Questions? Need help? Look here

[Instar]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Edit: Stickied for the time being for technical help.

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

[Neekirul]

Not every bug is the Users fault, ya know.

[Jake Monroe]

Originally posted by Neekirul:
Not every bug is the Users fault, ya know.

When did Instar say anything was the Users fault?

[gregebowman]

I've seen this mentioned, but no idea how to do it. Put your graphics in safe mode? How exactly is that done?

[Phoenix-D]

when you star Starfury, press Setup instead of play. The more advanced options are in there.

[Instar]

No, I did not mean to imply that people are causing their errors, it is just a little bit of maintenance and your computer can run a lot better!
Too bad no mods are about to sticky this, I think it is worthy info for everyone to read. Any factual errors or additions you think I should include, just say so.

[DeadZone]

He didnt even say it was anyones fault he just putting this as ways that could prevent problems

[Ed Kolis]

Regarding the video drivers, if you are using a laptop, you'd probably be better off going to the laptop manufacturer's site rather than the video card manufacturer's, since laptop video cards often have custom features designed for a particular brand of PC. Just a word of advice - I once spent several hours trying to update my video drivers and getting strange errors in the installation only to find that the drivers I downloaded weren't even the right ones for my video card!

[Instar]

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
Regarding the video drivers, if you are using a laptop, you'd probably be better off going to the laptop manufacturer's site rather than the video card manufacturer's, since laptop video cards often have custom features designed for a particular brand of PC. Just a word of advice - I once spent several hours trying to update my video drivers and getting strange errors in the installation only to find that the drivers I downloaded weren't even the right ones for my video card!

Very very good point. Like the man says, do not try updating drivers unless they are from your particular vendor, problem is, I will bet that driver support is iffy on a lot of laptops. Gaming on laptops has always been a risky proposition, venture forth at your peril!

[Renegade 13]

Hey, has anyone had any problem with the game freezing for absolutely no apparent reason?? Well, when it did it to me, I eventually figured out that if you hit the windows key, then go right back into the game, it becomes "unfrozen". However, a couple of the ship displays, especially my ship status, goes all garbled. I tried to set my video mode to "Safe", and downloaded the newest Version of DirectX, so I don't see what the problem could be. I'm running a newer system, at 2.2GH, 256 MB of RAM, Intel 82845G graphics card, (at least that's what I think the #'s are ) Can anybody help me?? Please??