Matrix Games Forums

Troubleshooting:

Ensure that your system meets the minimum system requirements:
OS: Windows 98, 2000, XP
Processor: 1GHz Mhz
RAM: 512 MB
Video card: 128 MB or greater
Sound Card: 16 bit DirectX 9 compatible

Game performance:

While the Wintervalley team and the Matrix Games group have done as much as possible to ensure this game performs well on a wide range of computers, it’s an unfortunate fact that not all PC’s are created equal. To ensure you’re getting the best possible performance out of your game you should do the following:

1. Shut down all applications other than Maximum-Football. The game should be the only software running on your computer. Email applications, MSN messenger, ICQ, etc all draw a lot of system resources that Maximum-Football needs.

It is also suggested that antiviral software be temporarily turned off. The game reads and writes a lot of information to the hard disk. Anti-virus software performs scans on all disk activity. This can seriously impact the performance of the game.

Some running applications do not have a Taskbar icon or system tray icon. Some applications require you to close them down via the task manager.

2. Graphic details can effect the performance of the game. It has been found that using high resolution stadiums has a serious impact on performance when used on low to mid quality graphics cards. Try using lower resolution stadiums if you are noticing the game performing poorly.

Shadow details also impact performance. The Advanced shadow system in Maximum-Football uses hardware based shadow casting techniques. If your graphics card does not support these shadow casting techniques DirectX will try to use the regular CPU to cast the shadows. This will have a serious impact on game performance. Try using setting the shadow system to None or Basic if you are noticing the game performing poorly.

3. Not all video cards (graphics adapters) are created equal. Ensure that your graphics card is DirectX8 compliant, not just compatible. This means that it’s able to properly process the special graphics function calls the game makes.

It is strongly recommend that you use nVidia Geforce4TI4200 cards or better or the ATI equivalent of the ATI 8200 or better. 128MB DDR is the required minimum for graphics memory and Maximum-Football has been tested with that in mind.

nVidia graphics cards of the MX variety do not have full 3D graphic ability and are not recommended. Similarly crippled versions of full graphics cards are also not suggested for best performance.

4. Drivers. Ensure all your system drivers are up to date. Out of date hardware drivers for video and audio can, and probably will, effect game performance.

If you are experiencing problems with the game, please contact support@matrixgames.com or post in the Maximum-Football Support Forum (here). Please provide as much detail on your issue as soon as possible.

I thought I would add to this after the first few days of support the following reminders:

1. The minimum specs are set to ensure you have a system that runs Maximum-Football as intended. If you are below the minimum specifications, we cannot guarantee that the 3D portion of Maximum-Football will work on your system. Please check the minimum specs carefully in the post above.

2. Many problems are caused by old drivers. Always keep your video and audio drivers up to date.

3. If you are playing a quick play game, please make sure that you have first set the League in the League screen to match the ruleset and number of players you intend to use in the Quick Play settings. The first update will do this automatically, but a difference in these two settings has been a source of many problems so far.

4. You can use the F11 key while in the game to determine your frame rate. If it drops below 25fps during play execution, the game will warn you. This is an indication that you should turn your settings down to get above 25fps during play. The reason for this is not just eye candy. The physics engine has a lower bound that it expects in order to work well and the minimum specs were set with this in mind. In our experience, even down to 20-22fps results will be reasonable, but below that you will see more incompletions, kick returners not catching kicks, etc. as things get a bit out of sync. If you are at the minimum spec range or above, you should have no problem at all reaching the 25fps range with one of the in-game combinations of resolution, player detail and shadow level.

5. One customer has reported an issue with a USB-connected device and Maximum-Football. If you are experiencing unexplained problems that are not resolved with one of our other suggestions, try unplugging your USB devices and see if that helps. If there's a difference, this may indicate a conflict in your system that can be narrowed down or a need for another device driver update to your USB support.

Finally, thank you for purchasing Maximum-Football, we will work with you to make sure your experience is as smooth as possible!

Regards,

- Erik