HIDDEN & DANGEROUS 2 – README (ver. 1.02 and above)

CONTENTS

1. CONTACT INFORMATION
2. GENERAL GAME PERFORMANCE
3. SOUND PERFORMANCE
4. GRAPHICS AND DISPLAY PERFORMANCE
5. MULTIPLAYER (Advanced Users)
6. VOTING
7. DEDICATED SERVERS – exec COMMAND
8. THE –CMD COMMAND
9. Potential issues found when running the game via Windows XP’s firewall

1. CONTACT INFORMATION

This readme contains last minute information and tips that supersede information in the manual.

For further information on H&D2, visit:

www.hidden-and-dangerous.com

www.gathering.com

www.illusionsoftworks.com

www.take2games.com

Contacting Technical Support:

Please refer to the contact details in the game manual.

2. GENERAL GAME PERFORMANCE

If you are experiencing any lack of performance when running the game, it is recommended that the level of detail be lowered in the in-game options as described in the manual.

To also help improve performance these options can be enabled in the H&D2 Setup options:

Enable Hardware Transform and Lighting.

Enable Compressed Texture Quality.

Disable the Truecolour Texture Quality/Size.

Disable Fullscene Antialiasing (FSAA)

Disable Software Mixing Only (recommended for Creative brand sound cards).

To run the Setup program select the option from the Windows Start Menu located in 'Programs\Illusion Softworks\Hidden & Dangerous 2\Setup'. As default, when an option is pressed and highlighted it is Enabled.

3. SOUND PERFORMANCE

If you are experiencing problems with the sound in the game, please ensure that you have the latest drivers for the make and model of your sound card and that the drivers are DirectX 8.1 (or higher) certified. H&D2 may not support some makes and models of sound card.

If you experience any stuttering or distortion when sounds or music is playing ensure that these have been selected in the H&D2 Setup options:

Disable EAX

Enable Software mixing.

To run the Setup program select the option from the Windows Start Menu located in 'Programs\Illusion Softworks\Hidden & Dangerous 2\Setup'. As default, when an option is pressed and highlighted it is Enabled.

4. GRAPHICS AND DISPLAY PERFORMANCE

If you are experiencing problems with the graphics in the game, please ensure that you have the latest drivers for the make and model of your graphics card and that the drivers are DirectX 8.1 (or higher) certified. H&D2 may not support some makes and models of video card.

Below are options that can be selected from the H&D2 Setup option to help address any problems that you may be experiencing. These are recommended if your video card has a small amount of video RAM.

To run the Setup program select the option from the Windows Start Menu located in 'Programs\Illusion Softworks\Hidden & Dangerous 2\Setup'. As default, when an option is pressed and highlighted it is Enabled.

The Texture Quality/Size option selected in the setup is related to the amount of video memory and resources your PC may have. If for any reason you experience problems with the graphics in the game ensure that you:

Disable Fullscene Antialiasing (FSAA).

Disable the Truecolour Texture Quality.

Enable Compressed Texture Quality.

Other options:

Reduce the resolution that the game is running in.

Run the game in Full Screen mode, not in a Window.

Disable Triple Buffering when running in Full Screen Mode.

Notes:

On older graphics card the 16 bit colors can force the card to use 16-bit depth buffer instead of 24 bit. This can result in seeing graphical artifacts.

When 16 bit colors are selected and the compression is turned off, the game will create files within the MAPS directory that will amount to around 400MB using the full 2.4GB of required hard drive space.

ATI video card users:

You may experience slow down when rendering on ATI Radeon 7200, 7500, 8500 video cards.

This is probably caused by using the Catalyst drivers version 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7. Whilst ATI resolve this, it is recommended that the version 3.4 drivers be used.

5. MULTIPLAYER (Advanced Users)

Hidden & Dangerous 2 can be run from the DOS command line and as a dedicated server, examples of command line execution are (Note, do not included the “ “ symbols when entering commands):

“hd2.exe –c”

Activates the H&D 2 command console window.

“hd2.exe –cmd –exec runserver.txt”

Activates the H&D 2 command console and executes commands from the file runserver.txt (or any text file containing H&D 2 commands).

“hd2.exe -cmd -sessionname testgame -style deathmatch -mapname normandy3 -dedicated 1 –server”

Activates the application and executes the typed commands from the DOS command line, like the example below.

NOTE: The syntax the game uses is "hd2.exe -cmd [-command parameter] [-command parameter]”.

NOTE: After running “hd2.exe –c” to open the dedicated multiplayer console, use the “listmaps” command to display the name of the multiplayer maps in the form that must be typed when entering commands or creating a file containing a list of commands (see section 7 below).

The commands and their variable parameters that can be entered to configure the multiplayer game are listed below.

Command	Comment	Variable Parameters	Example
maxclients	Sets the maximum number of players that can be in a game.	integral number	maxclients 10
pointlimit	Sets the point limit for ending each round.	integral number	pointlimit 30
roundlimit	Sets the time limit for ending each round [in minutes].	integral number	roundlimit 5
roundcount	Sets the number of rounds before loading the next map.	integral number	roundcount 3
warmup	Sets the warmup time [in seconds].	integral number	warmup 10
respawntime	Sets the time limit for respawn [in seconds]. The countdown in deathmatch mode is individual. In other modes, players are respawned in batches.	integral number	respawntime 10
allowrespawn	This command will allow respawning.	0 - not allowed, 1 -allowed	allowrespawn 1
friendlyfire	Sets whether team- killing is on or off.	0 - not allowed, 1 -allowed	friendlyfire 0
autoteambalance	Sets automatic teambalance.	0 - not allowed, 1 -allowed	autoteambalance 1
spawnprotection	Sets the time limit in which the newly respawned player is invulnerable but cannot shoot.	integral number	spawnprotection 5
3rdpersonview	Sets whether 3rd person view is on or off.	0 - not allowed, 1 -allowed	3rdpersionview 1
inversedamage	Sets the amount of injury caused to the player when a team member is shot [in percent].	integral number	inversdamage 200
fallingdmg	Sets whether falling causes injury.	0 - not allowed, 1 -allowed	fallingdmg 1
voicechat	This command will create a server with voice chat support.	0 - not allowed, 1 -allowed	voicechat 0
mapname	This command will add selected maps to the maplist. In order to be successfully added, the map has to be created in the specified gamestyle.	name of the file directory in which the map is located	mapname normandy3_mp_zone
style	This command will define the gamestyle. It has to be set before adding maps to the maplist.	deathmatch or occupation or objectives	style deathmatch
domain	Sets either internet or LAN game.	local or internet	domain internet
sessionname	Sets the name of the game.	string	sessionname TestGame
help	This command will list all commands		help
exec	This command will execute a batch file with a list of commands. (See section 7 below)	file name string	exec runserver.txt
server	Creates a game server.		server
dedicated	Sets the server as dedicated. Note: Dedicated servers can only host a game, it is not possible to play on them.	0 - not allowed, 1 - allowed	dedicated 1
join	Connects the computer to the specified game server.	server IP address string	join 198.235.12.65
password		string	password hd2
adminpass	Set the administrator password.	string	adminpass hd2admin
adminlogin	Login as admin to the server.	string	adminlogin hd2admin
svcmd	Remote execution of the command on the server.	string	svcmd nextmap

In addition to this, commands can also be given during multiplayer games by using the in game console accessed by pressing the grave key next to the 1 on the keyboard. Press ENTER after entering the command to activate.

Command	Comment	Variable Parameters	Example
listmaps	This will display a list of all of the available map names.		listmaps
say	Send a message to all players in the game.	string	say hello
sayteam	Send a message to players on your team only.	string	sayteam hi
vote	This command will initialize a vote. It is possible to vote for variable game settings. (See section 6 below)	name of command followed by its variable parameter	vote roundcount 10
voteyes	This command will express a positive vote [YES].		voteyes
listplayers	This command will list all players connected to the server, including their reference numbers.		listplayers
kickplayer	This command will kick a player from the game.	player name string or his index	kickplayer 10
nextmap	This command will start a new round with the next map in the list		nextmap
restart	This command will reinitialize the actual round.		restart
port	This command will set the communication port; the specified port and the port with the number +1 and +2 will be used. Note: The protocol is UDP/IP	integral number	port 12000 (that means 12000, 12001 and 1202 will be used)
quit	This command will terminate the console of a dedicated server.		quit

6. VOTING

Voting can be initiated by the server or by clients; the following commands can be voted on.

pointlimit

roundlimit

roundcount

warmup

respawntime

allowrespawn

friendlyfire

autoteambalance

3rdpersonview

inversedamage

spawnprotection

fallingdmg

restart

nextmap

kickplayer

Voting consists of “vote” + “command” + “parameters”, for example: vote respawntime 10

After this has been typed “respawntime 10 – voting initialized” will be displayed on all machines and players have 15 seconds to type “voteyes” if they agree. If more than half of the players vote YES the changes will be made on the server.

Only one voting session can take place at any one time, so until the 15 seconds have elapsed for voting on “respawntime 10” and new vote cannot be started.

7. DEDICATED SERVERS – exec COMMAND

The exec command can be used for executing batches of commands to make starting dedicated servers quicker from the DOS command line.

Assume that you have created two text files:

Name: server-occupation.txt

With the content:

sessionname testserver

style occupation

mapname normandy3

mapname africa2

domain internet

dedicated 1

server

and

Name: server-objectives.txt

With the content:

sessionname testserver

style objectives

mapname africa3

mapname normandy1

domain internet

dedicated 1

server

NOTE: When entering the list of commands there has to be an empty line below last command. In this case that means pressing enter after typing “server”.

There are then two ways to create the server using either file.

1. Open the multiplayer dedicated multiplayer console window by typing “hd2.exe –c” in the DOS command line.
2. Then type “exec server-objectives.txt" or "exec server-occupation.txt” to start the preferred game server.

Alternatively execute the batch file without opening the dedicated multiplayer console window by typing "hd2.exe –cmd -exec server-objectives.txt" on command.

8. THE –CMD COMMAND

When used, for example “hd2.exe -cmd -sessionname testgame -style occupation –mapname normandy3 -dedicated 1 –server”

-cmd will not create the dedicated multiplayer console leaving the option to enter further commands via the syntax "hd2.exe -cmd [-command parameter] [-command parameter]”.

9. Potential issues found when running the game via Windows XP’s firewall

If you are unable to connect to internet games or if you experience inappropriate ‘Invalid CD KEY’ messages, it may be because Windows XP’s firewall is blocking the ports required for communication between H&D2 and the outside world.

It is possible to correct this by following these steps:

9.1. Identify which PORT the game is using. In the following example, the port used is 11001:

9.2. Now quit the game and go to the START menu so that you can select CONTROL PANEL as shown here:

9.3. Choose Network and Internet Connections and then Network Connections:

9.4. Find the method by which you connect to the Internet. In the following example the connection is via ADSL dial-up. You can also see the FIREWALLED status:

9.5. Right click on the connection entry and go to Properties. Now choose Advanced (shown below) and click on SETTINGS.