First
Please make sure your system is capable of handling the program. The most important element is a high quality and fairly recent graphics card. 'Recent' means no more then two years or so. Eagle Lander uses a lot of DirectX texture memory and I recommend 32mb or more for the card.
For example:
Top quality cards include any with Nvidia GForce or ATI Radeon chipsets.
Borderline to poor cards include NVidia RIVA TNT, 3dfx Voodoo and ATIRage.
Lousy cards include built-in motherboard graphic adapters and laptops.
With that said, I have seen some pretty low-end systems handle the program OK. Just keep in mind that an older or inexpensive graphics card may cause very low frame rates or may have trouble initializing at all. You might have to run in 16 bit mode for fullscreen and no more then 16k colors on your desktop.
Finally, make sure you have most up-to-date graphics drivers for your system This is especially true for people who have marginal cards. In some cases you can find overclockers or 3rd party experimental drivers that will help. Do a little searching on the web. So what if you blow up the card overclocking it - it was only worth $20 anyway - and now you have an excuse to buy the GForce4 card........
Next
You MUST have DirectX 8 or 8.1. If you don't then you should update your system from Microsoft DirectX Home If you are running XP you already have it.
The Downloads
Currently Eagle Lander 3D is a Freeware program. I am working on a release in the near future with lots of new enhancements, graphics capabilities, landing sites, etc. that will be a commercial release for a modest price.
The main install package is:
setup114.exe 10.7 mb. Ver. 1.1.4
Updates to the program will be posted periodically. If you have already installed Eagle Lander 3D then you can update with the following file.
update114.exe 6.0 mb. Ver. 1.1.4
Update Philosophy
I tend to update the program fairly regularly - sometimes there may be several updates a week. I get suggestions and comments from users and try to incorporate them into the program quickly. Any bugs or other problems I try to iron out quickly as well.
The best way to stay informed about updates is by joining the Eagle Lander 3D Yahoo Group. This page may not always get updated as quickly as the information flowing on the Group - so please join.
I like the idea of quick updates because I feel it gives you the user a little 'ownership' in the process. How many times have you suggested an idea or were promised a feature and had to wait 6 months or a year to see it happen. Here at Eagle Lander 3D, I would like to incorporate ideas and features into the program regularly according to the desires of the users.
Of course not all ideas can be quickly built into the program - but little ones can - and certain bugs and other issues can usually be fixed pretty fast.
