======================================================================== VIRTUAL POOL (tm) (c) 1996 Celeris, Inc. All rights reserved. Virtual Pool is a trademark of Interplay Productions. All rights reserved. ======================================================================== Thank you for purchasing Virtual Pool. This product was developed by Celeris, Inc. and published by Interplay Productions. This readme file contains important information about your product. If you have any questions or are having problems, please read this first. This readme file is grouped into 4 sections: 1) readme information for the Windows 95 (tm) release (v1.8.0.4) 2) readme file from the original DOS/Windows 3.x release of Virtual Pool (v1.67) 3) Manual Addenda 4) Interplay Technical Support and Ordering Information 5) Legal Tidbits ======================================================================= 1) Virtual Pool v1.8.0.4 for Windows 95 (tm) Readme File ============================= Setting Up Virtual Pool ============================= To setup Virtual Pool, simply insert the Virtual Pool CD-Rom into your CD-Rom drive. The Windows 95 AutoRun feature will start the setup program for you and lead you through the necessary steps to setup the game on your system. If your AutoRun is disabled or or does not work for whatever reason, use the Run option from your Start Menu to locate and run d:\WINDOWS\SETUP.EXE (where d: is the letter of your CD-Rom device). Note that you must use the SETUP.EXE located in the \WINDOWS directory. Note: If you have a previous DOS or Windows 3.x version of Virtual Pool on your system, you should delete or uninstall it, respectively. If you wish to have both versions present on your system, make sure to install them into separate directories. Please take a few minutes to fill out the Electronic Registration form during your Setup. This lets us know what kinds of games you want to play as well as getting you lots of cool stuff like discounts and information on upcoming Interplay titles. If you skip the registration and decide to fill it out later, you can run it from the Virtual Pool for Windows program group. Note: You MUST have DirectX 3 or later installed on your system to play Virtual Pool. If you do not have DirectX 3 installed, the Setup program will ask you if you wish to install it. Select Yes. DirectX may replace some of your drivers with certified Microsoft drivers. Please see the Cautionary Notes below if this causes any problems on your system. ==================================================== Compatibility Between Versions 1.67 and 1.8.0.4 ==================================================== The physics model for Virtual Pool has been improved for the Windows 95 release. Because of this, there are some compatibility issues between the original DOS release and the new Win95 release: 1) Remote Play: Remote Play is not available between the two versions. 2) Save Games/ Trick Shots: The Win95 release can open saved games from the DOS version. Due to the changes in the physics model, it may be necessary to make slight adjustments to some of your trick shots if the shot is extremely precise. However, any necessary adjustments should be minor. The DOS version is not able to open games from the Win95 release. 3) Scene Files: The scene files are not compatable between versions. ================================================ Using the TCP/IP connection for DirectPlay ================================================ Virtual Pool can be played over the internet using the TCP/IP option in the Remote Player setup. To start a game like this, you will need to first find out the IP Address of the player who will be hosting the game. Unfortunately, most internet providers dynamically assign an IP Address to each individual logon. For this reason, you will need to logon to the internet, get your IP Address and then get that info to the other player. Some suggested ways of communicating your IP address are as follows: 1) If you both have extra phone lines, just call. This is the easiest way, but if you use your phone line to log on, its not much help. 2) Arrange to meet your opponent in some sort of chat arena where you can quickly exchange the info and get into the game. 3) E-mail the address. After you have the IP Address, connecting will be similar to any of the other remote play modes. One player should Create the game and the second player should Connect. The Connecting player will enter the IP Address of the hosting player. After a short pause while the systems connect, the game will be started and play will proceed as normal. ======================= Cautionary Notes ======================= * Uninstalling Virtual Pool. If you want to uninstall Virtual Pool, you must do it through Add/Remove Programs in your Control Menu. If you simply delete it from your system, the Registry files will remain and you will not be able to re-install the game. To uninstall, open your Control Panel which is located in Settings on your Start Menu. Double click on Add/Remove Programs located in the Control Panel. Scroll up and down through the list of programs until you find Virtual Pool for Windows. Highlight this and click Add/Remove in the lower right hand corner. If you have saved games, these will be left on your hard drive. These can be deleted like any other file after using Add/Remove Programs to remove Virtual Pool. * Do not remove the CD while a movie is playing. Because Virtual Pool is reading directly off the CD while the movies are playing, this can cause your game to hang or crash. * Do not change color palettes while playing Virtual Pool in a Desktop Window. Virtual Pool requires your system to be in 256 colors to play in a Desktop Window, changing this can cause unrecoverable errors in your pool game. * Closing programs using the Ctrl-Alt-Delete End Task function can cause problems when attempting to run the program later unless Windows has been restarted. To exit Virtual Pool, select Exit from the File menu. * When playing Virtual Pool over the Network or with a TCP/IP connection, make sure that the game is Created before the second player Connects to it. If the game is Created after the connecting player is viewing the available games list, the newly Created game may not appear. If this happens, the connecting player needs only to exit out and select Connect again. * If you have Windows Autorun feature enabled, and you insert your own music CD, Windows CD Player may start up and take control before Virtual Pool's CD Controller can. If this happens you can either use the Windows CD Player or close it and use the Virtual Pool CD controller. * We have experienced problem with Virtual Pool on Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 video cards when using the v1.02 driver that comes with the card. This problem can be addressed by using the Windows driver. ===================== TroubleShooting ===================== Q: I have Direct X installed from one of my other games so I skipped the Direct X installation in the Setup program. But for some reason, I am having a bunch of problems with the game. Is there something wrong with my version and how can I fix this? A: Virtual Pool requires DirectX 3 which was just released recently. Your other game may have used an older version of DirectX and this could be the problem. Do update your DirectX 3 you can either remove Virtual Pool (using Add/Remove Programs -- see note above) and re-install it, or run the DirectX 3 installation directly by running d:\WINDOWS\REDIST\DXSETUP.EXE (where d: is the letter of your CD-Rom drive). This will update your version. And don't worry, DirectX is backwards compatible, so your old game should still work. Q: The gameplay isn't as smooth as I want it to be, what can I do to increase the performance of the game? A: First, you should try to run Virtual Pool without any other applications running in the background. If you need the other apps running, try turning off the background (this option is located in the under Game in the Preferences Menu). Lastly, you can lower the screen resolution. If you are running full screen, pick a lower resolution in the Display Modes menu. If you are running in Desktop mode, you can either scale down the size of the window or lower your Windows resolution. Q: I closed Virtual Pool with by using an End Task. The next time I ran it I received an error that said: Registry data damaged. Restoring default user preferences. What's that mean and why is my Registry data getting damaged? A: If Virtual Pool is terminated without properly exiting the game, it cannot properly de-initialize and save off user preferences. The game and your Registry are not damaged, they just were not saved off properly. Always remember to exit out of pool from within the game window or File menu. Q: I had to install DirectX 3, but after my system was restarted by the Setup program, I found out that some of my newer drivers were replaced by DirectX with older ones. What's going on? A: DirectX 3 has its own set of drivers that have been certified for use with it. In some situations, you may have a driver that is newer than the one from DirectX or one that isn't certified. If this occurs, you can either use DirectX's driver, or re-install your previous driver after DirectX has been installed. Q: I've read the readme and I'm still having problems. Where can I go to get more help. A: Never fear. Interplay Technical Support is always available to help. You can reach us via e-mail, the Interplay BBS, the Interplay Web Site, by telephone, or mail. See Section 4 of this readme for all the numbers and addresses. ======================================================================== 2) Virtual Pool v1.67 DOS/Windows 3.x Readme File ======================== Installation ======================== From DOS Insert the Virtual Pool disk into your CD drive. Type d:\DOS\INSTALL, where 'd' is the letter of your CD-Rom drive. The first time you run Virtual Pool a configuration program will ask you to set up all the options for your video display and sound card. From Windows Insert the Virtual Pool disk into your CD drive and run d:\WINDOWS3.1X\SETUP.EXE, where 'd' is the letter of your CD-Rom drive, using the RUN selection of the Program Manager File menu. ======================== Memory Managers ======================== Virtual Pool does not require a memory manager, but should run ok with all of them in most configuations. You may have problems running Virtual Pool with QEMM. To disable QEMM, push ALT while the system is booting. ======================== Sound Cards ======================== Although the Virtual Pool movies can output sound to a variety of sound cards, Virtual Pool only uses Sound Blaster digitized sound for effects during the game. If you have a different sound card, make sure that its Sound Blaster emulation is turned on. Also, make sure that the BLASTER environment variable contains the correct settings. See your sound card's installation procedures for more information. ======================== Video Drivers ======================== Virtual Pool can be run at higher resolutions with the 3DVX video drivers. The drivers are graphics chip specific. If you don't know what chip is on your video card, try using auto-detection in the config program. If a chip specific driver does not work, try the VESA Planar Multi Page driver. If that does not work, use the VESA Linear Single Page driver. If all else fails, use the VGA driver. Video memory requirements for drivers: 320x240 VGA driver 256 KB 640x480 3DVX chip specific drivers 1 MB 1024x768 3DVX chip specific drivers 2 MB 640x480 VESA Planar Multi Page 1 MB 1024x768 VESA Planar Multi Page 2 MB 640x480 VESA Single Page 512 KB 1024x768 VESA Single Page 1 MB New drivers will be made available on the Interplay BBS (see below). There are hardware bugs in some early versions of the S3801/805 chipsets. You may see pixels reversed in columns on the screen. The accelerator may not work on some chips. There is no fix for these bugs. If there isn't a driver for your board, let us know by posting a message on the Interplay BBS. If we get a sufficient number of requests for a chip, we'll try to write a driver for it. ISA graphics boards will not be supported because they lack the necessary performance for Virtual Pool at high resolution. The movie player uses a VESA mode. If you can't play movies and get a message that the graphics mode can't be set, try installing a VESA driver. ======================= Running under Windows ======================= To play Virtual Pool under Windows, use the SETUP program to install the game, and start the game by clicking on the Virtual Pool Icon. Starting Virtual Pool from a DOS window is not recommended. Be sure to quit any other Windows programs BEFORE starting Virtual Pool, as other applications may cause audio and video problems in the game. There may not be enough memory to run Virtual Pool with other applications running. Virtual Pool is a DOS program. The Windows setup program, and the ability to launch the program from an icon in Windows are provided as a convenience. If you experience problems while playing under Windows, exit Windows and try running Virtual Pool from DOS. ====================== Known Windows Problems ====================== The ET4000/W32 Accelerated Chipset will not work under WINDOWS. If you have a card with this chipset use the non-accelerated driver if you are running under Windows. Some older Sound Blaster and Media Vision cards will not function under WINDOWS. If you're having problems getting the sound to work while playing from WINDOWS, and are getting a "sound device in use message", close any application that may be using sound. If you still get the message the problem is a sound driver bug. You can probably download an updated sound driver from your board manufacturer. Creative Labs has a new driver for older Sound Blaster cards. Selecting Sound Blaster sound when configuring Virtual Pool under Windows may cause the movie player to hang. If you configure Virtual Pool in Windows and select Sound Blaster, restart Windows before playing any movies. You must hit ESC to bypass the movies at the start of Virtual Pool. If Virtual Pool does not work after a screen saver has been activated, disable your screen saver. The Windows screen saver can be disabled by going to Main, select Control Panel, select Desktop, and change the name of the screen saver to None. The Windows setup program does not set the icon properties correctly when installing under Windows 95. After installation set program name to "path"\vpool.pif, where "path" is the destination directory you specified during setup. The work directory should also be set to "path". ======================== Trick Shots ======================== If you make your own trick shots they will appear in the game under the name you saved them under, but the names in DOS will be different. The naming convention for trick shots in DOS is GAMExxxx.PT, where the x's represent numbers which are used for identification. As you save shots, these numbers increment automatically. On the trick shot LOAD menu, these numbers are printed to the right of each trick shot to help you identify the shots from DOS. ======================================================================== 3) Manual Addenda The 8-Ball rules incorrectly state that fouling on the 8-Ball loses. The rules should read that: Scratching when playing the 8-Ball loses. Fouling when pocketing the 8-Ball loses. Any other foul when playing the 8-Ball does not lose. The following entries should have been noted under Menu Items (p.5-6) and were not listed. Both are available in the Win95 version. Load Scene Loads alternate background scene files. Video Statistics Show video statistics. These can help you select the best resolution to run Virtual Pool in. The statistics shown are: Video Mode - either Desktop Window or Full Screen Resolution - shows current resolution for Full Screen mode or size of window for Desktop Window mode Buffering - single, double, or triple Buffer Memory - system or video Frame Rate - frame rate of last shot Your frame rate should be at least 20 frames per second. When running in Desktop Window mode, the only statistic that affects performance is Buffer Memory. It is preferable to use video memory. If your using system memory it's because your video card does not have sufficient memory. When running in Full Screen Mode, the Buffering and Buffer Memory statistic affect performance. The larger the Buffering number the better, i.e. triple is better than double. If the Buffer Memory statistic is system memory, there is a huge performance loss. Try lowering your resolution until the Buffer Memory is video memory. Under Display Modes (p.10) for the Win95 version, the manual incorrectly lists a number of display modes. The display modes that are available are system specific and are determined by Virtual Pool at run time. The manual incorrectly states (p.34) that Miscall is not available during Remote Play. Miscall may be available depending on the game type. Quit current match (p.34) is available if you are the shooter (for Win95). Change Turn (p.34) is available in Remote Play (for Win95). ======================================================================== 4) Interplay Technical Support and Ordering Information ========================== Ordering Information ========================== This product will be available at major retailers. For Direct Order information in the United States, please call phone: 1-800-INTERPLAY Mail order is not available in the UK at present. For distribution details please contact Interplay Productions Ltd: phone: +44 (0) 1628 423666 fax: +44 (0) 1628 423777. Look us up at our World Wide Web Site (see below). ================================= Interplay's World Wide Web Site ================================= Interplay's World Wide Web site is an Internet service designed to give you the latest information about Interplay and our products. The site features our demos, upgrades, product information and ordering information. From your Internet account, point your favorite browser to: http://www.interplay.com/ ================================= Interplay Technical Support ================================= Technical Support is always ready to help with any problems you may encounter. Please try to have your system information ready and be near your computer if possible. In the United States: Help is available 24 hours a day through our Automated Customer Service system and representatives are available during normal business hours. phone: (714) 553-6678 fax: (714) 252-2820 address: Interplay Productions attn: Customer Service 16815 Von Karmen Ave. Irvine, CA 92606 internet e-mail: support@interplay.com FTP sites: ftp1.interplay.com or ftp2.interplay.com Interplay BBS: (714) 252-2822 v.34, v.42, 8-N-1, 300-28.8k BBS telnet: interplay.com America Online: keyword INTERPLAY or e-mail to "IPTECH" GEnie: type "M805;1" select Category 13 Prodigy: e-mail PLAY99B CompuServe: type GO GAMEPUB select Section 4 In Europe: In Japan: phone: +44 (0) 1628 423723 Customer service via fax: +44 (0) 1628 487752 Electronic Arts Victor at: address: Customer Support phone: 03.5410.3100 Harleyford Manor fax: 03.5410.3106 Harleyford Henley Road Marlow Buckinghamshire SL7 2DX England ======================================================================== 5) Legal Information !!Do not distribute this game!! Virtual Pool is a commerical product. If you would like direct order information, call 1-800-468-3775. Please report Software Piracy to the SPA: 1-800-388-PIR8 General Product License This copy of Virtual Pool (the "Software") is intended solely for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use. You may not decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the Software, except as permitted by law. Interplay Productions and Celeris, Inc. retain all right, title and interest in the software including all intellectual property rights embodied therein and derivatives thereof. The software, including, without limitation, all code, data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game play, derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be copied, resold, rented, leased, distributed (electronically or otherwise), used on a pay-per-play, coin-op or other for-charge basis, or for any commercial purpose. Any permissions granted herein are provided on a temporary basis and can be withdrawn by Interplay Productions at any time. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. Modem and Network Play If the Software contains modem or network play, you may play the Software via modem transmission with another person or persons directly without transmission through a third party service or indirectly through a third party service only if such service is an authorized licensee of Interplay. For the purposes of this license, a "third party service" refers to any third party service which provides a connection between two or more users of the Software, manages, organizes, or facilitates game play, translates protocols, or otherwise provides a service which commercially exploits the Software, but does not include a third party service which merely provides a telephonic connection (and nothing more) for modem or network play. Authorized licensee services are listed on the Interplay Productions World Wide Web Site located at http://www.interplay.com. This limited right to transmit the Software expressly excludes any transmission of the Software or any data streams thereof on a commercial basis, including, without limitation, transmitting the Software by way of a commercial service (excepting those specific commercial services licensed by Interplay) which translates the protocols or manages or organizes game play sessions. If you would like information about obtaining a pay-for-play or commercial license to the Software, please call Interplay Productions at (714) 553-6655. Acceptance of License Terms By purchasing and retaining this Software, you assent to the terms and restrictions of this limited license. If you do not accept the terms of this limited license, you must return the Software together with all packaging, manuals and other material contained therein to the store where you purchased the Software for a full refund.