Welcome new players. This post should answer most questions you might have about Shattered Horizon. Please read before creating new topics in the forum.
General
System Requirements?
Listed here: http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/supp...erequirements/
Note that the minimum supported resolution is 1024x768. If your display cannot manage you can't play as even in windowed mode part of the screen will cut off. There is no workaround for lower resolution screens (commonly this could be an issue with some TVs or projectors). Note that after the most recent patch, 5:4 aspect ratio is now fully supported (1280x1024 being the most common 5:4 resolution).
Help! I'm new to the game, how do I play?
In game, there is a set of tutorial screens that summarize the key points and should you wish more detail, you can find the game manual online (PDF) http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/medi...GameManual.pdf
Help! All these evil people / bots are shooting me!
Yep. Space is a harsh battlefield. For newbie-friendly introduction to manouvering and for exploring the maps, we have set up training servers in multiplayer mode. They are marked "Flight Training" and have "ND - No Damage" flag on, so other people cannot add holes to your spacesuit while you learn the controls and figure out the map layouts.
Help! I learned the controls and kinda know the maps, but I'm still getting killed constantly!
This would probably be what military experts call a "L2P issue" :p - here are some basic tips:
- Floating "high", far away from any structures makes you an easy target, stay close to cover.
- Your rockets light up the environment, try coasting using your inertia to avoid being spotted.
- Fire in short bursts to improve your accuracy.
- Land on a surface (F key or SHIFT) before using the scope, sniping is very hard while in flight.
- Hold down E to fire grenades further. Quick tap will just get a grenade that explodes almost immediately.
- Melee, head and tank shots are all instant kills.
For more great tips, check out the following threads on the official forum:
http://futuremark.yougamers.com/foru...d.php?t=118180 - Tips for new players
http://futuremark.yougamers.com/foru...d.php?t=120119 - More tips for new players
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...9637E8853BF599 - YouTube playlist of hints and tips videos
What do these server rules mean?
The Rules column on the server screen tells you the settings for each server. In-game, you can click on the Rules Info button in the bottom right of the screen for an explanation:
RS - Registered Server, submits player stats to the official database - http://stats.shatteredhorizon.com/stats/
FF - Friendly Fire on
AB - Autobalance, if possible
ND - No Damage, training server where you can't harm anyone
MO - Melee Only - guns do no damage, bayonet still does
<X - Server is for players with less than X points in global stats.
>X - Server is for players with more than X points in global stats.
X>Y - Server is for players with more than X but less than Y points in global stats.
Server administrators can configure these to their liking.
Cool! I want to set up my own server and configure it just right!
The dedicated server is available either on the Steam Tools tab, or on the official site, http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/support/ - look up "Dedicated Server".
Need help on how to set one up? See here: http://shatteredhorizon.wikia.com/wi...d_Server_Guide
Points? Ranks? Huh?
Full list and explanations are available, http://shatteredhorizon.wikia.com/wiki/Ranks
I have a problem, a question or an idea or wish to give feedback
You can post your problem questions or ideas on our support site at http://www.getsatisfaction.com/futuremark/
Anyone can also freely comment on any problems, questions and ideas - GetSatisfaction is a fully open and collaborative support tool. Search works very well in GetSatisfaction so please use it before posting.
The game doesn't start and I have Windows XP
Sorry, Shattered Horizon requires DirectX 10 and Microsoft offers DirectX 10 only on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and any future Windows versions. There is no way to get DirectX 10 for XP, so Shattered Horizon cannot be played on Windows XP (or on any older Windows operating systems). This also prevents running Shattered Horizon on Linux using Wine (until Wine adds DX10 support).
But I heard you can download this thing from the internet to get DX10 for XP...
Nope, won't work. All "DX10 for XP" downloads are hoaxes, and could contain malware. There is absolutely no way to get DX10 to run on XP - to do so would require major changes to the kernel of the operating system.
Please, make Shattered Horizon work on XP!
Sorry, it just isn't feasible. The game engine is fully designed around DirectX 10 and it would require a complete engine re-write to make the game to use DirectX 9. Additionally, no DirectX 9 level video card would have the needed performance to run the visuals acceptably even at low settings, so chances are that if you are using a PC that was purchased back when Vista wasn't available, it doesn't have the hardware to run the game anyway. OS upgrade (or a computer upgrade) is the only option. Sorry.
How about DirectX 11?
Shattered Horizon runs just fine if you have DirectX 11 installed and/or if you have DirectX 11 video card, but does not take advantage of the new features of DX11 at this time.
I have a NVIDIA GPU and I see Shattered Horizon uses PhysX - do I see benefits?
Probably not. While Shattered Horizon uses PhysX and can use GPU accelerated PhysX, it does not have any GPU-only effects that would require a NVIDIA video card. So you get the exact same game on ATI and NVIDIA cards. As the game is mostly limited by your video card performance, it may actually be beneficial to turn off GPU PhysX for Shattered Horizon on NVIDIA cards as this ensures all video card muscle goes towards the graphics rendering - a CPU can take care of the physics just fine and odds are it will have spare cycles while your video card doesn't.
If you have a separate dedicated NVIDIA PhysX GPU or are running multiple video cards in SLI, then by all means, GPU PhysX also works - whichever gives you the best performance.
I have SLI/Crossfire, does Shattered Horizon work with it?
Yes and very well, I might add. In fact, adding a second GPU for SLI/Crossfire is probably the most effective way to get the game to run smoother as the game is very much limited by your video card performance on any modern CPU (effectively, fast dual core CPU or any reasonably quick quad core) - so a faster video card or a second video card in SLI/Crossfire will help a lot.
If you get flickering on SLI/Crossfire setup, try tweaking the vsync option, it should cure it.
Note: ATI Catalyst 10.3, 10.4 and 10.5 drivers have a known issue that causes Crossfire to be disabled in SH. Catalyst 10.6 is known to fix this issue, so ensure your drivers are up to date. There is still reportedly issues with ATI cards in Crossfire when antialiasing is on, so you may have to dial that down if you get graphical issues.
What is the FOV setting in Shattered Horizon?
Shattered Horizon FOV is actually defined for vertical, with the horizontal FOV defined by your aspect ratio. Here are the rough numbers calculated from that.
When floating
4:3 screens: 71
16:10 screens: 81
16:9 screens: 87
When walking on a surface
4:3 screens: 60
16:10 screens: 69
16:9 screens: 75
Shattered Horizon is a "HOR+" game and there is no way to adjust FOV. Yes, in practice this means that SH is yet another reason to get that nice widescreen monitor you know you want to have... ;) - alternatively on 4:3 or 5:4 monitors, you can always play in windowed mode in a widescreen resolution for a wider FOV.
Bots? What's up with that?
Bots were added with an update and are now avaialble either as additional cannon fodder on dedicated servers or in single player mode which effectively fires up a personal bot server on your own PC and allows you to play against them.
Single player? So I can play offline?
No. Shattered Horizon uses Steam for authentication and online connection is required for that - even in single player. SH does not support Steam offline mode. Sorry.
Problems
Single player does not connect to the local server
You either get a message "could not find server" or the game crashes with
This is known to happen if your PC somehow either cannot resolve "localhost" or cannot connect to it. By default Windows understands that localhost = 127.0.0.1 = your own PC. Some firewalls apparently may block this (causing the failure) or localhost may somehow end up as not resolving.Code:Application Crash: std::exception shattered_horizon.exe build: 54 The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found gui::do_ui, do_ui, visualizable name: menu do_item_asynchronous_update, item name: window_painter
You can try fixing this by adding the line
To your hosts file, located at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (use notepad, it is just a text file)Code:127.0.0.1 localhost
The game can't find any servers to play on
This could be caused by several possible reasons.
- A Steam issue related to corrupt/empty masterservers.vdf file? There is a guide with steps how to correct it here: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...1452-HCVB-6984 - follow the instructions for "BT Home Hub" users.
For further details, this GetSatisfaction article has more: http://www.getsatisfaction.com/futur...ers_showing_up
- Network card issue? You can try ensuring your network card driver is up to date and your router firmware is up to date. You can also try playing with your PC configured to be in the "DMZ" at your router, or to open the ports used at your router. Details on the ports used can be found here;
http://getsatisfaction.com/futuremar..._horizons_uses
- Network card or router getting overloaded? Firepower pack added some debug settings to the sh.settings file that can be manually tweaked to throttle down the server browser for problematic routers and other networking hardware.
If "server_browser_default_filters" is set to "false", all SH servers are listed even if they have not responded to a ping or are incorrect versions. If it's set to "true", old servers and servers that do not respond to pings are filtered away (the default mode). So, if server browser appears empty, setting this to "false" might help.Code:string_settings { ... server_browser_default_filters true server_browser_refresh_interval 0.1 }
"server_browser_refresh_interval" sets the delay between each ping that is sent to individual server. Increasing this number might help with some slow routers.
sh.settings file can be found at C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local\Futuremark\Shatt ered Horizon\sh.settings
Substitute *username* with your Windows user name. AppData is, by default, a hidden folder in Windows. Enable hidden files/folders in Windows Folder Options to see it. You can use notepad to edit the file (it is just a text file with a fancy extension)
If none of that helps, please post a new "problem" in GetSatisfaction and include detailed information on your network card, router and any firewall/security software installed, or add them to the relevant thread:
http://www.getsatisfaction.com/futur...ers_showing_up
I started the game, jacked up the settings to maximum and it runs poorly
Shattered Horizon was designed to take advantage of the latest hardware available and push it hard for exceptional visuals. The maximum settings are extremely harsh on video cards. First of all, we suggest you start from the lowest settings and work your way up to see what your system can take. Biggest performance boost can be seen by disabling Ambient Occlusion and after that the largest gains can be seen by just dropping down the resolution. Shattered Horizon draws a lot of pixels and larger the resolution, heavier the task is for the video card. Consider running at a lower resolution while retaining the same aspect ratio (example: instead of 1920x1200, try playing at 1440x900 or 1280x720 and apply antialiasing to improve image quality)
If you wish to retain the native resolution of your display, you can also try playing in windowed mode instead of full screen.
Also note that the "high" textures are designed for video cards with 768MB or more of onboard memory ("medium" assumes you have 512MB card and "low" textures fit into 256MB card memory)
I started the game, jacked up the settings and it... broke
If your computer isn't the latest and the greatest, this is (unfortunately) possible - on lower end systems, maximum settings can actually cause the game to fail to start. To get back to default settings, right click the game on your Steam game list, choose "Properties" -> "Set Launch Options..." and add the following command line option:
--reset_settings
With this option, the game starts up with default settings. Remember to remove the launch option before starting up the game next time, or any changes you've made are again reset.
Alternatively you can find the following file:
C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local\Futuremark\Shatt ered Horizon\sh.settings
Substitute *username* with your Windows user name and note that AppData is a hidden folder. To reset the settings, you can delete the file - it gets recreated. To edit settings you can edit that file in notepad to manually change settings out-of-game. It is fairly self-explanatory.
Game crashes on level load or level change and I have G92-based card
(G92 = NVIDIA GeForce 8x00/9x00 and GT/GTS 240/250 series card)
Ensure that your drivers are up to date - this was known to happen on some older driver versions.
Note that GeForce 8600 and GeForce 9600 series cards (and models below those two in 8x00 and 9x00 family), and all GeForce 8x00M and GeForce 9x00M mobile chips are technically below the minimum requirement of a desktop GeForce 8800GT, so if you get crashes on those cards even at minimum settings, there isn't much to be done. Shattered Horizon is very demanding on the GPU.
I get framerate stuttering/spikes (NVIDIA cards)
Some users have reported that the following helps:
1: Go into your NVIDIA control panel, make a game profile for Shattered Horizon, set Pre Rendered Frames to zero, that smooths out a lot of stuttering.
2: Again in the NVIDIA control panel, if you are using SLI, set your SLI rendering mode to force alternate frame rendering 2, unless you have the latest 257.15 or higher drivers, in which case its default anyway.
The voice chat stutters
Adjust the buffer length in audio settings. Also note that Shattered Horizon uses Steam voice chat, so some of the voice chat settings are actually in your Steam client.
Crash on startup - help!
There are a couple of well-known variations.
- "Function:__thiscall eva::physics::novodex::system::system(bool) - Expression: m_nx_sdk"
A PhysX related crash. Solution here: http://getsatisfaction.com/futuremar...up_fatal_error
- "Shattered Horizon encountered a fatal error and will be terminated" without more detail
Usually caused by incompatible or missing video codecs. Workaround is to disable the intro videos:
Edit the sh.settings file using notepad in the local appdata folder:
C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local\Futuremark\Shatt ered Horizon\sh.settings
(AppData folder is a hidden folder, you have to enable viewing of hidden folders from Folder Options in Windows)
add "play_intro false"
to the "string_settings" section of sh.settings.
You can also try installing the latest Windows Media Player and/or removing any "codec packs" that you may have installed.Code:... string_settings { play_intro false ..... }
- "Application Crash:std::exception, unknown option"
This is due to an unknown command line option. Shattered Horizon is not a Source engine game, so please do not add command line options you'd use in, for example, Counter Strike - they will break things. Also try resetting all settings (see above).
Ooops, the game crashed in some other way. Help me!
Then please post a "problem" on our support site at http://getsatisfaction.com/futuremark/ and please include a detailed explanation when the crash happens, what you were doing at the time, your hardware configuration, operating system and video card driver version. Also please include a copy of the latest crash dump, which can be found at
C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local\Futuremark\Shatt ered Horizon\crash_dumps\
Pick the most recent text file and copy-paste the contents to your post - and do note that AppData is (again) a hidden folder.
Other Known Issues
- On some video cards, you may get a (DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED) crash. This indicates that the video card driver has crashed. You may try upgrading your video drivers, or rolling them back to a previous version to see if that helps. It may also be worth checking that your system is properly cooled and there is no dust in the GPU fan - Shattered Horizon pushes video cards very hard and can rarely crash the video driver on hardware that appears to be otherwise working fine.
My question/problem is not listed here
See this thread on the official forums: http://futuremark.yougamers.com/foru...d.php?t=118119
And if that doesn't help either, contact us via GetSatisfaction - http://www.getsatisfaction.com/futuremark/
Thanks for playing. We hope you have fun.
