This is a section containing the commonly asked questions with regard to Scorched3D.
If you receive errors that look similar to the images below when you try to start a game.
Navigate to
and delete the mods directory.
If you receive the following error shown in the pic below when you try to join an Apoc server, navigate to your Scorched3D\data\globalmods\apoc\data\accessories directory and delete the "office3" folder and restart Scorched. You should now be able to play Apoc.
If you're too lazy to navigate, I went old school and created a simple batch file to do this for you. It only works if you have installed Scorched 3D to the default directory (C:\program files\Scorched3d). It will also back up your old user settings (including your ID file) to a folder in your Scorched directory. Unzip and run the .bat file.Download Here
Most problems with Scorched3D are fixed by installing the latest drivers for your graphics card.
If this does not work try turning off all of the graphics options in the display settings dialog. If you are still having problems check for an updated version of Scorched3D. If it still does not work post a message on the Scorched3D forums.
This library is not installed on windows 95 by default but can be downloaded from the downloads page.
DirectX version 8 or above is required to run this game. It is free and available from Microsoft
This error is generated when the data directory cannot be found. Try checking the game was installed correctly. If installed via a zip file make sure that the files were extracted with full file paths.
If the game server tells you there is another app using the game port, even if it's free, it's maybe because you have more than one network adapter. To make the game work, simply disable the network adapter you don't use.
The command "InvertUpDownKeys=on" in console will reverse the key direction. Since version 36.2 you can also swap this direction in the scorched3d display options dialog.
Correct. The water is just a graphic and currently has no effect on the game play what so ever (except for napalm not working underwater).
For servers with stats logging turned on player stats are generated for each user.
Each user is identified by a unique id. This unique id is used to differentiate between different users. For each server there is a one to one mapping between a stats user and their stats id. Different stats ids are generated for each stats server the client connects to.
Each time a user logs onto a scorched 3d server this unique id is sent to the server. Stats for this user are then stored against this unique id. Unique ids are generated randomly (using no information from the client computer).
When scorched3d first connects to server it checks to see if it has an id for it. If it does then it hands the id to the server, if not the server gives the client a new id which the client stores persistantly. Each time the client connects to the server from this point on it will use the same unique id.
The unique id can be viewed in the scorched3d display settings dialog.
Each time you clear your scorched 3d settings (perhaps by de-installing scorched3d) you will loose you user id.When you next start scorched3d you will get a new user id. This means you will appear in the stats as a different user.
If you don't want this to happen make a backup of the stats id file (or write down the unique id). The unique ids are stored in a file called ids.xml on windows this is in c:\documents and settings\<username>\.scorched3d and under unix it is in ~/.scorched3d
Unique ids are not displayed anywhere on the stats pages and are only visible by the server owner.
If you do not wish to have the bots say anything, navigate to your C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\.scorched3d (Windows users) folder and open up either server.xml or singlecustom.xml file with notepad, depending on whether you want to disable bot chat for your server or disable it for a single player custom game.
(If you're using Windows 98 or older you'll probably have to find your .scorched3d folder in the path where you installed Scorched 3D.)
Press Ctrl+F to do a search and search for the text "talk." The search should place you on "ComputersDeathTalk" (this is an instruction that defines the % chance that AI's talk when they die). Underneath it, you'll see "<value>100</value>." Change that line so that it says "<value>0</value>." Just underneath that, you'll see a line that says "ComputersAttackTalk" (this is an instruction that defines the % chance that AI's talk when they shoot). Change the value of this to 0 as well.
After you're done, save the file and play. That should keep bots from saying anything.
If you run scorched3d and click on the "Change game settings" option it will open the settings dialog. At the bottom it shows the location of all of the scorched3d user files. Copy the ids.xml file from here to the same place on the other computer.
The speed Scorched3D runs at is tied very heavily to the speed of the graphics card. The graphics card must have good OpenGL hardware acceleration support to be able to run Scorched3D with a fast framerate.
If your graphics card supports hardware acceleration and Scorched3D still runs slowly try (in this order) :-
Scorched3D now uses openal (www.openal.org) for its sound. This allows the sounds to be fully 3D. It no longer used SDL mixer.
Scorched3D comes with the openal.dll (windows) or statically linked with openal (linux).
When the sound does not work you can try:
For the latest version of openal for your system try here. Note: you may have to remove the existing openal.dll from the scorched3d directory (usualy c:\program files\scorched3d).
NFORCE sound drivers are available from here.
New openal.dlls are available from :- Download this (10MB): here. Extract the openal32.dll with the filesize 73,728 bytes into the main scorched 3d directory. Usually c:\program files\scorched3d\
Openal source is available from cvs:- cvs -d:pserver:guest@opensource.creative.com:/usr/local/cvs-repository login (use password "guest") cvs -d:pserver:guest@opensource.creative.com:/usr/local/cvs-repository co openal
More help on openal can be found at its web site http://www.openal.org
Early drivers for the ATI Radeon graphics card would crash when running Scorched3D (and most other games :)).
Download and install the latest drivers from the ATI website
There appears to be some problem with OpenGL + All-in-Wonder Cards running Catalyst 3.9 drivers. OpenGL programs may fail to launch. They have a new set of drivers for download there, and a manual fix (editing some .inf-file in the original driver release....didn't work for me). Here it is I don't understand why these OpenGL-fixed drivers aren't the default ones for download at ATI, but what do I know.
If the sound card cannot be initialiized then the game may hang during startup. This leaves a black window that does not respond.
To fix this either :-
NOTE: This has been fixed on versions >= 35. Make sure the windows display mode is set to 32bit color.
Yes. All the information needed to be able to create new models and skins is available in the forums. Look in the documentation section.
If your tank selection set seems to be limited to a small number of tanks at the start of the game, this is very likely due to your game graphics settings.
For the full list of tanks to appear, go to
Change game settings from the main menu.
Go to Troubleshooting / Detail tab
Set tank detail to Medium or Max
This will allow you to see more tanks.
NOTE: Max tank detail will show / allow selection of high definition tank models. Some tanks with a high poly count can slow down the game if you have a poor graphics card.
The installer actualy contains the main Scorched3D setup files zipped up.
When installing Scorched3D the zipped setup files are decompressed into a temporary directory. The Scorched3D setup program is then run from here.
Sometimes this decompress can fail (I don’t know why) and it just runs the last setup.exe that is in the temporary directory. Which is usualy the setup for a different program that has been downloaded.
To fix this try :-
This is most likely due to the server being behind a NAT router. To get a server to run behind these type of routers port forwarding needs to be used.
See your router configuration for an explanation on how to port forward, or here for my explaination of port forwarding.
