Playing
This doc explains some of the subtleties of playing Timewarp.
Controls
Run twdos.exe in DOS, or twwin.exe in windows, or twlinux in Linux,
or twbeos on BeOS.
These are the options presented to you in the game:
Melee: Starts a battle. In battle the following keys do stuff:
F1 brings up the help screen (this file, at the moment)
F2 brings up the options menu
F3 switches camera focus
F4 is fast-forward (speeds up in-game time greatly)
F5 displays fleet status
F6 is chat (for network games)
F7 changes game tic rate (physics quality)
F8 changes camera mode
F9 creates planets (silly "feature")
F10 quits (so does ESCAPE)
F11 saves screenshots
F12 displays framerates / performance data
- zooms out on some viewing modes.
+ (or =) zooms in on some viewing modes.
0 and 9 also effect the camera in some viewing modes.
Also, if some controllers are set to keyboard, customizable
buttons may cause ship actions. Be default these are:
Config 0:
left: Keypad 4
thrust: Keypad 8
right: Keypad 6
fire: Quote (")
special:Semicolon (;)
next: Closebrace (])
prev: Openbrace ([)
near: P
Config 1:
left: A
thrust: S
right: D
fire: B
special:V
next: F
prev: G
near: H
Teams:
Select Controller:
Select the player (i.e. "Player 1" or "Player 2")
you wish to alter from the list on the left, and
the controller (i.e. "Keyboard", "MoronBot") you
want to control that player from the list on the
left. Then either click on the "Select
Controller" button or double click on the
controller name.
Config #:
This switches the configuration used by the
currently highlighted controller.
Edit Configuration:
This is used to setup up keys when the currently
highlighted player is using the keyboard. It
may eventually allow the configuration of AIs
and calibration of joysticks.
Edit Fleet:
This button brings up the fleet selection menu for
the currently highlighted player.
Main Menu:
This returns to the main menu.
Options:
Most things on this menu are self-explanatory, but a few
need special mention.
Gamma correction:
This makes things brighter during combat. This
should not be changed from the middle of combat,
or colors could get weird.
Antialiasing:
If this box is checked then TimeWarp will use
higher quality graphics, but run slower.
Color Depth:
You cannot change this from the middle of combat.
Camera Mode:
This allows you to control what is shown on your
screen in combat.
"Enemy_Discrete"
is just like Star Control on the PC, where
the camera moved to keep both you and your
enemy onscreen, and zoomed in by factors of
2.
"Enemy"
is like Star Control on the Genesis or 3DO,
where the camera zoomed in smoothly.
"Hero"
makes the camera stay focused on Player 1,
and zoom in/out when + and - are pressed.
"Everything"
makes the camera stay on the planet and zoom
way out so that everything is visible. This
mode is slightly buggy (visual artifacts).
TimeWarp Command Line Options:
-res x y
Set screen resolution to x by y.
Example: -res 512 384
-bpp z
Set screen color depth to z (valid options are 8, 15, 16, 24, or 32
Example: -bpp 8
-low_quality
Not Yet Implemented
Causes TW to use lower quality graphics. This will use less
RAM.
-play game gametype
-play demo demofile
-play net1client serverIP [port]
-play net1server gametype [port]
Bypasses the main menu, putting you directly into a game.
Note that game names are case-sensitive, and that underscores (_)
should be used in place of spaces.
The 'type' parameter must be either 'game', 'demo', 'net1client',
or 'net1server'. If the port parameter is omitted then it will
default to port 15515, as specified in client.ini.
Example: -play game Melee
Example: -play game Melee_in_Asteroid_Field
Example: -play demo mydemo.dmo
Example: -play net1client 131.215.72.49
Example: -play net1server Melee_in_Asteroid_Field 15515
Example: -play net1client josh.joshesdomain.net 15515
-fullscreen
Set screen mode to fullscreen. This is the opposite of -window
-window
Set screen mode to windowed. This is the opposite of -fullscreen
-nosound
Disables sound support.
-nojoystick
Disables joystick support
-nomouse
Disables mouse support
-nokeyboard
Disables keyboard support (a bad idea...)
-noidle
When this option is enabled, TW will attempt to use 100% of available
CPU time. Generally, using the -interpolate_frames option is more
useful, but this option may be useful in working around possible
hardware bugs or TW bugs.
Notes:
1. x & y do not have to match a normal resolution; you can
use combinations of x, y that don't show up in the normal screen
selection. For instance, to run twdos.exe in VGA mode 13, you
would type "twdos.exe -res 320 200 -bpp 8".
Also, strange Mode-X modes are allowed on platforms where you have
direct hardware access (DOS, unix w/ root), allowing resolutions like
these: 256x256, 320x240, 360x240, etc.