FLYING CORPS(tm) History. -------- v1.00b Demo - Contains a fraction of the landscape available in the full game. v1.00a Patch to include fixed views and various other view problems. v1.00 Big Demo v1.00 Compiled December 1996 ------------------------------------------- CONTENTS ------------------------------------------- RUNNING ON A PENTIUM 90 IMPORTANT DIRECTX NOTES JOYSTICK SUPPORT FAQ's (TECHNICAL ISSUES) FAQ's (IN-FLIGHT & OTHER GAMEPLAY ISSUES) NOTES ON VERSIONS CUSTOMER SERVICE INFORMATION ------------------------------------------- RUNNING ON A PENTIUM 90: If you intend to use Flying Corps with a Pentium 90, we recommend that you try running the DOS version. On a Windows 95 system, this means "Restart in DOS Mode". Follow the instructions in the Technical Supplement for INSTALLATION UNDER DOS. IMPORTANT DIRECTX NOTES (Windows 95 Users Only): To run the Windows 95 version of Flying Corps you will need to use DirectX components. You may already have DirectX installed. We offer to install DirectX 2.0 during the installation process. However, if you find this does not give an acceptable framerate during flight, you may like to try installing version 3.0. Throughout configuration tests, version 3.0 was reported to give better performance on some systems. You will find a copy of DirectX 3.0 in the subdirectory: fly\directx3. IF YOU HAVE PREVIOUSLY EXPERIENCED PROBLEMS WITH THE USE OF DIRECTX, WE STRONGLY ADVISE YOU TO SKIP THE DIRECTX INSTALLATION. IN THESE CASES, PLEASE ATTEMPT TO USE THE DOS VERSION OF THE GAME BY RESTARTING IN DOS MODE. See INSTALLATION UNDER DOS in the Technical Supplement. JOYSTICK SUPPORT Basic 2-direction, 2-button joysticks are suported. In addition, Throttle, rudder and 4 buttons can be supported through the full PC joystick port. A coolie hat compatible with Thrustmaster or Flightstick standards is also recognised. If you have more advanced joystick and throttle hardware which plugs into the keyboard port then you should use the software provided with the hardware to program the coolie hats and additional buttons. We have provided the files ROWAN.B50 and ROWAN.M50 to program the Thrustmaster F-16 and F-22 sticks. These are text files that can be converted for use with similar hardware. We advise you to continue to access the throttle through our analogue interface. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (TECHNICAL ISSUES): Q. What level of install is recommended? A. The MEDIUM level is recommended. The SMALL does use less hard disk space but you will encounter delays as sound effects are loaded in from the CD. Q. Running under Windows I sometimes get an out of RAM error. A. Your hard disk may be full and so Windows cannot page out. Q. I installed the game in Windows then played the game under DOS. The game played ok but I didn't get any sound. A. The DOS install includes a sound configuration stage. By installing under Windows, this stage was bypassed. To configure the sound after installation, run the DOS install program THAT IS ON THE HARD DISK in the Flying Corps directory. Q. My session is freezing in Windows 95? A. If the game freezes when playing under Windows, press the ENTER key to attempt to return to Windows. If this happens it is safest to power down before playing again. Note1: Do not play Flying Corps with other applications loaded. Note2: Disable Windows screen savers when playing Flying Corps. Q. Running under Windows 95, the game seems to slow down when the music starts and the music seems fragmented. A. If you experience this problem then you most probably have a SoundBlaster card fitted. Either play the game with music disabled or use midi output or try the DOS version of the game. The music requires 18+ channels which can be supplied by a SB16 card in mono. Q. Sometimes after flying straight and level for a period the game pauses while the CD is accessed. Can the pause be eliminated? On some machines the cache-ing of the CD can interfere with the spooling of the landscape data. Experience has shown that this effect can be reduced or eliminated by one or both of the following actions: reduce the size of the CD cache, disable SmartDrv cache-ing of the CD. The size of the CD cache can be reduced by editting the MSCDEX line in your autoexec.bat file. Find or add the /M parameter. Try /M:1. You may also be able to modify the CD cache by editting the appropriate line in your config.sys file. SmartDrv cache-ing of the CD can be disabled by either removing the SMARTDRV line in your autoexec.bat file or placing it before the MSCDEX line. OTHER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Q. Why do my aircraft numbers change from mission to mission? A. We change the number to be appropriate for each mission. The player can then go to the squadron screen to override these defaults. Q. If I am not in command, which position do I fly? A. This depends on how many aircraft are flying on the day. Until you get squadron command you will be in flight B. However if only one flight is going up on the day, then you will be bumped into Flight A. Select the squadron icon to see the flight details for the day. Q. What does the Assigned aircraft message mean? A. This means that the computer has information about the aircraft that the ai has assigned to the player. The assigned aircraft is the best option for the player to attack, however the player can please himself whether or not he takes the advice. To padlock on the assigned aircraft press f5 when the "Assigned Aircraft" message is displayed in yellow. Q. Why does the second line of messages on the info line get printed in different colours? A. The messages to the left are brighter because they are the most recent messages. Messages to the right could be very old. Q. Why doesn't the aircraft fly straight and level when I take my hand off the joystick? The aircraft will fly straight and level when under keyboard control. A. WW1 aircraft were tail heavy and forward pressure was required on the stick. In particular, on the Camel this pressure was not necessary at the end of a patrol because the centre of gravity changed as fuel was used up. On our model, you will find that the effect is most noticeable at low altitudes and disappears at high altitudes. Trying to fly an aircraft from the keyboard is tricky. The pilot needs help and so most of the time we automatically trim the aircraft whenever he releases a control key. This trim is disabled when the aircraft is at a steep roll or is about to stall. If you want to try keyboard control without the trim, then configure the joystick as normal but fly using the keyboard. Q. Take-off: Sometimes I pull back on the stick and don't go up. A. Possibly you are trying to drag the aircraft into the sky by pulling hard on the stick. The aircraft tail is probably digging into the ground and so the aircraft is being slowed down. Q. How does the inside padlock view work? A. If enemy aircraft are not in view, then there will be a red flashing arrow indicating the direction to turn. Most of the time you can manoeuvre so that the arrow is at the top of the screen and pull back on the stick. This is not always possible in WW1 fighters because of their low power. If you get disorientated then swop to the outside padlock view. The buttons on 4 button joysticks have been programmed to allow you to flick between inside and outside padlock views. Q. Pressing tab when flying gives accelerated time. The display changes to a map which shows the route, waypoints and an aeroplane icon indicating the progress of my aircraft. Why does the aeroplane icon sometimes not follow the route? A. The icon will move away from the straight line route if there is an interesting item nearby. An example would be for the aircraft to follow a railway line that runs parallel to the route rather than follow the route itself. Q. Why can't I do a snap or flick roll in any of the aircraft? A. This manoeuvre consists of pulling back on the stick until the wings are nearly stalled and then applying full rudder. If the joy stick is not correctly calibrated it is sometimes not possible to move the elevators sufficiently to generate the stall. You can see if this is the cause of the problem by trying the following test: go to a scramble mission and get straight and level get the angle of attack indicators up on the top line of the screen (press I key) roll the aircraft into a 90 degree roll pull back on the stick as far as it will go One or both of the angle of attack indicators should go red and the aircraft should enter a spin. Release the stick to recover. You can use opposite rudder to exit the spin quicker. If you don't get a red indicator then you need to recalibrate the stick. We have found that it is possible to get false readings during calibration if the stick is moved quickly and bangs against the stops. When you recalibrate try moving the stick slowly. Also, check that the joystick position icon covers the whole box area during the final test phase of calibration. Q. Why do I start to roll quickly when I push the stick forward when in a steep dive? A. When trying to maintain a steep dive it is likely that you will be flying with a negative angle of attack. Push too far and it is possible to stall the wings and if there is any difference between the lift on the two wings a spin is induced. Q. Why can't I do a snap roll on the Camel when Gyroscope effect is enabled? A. Possibly you haven't done 180 degrees of the roll before the nose starts to come down. The gyroscope effect will then oppose the roll. One technique used by WW1 aviators was to remove power just before entering the manoeuvre. The gyroscope effect is then reduced and also the asymetric rigging designed to oppose the engine torque helps the roll. Q. Why does the aircraft icon on the in-flight map sometimes cycle between two waypoints? A. The two waypoints will be the beginning and end of the patrol. NOTES ON VERSIONS v1.00a view patch This version contains the following additional view keys; Home ........ Front inside cockpit view Page Up ..... Right front inside cockpit view Page Down ... Right rear inside cockpit view Delete ...... Left rear inside cockpit view Insert ...... Front left inside cockpit view The camera will only remain on these views while the keys are held down. Releasing the keys will cause the camera to revert to the previosly selected view. Holding down the Num Lock key in conjunction with the above keys will produce a version of the view with the camera pitched upwards. Left and right views from the cockpit are available by holding Alt-4 and Alt-8 respectively. The versions of these views with the camera pitched upwards are duplicated on the following key combinations; Ctrl-8 ...... Front cockpit view Ctrl-9 ...... Right front cockpit view Ctrl-6 ...... Right cockpit view Ctrl-3 ...... Right rear cockpit view Ctrl-1 ...... Left rear cockpit view Ctrl-4 ...... Left cockpit view Ctrl-7 ...... Left front cockpit view CUSTOMER SERVICE DETAILS In the United Kingdom - Customer Service Hotline: 0181 343 9143 (Mon-Fri 9:30-6:00) Fax: 0181 343 7447 email: support@empire.co.uk Our Address: EMPIRE INTERACTIVE 677 High Road North Finchley LONDON, N12 0DA In the U.S. - Customer Service Hotline: (301) 916 9303 (Mon-Fri) Fax: (301) 916 0437 email: empire@erols.com Our Address: EMPIRE INTERACTIVE 13220 Wisteria Drive Bay N-2, Germantown MD 20874