Pax Corpus PC - DEUTSCH
v1.4e Patch - 1998, September 7th
Cryo Interactive Entertainment
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This patch and its documentation only apply if you have installed :

- Either Pax Corpus v1.0 (original CD version), dated March 19th
- Either Pax Corpus v1.0 CD, then patch 1.4d, dated May 12th.

Remark : Patches 1.1 to 1.4c have been used for internal test releases and are not available to the public.

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Patch 1.4e addresses the following points :

- Modified  Exe for Cyrix crashing CPUs    : see (7)
- Patch for Cyrix'd crashed installs       : see (7)

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patch 1.4d addresses the following points :

- Fixes and addings                        : see (3) and (4)
- Faster Software Rendering                : see (5)
- Use of non-3Dfx 3D accelerated boards    : see (6)


(1) INSTALLING THE PATCH
------------------------

Unzip the patch file into your game MAIN DIRECTORY. It will creates a "_patch_"
directory with fixed files. The fixed executable program will automatically go in your language directory, aka "francais" for french installation, and so on.

You should install only your language related patch. (But it does no harm if you downloaded and installed the wrong patch.)


(2) MINIMAL vs. MAXIMAL INSTALLATIONS
-------------------------------------

The patches are compatible with both kinds of installation. The patched files will be loaded if they are found, and the CD-ROM files will be ignored for related files.


(3) FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS
--------------------------

As of 1.4e :

- Cyrix crashed problems fixed. See (7) at the end of this file.

As of 1.4d :

- Vastly improved software rendering : see (5) below.

- Fixed problem with animated textures.

- Laser Barrier speed in level 2-2 is now adjusted to the frame rate.

- Disabled the frame rate "debug" mode (on the F4 key with locked and unlocked modes) which disables frame rate speed adjustments. It was forgotten by mistake !

- Fixed the mouse cursor appearing during intermediary screens and cinematics.

- Game now accepts non-3Dfx accelerated boards : see (6) below.

- Fixed some visual bugs in missions and levels briefing screens.

- Minor changes and fixes.


(4) ADDED STUFF
---------------

As of 1.4d :

- Added text messages on option keys F1-F11.


(5) SOFWARE RENDERING WITH DIRECT3D
-----------------------------------

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BEWARE DIRECTX 6 OWNERS:

By default, DirectX 6 disables the "ramp software" driver. If you installed DirectX 6, make sure you enable it in the control panel or Pax Corpus will not be able to start with this driver in software rendering mode.

DirectX 5 users are not concerned by this remark.
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We have largely simplified the Direct3D manager in software rendering mode. We're still limited by Direct3D Ramp Driver, though.

- Rendering is now done in 256 colors (8-bit mode). For Direct3D constraints reasons, the loss of rendering quality is honnestly not obvious compared to the previous 16-bit rendering.

- All lighting effects have been dropped to void. They were not that great in Direct3D software rendering anyway.

- For game-design reasons, it's not possible to use a greater clipping distance. Most ennemies are parameterized and programmed to conform to this particular distance. The "holes" appearing in the background of scenes are therefore not bugs. Unfortunately Direct3D software rendering does not have a fog to hide these holes.

To compensate, we optimized things a lot.

- The frame-rate is now MUCH BETTER. It is now perfectly possible to play on a  Pentium 133. We tested on a Pentium 90 and Pax Corpus is still playable, despite it is not quite a great feeling :-)

- Some special effects previously available only on 3Dfx are now done with palette animation and are therefore visible.
  
- The automatic transparency of objects between the camera and Kahlee have been simulated by drawing these objects in wireframe.

We hope this patch will bring you better feelings if you're using software rendering.


(6) NON-3DFX 3D-ACCELERATED BOARDS
----------------------------------

The game now accepts 3D accelerated boards which do not feature a 3Dfx chipset, provided the following conditions are met :

- The RGB565 16-bit texture format must be available in the Direct3D HAL driver. This forbid the use of D3D HALs when the 3D board only supports 8-bit textures. As 16-bit textures formats are more and more supported by 3D accelerators, we'll probably never change this.

- The board must either have 2MB of texture memory, or accept system memory textures.

Most recent boards conform to these constraints, whereas most previous boards and chipsets do not.

Performances are generally very poor in Direct3D if the accelerated board does not feature a Z-buffer or a similar device which allow the game to sort polygons by textures.

You won't have acceptable performances with very old boards like those featuring the very first versions of the ATI Rage, S3 Virge, NVidia 1 or similar chipsets from the 1995 and 1996 years. (And some from 1997 as well...)

As an example, an ATI Xpression (2MB ATI Rage) on a Pentium 166 gives about 15-20 FPS in 320x240 when using SOFTWARE rendering, but drops to 5-10 FPS when using the "accelerated" HAL driver! (Bringing a new meaning to the "accelerated" word.)

You should have no real problem trying Pax Corpus on more recent 3D boards, even if performances do not scream!

(7) INSTALLATION AND GAME CRASHES ON SOME CYRIX CPUS
----------------------------------------------------

Due to the use of buggy instructions on some early series of Cyrix CPUs (mostly on the P166+ model), Pax Corpus may not start and even the installation process crashes before the end on such CPUs.

This patch fixes PAX.EXE and brings a tool to finish the unfinished installation, FIXCYRIX.EXE. Please replace your PAX.EXE with the given one and use FIXCYRIX as detailed in the accompanying documentation FIXCYRIX.TXT.

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We hope this patch will bring you a new pleasure with Pax Corpus. We still recommend you use a 3Dfx for maximum enjoyment with your 3D games!



The Pax Corpus PC Programmers