Some tips for the demo that people might find useful (please add your own)

[HarryInk]

No, I think you did a wonderful job of guiding me forward.  The colours seem richer.  Thank you very much.

[Stoppelhopser]

Despite I scrupulously adapted NVIDIA and the file InitDiag.txt as you recommand, the green of the ground (probably grass) stays to much dark almost black. Curiously the trees green leaves are very good with light green.

I see the very same. Very dark, almost black terrain textures. This is about the only graphics "feature" which really annoys me. Can live with the rest.

I think its something about the ingame lighting which might not work correctly, maybe a shader issue etc. Not something you can possibly change with Graphic card settings. If you select fog you can't obviously see far    but you loose that dark terrain.

[HarryInk]

situation: I L/click on a grenadier unit and 4 battalions are highlighted: the whole brigade it belongs to.  The info boards says the unit is the 'Von whateve' Regt but if I order it to move, the whole brigade moves. 

If I L/click the 'von whatever' name at the top of the orders dialogue, the dialogue changes slightly (now with 'brigade' at the top instead of 'von whatever').  Now I order just the two battalions of that particular regiment to move/attack/etc.

[HarryInk]

Started an interesting battle this morning but had to leave it.  Interesting = I wasn't yet in real hot water or all routed!

I couldn't see if/how I could save it to reload later.  Is that not a feature in the demo?

[Hook]

Loading a saved game is disabled.

Hook

[HarryInk]

*sob*

[JCM101]

http://www.nhancer.com/  nHancer is something which can help with gfx options - it will auto-import any settings already made or one may make their own profile for the exe
The site is helpful with understanding the jargon.  

Am now off to see if gamma correction in multisampling affects ground textures.

FYI with ref to cpl Steiners directions the 'multi GPU/display' option is for Sli & multi-monitor rigs



Update - nhancer did a nice job I think - got full res & no crashes!
I am posting the profile I used & 2 resulting screenshots for others here -
http://depositfiles.com/files/fvd7l3kmd
Feel free to play around with the profile - use 'profile' -> 'import'.  (You will of course need to grab the util from the above site)

[HarryInk]

Even though units on the map (like artillery) sort their own business out, if you want to know the distance between two points on the map,

hit F9 and hover over the DISTANCES tab until it 'ticks', then
click & drag to measure from a point. 

In the top left you see a readout of the distance and the time it will take infantry to cover it.

(Book 1 english, p.47)

[Gunner24]

Also the distance is shown in the 2d map window when using the 3d map....move the mouse on the 3d map and the distance in the 2d map window changes.

[HarryInk]

Left click on the F2 2D map and bring up the Systems Menu.

(alternatively: next to the minimap are 4 symbols.  The paper-looking one is the system menu.)

Choose Setup.  Change the speed of the camera (either fast or slow) and see how you like it.  Default seems to have been fast (as a noob, I kept losing control).  You may prefer slow...   (however, with experience, I've found that at the end of long skims the view digs its 'nose' into the dirt and spins around before stopping.  Quite annoying though you can stop that with an extra click to keep the 'nose' up.)

[Hook]

The HOME key, either the dedicated key or the one on the numeric pad with num lock turned off, toggles the unit info display on or off.  In the 2D view the unit info box goes away.  In the 3D view the information screens at the bottom go away and are replaced by a compass.

Hook

[ess1]

From Liverpool actually but I am sure you have the right person. I have been posting on the ---------.com forum for years - mainly about CM:SF.

I hope people like the spirit of this thread. I wanted it to be a positive thread devoted to handy hints and tips to improve people's experience of the demo. There are plenty of other threads to express dissatisfaction with the game.

Yes indeed.  Well said.

[Darsh]

You must have all settings on Montebello before to launch a battle to reduce all the bugs.

[Hook]

Keep an eye on your troops.  Last battle I had two corps decide to retreat.  If they get off the map, you probably can't get them back.  I had artillery from both corps get away from me before I was able to give the corps commanders orders to form a defensive line.

The Austrian corps commander still had 10,000 men!  My orders to him didn't need a translator, either.  After they'd returned I was able to send them forward.

I even saw a French corps retreating off the map.  The Imperial Guard, no less.  I have no idea why they left other than the fact that they were almost the only French troops left on the map and two infantry units were in full rout. 

They were in the town, but not defensively in the buildings.  I had one unit march into town, meet the Guard, the guard routed and my men got into the buildings... I'm not sure the exact order of what happened, if the guard routed first or my troops garrisoned the building first. 

The battle ended abruptly when I was pulling my camera back to see what my men were doing in the town and the game locked up.  Still pulled a victory out of it.

Hook

[Franciscus]

The HOME key, either the dedicated key or the one on the numeric pad with num lock turned off, toggles the unit info display on or off.  In the 2D view the unit info box goes away.  In the 3D view the information screens at the bottom go away and are replaced by a compass.

Hook

YES !  Thank you Hook, you are great. I knew that there should be a way to show a compass, as several screenshots showed it !

A hot-key list would be a great thing, either in the manual (if it is there, I did not find it) or here.