Have you deleted the ddraw.dll file? The game doesn't work for me either with this file, so try test the game without it. Tip: don't rename it, move it somewhere else.

Thanks for the suggestion. I had renamed it but not deleted it entirely.

After deleting it, I'm not sure it had much of an effect, but it certainly seems smooth in certain environments.

The problem is that it's mostly smooth in Windows 10, especially outside, but when I go in a cave, it slows a bit (not unbearably slow).

When I play on an XP VM, it's always smooth graphically, but the sound gets very choppy when I'm in a cave. The sound also gets choppy when I put my cursor over an enemy in combat (causing their red ring to glow).

Anyway, I think I'm gonna stick with Windows 10, because the lag is bearable and the sound never gets choppy.

Win 7 compatibility and this: "C:\GOG Games\Arcanum\Arcanum.exe" -no3d -doublebuffe worked for me (I'm Windows 10 user).

I've got a stumper for you guys.

I downloaded Arcanum through the GoG Galaxy application yesterday. Running it was going smoothly until I got to the actual gameplay. The screen other than the UI was completely black, and elements, such as Virgil's speach bubbles, were leaving artifacts and trails.

After trying several of the solutions I found in threads on this forum (running it as admin, trying different service packs, target-line edits like -no3d and -doublebuffer, applying the unofficial patches, doing a fresh install as admin, tweaking the settings that it uses with my graphics card, and applying the wine.dll files) things only got worse.

Now, even if I'm starting the game with a completely fresh install with no changes whatsoever, the game's loading screen and menus are crunched into the upper left corner and are severely discolored. After applying -no3d -doublebiffer, the only detectable change is that the cinimatics at startup flicker. The unoffical patches (including the increased resolution patch) create no visible change. Lastly, applying the wine.dll files seem to prevent the game from starting at all.

If it helps, I'm on Windows 7, and I'm using an AMD Radeon R9 390 with up to date software. If anyone can think of where I might have gone wrong, I'd really appreciate the advice. Thanks!

Edit: So I figured out that it was the latest AMD patch that screwed up everything. It even stopped me from playing Overwatch. Reverting to a previous patch fixed everything.

Is the game playable now or just back to how it was before your driver change? Because the black screen and artefact trails are usually fixed by replacing the ddraw.dll.

Hi, I just wanted to chime in and let all of you know that you might have been chasing the wrong settings the whole time. I was having the issue with the awful lag inside cities and buildings/caves as well and I simply changed my config to render from software instead of hardware and literally all of my lag went away and I'm running at a solid 60 with no slowdown. In my settings I set Renderer to 0 instead of 1 so that it renders from software, but I use the High Res patch, so your config file might look a little different, but I am almost positive that this will solve the issue for the majority of users. All my other settings are standard except I have it running in 1920x1080 instead of the native 800x600.

How did you do that?
EDIT: nevermind, found it on the high res config file... switched it to software and it worked!!! Genius!!! :)

To echo skdursh, Drog - the Velorien of Arcanum patches (having made the UAP) recommended the same thing: http://www.terra-arcanum.com/forums/index.php?threads/game-is-running-slowly-laggy.23198/#post-271565

I'm a mac user personally, so I need to run it through a wrapper anyhow. Either the high resolution patch and changing the config settings, or running it through a wrapper even on Windows, is what people should be looking for.

Hi, it works for me too, perfect. But my laptop c2d nvidia 610M 4gbram heating so much with this setting. What can I do to solve noisily cooler? When I switch to hardware can play beside my sleeping wife. With software it is impossible.Thank you for tips.

This was before there was a software enable render mode... so not really the wrong problem. Just what we had at the time to be able to do it. For me to work properly I changed the video card from my Nvidia to my Intel.. (Laptop)

I've posted a guide for Arcanum on Windows 10, Fullscreen or Windowed.

gog.com/forum/arcanum_of_steamworks_and_magick_obscura/perfect_arcanum_on_windows_10_fullscreen_or_window_1

Hi

Just came here to reconfirm that installing the game via direct download and NOT through Galaxy fixes many, many of the problems. It seems that they are wildly different versions, and the Galaxy one is buggy as hell. As GOG Galaxy itself.

The gog version has a different exe for whatever reason. The old one is backed up in the hires folder.

I just reinstalled the community then Hi res patch and it works in win10 if you use dxwrapper (see Hi res config)

Thank you very much for this post. I didn't check md5 of .exe or any file. But I download the game directly through gog website, installed unofficial patch 2.0.2, set compatilibility for .exe to Windows 7. I have also changed wrapper .dll to 0.31 version. And it works.
Previously game was working up the point where I was @hut south of Black Root. I had then slides like 3 fps or so. Totally unplayable. When game was in TB everything was ok, running in RT was impossible.
And fullscreen mode
I am going to check the game further but so far so good.
Cheers!