Crysis - SP Demo

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Crytek GmbH Copyright
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Software and documentation © 2007 Crytek GmbH.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


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Crysis(R)
ReadMe File - October, 2007
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This ReadMe file contains information that may be of use before 
proceeding into battle.

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System Requirements
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Crysis requires DirectX 9.0c. You can install DirectX 9.0c by 
following the onscreen prompts during the game's installation 
process.

REQUIRED SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS:

OS: Windows XP or Windows Vista

Windows XP:

   · CPU: Intel P4 2.8 GHz / AMD Athlon 2800+ / Intel Core 2.0 GHz
     or higher

   · RAM: 1.0 GB

   · Hard Drive: 6 GB or more of free space

   · Video: NVIDIA 6800 GT 256 MB / ATI 9800 Pro or better

   · Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Windows Vista:

   · CPU: Intel P4 3.2 GHz / AMD Athlon 3200+ / Intel Core 2.2 GHz
     or higher

   · RAM: 1.5 GB

   · Hard Drive: 6 GB or more of free space

   · Video: NVIDIA 6800 GT 256 MB / ATI X800 Pro 256 MB or better

   · Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Note: While you will be able to play Crysis with the specifications 
above, play experience may improve if you have additional RAM, a 
faster CPU or a better graphic card. Please refer to the section on 
Optimizing Graphical Performance in this ReadMe file for more 
information.

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Installation Instructions
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IMPORTANT: Before running Crysis, please be sure you have the latest 
drivers for both your video card and your audio card installed. 
An outdated video or sound driver can lead to slow and choppy 
gameplay, or in some cases can prevent the game from running at all. 
You can download the appropriate drivers from your video and audio 
card manufacturer's Web site.

Avoid running any other programs in the background, as this may
conflict with the game. This includes any virus-protection 
program that you have running, which can hinder performance.

To install Crysis:

  1.  Wait until the installer has finished downloading.


  2.  Agree to run the installer executable.

  3.  Follow the instructions that appear.

Note: Users without Service Pack 2 installed might see the following 
error message at the end of the installation process: 

"Can't add the game to Windows Firewall. Do you want to continue 
with the installation?" 

Answer in the affirmitive.


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Sandbox2 Editor Installation
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IMPORTANT: THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Crytek’s Sandbox2 ‘What you see is what you play’ level editor comes
free with Crysis.

To install the editor browse to the "\Sandbox2 Installer" folder using Windows 
Explorer, and run the "CryEngine 2 Sandbox" installer.

In order to install and use the Crysis(R) Sandbox Editor on Windows
Vista(TM) it is necessary to disable User Account Control (UAC). To
disable UAC, follow these steps:

1) Go to Start \ Control Panel \ User Accounts

2) Click the "Turn user account control on or off" option

3) Click continue on the UAC popup

4) Uncheck the box next to "Use user account control (UAC) to help
protect my computer"

5) Click OK


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Uninstalling
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To uninstall Crysis if your operating system is Windows XP:

  1. Click the "Start" button in the Windows taskbar.
  2. Click "Control Panel" in the Start menu.
  3. Double-click "Add or Remove Programs".
  4. Click "Crysis" in the program list and click the "Remove" 
     button next to its name.
  5. Follow the instructions that appear.


To uninstall Crysis if your operating system is Windows Vista:

  1. Click the "Start" button in the Windows taskbar.
  2. Click "Control Panel" in the Start menu.
  3. Click "Uninstall a program" under the "Programs" heading.
  4. Double-click "Crysis" in the program list.
  5. Follow the instructions that appear.


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Troubleshooting
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Please be aware that an outdated video driver or sound driver can 
lead to slow and choppy gameplay, or in some cases can prevent 
the game from running at all. To ensure an enjoyable experience 
with this game, be sure that you have the most recent video and 
sound drivers installed. These drivers are typically available 
for download from your system or hardware manufacturer's Web 
site. If you are not sure what type of video or sound card you 
have, or you need assistance with updating the drivers on your 
system, please refer to the documentation that came with your 
system or peripheral.


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Saved Games and Screenshots
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In Windows XP, saved game files, and captured screenshots for Crysis 
are stored in the "Crysis" folder. In Windows Vista, saved game files 
are stored in a different location--see below.

To access the "Crysis" folder, click the "Start" button in the 
Windows taskbar, then click "My Documents" in Windows XP or 
"Documents" in Windows Vista.

In Windows Vista, saved game files are usually stored in the following 
location:

C:\Users\<your login name>\Saved Games\Crysis

To access this folder, click the "Start" button in the Windows
Taskbar, then click "My Computer" in the Start menu. Then
navigate to the folder.

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Optimizing Graphical Performance
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For a good gameplay experience you generally want to have a fast 
and stable frame rate. Additionally, it's good to have quick 
response on user input.

Crysis is made for high image quality and runs best with a
powerful main processor, a lot of main memory, and a powerful 
graphics card with a lot of video memory. The performance can be 
limited by one or more of the above mentioned points. By default 
the game prefers settings for better performance which means 
many options in the menu go to low quality mode. However if 
hardware allows, this can be changed by the user. By adjusting 
graphical settings you can find a good compromise for your 
computer. Some very high quality features can only be accessed 
when running on DirectX 10 which requires Windows Vista. Features 
which are not accessible appear grayed out.

It is advisable to have the latest graphic card drivers as the
hardware vendors often include optimizations for specific games
into their drivers. Some graphics card settings in the Windows
display settings can affect performance or quality. 
Windows Vista is a bit more demanding on hardware side and drivers
can be less optimized. This makes it even more necessary to get
recent drivers and hardware running well on Vista. Memory
management within Windows Vista has changed a bit which makes it
more memory demanding. Microsoft released a patch to improve this
situation. More details and the download can be found there:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105

Modern processors now support 64bit which mostly improves their
memory managing capabilities. This feature is only available if
the operating system support 64bits. As Crysis is demanding in its
memory requirements it can benefit from a 64bit OS. On a 64bit system
the engine texture streaming can be disabled as the operating
system can handle all data in a level. 64bit also supports more
main memory available for each application. Both are beneficial and
can result in improved frame rate and frame rate stability.

Multiple processors allow processing of some tasks in parallel which
mostly improves computational heavy situations like explosions.
The game utilizes multiple processors automatically. 

Some hardware vendors have solutions to utilize multiple graphic
cards in parallel (e.g. Crossfire or SLI) and that can greatly improve
render performance. This requires the engine to run in the
"MultiGPU" mode. The speedup depends on the scene and system
properties like the main processor performance. Frame rate can be
less stable but is often much higher.

The screen resolution is one of the most critical options for
performance and quality. For best quality on a TFT it's best to
pick a resolution which fits the hardware resolution (check your
monitor manual). Generally a higher resolution gives better
quality but requires more memory and renders slower. However, this
depends on the hardware configuration and sometimes increasing the
resolutions does not even affect performance.

Crysis features soft real-time shadows which play an important
role in the image look. Shadows can be activated and deactivated
in the advanced options menu.

Crysis also features HDR rendering which can be activated via the 
shading quality in the advanced options menu. In HDR mode you can
notice bright image areas not appearing burned out. You can also 
notice the eye adapting to the brightness of the environment. 
Deactivating HDR can give you higher frame rates as it requires
more graphics card performance and graphics card memory.

Anti aliasing is a hardware feature to improve image quality.
Edges become softer and lower resolutions can look quite
acceptable. The hardware feature works for most engine techniques 
but some graphical features like atmospheric effects may appear
slightly different.

If your graphics card supports multiple monitors you might not get
full 3D acceleration on each display. This can be avoided by only
activating one display in the driver control panel.

To get a stable frame rate you should make sure your computer is
not busy with other tasks such as virus scans or downloading files.

Vertical Sync is a graphical option you can choose in your graphics
card driver. Switching this option off gives you best frame rate
but the image quality might suffer and the image may appear torn
apart. This is mostly noticeable when doing a quick horizontal
camera rotation. For benchmarking, this option is usually switched
off.

Modern TFT monitors have short response times and other features
which help when the eye is following fast paced action.

Input devices need to submit their data in some rate and with a
better connection (serial, PS2, USB) or better hardware you can
get a faster rate. This can result in improved response time and
an improved game experience.



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Known Issues
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1 ) Audio in Crysis is stereo although I selected a multi-speaker
mode in the Control Panel:

On selecting certain speaker modes in the Control Panel’s Audio 
settings which are not supported by the sound card driver, Crysis 
will switch to stereo as a fallback. This happens most likely on 
selecting "Surround sound speakers" (5.0), or 7.1 speaker mode. 

These outputs will be in the log:

Sound - initializing FMOD-EX now!

[Error] <Sound> Sound-FmodEx-AudioDevice: event system init failed!  
(56) Error creating hardware sound buffer. 

Sound - initialized FMOD-EX with stereo fallback



Resolution: Go to Control Panel -> Sound and Audio Devices -> 
Volume tab -> Advanced button in Speaker settings field and choose a 
different speaker mode.

2) There is a delay between action and audio (eg. shooting a weapon):

Most likely the user has turned hardware acceleration off by changing
the performance slider in the advanced audio playback settings. 
Because DirectSound uses a larger buffer size of 200ms Crysis will 
adapt its buffer resulting sounds to being slightly delayed.

Resolution: Go to Control Panel -> Sound and Audio Devices -> 
Audio tab -> Advanced button in Sound Playback field -> 
Performance tab and set the performance slider all the way to "full".

3) Intro movies have no sound:

Most likely the user has turned hardware acceleration off by changing
the performance slider in the advanced audio playback settings. The
video codec cannot create sounds with these settings so audio for the
movies are being disabled.

Resolution: Go to Control Panel -> Sound and Audio Devices -> Audio tab ->
Advanced button in Sound Playback field -> Performance tab and set the 
performance slider all the way to "full".

4) Users running AVG anti virus prior to version 7.5 may experience false
positives with Crysis.exe. This can be fixed by upgrading your AVG client
to 7.5 or above.


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*Administrator Privileges
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Please note that you may not be able to add Crysis to your software 
firewall's exceptions list if you are not logged in as an administrator 
in Windows. You will either need to do so from an account that has 
administrator rights, or add your existing account to the 
administrators list. 

To do so, do the following:

In Windows XP,
  1. Log out of Windows and log in with an Administrator account.
  2. Once logged in, click on "Start" in the Windows taskbar.
  3. Click "Settings".
  4. Click "Control Panel".
  5. Click "User Accounts".
  6. Select the "Users" tab.
  7. Under "Users for this computer:" click on your account name.
  8. Click  "Properties".
  9. Select the "Group Membership" tab.
  10. Select the "Other" radio button.
  11. From the pulldown menu, select "Administrators".
  12. Click "Apply" and then "OK".

In Windows Vista,
  1. Log out of Windows and log in with an Administrator account.
  2. Click the "Start" button in the Windows taskbar.
  3. Click "Control Panel".
  4. Click "Change account type" under the "User Accounts" heading.
  5. Under "Users for this computer:" click on your account name.
  6. Click "Properties".
  7. Select the "Other" radio button.
  8. From the pulldown menu, select "Administrators".
  9. Click "Apply" and then "OK".


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Audio Information
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If some of the audio in the game seems to be missing, this is likely 
due to your speaker settings. If your speaker settings are set to a 
surround-sound configuration, but you do not have a surround-sound 
speaker system, then some audio channels will not be heard during 
gameplay.

To check and adjust your speaker settings:

  1. Click the "Start" button in the Windows taskbar.
  2. Choose "Control Panel".
  3a. If your Control Panel is in the default Category View, click
  "Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices". Then click "Sounds and
  Audio Devices".
  3b. If your Control Panel is in Classic View, double-click
  "Sounds and Audio Devices".
  4. Under the "Speaker settings" heading, click "Advanced".
  5. Choose the correct configuration in "Speaker setup" drop-down
  menu.
  6. Click "OK".

This should resolve the issue.

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End of ReadMe File.
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