Contents 1 FAQ 1.1 "commandline" error when starting Scorched 3D 1.2 How do I take a screenshot? 1.3 V40: Parse errors starting S3D and Apoc error 1.3.1 Troubleshooting the Apoc error 1.3.2 Automatic removal 1.4 Scorched3D generates an error message 1.4.1 The game crashes or will not run 1.4.2 On windows 95 I get the error "Cannot find OpenGL.dll 1.4.3 On windows I get the error 'Cannot find dinput8.dll' 1.4.4 Error: This game requires the Scorched3D data directory to run 1.4.5 Error: Could not bind to the server ports. 1.5 Changing common Scorched3D settings 1.5.1 The up and down arrow keys move the elevation the wrong way 1.5.2 The tanks do not die when under water. 1.5.3 I appear in the stats more than once 1.5.4 Disabling Bot Chat 1.5.5 Transfer online stats identity from another computer 1.6 Scorched3D Graphics and Performance 1.6.1 *$**&$*% the game runs very slowly 1.6.2 Scorched3D Sound Issues 1.6.3 I have an ATI Radeon graphics card and Scorched will not run 1.6.4 Game window not displayed on ATI all-in-wonder cards 1.6.5 After choosing game type the game window stays black 1.6.6 The landscape has jagged edges (tearing) near the water. 1.6.7 Can I mod Scorched3D (create models and skins for Scorched3D) 1.6.8 Tank selections missing at game start 1.7 Installation 1.7.1 The windows installer seems to install a different program 1.8 Servers 1.8.1 Server is not visible on server list 1.9 Loading and Running Mods 1.9.1 Mods in .s3m format 1.9.2 Mods in .zip/tar.bz2 formats

FAQ

This is a section containing the commonly asked questions with regard to Scorched3D.

"commandline" error when starting Scorched 3D

If you're running scorched 3D version 40.1 (or below) and receive the following errors (see images) please install Scorched 3D to a path without any spaces (EX. C:\Scorched3D). Note that this issue has been corrected for Version 41.

How do I take a screenshot?

To save a screenshot from the game, press F5. The file will be saved in your user's home directory as Screenshot-****.bmp

V40: Parse errors starting S3D and Apoc error

If you receive errors that look similar to the images below when you try to start a game.

Navigate to

• C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\.scorched3d - Windows
• ~/.scorched3d - Unix

and delete the mods directory.

Troubleshooting the Apoc error

If you receive the following error shown in the pic below when you try to join an Apoc server, navigate to your Scorched3D\data\globalmods\apoc\data\accessories directory and delete the "office3" folder and restart Scorched. You should now be able to play Apoc.

Automatic removal

If you're too lazy to navigate, I went old school and created a simple batch file to do this for you. It only works if you have installed Scorched 3D to the default directory (C:\program files\Scorched3d). It will also back up your old user settings (including your ID file) to a folder in your Scorched directory. Unzip and run the .bat file.Download Here

Scorched3D generates an error message

The game crashes or will not run

Most problems with Scorched3D are fixed by installing the latest drivers for your graphics card.

If this does not work try turning off all of the graphics options in the display settings dialog. If you are still having problems check for an updated version of Scorched3D. If it still does not work post a message on the Scorched3D forums.

On windows 95 I get the error "Cannot find OpenGL.dll

This library is not installed on windows 95 by default but can be downloaded from the downloads page.

On windows I get the error 'Cannot find dinput8.dll'

DirectX version 8 or above is required to run this game. It is free and available from Microsoft

Error: This game requires the Scorched3D data directory to run

This error is generated when the data directory cannot be found. Try checking the game was installed correctly. If installed via a zip file make sure that the files were extracted with full file paths.

Error: Could not bind to the server ports.

If the game server tells you there is another app using the game port, even if it's free, it's maybe because you have more than one network adapter. To make the game work, simply disable the network adapter you don't use.

Changing common Scorched3D settings

The up and down arrow keys move the elevation the wrong way

The command "InvertUpDownKeys=on" in console will reverse the key direction. Since version 36.2 you can also swap this direction in the scorched3d display options dialog.

The tanks do not die when under water.

Correct. The water is just a graphic and currently has no effect on the game play what so ever (except for napalm not working underwater).

I appear in the stats more than once

For servers with stats logging turned on player stats are generated for each user.

Each user is identified by a unique id. This unique id is used to differentiate between different users. For each server there is a one to one mapping between a stats user and their stats id. Different stats ids are generated for each stats server the client connects to.

Each time a user logs onto a scorched 3d server this unique id is sent to the server. Stats for this user are then stored against this unique id. Unique ids are generated randomly (using no information from the client computer).

When scorched3d first connects to server it checks to see if it has an id for it. If it does then it hands the id to the server, if not the server gives the client a new id which the client stores persistantly. Each time the client connects to the server from this point on it will use the same unique id.

The unique id can be viewed in the scorched3d display settings dialog.

Each time you clear your scorched 3d settings (perhaps by de-installing scorched3d) you will loose you user id.When you next start scorched3d you will get a new user id. This means you will appear in the stats as a different user.

If you don't want this to happen make a backup of the stats id file (or write down the unique id). The unique ids are stored in a file called ids.xml in the User Data Directory

Unique ids are not displayed anywhere on the stats pages and are only visible by the server owner.

Disabling Bot Chat

If you do not wish to have the bots say anything, navigate to your User Data Directory folder and open up either server.xml or singlecustom.xml file with notepad, depending on whether you want to disable bot chat for your server or disable it for a single player custom game.

Press Ctrl+F to do a search and search for the text "talk." The search should place you on "ComputersDeathTalk" (this is an instruction that defines the % chance that AI's talk when they die). Underneath it, you'll see "<value>100</value>." Change that line so that it says "<value>0</value>." Just underneath that, you'll see a line that says "ComputersAttackTalk" (this is an instruction that defines the % chance that AI's talk when they shoot). Change the value of this to 0 as well.

After you're done, save the file and play. That should keep bots from saying anything.

Transfer online stats identity from another computer

If you run scorched3d and click on the "Change game settings" option it will open the settings dialog. At the bottom it shows the location of all of the scorched3d user files. Copy the ids.xml file from here to the same place on the other computer.

Scorched3D Graphics and Performance

*$**&$*% the game runs very slowly

The speed Scorched3D runs at is tied very heavily to the speed of the graphics card. The graphics card must have good OpenGL hardware acceleration support to be able to run Scorched3D with a fast framerate.

If your graphics card supports hardware acceleration and Scorched3D still runs slowly try (in this order) :-

• The latest graphics card drivers for your graphics card. When running the game bring down the console (press the ` key to bring down the console) and ensure that the GL_RENDERER is not set to GDI Generic. If it is GDI Generic then the game is not using hardware acceleration but the slow software implementation.
• Turning off some of the graphics details in the display settings.
• Using a lower resolution.
• Posting a message on the Scorched3D forums.

Scorched3D Sound Issues

Scorched3D now uses openal (www.openal.org) for its sound. This allows the sounds to be fully 3D. It no longer used SDL mixer.

Scorched3D comes with the openal.dll (windows) or statically linked with openal (linux).

When the sound does not work you can try:

• Downloading the latest sound card drivers
• Downloading the latest openal for windows and replacing the S3D ones.
• Downloading the latest openal and compiling from source

For the latest version of openal for your system try here. Note: you may have to remove the existing openal.dll from the scorched3d directory, check in the default Installation Path.

NFORCE sound drivers are available from here.

New openal.dlls are available from :- Download this (10MB): here. Extract the openal32.dll with the filesize 73,728 bytes into the scorched3d directory, check in the default Installation Path.

Openal source is available from cvs:- cvs -d:pserver:guest@opensource.creative.com:/usr/local/cvs-repository login (use password "guest") cvs -d:pserver:guest@opensource.creative.com:/usr/local/cvs-repository co openal

More help on openal can be found at its web site http://www.openal.org

I have an ATI Radeon graphics card and Scorched will not run

Early drivers for the ATI Radeon graphics card would crash when running Scorched3D (and most other games :)).

Download and install the latest drivers from the ATI website

Game window not displayed on ATI all-in-wonder cards

There appears to be some problem with OpenGL + All-in-Wonder Cards running Catalyst 3.9 drivers. OpenGL programs may fail to launch. They have a new set of drivers for download there, and a manual fix (editing some .inf-file in the original driver release....didn't work for me). Here it is I don't understand why these OpenGL-fixed drivers aren't the default ones for download at ATI, but what do I know.

After choosing game type the game window stays black

If the sound card cannot be initialiized then the game may hang during startup. This leaves a black window that does not respond.

To fix this either :-

• Ensure that the sound card is not locked by another application
• Turn off sound in the Scorched3D display settings (note: muting using the system settings is not enough).

The landscape has jagged edges (tearing) near the water.

NOTE: This has been fixed on versions >= 35. Make sure the windows display mode is set to 32bit color.

Can I mod Scorched3D (create models and skins for Scorched3D)

Yes. All the information needed to be able to create new models and skins is available in the forums. Look in the documentation section.

Tank selections missing at game start

If your tank selection set seems to be limited to a small number of tanks at the start of the game, this is very likely due to your game graphics settings.

For the full list of tanks to appear, go to

Change game settings from the main menu.

Go to Troubleshooting / Detail tab

Set tank detail to Medium or Max

This will allow you to see more tanks.

NOTE: Max tank detail will show / allow selection of high definition tank models. Some tanks with a high poly count can slow down the game if you have a poor graphics card.

Installation

The windows installer seems to install a different program

The installer actualy contains the main Scorched3D setup files zipped up.

When installing Scorched3D the zipped setup files are decompressed into a temporary directory. The Scorched3D setup program is then run from here.

Sometimes this decompress can fail (I don’t know why) and it just runs the last setup.exe that is in the temporary directory. Which is usualy the setup for a different program that has been downloaded.

To fix this try :-

• removing the files in the temp directory and running again or
• manually unzip the setup files from the installer and run it from there.

Servers

Server is not visible on server list

This is most likely due to the server being behind a NAT router. To get a server to run behind these type of routers port forwarding needs to be used.

See your router configuration for an explanation on how to port forward, or here for my explaination of port forwarding.

Loading and Running Mods

Mods in .s3m format

Any mods you download in .s3m format can be imported by selecting "Change Game Settings" from the main Scorched3d dialog, then selecting the "Mods" tab, and clicking "import".

Mods in .zip/tar.bz2 formats

Any mods you download in an archive (like zip or gz) can be installed either under the main Scorched3d directory (check in the Installation Path, subfolders data\globalmods\), or they can be installed in your User Data Directory, in the folder mods.