Electronic Arts(R) presents NEED FOR SPEED(TM) III Work In Progress as of June 15th 1998 Sneak Preview Demo: Pre-Beta Version Final Version Available in Stores Fall 98 This demo is provided as is. No technical support or installation support will be provided! Demo Description ================ You are one of two hot rodding Lamborgini Countach's. Try to beat you're rival to the finish line--but watch out for the cops! (If only you could stop to enjoy the crisp mountain air on Rocky Pass, one of NFS III's advanced tracks.) Features Of Full Version Available Fall 98 ========================================== o 12 Licensed Cars With Real Physics o Lamborghini Diablo, Ferrari 550 Maranello, Mercedes CLK GTR, Corvette C5, & more o 9 Tracks With Road Traffic o Hot Pursuit, Tournament, and More o Be The Cop - Chase or be Chased o Realistic Cop Radio Chatter o Up to 8 Player Network Racing o Dashboards, Night Driving, Headlights, & Weather o Download New Cars from the Internet o TV-Style Replays o Direct 3D, Voodoo, & Voodoo 2 o Feel the Road with Force Feedback o For the latest News goto WWW.NeedForSpeed.com System Configuration ==================== Minimum CPU: 166 Recommended CPU: 266 PentiumII (or better) Minimum RAM: 16 Megabytes Recommended RAM: 32 Megabytes Recommended Video Accelerator Chipsets: 3Dfx Voodoo, 3Dfx Voodoo2, NVidia Riva 128, Intel 740(i740 Starfighter), ATI Rage Pro For systems equipped with 3D video accelerators, it is highly recommended that the latest versions of all video drivers be obtained and installed. A software renderer is provided for those without 3D accelerators. Controller/Key Mappings ======================= In Game Menu - Esc Toggle Draw Distance - F3 Toggle HUD on/off - F5 Rearview Mirror on/off - F7 Music on/off - F8 Reset Car - F11 Horn - H HUD map zoom/unzoom - Keypad +, Keypad - Look Behind - B If NO joystick is detected: Accelerate - Up Arrow Turn Left - Left Arrow Turn Right - Right Arrow Brake - Down Arrow Emergency Brake - Space Bar Reverse - Down Arrow (Hold) Camera View - C If a joystick is detected: Accelerate - Stick Forward Turn Left - Stick Left Turn Right - Stick Right Brake - Stick Down Emergency Brake - Joy Button 1 Reverse - Stick Down (Hold) Camera View - Joy Button 2 Note that many configuration and options adjustments may be made from the in-game pause menus. Those users who desire better performance should experiment with adjusting the settings in the Graphics options and HUD options menus. Video Driver Configuration ========================== A configuration utility called "3D Device Setup" is installed with NFS III. This utility controls how NFS III will draw to your system's video hardware; it allows you to select the rendering interface that the game will use. When you install NFS III, "3D Device Setup" automatically makes a default selection and normally users will find this selection satisfactory. It is recommended that this default choice NOT be altered. "3D Device Setup" is provided for the following unusual cases: o you install or remove video devices o you have more than one supported 3D accelerator installed to choose from o the default rendering interface fails Whenever you install or remove video devices, do not run NFS III again without first running "3D Device Setup". To run it, choose "3D Device Setup" from the Start Menu. By default, the "3D Device Setup" item is located in the "Start Menu\Electronic Arts\Need For Speed III" menu. Immediately, "3D Device Setup" will test your system for the presence of supported video devices (this may be accompanied by a black screen flash on your monitor). When "3D Device Setup" comes up, press the "Use Defaults" button to automatically select the best video device for NFS III. Press the "Ok" button to quit the utility. NFS III will now function correctly. Direct 3D Support ================= Although Direct 3D is supported, this support is only officially extended to certain 3D accelerator devices. Among these are Riva 128 and ATI Rage Pro. While Direct 3D supports a wider variety of 3D accelerator devices, and the "3D Device Setup" utility allows you to force the game to run using these unsupported devices, the behavior of NFS III cannot be predicted in these situations. In extreme cases, running NEED FOR SPEED with a D3D device that is not officially supported can lead to program crashes and/or system crashes. Under D3D, the performance of NFS III (both visual AND audio) is influenced greatly by the D3D driver versions that are installed. It is highly recommended that the latest versions of all video drivers be obtained and installed. Please consult your card manufacturer for their newest drivers. Also, keep in mind that video chip manufacterers sometimes provide drivers in addition to the card manufacturer. For instance, 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. (www.3dfx.com) provides drivers that can be used effectively with the Diamond Monster 3D card. FORCE FEEDBACK SUPPORT ====================== Ensure your force feedback device is configured properly under Windows 95, all cables are properly attached, and run NFS III. From the main menu, select OPTIONS, then CONTROLS, and then FORCE FEEDBACK. A message saying "Auto detecting" will appear and the game will look for your force feedback device. The message "Device not found" appears if the device is not detected; double-check that your device configuration in Windows 95 is correct and try again. If your device configuration appears to be correct, your device drivers may need to be updated; contact the manufacturer of your device to obtain the latest drivers. CONTROLLER CONFIGURATION ======================== * If you attempt to configure your controller (i.e., joystick, wheel, pedals) in the CONTROLS setup, it's important that you keep the joystick or wheel centered and not depress the pedals; doing so can cause the controller to perform in a reverse manner. Make sure that you have the pedals in the full up position (off gas) when you select to map a pedal as a control (i.e., ACCELERATE or BRAKE). If you have the pedal depressed when you try to map it as either ACCELERATE or BRAKE (and then release the pedal to map it), then the pedal will have a reverse effect in gameplay. (i.e., releasing the pedal with your foot will act as acceleration, while depressing the pedal will let off the gas). Make sure that you have the steering wheel in the center position when you select STEER LEFT in the CONTROLS setup menu and then move the steering wheel to the left to map it correctly. If you are holding the steering wheel to the left when you click on the STEER LEFT selection, and then release the steering wheel, this will result in your steering wheel being mapped backwards in gameplay (i.e., Steering Left with the steering wheel in gameplay will result in your car steering more to the right). * The STEERING SENSITIVITY option is disabled if steering is mapped to a keyboard, gamepad, or joystick buttons. THRUSTMASTER T1 AND T2 WHEEL CONFIGURATION ========================================== Some joysticks/wheels may have centering problems when calibrated in Windows 95. Included on the Need For Speed III CD, in the Utility folder, is the ProPanel applet from Thrustmaster. ProPanel is designed to fix game port calibration problems associated with sound cards or multi-function cards. It will also add new device options to your device list. These new devices include the ThrustMaster Formula T1, Formula T2, Grand Prix 1, NASCAR Pro and Formula Pro driving controls. To install the ProPanel applet, first create a temporary folder on your desktop. Next, drag the file Propanel.exe from the Utility folder on the game CD to your temporary folder (be sure you COPY the file, by holding the SHIFT key down before you drop the file in the temporary folder; otherwise, Windows will only create a shortcut to the file). Windows may report that the file could not be moved, but it should be in the temporary folder nevertheless. Propanel.exe is a self-extracting executable file -- double-click it and it will create several other files in the same folder. Find the Setup.exe file and run it to install the ProPanel aplet to your system's Control Panel. After installing the applet, you can delete the temporary folder and all its contents. To install and calibrate a game controller using the Thrustmaster ProPanel aplet, click on "Device Select" and choose a controller. Calibrate the selected device by clicking on "Calibrate" and following the on screen instructions. After calibration, click on "Test" to test the functionality of your controller. NOTE: The ProPanel utility stores its calibration information in the Windows Registry, which allows the calibration to be used by other games, too. There is a known bug in the aplet that sometimes causes it to crash after calibration of a non-Thrustmaster gaming device. You will need to restart Windows if this occurs, but your device will have the new calibration, as the crash happens after the calibration info has been saved. ****************************************************************************************** TROUBLESHOOTING ****************************************************************************************** VIDEO & GRAPHICS PROBLEMS ========================= * OpenGL cards and 3Dfx cards may conflict with each other. Please remove the OpenGL card from your computer to play Need for Speed III for 3Dfx. PROBLEMS WITH THE SIERRA SCREAMIN' 3D PCI VIDEO CARD ==================================================== If you are experiencing problems with the Sierra Screamin' 3D video card using the Windows 95 driver package v1.13 provided by Canopus Corporation, you should use the drivers for the Sierra Screamin' 3D provided by Microsoft (with DirectX 5) or the driver package v2.10.06 provided by Canopus Corporation if you want to run NFS III Win95 properly using the Sierra Screamin' 3D video card. PROBLEMS WITH THE DIAMOND VIPER PRO PCI VIDEO CARD ================================================== If you are experiencing problems with the Diamond Viper Pro video card, you can disable PCI burst mode transfers in your PC's BIOS setup. If your PC's BIOS does not have this feature, Diamond supplies a utility that you can use to disable PCI burst mode transfers. If you have access to the Internet, you can download the utility at Diamond's FTP site at ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com/pub/misc/burst.exe. SOUND CARDS WITHOUT DIRECTX SUPPORT =================================== If you are using a sound card, Need For Speed III requires that it be supported by DirectX drivers. If your sound card drivers do not have DirectX support, you may experience delayed sound, stuttering, or sound drop out. In addition, you may experience some difficulties maneuvering in the menus with your joystick, if it is attached to the sound card's game port. If this is the case, you can maneuver in the menus with your mouse or keyboard. PROBLEMS WITH THE OAK TECHNOLOGIES MOZART SOUND CARD ==================================================== If you are experiencing problems with the Mozart sound card using the Oak Windows 95 driver package v6.01, you should use the driver package v4.01 if you want to run NFS III Win95 properly using the Mozart sound card. STUTTERING OR SLUGGISH PERFORMANCE ================================== In the event that the game stutters or performs sluggishly on your system, try the following suggestions for improving game performance. The benefits of each will vary upon your computer's processor type and speed, total memory, etc. * Let Windows 95 manage virtual memory: Some systems may experience a brief pause during gameplay. This is due to Windows 95 virtual memory management. Ensure you allow Windows 95 to manage virtual memory and that your hard disk has at least 30 MB free space for Windows 95 swap space. Windows 95 manages virtual memory by default. To enable automatic virtual memory management, click on the START button in the Windows 95 menu bar, select SETTINGS, then CONTROL PANEL. When the Control Panel window opens, double click on SYSTEM. A System Properties control panel will open - select PERFORMANCE, then VIRTUAL MEMORY. Ensure that the option "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings" is selected. Press OK, then press OK again. You will need to restart your system for the change to take effect. * Avoid running other programs in the background: We strongly recommend that you shut down all other Windows 95 applications before running Need For Speed III. Applications running in the background use memory and processing power, and can cause gameplay to be sluggish or stutter. KEYBOARD PROBLEMS ================= Some newer keyboards do not allow certain combinations of more than two keys being depressed simultaneously. For example, if you were pressing both the down arrow key to accelerate and the left arrow key to turn, and you pressed the key to honk your horn, your horn would not honk. Unfortunately, this problem is due to a limitation of the hardware. LOW SYSTEM RESOURCES ==================== If a warning appears when you run NFS III stating that your system resources may be too low to run the game, it means that you may not have enough free memory available. Under Windows 95, memory is a combination of RAM and hard drive space. The minimum RAM required for NFS III is 16MB. If you meet the minimum RAM requirement, and you receive this warning, make sure that no other applications are running before running NFS III. If you still get the warning, check to see how much free space is available on you hard drive (double-click My Computer, then right-click on your hard drive icon, then click on Properties). There should be at least 10 MB of free space, preferably much more. Free up space if you need to. LESS THAN 1MB HARD DRIVE SPACE ============================== If a warning appears when you run NFS III stating that you have less than 1MB of free space on your hard drive, it means that there may not be enough room for the game to save this data. You should try to free up space on your hard drive if you get this warning. VITALSIGNS NET.MEDIC ==================== If you are running VitalSigns Net.Medic at the same time as NFS III, you may encounter a shifted color palette in gameplay. It's a good idea to close all open applications before running NFS III, including TSRs in the System Tray. WINDOWS NT ========== Need For Speed III was written to operate under Windows 95 and does not specifically support Windows NT. If you are attempting to run the game under Windows NT and have questions related specifically to Windows NT, please contact Microsoft directly via the Customer Support contact methods supplied with your Windows NT documentation. LEGAL ===== NEED FOR SPEED is a trademark of Electronic Arts Inc. WINDOWS, WINDOWS 95, WINDOWS NT, and DIRECTX are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. This document is Copyright 1998 by Electronic Arts Inc. English NFS3 README Revision 1