Viper Racing Version 1.0 Readme File October 11, 1998 *********************************************************************** About This Document: Thank you for purchasing Viper Racing. This document contains last-minute information about Viper Racing and other information about the program not found in the Help Files. This README file includes information that pertains to general problems and questions you may have concerning the game or your computer. Should you experience any problems with Viper Racing, please refer to this file for addition help on answering questions about the game and solving technical difficulties. *********************************************************************** TABLE OF CONTENTS I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES IV. CONTACTING SIERRA I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS ----------------------- - Direct3D-compatible 3D accelerator with 4MB VRAM - DirectX 5.0 or better - Pentium 133MHz or better - 32 MB RAM - 10 MB Hard disk space, plus 40 MB free - Mouse or trackball RECOMMENDED: - Pentium II 233MHz - 3dfx Voodoo graphics card or a fast AGP card. - DirectInput-compatible Joystick or Wheel - DirectSound-compatible sound card II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES ---------------------------- It is important to have recent drivers for your video and sound card, as many cards ship with buggy or incomplete DirectX drivers, which can cause anything from visual glitches to system crashes. Contact your card manufacturer for more information, or check their web site; correctly installing video drivers can be a difficult and error-prone process. Video Card Compatibility Viper Racing is designed to work with as many Direct3D-compatible video cards as possible. The game has been tested on all popular 3D cards using current drivers as of October 1998. However, due to the number and diversity of video cards and drivers there can be some incompatibilities. * Blocky trees with S3 Virge and NEC PowerVR cards--these cards support neither color-key transparent textures nor alpha-compare. * the Matrox Millenium I, (not II), doesn't support texture mapping(!), so the game will not run on this card. * Due to a bug in DirectX 6.0, fog has been removed from the game. * on some Matrox G200 drivers, if you experience erratic framerate, try turning off the 2D overlay (with the "1" key) * the current drivers for the 3Dfx Banshee report the wrong amount of video ram, so 1024x768 will not be available. * if the game reports "no 3D hardware", you may have an incorrectly installed DirectX video driver--your Glide games may still run, though. If you have a 3Dfx Voodoo I or II and another 3D card, the game will default to the Voodoo. To use your primary adapter, run the game by typing "Viper Racing" -1 at the Start Menu's "Run..." dialog box, or modifying the Start Menu shortcut equivalently. To get your joystick or wheel to work in the game, you MUST setup your joystick in Windows. To do this, open the Control Panel, and open the Game Controllers applet, and add your joystick and calibrate it here. You can also do this by pressing the "Joystick" button on the autoplay screen. If you use a gamepad, you should make sure the "Gamepad" checkbox is checked in the Controls Options menu in the game, or else your steering will be jerky. Using force-feedback on some joysticks may cause a frame-rate drop; this is due to limitations of the hardware interface. Viper Racing employs real-time dynamic force-feedback, which requires that information be sent continuously to the controller instead of using "canned" effects. Switching away to the desktop (by Alt-Tab, Ctrl-ESC, or the Windows key) while the game is running may cause a crash on some machines. III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES ------------------------ -The RPM overlay does not show up in 512x384 mode. -Importing and Exporting from the Paintkit: this may appear to "do nothing", but it is actually reading from and writing to a file called "paint.tga", which will be found in the folder Sierra\Viper Racing\Config\Paint. This file must be a 256x256 pixel, 32-bit Targa file. -If you are using Car 1 in Quick Race, while ghost car mode is selected, your changes in the Paintkit will not be shown on the rotating car view in Quick Race, but they will show up in the game. -The teleport does not work correctly in front of the bridge at Rock Island-- it may teleport you over water. -During Multiplayer, cars will not fade out during teleporting. -The engine sound has many low-frequency components which many computer speakers cannot reproduce. On these speakers, engine sound volume may may appear to drop down at certain RPM ranges IV.CONTACTING SIERRA ======================= A) Customer Service, Support, and Sales B) Technical Support C) Legal Information A) Customer Service, Support, 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 Cendant Software International Limited 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 Cendant Software International Limited 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 Cendant Software International Limited 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 THE SIERRA NO-RISK GUARANTEE The Promise: We want you to be happy with every Sierra product you purchase from us. Period. If for any reason you're unhappy with the product, return it within 30 days for an exchange or a full refund...EVEN IF YOU BOUGHT IT RETAIL. (Hardware ordered direct must be returned within ten days.) Please send back your product, signature required if mailing via US Postal Service. The Only Catch: You've got to tell us why you don't like the game. Otherwise, we'll never get any better. Send it back to us and we promise we will make things right. (If you bought it at a retail outlet, please send your original sales receipt.) * Returns valid in North America only. Disk and or Manual Replacement: Product Returns: Sierra On-Line Returns 4100 West 190th Street Torrance, CA 90504 Sierra On-Line Fulfillment 4100 West 190th Street Torrance, CA 90504 NOTE: To replace your disk(s) please send only Disk #1 (or the CD) and copy of your dated Receipt, if less then 90 days. After 90 days please include a $10 handling fee along with Disk / CD #1. For Documentation, please include a $ 5.00 handling fee and a photocopy ONLY of disk #1. Payment should be made at the time of your request. Sorry, no credit cards. * Returns to this address valid in North America only. B) TECHNICAL SUPPORT ------------------------- North America Sierra On-Line offers a 24-hour automated technical support line with recorded answers to the most frequently asked technical questions. To access this service, call (425) 644-4343, and follow the recorded instructions to find your specific topic and resolve the issue. If this fails to solve your problem, you may still write, or fax us with your questions, or contact us via our Web site. Sierra On-Line Technical Support P.O. Box 85006 Bellevue, WA 98015-8506 Main: (425) 644-4343 Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.- 6:45 p.m. PST Fax: (425) 644-7697 http://www.sierra.com support@sierra.com United Kingdom Cendant Software International Limited offers a 24-hour Automated Technical Support line with recorded answers to the most frequently asked technical questions. To access this service, call (0118) 920-9111, and follow the recorded instructions to find your specific topic and resolve the issue. If this fails to solve your problem, you may still write, or fax us with your questions, or contact us via our Internet or CompuServe sites. Cendant Software International Limited 2 Beacontree Plaza, Gillette Way, Reading, Berkshire RG2 0BS United Kingdom Main: (0118) 920-9111 Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Fax: (0118) 987-5603 http://www.sierra-online.co.uk France Cendant Software International Limited Parc Tertiaire de Meudon Immeuble "Le Newton" 25 rue Jeanne Braconnier 92366 Meudon La Forêt Cedex France Téléphone: 01-46-01-46-50 Lundi au Jeudi de 10h à 19h Vendredi de 10h à 18h Fax: 01-46-30-00-65 http://www.sierra.fr Germany Cendant Software International Limited Robert-Bosh-Str. 32 D-63303 Dreieich Deutschland Tel: (0) 6103-99-40-40 Montag bis Freitag von 9 - 19Uhr Fax: (0) 6103-99-40-35 Mailbox: (0) 6103-99-40-35 http://www.sierra.de Spain Cendant Software International Limited Avenida de Burgos 9 1º-OF2 28036 Madrid Spain Teléfono: (01) 383-2623 Lunes a Viernes de 9h30 a 14h y de 15h a 18h30 Fax: (01) 381-2437 Italy Contattare il vostro distribotore. C) Sierra Warranty & Legal Information ----------------------------------- You are entitled to use this product for your own use, but may not copy, reproduce, translate, publicly perform, display, or reduce to any electronic medium or machine- readable form, reproductions of the software or manual to other parties in any way, nor sell, rent or lease the product to others without prior written permission of Sierra. You may use one copy of the product on a single computer. YOU MAY NOT NETWORK THE PRODUCT OR OTHERWISE INSTALL IT OR USE IT ON MORE THAN ONE COMPUTER AT THE SAME TIME. UNAUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIONS: SIERRA WARRANTS ONLY THAT THE PROGRAM WILL PERFORM AS DESCRIBED IN THE USER DOCUMENTATION. NO OTHER ADVERTISING, DESCRIPTION, OR REPRESENTATION, WHETHER MADE BY A SIERRA DEALER, DISTRIBUTOR, AGENT, OR EMPLOYEE, SHALL BE BINDING UPON SIERRA OR SHALL CHANGE THE TERMS OF THIS WARRANTY. IMPLIED WARRANTIES LIMITED: EXCEPT AS STATED ABOVE, SIERRA MAKES NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT. SIERRA DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY THAT THE SOFTWARE IS FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE NINETY (90) DAY DURATION OF THIS LIMITED EXPRESS WARRANTY AND IS OTHERWISE EXPRESSLY AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMED. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. NO CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES: SIERRA SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES, EVEN IF SIERRA IS ADVISED OF OR AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS MEANS THAT SIERRA SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR LOST PROFITS OR REVENUES, OR FOR DAMAGES OR COSTS INCURRED AS A RESULT OF LOSS OF TIME, DATA OR USE OF THE SOFTWARE, OR FROM ANY OTHER CAUSE EXCEPT THE ACTUAL COST OF THE PRODUCT. IN NO EVENT SHALL SIERRA'S LIABILITY EXCEED THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THIS PRODUCT. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. This End User License Agreement grants you a limited license to use the Redistributable Code licensed to Sierra On-Line, Inc. by Microsoft Corporation, Inc. together with Microsoft operating system products. All intellectual property rights in Microsoft's Redistributable Code contained in this product belong exclusively to Microsoft Corporation, Inc. Copyright (1998 Sierra On-Line, Inc.)