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  1. --------------------------
  2. | wqreadme.txt           |
  3. | WinQuake documentation |
  4. | 3/21/97                |
  5. --------------------------
  6.  
  7. WinQuake (WQ) is a native Win32 version of Quake, and will run on
  8. either Win95 or Windows NT 4.0 or later.  It is designed to take
  9. advantage of whatever enhanced video, sound, and input capabilities
  10. (such as DirectX or VESA VBE video modes) are present, but has
  11. fallback functionality so it can run on any Win95 or NT 4.0 or later
  12. system, even if neither DirectX nor VESA VBE is available.  You may
  13. experience problems running WQ on some systems, because driver and
  14. operating-system support for game functionality are not yet mature
  15. under Win32, and many bugs and incompatibilities remain in those
  16. components.  If you encounter what seems to be a bug, first please
  17. check through the list of known problems, below.  If your problem
  18. doesn't appear on the list, please fill out and submit the WQ bug
  19. report at http://www.idsoftware.com/contact/.
  20.  
  21. The material accompanying Quake is the reference for all
  22. non-Windows-related matters concerning WinQuake; in terms of gameplay,
  23. WQ is the same as Quake.  This file contains Windows-related
  24. information only.
  25.  
  26. The rest of this document is organized as follows:
  27.  
  28. Installing and running WinQuake
  29. Common problems and workarounds
  30. A bit about how WQ video works
  31. Video command-line switches
  32. A bit about how WQ sound works
  33. Sound command-line switches
  34. Notes on networking
  35. Notes on the mouse
  36. Log of changes to documentation
  37. Special thanks
  38.  
  39.  
  40. -----------------------------------
  41. | Installing and running WinQuake |
  42. -----------------------------------
  43.  
  44. In order to run WinQuake, you must first have Quake installed.
  45. Assuming Quake is installed in the standard directory, c:\quake,
  46. unzip the WinQuake zip file into c:\quake.  The following files
  47. from the zip file must be present in order for WQ to run:
  48.  
  49. winquake.exe
  50. pmpro16.dll
  51. pmpro32.dll
  52. wdir16.dll
  53. wdir32.dll
  54. wdirnop.com
  55. wdirnop.pif
  56.  
  57. Then you can run WinQuake by making c:\quake the current directory,
  58. typing "winquake" and pressing the Enter key.  Alternatively, you can
  59. use wq.bat to run WinQuake.  The wq batch file requires one parameter
  60. describing how to configure WQ for performance; just type "wq" to get
  61. a list of the six options.  The first of the six options is
  62.  
  63. wq fast
  64.  
  65. This is the same as typing "winquake"; this runs WinQuake in an
  66. aggressive configuration that is likely to yield the best performance
  67. if it runs successfully on your system, but which has a risk of
  68. causing WinQuake or even your system to crash if there are bugs or
  69. incompatibilities in your video or sound drivers.  Alternatively, you
  70. can use
  71.  
  72. wq safe
  73.  
  74. to run WinQuake in a conservative configuration, likely to run
  75. on almost all machines with no problems, but possibly with slower
  76. graphics, fewer high-resolution modes, and delayed sound.  Or you
  77. can run
  78.  
  79. wq verysafe
  80.  
  81. to run WinQuake in a very conservative configuration that is pretty
  82. much guaranteed to run, but will probably have slow performance, and
  83. will have no sound.  Two other options are
  84.  
  85. wq fastvid
  86.  
  87. which has maximum video performance, but greater sound latency (delay
  88. until the sound is heard), and
  89.  
  90. wq fastsnd
  91.  
  92. which uses more conservative video modes, but low-latency sound.
  93.  
  94. (One odd note is that DirectSound has much lower-latency sound than
  95. wave sound, but is currently quite a bit slower overall.  Thus you
  96. may find that "wq fastvid" is actually faster, by as much as 5-10%,
  97. than "wq fast"; however, it may not feel faster, because the sound
  98. will lag.)
  99.  
  100. Finally, you can use
  101.  
  102. wq max
  103.  
  104. which is the same as wq fast, but turns on DirectInput, which
  105. provides more responsive mouse control, but does not work properly
  106. on all systems.
  107.  
  108. Note that DirectX is not required for WQ to run, but WQ will
  109. automatically take advantage of DirectSound and DirectDraw if they
  110. are present.  If DirectSound is not present, there will generally be
  111. considerable sound latency (sound will become audible several hundred
  112. milliseconds after the event that caused it).  Note also that there
  113. are currently no true DirectSound drivers for Windows NT, so WQ will
  114. always run using wave output on NT, and will consequently have lagged
  115. sound.  See below for information about obtaining DirectX if you do
  116. not have it.
  117.  
  118. Note that VESA VBE modes aren't required for WQ to run, but WQ will
  119. automatically make VESA modes available if they're present.  Your BIOS
  120. may already have VESA VBE 2.0 support built in, but most BIOSes
  121. don't. Worse, some BIOSes do have VESA VBE 2.0 built-in, but have
  122. buggy implementations, which may prevent you from being able to run
  123. the faster configurations of WQ.  An easy way to get reliable VESA 2.0
  124. support is by obtaining SciTech Display Doctor; see below for
  125. further information. WQ can also use VBE/AF 1.0 and greater modes;
  126. again, SciTech Display Doctor is the commonest way to get VBE/AF
  127. support.
  128.  
  129. Note that winquake -dedicated completely replaces the old winded
  130. dedicated Win32 server, which is now obsolete.
  131.  
  132. WinQuake normally uses half the physical memory in your system for its
  133. heap, but not less than 8.5 Mb and not more than 16 Mb.  You can
  134. override this with "-heapsize n", where n is the amount of memory to
  135. allocate for the heap, in Kb.
  136.  
  137. To use the joystick, you must bring down the console by pressing the
  138. tilde ('~') key, and type "joystick 1<enter>"; you can disable the
  139. joystick with "joystick 0<enter>" at any time.  The joystick setting
  140. remains in effect for subsequent WinQuake sessions until changed, so
  141. you only need to do joystick 1 once to enable the joystick.  If the
  142. joystick somehow causes problems that keep you from being able to run
  143. WinQuake at all, you can start WinQuake -nojoy to complete disable the
  144. joystick for that session.
  145.  
  146.  
  147. -----------------------------------
  148. | Common problems and workarounds |
  149. -----------------------------------
  150.  
  151. WQ crashes or won't run
  152. -----------------------
  153.  
  154. If WQ refuses to run or crashes on your system, try running
  155. it using "wq safe" or "wq verysafe".  Or you can use command-line
  156. switches:
  157.  
  158. winquake -nodirectdraw -nowindirect -wavonly
  159.  
  160. This will almost certainly solve your problem; however, it may result
  161. in  lagged sound (a long delay from action to hearing the sound), may
  162. result in fewer or slower high-res video modes, and the mouse may be
  163. somewhat less responsive.  If this does work, you can try removing
  164. each of the command-line switches until you identify the one that
  165. fixes the problem, thereby sacrificing as little functionality as
  166. possible.
  167.  
  168. If the above command line does not fix your problems, try:
  169.  
  170. winquake -dibonly -nosound
  171.  
  172. which forces WQ into silent operation with bare-bones video support
  173. and no use of DirectInput for mouse input (the normal Windows mouse
  174. APIs are used instead).  Again, if this works, try removing switches
  175. until you identify the needed one.
  176.  
  177. Both of the above command lines are quick fixes.  Often, the problem
  178. is caused by outdated or buggy DirectX drivers or code, and can
  179. frequently be completely fixed simply by installing the latest
  180. Microsoft-supplied version of DirectX, which you may be able to find
  181. on http://www.microsoft.com/mediadev/download/directx.exe, although
  182. the availability and location of the DirectX file changes
  183. periodically; note that at last check, this is a 3.4 Mb file.  (Be
  184. aware, though, that sometimes Microsoft's DirectX drivers don't
  185. support features that the manufacturers' drivers do support, such as
  186. display refresh rate control.)
  187.  
  188. One known problem of this sort involves the current SB16 drivers from
  189. Creative Labs, which cause WQ to crash on some machines.  The
  190. DirectSound drivers from Microsoft, available via the above-mentioned
  191. URL, fix this problem.
  192.  
  193. It can also sometimes help to get the latest Windows drivers for your
  194. video adapter or sound card (although as the SB16 example indicates,
  195. this is not always a good idea), and for video boards that have flash
  196. BIOSes, it can sometimes help to get the latest BIOS upgrade.
  197.  
  198.  
  199. How do I select fullscreen or windowed WQ operation?
  200. ----------------------------------------------------
  201. Check out WQ's new, spiffy Video menu, accessible from the Options
  202. menu.  There are now two types of modes listed, windowed and
  203. fullscreen.  You can make any of these modes the current and/or
  204. default mode, just as in DOS Quake.  If you make a windowed mode the
  205. default, WQ will still briefly start up in fullscreen mode, then
  206. switch to windowed; if this is a problem, use the -startwindowed
  207. command-line switch.  More complete video control is available
  208. through the console, as described in the "A bit about how WQ video
  209. works" section, below.
  210.  
  211.  
  212. Gee, I wish I could use a mouse to play WQ with in a window
  213. -----------------------------------------------------------
  214. You can!  While in a windowed mode, go to the Options menu.  At the
  215. bottom, you'll find a new selection that lets you choose to have the
  216. mouse active when you're in a window.  Of course, if you do this,
  217. you'll have to use the keyboard (Alt-Tab, the Windows key, Ctrl-Esc,
  218. Alt-Esc, or Shift-Alt-Tab) to switch away from WQ.
  219.  
  220.  
  221. Serial/modem menu is missing
  222. ----------------------------
  223. WQ currently does not support direct connect serial or modem play.
  224.  
  225.  
  226. DOS Quake reports unknown variables on startup after running WQ
  227. ---------------------------------------------------------------
  228. WQ uses some console variables that do not exist in DOS Quake, and
  229. some of these are automatically archived in config.cfg when you exit
  230. WQ.  If you then start DOS Quake, DOS Quake will complain that it
  231. doesn't recognize those variables.  You will also lose the settings
  232. of these variables when you return to WQ.  Apart from losing the
  233. settings, this is harmless; ignore it.
  234.  
  235.  
  236. Problems running WQ on NT 3.51
  237. ------------------------------
  238. NT 3.51 isn't supported by WQ.
  239.  
  240.  
  241. WQ crashes while switching modes or Alt-Tabbing
  242. -----------------------------------------------
  243. So far, all cases of this seem to be tied to Creative Lab's SB16 sound
  244. drivers, and have been fixed by getting the latest DirectX drivers, as
  245. described above.  Alternatively, you should be able to fix this either
  246. by not switching modes or Alt-Tabbing, or by running -wavonly to
  247. disable DirectSound support.
  248.  
  249.  
  250. WQ sometimes runs pretty slowly fullscreen
  251. ------------------------------------------
  252. There are several possible reasons for this, starting with "You have a
  253. slow computer."  Assuming that's not the case, if you don't have
  254. either DirectDraw or SciTech Display Doctor installed (see the "A bit
  255. about how WQ video works" section), it would probably be a good thing
  256. to install one or the other, because slow operation can be a result
  257. of slow copying or stretching of pixels to the screen by a Windows
  258. driver, something that's eliminated by both DirectDraw and Display
  259. Doctor.  You can also sometimes get a faster 320x200 mode on Win95 by
  260. doing vid_describemodes, then using vid_mode to select a non-VGA
  261. 320x200 mode, as described in the "A bit about how WQ video works"
  262. section.
  263.  
  264. You can also try using a primary sound buffer on Win95 (this doesn't
  265. work on NT) by using the -primarysound command-line switch; this can
  266. improve performance by several percent, but does not work on all
  267. systems, and can result in odd sound effects on some systems when
  268. minimizing WQ or switching the focus away from it.  If you use this
  269. switch, please don't report sound bugs; it's in there purely for you
  270. to use if it helps you, and we know it has problems on many systems.
  271. Finally, you can use -wavonly to select wave sound; this will increase
  272. your sound latency (sounds will be heard later than they should), but
  273. allows WQ to run 5-10% faster on some systems.  That's about all you
  274. can do to speed up fullscreen WQ on Win95, other than shrinking the
  275. active area of the screen with the screen size control in the Options
  276. menu.
  277.  
  278. NT 4.0 comes with DirectX installed, but doesn't have any resolutions
  279. lower than 640x480.  In order to support a lower-resolution 320x240
  280. mode, WQ has NT double each pixel in both directions to get enough
  281. pixels for 640x480.  The extra stretching costs some performance, the
  282. result being that NT can seem sluggish on all but high-end Pentiums
  283. and Pentium Pros.  (In fact, depending on the quality of your driver's
  284. stretching code, it can sometimes be faster to run WQ at 640x480 than
  285. 320x240-stretched on NT.)  One thing that can help on NT is switching
  286. to 640x480, then using the Options menu to shrink the active area of
  287. the screen.
  288.  
  289. A common cause of slowness running in a window is having the desktop
  290. run in 16- or 32-bpp mode.  WQ is an 8-bpp application, and it slows
  291. things down if pixels have to be translated from 8-bpp to 16- or
  292. 32-bpp.  (Note that this is generally a problem only when running in a
  293. window; fullscreen apps rarely suffer from this.)
  294.  
  295.  
  296. Sound is sluggish on NT
  297. -----------------------
  298. NT doesn't have any real DirectSound drivers yet, so there's no way to
  299. do quick-response sound on NT.  When DirectSound drivers for NT
  300. appear, WQ's sound should automatically be snappier.
  301.  
  302.  
  303. Sound breaks up or gets choppy, especially in menus
  304. ---------------------------------------------------
  305. This is generally a sign that WQ's frame rate is too low on your
  306. system.  Try reducing resolution or shrinking the active area of the
  307. screen.  In some circumstances, it may help to set the console
  308. variable _snd_mixahead to a larger value.
  309.  
  310.  
  311. The color black doesn't change with palette flashes sometimes
  312. -------------------------------------------------------------
  313. Normally, DirectDraw lets WQ change all 256 colors, so when a palette
  314. flash happens, we can change all the colors, including black.
  315. However, on NT DirectDraw currently doesn't allow changing black;
  316. likewise, on both NT and Win95, black can't be changed in a window,
  317. either a normal window or fullscreen.  Consequently, in some modes and
  318. in a window, some parts of the WQ screen (such as the sigils on the
  319. status bar and the spray where a shotgun blast hits) stay black when
  320. the palette flashes.  There is no workaround.
  321.  
  322.  
  323. Problems can result if Office shortcut bar is running
  324. -----------------------------------------------------
  325. Various odd behaviors, especially with sound, have been reported if
  326. the Office shortcut bar is running while WQ is running.  If you
  327. experience odd problems, you might try shutting down the Office
  328. shortcut bar and see if that fixes anything.
  329.  
  330.  
  331. Other apps fail to play sound while WinQuake is running
  332. -------------------------------------------------------
  333. The sound hardware is currently not a fully shareable resource on
  334. Win32.  Consequently, while WQ is running, it always has the sound
  335. hardware allocated to itself, to make sure that sound is never lost to
  336. another app.  This means that normally (when WQ is using DirectSound),
  337. apps that use wave sound (most non-game apps) will not be able to play
  338. sound while WQ is running, even if WQ is minimized or not the active
  339. app, although other DirectSound apps will be able to play sound when
  340. WQ is not the active app.  If WQ is using wave sound rather than
  341. DirectSound (either because -wavonly is used on the command line, or
  342. because there is no DirectSound driver, as is always the case on NT),
  343. then no other app will be able to play any sound while WQ is running,
  344. period.
  345.  
  346.  
  347. WQ doesn't have quite the right colors when it’s not the active app
  348. -------------------------------------------------------------------
  349. We're working on fixing this.  But WQ puts everything back again as
  350. soon as it is reactivated, and anyway, when it’s not active, you can’t
  351. actually do anything in WQ, so it doesn’t really matter anyway, right?
  352.  
  353.  
  354. Desktop is weird colors when WQ runs windowed
  355. ---------------------------------------------
  356. WQ needs all 256 colors to look right and run fast, which causes it to
  357. have to change some of the 20 colors used to draw the desktop.
  358.  
  359.  
  360. Sometimes Permedia boards crash unless -nowindirect is used
  361. -----------------------------------------------------------
  362. It looks like this is probably a Permedia driver bug, so it might help
  363. if you get the most recent drivers.
  364.  
  365.  
  366. Right-click on WQ button in task bar to close doesn’t work as expected
  367. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  368. In some modes, right-clicking on the WQ task bar button doesn't work
  369. the way you'd expect.  We're trying to fix this, but if it's a
  370. problem, don't right-click.
  371.  
  372.  
  373. Screen saver never kicks in when running WQ fullscreen
  374. ------------------------------------------------------
  375. It does work windowed, but when WinQuake is fullscreen, it completely
  376. owns the screen and doesn't share it with anyone, even the
  377. screensaver.  If you use Alt-Tab to minimize WQ, the screensaver will
  378. then be enabled, so Alt-Tab away from WQ if you're leaving your
  379. computer alone for a while and want the screensaver to be able to kick
  380. in.
  381.  
  382.  
  383. WQ doesn’t work in a window in 16-color mode
  384. --------------------------------------------
  385. That’s 16 *colors*, not 16-bpp.  If you’re still running a 16-color
  386. desktop, run WQ fullscreen.
  387.  
  388.  
  389. Can't minimize window while mouse active
  390. ----------------------------------------
  391. When running in a window with the mouse active as a WQ input device,
  392. there is no easy way to minimize the window, because the system menu
  393. can't be brought up from the keyboard (because some of you use Alt
  394. and Spacebar for playing the game), and the mouse can't be used to
  395. manipulate the window because it's controlling WQ.  To minimize, you
  396. can disable the mouse for WQ and use it to minimize the window.  Or
  397. on Win95 you can Alt-Tab away from WQ, then use the mouse to
  398. minimize (this doesn't work on NT, where clicking on the window
  399. controls just reactivates WQ).  Or you can bind a key to the
  400. vid_minimize command, as in
  401.  
  402. bind m "vid_minimize"
  403.  
  404. and press that key to minimize the window.
  405.  
  406.  
  407. Window controls don't work on NT when mouse enabled
  408. ---------------------------------------------------
  409. When running in a window on NT with the mouse enabled (so you can use
  410. the mouse to play WQ), if you Alt-Tab away from WQ, then use the mouse
  411. to click on the WQ system menu control, or the minimize, maximize, or
  412. close controls, the controls are ignored and WQ just reactivates.
  413.  
  414.  
  415. Mouse sometimes vanishes in system menu on Win95
  416. ------------------------------------------------
  417. On Win95, if WQ is running in a window with the mouse enabled (so you
  418. can use the mouse to play WQ), if you Alt-Tab away, then click on the
  419. system menu, the menu comes up, but the mouse vanishes.  However, you
  420. can still use the keyboard to select system menu items, or to exit
  421. the system menu.
  422.  
  423.  
  424. WQ behaves oddly if Scandisk starts defragmenting
  425. -------------------------------------------------
  426. If WQ is running fullscreen on Win95 when Scandisk starts an automatic
  427. defragging, WQ is forced to minimize, and when it is brought back up,
  428. may either be in a strange mode where it runs one frame for each
  429. keystroke (in which case Alt-Tab generally fixes things), or may hang
  430. the system.  We don't know what the problem is right now, but you may
  431. want to make sure you don't leave WQ sitting there fullscreen
  432. overnight if you have automatic defragging.
  433.  
  434.  
  435. Hang reported with zero sound volume
  436. ------------------------------------
  437. When sound is turned all the way down via the WQ menus, hangs have
  438. been reported.
  439.  
  440.  
  441. Joystick worked fine with earlier versions of WinQuake but not now
  442. ------------------------------------------------------------------
  443. The joystick was enabled by default in earlier versions of
  444. WinQuake, but quite a few people reported serious problems that
  445. forced them to disable the joystick--even some people who didn't
  446. have a joystick attached.  Since most people don't have joysticks,
  447. we've decided to disable the joystick by default, and let people
  448. who do want to use it set joystick 1 in the console (WinQuake
  449. remembers this setting, so this only needs to be done once).
  450.  
  451.  
  452. WQ runs very slowly when it has the focus under NT
  453. --------------------------------------------------
  454. In one case, WQ ran very slowly when it had the focus, but fast when
  455. it didn't (obviously this is only visible in windowed modes).  The
  456. problem turned out to be that NT had a Sidewinder 3D Pro joystick
  457. driver installed; when the driver was removed, things were fine.
  458. If you see a similar problem, check whether WQ is detecting that
  459. your system has a joystick when you don't think it should; if so,
  460. try doing "joystick 0", or -nojoy on the command line, and see if
  461. that fixes it.  If so, there's something flaky in your system
  462. joystick setup.
  463.  
  464.  
  465. Joystick doesn't seem calibrated properly
  466. -----------------------------------------
  467. WQ relies on the information about your joystick stored in the
  468. system registry.  If the joystick seems miscalibrated, run the
  469. joystick applet and recalibrate and see if that fixes things.
  470.  
  471.  
  472. Playdemo fails across multiple levels
  473. -------------------------------------
  474. If "record" is used to record a client-side demo, bad things will
  475. happen on playback via playdemo if a level change is recorded.
  476. (Timedemo works fine.)  This is unfortunate, but WinQuake
  477. internals make this not fixable without a good chance of
  478. breaking something more important, so it'll have to stay this way.
  479.  
  480.  
  481. Alt-Tab fullscreen only works sometimes
  482. ---------------------------------------
  483. I know it seems that way, but actually the trick is that on Win95
  484. it only works if you let go of Tab before you let go of Alt.
  485. This is due to a Windows quirk involving what key sequences are
  486. passed along, so you'll have to work around it by remembering to
  487. let go of Tab first.
  488.  
  489.  
  490. MS-DOS windows get scrunched on Alt-Tab
  491. ---------------------------------------
  492. This is a quirk of Windows; when you run WinQuake in a low-res
  493. mode, sometimes when you exit WinQuake or Alt-Tab back to the
  494. desktop, any open MS-DOS windows will be scrunched down to the
  495. size of the low-res mode.  There is no known workaround.
  496.  
  497.  
  498. Dprint in progs doesn't work
  499. ----------------------------
  500. Dprint means "developer print," so it only works if the developer
  501. console variable is set to 1.  It was a bug in earlier versions that
  502. it worked even when developer was set to 0.
  503.  
  504.  
  505. Some DirectDraw modes flicker badly and look wrong
  506. --------------------------------------------------
  507. Page flipping doesn't work properly in some modes on some
  508. systems, particularly when using some DirectDraw modes.  You
  509. can work around this by setting the console variable
  510. vid_nopageflip to 1, then setting the desired mode (note
  511. that the vid_nopageflip setting does not take effect until
  512. the next mode set after the setting is changed).  Bear in
  513. mind, though, that the vid_nopageflip setting is remembered
  514. until it is explicitly changed again, meaning that once you
  515. change it, it thereafter applies to all modes, even if you
  516. exit and restart WinQuake.
  517.  
  518.  
  519. The Windows key doesn't do anything fullscreen on Win95
  520. -------------------------------------------------------
  521. True.  This is a minor bug we haven't figured out how to fix yet.
  522. You'll have to use Ctrl-Esc, Alt-Tab, or Alt-Esc to switch away.
  523.  
  524.  
  525. My default mode is windowed, but WQ goes fullscreen first
  526. ---------------------------------------------------------
  527. For internal reasons, WQ has to pick a single mode to always
  528. initialize when it starts up, before it sets whatever default you've
  529. selected.  We've chosen fullscreen mode, because that's the way most
  530. people will play.  If this is a problem for you, however, you can
  531. run WQ with the -startwindowed command-line parameter.
  532.  
  533.  
  534. Some high-resolution video modes flicker or fail to initialize
  535. --------------------------------------------------------------
  536. We think these problems are all fixed, but if not, they have to
  537. do with triple-buffering in some modes on some DirectDraw drivers.
  538. If you encounter this problem, either don't use the problem modes
  539. or try using the -notriplebuf command-line parameter to turn off
  540. triple buffering.  Note, though, that turning off triple-buffering
  541. can reduce performance in some modes, so do this only if needed.
  542.  
  543.  
  544. Right-click doesn't work right on minimized WinQuake
  545. ----------------------------------------------------
  546. If you right-click on minimized WinQuake on the task bar, the
  547. Close selection in the right-click menu doesn't work; you have
  548. to restore WQ before you can exit it.  Also, the cursor vanishes
  549. over the right-click menu, although it still works.
  550.  
  551.  
  552. The screen briefly blanks when you exit WQ
  553. ------------------------------------------
  554. We're trying to fix this, but it's not harmful, just a mite ugly.
  555.  
  556.  
  557. QBENCH doesn't work with WinQuake
  558. ---------------------------------
  559. We've had a report that QBENCH doesn't work with WinQuake, but
  560. haven't had a chance to look into it yet.
  561.  
  562.  
  563. MWAVE sound loses focus
  564. -----------------------
  565. We've had a report that on a ThinkPad with MWAVE sound, WQ loses
  566. sound focus (and thus sound) every few seconds.
  567.  
  568.  
  569. Desktop doesn't reset to proper resolution on WQ exit
  570. -----------------------------------------------------
  571. We've had a report that on exiting WQ, the desktop didn't reset
  572. to the proper dimensions.  This may be a bug with the Matrox
  573. drivers, but we're not sure.  If it's a problem and newer
  574. drivers don't fix it, you can run -dibonly, which solves the
  575. problem but can cost some performance.
  576.  
  577.  
  578. Palette goes bad periodically on #9 Imagine card
  579. ------------------------------------------------
  580. There's only one report of this, so maybe it's a flaky board,
  581. or maybe it's a driver bug.  Newer drivers might help.
  582.  
  583.  
  584. System with Packard Bell sound card III crashes on CapsLock
  585. -----------------------------------------------------------
  586. This appears to be the result of buggy DirectSound drivers;
  587. -wavonly makes the problem go away.
  588.  
  589.  
  590. Dvorak keyboard mapping ignored
  591. -------------------------------
  592. WQ is hardwired for QWERTY.
  593.  
  594.  
  595. Cursor messed up after running WQ
  596. ---------------------------------
  597. This is a Windows driver bug; the driver isn't restoring the
  598. cursor properly on return from fullscreen WQ to the desktop.
  599. Try newer drivers.
  600.  
  601.  
  602. Dedicated server runs very slowly while typing at console
  603. ---------------------------------------------------------
  604. When you type at a dedicated server's console, the game runs
  605. very slowly for everyone who's connected.
  606.  
  607.  
  608. Ctrl-Alt-Del on NT sometimes doesn't allow return to WQ
  609. -------------------------------------------------------
  610. This happens on some machines while running WQ fullscreen.
  611. If you experience this problem, the only workaround is not
  612. to press Ctrl-Alt-Del while fullscreen; Alt-Tab away first.
  613.  
  614.  
  615. Many fast Alt-Tabs on Win95 sometimes disable WQ input
  616. ------------------------------------------------------
  617. If you Alt-Tab fast lots of times on Win95 with WQ running
  618. fullscreen, sometimes you end up in fullscreen WQ, with the
  619. game not accepting any keyboard input (so there's no way to
  620. exit).  The only workaround is to not do lots of fast
  621. Alt-Tabs (why you'd want to, I'm not sure).
  622.  
  623.  
  624.  
  625. ----------------------------------
  626. | A bit about how WQ video works |
  627. ----------------------------------
  628.  
  629. WQ has the built-in ability to draw into windows (both normal, framed
  630. desktop windows and fullscreen, borderless windows).  It also has
  631. built- in support for VGA 320x200 graphics, and supports DirectDraw,
  632. VESA VBE 2.0 and VESA VBE/AF (Accelerator Functions) graphics modes,
  633. if those are available.
  634.  
  635. WQ does not require DirectDraw, but in order for DirectDraw modes to
  636. be available, you must have DirectDraw installed; some systems come
  637. with it preinstalled, but if it's not on your system, you can download
  638. it from http://www.microsoft.com/mediadev/download/directx.exe (the
  639. exact URL may vary), and install it.
  640.  
  641. WQ does not require VESA VBE, but in order for VESA VBE modes to be
  642. available, your graphics card must be VESA VBE 2.0 or VBE/AF
  643. compliant; a VESA driver can either be built into the BIOS of your
  644. graphics card, or loadable via software.  If you don't have a VESA VBE
  645. driver, Scitech Display Doctor, available from Scitech Software, will
  646. update most graphics cards to VESA VBE 2.0 and VBE/AF.
  647.  
  648.  
  649. SciTech Display Doctor
  650. ----------------------
  651. If you are having problems with your video drivers, or if you would
  652. like to take a shot at improving your video performance in WQ, you may
  653. want to try out SciTech Display Doctor (SDD).  SDD works on just about
  654. any graphics card and it can do several things that can make WQ run
  655. better on your system:
  656.  
  657. 1. It will update your graphics card to be compatible with VESA VBE
  658. 2.0 and VESA VBE/AF (Accelerator Functions). These modes will usually
  659. give you the best performance in WQ (which is often but not always
  660. faster than your current performance).
  661.  
  662. 2. It creates low-resolution modes on your graphics card.
  663. Low-resolution video modes (such as 320x240, 400x300 and 512x384)
  664. allow you to adjust the level of detail in WQ so you can get the best
  665. balance between performance and image quality.
  666.  
  667. The latest version of SciTech Display Doctor can be obtained from the
  668. following locations:
  669.  
  670. www: http://www.scitechsoft.com
  671. ftp: ftp.scitechsoft.com
  672. CIS: GO SCITECH
  673. AOL: Keyword SciTech
  674.  
  675. SciTech can be contacted at:
  676.  
  677. email: info@scitechsoft.com
  678.  
  679. SciTech Software, Inc.
  680. 505 Wall Street
  681. Chico, CA  95926-1989
  682. 916-894-8400
  683. 916-894-9069 FAX
  684.  
  685.  
  686. Video modes supported in Win95
  687. ------------------------------
  688. What all this means is that on Win95, WQ will always be able to run in
  689. the following modes:
  690.  
  691. 1)  in a window
  692. 2)  fullscreen 320x200 VGA mode 0x13
  693. 3)  fullscreen high-resolution of some sort
  694.  
  695. Category #3 can be any of several configurations.  On Win95, if either
  696. DirectDraw or VESA VBE modes are available, then all the DirectDraw
  697. and VESA modes will be presented as high-res choices.  (320x200 will
  698. always default to VGA mode 0x13.)  In the case that a given resolution
  699. is supported by both DirectDraw and VESA, the VESA mode will be used.
  700. (However, the command-line switch -nowindirect can turn off VESA modes
  701. entirely.)  If neither DirectDraw nor VESA modes are available, then
  702. high-resolution modes will be provided by using fullscreen, borderless
  703. windows in whatever resolutions the Windows driver supports, usually
  704. starting at 640x480 and going up.
  705.  
  706.  
  707. Video Modes Supported in Windows NT
  708. -----------------------------------
  709. NT is similar but not identical, because neither VESA VBE modes nor
  710. VGA mode 0x13 are available.  On NT, WQ will always be able to run in
  711. the following modes:
  712.  
  713. 1)  in a window
  714. 2)  fullscreen high-resolution of some sort
  715.  
  716. On NT, category #2 can be one of two configurations.  If DirectDraw
  717. modes are available, then those will be the high-res choices;
  718. otherwise, fullscreen, borderless windows will be used in whatever
  719. resolutions the driver supports, usually starting at 640x480 and going
  720. up.  Because there is normally no low-resolution mode such as 320x200
  721. or 320x240 on NT, a pseudo low-res mode is created by rendering at
  722. 320x240, then stretching the image by doubling it in each direction
  723. while copying it to a 640x480 screen.  However, stretching performance
  724. depends on the driver, and can be slow, so sometimes 640x480 is
  725. actually faster than 320x240 on NT.
  726.  
  727. The bottom line here is that you can generally just use the Video menu
  728. and pick one of the modes and be happy.  In some cases, though, you
  729. may need to use command-line switches (described next) to get the
  730. types of modes you want.  One useful tip is to go into the console and
  731. do vid_describemodes, which lists all the modes WQ makes available on
  732. your machine given the command-line switches you've used.  Each mode
  733. is followed by the name of the internal WQ driver that supports it, so
  734. you can tell which modes are DirectDraw, VESA, and so on, as follows:
  735.  
  736. WINDOWED: WQ runs in a normal window
  737. FULLSCREEN DIB: fullscreen borderless window
  738. FULLSCREEN VGA8.DRV: VGA 320x200 mode
  739. FULLSCREEN DDRAW8.DRV: DirectDraw mode
  740. FULLSCREEN LINEAR8.DRV: VESA VBE 2.0+ mode
  741. FULLSCREEN ACCEL8.DRV: VESA VBE/AF (Accelerator Functions) mode
  742.                        (note that WQ does not take advantage of
  743.                        VBE/AF acceleration; so far as WQ is
  744.                        concerned VBE/AF is the same as normal VBE)
  745.  
  746. You can use vid_mode from the console to set any of these modes.  So,
  747. for example, if you see that there are two 320x200 modes (such as one
  748. VGA mode 0x13, normally mode 3, and one VESA mode, normally mode 4),
  749. you can choose the VESA mode, which will often be faster, with
  750. vid_mode 4.  (You can make it the default by setting
  751. _vid_default_mode_win to the mode number.)
  752.  
  753. There's more to the windowed modes than you might think.  320x240 is
  754. just what you’d expect, but 640x480 is actually rendered at 320x240
  755. and stretched up to 640x480, because most machines can’t handle the
  756. performance demands of real 640x480 rendering.  Likewise, 800x600 is a
  757. stretched 400x300.  Actually, though, vid_mode 2 (the 800x600 mode) is
  758. a user-configurable mode.  By setting the following console variables,
  759. you can change the characteristics of vid_mode 2:
  760.  
  761. vid_config_x: width of mode 2 window
  762.  
  763. vid_config_y: height of mode 2 window
  764.  
  765. vid_stretch_by_2: whether to render at half-resolution in each
  766. direction and stretch up to the specified size in mode 2, or render at
  767. full resolution.
  768.  
  769. After setting these variables in the console, do a vid_forcemode 2,
  770. and you’ll have the window you specified.  Note that after making
  771. these changes, the new resolution will show up as the third windowed
  772. mode in the Video menu.
  773.  
  774. If you don't have WQ mouse play enabled in windowed mode, you can also
  775. go from windowed to fullscreen mode simply by clicking on the maximize
  776. button.  The mode switched to is controlled by the vid_fullscreen_mode
  777. console variable, and defaults to mode 3.
  778.  
  779. Other video console commands include:
  780.  
  781. vid_fullscreen: switch to the mode specified by the
  782. vid_fullscreen_mode console variable.
  783.  
  784. vid_windowed: switch to the mode specified by the vid_windowed_mode
  785. console variable.
  786.  
  787. Vid_fullscreen and vid_windowed can be bound to keys, so it's possible
  788. to flip between windowed and fullscreen with a single key press.
  789.  
  790. Also, vid_minimize minimizes the WinQuake window if and only if
  791. WinQuake is running in a windowed mode.  You can bind a key to
  792. the commands "vid_windowed; wait; vid_minimize" to minimize WQ
  793. regardless of whether you're running in windowed or fullscreen mode.
  794.  
  795. You can turn off page flipping by setting the console variable
  796. vid_nopageflip to 1, then setting a new mode.  (Note that the
  797. vid_nopageflip setting does not take effect until the next mode set.)
  798. Some systems run faster with page flipping turned off; also, page
  799. flipping does not work properly on some adapters, and vid_nopageflip
  800. is a workaround for this.  Note that vid_nopageflip is a persistent
  801. variable; it retains its setting until it is explicitly changed again,
  802. even across multiple WinQuake sessions.
  803.  
  804. The vid_forcemode console command sets the specified mode, even if
  805. it's the same as the current mode (normally the mode set only happens
  806. if the new mode differs from the current mode).  This is generally
  807. useful only if you've modified the characteristics of video mode 2
  808. (the configurable window) while you're in mode 2, and want to force
  809. the new characteristics to take effect.
  810.  
  811. Whenever you switch to running WinQuake in a window, the window is
  812. placed at the same location it was in the last time WinQuake ran
  813. in a window.  You can reset the window position to the upper left
  814. by using the -resetwinpos command-line switch.  The window position
  815. is stored in the vid_window_x and vid_window_y console variables.
  816.  
  817.  
  818.  
  819. -------------------------------
  820. | Video command-line switches |
  821. -------------------------------
  822.  
  823. The full list of video-related command-line switches is:
  824.  
  825. -dibonly: WQ will use only windows (both normal, framed windows on the
  826. desktop and fullscreen, borderless windows), not any direct hardware
  827. access modes such as DirectDraw or VESA modes, or even VGA 320x200
  828. mode.  This is the closest thing to a guaranteed-to-run fullscreen
  829. mode WQ has.
  830.  
  831. -nowindirect: WQ will not try to use VESA VBE 2.0 modes, or VBE/AF
  832. 1.0 or later modes.  Note that if there are both DirectDraw and VESA
  833. modes for a given resolution, WQ will normally use the VESA mode;
  834. -nowindirect allows DirectDraw modes to be the preferred choice for
  835. all resolutions except 320x200.  This can be useful if WQ is crashing
  836. because of a buggy VESA driver.
  837.  
  838. -nodirectdraw: WQ will not try to use DirectDraw modes.  This can be
  839. useful if WQ is crashing because of a buggy DirectDraw driver.
  840.  
  841. -novbeaf: WQ will not try to use VBE/AF 1.0 or later modes.
  842.  
  843. -startwindowed: WQ will come up in a windowed mode, without going
  844. fullscreen even during initialization.
  845.  
  846. -noforcevga: normally, WQ uses VGA mode 0x13 for the default 320x200
  847. mode, even if a DirectDraw or VESA 320x200 mode exists.  However,
  848. DirectDraw and VESA modes can be considerably faster than mode 0x13,
  849. because they can set up a linear framebuffer with higher memory
  850. bandwidth.  If you specify -noforcevga, the default 320x200 mode in
  851. the menu will be a DirectDraw or VESA mode if one exists.  This has no
  852. effect on modes selected via the console variable vid_mode, and if
  853. 320x200 is already your video mode, -noforcevga doesn't do anything
  854. until you use the menu to select another mode, then select 320x200
  855. again.  (So if your default mode is 320x200 and you then specify
  856. -noforcevga, switch away to some other mode and then back to 320x200
  857. to get the potentially faster 320x200 mode.)  The downside to this
  858. switch is that DirectDraw and VESA modes can cause problems in some
  859. systems, due to driver bugs or hardware incompatibilities; if you
  860. experience problems with this switch, don't use it.
  861.  
  862. -noautostretch: don't stretch windowed modes selected with
  863. -startwindowed to double resolution.
  864.  
  865. -nofulldib: don't use fullscreen, borderless windows, even if there
  866. are no DirectDraw or VESA modes available.
  867.  
  868. -allow360: allow listing of 360-wide modes in the video mode menu.
  869. These are normally filtered out to make sure the menu doesn't get too
  870. full, which could cause high-res modes not to be displayed.
  871.  
  872. -notriplebuf: prevent triple-buffered page flipping (rather than double-
  873. buffered).  This may result in slower performance, but is a workaround
  874. if you encounter problems with flicker or initialization failure, which
  875. could possibly happen in some modes with some DirectDraw drivers.
  876.  
  877.  
  878.  
  879. ----------------------------------
  880. | A bit about how WQ sound works |
  881. ----------------------------------
  882.  
  883. WQ can use either DirectSound or Windows wave output to generate
  884. sound.  If DirectSound is available, it is used; if not, if wave sound
  885. is available it is used; and if neither is available, there is no
  886. sound.  DirectSound results in the best sound quality, and also the
  887. lowest-latency sound; use it if you can, because you will be happier
  888. with the results.  (Note, though, that no NT sound drivers yet support
  889. DirectSound.)  Wave sound will often have high latency, lagging the
  890. events that generate sound by hundreds of milliseconds on some
  891. machines.
  892.  
  893. You can tell what kind of sound WQ uses on your system by looking at
  894. the startup portion of the console; you will see either "DirectSound
  895. initialized" or "Wave sound initialized" (neither message is printed
  896. if there's no sound).  Any sound failure messages will also be printed
  897. in the startup portion of the console.
  898.  
  899. Note that WQ generates sound only when it is the active app, the one
  900. with the input focus.
  901.  
  902.  
  903.  
  904. -------------------------------
  905. | Sound command-line switches |
  906. -------------------------------
  907.  
  908. The full list of sound-related command-line switches is:
  909.  
  910. -wavonly: don’t use DirectSound, but use wave sound if available.
  911. Note that wave sound is generally faster than DirectSound, but has
  912. considerably greater latency.  This switch is redundant on NT, because
  913. all sound output on current NT drivers is wave sound.
  914.  
  915. -nosound: don’t output any sound.
  916.  
  917. -primarysound: use DirectSound primary buffer output.  This is
  918. generally faster than normal secondary buffer output, but does not
  919. work in some systems, and produces odd sound glitches on minimization
  920. and focus switching in other systems.  Use it at your own risk, and
  921. please do not report sound bugs if you're using this switch.
  922.  
  923. -snoforceformat: WQ will not try to force the sound hardware to 11
  924. KHz, 16 bits per sample.  This may be useful if DirectSound is failing
  925. for no apparent reason, but generally WQ will produce better sound and
  926. better performance if this switch is not used.
  927.  
  928.  
  929.  
  930. -----------------------
  931. | Notes on networking |
  932. -----------------------
  933.  
  934. The winsock TCP/IP driver will not cause a dial-up internet connection
  935. to automatically start up when Quake is started.  If you start Quake
  936. with it inactive, the connection will be activated when you either try
  937. to connect to a server or search for local servers.
  938.  
  939. The local IP address will not always be known at startup.  If it is
  940. currently unknown the menu will display "INADDR_ANY".  This will be
  941. replaced with the real address when it is known.  The IP address will
  942. become known when you try to connect to a server, you search for local
  943. servers, or you start a server.
  944.  
  945. For multi-homed machines (machines with more than one network adapter
  946. and IP adress), you can force WinQuake to bind to a specific IP
  947. address.  There is a command line option "-ip" that takes an IP
  948. address as its parameter.
  949.  
  950.  
  951.  
  952. ----------------------
  953. | Notes on the mouse |
  954. ----------------------
  955.  
  956. If DirectInput is installed and functioning, WinQuake can use it for
  957. mouse input, but does not do so automatically because DirectInput does
  958. not work properly on all systems.  DirectInput can be enabled via the
  959. command-line switch -dinput.  If DirectInput is not available or is
  960. not enabled, WinQuake uses the normal Windows mouse APIs instead.
  961. DirectInput provides slightly smoother motion; also, it tends to be
  962. more responsive to fast spinning motions, and we recommend that you use
  963. it if it works properly on your system.  You can determine if WQ uses
  964. DirectInput on your system when you use -dinput by checking for
  965. "DirectInput initialized" in the startup console text.  If not, you
  966. might try installing DirectX 3 (note, though, that as I write this
  967. there is no released DirectInput support for Windows NT, only Win95).
  968.  
  969.  
  970.  
  971. -----------------------------------
  972. | Log of changes to documentation |
  973. -----------------------------------
  974.  
  975. *** WinQuake 0.994 ***
  976.  
  977. Fixed bug where in some cases involving IPX, whenever a new person
  978. entered the game, a current player got dumped.
  979.  
  980. Added DirectInput mouse support, and the -dinput command-line to
  981. enable it.
  982.  
  983. Added -notriplebuf to disable triple buffering to work around
  984. possible problems with some modes on some DirectDraw drivers.
  985.  
  986. Added remembering last window position, and restoring that, rather
  987. than centering the window, whenever WinQuake runs in a window.
  988. Can be reset with the -resetwinpos command-line switch.
  989.  
  990. Added the vid_minimize command, which minimizes WinQuake if and only
  991. if the current mode is windowed.
  992.  
  993. Made it so WinQuake no longer gets suspended when Alt-Tab is used to
  994. switch away from a fullscreen session.  The means you can Alt-Tab
  995. away from fullscreen WinQuake without losing a connection to a
  996. Quake server.
  997.  
  998. Added vid_nopageflip console variable to turn off page flipping, and
  999. documented page flipping problems this can be used to work around.
  1000.  
  1001. Documented that Del-Ctrl-Alt (in that order) causes WinQuake to
  1002. fault on Win95.
  1003.  
  1004. Fixed the winsock TCP/IP driver so it will not cause a dial-up
  1005. internet connection to automatically start up when Quake is started.
  1006. If you start Quake with the internet connection already active, there
  1007. will be no difference.  If you start Quake with it inactive, the
  1008. connection will be activated when you either try to connect to a
  1009. server or search for local servers.
  1010.  
  1011. The local IP address will not always be known at startup now.  If it
  1012. is currently unknown the menu will display "INADDR_ANY".  This
  1013. will be replaced with the real address when it is known.  The IP
  1014. address will become known when: you try to connect to a server,
  1015. you search for local servers, or you start a server.
  1016.  
  1017. For multi-homed machines (machines with more than one network
  1018. adapter and IP adress), you can now force WinQuake to bind to a
  1019. specific IP adress.  There is a new command line option "-ip" that
  1020. takes an IP address as its parameter.
  1021.  
  1022. Added vid_fullscreen_mode and ability to select that mode by
  1023. clicking on the maximize button.  Added two commands:
  1024. vid_fullscreen to switch to vid_fullscreen_mode, and
  1025. vid_windowed to switch to vid_windowed mode.
  1026.  
  1027. Changed joystick default to disabled; now it only works if the
  1028. joystick cvar is set to 1; however, this setting now remains in
  1029. effect permanently.  Added joystick documentation below.
  1030.  
  1031. Documented dprint only works if developer set to 1.
  1032.  
  1033. Documented scrunching of MS-DOS windows on Alt-Tab.
  1034.  
  1035. Documented that NT versions earlier to 4.0 are not supported.
  1036.  
  1037. Added DirectInput support for devices such as First Person
  1038. Gaming's Assassin controller.  All buttons should now
  1039. be configurable in WinQuake.
  1040.  
  1041. Fixed bug where when low-res fullscreen DIB modes selected from
  1042. the menu sometimes ran very slowly or produced garbled displays.
  1043.  
  1044. Fixed bug where 1.06 and earlier save files couldn't be loaded
  1045. by WinQuake.
  1046.  
  1047. Removed "Net play pauses every few seconds" bug; it was determined
  1048. not to be a bug, just an artifact of network play.
  1049.  
  1050. Noted that even when BIOSes do have VESA 2.0 built-in, it's often
  1051. so buggy that WinQuake crashes in faster configurations, and that
  1052. SciTech Display Doctor is the easiest way to get reliable VESA
  1053. support.
  1054.  
  1055. Added note on Alt-Tab only working if Tab released first.
  1056.  
  1057.  
  1058. *** WinQuake 0.992 ***
  1059.  
  1060. Implemented force_centerview.
  1061.  
  1062. Fixed backspace bug in dedicated console.
  1063.  
  1064. Made "player entering game" messages and "say" messages visible
  1065. in dedicated console.
  1066.  
  1067. Added description of -heapsize (how to change default memory
  1068. allocation).
  1069.  
  1070. Added description of "net play pauses every few seconds" bug.
  1071.  
  1072. Added description of "playdemo fails across multiple levels" bug.
  1073.  
  1074. Added hooks for QHost; however, WinQuake won't work with QHost
  1075. until a new version of QHost 3.0, which uses the hooks, is
  1076. released.  QHost 3.0 will not work with WinQuake.
  1077.  
  1078. Fixed bug where savegame descriptions weren't always terminated
  1079. properly.
  1080.  
  1081. Fixed bug where running -dedicated reset part of config.cfg to
  1082. defaults.
  1083.  
  1084.  
  1085. *** WinQuake 0.991 ***
  1086.  
  1087. Fixed problem with pre-1.07 (DOS) clients connecting to WinQuake.
  1088.  
  1089. Got rid of "Starting Quake..." dialog when running -dedicated.
  1090.  
  1091. Added -novbeaf switch to turn off VBE/AF support in case of problems,
  1092. and updated documentation.
  1093.  
  1094. Corrected SciTech's U.S. Mail address in documentation.
  1095.  
  1096. Added joystick bug decriptions and workarounds.
  1097.  
  1098.  
  1099.  
  1100. ------------------
  1101. | Special thanks |
  1102. ------------------
  1103.  
  1104. Special thanks for help with WinQuake to:
  1105.  
  1106. James Barnes
  1107. Kendall Bennett
  1108. Raymond Chen
  1109. John Colleran
  1110. Andrew Goossen
  1111. Mike Harrington
  1112. Chris Hecker
  1113. Todd Laney
  1114. Scott Ludwig
  1115. ...and all the beta testers!
  1116.  
  1117. ======================================================================
  1118. End of Document 3/21/97
  1119. ======================================================================
  1120.