oops just noticed dont get an Avance Ac 97 its mentioned in the read me as one of the cards with problems
quote "Avance AC97 PCI
Voices and soundfx will be sped up.
This is known as the 'chipmunk effect.' "
and the rest of the read me which it may pay to read especially if your comp has 128mb ram or less there are some certain settings which should be lowered.
==================================================================
Battlefield 1942(tm) v1.0
Read Me File
August 16, 2002
==================================================================
Thank you for purchasing Battlefield 1942. This readme file
contains last minute information that did not make it into
the manual, as well as more detailed information on various
features already covered in the manual.
==================================================================
System Requirements
==================================================================
Minimum:
500 MHz CPU
128 Megabytes of RAM
3D accelerated 32 MB video card or equivalent with HW-T&L
(Hardware Transform & Lighting) and 24-bit z-buffer
1.2 GB free hard disk space plus space for saved games
(additional space required for Windows swap-file and
DirectX 8.1 installation)
16X Speed CD-ROM/DVD-ROM
Directx 8.1 Compatible Sound Card
MS compatible mouse
Keyboard
Recommended:
800 MHz CPU
256 Megabytes of RAM
3D accelerated 64 MB video card or equivalent with HW-T&L
(Hardware Transform & Lightning) and 24-bit z-buffer
1.2 GB free hard disk space plus space for saved games
(additional space required for Windows swap-file and
DirectX 8.1 installation)
16X Speed CD-ROM/DVD-ROM
Directx 8.1 Compatible Sound Card
MS compatible mouse
Keyboard
Required Operating Systems:
Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP or Windows 2000
Note that Windows 95 is not supported.
------------------------------------------------------------------
32 MB video cards with HW-T&L will be supported and should work.
If you do have such a card and experience problems please
report type of card and drivers used.
These are known to have issues:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Hercules Prophet FDX 8500 LE AGP 64MB ATI Radeon 8500
Nvidia GeForce2 Integrated GPU AGP 32MB Nvidia nForce
(nForce)
ATI Radeons
- Some cards in the Radeon family may have graphical issues such
as texture flicker and some drop-out. By the time you read this
the latest drivers form ATI should be available to address these
issues.
SETTING 16-bit
- Setting the color depth to 16 bits will give you more flickering
(z-buffer errors).
- When playing the game with 16-bit you might experience
flickering on the buildings if LIGHTMAPS under video options
is turned on.
- VIDEO SETTINGS
Read the section Improving Gameplay Performance below to help
minimize some of the above video card issues.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Cards that are not HW-T&L compatible will not be supported!
Known soundcard issues:
------------------------------------------------------------------
AOpen AW320 PCI Audio PCI Windows 2000
All sounds (vehicle, gun, etc.) cut in and out while in a game.
The computer will also randomly briefly flash a blue screen error
message right before the computer re-boots while in a game.
Aureal Vortex PCI Windows XP
Aureal Vortex 2 PCI Windows XP
Aztech A3D PCI Windows XP
Diamond Monster Sound II MX300 PCI Windows XP
Turtle Beach Montego A3D Xstream PCI Windows XP
Turtle Beach Montego II PCI Windows XP
Turtle Beach Montego II Quadzilla PCI Windows XP
The seven cards above all experience the following:
Vehicle sounds are distorted. This includes tanks, jeeps, AA-
guns, etc. Voices play too fast.
Yamaha Xwave-192 PCI
Sounds cut in and out intermittently during gameplay. Engine noise
will turn off and on.
Avance AC97 PCI
Voices and soundfx will be sped up.
This is known as the 'chipmunk effect.'
==================================================================
Hard Drive Space
==================================================================
1.2 GB free hard disk space plus space for saved games
(additional space required for DirectX 8.1 installation)
In addition to the installed game, Windows will require additional
free hard drive space for its operating system (virtual memory).
If you encounter the following message in an error dialog:
"Ran out of virtual memory"
Free up some more hard drive space.
==================================================================
Installing DirectX 8.1
==================================================================
If you declined to install DirectX 8.1 when initially installing
Battlefield 1942, you can install at a later time by simply in-
serting Disk 1 into your CD-ROM drive and running "dxsetup.exe",
located in the DirectX directory on the install CDROM. This is
found on Disk 1 under the "Redist\DirectX81" folder. Just double-
click on "dxsetup.exe".
Latest version of DirectX can be downloaded from:
www.microsoft.com\directx
Previous versions of DirectX are not fully supported.
==================================================================
Improving Gameplay Performance
==================================================================
Some machines will benefit from experimenting with your Network/
Video/Sound options:
INTERNET/NETWORK PERFORMANCE
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR A GOOD INTERNET PERFORMANCE!
- Before joining an Internet game you should check the settings
under CONNECTION SPEED in the Internet tab to make sure that
you have the appropriate connection type set. If you experience
lag or jitter while on an Internet game, try setting your
CONNECTION SPEED to the next lowest setting.
- JOINING MULTIPLAYER GAMES:
To get the best performance given your computer we recommend
you follow these guidelines:
HARDWARE
Minimum system - Join servers that have up to 20 players
Recommended systems - Join servers that have up to 32 players
High end systems - Join servers that have up to 32+ players
BANDWIDTH
Modem users - Join games with a maximum of 16 players.
ISDN users - Join games with a maximum of 24 players.
ADSL/Cable users - Join games with a maximum of 32 players.
T1/LAN users - Join games with a maximum of 32+ players.
VIDEO SETTINGS
- Systems with 128MB of RAM should always run the game with
video settings set to "LOW".
- From the Main Menu choose the "Options" menu. Then select
the "Video" menu, select "Texture Quality" and experiment with
the slider in order to find the best setting for your computer.
You can also try lowering the "Graphics Quality" and "Effect
Quality" in order to meet your machines level of performance.
- Also from the "Video" menu, uncheck the "SHADOWS" check box.
This will prevent the game from creating dynamic shadows for
soldiers and vehicles and should improve performance.
- Also from the "Video" menu, uncheck the "LIGHTMAPS" check box.
This will prevent the game from adding detailed shadows on the
buildings, which should improve your performance.
- Also from the "Video" menu, uncheck the "ENVIRONMENT MAPPING"
check box. This will remove the environmental effects on
vehicles and weapons. This should improve your performance.
- Also from the "Video" menu, try to reduce your view distance
in order to increase performance. This will impact on gameplay
since your opponents will see you before you can spot them.
- Also from the "Video" menu, check the "ALTERNATIVE SPAWN INTER-
FACE" which will give you a black background when you bring up
the spawn interface while playing instead of keeping the game
view in the background. This should improve mouse control in
that menu on slower machines.
- Try reducing your video resolution to 640x480 in your "Video"
menu. The lower the resolution, the easier it is for your
computer to run the game.
- From the "Video" menu you can try to lower your color depth from
32 to 16 bit by picking your desired resolution with the color
depth of 16 (800x600x16).
SOUND SETTINGS
- From the "Sound" menu you can try to lower your audio quality
by checking the 22 or 11khz checkbox. Also test with lowering
the number of channels used to 24 or 16.
- Systems with 128MB of RAM should always use 11khz.
- From the "Sound" menu you can try to lower your sound detail
to "MEDIUM" or "LOW". This will prioritize sounds harder so
that only the core sounds of the game get played.
- From the "Sound" menus second page you can activate "HARDWARE
ACCELERATION" given that your soundcard supports this. This
should improve your performance.
GAMEPLAY SETTINGS
- Turning the CPU-TIME GIVEN TO AI slider down will improve
performance in the single-player maps. Experiment with the
setting which best suits your computer.
- Turning the NUMBER OF BOTS slider down will improve performance
in the single-player maps. Experiment with the setting which
best suits your computer.
MODEM USERS
- Software compression can impact performance for online games.
We advise that you turn all software compression off when
playing Battlefield 1942 over a modem.
IN GAME
- By always keeping your command interface hidden (toggle with F8)
you should improve your performance while playing. If you still
want to leave it up you can make sure that you have turned your
Radio Tooltips off in the "Options" > "Customize". This should
give you better performance. Both of these changes will most be
most noticeable on low end systems.
(i've got an ATI Radeon 7500 anyways)
and test. I'll edit in the results to this post 
