## Sidrial Total Conversion FAQ

Last Updated: 3/26/2002

### Contents:

1. The game runs slowly or "chunky" for me. Is there something I can do to improve performance?
2. The HUD is too obtrusive! What can I do?
3. What do I need in order to create levels for Sidrial?
4. Sidrial exits with the message "hunk_alloc failed on [###]". What do I do?
5. Sidrial exits with the message "User Interface is version 6, expected 3" or "FS_FOpenFileRead: NULL 'file' parameter passed". What do I do?
6. When I try to connect to a server, I get the following error: "Client/Server game mismatch: baseq3-1/sidrial-1." What's wrong?
7. Sidrial exits with the message "Cannot find 'default.cfg'". What do I do?

### Questions and Answers:

1. Q) The game runs slowly or "chunky" for me. Is there something I can do to improve performance?

   There are a number of settings in the System Configuration menu that you can change to improve performance. One of the quickest ways to make the game run faster is to try one of the simpler HUDs in the "HUD style" option from within the System Configuration / Options menu. You can also try changing the "Quality" setting in System Configuration / System to "Fastest." Here are some additional settings from System Configuration / Options that can be tweaked for improved framerate:

   - Turn off "Dynamic Lights"
   - Turn on "Force Player Model"
   - Turn off "Draw Gun"
   - Turn on "Low Quality Sky"
   - Turn on "Simple Items"
   Keep in mind that these settings will decrease the visual quality of the game, and in the case of the Single Player game, might prevent you from seeing important clues or information.

2. Q) The HUD is too obtrusive! What can I do?

   You have a few options here. In the System Configuration / Options menu, there is an option called "HUD style." You can choose "none," "mini," "large - low poly" and "large - high poly." Sidrial defaults to "large - high poly;" choosing one of the other options can reveal more of the game view and improve game performance, but, you will not see as much information about your status. Another option is to reduce the opacity of the HUD by lowering the "HUD Opacity" slider in the System Configuration / Options menu.

3. Q) What do I need in order to create levels for Sidrial?

   Levels in Sidrial are created just like levels in standard Quake III Arena, so you will need a working version of GTK Radiant (See http://www.qeradiant.com/ for more information). Aside from that all that is necessary are the entities.def and shaderlist.txt files. The entities.def file allows you to place the special Sidrial entities (Weapons, Armor Energy Stations, etc.) into the map. The shaderlist.txt file makes sure Radiant loads the Sidrial TC shader files so you can place them in a map. You'll need to have these files in your baseq3/scripts or sidrial/scripts (if you set GTK Radiant to treat Sidrial as a Custom Modification) directory.

4. Q) Sidrial exits with the message "hunk_alloc failed on [###]". What do I do?

   The Single Player level of Sidrial requires the Quake III engine to set aside at least 72MB of RAM in order to run. The desktop icon that the Sidrial installer creates makes sure the "com_hunkmegs" variable is set at 72 before you run Sidrial, but if you choose to start Sidrial without using this icon, Quake III Arena will likely not be allocating enough memory (The com_hunkmegs setting defaults to 56). If you try to run the Single Player level this way, you will get this "hunk_alloc failed" error.

   To fix this, you will need to either set "com_hunkmegs" to 72 or use the provided shortcuts to Sidrial.

   Here are the steps to increase the com_hunkmegs setting:

   1. Start up Quake3 normally
   2. Bring down the console and type: /set com_hunkmegs 72
   3. Restart Quake3 and load Sidrial

5. Q) Sidrial exits with the message "User Interface is version 6, expected 3" or "FS_FOpenFileRead: NULL 'file' parameter passed". What do I do?

   These errors happen when you have not upgraded to a supported version of Quake 3. Sidrial requires a valid Quake III Arena installation with the version 1.30 or higher point release. We personally use 1.31.

   Here is a link to a site where you can download the 1.31 patch: http://www.bluesnews.com/files/idstuff/quake3/win32/q3pointrelease_131.shtml

6. Q) When I try to connect to a server, I get the following error: "Client/Server game mismatch: baseq3-1/sidrial-1." What's wrong?

   You are trying to connect to a server that is running a different version of Sidrial than yours. Make sure you are running the latest version of Sidrial. If you have the latest version and you see this error, the server is probably running an older version. You can contact the server administrator to see if he will update his version, or search for another server that is running the latest version.

7. Q) Sidrial exits with the message "Cannot find 'default.cfg'". What do I do?

   This error can happen for a few reasons. The most common reason is that Sidrial was not installed into the proper directory. Sidrial must be installed into the same directory that you installed Quake 3 into. For example, if you installed Quake 3 into: "C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena", you must choose "C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena" as your installation path when installing Sidrial.

   The other cause for this problem only occurs if you have a "Minimum" installation of Quake3 (one that requires you to have your Quake3 CD in your CD Drive while you play). For Sidrial to work with a Minimum Quake3 installation, Sidrial needs to know the proper location of your CD drive. Follow these steps to take care of this:

   1. Place the Quake 3 CD into your CD-ROM drive, and determine the drive letter the CD is in (This will usually be D:, but you can find out for certain by clicking the My Computer icon on your Desktop and looking for the Quake 3 Icon in your list of drives)
   2. Right Click on the 'Sidrial Total Conversion' shortcut from your Desktop (or from your Start Menu / Sidrial TC folder) and select Properties.
   3. Add the following to the end of the Target field: +set fs_cdpath [CD drive letter]:\quake3 where [CD drive letter] is the drive letter corresponding to your CD Drive (For example, D)
      Note: There needs to be a space between the last character on the Target field and the '+set'.

      **When finished your Shortcut's Target field should look something like this:
      "C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\quake3.exe" +set fs_game sidrial +set com_hunkmegs 72 +set fs_cdpath d:\quake3
      Note: The location of the quake3.exe may be different though

   [ Close ]