Unplayable Game Slow Down in towns ?

thisisnotanexit · #1 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 05:40 AM

Hey I'm having trouble playing this game. I play in safe mode (regular mode gave me black tiles and no HUD), and it usually runs fairly smoothly. I've only just started to play the game and while the crashsite and surrounding locations (the bandit and priests house) run okay, as soon as I got to the first town the game started to slow down considerably. I couldn't move the cursor around without it being laggy and when I tried to click to locations or talking options it would take around 30 secounds to register. Any suggestions or help ? My computer meets the minimum requirments. Pent3 around 800mhz. 128 ram. Thanks for your help.

Twista · #2 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 05:44 AM

i'm not very sure what it could be ... maybe you need a newer version of directX or something ... i would advise you to post this in tech support section as well ... or a mod to move it there ... sorry i can't help more

Eldomm · #3 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 06:23 AM

Is your hard disk nearly full? This could slow down a lot by not having room enough for swap files...

fable · #4 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 06:32 AM

Safe mode would slow you down a great deal, regardless of your system. Have you gotten the latest video drivers for your video card? If not, try downloading those and running Windows in regular mode.

thisisnotanexit · #5 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 07:05 AM

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I went to the Intel website to update the drivers to my video card (Intel 82810E) and I read the following under the game compatibility list :

Symptom(s):
Arcanum* game shows black triangles of corruption

Cause:
Hardware does not support the proper precision for processing Alpha Compare bits correctly.

Solution:
Run the game in "Safe Mode" with the "Arcanum (Safe Mode)" icon created on the Start menu. This will disable 3D acceleration for the game. Note that some parts of the game will be choppy in this mode

"Some parts of the game will be choppy" ; if by "some" they mean "anyplace with a town" and "choppy" they mean "un-friggin-playable" then that would be more accurate. O well looks like its time to upgrade ...

clairobscur · #6 (**permalink**) 12-25-2006, 11:02 AM

If you're using a relatively old computer, it might be simply that it isn't powerful enough, in particular that it doesn't have enough RAM.

I owned the game for years, but only recently could play it, after I bought a new omputer. Previously, I had the same problem you have : I needed to play in safe mode and then it lagged an awful lot and was mostky unplayable in towns, except if you were *extremely* patient. Plus, the safe mode made many items difficult to find/see.