Reporting bugs:

If you've looked through this file and can't seem to get things working right please visit this website and report your trouble. We'll do our best to get you up and running:

http://forums.wireheadstudios.org/index.php?s=&act=SF&f=9

And if for any reason we move the forums around a bit, just go to:

http://forums.wireheadstudios.org/

Click on Generations Arena, and look for the Bug Reports forum.

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Server Admin Concerns
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Due to memory requirements within Quake 3, server performance will degrade over time unless the server is periodically restarted. Symptoms will include non-animating shaders, choppy item movement, and jerky animation. This is something internal to Quake 3, we've consulted with several server admins and even standard Quake 3 FFA games do this over time. Owing to Gen's larger memory requirements it tends to just happen sooner. It is a good idea to use an automated script such as Cron for linux or BSD, or the Task Scheduler for Windows based machines to facilitate an automatic restart of a dedicated server. For cleanest gameplay, once a day is recommended, preferably at a time when server activity would be at an absolute minimum. If you need assistance setting up this kind of setup please contact the Wirehead team and we'll be more than happy to help.

Server admins running punkbuster should be aware that we have hardcoded the r_znear cvar to be set to "1". This is mandatory for the client to render certain things properly. Please DO NOT try to force clients to set the r_znear cvar to any value higher than 1 or your server will be unplayable. Forcing the value to be lower than any number greater than one is fine.

Map rotation has been improved upon. There are now four files that control rotation:

gen_ffa.cfg
gen_tourney.cfg
gen_teamdm.cfg
gen_ctf.cfg

Any time the g_gametype variable changes the appropriate rotation will execute at the next map load. In this way if a player wishes to change the game type the server will not lose map rotation after the gametype changes. Later, toward our 1.0 version we intend to incorporate a list-style map rotation without the need of vstr arguments, as well as a rotation randomizer so servers can have a bit more variety in what order the maps cycle. We may even release a patch sometime following .99e's release just for this purpose.


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Installation issues
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If you have trouble installing .99e please pay attention to the following:

Addon Installation
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Generations v 0.99e is designed to be a FULL INSTALL ONLY. The list of game files needed to run Gen 99e is below. Except for maps, you should not have any other .pk3 files in your Generations folder after installation unless you install the Generations Arena FFA and CTF mappacks. We encourage keeping any other third party maps in your baseq3 folder.


Game File
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This is the most important area of concern. These following file MUST be in your generations folder for .99c to work correctly:

pak9_genv99e.pk3

These are required but can be modified:

autoexec.cfg

doom.cfg
earth.cfg
arena.cfg
strogg.cfg
slipgate.cfg

gen_ffa.cfg
gen_tourney.cfg
gen_teamdm.cfg
gen_ctf.cfg

motd.cfg

The game will run without these, but they should still be in there.

readmefirst.txt
troubleshooting.txt
readme.doc
manual.html
manual folder
gen.ico
description.txt
sample_motd.cfg

If any of the required files are missing Generations will not run properly. If you have these files and Generations is still not working properly then the following is recommended:

First, make sure you still have the installation files for Generations 99e.

rename your "generations" folder to "generations_backup"

Install Generations v 0.99e

Install any Generations mappacks you may have.

Start Generations. The version number should read 99e now.

At this point refer back to your "generations_backup" folder for any config settings you wish to import and you should be fine. If you're content everything is operating properly you can remove your generations_backup folder.


Punkbuster
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Generations Arena should work without any problems with Punkbuster. If you're connecting to a server and it says you need to enable Punkbuster don't fret, just do the following

Press ~ to bring down the console
Type: /pb_cl_enable <enter>

And you'll connect. To disable Punkbuster:

Type: /pb_cl_disable <enter>

And Punkbuster will be disabled the NEXT time you load Generations Arena. You CAN leave the punkbuster client enabled and connect to a non-punkbuster server without any problems. Modem users will experience a hitch when Punkbuster does a security update, so you should take that into consideration if you choose to leave the Punkbuster client enabled while connected to a non-Punkbuster server.


Unusual behavior
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If the game behaves in unusual ways check your installation above. If you have missing models or begin showing the wrong models for a certain class be sure to check your com_hunkmegs setting from the console. Com_hunkmegs should be a minimum of 96. We recommend 128 or higher, but no more than 3/4 your total system memory. You should not have to set it higher than 256, and on some systems this may produce an error. If a reinstall doesn't help and everything looks good give us a shout on the message boards and we'll get you up and running right.

Also, be sure you don't modify any settings in autoexec.cfg unless you know exactly what you're doing. We've put them there for a reason, and the game needs them to be left alone.

Doom's Invulnerability is blinding
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Previous versions of Generations did not support r_overbrightbits set higher than 0 due to the screen becoming blinding when using the Doom Warriors class and grabbing an invulnerability. This has been corrected since .99d, but it will cause a framerate drop at extremely high graphic settings depending on your card. If your screen goes completely white with the Doom invulnerability while using r_overbrightbits 1 or higher please doublecheck your Generations version to be sure it is .99e and not .99c or prior. If your framerate drops severely for any reason try lowering your graphics settings by a resolution, or experiment with FSAA and Anisotropic Filtering settings until you're satisfied that Generations is playable.

Graphic detail concerns
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There are a few undocumented settings that can help make Generations look absolutely stunning, at the cost of some render speed.

com_maxfps:
This setting when put high (150 or higher) can cause network slowdowns. This happens in normal Q3. If you're on a modem we recommend a com_maxfps of 60 to 85 to help cut back on network chop. There can be a slight physics benefit of setting it to 76 or 125. If you're on a clean cable connection then 125 is a recommended setting. Remember that v_sync combined with your monitor's refresh rate can limit your actual max FPS, so be sure your screen can support that high a refresh rate at your desired resolution.

The following settings are only recommended if your video card is a GeForce 2 ti or higher with 128 megs of vid ram on a 1+ GHz machine:

r_roundimagesdown 0
This allows textures to display at full resolution instead of scaling back the the nearest multiple of 2x2. Examples: 800x600 textures normally render at 512x512. This severely increases GPU load but the detail is much crisper.

r_picmip 0
This disables picmip falloff in the game. Again, this adds additional clarity at the expense of render speed

r_swapinterval 1
This smooths out graphic movement but also caps FPS and costs in speed. It can, however, solve video tearing issues if your com_maxfps is set right at your refresh rate, and combined with m_filter 1 it dramatically smooths out your turn rate.



FSAA and Anisotropic filtering
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Most newer cards support up to 4x FSAA and 8x Anisotropic filtering (or even higher!). Be advised that setting either or both of these high at high resolutions can and will cause severe rendering slowdowns if the scene is flooded with dynamic lights on even a GF4 ti 4600 video card. If this happens try reducing cg_dlightlevel to 2 or less and keeping cg_dlighttype to either 0 or 1. A good test is to load up a visually taxing map like Decidia and fire off the Doom plasma rifle with full dynamic lights enabled and see if you get any slowdown.


Game Crashes
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Be sure you have enough memory and that your COM_HUNKMEGS setting is high enough. Please refer to the Generations Arena manual for instructions on how to set this. Also try the above procedure. If Generations 99e crashes for any other reason we want to hear about it, with as much information about what caused the crash as possible.


Known issues:
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Some of the controls menus do not work properly, most weapons do not animate, and we have new particle effects in mind for later. Graphics concerns there are known about, so we ask that they not be reported as bugs since we're still working on the mod and we can't get to everything at once. Remember, we ARE a "beta" status so not everything is done yet. We appreciate your patience in this while we work our way up to it!