# BZFLAG README

This is the README file for the Windows 95/98/NT version of BZFlag.

BZFlag is a network multiplayer 3D tank battle game. You can play against several other people anywhere on a TCP/IP based network, including the Internet. BZFlag is freeware; please read the LICENSE file found where you installed BZFlag.

### REQUIREMENTS

BZFlag should run well on a Windows 95/98/NT system with 16MB RAM, though 24MB is recommended. Any graphics card will work but a 3D graphics card with OpenGL acceleration is highly recommended. A sound card with DirectSound support is optional. A network card or a modem with PPP software is required.

BZFlag requires, but does not come with, three free "libraries."

- OpenGL -- a vendor neutral, platform independent 3D graphics library
- DirectX -- Microsoft's multimedia libraries
- Winsock 2 -- a TCP/IP network library

The easiest way to find out if you have the necessary libraries installed is to run bzflag.exe. Look for these errors:

- OPENGL32.DLL not found -- install OpenGL
- DSOUND.DLL not found -- install DirectX
- WS2_32.DLL not found -- install Winsock 2

### UINSTALLING

Run Add/Remove Programs (from the control panels), select BZFlag, and press Add/Remove....

### PLAYING

To begin playing BZFlag, double-click the bzflag.exe icon. BZFlag may ask you to choose a screen resolution and color depth. Once you've selected one that BZFlag could successfully switch to (sometimes it has trouble switching), the game will go fullscreen, load its data files, and show the main menu.

Use the arrow, enter, and escape keys to navigate the menus. You should first browse the `Help' menu. Use Page Up and Page Down to cycle through the help pages. These pages explain the game, how to play, and which keys are bound to which controls. You can change the key bindings from the `Change Key Mapping' menu under `Options' menu.

To play you must join a game using the `Join Game' menu. You have the option of starting a server on your own machine using `Start Server.' Once started you'll still need to choose which server to connect to.

Use `Find Server' to search for an existing server. Select a server from the list and press enter (press escape to cancel). This sets the server name in the `Join Game' menu. You can enter a name manually if `Find Server' doesn't show the server you want. You may need to set the port too. The default port number is 5155 and most servers will use this.

If you haven't entered a callsign before, you need to type one before connecting to a server. This is the name you'll be known by during the game. You should also choose a team before joining the server. Note that some servers will reject Rogues; you'll need to choose a team color to join those servers. You cannot change teams once you've joined a game, though you can reconnect later with a different team and/or callsign.

Once you have your callsign, team, server, and port setup, use `Connect' to join the game. If anything goes wrong, the game will show an error message telling you how to correct the problem. Otherwise, you'll find yourself ready to play in the center of the game board.

Your name and score are shown in your team color in the upper left. The scoreboard lists all the players (you're always listed first), their scores, and the number of times you've killed and been killed by that player. Your current status is at the top center. Press the right mouse button to start playing!

### TROUBLE

Typical problems with BZFlag involve either the graphics or the network.

Graphics: BZFlag uses OpenGL for rendering. If you don't have a graphics card that accelerates OpenGL you'll never get a good frame rate. Some cards support OpenGL better than others so you may want to fiddle with the graphics options in the `Options' menu if your frame rate is low or the graphics look wrong. The `t' and `y' keys toggle frame rate and time-per-frame readouts.

If the game runs but the rendering is wrong, your OpenGL driver is broken. It is not a problem with BZFlag. Try getting the latest OpenGL drivers from your card manufacturer (or even the latest reference drivers from the chipset manufacturer). Also, the freeware Mesa library accelerates OpenGL on 3Dfx cards.

One exception to this is if the rendering is too dark. This is because BZFlag assumes a linear brightness mapping but this isn't true unless you've set the appropriate gamma correction for your display. If your graphics card supports `gamma correction' on the display control panel, then modify the gamma to a level that makes BZFlag look better. Gamma correction should be a standard part of the operating system, but as of Windows 98 and NT 4.0 Microsoft has neglected to do this. If your card doesn't support gamma correction, you'll simply have to adjust the options to get the brightest results you can. Try adjusting the time of day and turning off lighting.

BZFlag prints the renderer name when it starts up in the message window. If it says `Generic' then you're using software only. You either haven't installed the OpenGL ICD correctly. Quit the game, fix the problem and run BZFlag again.

Network: Network problems can be more difficult to track down. If BZFlag complains that it Winsock isn't available or is the wrong version, download Winsock 2 from the Microsoft website and install it. Watch out for beta versions of Winsock. One beta version has a bug that causes BZFlag to run at no more than one frame per second.

If you can start BZFlag but can't seem to join any servers, try starting one on your own system. If this fails, it's probably because bzfs.exe wasn't found. You should put bzflag.exe and bzfs.exe in the same directory and run BZFlag from that directory. This is how the installer sets things up. Quit BZFlag, fix the problem, and restart.

If you're sure bzfs.exe is being found, check that you've got TCP/IP networking setup. If you can access the network using a web browser then TCP/IP should be setup correctly. If not, try getting the browser working then try BZFlag again.

If you can connect to a server on your own host but not other hosts then your TCP/IP networking probably isn't setup properly or your network cable isn't hooked into the network. Again, try to get a web browser working across your network then try BZFlag again.

If you can't find servers on your network, there either aren't any servers or your network doesn't support multicating. Either `Start Server' or enter the server host name manually on the `Join Game' menu then Connect.

If you can join the server but you can't see other players or other players never move and you can't shoot them then the game has decided that multicasting is available, but it was wrong. Modify the shortcut to bzflag.exe (or otherwise run bzflag.exe) with the command line option `-ttl 0'.

If you're using BZFlag over a modem, you'll need to run PPP before starting BZFlag. BZFlag only uses TCP/IP networking; PPP makes TCP/IP work over your modem.

Visit the BZFlag Home Page for more information and online help.