Problem with the ending (spoilers)

[Chris598]

I posted this in the GameFaq forum but that place seems to be dead, so I thought I might fare better asking here.


I seem to have some weird glitch in the ending slides - the game seems to skip some of them. For example, I just beat the game yesterday and got these ending slides:

Shrouded Hills
Black Root
Donn Throgg
The Boil
Vendigroth.


Later that day I wanted to try a new strategy for beating the final boss so I reloaded the save I made right before the final showdown. After I beat the boss these were the ending slides I got:

Dernholm
Black Root
Bedokaan
The Boil
Vendigroth

A similar situation happens when I click on the credits on the main menu: sometimes it bring me straight to the Sierra credits when the Troika credits should be first.

Any help? One of the great things about this game is the Fallout style endings, so it really frustrating when the game seems to skip some of them =/

I'm using the latest unofficial arcanum patch, if it matters.

[GawainBS]

I know what you're talk about. It's something with WinXP. It happens with Fallout 1 & 2 as well. IIRC, that was solved by changing some sound settings, but I have no idea which ones. I wish I could help more.

[Chris598]

A sound setting, eh? Hmm... I've tried disabling hardware acceleration, but that didn't seem to work. I'll try experimenting with the settings, with luck maybe I'll find the solution. Thanks for the help!


Edit: I think I found the problem: DirectDraw acceleration. When I disabled it and fought the final boss again I saw all the endings. the only problem is that the cutscenes (not the ending slides) are a tad slow to start up (Minus the logo scenes, of course.) and the game goes crash happy when viewing the credits. Still, it doesn't skip the endings anymore so that's good. My only issue now is having to go into dxdiag and disable DirectDraw every time I want to play arcanum, but it's a minor issue at best.

[GawainBS]

Isn't there a commandline prompt that you can enter after the Arcanum.exe so that it automaticly disable DDraw?

[Chris598]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GawainBS Isn't there a commandline prompt that you can enter after the Arcanum.exe so that it automaticly disable DDraw?

There is? I know that you can add -no3d to the shortcut to disable 3d acceleration, but it doesn't seem to stop the ending slides from skipping.

[GawainBS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris598 There is? I know that you can add -no3d to the shortcut to disable 3d acceleration, but it doesn't seem to stop the ending slides from skipping.

I'm no tech-Wizard, but it seems like there should be such a prompt.

[Chris598]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GawainBS I'm no tech-Wizard, but it seems like there should be such a prompt.

Hmmm... that would save me the annoyance of having to go into dxdiag all the time. I'll have to look into it.