For this demo you will find two executables installed; TS_D3D.exe and TS_3dfx.exe the later is useable only on cards that support the Glide API (Those that are based on a 3dfx Voodoo chipset). If you do not have a Voodoo based card be sure to run the game using the D3D executable.
TrickStyle is one of those games that is easy to pick up and play but hard to master. Start it up and find the guide, he will teach you all you need to know. But while I'm here I may as well give you the basics:
Default Controls:
Accelerate: Cursor Up
Left: Cursor Left
Right: Cursor Right
Ollie: Z
Luge: X
Spin: A
Drill: S
Stall: Left Shift
Tight Turn: Left Control
Menu: Esc
TrickStyle is a stunt based racing game... i.e. You NEED to learn and perform the stunts to stand any real chance of winning through to the final races. To get new stunts complete the various challenges that the guide will offer you, to pull them off learn to combo the four basic stunts (Jump, Luge, Spin & Drill).
3.1 The Render Select Box.
The first thing you will see on starting the game is the Render Select box. This little device is where you select how you want you PC to handle the game in terms of visuals and sounds. The options available are:
3.11 Display Device.
Simply put, this asks which Graphics Accelerator you wish to use. Select the adapter of choice from the drop down box.
3.12 Resolution Select.
This is where you select the resolution/color depth at which you wish to play the game. As you increase the resolution and color depth you will find a fall off in frame rate, experiment to find a balance that you are happy with. A good yardstick is to try the game at the same settings that your Windows Desktop is running at.
3.13 High/Low Quality sound.
For machines with 32Mb or less (bearing in mind that our minimum spec for TrickStyle is 32Mb) we recommend un-ticking the high quality sound box. This will drop the sounds from 16bit to 8bit quality, effectively halving the memory usage for sound. It will also drop the maximum number of simultaneous sound to 4.
-When running TrickStyle, it is recommended that you check the following factors regarding the configuration of Windows
-Color Mode
When running the game, you will need to have windows set to a color mode of 256 colors or higher.
-Close Other Programs
Before starting TrickStyle, you are advised to close down all other programs that may be running. Doing this will ensure that the game is able to use the maximum system resources available. To check which other programs are open, press the CONTROL, ALT and DELETE keys at the same time. This will bring up a Dialog box entitled 'Close Program'. This box lists all programs currently running, a completely clean system should only have Explorer and Systray listed on this screen.
N.B. If you are unsure what the programs currently running are, do not close them unless you are having problems running the game (with either game stability or speed).
-Windows Virtual Memory
Virtual Memory is basically when Windows uses hard drive space as extra memory. It does this by creating a swap file on the hard drive and writing data to it. The result is software that may need more memory than the machine it is being run on, will still run.
Games software typically needs a fairly large amount of space for a swap file, with around 100Mb typically recommended.
-Minimizing Game
Users are advised not to minimize TrickStyle whilst a game is in progress. If access to the desktop is required we recommend that the game be exited first.
-Windowed Mode
In order to run TrickStyle in Windowed mode, you will need to have Windows set to 16-bit color mode. Please note: When running the game in Windowed mode the size of the window must not exceed the size of your desktop, the game will fail to run if it is higher.
4.1 Video Specific Issues:
-Texture Memory Availability
TrickStyle detects how much texture memory is available on your video card then scales the in game textures appropriately. However, depending on your drivers some cards running under glide will not report the memory availability correctly. If you believe your card is not reporting correctly you may edit the game.ini file in your TrickStyle directory. Simply open the file in any text editor and alter the line Vidmem= to reflect how much texture memory is available on your card. Please note in most cases this will be unnecessary and may even cause problems when altered on a system that is reporting correctly.
-Game and Windows Resolutions
On some cards it is possible that video problems may arise as a result of having windows running in one color-depth/resolution while the game runs in another. If you experience any video problems we recommend you try the game at the same settings as your Windows desktop.
-Windowed Mode
It is important to note that although your video card reports all of its available resolutions all of the time, you should not attempt to run the game windowed in a higher resolution than your desktop is set at. Doing so may cause you to get nothing but a blank screen. Also, many video cards cannot run windowed mode in 32bit color, if you intend to run TrickStyle in a window we recommend setting your color depth to 16-bit.
4.2 Optimizing Game Speed
There are a number of ways in which machines can be optimized to improve the speed of games.
-Ensure No Other Software is Running
Press the Ctrl, Alt and Delete keys together, you will be presented with a windows Dialogue box titled 'Close Program'. The only programs that are essential to running windows are Systray and Explorer, however we don't recommend removing unknown programs from this list.
-Virtual Memory
Ensure that there is enough free hard drive space for Virtual Memory. The performance of a machine can also be improved by manually setting up a permanent swap file on a separate physical drive (this should only be attempted by advanced users).
-Screen Savers/Desktop Themes
Disabling any third party Screen Savers or Desktop Themes may have an effect on improving system performance.
