HomeworldV1.03 Sept22, 1999
Changes to version 1.03

- A problem with auto-detecting firewalls was fixed.  Previously it would always detect that you were behind a firewall.

- Previously, OpenGL was not available for any of the Nvidia TNT cards under Windows9x.  This was disabled due to driver problems under Win95.  OpenGL is now available for Win98 but not Win95.

- The Intel i740 is now more reliable under Direct 3D.

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Homeworld
Version 1.0
Readme File
Sept 1, 1999

To read this file, select Edit/Word Wrap from the menu above.

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About This Document:

Thank you for purchasing Homeworld.

This document contains last-minute information about Homeworld and other information about the program not found in the Help Files.  This README file includes information that pertains to general problems and questions you may have concerning the game or your computer. Should you experience any problems with Homeworld, please refer to this file for addition help on answering questions about the game and solving technical difficulties.

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                TABLE OF CONTENTS

          I.    MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
         II.    GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
        III.    GENERAL GAME ISSUES
         IV.    VIDEO CARD ISSUES
          V.    CONTACTING SIERRA




I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
=======================

- Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 (w/service pack 4.0) CD-ROM

Minimums:
- Pentium® II 233, 32 MB RAM
- 100 MB HD Space (Plus 50 MB Permanent Swap File)
- 4x CD-ROM Drive
- 4 MB PCI Video Card (16-bit color, DirectX compatible)
- 16-bit DirectX compatible Soundcard
- Win-compatible Mouse

Preferred:
- Pentium® II 350+, 64 MB RAM
- 400 MB HD Space (For Full Installation)
- 12 MB+ 3D Accelerated Video Card
- Win-compatible Mouse with Mousewheel

Internet/Multiplayer:
- 32-bit Internet Service Provider with 28.8+ kbps Modem or LAN

DirectX 6.1 is required to run the game.  It is included on the Homeworld disc.  Additionally, to download it, point your browser to Microsoft's DirectX download web site at:  http://www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp


II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
============================

- Most video compatibility problems can be resolved by hitting the TROUBLESHOOT button in the video options screen or by pointing your browser to http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/homeworld/noflash/c-support.html.  We recommend using the TROUBLESHOOT button in D3D or software video modes as task switching in OpenGL mode has been known to cause problems on some systems.

- If you have a dial-up Internet connection, we recommend you establish your internet connection before you click on the INTERNET or TROUBLESHOOT buttons in Homeworld.

- We recommend minimizing or closing all programs with "always on top" windows (i.e. ICQ) before starting Homeworld.  Leaving them maximized will cause the Windows Operating System to switch from Homeworld to those programs when you click on certain parts of the screen.

- Windows NT and Windows 98 users can alt-tab out of Homeworld then back in in both D3D and Software modes, but doing so may cause undefined problems on some system configurations.  This is especially true if you run another 3D application when Homeworld is minimized.  Alt-tab is not available under OpenGL.  In any case, we recommend avoiding task switching while running Homeworld.  You do so at your own risk.

- Hitting the Windows Key is equivalent to alt tabbing and can have similar undefined results on some configurations, especially OpenGL.  The Windows key is disabled in D3D.

- You must have enough free disk space available on your swap drive in order to run Homeworld.  Use My Computer->Properties->Performace->Virtual Memory to see what drive your swap file(s) will be on.  We recommend running with a fixed-size swap file if you have the disk space or ensuring there is at least 50MB of free space on the drive you have installed Homeworld to.

- Taking screenshots has been known to cause hardware lock-ups using certain hardware accelerators.  This is unavoidable due to video timing issues.  Note that this is extremely rare an only with hardware acceleration.  Screenshots are completely safe in software and quite safe in hardware.  Make sure you have enough free disk space to save your screenshots.

- To access the software version of reference card or manual, the user must have or install Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0.  It is included on the Homeworld disc.  You can also download Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 at http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html#reader.

III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES
========================

Updates to the Manual:

A) At times you may notice a ship turn to wire-frame mode when the camera goes through it or when it is cloaked.  This is a design feature and not a bug.

B) According to the description in the manual, Salvage Corvettes can capture "heavily damaged" ships.  As it stands now, they can steal any ship. The Salvage Corvette will be able to capture a ship regardless of its health.

C) Ships won't auto-retaliate when set to evasive tactics.

D) When playing internet games with CPU opponents, the CPU opponents may die when human players die.  This is because the CPU opponents are distributed across the human players to lessen the processor load on the captain.  This is not a bug.

E) Omitted from the manual is the fact that the Support Frigate can repair capital ships.  To activate this feature, select the Support Frigate, hold down the [Z] key and leftclick on or drag a bandbox around the ship to repair.

F) The manual states that capital ships set to Evasive tactics will retreat from their opponents.  This is incorrect; they will stand their ground.

G) Screenshots (which can be taken by pressing Scroll Lock when the game is running) will be placed in the Screenshots directory.  They will also be used as background images when loading multiplayer games.

H) Omitted from the manual is the fact that several Salvage Corvettes are required to capture certain capital ships.  Frigate = 2 Salvage Corvettes, Destroyer = 3 Salvage Corvettes, Heavy Cruiser = 5, Carrier = 5.


IV. VIDEO CARD ISSUES
=====================

To obtain the latest drivers for your hardware download the drivers from your card manufacturer's web site.  See below for links to the driver sections of various hardware vendor's webpages.

Additionally, you may want to install and run a third-party driver installation program such as GLSetup (www.glsetup.com) which contains many OpenGL drivers for a variety of video cards.  GLSetup version 1.6 is provided for your convinience on the Homeworld CD to save you download time should your current OpenGL drivers not work with Homeworld.  Recognize that GLSetup is not supported by Sierra's technical support, however.

All compatibility comments below assume that you are trying to run Homeworld with the Default OpenGL renderer as a first attempt.  Depending on your chipset, however, it may be necessary to run using 3dfx OpenGL, Direct3D, or software.  Homeworld places labels beside available renderers in the Video Options screen that indicate the graphics API a particular driver uses: GL for OpenGL, D3D for Direct3D, and SW for software.

If your chipset is not listed below you should consult the documentation that came with your hardware to determine how to get updated drivers.

Some 3D hardware does not provide an OpenGL implementation and running Homeworld with Default OpenGL selected as your renderer will then not be accelerated by your hardware at all.  If Homeworld pops up a dialog box informing you that the selected renderer is unaccelerated, try Direct3D next, then software if all else fails (the Homeworld software renderer is considerably faster than OpenGL without hardware support).  If you must use the software renderer, try running Homeworld with the /rasterSkip commandline switch for a moderate speed increase; some people find this too visually distracting, so try for yourself and see.

Homeworld also supports the /safeGL commandline option.  You should run with this if any of the following problems occur when using OpenGL as your renderer: oddly coloured backgrounds, no stars in the backgrounds, no background bitmap in the loading screens, or ship meshes that are missing polygons or are oddly coloured.

Recent versions of Windows 98 provide drivers for certain 3D chipsets, but they generally do not contain an OpenGL ICD.  GLSetup drivers or drivers from your vendor's website are preferred.

If you experience problems when testing a new display mode (new resolution or bitdepth), be sure to see if Homeworld will run at 640x480 16bit.  Some cards incorrectly report resolutions they cannot properly support, and Homeworld may fail to recognize the problem.  If you select a new display mode and Homeworld appears unresponsive (ie. black screen or garbled text) either wait a few seconds or hit the Spacebar to have Homeworld restore the previous mode.  If all else fails, try pressing CTRL-SHIFT-F12 to re-enable the default renderer (software, 640x480 16bit).

Note also that not all 3D hardware supports the same set of features as another, and some scenes and effects will appear differently on different system configurations.  This is to be expected.

Users with an AMD K6 or greater processor with 3DNow! instructions or an Intel LX chipset on their motherboard may experience crashes or system lockups when using OpenGL with NVidia Riva TNT2, 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee or Voodoo 3, and S3 Savage3D boards.  AMD users are encouraged to use Direct3D for hardware acceleration if this problem occurs.

Below are a list of known issues and driver recommendations that have been tested successfully with Homeworld.

3dfx (http://www.3dfx.com/view.asp?PAGE=nusdrivers)
* Voodoo Rush - this chipset is not currently supported for hardware acceleration mode, but recent 3dfx driver releases may provide support
* Voodoo Graphics - no known problems with 3dfx drivers.  Drivers from Diamond Multimedia for the Diamond Monster card have caused some problems with Homeworld.  Using reference drivers from 3dfx has been seen to resolve these issues.
* Voodoo 2 - no known problems (recommend driver: 3dfx reference driver 3.03.00, 6-24-99)
* Banshee - no known problems
* Voodoo 3 - no known problems with 3dfx driver 1.0, April '99.  A rainbow effect on the background is encountered with driver 1.02.11 7-22-99, we recommend using driver 1.0.

Note: 3dfx fullscreen-only devices (Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo 2) must use the 3dfx OpenGL renderer for hardware acceleration due to a limitation in Microsoft's OpenGL hardware support mechanism that doesn't allow for fullscreen-only devices to be supported via Default OpenGL.  Other 3dfx chipsets (Banshee, Voodoo 3) can use Default OpenGL, or Direct3D if problems occur with GL.  The 3dfx OpenGL renderer will only be available if you have a fullscreen-only Voodoo card in your system.  If you have a Voodoo Graphics or Voodoo 2 card, it is highly recommended that you run GLSetup for driver setup; there are known problems with Diamond's Monster II drivers that GLSetup corrects.

Intel (http://www.intel.com/design/graphics/drivers/index.htm)
* i740 - some users may experience missing textures on ships.  Get the latest drivers from Intel's website to resolve this problem or try GLSetup.

nVidia (http://www.nvidia.com/Products.nsf/htmlmedia/software_drivers.html)
* Riva 128, 128ZX - text may appear blocky or blurry, but gameplay is unaffected, no other known problems, recomended driver v 3.37.
* Riva TNT, TNT2 - no known problems, recomended driver Detonator ver 2.08 nVidia reference driver or for Creative Labs boards Creative Labs driver ver 1.09, 3-24-99.

3DLabs (http://www.3dlabs.com/drivers/index.html)
* Permedia 2 - does not support all OpenGL blending modes and some scenes may look incorrect, but gameplay is unaffected.  Users may prefer to run with Direct3D due to faster frontend performance
* Permedia 3 - texturing is not currently supported by drivers in Windows 95

ATI (http://support.atitech.ca/drivers/drivers.html)
* 3D Rage 2 - OpenGL is unaccelerated.  Direct3D has limited display mode support, but no known problems
* Rage Pro - no known problems.  Select Direct3D for hardware acceleration, driver version 4.11.2560, 5-28-99, is recommended.
* Rage 128 - no known problems, recommend D3D mode or for OpenGL use driver included in GLSetup 1.6.

Matrox (http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/latest_drivers/home.htm)
* M3D (PowerVR PCX2) - this chipset is not supported
* G200 - no known problems, recommend D3D use.  We do not recommend using GLSetup with this card.
* G400 - no known D3D problems.  Recommend driver 4.11.01.2110, from 8-31-99. OpenGL choice is available, but we do not recommend using GLSetup with this card.

Rendition (http://www.rendition.com/usersupport.html)
* Verite 1000 - no known problems
* Verite 2100 - select Direct3D for hardware acceleration.  Some driver versions may occasionally display backgrounds without smoothing, leading to a very polygonal look.  Effect is intermittent, and gameplay is unaffected
* Verite 2200 - no known problems

S3 (www.s3.com)
* Virge - OpenGL is unaccelerated.  Direct3D has limited display mode support, but no known problems
* Savage 3 - OpenGL performance may be choppy.  If this is the case, use Direct3D.
* Savage 4 - no known problems, recommend Diamond driver 2.04, 6-1,99 for Diamond cards or S3 reference driver 8.02.11, 5-18-99.


V. CONTACTING SIERRA
====================

A) Customer Service, Support, and Sales
B) Technical Support
C) Legal Information


A) Customer Service, Support, and Sales
---------------------------------------
United States

U.S.A. Sales Phone: (800) 757-7707
International Sales:  (425) 746-5771
Hours: Monday-Saturday 7AM to 11 PM CST,
Sundays 8 AM to 9PM CST
FAX: (402) 393-3224

Sierra Direct
7100 W. Center Rd
STE 301
Omaha, NE  68106

United Kingdom

Havas Interactive
Main: (0118) 920-9111
Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Fax:   (0118) 987-5603
Disk/CD replacements in the U.K. are £6.00,
or £7.00 outside the UK. Add "ATTN.: Returns."

2 Beacontree Plaza,
Gillette Way,
Reading, Berkshire
RG2 0BS United Kingdom


France
Havas Interactive
Téléphone: 01-46-01-46-50
Lundi au Jeudi de 10h à 19h
Vendredi de 10h à 18h
Fax: 01-46-30-00-65

Parc Tertiaire de Meudon
Immeuble "Le Newton"
25 rue Jeanne Braconnier
92366 Meudon La Forêt Cedex
France


Germany

Havas Interactive
Tel: (0) 6103-99-40-40
Montag bis Freitag von 9h - 19Uhr
Fax: (0) 6103-99-40-35

Robert-Bosh-Str. 32
D-63303 Dreieich
Germany


On-Line Sales
CompuServe United Kingdom:GO UKSIERRA
CompuServe France:    GO FRSIERRA
CompuServe Germany:       GO DESIERRA
Internet USA:         http://www.sierra.com
Internet United Kingdom:  http://www.sierra-online.co.uk
Internet France:      http://www.sierra.fr
Internet Germany:     http://www.sierra.de

Disk and or Manual Replacement:

Product Returns:
Sierra On-Line Returns
4100 West 190th Street
Torrance, CA  90504

Sierra On-Line Fulfillment
4100 West 190th Street
Torrance, CA  90504

NOTE: To replace your disk(s) please send only Disk #1 (or the CD) and copy of your dated Receipt, if less then 90 days.  After 90 days please include a $10 handling fee along with Disk / CD #1.  For Documentation, please include a $ 5.00 handling fee and a photocopy ONLY of disk #1.  Payment should be made at the time of your request.  Sorry, no credit cards.	

* Returns to this address valid in North America only.


B) TECHNICAL SUPPORT
--------------------

North America

Sierra On-Line offers a 24-hour automated technical support line with recorded answers to the most frequently asked technical questions. To access this service, call (425) 644-4343, and follow the recorded instructions to find your specific topic and resolve the issue. If this fails to solve your problem, you may still write, or fax us with your questions, or contact us via our Web site.

Sierra On-Line
Technical Support
P.O. Box 85006
Bellevue, WA 98015-8506

Main: (425) 644-4343
Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.- 4:45 p.m.  PST
Fax:   (425) 644-7697

http://www.sierra.com
support@sierra.com


United Kingdom

Havas Interactive offers a 24-hour Automated Technical Support line with recorded answers to the most frequently asked technical questions. To access this service, call (0118) 920-9111, and follow the recorded instructions to find your specific topic and resolve the issue. If this fails to solve your problem, you may still write, or fax us with your questions, or contact us via our Internet or CompuServe sites.

Havas Interactive
2 Beacontree Plaza,
Gillette Way,
Reading, Berkshire
RG2 0BS United Kingdom

Main: (0118) 920-9111
Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Fax:   (0118) 987-5603

http://www.sierra-online.co.uk


France

Havas Interactive
Parc Tertiaire de Meudon
Immeuble "Le Newton"
25 rue Jeanne Braconnier
92366 Meudon La Forêt Cedex
France

Téléphone: 01-46-01-46-50
Lundi au Jeudi de 10h à 19h
Vendredi de 10h à 18h
Fax: 01-46-30-00-65

http://www.sierra.fr


Germany

Havas Interactive
Robert-Bosh-Str. 32
D-63303 Dreieich
Deutschland

Tel: (0) 6103-99-40-40
Montag bis Freitag von 9 - 19Uhr
Fax: (0) 6103-99-40-35
Mailbox: (0) 6103-99-40-35

http://www.sierra.de


Spain

Havas Interactive
Avenida de Burgos 9
1º-OF2
28036 Madrid
Spain

Teléfono: (01) 383-2623
Lunes a Viernes de 9h30 a 14h y de 15h a 18h30
Fax: (01) 381-2437


Italy

Contattare il vostro distribotore.


C) Sierra Warranty & Legal Information
--------------------------------------

Sierra's end user license agreement, limited warranty and return policy is set forth in the EULA.txt, found on the CD, and is also available during the install of the product.

Copyright (1999 Sierra On-Line, Inc.)


