Commandos Strike Force Demo file

Commandos Strike Force Demo
README file 13/01/2006 Version 1.0

Part 1: Things You Should Know

Please read through the DirectX section of this document. This section has information that is vital to successfully running the Commandos Strike Force Demo on your system.

1.1 DirectX

This game is optimised for Microsoft's DirectX 9.0c. In order for you to play the game, you must have DirectX 9.0c -compliant drivers for your video card and sound card. Please note that although DirectX 9.0c is installed with the game, your video and sound card drivers will not be upgraded to DirectX 9.0c drivers.

You will need to obtain the latest DirectX 9.0c drivers from your card manufacturer or PC supplier. These drivers cannot be supplied by Eidos.

1.2 Memory and Performance

While the game will run fine in 256 Mb of RAM, your playing experience will be smoother if you have at least 512 Mb.

Regardless of how much memory you have, you can maximize your available memory and increase the overall performance of the game engine by doing the following:

q Closing any open windows
q Shutting down all other programs, including menu-bar programs like ICQ
q Defragmenting your hard drive

Eidos recommends that you have no other programs running at all while playing Commandos Strike Force. Other programs, including virus checkers, system utilities and screen savers can cause system degradation when playing games software and may conflict with the game for system resources, potentially resulting in instability and crashes.

1.3 Known Issues

q Ensure you are running latest drivers from nVidia and ATI.

Pyro Studios and Eidos Interactive are committed to providing customer support for our games on a continuing basis. In that spirit, there may be a patch for Commandos Strike Force forthcoming; visit the Eidos website for more information.

Eidos.com

Part 2: Technical Issues

2.1 Installation & Set-up

System Requirements

The minimum system requirements are as follows:

COMPUTER:
IBM PC or 100% compatible
OPERATING SYSTEM:
Microsoft Windows 2000, XP
CPU:
Pentium 4 1.8Ghz or Athlon XP Equivalent
RAM:
512Mb
GRAPHICS:
100% DirectX 9.0c -compatible 64 Mb 3D Accelerated Card (GeForce 4Ti / Radeon 9 series)
SOUND:
Microsoft Windows 2000/XP compatible sound card (100% DirectX 9.0c -compatible)
HARD DRIVE:
350Mb free disk space
INPUT DEVICES:
100% Windows 2000/XP compatible mouse and keyboard

The recommended system requirements are as follows:

CPU:
Pentium 4 2.4Ghz or Athlon XP Equivalent
RAM:
512Mb
GRAPHICS:
128Mb 3D Card -100% DirectX 9c compliant (GeForce 6000 Series / Radeon X Series)
SOUND:
Windows 2000/XP compatible sound card (100% DirectX 9.0c -compatible)
HARD DRIVE:
350Mb free disk space

Preparing Your Hard Drive

To ensure that your installation is trouble free, you should check to see that your hard drive and file system are both tuned for optimum performance. Windows comes with two utility programs that find and fix any errors and optimise your hard drive performance. The first of these programs is called scandisk. Scandisk will check your hard drive for problems and can fix any that it finds. You can run scandisk by clicking on the Start button from the Windows Taskbar, followed by Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally scandisk.

Once scandisk has finished running, you should next optimise your hard drive's performance by running a program called Disk Defragmenter. You can run Disk Defragmenter by clicking on the Start button from the Windows desktop, followed by Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally Disk Defragmenter.

Installing Commandos Strike Force

Installing Commandos Strike Force is easy.

Double-click on the Setup.exe file to bring up the Installer.

You will be prompted to select the path and directory to which you wish to install the game on your hard drive. The default is

C:\Program Files\Eidos\Pyro Studios\Commandos Strike Force Demo

You may change this if you wish to.

At some point, the Microsoft DirectX 9.0c install prompt will appear if you do not have it on your system already. Please read the on-screen information before selecting an option. You may either choose to install or not install at this time. If the Commandos Strike Force Demo installer detects an active version of DirectX 9.0c on your system, we encourage you to not reinstall DirectX. If the installer does not detect DirectX 9.0c, you must install it before you are able to play Commandos Strike Force (please refer to the next section of this guide before proceeding).

Starting/Loading The Game

To start playing Commandos Strike Force you may:

q Click on the desktop icon (if created).

Or...

q Click on the Start button.
q Choose Programs from the pop-up menu.
q Drag your mouse to the right and through Eidos, Pyro Studios and Commandos Strike Force Demo.
q Click on Commandos Strike Force Demo from the ensuing pop-up menu.

Uninstalling Commandos Strike Force

If you need to UNINSTALL Commandos Strike Force, you may do any of the following two things:

q Click on the Start button.
q Choose Programs from the pop-up menu.
q Drag your mouse to the right and through Eidos, Pyro Studios and Commandos Strike Force Demo.
q Click on Uninstall Commandos Strike Force Demo from the ensuing pop-up menu and follow the onscreen instructions.

OR

Go to the Control Panel and choose Add/Remove Programs. Click on Commandos Strike Force Demo from the pop-up panel to follow, select the Add/Remove button, and follow the onscreen prompts.

2.2 Crashes and Lock-Ups

When I start Commandos Strike Force, my mouse cursor disappears and my computer locks-up.

Chances are your installed audio card drivers are not compatible with DirectX. The only solution is to get a DirectX 9.0c -compatible driver from your audio card manufacturer.

When I start Commandos Strike Force, I receive the following error message:

"The application CommXPC.exe referenced memory at address xxxx:xxxx that can't be read from."

Chances are your installed video card drivers are not compatible with DirectX. The only solution is to get a DirectX 9.0c -compatible driver from your video card manufacturer.

The Installer keeps stopping when a certain percentage is complete.

There are three likely causes:

q You may have run out of free space on your hard drive. Please remove unwanted programs to free up additional space for the game, and then reinstall Commandos Strike Force.
q Files are possibly being copied to a corrupted area of your hard drive. If this is so, you'll need to run the scandisk program and make sure to use the Thorough option (see previous). After scandisk has finished running and has informed you that your drive is free of errors, try to re-install.

Commandos Strike Force is crashing to the desktop with no error messages.

This problem can be caused by several different things. Here's a list of the most common culprits associated with these crashes:

q Make sure the game has been installed properly.

q Make sure DirectX 9.0c has been installed properly.

q Make sure you have the latest drivers for your video card and that they are DirectX 9.0c -compatible.

q Make sure you have the latest drivers for your sound card and that they are DirectX 9.0c -compatible.

q Make sure Virtual Memory is enabled on your system.

q Run Scandisk.

q Run Disk Defragmenter.

q Try exiting the game, rebooting your machine, and re-entering the game.

Note: That if your system crashes to the desktop while playing Commandos Strike Force, you should probably reboot your computer before starting a new play session. Otherwise, DirectDraw or DirectSound may be in a locked state, and the game will be unable to use your sound or video hardware.

2.3 DirectX-Related Questions

DirectX has become the new standard in Windows application development. Nearly all high-performance software will be geared around this technology, so we do not normally recommend that customers attempt to alter its installation on their system

Can I Run Without DirectX?

I cannot use DirectX on my computer! Is there any other way to run Commandos Strike Force?

If you do not have DirectX installed on your computer, you will not be able to run Commandos Strike Force.

2.4 Technical Support

If you need further technical assistance after reading the Readme file please do not hesitate to contact us using any of the methods listed below.

When contacting us, please be sure to provide us with as much information as possible. Make sure to note the exact type of hardware that you are using in your system, including: your sound card, CD-ROM drive, amount of RAM present, speed and manufacturer of your processor. Also, make sure to include the title and version of the game, and a detailed description of the problem.

It will also help if you prepare by creating a "DXDiag" diagnostic file in Windows before you call us. Simply follow these instructions:

q Click on Start
q Click on Run
q Type dxdiag
q Click on OK
q Click on the Save Information button and save the file to your computer.

When you call our Technical Support line either have this file open or have a printed copy. If you send an e-mail query you may attach the file to the e-mail.

Technical Support Contact Details (United Kingdom)

Address Wimbledon Bridge House
1 Hartfield Road
Wimbledon
SW19 3RU
E-Mail www.eidos.co.uk/support/index.html
Phone 0870 9000222
Web www.eidos.co.uk/support/index.html

Technical Support Contact Details (United States of America)

Address Eidos Customer Services
651 Brannan Street
San Francisco
CA 94107
E-Mail www.eidos.com/support.html
Phone 415 615-6220
Fax 415 547-1201
Web www.eidos.com/support.html

Note: Hints and tips will not be given out over the Technical Support lines.

Alternatively, you may find help with hardware problems on one of the websites maintained by the supplier, some of which are listed below:

3D labs: www.3dlabs.com
ATI Technologies: www.ati.com
Creative Labs: www.creative.com/worldwide.asp
Matrox: www.matrox.com
nVIDIA: www.nvidia.com
Intel support.intel.com
Terratec: www.terratec.net

Eidos Interactive maintains a web page with links to all major video and audio card manufacturers, which is a good first stop if you are looking to upgrade your drivers. You can reach this page at:

UK: www.eidos.co.uk/support/index.html
US: www.eidos.com/support.html

Further technical information and drivers for Windows-based PCs can also be found at Windrivers.com