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Independence War Deluxe
Edition Support FAQ This page contains commonly asked support questions about the Independence War Deluxe Edition. Please read this page if you're having problems running the game. If you're still having problems then email our support address: Please give all relevant information (e.g. video card, processor, etc) and a complete summary of the problem when sending support email.
Q. The game exits back to the desktop when I run it in software mode. How can I fix this? A. First Check to see if your Drivers are working properly with DX6.1 by...
B. Next ensure you have the latest DirectX 6 compatible drivers for your video board. However, some video cards are unable to run the game's software mode full screen, due to incompatible DirectX drivers. As this is a driver issue we are unable to offer a fix, but you should be able to run the game full screen by adjusting the hardware acceleration slider in the Display Properties control panel:
The game should then run full screen. However the mouse cursor will flicker, and there may be occasional (very brief) screen glitches.
Q. I can't get the game's 800x600 mode to work on my 3Dfx board. Why is this? A. If you have a Voodoo 1 based 3Dfx board you can only run in 640x480 mode. Select that option from the game launcher instead. For other voodoo boards, or if you can't even get the 640x480 mode running the best solution is to re-install the latest 3Dfx reference drivers for your board. You can download them from www.3dfx.com. Another problem may be that your monitor is not configured for 800x600 mode, or that the refresh rate on your 3Dfx board's 800x600 mode is set too high for your monitor to cope with. Try changing the refresh rate on your 3Dfx board for 800x600 mode to 60hz or 75 hz. You can do this using the 3Dfx control properties tab, in your display control panel. If you do this you may have to re-adjust your monitor screen settings to get a proper full screen mode.
Q. The 3Dfx 800x600 mode isn't full screen / is off center. How can I fix this? A. There will be a black border around the menus and movies in 800x600 mode - this is normal. When flying the ship the screen should be full screen. If it isn't then there are two ways to adjust this:
Q. The contacts list keeps scrolling all the time. How can I fix this problem? A. This problem is caused by an incompatibility in the mouse driver, normally - but not always - with mousewheel capable mice. The solution is to edit one of the game's files, the keybind.ini file. The file is located in <install directory>\psg\resource\keybind.ini Edit the file using notepad or another text editor and look for the two lines:
These lines are located together in the script file. Comment the lines out by adding a semicolon to the beginning of each line, e.g.
; BINDKEY KEY_MOUSE_WHEEL_UP,
R_PREV_CONTACT,0 Then save the file. This should fix the problem by disabling mousewheel support in the game. You might want to make a backup of the keybind.ini file first.
Q. When I start the game the ship continually rolls. How can I fix it?
Q. I can't get my joystick to work. How can I fix this problem? A. The game relies on the Windows joystick setup - the game itself doesn't have any joystick configuration features. It uses the joystick that Windows tells it is there, and relies on the joystick being set up correctly using the Windows Game Controllers control panel. If you have a Microsoft® Sidewinder™ Joystick then please check the Sidewinder ReadMe that came with your joystick drivers, as there may be incompatibilities with certain types of sound cards or joystick ports. (The ReadMe file is normally installed in your start menu: Start/Programs/Microsoft Hardware/Sidewinder Game Devices/Sidewinder Game Device ReadMe). If your joystick came with a Windows driver disk, then follow the instructions you got with the stick to install the driver software. Make sure you read any documentation that came with the joystick as this will often help you to solve problems that may be associated with it.Often downloading and installing the latest drivers from the joystick manufacturer's web site will fix many problems. If the stick didn't come with a driver disk, or if the driver disk doesn't seem to work you should be able to configure it as a custom joystick using the Windows 95 Game Controllers control panel.
This should (hopefully) set up your Joystick to work with the game.
Q. Why is the cursor flickery and difficult to see? A. This problem occurs only in software mode when custom mouse pointers are selected. Open the Mouse control panel, and select the Pointers TAB. Click on the Precision Select cursor and then click on the Use Default button. This will fix the problem.
Q. The game
crashes when my Screen saver / power save function activates. How can I fix this? Q. The Intro movie plays in a small window, how do I make it play fullscreen? A. The Defiance Intro Movie is in MPEG format. If you experience problems playing the movie, such as it running in a window instead of full screen, you may need to install DXMEDIA. DXMEDIA is an add-on program to Windows which allows the Playback of different types of movies. You can install it by clicking on the Install DXMedia button on the game launcher. NOTE: On minimum specification PCs the Intro movie may play back jerkily. This will not affect the game. However you can minimize any playback problems by switching your desktop resolution to 640x480 and 16 bit color. Q. Are there any other features that we wern't told about? (Advanced users only) A. Independence War: Defiance allows command line options to be used to enable advanced features that are normally hidden from the player. Note that these advanced features are UNSUPPORTED, and may cause problems with the game if used improperly. We can't answer any queries regarding problems caused by enabling or attempting to enable the unsupported options. The command line options available are: -lagrange (UNSUPPORTED) Enables a SELECT LAGRANGE button on the Command Workstation's GSV view. Originally the game was designed so that you could select your own jump destination, but we removed the Select LaGrange button during testing, as having players ignore the mission objectives and go off exploring made the game almost impossible to test, and frequently caused problems in the missions. Normally the Navigator automatically selects your Capsule Space jump destination, but enabling this button allows you to select your own LaGrange point destination, and jump to any place in the star map you wish. We've created this option to re-enable the button because we know many players would like to do some exploring and see some of the universe we've created that you don't normally get a chance to see. -w (UNSUPPORTED) Run Independence War: Defiance in a window (Software mode only - 256 color desktop recommend). This option is useful if the game is crashing without any error message being displayed. Enabling this option will run the game in a window on your desktop, and any error messages and dialog boxes will be visible. -b -16 Run the game in 3Dfx Mode -800x600 Run the game in 800x600 resolution (3Dfx Voodoo2 only) -xsound (UNSUPPORTED) Disable the sound. Useful when the game is crashing to find out if it's a sound related problem. If the game runs fine with the sound disabled then it's a sound problem. -hardstars (UNSUPPORTED) Changes the stars in 3Dfx mode into a special hardware mode. The stars will flicker, but game frame rate and performance will be increased on slower PCs. May also help with graphic glitches on Voodoo Rush cards. -nologos (UNSUPPORTED) Skips the opening intro movie. Use this if any intro movie problems prevent you from starting the game. Note: See the section INTRO MOVIE AND DXMEDIA above. -norudder (UNSUPPORTED) Turns off rudder support in the game. Use this if the ship continually rolls while playing the game, or alternatively install the latest drivers for your joystick. See TECHNICAL SUPPORT below. To add a command line option you should first create a shortcut to the Independence War: Defiance program (You could copy one of the shortcuts that's added to your Start Menu) Click on the shortcut with your right mouse button and select PROPERTIES from the pop-up menu. In the target box add one or more of the command line options to the end of the line. DO NOT delete any command line options already there! Then click OK to save the changes. Q. Can i remap my keys? (Advanced users only) A. Independence War: Defiance allows
complete customization of the keyboard via the KEYBIND.INI file. The file is located in
the directory: WARNING: Make a backup of the KEYBIND.INI file before you edit it, so you can return the keys back to their default settings if you need to. If you delete or corrupt the file and you have no backup you will have to re-install the game. To edit it, double click on the file to load it into notepad. You'll see a list of commands. Each command represents one key bound to one function. The following keys can't be bound to new functions: CTRL The format for the main key binding command is: BINDKEY <Key Used>,<Game Function>, <Shift value> The The Note: Only the left shift key can be used to activate shifted keys. For instance, if you wanted to re-define the target next enemy function to N, rather than E: BINDKEY KEY_N R_TARG_NEXT_ENEMY,0 Or remote logon to shift L: BINDKEY KEY_L R_REMOTE_LINK,1 There is one special key binding function: BINDKEYTHR. This allows you to set up the two linked keys for forward and reverse thrusters (Normally A and Z) The format for this command is: BINDKEYTHR <Forward Thrust Key>,<Backward Thrust Key> If you want to add a comment to the KEYBIND.INI file, either to note what modifications you've made, or to comment out a particular key binding, then use a ';' E.g. ; This is a comment WARNING: Do not bind two different keypresses to the same function, or two functions to the same keypress, or the game may not function correctly. Q. How can improve the frame rate of the game? A. There are several things you can do to increase performance if you feel that the game's frame rate isn't satisfactory. These work especially well on lower specification PCs with slower processors and/or less than 32mb of RAM
Q. What do i do when the game crashes with a Page Fault? A. This could be for one of many reasons, but the most likely is out of date or incorrect graphics or audio drivers. First make sure you have installed DirectX6.1 (See DIRECTX), Then make sure you have installed the latest full (not Beta) release drivers for your hardware. In most cases this will fix the problem. Q. What do i do if The game quits back suddenly to the Windows part way through some missions with no error message. A. This is probably because the game ran out of disk space for virtual memory. Free up some hard disk space and try the mission again. Q. Are there any spacific Video cards that have problems with this game? A. Yes, the video cards listed have some problems.
Q. Have there been any changes to the manual? A. Yes, here they are.
Q. How do I get a hold of Technical Support? A. You can ask for help with your Infogrames game by reaching us by Phone, Fax, Online and Mail: PHONE: INTERNET: FAX: MAIL:
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