Unofficial Arcanum Patch (Original Thread)

[TheLostOne]

Edit: Don't drink and post, boys and girls.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

THIS sounds FANTASTIC!

I need to know if there is someway to get this to play Widescreen. OH yes, and any problems on Windoze 7?

*praying the patch doesn't change much*

http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=31632
For Windows 7 you should ask someone else.

Should be no problems with Windows 7 with or without the Widescreen patch, other than the standard disclaimer that if you are doing something stupid like installing the game to protected windows directories in c:\program files\ it will certainly fuck up.

 

[suwak]

This patch is only for English version of the game, or it will work fine also in a Polish version?

 

[m_s0]

It most likely won't work correctly. There were some changes made to the dialogues, for instance, so you might end up having both languages in-game. Worst scenario: it won't work at all.

The polish version was applied by using a patch, if I'm correct. Just skip it, download the latest official English patch instead and install Drog's patch on top of that. Don't worry if the game doesn't recognise your cd if you try running it with the official patch only.

 

[Araanor]

Thanks for all the great work, Drog.

Kinda amazing how many bugs there are still left. The game still manages to get chuggy with scrolling after a while for me even with modern hardware. Some pretty nasty resource leaks. Troika knew their game design, but really couldn't into software quality.

 

[Araanor]

The game manages to lock up my entire computer regularly. Even in windowed mode. Anyone had this?

 

[Blood and Iron]

Thanks for all the great work, Drog.

Kinda amazing how many bugs there are still left. The game still manages to get chuggy with scrolling after a while for me even with modern hardware. Some pretty nasty resource leaks. Troika knew their game design, but really couldn't into software quality.

Don't blame Troika for Drog's faults / your incompatible hardware/software. First, Drog fucked with the graphics, turned off an engine feature called "sprite mirroring".. that was a performance enhancing feature. I can say with certainty that vanilla Arcanum ran decently back then. Old games often have problems when you try to run them with operating systems, graphic / sound card drivers they were never designed for. Random crashes / lock ups are a typical symptom, performance issues are another one.

I hope someone will release a "WindowsBox" soon. I mean, something like DOSBox but for Win9x/Direct X era games.

 

[Kz3r0]

Bullshit, you can run it in software mode if you want, but every other Windows than XP will probably give problems.

 

[Blood and Iron]

Bullshit, you can run it in software mode if you want,

What exactly is "bullshit"? An old game in software mode can suffer from incompatible hardware / software, too. And any performance issues of the patch won't magically go away in that mode either. I always play Arcanum + Drogg's patch in software mode and the performance issues certainly exist. Arcanum was never the smoothest running game but it certainly wasn't that bad back then Arcanum was new and I ran it on a Win9x machine. One should compare the last official version with Drog's patch to rule out that it is the cause of performance issues.

but every other Windows than XP will probably give problems.

A funny statement considering that Arcanum was developed for Win9x (Windows XP wasn't even released back then). Also I said that an incompatible operation system might be the reason, so you obviously didn't mean that with "bullshit". The issue of drivers? Is that "bullshit"? Or the fact that Drog turned off the sprite mirroring feature of the engine and that this might be a cause of problems, too? He did and I cannot see how you can simply rule that out as a source of problems.

Wesp managed to make Bloodlines have framerate issues on my computer, which is amazing considering how old that game is. Now I don't have one of these power hungry gamer video cards but Bloodlines with the True Patch runs smoothly on my system. Small, barely visible changes can cause massive performance issues. Also, changing ANYTHING in a game carries the risk of introducing new bugs. Even if the changes look unproblematic at first glance. Something many modders obviously don't know is that game engines tend to have hidden restrictions which aren't obvious from the scripts. For example, the game data files allow you to define new items, but the moment you add more than X items that leads to silent memory corruption (i.e. random crashes and hang ups). This limitation is not mentioned in the data files but obvious in the source code. I have seen modders encounter such problems again and again. So, when Drog changed the engine configuration to a setting which was never meant to be used in the release version.. that might have caused any number of problems.

 

[Kz3r0]

Usually people complaining about these issues use Windows Vista/7, and BTW you are not using XP, considering that the patch was developed with that OS I think that my previous statement is correct, and Sprite mirroring makes the game look worse, for obvious reasons.

 

[Fowyr]

Patched item_inven.mes and some of dlg files were very handy. Finally I can see Elixir of Hypnotic Suggestion (and it don't slow down my computer now).
Thanks, Drog (and his army of alts).

Arcane weapons - check.
Spike Traps - check.
Congeal Time - check.
Mediocre expendable armor - check.
BMC, here I go.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Adding some mirrors to the UAP because this seems to be the only mirror still alive (other than Petrell's site) and the link in the Official Mod Repository sticky is broken since Jaime Lannister is MIA.

http://www.multiupload.nl/V6MFWRZO12

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Made you look, huh.

 

[GuiltyofBeingTrite]

The dialogue cheat with Virgil isn't working now that I've reunited with Virgil, any fixes to this?

 

[hal900x]

Can someone upload it to a fileshare site for me? All links, including various mirrors from this and other threads, are dead for me.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

The dialogue cheat with Virgil isn't working now that I've reunited with Virgil, any fixes to this?

No, the reborn Virgil uses a completely different dialog script.

 

[hal900x]

nm, petrilli still has it.

 

[Poseidon]

For those of you that missed it, UAP is being worked on once again. Check this thread - http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...multiverse-edition.114150/page-8#post-5075702

Since Multiverse and UAP are two different projects (even if Multiverse uses UAP in some ways), I figured we can get Drog news here again?

 

[SDeden]

So I'm watching a Let's Play of Arcanum and I notice the dude's Revolver/Fine Revolver has a different texture that is actually more consistent with the Hushed Revolver and Revolver Parts. Was that added in a later addition to the UAP or just different versions of Arcanum or did the Russians do it?

 

[Brujoloco]

For those of you that missed it, UAP is being worked on once again. Check this thread - http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...multiverse-edition.114150/page-8#post-5075702

Since Multiverse and UAP are two different projects (even if Multiverse uses UAP in some ways), I figured we can get Drog news here again?

Ok kinda new here, and to patching Arcanum, what should be the go to Mods for Arcanum today? Just got it off Gog, but trust these forums a bit more than the gog ones.

 

[TheFilthyJack]

If you want to mod Arcanum 'easily', then maybe I can recommend my clean setup on win10: (Install in a non protected folder, anywhere but Program Files)

-Arcanum GoG Version
-Patch 1074
-UAP with extra content
-Extra Animations
-No Annoying Spell Noise
-HQ TownMaps
-HQ Music
-High Res

If you don't use High Res Patch then you'll probably need:

-Wine D3D Dlls
-Arcanum Shortcut (-no3d -doublebuffer)

This should give you a clean game install for modern hardware and OS.

 

[ProdigalGamer]

I just downloaded and started playing this game about a week ago after almost 20 years since I last played it. This time I've finally finished it. I noticed that there are some things certainly missing in the game. I tried searching all over the internet for the missing content but it seems like I'm living in the twilight zone since I can't find anything of the following:

-Hervor's steam engine mission

When you get into the Shrouded Hills city hall, the rats don't attack you. Once you talk to Hervor (the dwarf with the steam engine), he gives you a mission to clear the area of rats since they are damaging his steam engine. The rats only start hitting back if you hit them first. He gives nothing but thanks and good alignment points.
​

-Hervor sleeps. Also, if you tell the constable about Jongle's mission, he'll post two guards, one at each door inside the city hall leading to the steam engine. I haven't seen these since I recently started replaying about a week ago.

-The train accident mission

If you've just arrived in Tarant, you can't ride the train just yet because some criminals caused some sort of trouble so the train operations ceased. You then head on to the university hall where a public hearing just ended. Willoughsby is with Perriman. You talk to Willoughsby about apprehending the criminals who are hiding in the sewers (the ones with a mage and who have beds, not the arguing ones). Willoughsby offers Perriman to join you until the end of the mission, who then rejoins Willoughsby on a trip to Caladon. If you didn't talk to them to do the mission, the game just sorts it out the next day with the criminals already handled by Perriman, as detailed in the papers. It's time-based I think. Either way, you won't get to see them for a while. When you do though, they won't remind you about the train incident if you did the mission.
​

-The assassination mission

You find two criminals arguing over something. There's supposed to be text floating on their heads so that you can tell they're indeed arguing. It's about killing JM Morat. You get to use the items in their chest/cabinet to accomplish the mission. If you go to the master haggler and talk to him, you'll learn that he's hired the two half-ogres because someone's trying to kill him. He'll ask you to apprehend those people. He gives you his ring of influence as a reward. If you got both missions, completing one of the mission botches the other.​

I remember these things because back then I kept creating and replaying the game but I wasn't able to finish any of those. I borrowed my friend's CD at that time and returned it to him after a month when it became apparent to me that I was just too stupid to play the game lol. Kept dying doing the BMC mission or wander aimlessly throughout the land, never figuring out how to get to Isle of Despair.

 

[Elwro]

Welcome! So are you saying that these things are not fixed in Drog's patch? (Sorry, it's been years since I played the game the last time...)

 

[ProdigalGamer]

Welcome! So are you saying that these things are not fixed in Drog's patch? (Sorry, it's been years since I played the game the last time...)

Thanks Elwro

After looking at many internet sources all contradicting my memories of some game content I clearly remember, I don't know anymore if Drog broke it (if he really did, though I doubt it) or that if I and my friend had played an early version or even a modded version of the game. I doubt it's a mod; no one can mod that game so fast in 2001. I haven't met my friend who lent me the CD since 2002. Last I heard is that he's a doctor in NJ... I'm leaning on an earlier release. At that time, I just installed it and played with the CD.

I'm not trying to pull anyone's leg here. I thought it long and hard while I was playing the whole week. I keep saying there's supposed to be this and that as what I can clearly remember. But how can that be when the internet says it doesn't exist. That's why I feel like living in some other universe.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

The quests might have actually been put in as part of someone else's mod because I don't remember those quests nor do I remember seeing them in the strategy guide but given the sewers that makes sense.

Originally they were cut content most likely. Someone put the quests in, but maybe not with this Mod.