DOCUMENT:Q279400 09-NOV-2001 [homegame] TITLE :MechWarrior 4: Vengeance: Contents of the Readme.rtf File, Pt 2 PRODUCT :Microsoft Home Games PROD/VER:: OPER/SYS: KEYWORDS:kbref kbimu msgame ====================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The information in this article applies to: - Microsoft MechWarrior 4: Vengeance ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY ======= This article contains the second part of the contents of the Microsoft MechWarrior 4: Vengeance Readme.rtf file, which is located in the root folder of the Microsoft MechWarrior Vengeance CD-ROM and in the MechWarrior Vengeance folder on your hard disk. MORE INFORMATION ================ Microsoft MechWarrior: Vengeance Readme File -------------------------------------------- November 2000 Microsoft Corporation, 1998-2001. All rights reserved.: Welcome to Microsoft MechWarrior: Vengeance. CONTENTS -------- A. System Requirements B. Installation Installing MechWarrior: Vengeance Installing Audio Compression Installing DirectX 8 Installing Winsock 2.0 SafeDisc Issues About the Goodies Folder Getting Help C. Corrections to the Print Documentation D. DirectX Issues E. Gameplay Issues Multiplayer Other F. Configuration Issues Operating Systems Display Audio Software Hardware G. Zone Stats H. 3D Card Issues I. 3D Card Drivers and Manufacturers This file contains information to help you troubleshoot issues with MechWarrior: Vengeance. You can find more information about MechWarrior: Vengeance and Microsoft Product Support Services in the printed manual and on the MechWarrior: Vengeance Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/games/mechwarrior4/). F. Configuration Issues ----------------------- Known hardware and operating system configuration issues are listed in this section. For issues with specific 3D cards, see section H, "3D Card Issues." Operating Systems: Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) for Multiplayer - Playing by going through a Windows Millennium Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) machine: This works properly for Windows Millennium and non-Windows Millennium machines (that have DirectX 8 installed), except in a ZoneMatch instance. - Playing by going through a Windows 2000 ICS machine: Only one client at a time can play through the server to the Internet, with either DirectX versions 7 or 8. - Playing by going through a Windows 98 SE ICS machine: This operating system does not support the DirectPlay Protocol Flag, so no users can play. Windows 2000 AGP aperture size and Windows 2000 stability: If you are experiencing stability issues such as system reboots and system hangs while running MechWarrior: Vengeance under Windows 2000, first make sure you have the latest Windows 2000 drivers installed for all of your hardware and motherboard. Also, install the latest Service Packs for Windows 2000. Finally, try lowering the AGP aperture size to increase the stability of your system. Contact your motherboard manufacturer about how to change your AGP aperture size. Windows 2000 and AMD Athlon/Duron processors: Stability issues may arise when playing on a computer with an AMD Athlon/Duron processor, which uses the AMD 751/756 motherboard chipset. Make sure you have the latest AMD software drivers and patches installed on your computer. They can be found at http://www.amd.com/support/software.html and http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/athlon-duron/amd_win2k_patch.html. Windows 98 Game minimizes when network connection is made: When the user interface is used to establish a dial-up connection, the game minimizes after the connection is established. To fix this, simply maximize the game from the Windows taskbar. Windows 95 Windows 95 Gold: To run MechWarrior: Vengeance on Windows 95 Gold, you must have the latest Indeo Video 3.2, 4.5, 5.11, and Indeo Audio 2.5 codecs installed. You can download them from http://www.ligos.com/indeo/downloads/form.shtm. Multiplayer: If you are running Windows 95 and you have not installed Internet Explorer 4.0 or later, you need to upgrade the networking on your computer to play MechWarrior: Vengeance. To do this, double-click Ws2setup.exe on CD1 in \Goodies\Wsock2. NOTE: This upgrade detects versions of Windows later than Windows 95 and will NOT install over them. This download is not intended for use on computers running Windows 98. Display: NVIDIA TNT and GeForce cards: When running MechWarrior: Vengeance on a system with a GeForce or TNT card and an ASUS motherboard, you may experience a periodic crash or hang. This is a display driver issue and NVIDIA is working to resolve it. If you get this problem, contact your manufacturer for driver updates. Via chipsets: Stability issues may occur with these motherboard chipsets when not using the latest drivers. To fix this, download and install the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard (http://www.viatech.com/). AMD Athlon/Duron processors: If you experience instability when running MechWarrior: Vengeance, download and install the latest AMD processor utilities and drivers for your operating system (http://www.amd.com/support/software.html) and (http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/athlon-duron/amd_win2k_patch.html). Audio: Vortex 2 audio chipset (Turtle Beach Montego II, Diamond Monster Sound MX-300) compatibility with Windows 2000: You may experience choppy playback of audio during the installation of MechWarrior: Vengeance as well as other anomalies or even lock-ups in the game. The original manufacturer of the Vortex 2 chipset, Aureal Semiconductor, has gone out of business. No driver updates are available for Vortex 2-based sound cards running on Windows 2000, other than the generic Vortex 2 driver included with Windows 2000. Contact your hardware manufacturer for updated drivers. For reference drivers, visit http://support.a3d.com/. Alternatively, try the following solution: 1. Click Start on the Windows taskbar, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. 2. Double-click Multimedia, and then click the Audio tab. 3. Under Playback, click Advanced Properties, and then click the Performance tab. 4. Drag the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left by 2 settings, and then click OK. Software: Software DVD Players: Certain display cards (for example, those in the Maxi Gamer Xentor family) that come bundled with software DVD players may experience problems when trying to start MechWarrior: Vengeance due to the opening cinemas being in the MPEG format. To correct this, contact your hardware manufacturer for updated software. If problems persist, uninstall the software DVD player, and the game should start and play normally. Winsock 2.0 required to play network games: If you receive an error message referring to Winsock 2.0, manually install it by double-clicking Ws2setup.exe on CD1 in \Goodies\Wsock2. NetMeeting disables hardware acceleration: If NetMeeting is running, or Remote Desktop Sharing is enabled, you will have no hardware acceleration to run MechWarrior: Vengeance. This also happens when NetMeeting has improperly shut down. To fix this, properly shut down NetMeeting from within the application, or disable Remote Desktop Sharing if you have it enabled. Hardware: Microsoft Dual Strike Joystick: You need to enable FX Mode in the Dual Strike software. You also need to enable the mouse in the Options menu in the game to be able to use the free look ability during game play. Mitsumi CD-ROM drive: You may experience issues when launching MechWarrior: Vengeance with this CD-ROM drive. Please contact your hardware manufacturer for firmware updates. Creative 48x CD-ROM drive: Trying to launch MechWarrior: Vengeance with this CD-ROM drive causes an error message to appear. Bypass this by clicking Continue to play the game. G. Zone Stats ------------- Through Zone.com, game statistics and player ranking information is available (http://stats.zone.com/). Additionally, with the Zone's own ZoneMatch matchmaking service you can search for, find, and play games over the Internet from within the game itself. Use the following procedure to set up statistical tracking for your games. To track game statistics 1. On the Host Setup screen, select Report Game Stats to stats.Zone. 2. On the Multiplayer Options screen, select the Track Online option to enable player ranking. 3. In the ZoneStats Password box, enter your password. 4. In the Scoreboard for MechWarrior: Vengeance, click View ZoneStats to go directly to specific player statistics from within the game. This button is only active if you've entered a password in the ZoneStats Password box on the Multiplayer Options screen. All game types except Steal the Beacon and Escort can have stats tracked by MechWarrior: Vengeance on http://stats.zone.com/. H. 3D Card Issues ----------------- MechWarrior: Vengeance only fully supports DirectX 8-compliant video cards. It is good practice to always install the latest certified drivers for all of your hardware. 3DLabs Permedia 2 chipset: Graphics irregularities may occur. To fix this, download and install the latest reference drivers from 3DLabs (http://www.3dlabs.com/). AccelStar II 3D Accelerator: Graphics rendering may be corrupted. To fix this, download and install the latest reference drivers from 3DLabs (http://www.3dlabs.com/http://www.accelgraphics.com/). AOpen PA3000: With the retail drivers installed the system may hang. To fix this, download and install the latest reference drivers from AOpen (http://www.aopen.comhttp://www.nvidia.com/). ASUS 3DexPlorer 3000: With the retail drivers installed, brief screen corruption may appear when the opening cinema begins. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from ASUS (http://www.asus.com/) or NVIDIA (http://www.nvidia.com/). ASUS V2740: With the retail drivers installed, textures may not render properly. To fix this, download and install the latest reference drivers from Intel (http://www.intel.com). Asus V-6600: Launching a game will cause a hang when using the retail drivers. To fix this, please contact your hardware manufacturer for updated drivers (http://www.asus.com/), or download the latest reference drivers from NVIDIA (http://www.nvidia.com/). ATI All-in-Wonder 128 Pro: When 32-bit color is enabled, graphic instability may occur. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from ATI (http://support.atitech.ca/). ATI Rage Fury Maxx: Graphics may be corrupted. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from ATI (http://support.atitech.ca/). ATI Rage Pro Turbo: Some graphics irregularities may occur. To fix this, try downloading and installing the "Special Released" drivers from ATI (http://support.atitech.ca/). ATI Rage II+: Slight texture corruption may occur. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from ATI (http://support.atitech.ca/). ATI Xpert 128: Texture corruption may occur. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from ATI (http://support.atitech.ca/). Creative Blaster Riva TNT: Using the latest reference drivers from NVIDIA (version 6.31) the system will hang. Contact your hardware manufacture for updated drivers (http://www.creative.com/). Also, lowering your AGP aperture size may help, contact your hardware manufacturer for more information about changing your AGP aperture size. Creative Labs 3D Blaster Savage4: Game resolution changes may give unreliable results. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from Creative Labs (http://www.creative.com/). Diamond Fire Pro GL: Graphics may appear corrupted. Contact the manufacturer for updated drivers (http://www.s3.com/). Diamond Monster II 3D: With driver version 2207 from the Diamond Web site, your computer may not recognize the card. To fix this, download and install the latest reference drivers for your Voodoo 2 from 3dfx Interactive (http://www.3dfx.com/). Diamond Monster Fusion: With the Diamond retail display drivers installed, texture corruption may occur. To fix this, download and install the latest reference driver for the 3dfx Voodoo Banshee display chipset from 3dfx Interactive (http://www.3dfx.com/). Diamond Stealth II G-460: With the retail drivers installed, textures will not appear. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from S3 (http://www.s3.com/). Diamond Viper V550: Texture corruption may occur. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from Diamond (http://www.diamondmm.com/). Diamond Viper V770 Ultra: Graphics corruption and the game may even hang. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from S3 (http://www.s3.com/) or reference drivers from NVIDIA (http://www.nvidia.com/). Diamond Viper II Z200: With the retail drivers, graphics irregularities may occur. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from S3 (http://www.s3.com/). Elsa Gladiac: The game will hang or the video card will be unrecognized when the latest retail drivers (version.6.34) for this card are installed. To fix this, please contact your hardware manufacturer for updated drivers (http://www.elsa.de/), or download the latest reference drivers from NVIDIA (http://www.nvidia.com/). Guillemot 3D Prophet GeForce: There may be slight graphic irregularities. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from Guillemot (http://www.guillemot.com/). Guillemot Maxi Gamer Phoenix 2: Sporadic menu corruption may occur in the user interface. To fix this, download and install the latest display drivers from Guillemot (http://www.guillemot.com/). Intel 810 graphics chipset: When using this chipset, always make sure you download and install the latest drivers from Intel (http://www.intel.com/). Matrox Marvel G-400: If you experience stability problems such as the machine hanging when playing MechWarrior: Vengeance in 32-bit color, download and install the latest drivers from Matrox (http://www.matrox.com/), or run the game in 16-bit color by selecting it with the Autoconfig.exe tool in your MechWarrior Vengeance root directory. Matrox Millennium G200 AGP: Texture flashes may occur. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from Matrox (http://www.matrox.com/). Number Nine Revolution IV: Texture corruption may occur, causing the game to freeze. To fix this, download and install the latest drivers from Number Nine (http://www.nine.com/). NVIDIA chipset (TNT, TNT2, and GeForce): When running Windows 2000, the game will not run in accelerated hardware mode with the NVIDIA display drivers that come with the operating system. To fix this, download and install the latest reference drivers from NVIDIA (http://www.nvidia.com/), or contact your hardware manufacturer for the latest drivers. NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS: With some monitors, a split screen may occasionally occur when changing video modes. To work around this problem, press ALT+TAB to minimize the game and then ALT+TAB again to maximize it. To fix this problem, download and install the latest reference driver from NVIDIA (http://www.nvidia.com/), or contact your hardware manufacturer for updated drivers. Also, make sure you have the correct drivers installed for your monitor. S3 Savage 4 chipset: When running Windows 2000, the game will not run in accelerated hardware mode with the display drivers that come with the operating system. To fix this, or download and install the latest reference drivers from S3 (http://www.s3.com/), or contact your hardware manufacturer for the latest drivers. STB BlackMagic 3D: Slight graphic corruption may occur. To fix this, install the latest Voodoo 2 reference drivers from 3dfx Interactive (http://www.3dfx.com/). STB Velocity 128: The computer may hang after the opening movie, or graphic irregularities may occur when using the retail drivers. To fix this, download and install the latest reference drivers from NVIDIA (http://www.nvidia.com/). STB Velocity 4400: With the retail drivers installed, the game may freeze during the opening cinema or occasionally in other places in the game. To fix this, download and install the latest reference display drivers from NVIDIA (http://www.nvidia.com/). If this does not correct the problem, contact your hardware manufacturer for driver updates or for system settings that may fix the problem. I. 3D Card Drivers and Manufacturers ------------------------------------ Make sure that you have the latest drivers from the manufacturer of your video card. Many video issues will be resolved if you install your video card's latest drivers. MechWarrior: Vengeance may not detect some older video cards properly because their video drivers are not DirectX 8-compliant. Please contact your video card manufacturer for updated drivers or install the latest reference drivers for your video board. Note that many reference drivers are not supported by the chipset manufacturer. Listed below are some common video card manufacturers' Web sites. MechWarrior: Vengeance may not support some or all of the cards produced by a particular manufacturer. 3dfx Interactive-http://www.3dfx.com/ 3Dlabs-http://www.3dlabs.com/ AccelGraphics-http://www.accelgraphics.com/ Asus-http://www.asus.com/ ATI-http://support.atitech.ca/ Aztech Labs-http://www.aztechlabs.com/ Canopus-http://www.canopuscorp.com/ Creative Labs-http://www.creativelabs.com/ Elsa Technology-http://www.elsa.de/ Gateway 2000-http://www.gw2k.com/ Guillemot-http://www.guillemot.com/ Hercules (see Guillemot)-http://www.guillemot.com/ I/O Magic-http://www.iomagic.com/ Intergraph (see 3Dlabs)-http://www.3dlabs.com/ Jaton-http://www.jaton.com/ Leadtek-http://www.leadtek.com/ Matrox-http://www.matrox.com/ Number Nine-http://www.nine.com/ NVIDIA-http://www.nvidia.com/ Orchid (see S3)-http://www.s3.com/ S3 Incorporated-http://www.s3.com/ SiS-http://www.sis.com.tw/ Silicon Integrated Systems Corporation (SiS)-http://www.sis.com.tw/ STB (see 3dfx Interactive)-http://www.3dfx.com/ VIA Technologies-http://www.viatech.com/ VideoLogic-http://www.videologic.com/ Additional query words: 4.00 msgame mech warrior read me doc mw4 ====================================================================== Keywords : kbref kbimu msgame Technology : kbGamesSearch Version : : Issue type : kbinfo ============================================================================= THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY. Copyright Microsoft Corporation 2001.