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- Space Empires: Starfury (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=53)

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Questions? Need help? Look here

Hello all! As a beta tester, I have had to go through (or help others go through more like) technical issues.
Minimum System requirements:
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/malfador/Starfury/8.htm
Demo availability:
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/malfador/Starfury/6.htm
Patch one has been released. Get it at the above link.
If you are having problems running the game, make sure you do the following:

Update video card drivers (this one is important!)
www.nvidia.com
www.ati.com
www.matrox.com
www.sis.com
These are the four biggest ones out there... or you can go to WindowsUpdate to get the latest WHQL drivers for your specific card.

Update sound card:
www.creative.com
www.hercules.com
www.turtlebeach.com

* An issue with the SoundBLaster drivers has been found. Updating to the latest drivers will fix this, and the upcoming patch will fix this as well. *

There are many others, do a google search on your particular brand. WindowsUpdate might be of assistance too (but WHQL is often skipped by some manufacturers)

Get the latest DirectX (current is at 9.0b I believe). http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx This is crucial, you need to get this.

Update any other drivers for older pieces of hardware. If you are not confident with computers, I would not reccomend updating your BIOS however.

Updating your OS by going to WindowsUpdate might make a difference, or it might not. Also, with all the nasty viruses and things, getting the latest from MS should be a top priority.

Computer cleanup chores:
Defrag your harddrives, run scandisk, and check to make sure you have enough room for Windows to create swap files (more than 250 megs is usually enough free hard disk space to have). All of this can improve overall system performance. However, this probably will not fix problems, but improve performance somewhat (for those with less powerful PCs)

Guide to setting up StarFury:
Click "Setup" in the menu that appears when you first open the game. This will open a screen of settings you can change.
You can probably leave the display driver alone. You might have more than one option here, depending on your configuration. If you are having issues with the game, and you have more than one option in the menu that pops up, you could try changing this.
For faster newer PCs, pick a higher resolution and higher color (32 bit is best, almost all video cards support it). Turn these settings down for improved performance. You can run the game in Windowed mode to allow use of other applications.
Direct3D device I would reccomend leaving at its default, if you have a very modern video card, you can try out the T&L option for better overall graphics. If you have some issues with graphics, you can try changing this, however, RGB emulation will probably be slower.
Try changing video memory from Auto to Safe if graphics are garbled in game. Default is Auto.
Sight distance is how far away objects have to be in order for the engine to render them. The higher, the more ships you can see at range, however, the slower the game may run.
Same thing with stellar detail. The higher, the nicer the graphics, but the slower your computer will be able to run.
Again, same thing with background detail. The higher, the better the ingame graphics, but the slower your computer will run.

Edit: Stickied for the time being for technical help.

[ October 22, 2003, 22:33: Message edited by: Instar ]