I can't play Arcanum at times because it just runs far too slowly, I am talking crazy slow. It runs like my system can't support it (which it can) I have a PIII 500 Mhz with 320 meg sdRAM and a GeForce2 MX 64meg. I'm running Windows XP: Home. Usually Arcanum slows down when I get around alot of npc's. At times it completely freezes for about 10 seconds and then runs again. I read that it has to do with the direct sound so I downloaded the DirectX control panel and my Direct Sound Debug is set to "none" so it can't be that. Please can someone give me advice onto how to make this game run smoothly. Thanks alot...
i suppose defragging the drive its on might help. try changing the settings of the directsound. it might be how its already been set up.
I'm running Arcanum on an AMD XP 1700+ with 1.12 GB RAM and a GeForce 2 Ti 128 MB DDR and I STILL get those slowdowns, so don't feel bad. You just have to put up with it sometimes. It may be something about Windows XP because I've seen more complaints from people running it than any other operating system. I've never seen any solution to it in any forum and I've looked. It's a bug in the program. If it gets too bad, try saving and quitting, then restarting. Sometimes that will take care of it, but sometimes it is linked to something about an area in the game map, too.
Iver read that there is a bad memory leak in this game. I normally quit back to the destop every hour or so and then restart the game. Its annoying but it works.
Its been a long time since I played but I was always in win2k though. Thats why I use system commander and run all the windows (95,98,nt,2k and xp) A lot of these games I have found out have a problem with xp! Have you installed the ver 9b of direct x by chance. It fixed some bugs in other games in xp for me.
I've only encountered slowdowns in places with light sources, like lamps (like the Schuyler crypts, or Shrouded Hills' mines). Every time a character nears them, the game slows down a bit, but reverts to normal afterwards. Its quite fast, so i don't get upset. I don't know if it's XP related. In my case it wasn't, it was graphic card related.
My comptuer is pretty nice, so I don't get any slow downs. 'Cept when somebody does quench life or something similar.
One other occasion i've noted a slowdown - when the thieves teleport into Bates' factory. After the spell effects are gone, it reverts to its normal speed. Hmm...
i do not have a very good video card, so mine slows down sometimes, but this is heaven compared to having to run it on safe mode...
