swaaye

So the lead is only 15% if you actually use 64-bit Windows. BTW, I've switched back to 32-bit XP yet again, after my 3rd stint in x64. There is simply no advantage and lots of little quirks.

That SIS760 is integrated graphics. It's very slow too, I've tried one. It could hardly run Morrowind or Jedi Knight 2, both from 2001 abouts. That means KOTOR2 is not going to run playably. The KOTOR games really dislike working with 3d chips not on their compatible lists, especially integrated stuff. If that's not a notebook, you need a new video card. There are tons of cards <$100 that will run KOTOR2 quite well. A GeForce 6600 or Radeon X700 would be many times faster than that SIS760. A Radeon 9600/9550 would be ok too (lot slower tho). Don't buy GeForce FX cards (5000 series).

LucasArts has never been big on patches. Never in any game of theirs I've played have they released more than 1 or 2 patches if I recall correctly. Though really few of their games are buggy enough for it to matter. I actually think it's pretty mind-blowing that KOTOR2 wasn't totally broken on release. It was developed in like record time, especially for an RPG.

This is no way the movies are 1600x1200. The game would have to downsize them most of the time since most people don't even have monitors that can run 1600x1200, not to mention the sheer size of a movie of that resolution LOL. The game engine may scale up the movies. It's possible. You know, like Media Player does. That's definitely what should be done in a modern game in the LCD era. I seem to recall a movie resolution setting in the INI file. I haven't bothered to install any of these addons because I gave up on this half ass game months ago.

If the game is changing resolution for the movies and you're playing it on a LCD you're movie quality is going to suck. Sorry this is an inherent flaw in LCD screens. LCDs must be used at their native resolution or they are horrible.

OMG I can not believe this patch has shown up. This is some sort of miracle moment lol. How long has it been? LOL!

YES! HALT I SAY! 14 pages of If Then Else looped conversation!

Heh I'm a lightsider that somehow managed to end up on the evil General's side and killing everyone. And I'm still maxed out on light side even after slaying a Jedi Master! Once I got stuck on this path somehow there was no way to get off of it..... I'm some kind of mentally twisted lightsided zealot!!! This game is such a mess heh.

The obvious loophole is that there is always a "next week".

I haven't really had many stability problems or graphical bugs between my Radeon 9600 and GF 6800 Go. My biggest complaints are the tons of little bugs throughout the game with stuff like the dialog skipping, odd NPC comments, loopy conversations, and the general finickyness of the influence system. One moment my companions love me, next I can do no right. Lol. Onderon looks horribly rushed IMO. The texturing is terribly repetitive and boring, lighting bad. It looks like a DX5 game to be honest. Some places are very nice, but then something sticks out like that. And a big thing for me is the horrible music quality. Mono, 11KHz audio isn't acceptable. Sorry. The cutscene quality is VERY similar to KOTOR1 and is acceptable for me. It's not better or worse than a lot of other game vids.

You have no idea what you are talking about. 9000 user: The game seems to run a bit choppier than KOTOR1 on my 9600, but it runs fine. My 9700 PRO runs KOTOR2 fantastic. Just be sure that you have the newest driver, or the driver that they "tested" the game (ha, did they really test the game) with. You have two options as a mobility user. Either Omega drivers (which I question as they are just hacked Catalyst drivers), or the official ATI Catalyst drivers. I'd go with ATI personally. To run the Catalysts on a mobility chip you must first mod them with a simple utility. http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/ Seriously I'd also check out ATITool and see what you can overclock it to. You may be surprised. I've been overclocking laptops for 2 years now. (9000,9600, and now a GF6800 Go). A Radeon 9000 GPU (RV250/M9) is a Radeon 8500 minus a texture unit per pipeline, so it's a 4x1. It also has just one vertex unit to 8500's two. It's a great little chip though. If you have 64MB or more of video RAM it's a 128-bit bus. I played KOTOR1 thru on one, and it was a 9000 32MB 64-bit bus on a Vaio notebook. http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/fairway/r9000pro/ http://www.beyond3d.com/misc/chipcomp/?vie...er=Order&cname= R9000 IGP/9100IGP (RS300) is a lot different. It is a 2x1 architecture with no vertex shader. Vertex shading is done on the CPU (not a terrible thing with the powerful CPU most of these systems have). It's still one of the fastest IGPs though, second only to ATI's Xpress 200 chipset. If you can get recent drivers on it the game should run, albeit pretty slowly due to the 2x1 nature and it using system RAM. http://www.beyond3d.com/previews/ati/rs300/ http://www.beyond3d.com/misc/chipcomp/?vie...er=Order&cname= The 3xxIGPs are not gonna cut it though. They are actually based on Radeon 7000 and are way too slow and lack far too many features.

I've finished Dantooine now and on my 6800 it run as well as anywhere else.... I was using 76.50 and now 77.72.

Good lord people. Stop buying new 9550's (and NEVER buy a SE anything) when you can buy a 9500 PRO off eBay for $50 or so. A 9500 PRO is a 9700 chip with a 128-bit memory bus. It would be a beast for a game like this. Or just go with a 9700 PRO or even a 9800. 9500 PROs on eBay 9700s on eBay Do not buy anything SE! They are crippled with 64-bit memory buses. There is nothing wrong with ATI's drivers. KOTOR is designed to run optimally on Xbox, which is a NV chip. So obviously it's tweaked as hell to run as best as possible on Xbox/NV. They need it to look as best as possible on that underpowered little console (relative to PC). They may even use some specific NV driver optimizations. KOTOR2 runs fantastic on my 9700PRO, and my laptop with a 9600 ran it pretty well as well.

To install Catalyst drivers on a Mobility chip you need to use this after you are told there is no compatible hardware installed: http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/ Let that mod the drivers for you then it will install fine.

Well I see Blizzard just released a new patch for StarCraft/Brood Wars. How does it feel to you guys to know Blizzard supports a game from 1998 when LEC won't support a game from 6 months ago?

I agree with you across the board on your post. However, all I've ever wanted was a rerelease of the soundtrack. That's very little labor, and would be around a 100MB download. We asked for that months ago and it was said that it was coming very soon. They should also have repaired more of what is obviously a seriously broken game. If they want to build modern titles within 9 months, well, up theirs. Lol. It's not realistic to expect that from a developer, and is just NUTS to expect for an RPG. Since then they've obviously moved on and laughed in our faces behind their walls (LEC). I'm thinking Obisidian has bloody knuckles from punching walls with frustration. LucasArt's lack of action (I don't need some pawn chatting with me on forums) only gives me the impression of immaturity and a lack of care for the quality of their titles. The immense competition and pressure of the industry has worn down LucasArts (once a top tier developer) to the point of them not caring at all about their games. They seem to plan their development not around creative game experiences, but around their Star Wars license and making a quick buck. Seriously, if they aren't really a developer anymore, why would any of you think they care about games? Developers make games, not marketers and accountants. Though for those of you that've been in the industry since the late '80s like me, you have to see what's happening. We used to have companies that only made games they loved. Sierra, LucasArts, Origin, EA (yes, even they did once), Interplay, etc. They are all gone now. Why? Because the business suits that ran their competitors knew how to out maneuver these less business-saavy companies. The age of gamers has changed immesely too. The average gamer used to be in his 30's. I think all of you know that a 30-yr-old has different interests than a 15-yr-old. Hardware was far more difficult to work with, more expensive, and games weren't as much about graphics. Basically today it seems we have almost entirely "quick buck" titles. Games with no replay value. The KOTOR series is a bit different than the massive number of FPS games out there today, but it definitely doesn't enjoy the popularity the FPS games receive from the new, younger gaming community. So LucasArts is forced to move on to new titles. If KOTOR2 had been HUGELY successful they'd be more concerned about it. I think it darn near flopped in comparison to Doom3/HL2. As a business fighting for survival (though Lucas won't just let LucasArts die obviously) they have to move on and not incur additional costs on limited revenue titles. That is the reality. But, I don't think of reality. I think of where I put my money. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER buy another LucasArts title unless I have tried the full release beforehand and see that it is worth the money. It is the only voice we consumers really have in the end. It's almost impossible to do this though without pirating (gee golly), which is sort of unique to the gaming world. We can't try out games anymore because demos are usually never released. This way we can't look before spending. Works out great for the publishers. This is coming from someone who has the original X-Wing at home. I have like 15 LucasArts boxes on the shelf. What do you think about losing a 15 year customer LucasArts chief?

I've posted on their official forum and emailed one of their lead testers. Zero response.

It's specs say that it should certainly be able to run it. It depends on whether the drivers and game agree.

The reason is that LucasArts wants it to die. The game has been out for 3 months now. It's old news. There is almost no long-term give-a-**** in our industry. They make a buck and quick move on, with some short term support. It makes a lot of sense from the business standpoint, and it has been a long time since the developers ran things and not the fools with the Bachelors in Business Administration degrees. This is why you DO NOT buy a game upon release. You find a way to check it out beforehand. Otherwise you are completely out of luck if it turns out to be a mess, and you donated to a company that knowingly sold near trash. And, better yet, we can't trust most game reviewers cuz all those fools give 90% of games 80% scores or higher. KOTOR2 may have a good story but it's so damn messed up it should have received a 50% with the bugs and f-ed up later-half factored in. But guess what happens if LucasArts sees a review tear up their money-maker? Well, that guy ain't gonna be getting his prerelease review copies or promotional posters, or free Lucasarts trip next time. You know what? I'd almost go so far as to say that a lower review score TODAY means a better game. Why? Cuz those games are often far more complex and take more thought, and have more depth. More things to go wrong or cause the half-wit reviewer to make a dumb design decision opinion statement. Why does Half Life 2 deserve 92% at Gamespot? You got me! It's a friggin straight-line course game with some seriously generic gameplay and a few tweaks to impress the jocks. Whatever.

I did not buy the game yet. I bought KOTOR a year after it was released. I own both the Xbox and PC versions of that fine game. KOTOR 2 will NEVER, EVER receive a dollar from me unless it is fixed. I want music that doesn't sound like I'm listening to a half-ass rip off a damned 1870's vinyl record.. I was sure I hadn't installed my original Sound Blaster 8-bit, but it sure sounded like it was in there when I tried KOTOR2 out. Then it started crashing, and walls were disappearing, and lines of dialog skipping past unreadably, among other golden examples of awful game development. Obsidian and Lucasarts: I laugh in your face. If this is the future of you, to destroy your only good game franchies and crush your fans' dreams, well, I hope you are put out of business and the market for Star Wars trash dies a terrible death. Star Wars books are forever, I don't NEED money-grubbing game development corps ripping me off. And when the ashes of your company realize how you screwed up, well, I'm sure the people who put you back together will do it better.

I'm sorry to say that this is the state of KOTOR2. It skips dialog on PC too. Funny how they missed that bug, huh? They obviously knew about it.

Well after installing KOTOR1 last night and hearing that soundtrack again it really is painfully obvious that somebody made a powerfully stupid decision with KOTOR2. I just can't believe how long this is taking. I had a friend at E3. I should have had him ask that lead product tester guy wtf was going on. I forgot to mention it to him though. My friend did record some very nice vids of Empire At War though. That game looks like it will be fun. Sorta reminded me of Rebellion with the overhead Galaxy map and all the EU ships. I love games with EU material!

Well I'm not sure what you can do... I do remember Catalyst 4.2 being VERY popular for KOTOR1. And, btw, there is a way to extract the OpenGL driver from each Catalyst pack. You can then put that file in the KOTOR2 folder and test each version. It's a tedious process though... Here's a guide http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...74entry282174 As for disabling more stuff, you'll have to check the INI file. I don't even have the game installed right now. I'm not going to play it until they release that media pack, or until it's obvious they've decided to ignore us. You should also try dropping the Texture Preference and Mipmap Detail Level sliders in ATI's control panel to the min. This should help a bit. You could even try overclocking the IGP. I'm not sure it's possible. But try ATITool, Radlinker, or Powerstrip. Good way to test to see if it's doing anything is with 3dmark2001's Fillrate tests.

Well, I beat RepubComm in 8 hours (KOTOR is slightly more complex and lengthy ). The droids liked to get stuck on door frames. My weapons all disappeared once........

If it can't run the pixel shader tests, it's not based on 9000 or 9200. It's an original Radeon core. If you score 1700 in 3dmark2001 you are not going to be running any modern-ish games well at all. You're looking at performance around the level of a Matrox G400, Geforce 2MX 100 (junk), TNT2, Rage128. It's bad. In fact, the original Geforce 256 from 1999 is easily 2x faster. http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8521726 Highest score for an IGP340 on Futuremark's ORB. http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7877600 Highest score for a 9100 IGP. That's about 5x better. It's still not so hot, but very good for an IGP. Very good. Only IGP that's better is a Radeon Xpress 200. Note that this one ran the Nature test which means it has pixel shading support. BTW, Radeon 9000 and 9200 are the same chip except 9200 has AGP 8x (pointless). Radeon 9100 and 8500 are identical. 8500 is the fastest of all of them though, especially the 8500 128MB as its memory is interleaved for a speed boost. IGP9100 is a 2x1 I believe, it's less than half of a full blown 9000 (I'm sure 9100 IGP is NOT based on 8500/desktop 9100).