Shrek 2 README

Last Updated: 2004-04-14

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
INSTALLATION & SET UP
1. Minimum System Requirements
2. Autoplay
3. DirectX® Detection & Installation
VIDEO ISSUES
1. Monitors
2. Software Mode
3. In-game and Desktop resolutions
4. Setting Object Detail
5. Temporary Graphical Corruption when Changing Video Settings
6. NVIDIA® TNT2 Vanta Texture Corruption
7. ATI® Radeon 9000 Water Texture Corruption
WINDOWS® SPECIFIC OPERATING SYSTEM ISSUES
1. Alt-Tab in Windows® 98/SE
2. Alt-Enter in Windows® 98/SE
3. Uninstall problems in Windows® XP
4. Save Game Space in Windows® 98/SE
Miscellaneous
1. Movie Skipping

INTRODUCTION
Refer to this document if you encounter difficulties with one or more aspects of
installation or running the Shrek 2 game. Many of the most commonly encountered
issues are covered here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Use of the in-game console is not supported by Activision®. Plea
se do not contact Activision Customer Support with issues that arise from using
console commands in-game.

INSTALLATION & SET UP

1. Minimum System Requirements

- 3D hardware accelerator card required - 100% DirectX® 9.0b-compliant 16 MB video
card and drivers*
- English version of Microsoft® Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
- Pentium® III 450 MHz or Athlon® 600 MHz or higher processor
- 128 MB of RAM
- 620 MB of uncompressed hard disk space (plus 200 MB for the Windows® swap file a
nd 60 MB free for saved games)
- A 100% Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP-compatible computer system including:
- DirectX® 9.0b (Included)
- 100% DirectX® 9.0b-compliant true 16-bit sound card and drivers
- 100% Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP- compatible mouse, keyboard and drivers
- 100% Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP- compatible quad speed CD-ROM drive (600 K/sec susta
ined transfer rate) and drivers
*Supported Chipsets for Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
All nVidia GeForce(tm) chipsets
nVidia TnT(tm) and TnT2(tm)
All ATI Radeon(tm) chipsets
Matrox Parhelia(tm)
*Important Note: Some 3D accelerator cards with the chipsets listed here may no
t be compatible with the 3D acceleration features utilized by Shrek 2(tm). Plea
se refer to your hardware manufacturer for 100% DirectX® 9.0b compatibility. This
product does not support Microsoft® Windows® 95 or NT.

2. Autoplay
If the Windows® Autoplay feature is enabled on your computer, the Shrek 2 Launch s
creen will automatically appear when you insert the Shrek 2 CD into your CD-ROM
drive. Simply click on Install and follow the on-screen instructions to continue
the installation.
If the Autoplay feature is disabled, you can begin the installation by doing the
following:
a) Go to the Start Menu and select Run.
b) Type D:\AUTORUN.EXE (assuming D is your CD-ROM drive letter) and press
Enter.
-or-
a) Double-click on My Computer
b) Double-Click your CD-ROM drive icon.
c) Double-click on AUTORUN.EXE.
Windows 98 may not be setup to AutoPlay CDs. To check, perform the following ste
ps:
a. Open the Windows 98/ME Control Panel folder and double-click on the System ic
on.
b. Click on the Device Manager tab. Click on the plus sign next to CD-ROM, selec
t your CD-ROM and choose Properties.
c. Click on the Settings tab. Insert a check mark in the box to the left of Auto
Insert Notification and select OK.

3. DirectX® Detection & Installation

During the Shrek 2 setup, the install process will prompt you to install Microso
ft® DirectX® on your computer. If you choose "Yes," the Microsoft DirectX setup pro
gram will install the appropriate files on your computer. DirectX 9.0b is a set
of sound, video, input and network functions developed by Microsoft. DirectX 9.
0b is necessary to run Shrek 2.
If you already have other Windows 98/98SE/2000/ME/XP games on your computer, cha
nces are you already have a version of DirectX installed. In this case, the Mic
rosoft installer will detect and overwrite any previous versions with DirectX 9.
0b. At that point, you will need to restart your computer for the changes to ta
ke effect. If, however, you already have DirectX 9.0b installed on your compute
r, the Microsoft DirectX 9.0b installer will detect it and not overwrite any fil
es. You will not need to restart your computer after installation in order to r
un Shrek 2.
If you choose not to install DirectX 9.0b when you install the game, you can man
ually install it later. To do so, use the following instructions:
1. Place your Shrek 2 disk in the CD-ROM drive. The Launch screen should appear
. (See the AutoPlay section above if it does not appear.)
2. Click on the "Extras" button.
3. Click on "DirectX" and follow the installation process. When DirectX install
ation finishes, you will need to restart your computer for the new drivers to wo
rk.

VIDEO ISSUES

1. Monitors
- Please make sure your monitor supports the game resolution you are trying to p
lay in. To check what resolutions your monitor supports, do the following:
a) Open up My Computer
b) Double-click on Control Panel
c) Find the Display icon and open it.
d) Choose the Settings tab.
e) Locate the resolution pointer in the Desktop Area box and drag it to the far
right.
The resolution choice shown is the maximum resolution your monitor is capable of
displaying. If you do not want to change to this resolution now, select cancel
. Your Desktop Area should be set to the game resolution you are trying to play
in or higher.
NOTE: Please make sure your monitor type is properly specified to insure correc
t reporting of available video resolutions.

2. Software Mode
If your computer system does not have a 3D hardware accelerated video card, the
game may be run in a Software Mode. **Please note that playing the game in Softw
are Mode is unsupported by Activision Customer Support. Performance may be slowe
r and there may be some graphic corruption when playing in Software Mode.**
You will need to edit the shortcut for the game in order to run in Software Mode
. To do this, start at your desktop, click the Start Button, highlight Programs,
and then find the Shrek 2 game entry (by default, it is listed in the Activisio
n entry). Highlight the shortcut to run Shrek 2, then RIGHT Click the mouse and
select PROPERTIES from the menu. This will bring up a window showing the propert
ies for the Shrek 2 shortcut. In the TARGET field, you will see the installed lo
cation of the game executable.
Example: C:\Program Files\Activision\Shrek 2\Game.exe
Click in the target field and add to the end of the shortcut the following: "-SW
AUTHORIZED"
Be sure to include a space between the shortcut line and the new text you are ad
ding, and keep the quotation marks intact. The edited line should appear as foll
ows (giving the default location in the example):
Example: C:\Program Files\Activision\Shrek 2\Game.exe "-SWAUTHORIZED"
This will now allow you to run in the unsupported Software Mode.
If you install a 3D hardware enabled video card after having run Shrek 2 in Soft
ware Mode, you can disable it by 1 of two ways.
a)
- Remove the "-SWAUTHORIZED" which was added to the shorcut.
- Delete the Game.ini file located in:
"My Documents\Shrek 2" - if using WINDOWS 2K/XP
"\SHREK 2\SYSTEM" - if using WINDOWS 98/ME
or
b)
- Uninstall Shrek 2 followed by a reinstall of Shrek 2.
**Note: If you uninstall Shrek 2 you will lose your Saved games. If you want to
keep your Saved games, it is recommended that you follow the first procedure.**

3. In-game and Desktop resolutions

Do not choose an in-game resolution that is higher than your desktop resolution.
You may only be able to see as much of the game as is viewable at your desktop
resolution. (For example, if your desktop resolution is set to 800x600, and yo
u choose an in-game resolution of 1024x768, the game screen may stretch beyond t
he size of your monitor screen). This issue may be more prevalent in windowed m
ode.
In most cases Shrek 2 should choose the proper resolution for your system based
on your processor, system memory, and video card. Changing the game resolution m
ay result in decreased performance or visual quality.

4. Setting Object Detail

When changing the Object Detail setting from Low to Medium or High, the changes
will not be reflected in the current level. In order for this feature to perform
the necessary optimizations for low end systems, the objects are deleted from t
he save file and cannot be re-created in that level. When switching from Low to
Medium or High Object Detail, those changes will be reflected in the next level
that is loaded.
In most cases Shrek 2 should choose the proper Object Detail setting for your sy
stem based on your processor, system memory, and video card. Changing the Object
Detail setting may result in decreased performance or visual quality.

5. Temporary Graphical Corruption when Changing Video Settings

Changing the settings on your Video Options page may sometimes result in tempora
ry color corruption of the page. These irregularities will disappear when you re
turn to the game.

6. NVIDIA® TNT2 Vanta Texture Corruption

Users playing Shrek 2 on a NVIDIA® TNT2 Vanta may see some graphical corruptions an
d flickering textures. These errors are specific to the TNT2 Vanta video card.
7. ATI® Radeon 9000 Water Texture Corruption
Users playing Shrek 2 on an ATI® Radeon 9000 video card may see some texture flicke
ring when playing in 32-bit color mode, especially in the "Shrek s Swamp" level.
These errors are specific to the Radeon 9000 card.

WINDOWS® SPECIFIC OPERATING SYSTEM ISSUES

1. Alt-Tab in Windows® 98/98Se

If you are running Windows 98/98Se, using Alt-Tab to exit Shrek 2 and switch to
another application is not recommended. While you may be able to Alt-Tab to exit
Shrek 2, and the game will remain running in the task bar, you may not be able
to recover the game by Alt-Tabbing back to it. At this point you may have to use
the Windows Task Manager to close Shrek 2. Hold down the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys t
o bring up the Task Manager. Then select Shrek 2 from the list of programs curre
ntly running and hit the End Task button.

2. Alt-Enter in Windows® 98/98Se

Using Alt-Enter to minimize the game window is not recommended for users running
Windows 98/98Se. This will crash the game on some systems.

3. Uninstall problems in Windows® XP

If you receive the following error while attempting to uninstall Shrek 2:
Internal Failure
Error number: 0x80040707
You are attempting to uninstall on a Power User account when the game was instal
led on an Administrator account. You ll have to uninstall Shrek 2 on the account y
ou were logged into when you installed it. Log out of Windows® and login to the Ad
ministrator account on your system. Then you will be able to uninstall Shrek 2 n
ormally.

4. Save Game Space in Windows® 98/SE

If you are running Windows 98/98Se, please make sure you have at least 60MB of d
isk space on the hard drive that Shrek 2 has been installed to.

MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES

1. Movie Skipping
You can skip movies in the game with the Spacebar or ESC key. At any point durin
g a movie, hit the Spacebar or ESC key and the movie will end immediately. Howev
er, several of the movies cannot be skipped.
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