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Homeworld Demo

Homeworld is a real time strategy game taking place in a...

  • Category Real-Time
  • Size 62.7 MB
  • Program by Relic

Homeworld Demo

Homeworld is a real time strategy game taking place in a fully three dimensional environment, making it the first of its kind.

I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

=======================

- Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 (w/service pack 4.0)

- Pentium® II 233, 32 MB RAM or better

- 80 MB HD Space (Plus 50 MB Permanent Swap File)

- 4 MB PCI Video Card (16-bit color, DirectX compatible)

- 16-bit DirectX compatible Soundcard

- Win-compatible Mouse

Preferred:

- Pentium® II 350+, 64 MB RAM

- 12 MB+ 3D Accelerated Video Card

- Win-compatible Mouse with Mousewheel

DirectX 6.1 is required to run the demo. To download it, point your browser to Microsoft's DirectX download web site at: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp

II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES

============================

- Most video compatibility problems can be resolved by hitting the TROUBLESHOOT button in the video options screen or by pointing your browser to http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/homeworld/noflash/c-support.html.

- To access the reference card the user must have or install Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0. Viewing the quick reference card is not required, but it makes it easier to play the game. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 at http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html#reader.

- The full version of Homeworld can be played over a LAN or over the internet against other players. The demo of the game does not support these multiplayer features. However, one can play a multiplayer skirmish against the CPU in the demo, which is representative of a multiplayer online game experience.

- We recommend minimizing or closing all programs with "always on top" windows (i.e. ICQ) before starting Homeworld. Leaving them maximized will cause the Windows Operating System to switch from Homeworld to those programs when you click on certain parts of the screen.

- Windows NT and Windows 98 users may alt-tab out of Homeworld then back in, but doing so may cause undefined problems depending on your system configuration, especially if you run another 3D application when Homeworld is minimized. You do so at your own risk.

- You must have enough free disk space available on your swap drive in order to run Homeworld. Use My Computer->Properties->Performace->Virtual Memory to see what drive your swap file(s) will be on. We recommend running with a fixed-size swap file if you have the disk space or ensuring there is at least 50MB of free space on the drive you have installed Homeworld to.

- Taking screenshots has been known to cause hardware lock-ups using certain hardware accelerators. This is unavoidable due to video timing issues. Note that this is extremely rare an only with hardware acceleration. Screenshots are completely safe in software and quite safe in hardware. Make sure you have enough free disk space to save your screenshots.

III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES

========================

A) At times you may notice a ship turn to wire-frame mode when the camera goes through it or when it is cloaked. This is a design feature and not a bug.

B) Salvage Corvettes can steal any ship. The Salvage Corvette will be able to capture a ship regardless of its health.

C) Ships won't auto-retaliate when set to evasive tactics.

D) The Support Frigate can repair capital ships. To activate this feature, select the Support Frigate, hold down the [Z] key and leftclick on or drag a bandbox around the ship to repair.

E) Screenshots (which can be taken by pressing Scroll Lock when the game is running) will be placed in the Screenshots directory. They will also be used as background images when loading multiplayer games.

F) Several Salvage Corvettes are required to capture certain capital ships. Frigate = 2 Salvage Corvettes, Destroyer = 3 Salvage Corvettes, Heavy Cruiser = 5, Carrier = 5.

IV. VIDEO CARD ISSUES

=====================

To obtain the latest drivers for your hardware download the drivers from your card manufacturer's web site. Additionally you may want to install and run a third-party driver installation program such as GLSetup (www.glsetup.com) which contains many OpenGL drivers for a variety of video cards. See below for links to the driver sections of various hardware vendor's webpages.

All compatibility comments below assume that you are trying to run Homeworld with the Default OpenGL renderer as a first attempt. Depending on your chipset, however, it may be necessary to run using 3dfx OpenGL, Direct3D, or software. Homeworld places labels beside available renderers in the Video Options screen that indicate the graphics API a particular driver uses: GL for OpenGL, D3D for Direct3D, and SW for software.

If your chipset is not listed below you should consult the documentation that came with your hardware to determine how to get updated drivers.

Some 3D hardware does not provide an OpenGL implementation and running Homeworld with Default OpenGL selected as your renderer will then not be accelerated by your hardware at all. If Homeworld pops up a dialog box informing you that the selected renderer is unaccelerated, try Direct3D next, then software if all else fails (the Homeworld software renderer is considerably faster than OpenGL without hardware support). If you must use the software renderer, try running Homeworld with the /rasterSkip commandline switch for a moderate speed increase; some people find this too visually distracting, so try for yourself and see.

Homeworld also supports the /safeGL commandline option. You should run with this if any of the following problems occur when using OpenGL as your renderer: oddly coloured backgrounds, no stars in the backgrounds, no background bitmap in the loading screens, or ship meshes that are missing polygons or are oddly coloured.

Recent versions of Windows 98 provide drivers for certain 3D chipsets, but they generally do not contain an OpenGL ICD. GLSetup drivers or drivers from your vendor's website are preferred.

If you experience problems when testing a new display mode (new resolution or bitdepth), be sure to see if Homeworld will run at 640x480 16bit. Some cards incorrectly report resolutions they cannot properly support, and Homeworld may fail to recognize the problem. If you select a new display mode and Homeworld appears unresponsive (ie. black screen or garbled text) either wait a few seconds or hit the Spacebar to have Homeworld restore the previous mode. If all else fails, try pressing CTRL-SHIFT-F12 to re-enable the default renderer (software, 640x480 16bit).

Note also that not all 3D hardware supports the same set of features as another, and some scenes and effects will appear differently on different system configurations. This is to be expected.

Users with an AMD K6 or greater processor with 3DNow! instructions or an Intel LX chipset on their motherboard may experience crashes or system lockups when using OpenGL with NVidia Riva TNT2, 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee or Voodoo 3, and S3 Savage3D boards. AMD users are encouraged to use Direct3D for hardware acceleration if this problem occurs.

3dfx (http://www.3dfx.com/view.asp?PAGE=nusdrivers)

* Voodoo Rush - this chipset is not currently supported, but recent 3dfx driver releases may provide support

* Voodoo Graphics - hardware acceleration available with 3dfx OpenGL

* Voodoo 2 - hardware acceleration available with 3dfx OpenGL

* Banshee - no known problems

* Voodoo 3 - no known problems

Intel (http://www.intel.com/design/graphics/drivers/index.htm)

* i740 - some users may experience missing textures on ships. Get the latest drivers from Intel's website to resolve this problem if a program like GLSetup didn't correct it

nVidia (http://www.nvidia.com/Products.nsf/htmlmedia/software_drivers.html)

* Riva 128, 128ZX - text may appear blocky or blurry, but gameplay is unaffected

* Riva TNT, TNT2 - no known problems

3DLabs (http://www.3dlabs.com/drivers/index.html)

* Permedia 2 - does not support all OpenGL blending modes and some scenes may look incorrect, but gameplay is unaffected. Users may prefer to run with Direct3D due to faster frontend performance

* Permedia 3 - texturing is not currently supported by drivers in Windows 95

ATI (http://support.atitech.ca/drivers/drivers.html)

* 3D Rage 2 - OpenGL is unaccelerated. Direct3D has limited display mode support, but no known problems

* Rage Pro - no known problems. Select Direct3D for hardware acceleration

* Rage 128 - no known problems

Matrox (http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/latest_drivers/home.htm)

* M3D (PowerVR PCX2) - this chipset is not supported

* G200 - no known problems

* G400 - does not currently support user clipping planes and hyperspacing ships will not be correctly "sliced", but gameplay is unaffected

Rendition (http://www.rendition.com/usersupport.html)

* Verite 1000 - no known problems

* Verite 2100 - select Direct3D for hardware acceleration. Some driver versions may occasionally display backgrounds without smoothing, leading to a very polygonal look. Effect is intermittent, and gameplay is unaffected

* Verite 2200 - no known problems

S3 (www.s3.com)

* Virge - OpenGL is unaccelerated. Direct3D has limited display mode support, but no known problems

* Savage 3 - OpenGL performance may be choppy. If this is the case, use Direct3D

* Savage 4 - no known problems

V. CONTACTING SIERRA

====================

A) Customer Service and Sales

B) Legal Information

A) Customer Service and Sales

---------------------------------------

United States

U.S.A. Sales Phone: (800) 757-7707

International Sales: (425) 746-5771

Hours: Monday-Saturday 7AM to 11 PM CST,

Sundays 8 AM to 9PM CST

FAX: (402) 393-3224

Sierra Direct

7100 W. Center Rd

STE 301

Omaha, NE 68106

United Kingdom

Havas Interactive

Main: (0118) 920-9111

Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Fax: (0118) 987-5603

Disk/CD replacements in the U.K. are £6.00,

or £7.00 outside the UK. Add "ATTN.: Returns."

2 Beacontree Plaza,

Gillette Way,

Reading, Berkshire

RG2 0BS United Kingdom

France

Havas Interactive

Téléphone: 01-46-01-46-50

Lundi au Jeudi de 10h à 19h

Vendredi de 10h à 18h

Fax: 01-46-30-00-65

Parc Tertiaire de Meudon

Immeuble "Le Newton"

25 rue Jeanne Braconnier

92366 Meudon La Forêt Cedex

France

Germany

Havas Interactive

Tel: (0) 6103-99-40-40

Montag bis Freitag von 9h - 19Uhr

Fax: (0) 6103-99-40-35

Robert-Bosh-Str. 32

D-63303 Dreieich

Germany

On-Line Sales

CompuServe United Kingdom:GO UKSIERRA

CompuServe France: GO FRSIERRA

CompuServe Germany: GO DESIERRA

Internet USA: http://www.sierra.com

Internet United Kingdom: http://www.sierra-online.co.uk

Internet France: http://www.sierra.fr

Internet Germany: http://www.sierra.de

B) Sierra Warranty & Legal Information

--------------------------------------

Sierra's end user license agreement, limited warranty and return policy is set forth in the EULA.txt, found in the product directory, and is also available during the install of the product.

Copyright (1999 Sierra On-Line, Inc.)

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