If you are eager to start playing right now, we recommend that you skim through the manual first, and get familiar with the game's interface. Make sure you don't miss out on how to use the NETRICSA!
For those who like to read the game background before they jump into the gameplay, we recommend to visit the Croteam site and take a look at the loads of materials we have prepared there for you.
For discussions about the game, tips, news and general chat, take a look at the Serious Sam forum.
Minimum:
AMD K6-3 400MHz, Pentium II or Celeron-A 300MHz
64MB RAM
Fully OpenGL compliant 3D accelerator
100% Windows compatible sound card
Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 5), Windows 2000 or WindowsXP operating system
150MB free hard disk space
Recommended:
AMD Athlon 650MHz or Pentium III 650MHz range processor
192MB RAM
3rd generation full OpenGL compliant 3D accelerator with 32MB RAM
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live
450MB free hard disk space
For full experience:
AMD Athlon 1GHz or Pentium III 1GHz range processor
256MB RAM
4th generation full OpenGL compliant 3D accelerator with 64MB RAM
When navigating the Menus, keep in mind that all menu screens have a Back Button as an Escape Shortcut.
Main Menu
The Main Menu consists of the following:
Single Player
Select Single Player to begin or continue single-player games.
Network
Select Network to set-up and play multiplayer games (see Serious Sam: SE Multiplayer for more information).
For more information on running the dedicated server, see the ReadMe file.
Split Screen
Select Split Screen to set-up and play with multiple users on one machine.
- Go to menu: Split Screen->Start
- Choose type of game to play: Cooperative, Scorematch, or Deathmatch, and difficulty: Tourist, Easy, Normal, Hard or Serious.
- Select level to start playing from.
- You may adjust game rules under 'Game Options'
- Press Start.
- Choose at least 2 players to play with. Make sure you set up proper commands for each player.
- When ready, hit Start.
Demo
Select Demo to view any of recorded demos, or record a new one. Start recording a demo by pressing F7. A Recording indicator will show on the screen. To stop recording, either go to the Demo menu and choose Stop Recording, or press F8.
Mods
Select Mods to start any installed mods within the Serious engine.
High Scores
Select High Scores to view High-Score table.
Options
Select Options to configure:
Video Options
Here you can choose your display driver (OpenGL or Direct3D) and display adpater. Under preferences you can choose from the following:
Normal: optimal settings for your card
Speed: for lower rendering quality and higher speed
Quality: for higher rendering quality and lower speed
All the settings are relative to your card capabilities, as detected by the game. You can also choose a resolution, bit-depth and whether to run the game in full screen or in window.
Audio Options
You can choose from three Sound System Options: Waveout, DirectSound, or EAX (only available on EAX-compliant cards like SoundBlaster Live). You can set the sound playback quality at 11kHz, 22kHz or 44kHz, or turn the sound off. Music volume and sound effects volume is adjustable separately.
Players and Controls
Select Players and Controls to switch current player and controls.
Network Connection
Select Network Connection to specify your connectivity.
Advanced Options
Select Advanced Options to modify advanced options in any of the four menus.
Execute Add-On
Select Execute Add-On for pre-configured Video Options to fit your CPU and RAM.
Starting a New Single Player Game
New Game
Click Single Player and select New Game to start a new single player game. Then select a skill level. You may choose between:
Tourist Mode: For casual, non-FPS players
Easy Mode: For those new to first-person-shooters
Normal Mode: For seasoned FPS players
Hard Mode: For fearless Serious Sam players
Serious Mode: Are you serious?
Custom Level
When a level is loaded for the first time (on any difficulty), it automatically appears in the Custom Level menu. This allows those who got stuck in that level (because it was too difficult to pass or too easy) to restart that level on any other difficulty.
Quick Load
Select Quick Load to access pre-defined Saved Games.
Load
Select Load for a choice of previously saved games to load. Note that each of the eight players has his/hers own saved games. If it seems that all your saved games have mysteriously disappeared, perhaps you have changed the player.
Training
Select Training to access the Serious Sam: SE Training Mission.
Technology Test
Select Technology Test to access the Serious Sam: SE Technology Test.
Quit
When exiting Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, you will see a prompt (Are You Sure?). Select Yes to exit the game.
General:
TCP/IP play supported both in LAN and on the InternetNetwork Specific:
Split-Screen for multiplayer on one computer, even without network
Supports GameSpy, for easier location of servers and co-players on the Internet
Up to 16 players in one game
Up to 4 players on one computer (Split-Screen)
You can join network games using Split-Screen to allow more than one player to play from one computer
You can run a standard server (where you play) or a dedicated server (just a simple program that automatically runs in a console window).
MULTIPLAYER MODES:
Cooperative:
In standard Cooperative mode, players play together against enemies. Optionally, you can allow/disallow players to accidentally harm each other (friendly fire).
You can play custom levels of your choice, or play an entire game together, from the beginning to the end.
Optionally, you can allow items (health, weapons, ammo) to be picked by all players, so they don't have to split them.
Deathmatch-Scorematch:
Deathmatch on score. For each item you pick up your own value is raised by the value of that item (shown when picked up). Also, your value slowly increases with time, faster if you are standing still than if you are moving. When you kill someone, his value is added to your score, and half of his value is added to your value.
In short, the longer you live, the more items you pick up, and more you kill, the more valuable you will be for the one who kills you. So, it is not worth killing people who just respawned. Let them live longer and build their value up.
Also, if you kill yourself, your value is deducted from your own score.
A Scorematch game can be set on a time limit or score limit base. Person with highest score at the end wins.
Deathmatch-Fragmatch:
This is standard Deathmatch mode. For every kill, you get one frag more; if you kill yourself, you loose one frag. A Fragmatch game can be set on a time limit or frag limit base. Person with most frags at the end wins.
Other Game Types and Game Modifications
When you are joining a game, in the server browser you will be able to see all servers, including the ones that might be running some game modification that you do not have installed. If you have Serious Sam: The Second Encounter installed, you can play on servers running The Second Encounter and those running Warped. If you also have the first episode (Serious Sam: The First Encounter), you will be able to play on servers marked as 'SeriousSam'. When you choose to connect to a server running a mod that is not currently activated in your game, the game will ask you if you want to automatically switch over and play that mod.
If you try to connect to a server that is running some mod that you do not have installed, you will be pointed to a web page where you can download updates for it (if the mod is free).
Note that, besides custom mods, some servers might be running custom, user-made maps. If you don't have such a map, you'd need to download it too. For information on map downloads visit http://www.croteam.com or http://www.planetserious.com.
MULTIPLAYER SETUP:
Select Network from the Main Menu for hosting or joining a LAN or Internet game.
The Network Menu allows you to:
Join Game
To join a Network game:
- Go to menu: Network->Join Game
- Choose to 'Search LAN' or 'Search Internet' to list available servers and select a server from the list. If no servers show up, try pressing 'Refresh'. If you know exact address of the server you want to connect to, you can instead choose 'Specify Server' and then type in the address.
- Choose proper connection settings, depending on what kind of connection you have. (modem, ISDN, LAN)
- Choose player(s) to play on this computer.
If you select 'Observer' you cannot play, but you can watch other players.
Normally, you just select one player.
If you choose more than one player under 'Number of players', you can play in Split-Screen mode. Make sure you set up proper commands for each player.
- When ready, hit Start.
Start Server
To host a LAN/Internet Game:
- Go to menu: Network>Start Server
- Choose type of game to play: Cooperative, Scorematch, or Deathmatch, and difficulty: Tourist, Easy, Normal, Hard or Serious.
- Select level to start playing from.
- Choose maximum number of players allowed to join a game.
- If you choose 'Wait for all players', game will not start until all players join.
- You may adjust game rules under 'Game Options'
- Press Start.
- Choose player(s) to play on this computer:
If you select 'Observer' you cannot play, but you can watch other players.
If you select 'Dedicated' you cannot play on the server computer. This improves game performance for other players.
Normally, you just select one player to play on the server.
If you choose more than one player under 'Number of players', you can play in Split-Screen mode on the server. Make sure you set up proper commands for each player.
- When ready, hit Start.
By default, all servers are visible both on the Internet and in the LAN. If you have your Internet connection on, players on the Internet will see your server and be able join.
Quick Load
In Network mode, Quick Load can be performed by the server only.
Load
In Network mode, Load can be performed by the server only.
NETRICSA (NEuroTRonically Implanted Combat Situation Analyzer) is a small computer implanted inside Sam's skull. Sam's NETRICSA is the best available of the wide range of such devices, common among modern head-to-head fighters. It is a neurotronical computer connected to the perceptual cortexes in his brain. The computer has all the access to his audio-visual experiences and can provide him with feedback. It is used to provide fast and simple access to all the necessary data and analysis for a skilled combatant, so that he/she can keep up to date with the situation and know what to do next. It translates texts, offers simple head-up-display directly to the visual cortex, tracks targets and gives other kinds of help in fight and in general tactics.
In game, NETRICSA appears on your screen in two different ways: as a Heads-Up Display and as a full screen computer interface.
Heads-Up Display is active normally while you explore the area or fight. In the lower left corner, it shows your current ARMOR and HEALTH state. Next to it, your CURRENT WEAPON and currently carried amount of AMMUNITION for it is displayed. On the far right is an icon for each type of ammo you have and a small bar showing how much of that type do you have.
In the upper left corner is SCORE, showing the sum of reward money you have collected by eliminating your enemies and by completing other tasks. When a NETRICSA has a new message for you, you will hear a notification sound and MESSAGE COUNTER (upper right corner) with number of pending messages will appear below the account display. Then you can invoke NETRICSA full screen to examine the message.
On the center of the screen is NETRICSA's target detection display. A CROSSHAIR shows exactly where your weapon will hit, and it changes colors according to the state of your target. While you have no live target, it is WHITE. When you aim at a new enemy, it will become GREEN, and as you damage the enemy, the color will turn RED.
If you target an item that can be used or operated (e.g. a switch), a USE indicator will appear above the crosshair. Press USE BUTTON to operate the item. If you target an item that can be analyzed, an ANALYZE indicator will appear. Press use button to analyze the item. After analyzing it, a new message will appear with description of the results of NETRICSA's research.
To read any of the NETRICSA's messages, you can invoke NETRICSA fullscreen at any time by double clicking the USE BUTTON.
In fullscreen mode, NETRICSA shows four windows:
CATEGORY SELECTION in the upper left has five buttons allowing you to select one of the message categories: Tactical Data, Strategic Data, Weapons, Enemies, and Statistics.
MESSAGE LIST in the upper right shows list of messages in currently selected category. Click on any message title to view the message.
MESSAGE TEXT in the lower right shows the message text, while
MESSAGE IMAGE at the lower left shows eventual visual information attached to the message. You can scroll both the message list and the message text with their accompanied sliders.
You can exit the fullscreen NETRICSA by either clicking on the EXIT button in the upper right corner, or by pressing ESCAPE or the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON.
For optimal interface, Use/Call NETRICSA function is bound to the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON. So with just that one button, you access Use and Analyze by single clicking it, call NETRICSA by double clicking it and also exit the NETRICSA by pressing that same button.
Note: You can rebind controls in the Players and Controls Menu, or by manually editing the .ctl' files in 'Controls\ directory of the installation.
Moving (Default Controls):
Move Forward W or Arrow Up Move Backward S or Arrow Down Strafe Left Q or A or Arrow Left Strafe Right E or D or Arrow Right Dodge/Swim Up Space or R Dodge/Swim Down F or C
Combat (Default Controls):
Fire Left Mouse Button or Ctrl Manual Reload Alt (works for Colt) Next/Prev Weapon [/] or Mouse Wheel Up/Dn Flip Weapon [\] or Third (Middle) Mouse Button Knife/Chainsaw 1 (second press will spin knife) Colt/Two Colts 2 Single Shotgun/Double Shotgun 3 Minigun/Tommygun 4 (Minigun disabled in demo) Rocket Launcher/Grenade Launcher 5 Flamer/Sniper Rifle 6 (Flamer disabled in demo) Laser 7 (disabled in demo) Cannon 8 (disabled in demo) Serious Bomb 0 (disabled in demo)
Keyboard Shortcuts:
Note: The following shortcuts cannot be rebound in the Menu, but only by manually editing the file Controls\System\Common.ctl:
Console F1 Menu Save F2 Menu Load F3 Menu Controls F4 Quick Save F6 Quick Load (loads last saved game) F9 Screenshot F11 Start Demo Record F7 Stop Demo Record F8
Note: The following shortcuts are hard-wired and cannot be changed:
Activate Menu Escape Activate Console F1 or `~' (Tilde) Pause Game Pause Toggle Fullscreen Alt-Enter
You can invoke game console by pressing the F1 key during the game or in menu. Tilde key ('~') will also function if you have an English keyboard locale, but may cause problems if your keyboard locale interprets that key as a dead-key. It is recommended that you use F1.
In the game console you can examine or change console variables and call console functions. Using this advanced option, you can hand-tune lots of engine and game options that are not available through the menus. To obtain a list of those variables and functions enter 'ListSymbols()' at the console prompt.
Use the Tab key for command line completion, arrows up/down for history or pageup/pagedown to scroll output.
Arrows left/right allows you to move cursor trough characters on editing line, allowing insert type editing.
If you want to view a value of a variable just enter the variable name. To change a value, assign it to a variable using equality sign like this: 'var_name=1'. To call a function, append brackets to the function name like this: 'function()'.
When the game is loaded, a script file saved under 'Scripts\Game_startup.scr' is executed by the console. You may add some lines there to be executed each time you start the game.
If you write commands in scripts or in keyboard bindings, you need keep in mind that:
1) Command separator is semicolon (';'). Always finish each command with with a semicolon, or a syntax error will be reported. Newline is not a separator in console's grammar. That is, you can write more than one command in one line, or write one command across more than one line.
2) Comments are completely C++-like. Two slashes ('//') start a one-line comment, and slash-asterisks pairs ('/*' and '*/'), embed multi-line comments.
3) You may use mathematical expressions in commands, like 'var1=var2+2' and similar. Currently supported operators are:
addition (+),
substraction (-),
multiplication (*),
division (/),
integer modulo (%),
unary minus (-),
unary plus (+),
logical negation (!),
array access([])
and brackets.
These are usefull for writing keyboard bindings like 'ctl_bWalk = !ctl_bWalk;', or 'hud_iStats=(hud_iStats+1)%3'.
4) You can declare your own variables like 'extern FLOAT myVar;'. Only scalar variables can be declared this way. Arrays cannot be declared from command line.
Although Croteam has invested all efforts to provide maximum compatibility with all hardware configurations, there are some cases that cannot be remedied programmatically, but require an intervention from the user. We are sorry for the inconvenience, but those problems are beyond our control and are usually caused by limitations imposed by the operating system, faulty drivers or other problematic software installed on your machine.
Here is the list of the cases and suggested remedies:
FatalError: 'Cannot set display mode'
Sometimes "Serious Sam" won't start, and will report the above error message. Here are the possible reasons and suggested remedies:
- You run the game on 8 bit, 15 bit or 24 bit desktop on Windows 95.
Windows 95 do not allow applications to change the display color depth at runtime, and some 3D cards will not allow OpenGL acceleration at the listed color depths. You should set the desktop bit depth manually, in 'StartMenu/Settings/ControlPanel/Display/Settings'. The recommended color depth is 16 bit (64k colors, or 65536 colors).
- You do not have a proper OpenGL or DirectX driver for your card installed.
See here for a list of recommended 3D card drivers.
Game crashes at startup
If you have incompatible video card drivers installed, if something else is bad in your system, or if you have changed some of the advanced rendering options, the game might not be able to start at all.
This especially can be the case with Voodoo1 and Voodoo2 cards if your primary video card has broken OpenGL support.
To remedy this:
a) Make sure you have all the proper drivers installed, and
b) try to start one of the two predefined Safe Modes.
Choppy performance or 'stuttering'
On some mis-configured systems, you may experience extreme slowdowns, or game playing very unsmoothly. Here are the possible reasons and suggested remedies:
- Old motherboard drivers for AMD or VIA chipsets.
See here on how to update your motherboard drivers.
- Old or incompatible 3D card drivers.
This happens often with the Voodoo3 cards, but can also happen with other models.
See here for the list of recommended 3D card drivers.
- Misconfigured or incompatible joystick drivers.
"Serious Sam" tries to auto-disable joystick reading if it detects faulty drivers, but this mechanism might fail in some cases.
Even if you think you don't have any joystick installed, please double check in the Game Controllers configuration in the Windows' Control Panel. Maybe you don't remember that it was installed once, or maybe it was autoinstalled without you knowing it. Also, it may be possible that you have installed a driver that is not compatible with your operating system. (E.g. this can happen if you install some Win98 joystick drivers on WinME.) To uninstall a joystick driver, go to Control Panel and open Game Controllers. Select the joystick/controller. Press Remove.
- Too high quality settings
Unless you have a very fast 3D accelerator, your system may not be capable of running "Serious Sam" in 32 bit modes, at high resolutions or at high sound quality settings.
See here for information on how to configure the game for improved performance.
No sound in game
- If this happens to you, you probably have some other application running in the background that has taken control of the sound hardware. Usually this happens if you run some MP3 players, or other multimedia programs in the background. - It can also happen if you play over the Internet using GameSpy Arcade, and you have sounds enabled in the GSA. Please see GameSpy help on how to disable sounds in GSA.
Sound crackling or stuttering
This symptom is usually due to either:
a) Sound hardware incompatibility
Some sound cards do not work well with some interfaces, or sound output formats.
- Try selecting a different sound driver in the 'Options->Audio Options' menu.
- Try lowering the sound frequency. Some drivers do not work properly at higher frequencies like 44kHz.
b) or performance problems
If the game has an overall slow framerate, the sound output quality will suffer. See here on how to improve the overall performance.
DualHead/TwinView/HydraVision and multi-monitor not working under Win95, Win98 and WinME
This is a known limitation of those operating systems. Windows 95, 98 and ME cannot support OpenGL acceleration if multi-monitor support is enabled.
To be able to take advantage of the multimonitor support in "Serious Sam", you must have Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 or Windows XP, and proper 3D card drivers that support OpenGL acceleration with multiple monitors.
Known cards that support this feature are:
- All Matrox cards with DualHead technology
- nVidia GeForce 2 MX TwinView
- ATI Radeon HydraVision
However, there might be some issues regarding this feature caused by some system configurations and/or improper drivers.
Crashes when switching between full-screen and window modes
On some operating systems (especially Win95) and/or hardware setups, switching full-screen and windowed mode might not work properly. This is a driver issue and cannot be fixed from our side.
See here for the list of recommended 3D card drivers.
Crashes when switching resolutions
Some systems crash in the display driver if you change the resolution from within the game. This doesn't appear to be directly connected with the display driver version, but rather with the overall Windows setup.
To remedy this, first go to the windowed mode (by pressing Alt+Enter) and then change the resolution back to the full screen resolution that you desire, in the Video Options.
Mouse feeling laggy
Some people feel that the movement-smoothing system used in "Serious Sam" makes their mouse movements feel laggy and not sharp enough. To disable that, turn the 'Sharp Turning' option ON. See here on configuring your mouse controls.
Mouse wheel scrolling or the 3rd mouse button not working
"Serious Sam" supports both mouse wheel scrolling and the 3rd mouse button. However, you must have proper drivers installed and configured properly. Here are the tips:
- Make sure that you don't have the 3rd mouse button bound to behave as double-click. You can adjust that option from within your mouse configuration program or from the Windows 'Control Panel'.
- Your mouse driver must support true mouse wheel scrolling. Emulation modes are not supported.
- For Logitech mice, if you experience problems with the mouse wheel, install Logitech Mouseware version 9.22.
Joystick stopping to work after changing levels in a network game
If you are a client in a network game, and you use a joystick to control your character, when crossing to another level, the joystick may report an error and stop functioning.
This is driver dependent, and it happens only in network and only with some joystick models.
To prevent this, immediately after you have started the game, invoke the game console (by pressing F1), then type:
/inp_bAutoDisableJoysticks=0
and press Enter.
Cannot connect to an internet game
If you cannot connect to an internet game there are several possible reasons:
- You are using personal firewall software, or a hardware firewall or NAT. Such software or hardware can block game data traffic between your computer and the server that you are trying to connect. It all depends on how it is set up.
You should configure your firewall to allow "Serious Sam" to access the internet, and forward the ports 25600-25601 (both TCP and UDP). You should check the firewall's documentation on how to do that.
Also note that a firewall might add additional lag to the network packets transferred and that might make the game unplayable for you. You should always try to play without the firewall if possible.
- You have a 33.6k or slower modem, or cannot connect at 56k speeds.
If you have a slow modem or poor connection, you will usually not be able to connect to a network game, especially if it is a cooperative game on a large level. This is due to the great amount of data that needs to be transferred. You can try to find a server that runs some smaller Deathmatch worlds, like the Desert Temple.
Poor performance in a network game
See network tips on how to improve the network gaming performance.
Error messages in network
Below is a short list of error message that can occur in network games and their meanings:
When connecting:
- This server requires password to connect!
- Wrong password!
The server administrator has configured the server so that only people who know the password can play on it.
- Server full
- Too many players in session
The server has every allocated player spot filled. Look for a server with open spots.
- Wrong CRC check
- CRC error in DIFF
Game installation on your computer differs from the one on the server.
It may be that one of the installations was damaged accidentally, that one of the computers is infected with a virus, or that one of the installations was modified with new levels or models that don't match the other one.
While playing:
- Admin: some_message_text
The server administrator has kicked you out of the server for some reason.
- Gamestream synchronization lost
- Connection timeout
- No valid SYNCCHECK received for too long
The link between your computer and the server has difficulties and cannot transmit the game traffic at necessary rate.
- "Level change in progress. Please retry.
You have tried to connect while the server was changing between two levels. You must wait a bit for the server to finish the transition and then try again.
Screen Tearing
On some systems, when standing in place and rotating your view left-right quickly with the mouse, it might seem like the bottom of the screen is lagging behind the top of the screen. It can appear as if the screen is divided into stripes by one or more horizontal lines.
This is a usual effect known as 'Screen Tearing', noticed only if you concentrate on it, and doesn't really affect the gameplay.
It is caused by the rendering not being synchronized with the vertical refresh rate of your monitor. The option is usually present in one of the advanced settings options in the Display Preferences in Windows. It is driver-dependent and will be different for each video card. You should consult your video card driver manual for details on this (if any available).
There is an option to turn the vsync on/off from "Serious Sam" in the menu 'Options->Video Options->Rendering Options'. But this will work only on some 3D cards.
Note that, even though turning the vsync on might remedy this, it will as well limit your framerate in game.
Strange graphics glitches in the distance
Sometimes you can see strange graphics artifacts in the distance. It will usually appear as areas with small moving stripes and will change as you move your view, or as two objects sorted wrong. This is called 'z-fighting' and appears always on larger distances if you are running any 3D game in 16-bit display mode. It is a hardware precision limitation. We try to patch as many of these as we can to make them less visible. Try running at a 32-bit display mode, it should disappear. Note that, on some older 3D cards, 32-bit display modes might not be supported, or may cause slowdowns.
Network Tips
- When playing cooperative on slower computers, you might experience slowdowns. This is normal. Minimum required configuration is tested for single player gaming. If you play cooperative with lot of players, more action goes on on the screen, and your computer might not be capable to process it all.
- Cooperative games with lot of action and players might experience overall slowdowns on all computers. This is usually due to the server being overloaded.
Please try running a dedicated server. You can do that by selecting the Dedicated option when starting a server in "Serious Sam", or you can start the real dedicated server application from the Start menu.
If you are playing over internet, try to find servers that give you a better ping and have fewer players.
- If lot of different player models are used by other players in the game, and your computer has too little RAM, your performance might suffer. To remedy this, you can make all players appear as "Serious Sam" on your computer, regardless of which settings they use. Before joining the game, invoke game console by pressing the F1 key, type:
/plr_bOnlySam=1
and press Enter.
- Poor performance in a network game can sometimes be caused by not so good overall performance of your game setup. See general performance tips on how to improve the overall game performance.
How to run a true dedicated server
Although there is an option to run a dedicated server from within the "Serious Sam" game application, a separate 'true dedicated server' application is also included. This application is a fully automated server that runs in a console window. It does not require any 3D acceleration or sound resources, and is therefore suitable for running on network server computers.
You can run it from the Start menu, using one of the shortcuts in the 'Serious Sam/Start Dedicated Server' Start menu folder. Four predefined configurations for running deathmatch or cooperative games are included. 'Demo Cooperative' runs the 'KarnakDemo' level, cycling difficulties between Normal, Hard and Serious. 'Default Cooperative' runs the entire game on Normal.
If you want to reconfigure the server or add new configurations, you should take a look at the configuration scripts in the 'Scripts\Dedicated\' directory of the installation. Each subdirectory is named after one configuration. Feel free to add new subdirectories. To run a server with one of the configurations, start it with the name of the configuration as a command line parameter. For example:
DedicatedServer.exe DefaultCoop
The file 'init.ini' defines initial parameters for the server. The scripts with numbers (1_begin.ini, 1_end.ini and so on) are run before and after each map in the cycle, as their names suggest. Please see the comments in those files for more info.
Also, when running an internet server, you should enter some info about your server that the players will be able to see from GameSpy Arcade. See the configuration file 'Scripts\Dedicated_startup.ini' for that.
Note that if you want to run more than one server on a single machine, you should assign a different port to each server. You can see how to do that from the comments in the configuration files. Make sure the servers are at least 3 ports away from each other, because a port range of up to 3 ports might be used.
Why can't I play with some other player model in the Single Player mode?
Only the "Serious Sam" model is available for single player, because other models have been optimized for lower memory usage, and they do not have animations of collecting items, putting items, and similar.
Safe Modes
"Serious Sam" offers two 'safe mode' startup shortcuts.
a) Serious Sam - Safe Mode
If you have changed something in the video options, and the game won't run any more, or if your display drivers have heavy problems running the game, you can use this to reset all the options to their most safe settings.
This will revert the display mode to 640x480 16 bit full-screen, and turn off all possibly problematic rendering options.
b) Serious Sam - 3Dfx Voodoo2 compatibility
If you have Voodoo1 or Voodoo2 as a secondary 3D accelerator card, and your primary card claims to have OpenGL support, but it is broken, use this shortcut,
It will bypass your primary card and directly start the Voodoo1 or Voodoo2.
If using this, make sure you have the proper drivers for your Voodoo card.
After starting in safe mode, if you wish to revert to normal settings, just select 'Normal' under 'Preferences' in the 'Options->Video Options' menu.
How to configure the game for improved performance
"Serious Sam" tries to auto-adjust the configuration to match your system. If you feel that the game is still too slow on your computer, you can try to configure it manually. You should try the suggested options in this order:
1) Make sure you have all the proper drivers installed.
See here for more instructions and driver lists.
2) Try reducing the resolution to 640x480 and the color depth to 16 bit.
If you run Windows 95, you will not be able to change the color depth from within the game. In that case, you should set the desktop bit depth manually, by going to the Windows 'Start' menu and choosing 'Settings/ControlPanel/Display/Settings'. The recommended color depth is 16 bit (64k colors, or 65536 colors).
3) In the 'Options->Video Options' menu, try setting the 'Preferences' option to 'Speed'.
4) Reduce the audio quality settings.
Go to the 'Options->Audio Options' menu and lower the 'Frequency' option to '11kHz'
This can offer a major performance improvement if your CPU is not very fast, or especially if it is an older AMD K6-2 or AMD K6-3.
How to configure the game controls
To change your controls setup go to the 'Options->Players and Controls' menu and select 'Customize Controls'.
- If you have inadvertently set something wrong and you cannot set it back, just select 'Load Predefined Settings' and choose to load the 'Default controls'.
- If you want to use a joystick, it is recommended that you go to 'Load Predefined Settings' and choose to load one of the predefined joystick controls.
Note that, even though your exact joystick model is not mentioned by its name, most joysticks are cross-compatible. Try each of the available joystick settings and see which fits your joystick best.
- More settings for different joysticks might become available in the future. See Updates for more information.
- If you want to manually tweak the controls, examine the '.ctl' files in the 'Controls\' directory. Those are just plain text files with control configurations.
IMPORTANT!
Never turn on 'Sharp Turning' if you use keyboard commands for turning left/right or looking up/down!
How to configure the mouse options for optimal aiming
"Serious Sam" offers a range of different options for tweaking mouse-aiming precision. By default, these options are set up to provide the smoothest motion on all configurations. However, this might not give you the same feeling as in other FPS games. Here are the options that you can use to reconfigure the mouse-look feel:
1) Sharp Turning
This option is in the 'Player and Controls' menu and can be configured separately for each player profile. If 'Sharp Turning' is ON, you will have maximum possible mouse movement response. The player view will react immediately to any mouse movement. However, this may not be desirable if you have low framerates, or if your mouse driver has low polling rate, or some other problems.
If 'Sharp Turning' is OFF, the view rotation will always be smooth, but you may feel a slight 'lag' when moving the mouse. This lag is usually only noticeable by seasoned deathmatch players.
2) Smooth Axis
This option is in the 'Player and Controls->Customize Controls' menu, can be configured separately for each player profile. 'Smooth Axis' makes your mouse feel smoother even when 'Sharp Turning' is turned on.
3) Mouse Acceleration This option is in the 'Player and Controls->Customize Controls' menu, and it is global for all player profiles.
If you cannot get comfortable playing with mouse acceleration, you can tun it off, but we recommend keeping the mouse acceleration ON to enable very precise movements when aiming at enemies far away.
Here are several possible combinations that you might like to try:
1) SharpTurning=OFF, SmoothAxis=ON, MouseAcceleration=ON
This is a default setting. It will provide you with the smoothest feeling.
2) SharpTurning=ON, SmoothAxis=ON, MouseAcceleration=ON
This will provide you with very sharp reactions, it is the optimal setting if you don't like the above one.
3) SharpTurning=ON, SmoothAxis=OFF, MouseAcceleration=ON
This will provide you with the sharpest possible reactions, but it might really feel too jumpy.
Observing options
When replaying a demo from a network game, or observing in a network game, you can view different players.
Use the following shortcuts on the numeric keyboard to change the observing configuration:
Num 1 - view only one player
Num 2 - two players (split screen)
Num 3 - three players (split screen)
Num 4 - four players (split screen)
Num + - view next player
Num - - view previous player
Also, when playing in a cooperative game, you can choose to view other players in small screen-in-screen displays.
To enable that, type:
/gam_bEnableAdvancedObserving=1
at the console prompt, and then use the above shortcuts to choose the players to observe.
Choosing the right difficulty
The most important thing is to choose the right difficulty, the one that will perfectly challenge your skills. Choosing a too easy or too hard level of difficulty can harm the enjoyment of the game. Consult the manual for choosing the right difficulty. Here are some quick tips:
- Tourist mode is the easiest, and it's for absolute beginners, the ones who are still battling with the
game controls.
- Easy mode is for FPS beginners, the ones that play games but are very casual FPS players.
- Normal mode is for experienced FPS players, the ones that played many FPS games.
- Hard mode is for experienced "Serious Sam" players, the ones that have already finished the Normal mode and possibly for the ones that have finished our Demo many times on the Serious difficulty. Choose this mode on your own responsibility.
- Serious mode - for the really serious ones.
Generally, it is good to save the game often. So, if you die, you won't be thrown far back in the game. We advise you to use F6 for Quicksave, and F9 for quickloading the last quicksaved game. If you can't remember to save often, you can always use the auto-save option from the 'Players and Controls' menu.
Changing the difficulty 'on the fly'
If you find some level too hard or too easy to beat, you can always restart it on lower or higher difficulty, from the 'Custom Levels' menu. But in that case you will lose your score, which will be counted from there on.
Adding new elements to the gameplay
There is one tweak that you can use for a totally new gamestyle. You can start a split screen cooperative game just for yourself (from 'Split Screen->New Game' menu). While playing that way, when you die, you will just respawn and continue your mission from that point, so we can say that it is some kind of god mode. In that case, you can also adjust the enemy strength if you want to fight against tougher enemies. This mode is especially good for complete beginners (the ones that find even the Tourist difficulty too tough to beat), but can also be used by more experienced players who want to add something new to the gameplay.
Cannot read messages
To read the in-game messages using the NETRICSA, you need to double-click your Use button. If you have reconfigured your controls and you cannot find the Use command, you need to reset your controls and bind them again.
Door not opening
If you cannot figure out what you have to do to open some door, you might want to use this cheat:
Face the door (so that you target it with the crosshair), invoke the game console (by pressing F1), then type:
please open
and press Enter.
3D accelerators
"Serious Sam" has been tested with many different 3D-accelerator boards and drivers. The game will try to recognize your board and adjust optimal settings for it. If you experience any problem, please make sure you have the correct display driver installed.
You can download drivers from 3D board chipset manufacturer's site or any driver repository on the internet.
All boards have been tested with Windows 98 SE operating system, unless noted otherwise. For compatibility with other OSes (WinNT/2K/XP) please read sections below.
Here is the list of tested hardware:
o 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics
- driver version: 3.01.00
- supports only 16-bit rendering modes
- no vertical lines in computer screen and menu
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
o 3Dfx Voodoo2
- driver version: 3.02.02
- supports only 16-bit rendering modes
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
o 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee
- driver version: 1.04.01 beta (Voodoo5-unified Voodoo series driver)
- supports only 16-bit rendering modes
- runs very slow in windowed mode
- if unified driver doesn't work, please install Voodoo Banshee driver version 1.04.00 (or newer)
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
o 3Dfx Voodoo3
- driver version: 1.04.01 beta (Voodoo5-unified Voodoo series driver)
- supports only 16-bit rendering modes
- this board has too small texture memory to display textures in full size
- runs very slow in windowed mode
- if unified driver doesn't, work please install Voodoo3 driver version 1.07.00 (or newer)
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
- WARNING: The current version of glSetup does not contain "Serious Sam" compatible drivers for Voodoo3. - see here for more information
o 3Dfx Voodoo4 & Voodoo5
- driver version: 1.04.01 beta (Voodoo5-unified Voodoo series driver)
- runs very slow in windowed mode
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
o 3DLabs Permedia2
- some of required blending modes are not supported
- insufficient hardware power
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
o 3DLabs Permedia3
- not tested
o 3DLabs Oxygen VX1
- not tested
o ATI Rage Pro
- insufficient hardware power
- supports only 16-bit rendering modes
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
o ATI Rage 128 and 128 pro
- driver version: 4.13.7202
- lens-flares might not work in full-screen mode
o ATI Rage Maxx
- driver version: 6.40 cd15
- might have occasional triangle popping artifacts
o ATI Radeon, 7x00 and 8x00 series
- driver version: 4.13.7197
- occasional slowdowns
o ATI FireGL2
- driver version: 5.12.2195.2078
- works only under WinNT/2K/XP - DOESN'T HAVE A DRIVER FOR Win9X/ME OSes
- color bending artifacts when 16-bit textures are used (32-bit textures are recommended)
o Intel i740 & i752 (i810/i815 motherboard chipsets)
- driver version: 4.0
- supports only 16-bit rendering modes
- some polygons in mirrors/portals might not work
- support for i740 has been DISCONTINUED
o Matrox G200
- driver version: 6.70.008
- might have occasional crashes on some configurations
- polygon flickering and colorization artifacts
- support for this board might not be possible in the future
o Matrox G400/G450
- driver version: 6.72.016
- occasional polygon flickering and colorization artifacts
o nVidia Riva128
- some of required blending modes are not supported
- supports only 16-bit rendering modes
- several compatibility problems
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
o nVidia RivaTNT, TNT2, GeForce256, GeForce2 and GeForce3 series boards
- driver version: Detonator 21.83
- no known issues
o PowerVR Kyro/Kyro2
- driver version: 1.3 (1.09.31)
- some gradient textures might not be rendered properly
o S3 Savage2000
- driver version: 9.51.12
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
o S3 Savage4
- driver version: 8.20.33
- might have some triangle artifacts and/or z-fighting problems
- occasional texture corruption might occur (can be fixed with '/RefreshTextures()' console command)
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
o S3 Savage3D
- has not been tested but might work
- support for this board has been DISCONTINUED
Following 3D accelerators are not supported due to lack of proper OpenGL driver and/or hardware power:
3Dfx Voodoo Rush
ATI Rage II (and older)
Rendition Verite
S3 Trio3D
SiS
Trident
Official download locations for display drivers
3Dfx
ATI special purpose drivers (recommended)
ATI official drivers
Intel
Matrox
nVidia
PowerVR
S3 Graphics
WickedGL Voodoo drivers
Display driver internet repositories (also contains unofficial and beta drivers)
Beta or unofficial driver sometimes works much better than official. These drivers tend to be updated on a monthly basis. So, in case of any compatibility problems it is a good idea to browse a bit thru following sites.
ReactorCritical
SavageNews
3DChipset
Motherboard drivers
On motherboards with chipsets that don't have native support in Windows, you'll have to install the corresponding driver manually.
Complete explanation on how to do that can be found in the motherboard's manual. Here are the links to the driver pages of most chipset manufacturers.
Even if you have the correct display and sound drivers, you can still have some problems with "Serious Sam" in case you don't have proper motherboard drivers installed.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR VIA USERS: In case you have a motherboard based on VIA chipset, please install latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers!
ALi
AMD
Intel
SiS
VIA unofficial (recommended)
VIA official
WickedGL Voodoo driver (home page)
WickedGL Voodoo driver is a 3rd party driver for Voodoo boards, provided by Wicked3D as an alternative for 3dfx' driver. It performs very well with "Serious Sam" and it is highly recommended, especially in case of problems with 3Dfx drivers.
glSetup (home page)
It is highly recommended that you use glSetup to install corresponding OpenGL display drivers for "Serious Sam". In most cases, it will work just fine, but if you experience some problems, please download the latest driver for your 3D accelerator from the aforementioned links.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR VOODOO-3 USERS: Voodoo3 driver in glSetup doesn't work properly with "Serious Sam". You can either install WickedGL drivers, latest Voodoo5-unified 3Dfx referent drivers or check glSetup site for update.
Yes, that is correct, you should install the Voodoo5 driver, because it is a 'unified' driver and it supports the Voodoo3 as well. Note that the 3Dfx company cannot support its hardware anymore, and you should not expect that any new 'official' drivers will be released in the future.
DirectX 8 (and 8.1) compatibility
"Serious Sam: The Second Encounter" also supports MS DirectX 8 for rendering (Direct3D portion, infact). However, we cannot guarantee that there won't be any problems using D3D under some configurations. Generaly, OpenGL is more polished, but on some boards you might find Direct3D faster and/or more stable to use. The choice is yours.
WARNING: There is a great chance that the boards which have been discountinued (3Dfx, S3, ...) won't have efficient DirectX 8 support! In that case, using OpenGL for rendering is the only logical option.
Windows NT compatibility
"Serious Sam" has been tested with WindowsNT 4.0, in OpenGL mode (since this OS doesn't support DirectX 8). It works just fine, but since this platform is not targeted for gaming, we cannot provide support for problems caused by incompatibility.
Just make sure that you have latest drivers installed for display, sound and motherboard chipset.
Windows 2000 & XP compatibility
Normally, there should be no problem running "Serious Sam: The Second Encounter" on these platforms. Both OpenGL and DirectX modes works fine, but in case of DirectX problems, you should revert to OpenGL. Still, that depends on hardware you're using (especially 3D-board).
However, WinXP might enocunter some compatibility issues due to immature drivers. As always, it's very good idea to keep the drivers up to date.
IMPORTANT: On some operating systems (especially Win95) and/or hardware setup, switching full-screen and windowed mode might not work properly. This is a driver issue and cannot be fixed from our side.
Improved versions of the game executables, additional driver information, extra game content (like new multiplayer levels, or player models and similar), add-on scripts, etc. might become available with time.
You should visit the Serious Sam Update page periodically to see if something interesting for you appears.
Gathering of Developers and godgames are trademarks of Gathering of Developers, Inc. Copyright (c) 1998 Gathering of Developers I, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Croteam and the Croteam logo are trademarks of Croteam, Ltd. Serious Sam, the Serious Sam logo and all related titles, logos, and characters are trademarks of Croteam, Ltd. Serious Engine, Serious Editor, Serious Modeler and the Serious Engine logo are trademarks of Croteam, Ltd. Copyright © 2000-2001 Croteam, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Serious Sam uses Ogg Vorbis libraries. Copyright (c) 2001, Xiphophorus. See file COPYING in the Bin\Ogg subdirectory of the installation for more information.
Microsoft and Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows NT and Windows XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.