Pa3PyX

The crash issues with ATI video boards has been going on for quite a while -- ever since first KotOR, and mostly when changing video modes for cinematic playback and back or immediately thereafter (IIRC). I believe it had to do with KotOR games mixing API's and/or changing resolutions for cinematic playback; KotOR uses OpenGL for main engine but could be using GDI/DirectX for cinematic playback. Before calling ChangeDisplaySettings() to change resolution, one needs to completely shut down OpenGL API by deleting rendering context, destroying window and unloading OpenGL32.dll. After changing resolutions, of course OpenGL needs to be loaded again, new window and rendering context created, all OpenGL parameters and matrices reset, and all textures reloaded. Quake 2 does it that way, and this is the only way that works with all OpenGL drivers and video cards (effectively, it's the same as shutting down the application and then starting it up again). But some games, like KotOR and Half-life, appear to just make the OpenGL rendering context inactive before changing video modes, and then making it active again. Few drivers handle this properly.

Sure they will not... But someone who's been dealing with PC's for ages and knows how to set up an emulator probably does not need a WHQL logo on it. :D

I do realize I'm going off topic here, but... This I fail to understand. Cross-platform compatibility is good, isn't it? It means that game developers will not have to write different code for three separate platforms (read: Oni, Turok), but only for one. It also means that such consoles could easily be emulated on a PC, so that the games released for XboX only can also be played on a PC for those users that do not want consoles. The mediocre graphics part -- I thought it was the other way around. Consoles are usually much more optimized for graphics performance than are PC's -- I'll grant you that the PC's are upgradeable (unlike consoles), but when a new GPU feature becomes available, it usually takes developers some one and a half years to make any significant use of it. Simplistic gameplay -- I did not quite get what you mean from the sentence, as it could be understood either way, but I thought consoles tend to have more simplistic gameplay because the controllers are usually quite limited (what you can do with a keyboard and mouse you cannot always do with a game pad). So is it console gaming that the simplistic gameplay and mediocre graphics are getting carried to from PC gaming, or is it the other way around?

I think we'd do best to sign the existing petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/kotor2/); there's about 7500 signatures there, but with the amount of sales on this game, I think that still represents a minority. Needs to be around 100000.

I thought you need to be in first person mode (caps lock) to use this?

Are you certain that LucasArts has full control over whether patches are released or not? This would be governed by the terms of the contract, and these can be anything. Do you have the actual contract terms yourself, or have heard someone from either LucasArts or Obsidian detail them? Are they publicly available? I'm saying this because technically, the auto-updater program supplied with KotOR 2 links to Obsidian's server, not LA. If LA was to be fully in control of any add-on materials to the game, one would expect that they would also be the only ones officially allowed to distribute them. Per content patch. It is not as infeasible as it may sound at first -- provided that all the content-intensive parts that are to be finished are already present on the distribution CD. Maps must be present -- and they are. Dialogues must be present -- and most of them are. Voiceovers must be present -- and from what I hear, most of them also are. All that remains to be done is finish the scripting. Updated scripts could easily fit into an under 1 megabyte update. Of course, one should not expect them to fix the low quality music. That would effectively mean re-encoding it and then distributing the re-encoded content, which would make the patch size enormous. Regarding LucasArts paying for Obsidian's patch. Conceivably, this could also be governed differently based on the terms of the service level agreement. It could be that Obsidian is getting paid for updates on a patch-by-patch basis, but it could be that they are getting paid for post-production support as a whole. In either case, it is probably true that LucasArts has a specific list of issues that they want Obsidian working on. I don't know how business is done there, but where I work, my boss rarely ever turns me down for attempting to fix problems in addition to the ones that she specifically wants me working on, for the same application. I do not see why LucasArts would restrict Obsidian from improving the game beyond what they were supposed to, especially given that it's not them (LucasArts) who are doing all the dirty work. Having said that, I still believe that where the game will end up will depend on Obsidian's enthusiasm much more than on LucasArts' goad stick. And given all the effort that Obsidian put in the creation of this game -- especially its elaborate storyline -- I do not think that Obsidian is suffering the lack of enthusiasm. Now, regarding the ever-present Console vs. PC debate, i.e. how PC owners would hate to buy XboX just to play a couple of games. From what I understand, XboX is based on PC architecture: you have an x86 CPU, and you have the same GPU as being used on PC's, which is interfaced via DirectX API (correct me if I'm wrong here). If XboX 2 is going to be built in the same fashion, it should be fairly strightforward to emulate on the Windows PC platform -- much more so than even emulating Nintendo 64. What am I missing here?

Open SWKOTOR2.INI in the game folder and change all instances of FullScreen=0 to FullScreen=1.

I would also like to post a few bugs I noticed, not sure if ALL of them have been mentioned before. They seem like work for a patch, so hopefully someone from the developer team reads this thread at all. 1) The swoop racing problem has already been mentioned. If you forfeit the race once, you will likely be unable to run it again ever (will get course incomplete message, even if you do complete the course). 2) Map Related: Upon entering Residential 082 East (Czerka Corp and Exchange offices) on Telos, there are periodic freezes/drops in frame rate (i.e. one second the game runs smooth, another second the game runs poorly, again, again, ...) This was on GeFroce 5700 Ultra/Windows XP SP2 (driver version 66.93). The workaround is to save a game, exit to the main menu, and reload the game. (OpenGL textures not properly flushed on map change?) 3) Force Alignment Masteries: When party members other than the main player character gain light/dark side mastery, the bonuses do not apply properly to that character. Instead, they seem to apply to the main player character (but I could be wrong here). The stat screen says that the bonus is present (top line), however, the statistic display remains unaffected. I don't know if they are actually applied in the game, however. 4) Upgrade Statistics: When upgrading an upgradeable item that already has bonuses to some statistic, with upgrade items that boost the same statistic, the bonuses do not stack properly. For example, I have an item called "Corellian Powesuit" [Defense 10, Strength +2]. I upgrade it with Strengthening Underlay [strength +3, Constitution +3]. After the upgrade, therefore, I should get an armor with [Defense 10, Strength +5, Constitution +3]. But I only get an item with +3 strength (judging by description; I'm not sure if it is actually +5 in the game rolls). Another (more weird) example: an armor called "Mandalorian Combat Suit". It has 10% physical damage immunity. I upgrade it with Ballistic Shielding Mark I (10% physical damage immunity again). The resulting item should have 20% physical damage immunity. The item description however, shows the same bonus twice, making it unclear whether the bonus is actually stacked. [side note: there should be a reasonable limit to how much you can up the % statistics, say, 75% or 95%. Otherwise, there is a possibility of getting it over 100%, which in this case would mean you healing on physical damage. I'm not sure if this would be cheating, though, since there appear to be some enemies, too, that heal on blaster damage.] Same issue with upgrading ranged weapons with two or more bonuses that add the same type of damage. 5) Dialogues: These are too numerous to mention all, including but not limited to premature voiceover cutoffs, long pauses where they should not be, characters facing away from you occasionally in dialogues (e.g. Atton on Ebon Hawk). I'll mention those I remember clearly. /* POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW */ a) When discussing their droid natures with HK-47 or G0-T0 on Ebon Hawk, some dialogue options cause you to drop out of the dialogues prematurely (i.e. with no intention to do so indicated in the dialogue). b) T3-M4 sometimes plays incorrect voiceovers (belonging to T1-N1 instead). e.g. when asking him about the lost Jedi. Other times, there is a lot of missing voiceovers (text is displayed, but no sound is made). c) Master Zez-Kai Ell (Nar Shaddaa) repeats the same phrase twice in a row when discussing Force Bonds. d) If you manage to convince the Handmaiden to become a Jedi Guardian but then say that you have to think about training her, the cutscene of Kreia and Atris sensing her betrayal still plays (even though no character class change is actually made). If you save the game at this moment, then fly the Ebon Hawk to another location, then leave and re-enter the ship, another cutscene will play, after which the screen would go blank and remain that way. 6) Refresh Rate: The game does not allow refresh rates higher than 85 Hz (XP/2000/NT only) to be set from the menu, or the .ini file. The limit of 85 Hz is hardcoded in the executable; there is nothing short of hex editing the hardcoded limit (at VA .7B95F0) from 00 00 AA 42 (85.0f) to 00 00 7F 43 (255.0f) or higher to properly fix this.

Refresh rates above 85 Hz are NOT the problem of monitors/graphics cards, as I discovered. They are a problem of the game itself. There's nothing short of changing the hardcoded limit in the executable (at VA .7B95F0) from 00 00 AA 42 (85.0f) to 00 00 7F 43 (255.0f) or greater to fix this the RIGHT way. After you do this, open swkotor2.ini and change RefreshRate=? (where ? is a number) to RefreshRate=-1 everywhere. This will force the maximum refresh rate that the display driver reports in all video modes. Of course, you will have to change it manually again if you change the game video mode from the menu. The intro movies may be displayed at 800x600 after this, but all other cinematics should still be at 640x480. An easier way is of course to use display refresh rate override, if supported by video driver. nVidia drivers only support in on EDID monitors (I had to cut off my EDID pins because the monitor was being detected correctly 50% of the time). So if your monitor is initially detected as "Default Monitor", you are out of luck with this. You can use the tool called RivaTuner to do refresh rate overrides still, but it will have to remain resident in memory. It is a shame they hardcoded the limit in KOTOR2; in KOTOR, there was no such restriction (you still only had up to 85 Hz in the menus, but you could set it to whatever you wished in the .ini file).