Hitman: Contracts
Please read through the DirectX section of this document. This section has information that is vital to successfully running Hitman: Contracts on your system.
This game is optimized for and will play best under Microsoft's DirectX 9, but will run on DirectX 8.1 compliant hardware. In order for you to play the game using hardware that supports DirectX 9, you must have DirectX 9 compliant drivers for your video card and sound card. Please note that although DirectX 9 is installed with the game, your video and sound card drivers will not be upgraded to DirectX 9 drivers.
You will need to obtain the latest DirectX 9 drivers from your card manufacturer or PC supplier. These drivers cannot be supplied by Eidos.
While the game will run fine in 128 Mb of RAM, your playing experience will be smoother if you have at least 256 Mb.
Regardless of how much memory you have, you can maximize your available memory and increase the overall performance of the game engine by doing the following:
q Closing any open windows
q Shutting down all other programs, including menu-bar programs like ICQ
q Defragmenting your hard drive
Eidos recommends that you have no other programs running at all while playing Hitman: Contracts. Other programs, including virus checkers, system utilities and screen savers can cause system degradation when playing games software and may conflict with the game for system resources, potentially resulting in instability and crashes.
1.3 Known Issues
Audio -
· Latest drivers needed.
· If user receives audio popping or corruption, try reducing number of voices within the game. Alternately within `DXDiag` try setting the `Hardware Sound Acceleration Level` to `Standard Acceleration`. If the problem still persists, try turning option to `No acceleration`.
· On EAX/3D compatible sound cards, ensure that speaker configuration is setup correctly within Windows.
Graphics -
· Latest Drivers required - nVidia 56.64 or later, ATi Catalyst 4.3 or later (as of April 2004).
· Post Filter - This Option is designed for graphics cards that have hardware Pixel Shader support. Graphics cards that don’t support at least pixel shader 1.1 will not be able to use this feature. When enabled will cause a performance hit at higher resolutions.
Options -
· If user alters any options and finds game no longer functions correctly, run `restoredefaults.exe` located in the root of the installation. This will reset all options back to their original installed state.
Io Interactive and Eidos are committed to providing customer support for our games on a continuing basis. In that spirit, there may be a patch for Hitman: Contracts forthcoming; visit the Eidos website for more information.
http://www.eidos.com/
The minimum system requirements are as follows:
COMPUTER:
IBM PC or 100% compatible
OPERATING SYSTEM:
Microsoft Windows 98SE/2000/XP(admin rights required)
CPU:
Pentium III 800 or Athlon equivalent
RAM:
128 Mb Windows 98SE
256 Mb Windows 2000/XP
GRAPHICS:
100% DirectX 8-compatible 32Mb 3D Accelerated Card
SOUND:
Windows -compatible sound card (100% DirectX 8-compatible)
CD-ROM:
Quad-speed (4x) CD-ROM drive
HARD DRIVE:
2Gb free disk space
INPUT DEVICES:
100% DirectX 8 -compatible mouse and keyboard
The recommended system requirements are as follows:
Pentium 4 1.6GHz or Athlon XP equivalent
256 Mb
64Mb 3D Card -100% DirectX 8-compatible
Sound Card - Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS card recommended
Eight-speed (8x) CD-ROM drive or faster
To ensure that your installation is trouble free, you should check to see that your hard drive and file system are both tuned for optimum performance. Windows comes with two utility programs that find and fix any errors and optimise your hard drive performance. The first of these programs is called scandisk. Scandisk will check your hard drive for problems and can fix any that it finds. You can run scandisk by clicking on the Start button from the Windows Taskbar, followed by Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally scandisk.
Once scandisk has finished running, you should next optimise your hard drive's performance by running a program called Disk Defragmenter.. You can run Disk Defragmenter by clicking on the Start button from the Windows desktop, followed by Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally Disk Defragmenter.
Installing Hitman: Contracts
Installing Hitman: Contracts is easy. Simply insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive. After a few seconds, the Launch Panel will appear.
This program will guide you through the remaining process via onscreen prompts. If at any time you are instructed to restart your computer, do so.
In the event the Launch Panel does not appear when you insert the CD:
Double-click on the My Computer icon, then double-click on the CD-ROM icon, and lastly double-click on the autorun.exe file to bring up the Launch Panel OR:
q Click on the Start button.
q Choose Run from the pop-up menu.
q Type d:\autorun in the box provided (where d: designates your CD-ROM drive letter).
q Click on the OK button to begin the install program.
You will be prompted to select the path and directory to which you wish to install the game on your hard drive. The default is
C:\Program Files\Eidos\Hitman Contracts
You may change this if you wish to.
At some point, the Microsoft DirectX 9 install prompt will appear if you do not have it on your system already. Please read the on-screen information before selecting an option. You may either choose to install or not install at this time. If the Hitman: Contracts installer detects an active version of DirectX 9 on your system, we encourage you to not reinstall DirectX. If the installer does not detect DirectX 9, you must install it before you are able to play Hitman: Contracts (please refer to the next section of this guide before proceeding).
Once the install has finished and you have opted to run the game, the Launch Panel will appear on the screen. Once you are happy with your choices, simply click on the Play button to start the game.
You may also:
q Click on the Uninstall button to uninstall the game.
q Click on the View Readme button to view the readme file.
q Click on OK to play the game.
q Click on the Exit button to exit the Launch Panel.
If you are going to play the game at a later time insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive. After a few seconds, the Hitman: Contracts Launch panel should appear on the screen via the AutoPlay feature. Now click on the START button to start the game. There is also a button present to Exit.
In the event the AutoPlay feature does not work, you may click on the My Computer icon and then click on the CD-ROM icon to bring up the Launch Panel.
OR
q Choose Programs from the pop-up menu.
q Drag your mouse to the right and click on Hitman: Contracts from the list.
q Click on Hitman: Contracts from the ensuing pop-up menu.
Uninstalling Hitman: Contracts
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