Accelerator

I am back on this forum after many years, mainly because I had a few comments on DS3 as well as Obsidian's efforts as of late. 1) I think the Asian sales figures also need to be brought up, because where I'm living, both DS3 and DX:HR are selling like hot cakes. You won't find a copy that stays on the shelves more than two weeks. 2) I think, given the budget and staff involved, Obsidian/Square probably have not made a loss on DS3. 3) Regarding DLC, the leaks probably put a good spanner into the works, prompting Obsidian to start afresh on the Treasures of the sun DLC. I think we may at best see one more DLC for this game, because Fallout: NV seems to do better DLC wise and also because Obsidian is not that big a company. 4) Sales numbers for DS3 are disappointing, but not the worst IMO. I think Obsidian can survive. Whether Square will continue the franchise is another story. I don't know why Obsidian games don't sell that well, I'm one of the few people who have purchased every single game they developed (Yes, including Alpha Protocol) - I see the logo on the box, and it's time to buy. Living in a developing country with rampant piracy, that's a huge thing for me. Generally speaking, I never buy DLCs for games either simply because I don't see the value - but I have for Obsidian's games. Fallout: NV DLC and Treasures of the sun for DS3. Obsidian is a quality developer, one that has always given me value for my money, and one whose games I've always enjoyed (Yes, AP was good despite it's flaws). But all this means Obsidian owes me, right?

I had this blackout bug happen in KOTOR 1, not 2. I have absolutely no idea what I did, I pressed random keys and tried loading the menu and just moved around again and again and suddenly all was well again...

kalimeeri, it still wouldn't hurt to go ahead and scan the system for traces of malware. After all, no AntiVirus detects everything, so its better to be safe. If the virus scans came up safe, then the problems are likely not caused by malware.

First thing: For some strange reason, most OpenGL games requiring hardware T&L run on GPUs without it. Why this is I just do not know. How well they run is another question though. As for having shared memory, this isn't really a problem because I've seen KOTOR 1 and 2 being played just fine on my cousin's computer with an nForce motherboard which has an onboard GeForce2 MX which has some 32MB of shared memory. The problem is in the features, the Radeon Xpress 200M will not perform well in KOTOR because KOTOR 1 and 2 are vertex sensitive. The KOTOR engine has very complex vertex shaders and also some cool fragment programs. The KOTOR engine depends on three things: 1) Fragment program/register combiner/Pixel Shader support (i.e. GeForce2 MX or better, Radeon 8500 or better. If this had been a D3D game, it would have been Radeon 7500, but hey ) 2) Vertex shader support (Some Vertex shaders are too large to entirely fit in hardware on graphics cards like Radeon 8500/9000 or GeForce2 series. In such cases vertex shader features are to be emulated on the CPU causing CPU strain) 3) Hardware T&L for geometry related operations KOTOR engine has two separate render paths for NVIDIA and ATI graphics cards. The ATI path apparently looks prettier overall while the NVIDIA path runs faster due to various hardware-specific tweaks made available via OpenGL being used in the engine. When your graphics card does not support register combiners (i.e. Radeon 7500 and below, Riva TNT2 and below), then it will suffer badly because it will run the slowest render path available. Therefore, KOTOR performance depends on: 1) whether the graphics card supports per-pixel shading (i.e. GeForce2/Radeon 8500 or better) 2) Vertex Shader support 3) Hardware T&L 4) CPU speed For example, a GeForce2 MX card running on a 2.2GHz CPU will be running most vertex shaders in software emulation (i.e. performing vertex shader operations on CPU) because GeForce2 series does not support vertex shaders. But a GeForce2 will still perform well because the CPU speed is quite high, and the GeForce2 supports per-pixel shading as well as Hardware T&L. The same applies to GeForce4 MX, which will be slightly better because of limited hardware vertex shader support under OpenGL, and the Radeon 8500/9000 series, which can perform some, but not all of the vertex shader programs in hardware. Read here for more detailed info, it pertains to the Mac version but the engine would probably largely remain the same: http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ArticleID=9934 The problem with integrated chipsets is that KOTOR will detect hardware pixel and vertex shader support, but since Vertex shaders and T&L are done in software over the CPU anyway (though KOTOR thinks the chipset has hardware support for these functions), there is no performance improvement. So, if someone wants to play KOTOR on these PCs, their CPU will be under heavy strain due to which the CPU will need to be of a VERY FAST speed if the person intends to play it smoothly. The vertex shaders and hardware T&L support are the primary reason why KOTOR runs slow on most integrated GPUs. Shared memory has little to do with anything, because if the graphics card already has the features needed to run a game with FULL HARDWARE ACCELERATION, and after sharing, enough memory is left to fulfil the requirements of the game, the game (KOTOR) should run perfectly.

Hmm....I never really encountered any particularly strange things in K2, but I do remember I was battling Nihilus on the ravager and he did some force power and suddenly I was thrown several yards backwards....I mean, REALLY several yards backwards. :D

Grevious' technical getup allows for better freedom of movement but is less robust than Vader's costume.....so, depends on what you like. For the first few days, Grevious is probably better, but Vader is better in the long run.

I believe that theoretically these files can be edited into KOTOR 2 for the Xbox (since Xbox uses a modified Windows 2000 anyway), but this would require creating a duplicate CD which is illegal.

looks like you have a problem-o... Please follow these steps: Download all these on-demand scanners and run them on your computer and see if they find anything. If they do, report the name of the file and the virus name here. Dr.Web CureIT! MicroWorld MWAV Free scanner ArcaBit ArcaMicroScan And an advice, if you are using the free edition of AVG, I recommend you to upgrade to the paid versions. They offer much better protection and are worth the money.

I want Warcraft as a single player RPG or RTS again

Well, there's a beta downloadable mod out there right now for those of you who can't wait for TSLRP to release. Its not the full thing but it adds a few segments to the Nihilus dialogue, and also a few unnecessary things, but the most significant thing is that it modified the ending at Malachor V to solve the confrontation between G0-T0 and Remote. There is also another mod which reconstructs the HK droid factory (And hence the HK-47 unresolved quest about the vocabulizer can be finished) and adds it into the storyline. However, this mod also adds a new party member called HK-49 with his own dialogue which replaces G0-T0. Sad, because I want the game in its original form with G0-T0.... Anyway, you can find the mods here: 1) Nihilus extra/Visas sacrifice/Remote-G0T0 ending mod: http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.c...ancements;77410 2) HK Droid Factory Reconstructed: http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.c...nstructed;75971 Enjoy

I *believe* most KOTOR problems in Vista are due to sound, and the fact that Vista has a pretty bad implementation of sound which I think does not allow EAX support or any other Audio API except DirectSound. Also, I believe there is no more hardware-accelerated sound support in Vista. If KOTOR has a software audio option, or the ability to use the Miles Software Sound System, using such options should fix many problems with the game. I've not played KOTOR in quite a while so I can't check right now.

Killing Anakin at childhood would mean that the entire PT and OT would not be the same. If Anakin was not there, Ep.1. Trade federation's tactics wouldn't have come to an end. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would probably still defeat Maul (IF Quinlan Vos managed to help them get out of Tatooine), but it would be of little avail as the droid army as well as the Trade Federation space ships would probably win. At the same time, If they were not deactivated, probably the droid army could have reached there in time to save Darth Maul. But even if Maul was dead, Naboo would have lost, and the Separatist movement as well as Sidious would be that much stronger. Dooku would try harder to turn Obi-Wan to the DS, and by the time of Ep.2, the republic would be in turmoil and the Empire already announced. The OT would be composed of a few old Jedi trying to get a hold on Sidious and a new apprentice he has found, presumably Obi-Wan or someone else. There would be no Luke at all, and probably the NJO would be put in Jeopardy. But going to the question, I wouldn't kill Anakin as a young boy because he's good natured, sweet and well-behaved boy. Everyone deserves a chance.

I skimmed through the Ep3 novel and from what I interpret, its like this - The moment Anakin is given the name of Darth Vader, his transition is probably still not totally complete. Heck, even Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader shows the transition as not being 100% complete until the end of the book. When he carried out Operation: Knightfall, he was carrying out orders from Palpatine because: 1) He needed Palpatine's power to save Padme, it was the only way 2) He needed the Jedi holocrons which he would access to see if there was any way of saving her 3) He was already highly miffed at the Jedi due to his not being accepted as Jedi Master and the feelings of being put down by the Council 4) His love for Padme>His appreciation of the Jedi 5) His pertinent frustration with the clone wars and how it had separated him from Padme 6) Frustration with the growing corruption in the Senate, Palpatine's version of the story made him not like politics at all When Palpatine has Anakin in his grip, he has probably fully accepted that the Jedi are betrayers and need to be killed as the first step. He believes that Palpatine will bring an end to the clone wars and with his help, will eliminate all corruption. The end of the clone wars will allow him to live freely forever with Padme and his children. And hence he would have "peace". So, with these motives, he went into the Temple and started the slaughter of Jedi. All this while, Palpatine intended for his rage to grow and his emotions to consume him so that he would forever remain loyal to the Dark Side and the Empire. So, while killing Jedi, Anakin feeds his rage. Since he has a perceived account to settle with the Jedi, i.e. payback for deliberately degrading and humiliating him multiple times and at the same time not accepting his power, he is all the more enraged at them. Combined with Palpatine's accusations at the Jedi, this feeds his rage for every Jedi he kills. When he encounters the children, he is enraged and firmly in the belief that these children are already corrupted by the Jedi code since it has been imbibed into them from a very early age. Hence, leaving them alone will always prove detrimenal. This is probably why he decided that purging them was the better option, as there was no chance of "redemption" of these Jedi children. Therefore he commits this act, in the sense that children spoilt to the core cannot be redeemed reasonably. Anyway, once he is done with this, Palpatine tells him to go to the Mustafar system. At this point he has fed his rage, and he still believes what he is doing is right. But the rage has not fully consumed him yet. So he visits Padme and tells her something.

I remember reading somewhere a few months after Ep3's release that George was "planning" a movie set many hundred years before Episode 1 which would feature a younger Yoda in some way. That article was giving the impression that Yoda will be the only character known to use from the other SW films. Maybe this is one of the films? :D

BTW, as for the topic at hand, Revan would PWN this "Vader's apprentice". Even in the Prequel novels I read that older Jedi had powers that only the strongest of the present age can have a whiff of. In SW: Ep3, Yoda says to Anakin that premonitions and visions of the force were powers that every Jedi used to have in the long gone past, but now it is limited to only the strongest of them. So, even without considering Revan's accomplishments, Revan has a good chance of pwning this guy. Considering Revan's track record, he'll stomp all over this new Darth....