about 2000 meters. Hydra Rockets The Comanche can carry up to 56 Hydra rockets. The Hydras are unguided but pack a substantial punch. To fire the rockets, aim the targeting I-beam cursor at your target and fire, or right click to lock onto it. Since the rockets do not have much ability to swivel from side to side, you must have the Comanche pointed almost directly at a target in order to hit it. The I- beam will turn grey if you are locked onto a target that the rockets are not able to hit (usually because the target is not directly in front of the Comanche). Stinger Missiles The Stinger guided missile is the ComancheÆs primary defense against airborne enemies. It uses passive infrared sensors to lock onto a targetÆs heat signature. While not powerful enough to destroy most hardened ground targets, the Stinger is extremely effective against helicopters and other aerial threats. To launch a Stinger, aim the targeting circle cursor at an enemy and fire. If you have a target locked, the Stinger will home in on that targetÆs heat signature. If you fire the Stinger without a target, its heat seeking sensors will not activate and it will behave like a Hydra rocket. The Stinger is a fire-and-forget missile, meaning that once it is in the air and locked onto a target, the Comanche pilot is free to engage other enemies. This means that the stinger cannot be redirected while in flight. Hellfire Missiles The Hellfire missile homes in on its target by seeking out a coded laser illumination or by homing toward a specified GPS location. While extremely accurate, the Hellfire can only hit a target that is properly locked. So, unlike the fire-and-forget Stinger, with the Hellfire you must maintain a lock on your target until the Hellfire has found it. One advantage for not being fire-and-forget, however, is the ability for a Hellfire to be re-directed while in flight. The Hellfire is the most destructive munition carried onboard the Comanche, and is extremely effective against fortified ground targets. Because of the way the Hellfire homes on its target, it is not well suited against airborne targets. Video Test: ==================== NOTE: After the Video Test, your video settings are automatically adjusted to provide the best performance on your video card. The test will note the status of crucial functions of your video card. DX8 video drivers: For complete compatibility with DirectX 8, you should be running DirectX 8 compliant video drivers obtained from your manufacturer. Comanche 4 Demo requires at least DirectX 7 compliant video drivers. Hardware T&L: Hardware Transform and Lighting yields remarkable performance gains in 3D rendering. Comanche 4 Demo has been designed to take advantage of hardware T&L. If it is not detected, the game will use lesser demanding graphics and may have a slower frame rate. Multitexturing: This technique produces varied and interesting textures. If the video card does not support multitexturing in hardware, the effect will be accomplished using a slower, brute force method resulting in a slower frame rate. Shaders: Vertex and Pixel shaders are the newest features to DirectX 8 and compliant video cards. Comanche 4 Demo will use these rendering techniques if detected. The card must be capable of V&P shading along with having appropriate drivers loaded. WHQL certified: Drivers that are not Windows Hardware Quality Labs certified may exhibit problems. These are typically new drivers that have not completed the testing cycle. Check with your hardware manufacturer for WHQL certified drivers. 16-bit Issues: ==================== Comanche 4 has been optimized for video cards that feature 32-bit color depths. Running Comanche 4 in 16-bit mode or on a 16-bit 3D video card like the Voodoo3 may cause certain known visual effects: * Flying at higher altitudes during water missions displays a jagged line effect where the water and terrain meet. * Textures sometimes exhibit a "swimming" effect when moving towards or away from certain objects. * Light sources created when firing a missile may cause odd lighting effects over some of the more distant terrain. Video Options: ==================== The following options are adjustable in the Video Options menu: Resolution: Selects your display resolution. Higher settings give better image quality, but may degrade performance. Gamma: Adjusts the overall brightness of the display to best suit your monitor. Color Depth: This is the Display Bit-Depth. 32-bits will require more video card memory but will slightly improve the smoothness of the colors over the 16-bit setting. This option will have no effect on a 16-bit video card such as the Voodoo 3. Terrain Detail: This is the sharpness of the terrain. Higher settings require more video card memory. Object Detail: This is the polygonal detail of the objects when viewed close up. Higher settings require more video card memory and system memory and may affect mission load times. Texture Quality: Lowering this option reduces video memory overhead and can marginally boost performance on low-end hardware. Water Quality: This is the realism of the water effect. Higher realism comes at the expense of performance. Shadow Quality: This controls the quality of shadow usage. Particle Density: This controls the amount of particles in use in the game. Raising this may adversely affect performance. NOTE: Comanche 4 Demo automatically limits your video settings based on the performance capabilities of your video card. Anti-alias: ==================== Comanche 4 supports anti-aliasing mode only on some next- generation video cards. Comanche 4 will automatically detect whether you are running on a supported video card and enable the anti-aliasing selector in the options. This feature has been disabled for all other video cards due to a severe performance penalty when enabled. Joystick: ==================== HAT Switch: If you installed Comanche 4 before installing your joystick OR you have updated to a newer version of Comanche 4, your joystick HAT switch may not remap correctly. To fix this situation, simply select the "Use Defaults" button in the Joystick Remap Options menu. This will reset your joystick settings. You can then remap your joystick buttons. Performance Tweaks: ==================== /NoParticles: Using this command line option turns particles OFF and may improve performance on slower machines. Vsync: Vblank sychronization now defaults to OFF. Some hardware configurations may suffer from screen ôtearingö with Vsync OFF. You can avoid ôtearingö by setting Vsync to ON. Setting Vsync to ON may negatively affect Comanche 4Æs performance on your machine. To enable Vsync, simply edit C4.cfg and change the existing line "vsync = 0" to "vsync = 1". Keyboard Reference: ==================== Mouse: Command Button Fire Left Click Target Right Click Aim Up/Down Up/Down - Y Axis Aim Left/Right Left/Right - X Axis Raise Altitude Mousewheel Up Lower Altitude Mousewheel Down Joystick: Command Button Move Forward/Backward Y Axis Strafe Left/Right X Axis Fire Button 1 (Trigger) Cycle Target Button 2 Cycle Weapons Button 3 Freelook Button 5 Raise Altitude Hat Up Lower Altitude Hat Down Turn Left Hat Left Turn Right Hat Right Raise/Lower Altitude Throttle Keyboard: Command Button Forward W, Up Arrow Back S, Down Arrow Strafe Left A, Left Arrow Strafe Right D, Right Arrow Turn Left Q Turn Right E Low Altitude Z, Insert Medium Altitude X, Home High Altitude C, Page Up Raise Altitude Shift Lower Altitude Control Pop-Up Spacebar Fire Weapon Enter Cycle Targets \ Break Lock Caps Lock, Backspace Select 20mm Cannon 1 Select Hydras 2 Select Stingers 3 Select Hellfires 4 Cycle Weapons Back [ Cycle Weapons Forward ] Landing Gear G Bay Doors B Pause Pause Chat T Team Chat Y Recent Messages R Map - Zoom IN + Map - Zoom OUT - Camera: Command Button Camera Down NumPad 2 Camera Up NumPad 8 Zoom In NumPad 7 Zoom Out NumPad 9 Camera Left NumPad 4 Camera Right NumPad 6 Misc: Command Button First Person View F1 Cockpit View (Toggle) F2 Third Person View F3 Freelook View F4 Fly-By Camera F5 Goals/Brief F7 Cycle Waypoints F9 Target Mode F10 Screenshot Scroll Lock Pause Pause Command Prompt ` Exit Esc Benchmark: ==================== Novice Benchmark Mode: Run the executable with the command line option /bench and you will get a dialog box allowing you to select various options and run the benchmark. When the benchmark sequence finishes, a second dialog will appear allowing you to view the results. Advanced Benchmark Mode: Run the executable with the command line option /advbench plus all additional options you wish to set. The benchmark sequence will automatically run and save out the results to a text file. This system allows a batch file to run multiple times with different settings, and subsequent results can be appended to the output file. Usage: c4demo <switches> [options] Switches: /bench Opens dialog box to select options and run benchmark /advbench Runs benchmark with specified options options filename - Test output file (Default: c4bench.txt) create - Create a new output file (Default: append to output file) 640/800/1024/1280/1600/1920/2048 - Resolution (Default: 800) 16/32 - Bitdepth (Default: 32) dx7/dx8 - dx7 = HW Shaders OFF / dx8 = HW Shaders ON (Default: ON) vsync - Forces wait for vertical retrace (Default: OFF) aa0-15 - Antialiassing mode. 0 = no FSAA. (Default: OFF) nct - Compressed textures OFF (Default: ON) full - Frame by frame analysis noaudio - Disables all audio output /d Read resources from directory instead of pff /sys Get system information /? Show this list Note: The C4 benchmark must be run with LAUNCH.EXE in order to run correctly in a batch file . Sample batch file: launch c4demo.exe /advbench results.txt create 640 16 launch c4demo.exe /advbench results.txt 800 16 launch c4demo.exe /advbench results.txt 1024 16 launch c4demo.exe /advbench results.txt 640 32 launch c4demo.exe /advbench results.txt 800 32 launch c4demo.exe /advbench results.txt 1024 32 launch c4demo.exe /advbench results.txt 640 32 aa4 launch c4demo.exe /advbench results.txt 800 32 aa4 launch c4demo.exe /advbench results.txt 1024 32 aa4 The above batch file will run the benchmark at 3 different reses, and at 16bit, 32bit, and 32bit+FSAAx4. Recommended Sound Setup: ==================== Before running Comanche 4 Demo, adjust your system volume to a comfortable level. Comanche 4 Demo produces an interactive 3D audio soundtrack designed to work with Dolby Surround. If your speakers or amplifier have a Dolby Surround or Pro Logic option, you may select it. If you have a Sound Blaster Live with 4 speakers connected, you should verify that "Creative Multi-Speaker Surround (CMSS)" is set to "Movie Mode" under the speaker options. Virtual Memory: ================ Comanche 4 Demo requires that you have enough space available in your Windows swap file, in order to load all the necessary data for each mission. To play with all detail settings on HIGH, you will need a minimum of 140Mb of available hard drive space, or you may get an 'Out of Memory' error when loading the mission, and the game will return to the menu system. If less than 140Mb of hard drive space is available, you have the following options: 1) Play the game on 'medium' or 'low' detail settings - this will require less Virtual Memory. 2) Make more space available on your hard drive - e.g. run 'Disk Cleanup' from the Start Menu. Please note that running other applications at the same time as Comanche 4 Demo will cause additional system resources to be withheld, and may cause you to run out of available hard disk space. It is advised that you shut down other applications before running Comanche 4 Demo in order to enjoy the full experience of our product. MS-DOS prompt windows also seem to require a large amount of system resources, and should not be left open when playing either. General Troubleshooting: ================== Even with DirectX 8 installed on your machine, you may have video card drivers installed that were designed to be used with an earlier version of DirectX. This may cause you to experience a variety of video problems, which ought to disappear if you download and install the latest drivers from the manufacturer of the card. In the Video Test, which is run when you first play Comanche 4 Demo, we attempt to detect the presence of an older driver not written for DirectX 8. Information regarding your card will appear on the right hand side of the video test window. Please pay attention to this information, as your card's compatibility will play a big part in your enjoyment of Comanche 4 Demo. We recommend you run the game with the latest drivers installed for your particular hardware. Please visit us at http://www.novalogic.com for updated information on video card compatibility and for potential updates if any problems are experienced. Technical Support: ================== If you are having a problem you need assistance with, check our website http://www.novalogic.com for up-to-date information on the product. If you do not find the answer to your problem, you can contact us by the following means: For US Support email: support@novalogic.com phone: 1.818.878.0325 (M-F, 9-5 Pacific time, excluding holidays) fax: 1.818.880.3448 When contacting us by email, note as completely as possible the nature of the problem and particulars about you system (CPU, speed, system memory, video and sound card types). If the problem you are experiencing is a crash, Comanche 4 Demo may generate a system dump diagnostic file (SYSDUMP.TXT) that saves the state of the game at the time of the crash. Also, Comanche 4 Demo generates a graphics hardware file (GHW.TXT) that lists information pertaining to your graphics hardware. To reduce additional delay in your response from technical support, please check your game directory for these two files and include them in your problem report. (C) 2001 NovaLogic, Inc., Comanche and NovaWorld are registered trademarks of NovaLogic, Inc. Comanche is a trademark of NovaLogic, Inc. Dolby, Dolby Surround and Dolby Pro Logic are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation. Windows is a registered trademark and Direct 3D, DirectX are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.