This FAQ contains the most frequently asked technical and configuration questions about Edge Of Chaos
Please read this FAQ to see if it can help any problems you may have before you contact us.
If you experience any crashes, graphical corruption, or poor performance while playing the game, we recommend the following:
The latest version of this FAQ can be found on www.independencewar.com. Click here to view it.
Q. The game crashes back to the desktop frequently / The music is corrupted. Why is this?
Q. My computer keeps freezing while playing the game. How can I fix this?
Q. The movies are stuttering, how can I improve movie playback?
Q. The game keeps pausing during play, why is this?
We recommend using the most recent driver available for your video card, particularly if you are experiencing any graphical problems running the game. These will usually be available from your video card manufacturer's website - refer to your video card documentation or consult your vendor for details.
If you still experience problems after updating, you can try using reference drivers provided by the manufacturer of your card's chipset. These drivers are generally not supported by the card manufacturer, and you install them at your own risk. If in doubt, consult your video card manufacturer's technical support department before proceeding.
Refer to your video card documentation or vendor for details of the chipset your video card uses.
Q. I see flickering around the edges of objects with my NVidia GeForce Card. How can I fix this?
Q. There graphical glitches when playing the game on my Voodoo based Card. Why is this?
We recommend using the most recent driver available for your sound card, particularly if you are experiencing any audio problems running the game. These will usually be available from your sound card manufacturer's website - refer to your sound card documentation or consult your vendor for details.
Q. The sound and / or music is corrupted. Why is this?
Q. I can't hear any speech. How can I fix this?
As with Graphics and Audio drivers we recommend you use the most recent driver for your game controller, particularly if you're having problems getting the controller to work. You can usually obtain these from your game controller manufacturer's website.
Q. My game controller / joystick does not work, why is this?
Q. My ship keeps moving, turning or rolling
slowly without me moving the game controller, How can I fix this?
Q. How can I alter the game controller's dead
zone?
Q. Can I map a controller button as a shift key instead of SHIFT or ALT?
Q. My Joystick Profiler / Voice recognition software doesn't work with the game. How can I fix this?
Q. The game quits back to the desktop frequently / The music is corrupted. Why is this?
A. The game uses MP3 files for its music. Some programs install MP3 playback drivers - called codecs - that aren't compatible with directsound, and can cause the demo to crash or corrupt the music.
You can test if it's an MP3 playback problem by renaming the game music directory so the game can't find any MP3 files. This will disable MP3 playback.
If the game works with no music then an incompatible MP3 codec is the problem. We've found the following programs are the most likely causes:
In most cases uninstalling the program with the incompatible codec fixes the problem.
Users with a Hercules Game Theater XP can try turning off MP3 acceleration in the HGT XP settings to fix the problem.
Another way to fix the problem is to alter the priority of the incompatible codec in the multimedia control panel. Unfortunately some programs do not install their codecs in the multimedia control panel so this solution will not work in all cases. This solution is for Windows 98/ME
Look for an MP3 codec that doesn't have Fraunhofer in its title (the Fraunhofer codecs are the most compatible and reliable), or a Divx codec.
If you find such a codec then you can change its priority by clicking on it, then clicking the priority button. Change the priority number to a higher value and click OK. Please note you should have also a compatible MP3 codec installed for this to work. You can install one by downloading Media Player from Microsoft.
Q. My computer keeps freezing while playing the game. How can I fix this?
A. Several different configuration issues may cause the game to hang / freeze your PC.
1)
Radeon graphics boards have been known to cause the game
to hang for a variety of reasons.
a) Radeon graphics boards have been known to hang when the monitor driver is either incorrect or not installed. Installing a specific Windows monitor driver for your monitor will fix this problem.
b) Some early Radeon graphics board drivers could cause the computer to hang. Try installing the latest drivers for your graphics board.
c) 32 bit mode on Radeon boards has been known to cause problems, especially on early drivers with the demo version of Edge Of Chaos. Set the game display mode to a 16-bit mode, or install the latest drivers.
d)
32-bit Z-Buffers has been known to cause problems, especially
on early drivers with the demo version of Edge Of Chaos. Try
setting the Radeon Z-Buffer option in the Radeon D3D properties
to 16 bit only.
2) VIA Motherboard Chipsets
a)
The default VIA chipset drivers supplied with Windows do
not properly support VIA chipsets. If the motherboard drivers
are out of date then your PC could crash or bluescreen during
graphic intensive operations, such as running Edge Of Chaos.
In most cases updating the VIA motherboard drivers fixes this
problem. You can download the latest VIA 4-in-1 motherboard drivers
from: www.viahardware.com/download/index.shtm
b)
Some VIA chipset based motherboards have been known to
be unstable if the AGP settings in the bios are set to maximum
performance.
You may find that reducing your AGP aperture size, changing the
AGP support from 4x to 2x or 1x, or turning off / down the high
performance AGP options in your computers bios fixes the problem.
3)
Overclocking your video card can cause the game to hang
due to the large graphics throughput. If your video card is overclocked
and you are experiencing lock-ups while playing the game,
try turning overclocking off.
Q. The movies are stuttering, how can I improve movie playback?
A. This is normally due to a problem with the CD-ROM/DVD Rom reading the movies. There are a couple of ways it can be caused.
1)
If your drive is using programmed input/output (PIO)
mode, it may place too high a load on the CPU and cause the movie
playback to stutter. To fix this problem, you will need to change
your CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive transfer mode to direct memory access
(DMA).
For Windows'95, Windows'98, and Windows ME:
For Windows 2000:
You may need to have administrator privileges to perform this operation on Windows 2000. If you do not have administrator privileges, or are not sure what to do, you should contact your system administrator.
2) If your CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive re-ahead cache setting in the System control panel is reduced or turned off you may experience stuttering movie playback. To fix this problem you will need to enable or increase the CD-ROM Read-ahead cache settings.
Note that this problem & solution is for Windows 95, 98 and ME only.
Q. The game keeps pausing during play, why is this?
A. There are a couple of reasons why this could happen.
1) It can be caused by fragmentation of your hard disk. We recommend defragmenting your hard disk before installing the game.
2) If your hard drive is using programmed input/output (PIO)
mode, it may place too high a load on the CPU and cause the game
to pause. To fix this problem, you will need to change your Hard
drive transfer mode to direct memory access (DMA).
For Windows 2000:
You may need to have administrator privileges to perform this operation on Windows 2000. If you do not have administrator privileges, or are not sure what to do, you should contact your system administrator.
Q. I see flickering around the
edges of objects with my NVidia GeForce Card. How can I fix this?
A. This is caused by the use of a 16-bit screen mode. This problem is easily fixed by selecting a 32-bit screen mode from the options screen.
Q. There graphical glitches when playing the game on my Voodoo based card. Why is this?
Some versions of Voodoo drivers, especially those for the Voodoo Banshee / Voodoo3 can cause graphic problems in Edge Of Chaos.
We've investigated this issue, and found that the drivers themselves are faulty as they don't properly support some DirectX features the game relies upon.
Switching to an earlier or later driver may fix this problem, but we are unable to offer a fix ourselves, as faulty drivers are the cause of the problem.
Recently NVidia bought all 3Dfx's assets, including their Voodoo card technology, and discontinued the Voodoo line of graphic cards.
NVidia are not providing any technical or driver support for Voodoo based cards, which unfortunately means that there is little or no prospect of any new Voodoo driver updates to fix these graphical problems.
Q. The sound and / or music is corrupted. Why is this?
A. This can be for a variety of reasons:
1)
Out of date audio drivers. Try updating your audio drivers
to the latest version. In most cases this will fix the problem.
2)
Missing or incompatible codecs. The game requires special
audio drivers known as codecs to be installed. If these are missing
or you have incompatible versions then you may hear audio distortion,
or the game could even crash.
In most cases installing the latest version of Windows Media Player
will fix this problem. You can download Windows Media Player from
here.
However, in some cases these fixes may not work. For extra help
with this problem please see the question:
The game quits back to the desktop frequently
/ The music is corrupted. Why is this?
Q. I can't hear any speech. How can I fix this?
The game uses the Microsoft ADPCM codec to play the speech. If this codec is not installed you may not hear speech in the game.
WINDOWS 95/98/ME
To fix this problem you will need to install the Micosoft ADPCM codec.
From the START menu select Settings and then Control Panel
Double-click the Add New Hardware icon
Click the Next button
Select the No option at the search for new hardware prompt
Click the Next button
From the Hardware Type list select Sound, video, and game controllers
Click the Next button
From the Manufacturers list select Microsoft Audio Codecs
WINDOWS 2000
To fix this problem you may need to completely uninstall then re-install the audio codecs. You may need Administrator rights to do this.
First, restart the computer in safe mode:
Then remove the audio codecs:
Q. My game controller / joystick does not work, why is this?
A. This can be for a variety of reasons:
- You have the wrong control configuration selected in the Controls menu of the game. Please ensure you are not running the Keyboard Only control configuration, as this has no game controller support.
- The controller isn't installed as the first controller in the Windows list of controllers. This can happen on computers that have multiple controllers attached, or that have had different models of controller attached at different times.
Edge of Chaos always assigns Joystick 1 to the first controller in Windows' list of controllers. To solve the problem, you will need to move the controller you want to use to the top of the list:
- Open the Start Menu and select Settings then Control Panel.
- Double-click the Gaming Options icon.
- Click the Controller IDs tab and assign the ID 1 to the controller you wish to use with Edge of Chaos.
- Click OK and close the window.
- In some cases the joystick may not be detected correctly, and the game may incorrectly select keyboard only input.
The solution is to rename or delete the keyboard_only.ini control config file, which is located in the game's configs folder. This will ensure that the game can only choose the default ( joystick ) control configuration.
Please make sure you back up the keyboard_only.ini file first.
Q. My ship keeps moving, turning or rolling slowly without me moving the game controller, how can I fix this?
This can be for a variety of reasons:
- The game controller drivers are not installed correctly, or are out of date. Please ensure you have the latest drivers for your game controller, and that they are installed correctly.
- The controller isn't installed as the first controller in the Windows list of controllers. See 'My game controller / joystick does not work, why is this?' for details of how to fix this.
- The dead-zone ( the amount the controller must move before the game detects it has moved ) is too small and should be increased. See How can I alter the game controller's dead zone?
Q. How can I alter the game controller's dead zone?
A. You can do this by editing the game's configuration file, flux.ini. This text file is located in the folder where Edge Of Chaos is installed.
Please note that the flux.ini contains important configuration data for Edge Of Chaos and you edit the file at your own risk! It's a good idea to make a backup of the file before making any changes.
To change the controller dead zone:
- Edit the flux.ini file.
- Find the section marked [fcInputDeviceDI]
- You will see some dead zone entries. There's a separate dead-zone entry for each controller axis.
dead_zone_x = 0.175
dead_zone_y = 0.175
dead_zone_z = 0.175
dead_zone_rx = 0.175
dead_zone_ry = 0.175
dead_zone_rz = 0.175
- Increase the values to increase the controller dead-zone, decrease to reduce the controller dead-zone. Note that the valid range for dead-zones is between 0 and 1.
Q. Can I map a controller button as a shift key instead of using SHIFT or ALT?
You can map up to four custom shift buttons in a custom control configuration. For details of how to create a custom control config, see the readme file that came with the game.
To add a custom shift button:
[Shift1]
Joystick1, JoyButton5
[icPlayerPilot.LateralX]
Joystick1, JoyXAxis, Shift1
[icPlayerPilot.LateralY]
Joystick1, JoyYAxis, Shift1
You can map up to 4 different shift keys / buttons by changing
the Shift1 key to Shift2, Shift3, or Shift4.
Note that using keys to shift may not work in some cases because
of the way keyboards work. You'll also need to ensure that the
shift key / button isn't used for any other function.
Q. My joystick profiler / voice recognition software doesn't work with the game. How can I fix this?
A. If your joystick profiler / voice recognition software requires you to specify the location of the game's executable file, then you will need to point the software to this file to get the software to work correctly with the game:
<Install Folder>/bin/release/loader.exe
Q. I am connected to the Internet but I cannot connect to the multiplayer servers. How can I fix this?
A. Some people have experienced problems connecting to internet games through a firewall, proxy server or while using Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). You should consult Microsoft Knowledge Base Article Q240429 which advises you on how to set up your network to allow DirectPlay to work over these types of connection.