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- December 13, 2001
- Contents
-
- 1. Welcome
-
- 2. Minimum System Requirements
-
- 3. Technical Issues
-
- 4. Acknowledgements
-
- 5. Changes
-
-
- 1. Welcome
-
- Thank you for purchasing Tux Racer.
-
- This document contains last minute information about Tux Racer, as
- well as a guide to finding answers to your technical questions. For
- the latest in information and patches, be sure to visit the Tux Racer
- website at http://www.tuxracer.com or the Sunspire Studios website at
- http://www.sunspirestudios.com.
-
-
- 2. Minimum System Requirements
-
- Hard Disk Space Required: 125 Mb
-
- Under Windows, DirectX 8.0 or greater is required (available from
- http://www.microsoft.com/directx).
-
- Under Linux, XFree86 3.3.5 or newer is required.
-
- Minimum Specs:
- 300Mhz CPU
- 64MB RAM
- OpenGL compatible graphics card
- DirectSound compatible sound card (Windows)
- OSS compatible sound card (Linux)
-
- Suggested Specs:
- 500Mhz CPU
- 128MB RAM
- 32MB OpenGL compatible graphics card
- DirectSound compatible sound card (Windows)
- OSS compatible sound card (Linux)
-
- Supported Operating Systems:
- Windows 98
- Windows 2000
- Windows ME
- Windows XP
- Linux (x86 only, kernel 2.2.x or 2.4.x)
-
- Supported Video Cards (Windows):
- (ALL Cards must be have at least 16MB Video RAM)
- NVIDIA TNT2 [1]
- NVIDIA GeForce
- NVIDIA GeForce2
- NVIDIA GeForce3
- Matrox G450 [2]
- Matrox G550 [2]
- ATI Radeon
- 3dfx Voodoo3 [3]
-
- [1] Updated drivers may be required for TNT2 cards. These can be
- retrieved from the nVidia web site (www.nvidia.com).
-
- [2] Matrox cards will require the latest drivers from the Matrox web
- site (www.matrox.com). Also, for shadows and reflections to operate
- correctly, you must change the advanced properties in the Matrox power
- desktop to turn on 32-bitZ.
-
- [3] 3dfx no longer exists and therefore there is no longer any vendor
- support for these video cards. We have tested Tux Racer on the
- Voodoo3 2000 graphics card with success. The Voodoo4 and Voodoo5
- models may also work, but we have not tested these models.
-
- Supported Video Cards (Linux):
- NVIDIA TNT2
- NVIDIA GeForce
- NVIDIA GeForce2
- NVIDIA GeForce3
-
- These cards will require the latest Linux drivers available from
- http://www.nvidia.com.
-
- Other cards with complete OpenGL 1.2-compatible Linux drivers should
- work with Tux Racer, but are not supported.
-
-
- 3. Technical Issues
-
- 3.1. Ensure that you have the latest drivers for your video card.
-
- In order to properly run Tux Racer, you make sure that you have
- installed the latest OpenGL-compatible drivers for your video card.
-
- Windows users can obtain the latest drivers from their video card
- manufacturer's web site. Here is a partial list:
-
- NVIDIA: http://www.nvidia.com
- ATI: http://www.ati.com
- Matrox: http://www.matrox.com
- 3dfx: http://www.voodoofiles.com [3dfx no longer provides support]
-
- Linux users:
- Linux NVIDIA drivers are available here:
- http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=linux
-
- Information about Linux drivers for ATI products is available here:
- http://www.ati.com/na/pages/resource_centre/dev_rel/linux.html
-
- Information about Linux drivers for Matrox products is available here:
- http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/3rd_party/home.cfm
-
- Information about Linux drivers for 3dfx products is available here:
- http://www.linuxvoodoo.com/
-
-
- 3.2. Switching between 32-bit color and 16-bit color.
-
- You can switch between 32-bit color and 16-bit color from the
- Configure->Video screen. However, on some systems this will produce
- an error.
-
- If you are unable to switch between 32-bit color and 16-bit color
- in-game, you can change this setting by editing Tux Racer's options
- file. Quit Tux Racer and open the TuxRacer\config\options.txt file
- (in Windows) or the ~/.tuxracer-v1/options file (in Linux). Search
- for the line that starts with "set bpp_mode" and change it to
- set bpp_mode 1
- for 16-bit color or
- set bpp_mode 2
- for 32-bit color.
-
- 3.3. 32-bit color for full features
-
- Some features (such as reflections, shadows, and bump-mapping) only
- work using 32-bit color. (See 3.2 above for information on switching
- between 32-bit color and 16-bit color.)
-
- 3.4. 16-Bit Windowed mode issue
-
- On some systems, windowed mode only works in 32-bit color mode, so if
- you are having problems playing Tux Racer in windowed mode, first set
- your desktop bit depth to 32-bit, as well as setting Tux Racer to
- 32-bit color mode. (See 3.2 above for information on switching between
- 32-bit color and 16-bit color.)
-
- 3.5. Framerate improvement
-
- If you find your framerate seems low, try disabling shadows by
- clicking the checkbox off in the Configure->Graphics screen. Turning
- off shadows will have a bigger impact on performance than any of the
- other options.
-
- 3.6. Difficulty level
-
- If you find the default settings are too difficult, try setting the
- level of difficulty to Easy by going to the Player Selection screen,
- creating a new player and selecting Easy from the Difficulty box.
-
- 3.7. 11KHz sound issue
-
- Sound needs to be set to 22KHz or higher to avoid problems with music
- playback. Note that the only way of changing the sound settings is by
- editing the options file.
-
-
- 4. Acknowledgements
-
- Tux Racer uses the Simple Directmedia Layer Library (SDL) under the
- terms of the GNU Library General Public License. See the file
- LGPL.txt for a copy of this license. Source code for SDL is included
- in the 'extras' directory of the Tux Racer CD. SDL is Copyright (C)
- 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Sam Lantinga.
-
- Tux Racer uses the SDL MPEG Player Library (SMPEG) under the terms of
- the GNU Library General Public License. See the file LGPL.txt for a
- copy of this license. Source code for SMPEG is included in the
- 'extras' directory of the Tux Racer CD. SMPEG is Copyright (C) 1999
- Loki Entertainment Software.
-
- Tux Racer (Linux Version) uses the SDL_mixer Library under the terms
- of the GNU Library General Public License. See the file LGPL.txt for
- a copy of this license. Source code for SDL_mixer is included in the
- 'extras' directory of the Tux Racer CD. SMPEG is Copyright (C) 1999
- Loki Entertainment Software.
-
- Tux Racer uses the Loki Setup Installer, written by Sam Lantinga and
- StΘphane Peter, under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
- See the file GPL.txt for a copy of this license. The installer also
- uses the Loki SetupDB package written by StΘphane Peter and Sam
- Lantinga at Loki Software, Inc., which is also covered by the GNU
- General Public License. Source code for the Setup Installer and
- SetupDB is included in the the 'extras' directory of the Tux Racer CD.
-
- Tux Racer use the libz library, Copytigh 1995-1998 Jean-loup Gailly
- and Mark Adler.
-
- Tux Racer use the libpng library, Copyright 2000, 2001 Glenn
- Randers-Pehrson.
-
- Tux Racer uses the Tcl library by Scriptics Corporation. The Tcl
- licensing terms are included in the file Tcl_license.txt included on
- the Tux Racer CD.
-
-
- 5. Changes
-
- Version 1.1:
- - First retail release
- - Added Head-to-Head mode
- - Several gameplay tweaks and bug fixes
-
- Version 1.0.003:
- - Added low-res versions of object models
-
- Version 1.0.002:
- - Tweaked English font bitmaps
- - Disabled obsolete F10 console keybinding
-
- Version 1.0.001:
- - Fixed music loading bug in Arctic Cup
-