Starship Troopers German Demo file

Starship Troopers tm

Updated 24/07/05
Check www.starshiptroopersgame.com for the latest information

Background

'Starship Troopers' is the game based upon the hit 1997 movie.

You play the role of an elite Marauder - the Special Forces of the Mobile Infantry. As High Command's precision strike tool it's your duty to spearhead the campaign against the arachnid menace. Whenever 'the going gets tough' Marauders are expected to lead the way!

The full game consists of 12 single player levels - set in diverse environments such as desert canyons, abandoned mines, lonely trooper outposts and of course - the bug nests!

In the course of the campaign on Hesperus you will have to fight 19 unique species of bugs, from harmless chariot bugs to huge plasma bugs capable of knocking out spaceships. To assist you in this epic confrontation you'll be able to use 11 different weapons - each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Multiplayer entertainment is covered by deathmatch, team deathmatch and of course specially designed co-operative missions.

There will also be an unlockable score based mode that allows players to compare their speed and kill tally.

The full game will be available in the 4th quarter of 2005.

Installation

Insert the CD Rom into your PC
If the disc does not Auto Run then do the following.

Select My Computer. Select your CD-Rom Drive (E.g. "D:") and locate and run the Setup.exe - Follow the onscreen instructions.

Run the game by selecting Start --> Program Files --> Empire Interactive --> Starship Troopers Demo or click on the shortcut created on your desktop

System Specs

Recommended: 3.0ghz CPU, 1Gb RAM, GeForce 6800 or Radeon X800 [1024x768 with shadows], DirectX 9.0c, 600mb free hard drive space, Windows XP ONLY, DirectX compatible PCI soundcard.

Minimum: 2.0ghz CPU, 512mb RAM, GeForce FX5900 or Radeon 9800 [800x600 with shadows], DirectX 9.0c, 600mb free hard drive space, Windows XP ONLY.

Note: Shadows are very intensive on hardware. It is advised that you lower the video resolution if you desire shadows. The game will run at a reasonable framerate with low quality terrain shadows and no dynamic shadows using an FX5600 video card at 800x600 video resolution.

Drivers

To ensure this demo runs smoothly and to maximise your enjoyment we recommend using the latest drivers. The website list below is for some of the major manufacturers but please contact your supplier if you are unsure of the correct drivers required for your machine.

www.NVidia.com
www.ATI.com
www.Creative.com
www.Microsoft.com
www.DirectX.com
www.Microsoft.com/windows/directx/

Default Controls

W, S, A, D These control the player's movement
Left mouse button Primary fire
Right Mouse button Secondary fire
R Reload
G Grenade
1 to 9 Select specific weapons (1, 2 and 4 are available in the demo)
[ Previous weapon
] Next weapon
E Interact\Use

All these keys and more are configurable by accessing the Options --> Controls from the front end.

Settings

The following settings can be modified from the in game options screens:

Graphics

Video Mode

Controls the resolution and refresh rate of the game. Select a resolution and click on apply to set. Changing the setting will result in a short pause whilst your graphics card memory is refreshed. If you experience problems after changing this setting see the advanced configuration section below.

Terrain Shadows

This option controls the level of quality for in game shadows cast by the terrain.

None - No shadows cast by terrain, this also disables the model shadows.
Low - The terrain will use pre-calculated texture shadows.
High - The terrain uses real time shadow volumes, resulting in accurate shadowing on the terrain and all modes at the expense of lower performance.

Model Shadows

This option controls the shadows cast by the non terrain models.

None - no shadows from the models.
High - full dynamic volumetric shadows and self shadowing on models at the expense of lower performance.

Soft Shadows

Checking the tickbox enables soft shadowing on both models and terrain with any shadow method enabled.

Model Detail

This option controls the number of high resolution and shadow casting (when enabled) models in the game.

Texture Quality

This option controls the size of textures used in the game. Note that in the demo version some artefacts may be observed with Ultra Low texture quality.

Changing the setting will result in a short pause whilst your graphics card memory is refreshed.

Shader Quality

Three options are available, determining the shader types used. The Medium and High options are only available if your card supports the shader models required.

The demo does not expose the advanced Very High shader quality options which will be available in the full game, including Shader Model 3 support.

HUD Fade

Controls the transparency of the Head Up Display (health bar, ammo, radar).

Crosshair Fade

Controls the transparency of the targeting cross hair.

Audio

Volume controls

The sound volumes can be adjusted to the users preference via the Sound Effects Volume, Music Volume, and Voice Volume controls.

Audio Quality

This option controls the number of sound channels used by the game sound engine. Additionally, in low quality the sound engine does not use dynamic pitch shifting.

Audio Provider

DirectSound or DirectSound and EAX can be enabled through this setting. The DirectSound and EAX option will only be available if you have EAX hardware support.

Controls

The controls options menu screens allow you to configure your key settings to your preferences.

Tips

Don't stand still for too long. Even if you think you're safe a bug might have circled around you.

Try to use your ammo sensibly; there is never a good moment to hear an empty chamber click!

Remember your grenades, they are your friends.

Bugs and guns have strengths and weaknesses, if one gun isn't proving effective then switch to another. Don't forget to use a weapon's secondary fire mode in a critical situation.

Known issues

The game will not run if your graphics card does not support pixel and vertex shaders in hardware. An error message will appear when the game is run on these cards.

The monitor will switch off if you choose a resolution considerably higher than your graphics card/monitor is capable of rendering. See the advanced configuration section to resolve this issue.

If you create your own shortcut then ensure that the "Start in:" field reads,
"C:\Program Files\Strangelite\Starship Troopers Demo", leaving it on the default will not work.

Ensure that the anti-alias option is set to "Application controlled"; other setting can lead to screen blurring. Consult your video card documentation to see how this action can be performed.

Soundcard Issues and On-board Sound Performance
Certain soundcards (especially on-board sound) have performance and audio quality problems when in any audio quality setting other than LOW. Select LOW quality audio if you experience this issue, and update your drivers if the problem persists.

Currently, if you have an on-board soundcard, the framerate may suffer if the Audio Quality is set above 'low'.

Advanced Configuration

The global.settings file in the ST\Profiles directory can be used to edit settings if the game has been set to too high a resolution or refresh rate. This file can be edited using Notepad or a similar plain text editing package.

Changes to the settings in this file could result in problems running the game and this is not a supported feature.

If you manage to set your resolution/refresh rate too high, change the settings file to read as below:

ScreenXRes: { "640" }
ScreenYRes: { "480" }
ScreenRefreshRate: { "60" }

The game should automatically detect if you have enabled anti-aliasing via your graphics card control panel settings. If you observe artefacts when doing so try changing the ForcedFSAA setting to 2 (0 - autodetect anti-aliasing; 1 - anti-aliasing support forced off; 2 - anti-aliasing support forced on). Supporting anti-aliasing has a performance hit even if anti-aliasing is turned off.

If you experience problems delete the global.settings file and re-run the game - this will recreate the file with the default settings.

Starship Troopers: TM & © 1998, 2005 TriStar Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.