Setting up your 3D hardware acceleration for best results

Screen Resolution Help

        Non-Zbuffered memory is applicable when your hardware acceleration is through a chipset that doesn't use memory for the Zbuffer like, for example, the NEC PowerVR. Software rendering memory doesn't require video memory for the Zbuffer, because it'll allocate it in the computer's main memory.

        To this amounts, you have to add memory needed for the textures. Depending on the chipset, this can vary from 0.5 MB to 1 MB. Armor Command will actually run with very little texture memory available, but it won't look as good.

        Another issue to take into account when setting video resolutions is that your monitor might not be correctly set up for the resolution you are setting. This usually causes the game to appear too big, or too small, or not centered on your screen. You will have to adjust the monitor accordingly. This usually happens with the two lower resolutions: 512x384 and 640x400.

Software 3D Support Help

• DIRECTDRAW SOFTWARE is the default one, and it uses DirectDraw functions to manage the screen, change resolutions, etc. You need DirectX 3 or above installed in your computer.
• GDI SOFTWARE is included for troubleshooting purposes only, and it uses standard Windows functions to handle the screen. It will change resolutions properly as selected, but it cannot change the pixel format from what Windows uses, so you will need to be running your Windows desktop at exactly 16 bits per pixel (32K colors or 64K colors), otherwise Armor Command will not work in this mode. To do this, go into the Display Control panel in Windows 95. To do this, first click on "Start" then "Settings" then click "Control Panel". This will open the Windows Control Panel. Double Click on the "Display" icon to open the Display Properties window. Then, click on the "Settings" tab. In here you can check the resolution that your Windows desktop is using, and the number of colors it's using. You should change it to 32000, 32768, 64000, 65536, 32K or 64K colors.

        For all you curious about what features the software 3D renderer supports, here is a full list:

• 16 bit color support (24 bit internally, dithered to the screen).
• 24 bit Zbuffer.
• 8 bit textures with per-triangle mip-mapping.
• 4 level bilinear dithering.
• mono dithered modulation.
• per-vertex fog color (RGB).
• per-vertex specular lighting.
• chroma-keying on texture maps.
• additive blending (transparency).
• half-size rendering (for increased performance).
• approximated perspective correction on texture maps.

3D Acceleration Help

        Many of you might be wondering in reading through all this "Which 3D accelerator", or even you might not even know what's a 3D accelerator. Many of you might not even know if you have a 3D accelerator either. If you don't know, or you have doubts, you should read this text very carefully.

        First, you should know the difference between a 3D accelerator chipset, a 3D accelerator board, and a 3D accelerator vendor.

• A 3D accelerator chipset makes up the insides of a 3D accelerator. It determines which features and capabilities are available for acceleration. Examples of 3D chipsets are: Voodoo², V2200, Riva 128, ViRGE, T2R, Mpact 2, Permedia 2 and PowerVR PCX2, among others.
• A 3D accelerator board (or 3D accelerator card, or 3D accelerator model) is a piece of hardware which is installed in a slot (usually a PCI or AGP slot) inside your computer. Often, it provides for all 2D display also, so it is the same board that interfaces your computer with your screen. Sometimes, it's a separate board like, for example, the m3D board from Matrox. This board always contains a chipset inside, which is the portion of it that actually provides the 3D acceleration. Examples of boards are: Monster 3D II, Fire GL 1000 Pro, Stealth II, Mystique, Velocity 128, Stingray 128/3D and Revolution 3D among others. Many 3D accelerator boards use standard chipsets (like the Monster 3D II board, which uses the Voodoo2 chipset). Others use their own chipset (like the Matrox Mystique board).
• A 3D accelerator vendor (or 3D accelerator company, or IHV, or 3D accelerator brand) is how we call here a company that manufactures 3D accelerator boards and/or 3D accelerator chipsets. We always prefix the name of a chipsetor board with the name of a vendor. Examples of chipset vendors are 3Dfx, Rendition, 3Dlabs, Chromatic Research, S3 and Nvidia among others. Examples of board vendors are Diamond, Canopus, Number 9, STB, Jazz, Creative Labs, ATI and Matrox.

1. The first thing you might do is look in the manual that came with your computer. It is also listed sometimes in the first screen that the computer displays when it's switched on. If you purchased your 3D accelerator board separately from your computer, you might find information about it on the box or in the manual of the board.
2. If this fails, another way you can check is to go into the Display Control panel in Windows 95. To do this, first click on "Start" then "Settings" then click "Control Panel". This will open the Windows Control Panel. Double Click on the "Display" icon to open the Display Properties window. Then, click on the "Settings" tab. In here you can check the resolution that your Windows desktop is using and the number of colors it's using. Once this is set, click on the "Advanced Properties" button in the bottom right corner of the Settings window. The "Adapter" window should open and list what video card you have. At the very top it will tell you which video driver (therefore which video card) you have. Under that it shows the "Adaptor/Driver information". It should list the card type, manufacturer, memory, features and other things.

3D Acceleration Setup Help

        The first time you run Armor Command, you will get the following screen:

        If you press the down arrow and select the option that says "USE DEFAULT DIRECT3D", you will have your game configured for Direct3D use with a minimum of options enabled. This allows you to quickly jump into the game, but many features which are possibly supported by your board will not be used.

        If you press the down arrow twice and select the option that says "USE DEFAULT SOFTWARE", you will have your game configured for our proprietary software 3D renderer. This allows you to quickly jump into the game if you don't have 3D acceleration.

        To tune the game for your hardware, press RETURN or ENTER. This leads you into the 3D acceleration settings menu:

1. API 3D: Using the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys selects the API that will be used. The current options are: SOFTWARE, DIRECT3D and PROPRIETARY. PROPRIETARY is preferred wherever available. Press the RIGHT ARROW key to select it. If the next line says "SETTINGS: (NOT SET)" that means thee are no supported proprietary APIs in your computer, so switch back to DIRECT3D by pressing the LEFT ARROW KEY.
2. SETTINGS: Using the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys selects the preset settings that will be used. Every preset setting modifies every other option throughout this whole menu, so if you select a new option here, be prepared to change any other options that you want customized. Each preset setting corresponds to a different supported board or chipset. Boards are all grouped first, with the chipsets last. Settings are sorted alphabetically by vendor within each type (board or chipset), and so vendors that manufacture both boards AND chipsets will be encountered twice when cycling through this menu. Note that not all existing boards are listed here. If your board doesn't appear here, even if it uses a known chipset, it might be because we didn't know about it at the time the game shipped. If it is so, press the RIGHT ARROW key repeatedly until you see the chipset name in this option.
3. SCREEN RESOLUTION: Using the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys selects the screen resolution that will be used. Note that if you select a resolution that your board doesn't support (like, for example 512x384), the closest supported resolution will be used instead. Each preset setting specifies a default that we think works best with the BASIC configuration of the board or chipset. If you see the textures in a very low resolution, or if your settings don't work, it might be that the board doesn't have enough memory to support the resolution, and changing it to a lower resolution might help.
4. PERFORMANCE OPTIONS: Press RETURN or ENTER to change to a new menu that allows you to change lightweight options that might affect performance.
5. ADVANCED OPTIONS: Press RETURN or ENTER to change to a new menu that allows you to change very advanced options. This is provided for troubleshooting purposes only, as a convenience for you, and it's NOT SUPPORTED. Changing options there might eventually crash your computer and you might lose data. If you touch anything there, it'll be at your own risk.
6. TEST SETTINGS: Press RETURN or ENTER to test the currently selected options. The display will change to 3D mode, and a simple test animation will run. If, after a minute or so, you see nothing on the screen, you should press ESC. If, again, nothing happens in another minute, you should check the settings that you selected. If they are correct, consult customer support.
7. RETURN TO OPTIONS: Press RETURN or ENTER to exit this menu. If you hadn't tested your settings, another menu will appear asking you to do so.

If you are a hardware manufacturer and your board or chipset is not properly supported, please contact troyd@roningames.com.
We are working hard to support as many 3d accelerators natively as possible.

Armor Command and Neo Hunter are trademarks of Ronin Entertainment. All other products mentioned are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies.

Questions or problems regarding this web site should be directed to info@roningames.com.
Copyright © 1997 Ronin Entertainment. All rights reserved.
Last modified: Saturday February 23, 1998.