The demo is being released to the public today. I will post mirrors as they go up throughout the day/week. More info over here.

If you have any problems, check our KnowledgeBase.

UPDATE: (09-20-09): The demo has been updated. Until all the mirrors are up, you can download it from here.

If you have any pre-existing demo version, then just download the update and install on top of any previous demo version.

If you are starting from scratch, download the full demo (you don't need the update). Be sure to un-install ALL previous demo versions prior to doing a new full install.

DL'ed, used the given aawdemo code for the fields, and got this: "Quota for concurrent users for this application is filled. Wait for another user to close the application."

Any suggestions/explanations?

EDIT: Waited about 10 mins, it's working now.

EDIT 2: Well, restarted the game, and it's doing it again now. I thought the blog post said it only needed to auth once on the first startup? Is there some kind of user limit on the demo?

Because some people are ignoring the demo instructions, they are having problems with the activation and getting error messages about the concurrent user limit being exceeded.

You are NOT supposed to enter ANY information other than what is stated right there on the GUI.

Instead, people are trying to register different usernames and thus creating a problem because then it won't allow many concurrent users since thats how DRM systems work.

If you have done this - and are having problems - quit the game, uninstall the demo, re-install and follow the instructions on the GUI.

Hello,

here is another mirror: http://www.freegames.de/details.php?id=45176

It is a german website - you have to use the button "JETZT DOWNLOADEN" to begin the download.

For those of you have issues running the demo, you need to read the online KB. There is a link to it installed by the demo.

We're also working on releasing a new build later today which contains fixes/tweaks etc based on feedback from this wide public demo release. The demo is based on the 1.18.15 engine, the upcoming engine version is 1.18.17. You can see all the new stuff from the version control file. We will be releasing an engine update for the demo as well. Will be a small download - nothing major.

Demo v1.18.17 is up. Just download and install. Check first post in this thread for mirrors.

The version control file shows whats new since the original 1.18.15 release

Demo v1.18.18 is up. Just download and install. Check first post in this thread for mirrors.

The version control file shows whats new since the original 1.18.15 release

Demo v1.18.19 is up. Just download and install. Check first post in this thread for mirrors.

The version control file shows whats new since the original 1.18.15 release

Demo v1.18.20 is up. Just download and install. Check first post in this thread for mirrors.

The version control file shows whats new since the original 1.18.15 release

Been enjoying myself with the singleplayer maps in the demo, still sucking as much as I did, and expected to. Haven't saw a single game in MP with people in, been trying to get people to play with me - its been quite a chore, and I've been unsuccessfull to say the least.

So this over at RPS, wish I'd been around for it. Would have been quite interesting to see it all going on.

Still having fun!

I get a runtime error with c++ its weird and i have an error message with byteshield thing....

Check the Knowledge Base

already checked.... nothing there....
maybe it has something to do with vista 64 ???

It works just fine with Vista 64.

Did you go through all the steps in item #8 of the first KB article?

A screen shot of the error might help. Also, what is your system configuration? cpu, memory, OS etc?

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3937/bugqhs.jpg

I guess those are the error message

they don't say much .... especially the first one.

Comp spec
E6750 core duo
Radeon 3850
4 gb memory
asus PK5C
thats pretty much everything that is on my comp

Your OS installation seems to be missing a bunch of components. Go back to the KB article above and make sure you have installed everything mentioned there (e.g. .Net, Java etc).

Also try starting it with the /no_intro parameter.

THe final demo update v1.18.23 is up. Just download and install over any pre-existing version. Includes an additional single player fp scenario.

Looking at the update .18.21


* Added starbases (x 06) with internal levels

What exactly is meant by this, do you mean new bases to the main map, or orbiting stations? (I guess I'm confused by what exactly is referenced to by the term starbases - just because I don't believe they've been referred to before in the game).

Starbases were ALREADY in the game, several scenarios request that you either protect or destroy one. They're not starstations, and the difference has always been crystal clear in all the 3000ad games; ground (big) building.

Hi,

I have trouble starting the demo. I have updated the game to the latest version but still byteshield is telling me "no such user/password" (Yes I´m using "aawdemo" as user and pw).
Maybe it has something to do with Vista 64-Bit which I´m running ?
I already uninstalled and installed the game several times and re-downloaded the game from a different site but still no luck.
Please help me. I´m really looking forward to your game.

Peter

Thats the only users/pw for the demo. I just tried it again and it works just fine. Has nothing to do with Vista64 because the game works just fine with both XP/Vista64 and Windows7. The key is that you have to follow the interface instructions exactly as stated.

Also you need an Internet connection. So make sure you are connected to the Internet the first time you run it because it has to download the authentication file.

And try turning off your anti-virus and firewall or add the AAW.EXE file to their exclusion list so that the program can connect to the Internet. If you get a warning that AAW.EXE is a virus/trojan, that is called a "false positive" and it being flagged as such due to the DRM signature in the file.

You cannot remap the ALT, SHIFT and CTRL keys as they are action keys.

I tried it again. FW (Vistas own, no other except for the router) is off. Internet connection is avialable. Still the message from Byteshield "Faild Login: No such user/password." and just an Ok button.

Please show me the steps that you are using.

Starting the demo via shortcut on the desktop -> click on "already signed up" -> User Name = "aawdemo" Password = "aawdemo" -> click on "Login" -> Failed Login "No such user/password.

That is the correct procedure.

So you may have a permissions issue on your Vista64 machine. If you look at the KB article in previous posts, it shows you how to get around that. Instead of the AAW.EXE, right-click on the AAWDEMO.EXE file and follow the instructions.

I just tried it again

1. uninstalled demo
2. Installed 1.18.15 demo client
3. Installed 1.18.23 demo patch
4. Ran demo
5. Selected "Already Signed Up", then typed in aawdemo for both user and password, clicked on "Login"
6. The game downloaded the license and ran the 3000ad intro animation

Nope. I followed your steps and even deleted everything related to 3000AD in the registry prior to the new install.
What do you mean by "follow the instructions" ? My vista user account has all administrative permissions (UAC is also disabled). Nevertheless I tried "run as administrator" but got the same error.

Well, I'm stumped. I've alerted the Bytshield guys to do so maybe they can figure it out.

Ok thank you.

If you have installed the game on the same drive/partition as the system C:. Try installing the game on another partition D:

I seem to be running into several errors with ByteShield. Others have it working, so it's clearly a fault on my end, but I'm unsure of what the fault is.

Firstly, I installed and forgot to patch, so ByteShield didn't seem to let me login appropriately (using the correct manner of logging in "Already Signed Up," etc). After patching, it appeared fixed. When I finished with logging in, however, a note came up: "An active copy of this product has been detected Would you like to transfer the activation to this installation?". At first I hit "no," and I was simply taken back to a plain red ByteShield screen. After exiting and attempting again, I hit yes, at which point, I was told, for some reason or another, "A failure has occured at activation startup". Assuming something had possibly gone wrong with my installation, I uninstalled, re-installed AND patched before attempting to log-in to ByteShield.

After all this has taken place, I now run into an error that says an "existing application has not yet expired." I've never truly played a game in this series, though it astounds me how deep these games tend to be. It's the very sort of experience in a game I've always dreamed of, but unfortunately these errors have gotten in my way (have I brownnosed enough to get help yet? ).

Hopefully I'll be able to resolve this issue soon, though I see no clear way of fixing it.

UPDATE: The latter issue has been resolved, replaced, again, by the former.

Computer Specs:

Vista 64-bit
GeForce 9600M GS
Intel Duo-Core 2.10GHz T8100
4GB DDR2 Memory


Additionally of note, the FileFront main demo download does not appear to work. An error states "The installer integrity check has failed."

Meaning what?

Anyway, using Byteshield for the demo tends to be a comedy of errors in some cases; but we are going to be releasing a new patch for the demo which removes Byteshield. It should have been up since last week but we were doing testing - then the holidays happened.



Try another download site?

Well the one I originally used was FileFront, which didn't work. Then I used FileShack, whose download worked. However, because I was getting the "failure has occured at startup," I tried FileFront again to the same effect. I just thought you might like to know about the problem, in case it's not just on my side and anyone downloading from FileFront was getting an error. That would be quite inconvinient



Woops, I guess I should really read after I write; I wasn't very clear here, hehe.



This is currently what is happening, "A failure has occured at activation startup." I've tried executing from both the shortcut and the application itself, just to be sure the shortcut wasn't broken. I'm not entirely sure what the issue is- I followed the instructions as closely as I could (the errors made it a bit tougher ). I'd imagine it's an issue on my side since most everyone else seems to have their game working fine.

I know it's not an issue with Vista, but I feel like blaming the OS anyway. DARN VISTA!



Who can rush the holidays, eh? Happy Independence Day to all Americans out there, while we're on that topic! We let off $500 worth of fireworks last night, always a blast (pun intended!).

I don't mean to be a nuisance, but I was wondering if there's been any update to the issue? I'm really looking forward to playing it- just seems my computer isn't looking forward to it as much.

The demo has just now been updated. Got to the first post in this thread for the updated links.

Humm, something seems broken. Probably on my end.

Launching the game, I got this, though then I relaunched it and got in fine.



Trying to get into a vehicle, I got this;



However, when I relaunched and tried it, I was fine and able to fly it. I played a bit more, then I got a 'has encountered a problem and must close' error, while crashing in the same vehicle, hadn't hit the ground.

Is it just me (most likey), or did something go amiss?

Both of those indicate some tampering and/or a corrupted install. Which would explain why you could still play it. Or you could have corrupted sectors on your HDD to which files were copied during install.

Thats really quite odd, I haven't done anything to the game. Will reinstall then, thanks.

I take it then that you re-installed and everything was fine?

Yes it did, really quite odd though since I hadn't altered anything within the demo files. No matter, its all working again and I can pewpew just fine.

Maybe just a bad download.

Thanks for the demo update! Though I am surprised at how intensive the game is, I don't get very good FPS :-( I think it may be a problem with something other than my graphics causing it- perhaps I have auio channels set too high?

Also, can you run the game in windowed mode? How?

It is a massive game, so running with everything on high is ill advised unless you have the horsepower to do that. When in doubt, don't mess with the default settings.

Audio channels have nothing to do with performance hits because that just allows the audio to be processed on the card. If you have an on-board video card, you definitely want to leave the channels to 0. Apart from the fact that setting it to use hardware audio will cause it to drop some sounds when the card runs out of channels. When in doubt, leave it at 0.

Running in a window is possible, unsupported and only for debugging purposes. Why would you even want to do that?

I actually set the graphics down to low, still had the same FPS trouble. That's why i wondered if it was to do with audio channels. Strangely enough, even when I pause, I have FPS problems in the menu. This doesn't occur at the default menu, only at the paused menu- my mouse cursor lags and jumps.



My computer's not much of a hardcore gaming system- capable, but not hardcore. Running windowed at a lower resolution helps to keep my games more playable than at my default 1920 x 1200.

Maybe if you posted your config we could help you.
Also, you can run the game in fullscreen in a lower resolution instead of windowed. Windowed tends to impact your FPS in most games.

uhm, well yeah - when the game is paused, its well, paused.

Wait!! You're running the game at 1900x1200? Even though its not a top of the line gaming rig as you stated? Seriously?

As RT said, post your rig specs. Regardless of your monitor's native resolution, you can run ANY app at ANY resolution. It does NOT have to be the monitor's native res. Which is why ALL games give you the option of changing the resolution. You should be running the game using the default res settings if your rig can't handle the higher resolutions.

Alright, first off specs, and just a note, it's a TouchSmart IQ816:

Vista 64-bit
GeForce 9600M GS 512MB
Intel Duo-Core T8100 2.10GHz
25.5" LCD Touchscreen Monitor
4GB DDR2 Memory



Indeed, but, call me a "noobish graphics fanboy" or something of the sort, but I'd rather have crisp graphics at a lower, windowed resolution than rather blurred graphics using full-screen lower resolution. I don't mind how the graphics look, I just like things "fit" to the box, if you understand my rather vague metaphor.

Even on the default settings, though, I was surprised how low the FPS actually seemed. Character animations, even crosshair movement and (as I said before) mouse movement in the pause menu is slow. I've set everything to the lowest settings with the same result. I wonder if it's an issue running from my rather low-level CPU rather than my average-level GPU.

Oh, and just wanted to say: Thanks for the help you're all offering. It's nice to see both community members and devs alike make the effort to help little ol' newbs like me

That machine barely makes the minimum specs required for the game. As such, you shouldn't run it with anything other than the defaults. There is no way around it.

Also, thats not a gaming machine. Its the same rubbish specs they put in laptops. Just run something like 3DMark and you'll have your answer.

And every single review on that machine tells you that the performance is rubbish. It is. It is a perfect gaming machine. For Peggle, browser games and the like.

Aye, I bought it for college aware that it wouldn't play things very well, I was just hoping it would at least get me through the current gen. Apparently I was wrong (the non-linear numbering of the GeForce and Intel series' makes it very hard to judge for amateurs in computer hardware like myself).

Thanks for the support, guess I'll just have to hope by the time I'm out of college there are still games about like this that aren't the boring old "norm." Maybe it's not too late to return, though...