 Blood II: The Chosen Version 1.01 Readme
 
 Copyright 1998 Monolith Productions, Inc.

 ******************************************************************
 This document contains valuable information about running Blood II on your
 PC hardware. For more information about gameplay and general Blood II
 information, please refer to the Blood II Manual that came with this CD,
 or you can check out the Blood II Online Manual.  To access the Online Manual,
 click the Help button on the Blood II Launcher, or click Start...Programs...
 Monolith Games...Blood II...Blood II Online Manual.
 ******************************************************************
 
 !!!PATCH VER 1.01 UPDATE!!!
 This text has been updated to include the latest Patch ver 1.01 information.  
 See Section 12.

 1.   SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

 2.   INSTALLATION

 3.   DIRECTX6

 4.   DIRECT3D

 5.   BLOOD II LAUNCHER

 6.   CONTROLS INFORMATION

 7.   3D VIDEO HARDWARE

 8.   SOUND CARDS AND IMA

 9.   DISPLAY DETAIL SETTINGS

10.   PERFORMANCE TUNING

11.   TROUBLESHOOTING

12.   PATCH VER 1.01


 ******************************************************************

  1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

     - Pentium 166 or equivalent (Pentium II Recommended)
     - Pentium2 233 or equivalent for software rendering
     - 4MB (or greater) D3D compatible video card recommended
     - 32MB RAM
     - Windows95/98
     - DIRECTX6
         
 ******************************************************************

  2. INSTALLATION

     If you have autoplay enabled, just place the Blood II CD into your
     CD-ROM drive and wait for the onscreen prompts.  If you do not
     have autoplay enabled, run setup.exe from the root directory of
     the Blood II CD.

     The Blood II CD must be in your CD-ROM drive in order to play Blood II.

 ******************************************************************

  3. DIRECTX6
         
     DirectX6 is required and will be installed automatically during
     a Normal or Minimum install of Blood II. You can also choose to
     install DirectX6 through the Custom install option.

     In most cases DX6 will install new video and audio drivers
     for your system.  If you have not updated your drivers for your
     video or hardware recently, we strongly suggest that you update
     your drivers, regardless of the DX6 recommendations during
     installation.

     Although you may not be prompted for a restart after
     installing DX6, we HIGHLY recommend that you restart your
     computer anyway.

 ******************************************************************

  4. DIRECT3D
         
     Blood II supports Microsoft's Direct3D 3D Hardware API.
     Direct3D provides excellent performance and hardware support
     for most 3D video cards.  However, you may need to install the
     most recent video drivers for your 2D/3D hardware to get the
     best performance from Blood II.
       
     For links to the most recent video/audio drivers, please check the
     Blood II Online Manual, or visit the Monolith drivers page at
     drivers.lith.com

     For informaton on a specific video card, see the 3D HARDWARE
     section in this readme.

     For information on sound cards, see SOUND CARDS & IMA.

 ******************************************************************
      
  5. Blood II LAUNCHER

  5.1  Launch Button

       Click Launch to start Blood II.  The first time you run Blood II, you will
       be prompted to select a detail level. This detail setting will
       scale the content in Blood II to increase performance or increase
       visual quality.  You can change this detail setting at any time
       during the game by selecting Options...Display from the in-game menus.

       Medium detail is the default setting, and is also a good choice
       for most systems.  The detail settings are explained in depth in the
       section on DISPLAY DETAIL SETTTINGS in this readme.


  5.2  Display Button

       The first time you run Blood II, we strongly suggest that you click
       the Display button in the Blood II launch box. This will test your
       video drivers to ensure DirectX6 compatibility.

       Because Blood II checks the DirectX status of your video card(s)
       when you click Display, if you do not have DX6 compatible video
       drivers, you may encounter problems.  Blood II uses the same routine
       to initialize your video card when you click launch, but by clicking
       Display you can see the results.  If you encounter problems after
       clicking Display (this is rare) please refer to the TROUBLE SHOOTING
       section of this readme.
    
         
  5.2.1   Choose your video card
         
          Display allows you to choose your display device (e.g., the
          video card) that you want to use to play Blood II.  Only DirectX6
          compatible devices will be displayed in the display window.  You
          can also switch your display device at any time during the game
          by choosing Options...Display...Change Mode.


  5.2.2   LithTech Direct3D Renderer

          To use 3D hardware acceleration (if you have a D3D compatible 3D
          video card installed in your computer), choose LithTech Direct3D
          Renderer in the Renderers window, and then choose your display
          driver (your video card) in the Displays window.

          If you are running a 2D/3D video card such as a Riva 128, your
          card will show up as "Primary Display Driver".  If you are running
          a pass-through card such as a 3DFX-based card, it will be listed
          below Primary Display Driver as something similar to
          "3DFX Interactive Voodoo".

          Not all video cards support 3D hardware acceleration. If you are
          uncertain about whether your video card has 3D hardware acceleration
          features, please refer to your card's documentation.

          For more information about a specifc 3D video card, see the
          3D VIDEO HARDWARE section of this readme.


  5.2.3   LithTech Software Renderer

          To run Blood II without 3D hardware acceleration, choose LithTech
          Software Renderer in the Renderers window. Then choose your video
          card in the Displays window. If you are running the LithTech
          software renderer on a system with multiple video cards, we
          strongly suggest choosing your Primary Display Driver (your 2D card)
          in the Displays window.

         
  5.2.4   Resolution

          You can also set your resolution screen size in the Blood II Display
          Settings. The default resolution for Blood II is 640x480 16bit.
          Selecting lower resolutions (512x384) may increase performance
          at the expense of detail.  Selecting higher resolutions (800x600,
          1024x768) may decrease performance, but may look better.

          If you are running the LithTech Software Renderer, we suggest
          running a low resolution (320x200) first to test the performance
          on your computer.
 
          You can also change the resolution at any time during the game by
          choosing Options...Display...Change Mode.



  5.3  Customize Button
       
       Use Customize to add in additional resources and levels for mods,
       patches and multiplayer. Please visit the Blood II website
       www.the-chosen.com for the most up to date customize information.


  5.4  More Games Button

       Click the More Games button to access demos and movies of other
       Monolith titles.  All titles are available at your local software
       retailer.


  5.5  Help Button

       Click the Help button to access the Blood II Online Manual.


  5.6  Multiplayer Button

       Click the Multiplayer button to start the Blood II multiplayer wizard.
       For details on setting up multiplayer games, refer to the Online
       Manual.

  5.7  Advanced Button

       The Advanced Options are designed for advanced users and trouble-
       shooting only. Some of the advanced options may not be compatible with
       all hardware. Mixing and matching some advanced options may cause
       unpredictable results. For the most up to date Advanced Options details,
       check out the Blood II website www.the-chosen.com.


          Disable Sound
          This will disable all sound fx in Blood II.

          Disable music
          This will disable Blood II's Interactive Music Architecture, or IMA.
          Some sound cards may have incompatibilities with IMA. Used for
          troubleshooting only.

          Disable movies
          Disables the Monolith Logo, GT Interactive Logo and Blood II Intro from 
	  playing every time.

          Disable light mapping
          Turns off light mapping (a shadow-lighting effect) in all display
          detail settings. This option is also available through the in-game
          menus.

          Disable fog
          Disables all atmospheric (not clipping plane) fog. No performance
          increase or decrease.  Strictly subjective, although may be useful
          on cards that "almost" support table fog.

          Disable line systems
          Disables all line systems in Blood II.  Line systems are used for
          tracer fire on many enemy weapons. Unlikely to provide any
          performance increase, but useful as a troubleshooting item.

          Disable model full brights
          Some textures/models in Blood II use a palette technique that makes
          certain colors always bright, regardless of the surrounding light
          conditions (e.g., making them "fully bright"). This option is also
          available through the in-game menus, and is disabled in medium
          detail mode.

          Disable DirectX6 commands
          Use only for troubleshooting.  Probably doesn't do what
          you think it does.

          Enable optimized surfaces
          Optimizes the way 2D surfaces (e.g., ammo, health, armor,
          crosshair) are drawn. Checking this on AGP cards may
          provide a performance increase, especially on Intel i740-
          based cards.  This option may cause problems on some 3DFX
          cards, depending on which drivers are installed.

          Enable poly gap fixing
          Fixes noticable gapping between polygons on some 3D video cards.
          A MUST for Riva 128 video cards.  May slow performance on
          low-end/older 3D video cards.  Not a significant performance
          decrease on fast 3D cards. Makes everything look "nicer".

          Enable triple buffering
          Enables a feature on some video cards that can improve performance.
          Most AGP video cards benefit from this feature being enabled.
          However, this may cause lock-ups on some PCI video cards.

          Enable mipmap sharpening
          Sharpens the mipmaps (texures) for some ATI cards.  Not really
          useful for anything other than making the textures look strange
          on most cards.

          Enable pixel doubling--LithTech Software Renderer ONLY
          Check this option only when using the LithTech Software Renderer.
          Useful for simulating low resolutions (320x200, 320x240) on 2D
          video cards that don't support low resolutions in 16-bit color.
          If you check this option and have 640x480 16bit selected as your
          resolution, Blood II will simulate 320x240.  Can provide noticable
          performance increases at the expense of visual quality.

          Restore factory default settings
          This restores all configuration settings to the original factory
          defaults. Resets key configuration, detail level and sound. Useful
          if you're mucking around with detail settings and you just want
          things back the way they were.

          Command-Line
          Advanced users only.  For more information on this feature,
          visit the Blood II website at www.the-chosen.com.

 ******************************************************************
 
  6. CONTROLS INFORMATION

     Customize your keyboard and game device controls through the game Options 
     Menu.  This section lists only those options omitted from the manual.

	Shift/I		change cursor - scroll through several options and select
	
     Use your 'use' key to restart a level after player death in single play, and to 
     respawn in multiplay.	

 ******************************************************************

  7. 3D VIDEO HARDWARE

     This section contains specifics on 3D video cards, recommended Blood II
     settings, and driver information.

     For the most up to date information on "Blood II Certified" drivers, please
     visit our driver website at:

     drivers.lith.com


  7.1  3DLabs

       www.3dlabs.com/drivers

       - Permedia2 

           Works well, although no lightmapping.

           Recommended Display Settings:
             -LOW or MEDIUM (lightmapping will automatically
              be turned off on this card)
             -Turning on Shadows or Model FullBrights may cause texture
              corruption/flickering.

           Recommended Advanced Settings:
             -NONE
 

  7.2  Rendition

       www.rendition.com
  
       - Rendition V1000
           An older card.

           Recommended Display Settings:
             -LOW.  512x384

           Recommended Advanced Settings:
             -NONE


       - Rendition V2100/V2200

           Works well, supports all features in Blood II.

           Recommended Display Settings:
             -LOW, or MEDIUM with Light Mapping set to off for
              best performance
  
           Recommended Advanced Settings:
             -NONE


  7.3  3DFX Interactive

       www.3dfx.com

         In order to get the best performance from any 3DFX-based card, we
         STRONGLY recommend that you upgrade to the latest 3DFX reference
         drivers.

         We have found that the 3DFX reference drivers work very well
         under DX6. As of our ship date, the latest 3DFX Voodoo-1 and
         Voodoo2 Reference Drivers are contained in a \3DFX directory
         on the Blood II CD.  You can update your drivers from the CD or,
         for the most recent 3DFX reference drivers, please check:
       
         drivers.lith.com
         www.3dfx.com.

       - 3DFX Voodoo1
           The standard.

         Recommended Display Settings:
           -MEDIUM, 8-bit textures

         Recommended Advanced Settings:
           -NONE


       - 3DFX VooDoo2
         Recommended Display Settings:
           -HIGH

         Recommended Advanced Settings:
           -Check "Enable poly gap fixing" in Advanced Launcher for increased
            visual quality with minimal decrease in performance


  7.4  nVidia

       www.nVidia.com


       - Riva 128/128ZX
     
         As of our ship date, we have been testing all Riva 128-based cards
         with a soon-to-be released nVidia reference driver.  This driver
         makes it possible to play Blood II with all features enabled.  Please
         check the nVidia webpage or drivers.lith.com for the most up to date
         info on this chipset.

         Recommended Display Settings:
           -With drivers released after 9-15-98, MEDIUM
           -With drivers released before 9-15-98, LOW
           -Running in HIGH or MEDIUM or enabling LightMapping with the
            currently drivers released before 9-15-98 will result in
            gray-shaded world polygons. Disabling lightmapping fixes
            this problem.

         Recommended Advanced Settings:
           -Check "Enable poly gap fixing" in Advanced Launcher options
            for all versions of drivers.  THIS IS A MUST FOR THIS CARD
            to remove all polygon seaming issues.
           -Check "Enable optimized surfaces" for a slight performance
            increase
        

       - Riva TNT

         As of our ship date, we have been testing all Riva TNT cards with beta
         drivers.  We do not anticipate any problems with this card.  Please
         check the nVidia webpage or drivers.lith.com for the most up to date
         info on this chipset.
         
         Recommended Display Settings:
           -HIGH, 16-bit textures

         Recommended Advanced Settings:
           -Check "Enable poly gap fixing" in Advanced Launcher for increased
            visual quality with minimal decrease in performance


  7.5  Matrox

       www.matrox.com/mgaweb/drivers

         Please check the Matrox website for drivers.lith.com for the most
         recently released drivers for all Matrox products.  D3D driver
         support is generally good.


       - G200 Millenium and Mystique

         Recommended Display Settings:
           -MEDIUM

         Recommended Advanced Settings:
           -Check "Enable Triple Buffer" for a decent performance increase
           -Check "Enable Optimized Surfaces" for a slight performance
            increase


       - Matrox MGA-1064 (Millenium II and Mystique)

         Recommended Display Settings:
           -LOW, 8-bit textures

         Recommended Advanced Settings:
           -NONE

       - Matrox M3D

         - You may need to update your drivers through device manager instead
           of the setup program that comes with the driver set
         - Blood II detects that this card can't do LightMapping or
           "light add poly" and disables both
         - May experience texture mipmapping glitches
         - Chromed models are REALLY slow, so enabling Environment Mapping through
           the menus is not recommended 
         - Some textures with alpha (4444) draw with alpha blending even if the
           alphablendenable state is off

         Recommended Display Settings:
           -LOW, 8-bit textures

         Recommended Advanced Settings:
           -NONE--Blood II detects this card automatically.


  7.6  Intel i740

       drivers.lith.com
       
       - ENABLE OPTIMIZED SURFACES.  We have experienced instability on this card
         when Enable Optimized Surfaces is unchecked.  We have also experienced
         some problems with drivers from various board manufacturers who use
         the i740 chipset. The Intel Reference Drivers appear to be the most
         stable of the bunch.  However, Intel does not recommend end-users
         install these drivers.  Check with your card manufacturer for
         the most recent certified drivers.

         Recommended Display Settings:
           -LOW or MEDIUM, 8-bit textures

         Recommended Advanced Settings:
           -You must check "Enable Optimized Surfaces" on this card to avoid
            potential lockups
           -Check "Enable Triple Buffer" for a decent performance increase
           -LightMapping slows down this card big time.  Disable it for a
            nice performance boost.

  7.7  S3

       www.s3.com

       - S3 Savage

         Recommended Display Settings:
           -HIGH

         Recommended Advanced Settings:
           -NONE

       - Virge (Diamond Stealth 3D Pro 2000, IMagic 3D)

         - Get the most recent drivers from the S3 site.  This board was an
           OEM video card in many, many PC's.  The 3D hardware performance
           is questionable, but D3D will recognize this card as a 3D hardware accelerator.
         - runs decent in 320x240
         - Lightmapping and screen flash not supported

           Recommended Display Settings:
             -LOW, 320x240

           Recommended Advanced Settings:
             -NONE

  7.8  ATI

       support.atitech.ca/drivers
   
       -  Rage Pro AGP 2X
          
          As of our ship date, ATI was in the process of testing beta
          drivers that improve the performance on this card dramatically.
          please check the ATI website for the most up to date drivers
          avaiable.

          Doesn't bilinear filter the alpha channel so stuff with alpha
          looks all pixelated even though the RGB is all pixelated.

          Recommended Display Settings:
            -LOW

          Recommended Advanced Settings:
            -Check "Enable mipmap sharpening" to cure the blurriness of
             textures

 ******************************************************************

  8. SOUND CARDS & IMA

     Blood II uses a new Interactive Music Architecture for music playback.
     You may experience problems with certain sound cards and music playback.
     Upgrading to the most recent drivers for your sound card usually solves
     the problem.

     For specific information about problems you might be having with your
     sound card, check the TROUBLE SHOOTING section of this readme.

     For the most up to date information on sound card driver combinations
     and settings, please visit drivers.lith.com.

 ******************************************************************

  9. DISPLAY DETAIL SETTINGS

     Blood II contains several detail settings that will affect performance.
     You can change these detail settings through the in-game menus by
     choosing Options...Display.

     You can also choose Advanced through the in-game menus and and tweak
     each detail setting individually. Once you choose Advanced and change
     a setting, your detail setting will be displayed as "Advanced".
     Changing your Detail Setting back to LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH will
     reset any advanced options.

     Switching detail settings while in the game will result in a restart of
     Blood II's renderer, which may take several seconds.

       LOW
       A good choice for systems near or at the minimum system requirements.
       Uses the least amount of texture memory.  Turns off just about every
       detail option available in Blood II.  Also the best choice when using
       the LithTech Software Renderer.

       MEDIUM
       A good choice for most systems.  Uses less texture memory than high,
       but keeps most other special effects in place.

       HIGH
       Turns up everything in terms of visual look. Recommended only for
       high-end systems with fast 3D video cards.  Uses the most texture
       memory, but looks the best.

 ******************************************************************

 10. PERFORMANCE TUNING

     Game speed and performance are dependent on several different hardware
     factors. The 3 major factors that affect performance in Blood II:
     CPU, 3D Video Card, and memory.

     If you are experiencing slow performance on your system, first try
     setting the Detail Setting under Options...Display to LOW.  This
     setting will have the biggest single impact on performance.

     Blood II will default to using 8-bit (LOW) quality sounds unless you chose
     HIGH the first time you ran Blood II.  Changing the Sound Quality to LOW
     under Options...Sound will save memory and can increase performance.

     Turning Music to OFF under Options...Sound may also increase performance
     slightly on slower CPU's.  If you've turned everything else off and
     you're still looking for a couple of extra frames-per-second, set
     Music to Off.

     Model FullBrights and Environment Mapping can have a large impact on
     slower systems.  These options are both set to ON when HIGH is selected,
     but are set to OFF in MEDIUM and LOW.

     Lightmapping can also slow some systems down.  The Intel i740, for
     example, will see a large performance increase just by setting
     Lightmapping to OFF.

     For the most recent updates on performance tuning, go to the Blood II
     website at www.the-chosen.com

 ******************************************************************

 11. TROUBLESHOOTING

     Q: Many of the sounds in Blood II seem to be garbled.  What's wrong?
     A: If you are running Blood II on a 3DFX card, your driver may be stealing
        some cycles from the bus.  Install the latest 3DFX reference drivers
        located on the Blood II CD.  This should cure the problem.

     Q: I installed DirectX6 during the Blood II installation, but now I can't
        use my 3D video card to run Blood II.
     A: This is likely the result of non-DirectX6 compliant video drivers.
        Please visit drivers.lith.com for the most recent information on
        drivers for your card.  Or, try reinstalling DirectX6 and updating
        your video drivers when prompted.

     Q: When I click the Display button in the Blood II launcher, it pauses for
        a long time, and then nothing happens.  What gives?
     A: Make sure that you have installed DirectX6.  If you installed
        DirectX6, you may not have updated your video drivers.  Reinstall
        DirectX6 and update your video drivers when prompted.

      Q: I have a joystick plugged into my comptuer, but Blood II won't
         recognize it.
      A: Check the joystick configuration in Windows.  Go to Settings...
         Control Panel...Game Controllers and check to make sure that
         your joystick is configured correctly.
      
      Q: I can't switch to some video resolutions that are displayed under
         Display in the launcher and in the Change Mode option under the
         in-game Display menu.
      A: Blood II uses DirectX to query your card about display resolutions.
         Your driver may be reporting to DirectX that it can display at a
         certain resolution, even though the hardware does not support it.
         This is common on many 2D cards when running in software.

        Q: I can't get my 3D card to work with Blood II no matter what I try.
        A: There is a DirectX diagnostic tool that is installed when you
           install DX6 during a Blood II installation.  You can access this
           diagnostic tool in Program Files...directx...setup....dxdiag.exe.  Please refer to
           the help file that accompanies dxdiag.exe for more information
           on using it.

 ******************************************************************
 
 12.  PATCH VERSION 1.01
      
      This patch has been focused primarily on Single Play bugs and issues we 
      felt important to resolve immediately.

      Here's what was addressed:
      New engine stuff:
      · fix to USB keyboard issues
      · some rezfile bugs fixed

      New game stuff:
      · Fixed view weapon jittering
      · Removed Shift-I and Shift-O for toggling 3rd person.  Added a cheat to do 
          it instead: MPFOLLOWME.
      · Fixed RandomSoundFX sounds continuing to play after the level ends.
      · MPHEALTHY cheat now restores your weapons correctly when you use it after you die.
      · Fixed muzzle flash sprites continuing to show in external camera mode (cutscenes)
      · DamageObjectsInRadius takes the object dims into account for better accuracy (Large 
          objects like the Ancient One were hard to hit with area of effect weapons since 
          they impact too far from the center point).
      · Fixed weapon hand model visibility problems on client
      · Many gibs tweaks, added blood streams to kicked heads, bounce sounds, increased vertical 
          velocity of blood spurts.
      · Fixed rotating doors being pushed off of their hinges when they are blocked by the player 
          being pushed into a wall.
      · You can now climb ladders out of the water.
      · Menu localization stuff
      · Added additional code to hopefully prevent AI dropped weapons from sticking in walls.  
          It may still happen occasionly, but not as much.
      · MPCLIP fixed so that you don't suddenly move halfway across the world when the 
          framerate chunks.
      · Added a sound for when the "Press a key to continue. . ." message comes up.
      · AI: fixed FindObjectsInRadius function so that it searches for players correctly.  
          This fixes the Bone Leech, Hand, and Theif staying idle problem. (they weren't 
          seeing the player)
      · Made some changes to fix potential IMA issues.

      Weapons and boss stuff:
      · Adjusted prox bomb timing for arming and exploding
      · Removed the Alt-fire from the singularity generator
      · Fixed death-ray beams hanging in the air
      · Fixed it so you can't select bombs without ammo for them
      · Added a game state so we can have the 'Press a key to continue...' message in the loading 
          screens (only does this for screens that use the description text - automatically skips 
          it for multiplayer loading and other custom levels)
      · Fixed the bombs sticking in the air
      · Didn't put in the remote bombs exploding upon death... cause it seems to have been voted out
      · Fixed the black light on the death ray muzzle flash
      · Tweaked some weapon values.
      · Fixed some particle trail effects that were getting cut off when they weren't supposed to
      · Made new special effects for the Naga (much nicer now in my opinion... )
      · Tweaked the Naga AI a little so he'll do the ceiling drop more (at all)... <I'm going to 
          try a couple other things with this as well to take out some of the 'cheese kill' factors>
      · Tweaked some damage values for the Naga.
      · Added detail levels for Naga FX 
      · Removed the smoke trails on the Naga spike fragments.

 **************************************************************************

 Monolith is dedicated to supporting its products!  For the most up to date
 information on patches, updates, drivers, multiplayer and add-ons, please
 visit the Blood II Website at www.the-chosen.com

 We hope you have as much fun playing Blood II as we had making it.

 Blood II:  The Chosen
 Developed and Published by Monolith Productions, Inc.
 www.lith.com
 www.the-chosen.com
 www.lithtech.com
 www.captainclaw.com
 www.rageofmages.com
 www.getmedieval.com
 www.blood.com

 ******************************************************************

