Impossible Creatures MP Beta v1.07

Impossible Creatures Multiplayer Beta Microsoft & Relic Entertainment Inc Readme File Copyright and (P) 2002-2003 Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved. Copyright 1997 - 2003 Relic Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. Impossible Creatures, the Impossible Creature logo, Relic and the Relic Entertainment logo are trademarks of Relic Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Direct3D, DirectX, MSN, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other Countries. Uses Miles Sound System, Copyright - 1991 - 2002 by RAD Game Tools, Inc. Uses Bink Video. Copyright - 1997 - 2002 by RAD Game Tools, Inc. MPEG Layer-3 playback supplied with the Miles Sound System from RAD Game Tools, Inc. MPEG Layer-3 audio compression technology licensed by Fraunhofer IIS and THOMSON multimedia. Lua software is copyrighted by TeCGraf, PUC-Rio. All rights reserved. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Welcome to Impossible Creatures! This file contains late-breaking information not included in the in-game Help or printed manual. PLEASE UNINSTALL ALL OTHER DEMO VERSIONS OF IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES BEFORE INSTALLING THIS DEMO. CONTENTS A. DirectX Troubleshooting B. Audio Troubleshooting C. Video Troubleshooting D. Performance Troubleshooting E. Multiplayer Troubleshooting F. Other Issues G. Patch History H. Impossible Creatures Information A. DirectX Troubleshooting DirectX(r) 8.2 or later must be installed on your computer before you can play Impossible Creatures. Impossible Creatures Setup will install the correct version of DirectX on your computer, if it is not already installed. If you experience sound or video problems using DirectX, go to http://support.microsoft.com/support/directx/ for the latest troubleshooting information. You should also check with your video or sound card manufacturer for the latest DirectX-compatible drivers. The Impossible Creatures Multiplayer Beta installs DirectX 8.2. Games on computers with DirectX 8.2 are unable to communicate via DirectPlay with computers that have DirectX 8.1 or earlier. To fix this issue, it is recommended that you download DirectX 9.0 RC0 from the Microsoft Downloads Center and install it. B. AUDIO TROUBLESHOOTING - Creative SoundBlaster Extigy A warning dialog may display during Setup stating that Impossible Creatures could not detect an audio device if the power to your SB Extigy is off. Exit Setup, turn on the power to your SB Extigy and relaunch Setup. C. VIDEO TROUBLESHOOTING You may experience various display problems depending on your video card. Below are the current known issues with specific cards. - 3DFX Voodoo 3 With cards running on Microsoft Windows(r) XP, you may notice display issues when you enable shadows. Recommended fix: Disable shadows. - 3DFX Voodoo 3 2000 With cards running on Windows XP, you may notice a "whirlpool" effect in water instead of normal wave effects. There are no known solutions. - 3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 AGP With cards running on Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), you may notice display issues when you enable full shadows or blobs. Recommended fix: Disable shadows and blobs. - 3DFX VooDoo 4500 o You may notice display issues for ground and water when dynamic shadows are enabled. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.3dfx.com/ o You may also notice display issues when you enable shadows. Recommended fix: Disable shadows. - 3DFX Voodoo 5 5500 AGP With cards running on Windows XP, you may notice a "whirlpool effect" in water instead of normal wave effects and globe textures may look abnormal. There are no known solutions. - ASUS V-8200 Deluxe (nVidia GeForce 3) With cards running on Windows ME, when you launch the game, the screen will flash and eventually freeze. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.nvidia.com/ - ATI Radeon DDR o Compatibility issues cause incorrect graphics and menu display. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.ati.com/ o These video cards do not support color options in cursors so the cursor color will default to black and white. There are no known solutions. - ATI Radeon 7000 You may notice display issues with the Fog of War in different screen resolutions. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.ati.com/ - ATI Radeon 8500 You may notice display issues with different screen resolutions. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.ati.com/ - ATI Rage Fury Maxx With cards running on Windows 98 SE, you may see a flickering mouse cursor and partial black screen. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.ati.com/ - Compaq GeForce 2MX Textures may be inconsistent. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://wwss1pro.compaq.com/support/home/index.asp?pid=-1 - Diamond Stealth III S540 Pressing ALT+TAB may cause graphic corruption. Recommended fix: Do not minimize the game. - Elsa Erazor III (TnT2) You may notice display issues with this video card. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.elsa.com/download/ - eVGA 28.32 You may see flashing shadows with this video card. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.evga.com/ - Leadtek WinFast A170 DDR With cards running on Windows ME, you may notice display issues. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.leadtek.com/ - Matrox Millennium G-550 o With cards running on Windows 2000, the game won't launch. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.matrox.com o When running the game on Windows 2000 at 1600x1200 resolution with 32-bit color, you may notice display problems such as the sky and water appearing white and green squares appearing and disappearing on the ground. Recommended fix: Lower the resolution and keep the 32-bit color depth or keep the resolution and lower the color depth to 24-bit. - nVidia Cards o You may experience display issues. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.nvidia.com/ o You may experience your mouse pointer displaying as black and white instead of color. Recommended fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.nvidia.com/ o Systems running Windows 2000 with Riva TNT 1 may experience problems running the demo. These problems may include failure to start the demo or a lock when starting. If these problems occur, reinstall the earlier nVidia driver 28.32 as the more recent drivers no longer support the Riva TNT 1 card. After installing the older drivers, you can install more recent drivers. - nVidia STB Velocity 400 With cards running on Windows 98, you may see a flashing triangular patch in the game. Recommend fix: Download the latest nVidia detonator reference drivers from http://www.nvidia.com/ - S3 Graphics Pro Savage With cards running on Windows ME, you may see white squares appear with objects when you enable full shadows or blobs. Recommended fix: Disable shadows. - ST Kyro (Power VR Series 3) With cards running on Windows 98SE, you may notice display issues. Recommend fix: Download the latest drivers from http://www.powervr.com/Downloads.asp D. Performance Troubleshooting There are several ways to improve the game's performance. For example, the game will run faster if you use the least demanding game settings, such as: Graphics Tab: - Setting the screen resolution to 800 x 600. - Setting the color depth to 16. - Setting the shadows to Off. - Setting the texture detail level to its lowest (far left). - Setting the object detail level to its lowest (far left). - Setting the creature detail level to its lowest (far left). - Setting the preferred frame rate to its highest (far right). - Making sure the shiny objects check box is unchecked. Audio tab: - Setting the SFX channels to its lowest (far left). - Setting the sound quality to low. - Making sure the ambient world sounds check box is unchecked. These improvements can be made from within the game. On the main menu, click Options, then click Graphics. You can choose Low-End System Settings, or customize each setting individually. If you are playing a game, click the Menu button, and then click System Options. Please note that some of these options, at their lowest settings, can affect ease of play. FRAMERATE If you are experiencing frame jitter, lower your Color Depth and/or Resolution on the Graphics option Screen. INCREASING THE VIRTUAL MEMORY OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM You may wish to increase the virtual memory of your operating system (Impossible Creatures requires 256 MB of virtual memory). WINDOWS 98 GOLD, WINDOWS 98 SE & WINDOWS MILLENNIUM 1. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties, or click Start->Settings->Control Panel->Settings. 2. Click the Performance tab. 3. Click the Virtual Memory button in the lower-right area. 4. Choose Let me specify my own virtual memory settings. 5. Set the minimum field to 256. 6. Set the maximum field to any number higher than 256 (500 or higher is best) . 7. Click OK to the warning message. 8. Click OK to exit the Settings screen. 9. Click the Yes button to restart your computer. WINDOWS 2000 1. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties, or Start->Settings->Control Panel->Settings. 2. Click the Advanced tab. 3. Click the Performance Options button. 4. In the Virtual Memory area, click the Change button. 5. Under the "Paging file size for selected drive" section, set the initial size to 256. 6. Set the maximum field to any number higher than 256 (500 or higher is best) . 7. Click OK on each screen to exit. WINDOWS XP 1. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties, or click Start->Control Panel->System. 2. Click the Advanced tab. 3. Under the Performance heading, click Settings, then click the Advanced tab. 4. Click the Change button in the section titled Virtual Memory. 5. Enter 256 into the Initial Size field. 6. Set the maximum field to any number higher than 256 (500 or higher is best). 7. Click OK. E. Multiplayer Troubleshooting CONNECTION SPEED The multiplayer feature of the Impossible Creatures beta version supports only high-speed broadband connections, such as DSL, cable modem, and LAN-to-Internet. Attempts to use a low-speed modem connection may result in poor gameplay performance such as lagging framerate or disconnects, and so on. HARDWARE FIREWALLS, ROUTERS, AND NAT 1. You should check with your hardware firewall or router manufacturer for the latest firmware for your device. Ideally the firmware should support Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) with Gateway Extensions. 2. Use the configuration tools provided by your firewall or router manufacturer to open the following ports on your device: HTTP port 80 UDP port 2300 UDP port 2302 3. Firewalls and routers that support UPnP with Gateway Extensions can allow multiple computers to connect through the device to IC Online and successfully host and join games. 4. Firewalls and routers that do not support UPnP with Gateway Extensions can only allow a single computer to connect through the device to IC Online and successfully host and join games. Please check with your firewall or router manufacturer to determine if your device supports UPnP with Gateway Extensions. Note that when using the Impossible Creatures Multiplayer Beta, you cannot join an IC Online game that has been hosted by a computer that is behind the same firewall as the client. INTERNET CONNECTION SHARING 1. Computers running Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows ME with Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) can allow multiple computers to connect through ICS to IC Online and successfully host and join games. If you are having with multiple computers using IC Online through these ICS servers, ensure that the "Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection" option is enabled on the ICS server. 2. Computers running Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition with ICS can only allow a single computer to connect through ICS to IC Online and successfully host and join games. 3. More information about ICS settings is available at the following locations: Windows XP - Windows 2000 - Windows ME and Windows 98 Second Edition - F. Other Issues UI / HOTKEYS - Numeric keypad keys used as hotkeys do not work if the Num Lock feature is on. Be sure to turn Num Lock off after returning to the game. KEYBOARD COMMANDS For a full list of the keyboard commands see the IC Controls document located in the Goodies folder of the directory where you installed Impossible Creatures. WINDOWS 98 GOLD VERSION This operating system requires Internet Explorer 5 or later to be installed. No version of IE is included on the game CDs. G. Patch History Impossible Creatures Multiplayer Beta Stress Test Version 1.1.0 - Dec 4th, 2002. Fixed issues in Version 1.2.0 1. Fixed crash on Deep Freeze caused by using lower terrain detail settings. 2. Added Watson crash reporting. 3. Password games behind the same NAT should now be able to connect. 4. Additional login failure checks. 5. Other miscellaneous minor fixes. Fixed issues in Version 1.1.0 1. Shorter time-out for game connections. 2. Players that are dead should no longer cause lag in Multiplayer games. 3. Players behind the same NAT should be able to connect to each other. 4. Demo will exit the first time you accept the patching. 5. "Cannot connect to IC Online" fix. 6. Fix to out-of-sync error if a player drops during recording. 7. Thin Ice sky texture fix. 8. New Multiplayer map - Deep Freeze (good 3v3 map with fixed positions). Fixed issues in Version 1.0.1 1. UI issue occurring in lobby screen where the highlight or selected game would change to another game without user control 2. UI issue with scrollbar on Player Lists Look for future updates on patches in the news tab in IC Online, or the MP Beta browser page that appears upon launch. H. Impossible Creatures Information For more information about Impossible Creatures, visit either of the following Web sites: * http://www.microsoft.com/games/PC/impossiblecreatures.asp * http://www.impossiblecreatures.com