Last Updated: 2003-10-11
1. Minimum System Requirements
2. CD Key
3. DirectX® Detection & Installation
4. Error Message: “Couldn't Load Default.cfg”
5. Error Message: “Hunk unable to allocate 128MB of memory”
6. Splash Screen Will Not Change From “Uninstall” To “Install”
7. Launch Problems on nVidia® nForce™2 Motherboards
8. Issues With Installer Properly Switching To Disc 2 During Installation
1. Video Mode
2. Full Screen
3. Character Textures
4. General Textures
5. Texture Filter
6. Texture Quality
7. nVidia® Distance Fog
8. Brightness
9. Subtitles
10. Master Volume
11. Sound Quality
12. Sound Provider
13. Wall Marks
14. Ejecting Brass
15. Dynamic Lights
16. World Dynamic Light Quality
17. Model Detail
18. Sync Every Frame
19. Show Blood
20. Number of Corpses
21. Optimal System Settings
1. Issues with Sound Blaster® SB PCI512 sound card
2. Issues with EAX® Sound Provider
3. Missing Sound Effects on nVidia® nForce™2 Motherboards and Windows® 98
1. Video Cards
2. Multiple Monitors
3. 16-Bit Color
4. 16-Bit Textures
5. Recommended Texture Settings for Video Cards
6. Setting the Video Resolution
7. Disabling Power Saving Features
8. Changing the Model Detail Option
9. In-game and Desktop resolutions
10. ATI® Radeon™ 7200 Texture Corruption
11. ATI® Radeon™ 7200 32MB Sky Texture Corruption at 1024x768 Resolution
12. ATI® Radeon™ 8500 64MB Blinking/Dropping Textures
13. ATI® Radeon™ 9000 Texture Popping
14. Switching Texture Quality on ATI® Radeon™ 9000 Causes Texture Corruption
15. Matrox® Parhelia™ Missing Geometry & Light Flickering
16. Matrox® Parhelia™ Users Switching To Windowed Mode In-Game
17. nVidia® GeForce4™ Full-screen Color Issues
18. Changing Settings After Player Death In Single Player
19. Twitchy Graphics When Turning and Strafing
20. Running Game With Hardware Acceleration Off
1. Where Are The Autosaves For Each Level?
2. Saving and Mission Failure
3. Overwriting Saved Games
4. Config.cfg File
5. Binding the Pause Key to Other Functions
1. Problems Finding Internet Games
2. Issues When Using Firewall Software
3. The Game Freezes When Selecting Multiplayer
4. What Are the Map Names for Multiplayer?
5. Problems Playing Multiplayer with More Than 32 People
6. Game Type Server Settings are Erased When Changing Game Types in Multiplayer
7. Problems Adding IP Address to Favorites List
8. Locking out a Game Using Password Feature
9. Host is booted on a password protected listen server
10. Hosting Multiplayer on Dialup
11. Playing Multiplayer on Dialup
12. Host Appearing In the Vote Kick List
13. Setting the Pure Server Variable
14. Hosting Multiplayer on a DSL server
15. Map Rotation and the Next Map Function
1. Virtual Memory Warnings in Windows® 2000/XP
2. Shift Key in Windows® 2000/XP Interrupts Game
3. Windows® Key Interrupts Game in Windows® 2000/XP
4. CTRL-ALT-DEL Freezes System on Windows® 2000
5. Game Icons Are Missing From Start Menu and/or Desktop
6. Admin rights needed to load and play on Windows® 2000/XP
1. Mouse Wheel with Logitech® Mice
2. Demo Recording
Refer to this document if you encounter difficulties with one or more aspects of installation or running the Call of Duty™ game. Many of the most commonly encountered issues are covered here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Use of the in-game console is not supported by Activision®. Please do not contact Activision Customer Support with issues that arise from using console commands in-game.
- 3D Hardware Accelerator Card required - 100% DirectX® 9.0b compatible 32MB hardware T&L-capable video card and latest drivers
- Pentium® III 600MHz or Athlon® 600MHz processor or higher for systems with Windows® 98/ME
- Pentium® III 700MHz or Athlon® 700MHz processor or higher for systems with Windows® 2000/XP
- English version of Microsoft® Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
- 128MB of RAM
- 8x CD-ROM drive (1200 K/sec sustained transfer rate) and latest drivers
- 1.4GB of uncompressed free hard disk space (plus 400MB for Windows® 98/ME swap file, 600MB for Windows® 2000/XP swap file)
- 100% DirectX® 9.0b compatible 16-bit sound card and latest drivers
- 100% Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and latest drivers
- DirectX® 9.0b (included)
MULTIPLAYER REQUIREMENTS:
- Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported
- Internet play requires 56 Kbps (or faster) modem and latest drivers
- LAN play requires network interface card and latest drivers
Important Note: *Some 3D accelerator cards with the chipsets listed here may not be compatible with the 3D acceleration features utilized by Call of Duty™. Please refer to your hardware manufacturer for 100% DirectX® 9.0b compatibility.
SUPPORTED CHIPSETS:
- All ATI® Radeon™ cards
- All nVidia® GeForce™ chipsets
- Matrox® Parhelia™
A. Installation and the CD Key
When installing Call of Duty™ you will be prompted to enter your CD authentication key. The authentication key appears on the CD packaging. It is important that you enter the key string in its entirety exactly as it appears on the CD package. The Call of Duty™ Master Server verifies the CD key each time you connect for online play.
B. The game tells me my CD key is invalid:
The number one problem with CD keys is mistyping. Double and triple check the characters you have entered.
C. Some common sense about your CD key:
Each CD key is unique - protect it from loss or theft by keeping a copy of it in a safe place. Without it, you cannot reinstall the game or play online. You may hear of so-called "CD Key generators" being available for illicit download on the Internet. They do not work as advertised, and often attempt to steal legitimate keys off your machine, reveal personal information or install viruses, worms and/or trojan horses on your machine. Do not download and/or use them under any circumstances.
D. If you are confused on whether a CD key character is the letter "O" or the number "0", it will most likely be the number "0".
3. DirectX Detection & Installation
The Call of Duty™ installer does not check for the version of DirectX you have currently installed, it just prompts you to install DirectX 9.0b. Activision recommends allowing the installer to proceed with the DirectX 9.0b installation, even if you think you may have 9.0b installed. Re-installing DirectX 9.0b will not harm your DirectX configuration. Call of Duty™ requires DirectX 9.0b to install and play.
4. Error Message: "Couldn't Load Default.cfg"
If you try to run Call of Duty™ and receive the error message, "Couldn't Load default.cfg,” this indicates that the program cannot find the "\main" directory that is essential to its proper function. This error commonly occurs when you install the game with no directory specified. For example, if you choose to install it to a hard drive or partition other than the C: drive (that is, D:,E:, etc.), but fail to specify a folder, the game will install everything to the root of the hard drive and the game will not launch.
If you want to install the game to a hard drive other than the default setting (C:), please make sure you specify a folder when choosing the other drive (i.e.: D:\Call Of Duty).
5. Error message: “Hunk unable to allocate 128MB of memory”
When a player attempts to launch Call of Duty™ with a full hard drive, the game will not launch and will display the above error message. To resolve this situation, free up at least 200MB of uncompressed hard drive space to allow Call of Duty™ to function properly.
6. Splash Screen Will Not Change From "Uninstall" To "Install"
Users who have uninstalled Call of Duty™ and chose to reinstall it may find that the installer splash screen will still stay "Uninstall" instead of "Install" upon relaunch. To remedy this, use the Windows® search function to locate the "cod.ini" file in the Windows® folder and delete it. IMPORTANT: Do not delete any other files from this directory, as it may cause errors with other programs or the Windows® operating system.
Users who attempt to run the single player portion of Call of Duty™ on a machine with an nVidia® nForce™2 motherboard may encounter an error message that states, "Please insert the correct CD-ROM and select OK to retry." The error message will remain, even if the proper CD is in the drive. The solution to this problem depends on your operating system:
If you encounter this problem on Windows® 98, ME or XP, installing the latest nForce™2 drivers (available from your motherboard manufacturer) will remedy the situation.
There is a known incompatibility with Macrovision™'s SafeDisc® (the copy protection mechanism Call of Duty™ employs) and motherboards with the nForce™2 chipset under Windows® 2000. To remedy the situation, do the following:
1) Locate the "My Computer" icon on your computer and right-click it.
2) Choose the "Manage" option.
3) Once the Computer Management program launches, select "Device Manager."
4) In the Device Manager, double-click "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers."
5) Right-click on "nVidia nForce 2(TM) SPP/IGP ATA Controller" and select "Properties."
6) Click on the "Secondary Channel" tab. If the Select Transfer Mode is set to "BIOS Default," click on the pull-down menu and select "PIO Mode."
7) Close all open windows and restart your machine when prompted.
Call of Duty™ should now launch without incident.
Some users may find that, when they insert Disc 2 of Call of Duty™ in their CD-ROM drive, it will try to bring up the “splash” screen and not allow the installer to continue. If this happens, open your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Hold down the Left Shift key. Reinsert Disc 2 of Call of Duty™ and keep the Left Shift key depressed until the CD or DVD drive stops reading the CD. This will disable the autoplay function of the drive and allow installation to proceed normally.
The "Options" menu in Call of Duty™ allows you to adjust a number of different graphic, sound, and general performance settings. This menu is useful for fine-tuning both the visual quality and overall game performance, in order to maximize player enjoyment and insure smooth play. Call of Duty™ automatically detects system hardware and sets all values to optimal settings, taking into account your system's processor speed, available system RAM, video card power, video RAM, sound card capabilities, and various other factors. You may wish to modify these settings, and this section is intended to be a guide to each setting and the impact of changing it.
Allows you to set the screen resolution for the game; from the minimum setting of 640x480 to the maximum setting of 2048x1536. IMPORTANT NOTE: You should not adjust your in-game screen resolution to a setting beyond what your monitor can support. You should consult your monitor's documentation in order to learn about supported resolutions.
Allows you to choose whether the game will play in full-screen or windowed mode. When in full-screen mode (select "Yes" to choose this), the game occupies all of the available screen space. In Windowed mode (select "No" to choose this) the game will play in a window, and the desktop will be viewable in the space around that window. IMPORTANT NOTE: It is not recommended to choose an in-game resolution that is higher than your desktop resolution, especially in windowed mode. You may only be able to see as much of the game as is viewable at your desktop resolution.
Sets the detail level for textures on all character models. The game will choose the best setting for your system when you launch the game. If you would like to modify this setting, you can choose from Low, Normal, High, and Extra. Setting this value to a higher setting than the system chooses for you may hamper game performance. Likewise, setting this value to a lower setting may improve your game performance. See the Recommended Texture Settings for Video Cards section for further information.
Controls the detail level for all environmental and non-character textures. As with the character textures setting, Call of Duty™ will choose the optimal setting for your system - Low, Normal, High or Extra. The higher the setting, the more texture data your system will need to process and render, so set these values to the higher levels only if your system is extremely robust. See the Recommended Texture Settings for Video Cards section for further information.
Allows you to choose between bilinear and trilinear filtering for all in-game textures. If you have a lower-end video card, you should choose bilinear.
Call of Duty™ will choose the optimal setting for your system. Please see the 16-bit Textures section for further information. If you are experiencing performance issues, you can downgrade the texture quality to 16-bit, at the cost of visual quality.
This function simulates the behavior of actual fog and/or mist. GeForce™ 3 video cards and higher support a variety of advanced fog calculations including layered fog, patchy fog and more. This will not affect GeForce™ 1 or 2 cards, and this option will not be available with a non-GeForce™ card.
Allows you to control the brightness ("gamma") level in the game. Move the slider to the right to increase the gamma, or to the left to decrease.
This option will enable subtitles to appear whenever other characters say things important to gameplay.
Controls the volume for music, sound effects, and voices. Move the slider to the right to increase the overall volume of the game.
Allows you to choose between 44KHz (high), 22KHz (normal) and 11KHz (low) sound quality. The higher the sound quality, the more memory the sound files require. If you are experiencing game performance issues, a downgrade in sound quality may help.
Sets the source for the sound in the game. Miles™ Fast 2D Positional Aud...
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