16 réponses à ce sujet

[stardazzled]

I never really dared to ask for someone's help on this one... so I thought this is a good opportunity - the forum still being kind of empty etc.

There is an issue with KotOR 1. It often crashes back to desktop or simply stops working. I heard about this being caused by the high driver numbers - that KotOR can only handle two-digit numbers and that there is a tool to work around it. But though I scanned several forums for it, I never found it (the tool). Since I would love to be able to play this game again - got myself the English version since the German version has several text errors - I would appreciate your help.

MS WinXP Professional 32-bit SP3
edit: I'm using the main Administration account for the game.
Intel Core 2 Duo 8400 @3.00 GHz; 3.25 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB VRAM @197.45 (drivers)

Thx.

Modifié par stardazzled, 14 juillet 2010 - 12:39 .

[BomimoDK]

I have this problem too. It's not urgent for me since i want to play NWN1 first, but if there is any solution, it would be great.

I'm on:
win7 x64
Core2Quad q9550 @ 3.4 GHz
4 GB DDR2 Ram
Geforce 260 core 216

WHoah, just found something: http://swforums.biow...642360&forum=80
could that be it?

No wait, i think this is the actual fix: http://jamesacooley....nvidia-drivers/
says it works for the sequel too.

Modifié par BomimoDK, 15 juillet 2010 - 12:53 .

[Shirosaki17]

I have a 8800GTS video card. I had to roll back the drivers to 163.75 to get it to work. Still occasionally crashes but not every 5 to 10 minutes. 8800GT should be compatible with the same drivers as GTS. I'm also on WinXP 32bit, and had the same problems as you, so that should fix it. 197 is an old version though, 257 is the newest version.

I'm not sure why the old drivers work. I think it has something to do with OpenGL or something, but not sure. There may be some kind of setting you can change on the newer drivers to get Kotor to run properly. I wish Bioware had someone to figure this out so maybe the game could run smoothly on today's machines.

I tried that disable vertex option and it didn't work for me before rolling back the drivers. Although I didn't have spaces inbetween the words, I don't know if that made a difference.

Modifié par Shirosaki17, 15 juillet 2010 - 04:42 .

[stardazzled]

BomimoDK wrote...
WHoah, just found something: http://swforums.biow...642360&forum=80
could that be it?

If this is causing the problem then it looks very much like it. But as I changed to Intel not too long ago, it isn't of use anymore. I had hoped for something similar for Intel CPUs then.

No wait, i think this is the actual fix: http://jamesacooley....nvidia-drivers/
says it works for the sequel too.

Thx.  I'll look into it tomorrow. And see if this is a worthy alternate approach.

Shirosaki17 wrote...
I had to roll back the drivers to 163.75 to get it to work.

Sorry, but I will not change to an older driver for the sake of one game. This is tradition.

Shirosaki17 wrote...
197 is an old version though, 257 is the newest version.

I know, I know.  It's just such a big jump (there aren't any other numbers before 257 - to express it simply) that I still hesitate to install it. I plan on making some additions this summer so maybe I'll install it then. - Also glad to know that you consider 13 April 2010 old - my birthday this year. So there also are sentimental feelings involved.

Modifié par stardazzled, 15 juillet 2010 - 09:06 .

[Gorath Alpha]

FYI, people, KotOR is very old for a game people still want to play occasionally.  It has some special problems with OSes newer than XP, and most especially with ATI video drivers newer than those for the Radeon 9600 and up from there (the 9500 is higher performance than the 9600, but also older, performance numbering in card names was still very new, and ATI tended to misuse the idea).  In effect, this makes video cards newer than Radeon 9800s a problem.

My neice brought her older computer back to me to upgrade (I'd built it in 2004) in 2008, and I set all its old components aside for a future use, which was specifically for playing KotOR and NWN-1.  In late winter, 2009, I assembled all of the "old parts" I'd taken out of her PC into a Cooler Master Elite case, and installed KotOR on it, keeping the drivers at the 2004 level to suit the game. 

The case is "Refurbished", direct from the CM Store, and only cost me $14.95 plus a reasonably inexpensive shipping expense.  Complete PCs that are very age-compatible with that one are readily available from various charity thrift stores (stateside) for costs in the $50 to $100 USD range, and you don't really need another display, keyboard, mouse, or set of speakers, so it may be substantially less costly.  I have a KVM switch that I can connect the old PC to when I want to use it, that allows me to share those with the system I'm using now for forum surfing. 

The old one sits on the floor next to my right thigh (computer desk and another table make an "L" together, and the oldie is under the table).  I don't want to play KotOR very often, but for me, $15 was a cheap option.

Gorath
-

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 16 juillet 2010 - 02:55 .

[BomimoDK]

well... this is my only computer... i HAVE to force it to work somehow..

[Shirosaki17]

Let me know if that disable vertex option works. I'd like to know what it does actually and why it would work on a similar pc to mine but not mine.

[wolfsite]

BomimoDK wrote...
No wait, i think this is the actual fix: http://jamesacooley....nvidia-drivers/
says it works for the sequel too.

I just tried the Disable Vertex buffers on my copy and so far it's working great, during my first play session using it I haven't had a single crash, normally I have like 4 or 5 most during battles or movie transitions.  Will have to do a play threw with a fresh game to see if the Eden Spire is more stable since that area crashed constantly.

[mrmike_1949]

lucasforums  www.lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php has some trouble shooting tips and fixes, mostly old, but may still be applicable for AMD and ATI.

Their stupid forum won't let you register with a yahoo email address though - must want to send LOTS of junk mail to you:pinched:

[stardazzled]

Shirosaki17 wrote...

Let me know if that disable vertex option works. I'd like to know what it does actually and why it would work on a similar pc to mine but not mine.

For me: it works not. Still crashes every few minutes. Especially Endar Spire but also Taris. After the apartment complex in Taris, I gave up. Tomorrow, I'll try once more with the text in a different place. *sigh*

[mrmike_1949]

stardazzled wrote...

Shirosaki17 wrote...

Let me know if that disable vertex option works. I'd like to know what it does actually and why it would work on a similar pc to mine but not mine.

For me: it works not. Still crashes every few minutes. Especially Endar Spire but also Taris. After the apartment complex in Taris, I gave up. Tomorrow, I'll try once more with the text in a different place. *sigh*

check out the lucasforums - I remember reading specifically about Endar Spire in one of the threads

edit: www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=204144

Modifié par mrmike_1949, 17 juillet 2010 - 02:37 .

[stardazzled]

Okay, instead of editing I add it here since you are referring to the Lucas forums: I tried moving the line to the last line in the Graphics section as recommended in the forums, I set the core to one as recommended and it still crashes.



Well, thx for all the helpful thoughts but I really give up here.

[Shirosaki17]

Try going to Manage 3D settings on the Nividia Control Panel. If you can copy your settings from there and paste it here so I can see what settings you have, maybe I can figure out something you can change that will run it better. I was thinking perhaps the older drivers had different settings from the newer drivers that might be changeable without rolling back.

Also if there are other graphics settings that might matter post them here.

Modifié par Shirosaki17, 17 juillet 2010 - 08:15 .

[Loerwyn]

I've been running it fine on the 186.18 drivers (9800GT - i.e. the 8800GT, XP SP3, E4500 @ ~2.75GHz), by the way. Just thought it might matter to someone.

[Shirosaki17]

Here I copied this from lucas arts.

Let me know if this works, because if it does, I'm going to update my drivers and do it.

Scroll down to the part about swkotor.ini. The first part is for kotor 2.

If that doesn't work try scrolling down to PART II : NVIDIA Control panel.
Try changing the control panel options the way he does for Kotor 2, They might be necessary for both games. Since we know it has something to do with the video card drivers, I think changing some settings might fix the issue with it crashing.

Originally Posted by omnipace@obsidian forums
SOLUTION TO KOTOR AND KOTOR 2 RANDOM CRASHES, STARTUP CRASHES AND DRIVER STOPPED RESPONDING PROBLEM IN VISTA WITH NVIDIA DRIVERS :

This worked for me like a charm and took hours to solve the problem, but the game runs wonderful now without any crashes. (Just don't alt-tab while playing, the game doesn't like it.) Please note that I worked in a non-patched version of the game. But even with the patch there should be no random crashes except the game's original bugs.

PART 1 : INI file

Go to c:\\\\\\\\program files\\\\\\\\lucasarts\\\\\\\\kotor2 and move swkotor2.ini to desktop, be sure the graphic options part is as follows :

[Graphics Options]
RefreshRate=60
Height=768
Width=1024
V-Sync=0
Anisotropy=8
Frame Buffer=0
Anti Aliasing=4
Texture Quality=2
Grass=1
Soft Shadows=0
Shadows=0
Brightness=57
EnableHardwareMouse=0
FullScreen=0

Sound options are as follows :


[Sound Options]
Number 3D Voices=16
Number 2D Voices=24
2D3D Bias=1.00
Force Software=1
EAX=0
Sound Init=0
Music Volume=85
Voiceover Volume=85
Sound Effects Volume=85
Movie Volume=85
Disable Sound=0

After editing the file if required, remove it back to c:\\\\\\\\program files\\\\\\\\lucasarts\\\\\\\\kotor2 folder.

PART II : NVIDIA Control panel

Go to your desktop right click and open NVIDIA control panel, now to the manage 3d settings and select global settings, change it as follows :

Anisotropic filtering : 16x
Anti-gamma : On
Antialias mode : App-cont
" - transparency : supersampling
Conformant text clamp : Use hardware
Err rep : Off
Ext. limit : off
Force mipmaps : Trilinear
Max. prerendered frames : 8
Multidisp/mix GPU : Single performance
Tex-filtering neg. bias : Clamp
Tex-filt. quality : High Q
Thread opt : off
Trip buffer : off
Vsync : force off

PART III : Registry setup

Click start, click start search, type regedit, run it. Search for "_swkotor.exe" (without commas). For me there were 3 entries and one of them is like :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\\\\\\\SYSTEM\\\\\\\\ControlSet001\\\\\\\\Control\\\\\\\\Cl ass\\\\\\\\{4D36E968-E421-11DE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\\\\\\\\0000]

Under this folder, you will find _swkotor.exe entry. All entries must be REG_BINARY.

Check and add these entries :

_swkotor2.exe3D_16579523 01 00 00 00
_swkotor2.exe3D_30913648 01 00 00 00
_swkotor2.exe3D_60461791 47 67 41 08
_swkotor2.exe3D_94118636 00 00 00 00
_swkotor2.exe3DOGL_03385531 02 00 00 00
_swkotor2.exe3DOGL_12677978 60 16 62 51
_swkotor2.exe3DOGL_67207556 11 00 00 00
_swkotor2.exe3DOGL_70835937 27 00 32 22
_swkotor2.exe3DOGL_74095213 10 00 00 10
_swkotor2.exe:OGL_25631692 02 00 00 00
_swkotor2.exe:OGL_DefaultSwapInterval ff ff ff ff
_swkotor2.exe:OGL_ExtensionStringVersion 00 00 00 00
_swkotor2.exe:OGL_TexClampBehavior 00 00 00 00
_swkotor2.exe:OGL_ThreadControl 02 00 00 00
_swkotor2.exe:OGL_TripleBuffer 01 00 00 00

: D (with no gap changes to smile)

Close the registry editor, restart your computer and goodbye crashes... I believe OGL_ThreadControl is the critical point here. But to be sure I write all entries. Also changing all _swkotor2.exe entries to _swkotor.exe solves kotor 1 crashes, you may add them as seperate entries.

Also I changed my swkotor.ini file as follows :


[Graphics Options]
V-Sync=0
Anisotropy=8
Frame Buffer=0
Anti Aliasing=4
Texture Quality=2
Emitters=1
Grass=1
Soft Shadows=0
Shadows=0
Brightness=57
EnableHardwareMouse=0
FullScreen=0
RefreshRate=60
Width=1024
Height=768

PART IV : Bad TDR, Bad TDR...

This is an application for graphics drivers. When a driver stops responding, vista resets the device driver so the system continues stable. But the problem is old games sometimes stops responding naturally and vista thinks the game crashed. There is a fix for that problem incase your problem consists of this :

start regedit and go to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\\\\\\\SYSTEM\\\\\\\\ControlSet001\\\\\\\\Control\\\\\\\\Gr aphicsDrivers], add a new REG_DWORD entry as

TdrDdiDelay 120
TdrDelay 60

Close regedit.

PART V : RESTART YOUR COMPUTER

Somehow these changes requires restarting the computer to take effect.

PART VI : PLAY YOUR GAME AND SAVE OFTEN INCASE

Start your game in SP2 compability mode. Old mss32.dll is required also.

The game starts in windowed mode, but when you changed the resolution from the graphic options, it turns to fullscreen.

You should try turning on frame buffer effects and shadows as well from the ini file (Just set them to 1). I didn't care so I didn't try. But you may if it is important for you.

The game is also buggy and rarely crashes to desktop after these settings so save often. Good game although, or may be best...

RESULT : NVIDIA Drivers somehow sucks...

PART VII : LAST RESORT

Change your vista theme to classic to turn off windows aero subsytem. Also close the sidebar. As an option use CPU-control program and direct all processes to CPU1 incase you are using dualcore cpus.

Modifié par Shirosaki17, 18 juillet 2010 - 12:48 .

[wolfsite]

I just got to the one part in the game that a crash was a guarantee (It's on Manaan just before the Star Map) no matter what I do the game would just crash right after the cut scene, thankfully I made it past after disabling a lot of features and pure luck.

However I got my current play through there using the Disable Vertex buffers method mentioned above and I got straight past it without the crash. To be honest I have played threw about 3/4 of the game now without a crash thanks to this and I'm speechless, normally it was crashing 5 or 6 times (within a 30 minute play period) forcing me to restart over and over. This simple method has done an amazing job for me.

Modifié par wolfsite, 18 juillet 2010 - 11:03 .

[Ar_lord]

Hello fellows,

I have a question regarding the system of my own. I experience this problem as well, a problem that is weird, because it used to run so well in the past....

This is wat I know about my system:

MS WinXP Professional SP3
using the main Administration account for the game.
NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT

I think I might need more information for you guys to help me out, maybe someone has an idea, ofcourse I went to my computer settings to check for the info...I thought it also was 32 bit...I'm not certain however....