XGames Pro Boarder ReadMe Welcome to XGames Pro Boarder. This guide contains installation instructions and troubleshooting information. To avoid problems, make sure your machine matches the System Requirements listed on the box and in this file. This Box Contains: * 1 CD, with XGames Pro Boarder and DirectX 6. * Game manual, to explain how the game works. * Reference Guide, which is what you are reading right now, including troubleshooting tips, installation steps and technical support information. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS =================== MINIMUM CONFIGURATION --------------------- * Pentium(tm) 166 (or equivalent) * Windows(r) 95 or Windows(r) 98 * 32MB RAM * 8X or faster CD-ROM drive * 75MB available hard drive space * 2MB PCI video card * 100% Microsoft-compatible mouse * DirectSound-compliant sound card * DirectX 5 (DirectX 6 included) RECOMMENDED CONFIGURATION ------------------------- * Pentium(tm) 200 MMX (or equivalent) * 155MB available hard drive space * 4MB AGP or PCI Direct3D-capable video card * DirectInput-compatible gamepad REQUIRED FOR MULTI-PLAYER GAMES ------------------------------- Network (2-8 players) * IPX- or TCP/IP- compliant network * 1 CD per PC Serial play (2 players on 2 PCs) * Null modem cable * High speed serial port (16550 UART) * 1 CD per PC Modem (2 players on 2 PCs) * Windows-compatible 28800 bps or faster modem * High speed serial port (16550 UART) for external modems * 1 CD per PC SUPPORTED INPUT DEVICES ----------------------- * Keyboard * DirectInput-compatible Gamepad * DirectInput-compatible joystick * DirectInput-compatible force-feedback devices DISK PREPARATION ================ Before installing any software, you have to make sure your hard drive is in proper working order. It is highly recommended you run the Windows system utilities ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter. 1. First, run ScanDisk. Click the Start button in your Taskbar. 2. From the Start menu, select Run. Then, in the Run dialog box, type scandisk and click OK. 3. When the program starts, make sure there is a checkmark in the Automatically Fix Errors box and select the hard drive your are installing the game to (e.g. C). Once everything is set up correctly, click Start to have the program scan the drive and fix any errors. 4. Next, run Disk Defragmenter. Click the Start button in your Taskbar. 5. From the Start menu, select Run. Then, in the Run dialog box, type defrag and click OK. 6. As with ScanDisk, select the drive you are installing the game to and click OK. 7. After these two programs have run correctly, you are ready to install the game. INSTALLATION PROCEDURE ====================== 1. Start the Windows 95 or 98 operating system. 2. Follow the Disk Preparation procedure described on page 3. 3. Insert the XGames Pro Boarder CD into the CD-ROM drive. The install screen should appear. (If not, double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop. Double-click the icon corresponding to your computer's CD drive. The install screen should appear.) Experienced users can follow the onscreen instructions after this point. For detailed installation instructions, keep reading. 4. You will see the Welcome screen. Click on the Next> button to continue If you wish to abort the installation, click the Cancel button. 5. After the Welcome screen, the License Agreement screen will come up. Please read the License Agreement to see if you agree with the terms and conditions listed. If you do, click the Yes button. If you don't agree, click the No button and the installation will be aborted. 6. In the Choose Destination Location screen you can select where on your hard drive XGames Pro Boarder will be installed. If you wish to change the default location, click the Browse button and select the new location. Click the Next> button to continue. 7. Next you can select the type of installation: Typical Copies all files from the CD to the hard drive. This requires at least 155Mb of free hard drive space. Use this for fastest loading times and best video playback. Compact Copies only the necessary files from the CD to the hard drive. This requires at least 75Mb of free hard drive space. Loading times will be longer and video playback might be affected if your CD ROM drive is not properly configured for video playback. Custom This allows you to select what will be copied to your hard drive. Select your preferred option and click the Next> button. 8. If you selected the Custom option, a screen will appear where you can select which components of the game to install. Place a check mark next to the components to install. The amount of required hard drive space will be displayed at the bottom of the window. Click the Next> button to continue. 9. In the Select Program Folder screen you can specify where in the Start menu the game shortcuts will be placed. Click the Next> button to continue. 10. The Install Program will start copying the game files to your hard drive. 11. When the game files have been copied, the Support Components screen will come up. Here you can select to install certain components of Windows that need to be installed in order to properly run XGames Pro Boarder. Setup will scan your Windows setup to determine if these components have been installed already. The components are: DirectX Media Video and audio players necessary to play the movies. DirectX6 Drivers for audio and video cards Fraunhöfer Decoder for in-game music MP3 decoder Note: if you choose not to install any of these components, the game cannot run properly and installation will be aborted. 12. After the components have been installed, the Finish Dialog will be displayed. Here you can choose two options: View readme View this file. Add shortcut This will add a shortcut to XGames Pro Boarder to your Windows desktop for easy access to the game. 13. The game has been installed and is ready to be played! VIDEO CARD REFERENCE ==================== This section talks about the various video cards that we know will or won't work with XGames Pro Boarder. In most cases, we talk about the chipset used on the cards instead of naming the cards themselves. For the vast majority of cases, any card based on a given chipset will perform similarly to any other. There are often minor performance differences and different top-level drivers, but the rendering is usually the same. To find out what kind of video card your computer has: 1. Click the Windows desktop, then choose Properties from the pop-up menu. 2. Click the Settings tab. 3. Click the Advanced Properties... button. 4. Click the Adapter tab. The top line should tell you what video card is installed in your computer. 3DFX ---- Voodoo Graphics Voodoo Graphics-based cards are 3D-only cards, which means they do 2D rendering very slowly. This may appear in the game as a drop in performance when an information screen is placed on top of the usual 3D scene. Voodoo Rush The Voodoo Rush is essentially a Voodoo Graphics with an added 2D component. However, it may still encounter problems drawing 2D objects. Voodoo 2 Voodoo 2-based cards are 3D-only cards, which means they do 2D rendering very slowly. This may appear in the game as a drop in performance when an information screen is placed on top of the usual 3D scene. There are no known additional problems with running in SLI mode. Banshee No known problems. 3DLabs ------ Permedia 2 No known problems. Slightly slower than other supported cards; it might be wise to turn off some rendering features. Permedia 3 As of the date of this document, we have not been able to test XGames Pro Boarder on this chip. However, we expect to support the chip when it becomes available. ATI --- Rage, Rage II, Rage II+ Cards based on these chipsets are not supported by XGames Pro Boarder. Use software rendering. Rage Pro If the snowboards appear blocky instead of rounded, install the latest drivers from www.atitech.com, which will fix the problem. Rage 128 As of the date of this document, we have not been able to test XGames Pro Boarder on this chip. However, we expect to support the chip when it becomes available. Intel ----- i740 Real3D, makers of the Starfighter 3D, have reported problems when trying to run AGP Starfighters on ASUS motherboards. We have also encountered those problems and if you do too, consult Real3D and ASUS to see if upgrades or patches are available. The Real3D tab in the Display control panel contains a slider that moves between Sharper and Faster rendering quality. In XGames Pro Boarder, moving the slider to Faster will make everything in the game blurrier. We recommend that you keep the slider closer to Sharper. Matrox ------ Mystique, Mystique 220, Millennium II, G100 This family of chips is unique in that they do not support real alpha blending (translucency), but emulate it by stippling. This is equivalent to emulating a window using a mesh screen; everything that should be translucent is actually a mesh of small dots. This effect will manifest itself as a variety of rendering artifacts, showing up in (among other places) lens flares, fog, and snow trails. The F3 key can be used to turn off fog; F4 key can be used to turn off lens flares. On some machines (really fast ones), using software rendering may result in better performance than with hardware rendering. Millennium G200, Mystique G200 No known problems. NEC --- PowerVR, PowerVR2 Cards based on these chipsets are not supported in XGames Pro Boarder. Use software rendering. nVIDIA ------ RIVA128, RIVA128 ZX Users might encounter z-buffer problems in some model joints (such as player shoulders). Users may encounter XGames Pro Boarder running very slowly (around 1-2 seconds per frame). If this is the case, go to nVIDIA's web site (www.nvidia.com) and download and install their reference drivers. On some 4MB RIVA 128 cards, XGames Pro Boarder may exhibit performance or image quality problems if the tree detail settings are set to "high" or "extreme". If this happens, set the tree detail to "low". The problem relates to a behaviour of the RIVA 128 call "auto mipmapping". When it is enabled, the trees sometimes look strange. If it's disabled, rendering performance can suffer. The nVIDIA reference drivers allow the auto mipmapping behaviour to be adjusted. Some RIVA128 drivers incorrectly report the ability to render with "iterated vertex alpha". If this happens, the fog banks in the game will appear faceted instead of smooth. The F3 key can be used to turn off the fog. Alternatively, iterated vertex alpha can be permanently disabled from the nVIDIA reference driver Control Panel. RIVA TNT No known problems. Number 9 -------- Ticket to Ride Cards based on this chipset are not supported by XGames Pro Boarder. Use software rendering. Revolution IV As of the date of this document, we have not been able to XGames Pro Boarder on this chip. However, we expect to support the chip when it becomes available. Rendition --------- V1000 Cards based on this chipset are not supported by XGames Pro Boarder. Use software rendering. V2100, V2200 No known problems. V3000 family As of the date of this document, we have not been able to test XGames Pro Boarder on this chip. However, we expect to support the chip when it becomes available. S3 -- ViRGE family Cards based on these chipsets are not supported by XGames Pro Boarder. Use software rendering. Savage 3D As of the date of this document, we have only been able to XGames Pro Boarder on Rev B versions of this chip with beta drivers. This combination has shown a variety of rendering artifacts. We are currently working with S3 to resolve these problems. The F4 key can be used to turn off lens flares (one of the current problem areas). PROCESSORS ========== XGames Pro Boarder requires a Pentium(tm) 166. There are several Pentium-compatible processors on the market. XGames Pro Boarder has been verified to work with the following processors: AMD K6 and K6-2 XGames Pro Boarder supports 3DNow!, AMD's instruction set intended to increase frame rate in 3D applications. Cyrix Games run at an acceptable frame rate on an MII 180 and a suitable video accelerator. Note: the Cyrix MediaGX processor does not have any L2 cache. This causes XGames Pro Boarder to run slowly. IDT C6 We have tested XGames Pro Boarder on a C6 225 with a hardware accelerator; it works well. C6s will also benefit from 3DNow! Intel XGames Pro Boarder utilizes MMX. TROUBLESHOOTING =============== INSTALLATION PROBLEMS --------------------- If the Setup program aborts with the following message: "Your system does not have the Windows multimedia components required for XGames Pro Boarder to run." Follow these steps: 1. From the Windows Control Panel, run the Add/Remove Programs applet. 2. Select the Windows Setup tab and select the Multimedia component. 3. Click the Details... button. 4. Ensure that the Audio Compression component is checked. 5. Click OK. 6. If the Audio Compression component was not installed, Windows will now install this component. Follow the on-screen instructions. CD PROBLEMS ----------- A 8X CD-ROM drive is required to run XGames Pro Boarder. CD-ROM performance problems * Make sure that you are using a 32-bit native Windows 95 or 98 driver to control your CD-ROM drive. These drivers can be configured from the Device Manager in the Settings>Control Panel>System. * Do not use a DOS-based 16-bit driver (loaded in CONFIG.SYS) to control your CD-ROM drive; this will significantly reduce performance. Choppy or stuttering video or audio Adjusting the CD-ROM read-ahead cache may improve the performance of your CD-ROM drive. To adjust the read-ahead cache: 1. At the Windows desktop, right-click the My Computer icon, then choose Properties from the pop-up menu. 2. Click the Performance tab, then click File System... 3. Click the CD-ROM tab, then click in the Optimize access pattern for: box, and choose the speed that applies to your CD-ROM drive. If you don't know the speed of your CD-ROM drive, contact your computer hardware manufacturer or retailer. 4. Move the Supplemental cache size slider to Small, then click OK. 5. Click the Close button. 6. Windows might prompt you to restart your computer; click Yes if it does and wait for your computer to restart. Note: Setting the Supplemental cache size to Large will not improve video playback and may actually hinder performance by reserving RAM that would otherwise be available for the game. CD AUDIO -------- The XGames Pro Boarder CD comes with 12 CD-DA tracks on it. This means you can put the CD in any CD audio playback device and you will be able to listen to the music tracks like you would using a regular audio CD. If your CD player has trouble playing track 1, it does not recognize the game data. Skip track 1 and the music will start on track 2. VIDEO PROBLEMS -------------- XGames Pro Boarder requires a PCI video card capable of 640x480 resolution with 65,535 colors and 2 Mb or more video memory. If your Windows display driver does not support DirectDraw, you may experience difficulties installing or playing XGames Pro Boarder. If your video card driver does not support DirectDraw, DirectX will attempt to install a new version of the driver. This may conflict with any special features of your video card that were supplied by the manufacturer. It is recommended that you check with your manufacturer and obtain the latest DirectDraw compliant drivers to ensure compatibility. Refer to the Video Card Reference section of this document for more information about specific video cards. SOUND PROBLEMS -------------- XGames Pro Boarder requires a sound card that has DirectSound support. If your sound card driver does not have DirectSound support you may experience choppy or stuttering sound, or sound that cuts in and out. If your sound card driver does not have DirectSound support, we recommend obtaining updated drivers from your sound card manufacturer. Installed sound card but there is no sound ------------------------------------------ * Make sure your speakers or headphones are plugged into the appropriate jack and the volume control is turned up. Check the Windows sound volume settings by accessing the Control Panel from the Start Menu and running the Multimedia applet. Click on the Audio tab and check the Playback volume. General sound card information ------------------------------ * During DirectX installation, the DirectX setup program will attempt to install a sound driver that has DirectSound support for your sound card. If your sound card driver does not have DirectSound support, the DirectX setup program will attempt to replace your existing sound card driver. * Please consult your sound card manufacturer for updated drivers if DirectSound drivers are not available for your sound card in DirectX 6. MEMORY PROBLEMS --------------- XGames Pro Boarder requires 32 MB RAM and Virtual Memory enabled. It is highly recommended that you let Windows manage the Virtual Memory size automatically (the default setting) and that you have at least 50 MB free hard drive space after installation. CONTROLLER PROBLEMS =================== Joystick calibration -------------------- You must calibrate your joystick from the Control Panel for the joystick to be recognized within the game. To install or calibrate your joystick, access the Control Panel and start the Game Controllers applet. Note that some controllers use their own applets for installation and calibration. Refer to the manual for your controller for more information. Keyboard problems ----------------- Some PC keyboards can't recognize certain combinations of 3 or more simultaneously pressed keys. IF you are experiencing a lose of controls, try remapping the keyboard or using a gamepad. Default Joystick Control Mappings --------------------------------- Gravis Gamepad (4 Button) ========================= Front End Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Scroll through game modes and options D-Pad Accept selected item Red Cancel Selection Blue Riding Controls (Amateur and Professional) Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Jump/trick prep Yellow Speed up / slow down D-Pad Up/Down Turn right / left D-Pad right/left Quick Ollie Red 180 Switch Greeen Hard left (on keyboard) Hard right (on keyboard) Reverse camera (on keyboard) Switch camera Blue Amateur Trick Controls Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Trick 1 Red Trick 2 Blue Trick 3 Green Front flip D-Pad up Back flip D-Pad down Left spin D-Pad left right spin D-Pad right Professional Prep Controls Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Jump/trick prep Yellow More inital front flip power D-Pad up More inital back flip power D-Pad down More left spin power D-Pad left More right spin power D-Pad right Adjust left (on keyboard) Adjust right (on keyboard) Professional Trick Controls Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Nose grab with... D-Pad up Tail grab with... D-Pad down Left side grab with... D-Pad left Right side grab with... D-Pad right ...left hand Red ...right hand Blue I WANNA LAND! Release buttons Rewind left (on keyboard) Rewind right (on keyboard) Gravis Gamepad Pro (10 Button) ============================== Front End Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Scroll through game modes and options D-Pad Accept selected item Yellow Cancel Selection Blue Riding Controls (Amateur and Professional) Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Jump/trick prep Yellow Speed up / slow down D-Pad Up/Down Turn right / left D-Pad right/left Quick Ollie Red 180 Switch Greeen Hard left L1 Hard right R1 Reverse camera L2 Switch camera R2 Amateur Trick Controls Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Trick 1 Red Trick 2 Blue Trick 3 Green Front flip D-Pad up Back flip D-Pad down Left spin D-Pad left right spin D-Pad right Professional Prep Controls Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Jump/trick prep Yellow More inital front flip power D-Pad up More inital back flip power D-Pad down More left spin power D-Pad left More right spin power D-Pad right Adjust left L1 Adjust right R1 Professional Trick Controls Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Nose grab with... D-Pad up Tail grab with... D-Pad down Left side grab with... D-Pad left Right side grab with... D-Pad right ...left hand Red ...right hand Blue I WANNA LAND! Release buttons Rewind left L1 Rewind right R1 Microsoft Sidewinder Game Pad(10 Button) ======================================== Front End Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Scroll through game modes and options D-Pad Accept selected item Button A Cancel Selection Button B Riding Controls (Amateur and Professional) Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Jump/trick prep Button A Speed up / slow down D-Pad Up/Down Turn right / left D-Pad right/left Quick Ollie Button Y 180 Switch Button X Hard left L1 Hard right R1 Reverse camera Button C Switch camera Button Z Amateur Trick Controls Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Trick 1 Button B Trick 2 Button C Trick 3 Button Z Front flip D-Pad up Back flip D-Pad down Left spin D-Pad left right spin D-Pad right Professional Prep Controls Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Jump/trick prep Button A More inital front flip power D-Pad up More inital back flip power D-Pad down More left spin power D-Pad left More right spin power D-Pad right Adjust left L1 Adjust right R1 Professional Trick Controls Action Joystick ---------------------------------------------------------- Nose grab with... D-Pad up Tail grab with... D-Pad down Left side grab with... D-Pad left Right side grab with... D-Pad right ...left hand Button B ...right hand Button C I WANNA LAND! Release buttons Rewind left L1 Rewind right R1 GRAPHICS PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS ----------------------------- XGames Pro Boarder supports a variety of 3D rendering options and a wide spectrum of 3D rendering technology. Your particular machine configuration may not be able to run at an acceptable speed with some of these options turned on. If you are experiencing speed problems, here are some things to try, listed in the order the options have on game speed: In the Options/Graphics menus - Lower the terrain quality - Lower the display resolution - Set Tree and/or Object quality to "low" - Set particles to "low" or turn them off entirely In the game: - Reduce the display area (F10/F11) Software Rendering When using software 3D rendering (as opposed to a hardware 3D accelerator) performance can be even more significantly degraded by the video resolution than under hardware. Try running in the lowest resolution available on the Options/Graphics menu (usually 320x200) or decreasing the size if the drawing window (F10 / F11). Hardware Rendering There are some older 3D accelerators (ATI Rage/Rage II, Matrox Mystique/Millennium II) will run XGames Pro Boarder but will actually be slower than software rendering on some machines. Some hardware cards have performance problems with particular features. Look at the Video Card reference section for you card. MODEM PROBLEMS -------------- Modems that use your computer's CPU to do the signal processing (generally known as WINMODEMs) can cause a significant drop in frame rate on slower machines. The only solution is a better modem with its own signal processing hardware or a faster CPU. You may be able to increase modem performance in the game by changing the initialization strings for your modem. This information can be obtained from your modem manufacturer. NETWORK PROBLEMS ---------------- Users with old single-buffer network cards may experience slow updates of the position of other players, who will appear to be "jumping" on remote players views. This is due to timing problems between the network card and the operating system. Similar problems will be observed with bad network cables or broken network repeaters. The solution in these cases is fix or replace faulty network components. Some local area networks use hubs that do not forward IPX or IP broadcast requests. Users attached to such hubs may not be able to see games hosted in IPX mode and will only be able to join TCP/IP games by entering in the IP address of the host computer. Play across the Internet may have difficulty in connecting, maintaining connections, or may experience random drops in the rate at which the player location is sent to remote players. These problems are due to the fluctuating nature of the Internet at large. Often problems can be corrected by playing at a less busy time of day or by finding an ISP with more reliable connections to the Internet. Also, problems can be minimized by playing against people who are close to you on the network. TECHNICAL SUPPORT ----------------- If the installation procedure fails, or you have any other problems with the game, contact our Technical Support Department for help.