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Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick ObscuraHuge graphical issues rendering game completely unplayable(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
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Posted March 21, 2012
When I run Arcanum, whether exactly as provided by GOG or with the unofficial patch, and whether or not I use the high resolution mod (and trying many different resolutions), Arcanum looks like this.

Needless to say it is completely unplayable. I can't even click the menu items because the clickable area is lost in the blue box.

Running in compatibility mode and running as administrator also makes no difference.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.

EDIT
For anyone interested, I managed to fix this problem by doing the following things. I'm not sure if one or all of these things fixed the issue, so I'll list them all.

1. I renamed ddraw.dll in the Arcanum folder

2. I installed directx 9.0c

3. I added the -doublebuffer parameter to the shortcut.

Steps 1 and 2 also fixed a problem where the -window parameter would crash the game.
Attachments:
arcanum.png (296 Kb)
Post edited March 21, 2012 by berrrnard
This question / problem has been solved by alexkilcoyneimage
Posted April 10, 2012
avatar
berrrnard: When I run Arcanum, whether exactly as provided by GOG or with the unofficial patch, and whether or not I use the high resolution mod (and trying many different resolutions), Arcanum looks like this.

Needless to say it is completely unplayable. I can't even click the menu items because the clickable area is lost in the blue box.

Running in compatibility mode and running as administrator also makes no difference.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.

EDIT
For anyone interested, I managed to fix this problem by doing the following things. I'm not sure if one or all of these things fixed the issue, so I'll list them all.

1. I renamed ddraw.dll in the Arcanum folder

2. I installed directx 9.0c

3. I added the -doublebuffer parameter to the shortcut.

Steps 1 and 2 also fixed a problem where the -window parameter would crash the game.
I have similar problems (see attached)- could you talk me through the steps you took? I don't particularly want to downgrade to directx 9.0 if possible.
Attachments:
arcanum.png (227 Kb)
Posted April 10, 2012
Ah. For step one, just browse to your Arcanum folder and rename ddraw.dll to something like ddraw.dll.old. For step three, simply right click on your Arcanum shortcut, click Properties, click the Shortcut tab if it's not already selected, then in the Target section, add -doublebuffer onto the end of the existing argument.
Posted April 10, 2012
Won't adding .old to the end change the file extension? Does the game no longer need this file?

Edit: The rename makes the game launcher exe refuse to launch.
So renaming the file seems to make the game unable to launch. I have changed the 'target' section of my shortcut so it now looks like this-

"C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG.com\Arcanum\Arcanum.exe" -doublebuffer

No change. Will installing direct x9.0 make newer games stop using direct x 11.0?
Post edited April 10, 2012 by alexkilcoyne
Posted April 10, 2012
Adding .old to the end will mean the game won't access the file anymore, but rather than deleting it means you can simply remove .old from the end if you ever need it again. You probably won't, so you can delete it instead if you prefer.

You won't be downgrading to DirectX 9 by installing it. DirectX 11 and 9 can co-exist peacefully.
Post edited April 10, 2012 by berrrnard
Posted April 10, 2012
The problem with either renaming or removing it is that the game then fails to launch. I'm seeing if directx 9.0 will make a difference.

I have installed directx 9.0c. How do I ensure/check the game is using this and not directx11? So far it hasn't resolved the problem. I'm now renaming the file, which should be all 3 steps completed...
Post edited April 10, 2012 by alexkilcoyne
Posted April 10, 2012
Same problem as before once the files renamed. The game appears to begin to launch for just a moment, opening a black full screen window then immediately closes itself. :(
Posted April 10, 2012
The only other thing I can suggest you try is to add the -no3d argument after -doublebuffer in the game's shortcut. If that fails, I'm not sure what you can do; the problem could be some incompatibility related to your graphics card or its drivers. It's not particular to a 64 bit Windows 7 system, because that's what I'm using as well.
Posted April 10, 2012
So, after a fresh re-install and renaming the .dll file in question/ adding the -doublebuffer command to the shortcut BEFORE running the .exe at any point... I instead get completely different graphical errors.

I have not yet applied the unofficial patch this time, figuring i'd make the game playable first. I'm not currently running as administrator or in any compatibility modes in case it matters.

Heres what I see as the game launches-

Black screen as the Sierra logo plays (and a crash to desktop if I don't skip it)

Further black screens.

The train image for the 'loading Arcanum' works fine.

And then almost an entirely black screen, a few bits of the main menu shining through.

Edit- Running on my integreated gfx card seems to work rather than using my decent nvidia card by default... Don't know if it'll play the game properly but at least theres no crashes and things look ok so far.
Posted February 22, 2013
Deleted.
Post edited February 22, 2013 by ganderman13
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Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick ObscuraHuge graphical issues rendering game completely unplayable(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
(10 posts)solved