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Just saw this new post on the LA boards in response to the post intro crash. This is from the Admin...

 

If you get a black screen and music continues to play, 90 percent of the time this indicates old drivers, go get the new 5.2 cats from www.atitech.com and give the game another try. and let us know if that helped.

 

Yeah, yeah, it's the fault of the dumb old end user yet again. Of course we're all too stupid to have tried this already. I'm sure "Have you tried rebooting the computer?" will follow shortly.

 

So, LA are either unaware of this problem (doubtful) or are stonewalling the requests for help. Whatever they are up to, doesn't look like a patch for this problem is coming our way anytime soon.

 

I REALLY hope I'm way wrong about this but I do plan to return the game, before my money back expires, if there is no sign of a fix on the horizon.

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For what it's worth, upgrading to 5.2 does allow you to get past the initial character creation screen.

 

Unfortunately, later gameplay is somewhat choppy (in places, possibly even unplayable) in the 5.2 drivers. 4.11 drivers are known to be much smoother with KOTOR 1 and KOTOR 2, but that initial video sequence seems to lock up with them installed.

 

To my knowledge, only the initial video sequence is affected like this, so you could potentially create a character using drivers 5.2, then resume that character with drivers 4.11. (Or possibly just disable video sequences until past the first video sequence.)

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Thanks for the suggestions there. I appreciate them but I've already tried 5.2, latest Omega, disabling videos/shadows/sound/etc, etc... All with no luck. From the latest posts it appears that the 5.2 drivers do sort out this issue in some cases, but not all. Interestingly, the problem seems to affect users across the whole spectrum of graphics card specs (from minimum required to kick ass) so could be a major ATI bug in the code. For now, I'll be patient and see if the devs come up with anything useful to say.

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KOTOR2 is obviously the sequel to the KOTOR. So I doubt Obsidian would risk not bringing out a patch for the game. If possible buyers new that the game was full of glitches and there is nothing to do but pray they dont affect you is doubtfull. So if you ask me, the people at Obsidian will be drinking alot of coffee tonight :thumbsup:

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I hope you are right SugarJunky. My concerns are not so much with Obsidian but with LA. As the publishers it's up to them if and when a patch is relased and they don't exactly have a good track record. KOTOR 1.03, while a vast improvement on earlier versions, contained many bugs that a lot of users had pointed out from the very start. I can only hope that LA are not stupid enough to completely alienate ATI users.

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They've got an updates section for KotOR 2 so it at least looks like they're planning for a patch. (though you can only get there via the address on the patcher)

Blue lorry yellow lorry blue lorry yellow lorry blorry. D'oh.

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can i download the cats 5.2 with a laptop? if not what else can i use. thanks

 

No- the official Cats don't work with laptops, no matter what it says in the readme (oh yes we support IGP cards- bollocks!). Instead, you can ignor the moderators at Lucasarts and download modded drivers, such as Omega or DNA, with all the freedom of a hippy in the summer of '69. However, just as the 50's came before the 60's, you'll have to wait until one of these groups mods the 5.2's and releases them- which hopefully won't be too long. Peace out brother.

Blue lorry yellow lorry blue lorry yellow lorry blorry. D'oh.

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Darth Somethingorother, yes at least they included an updater which is hopeful. I'm going to call the store I bought it from on Monday to see how long I get before the return expires (usually 7 days with games). Hoping we'll have either a hotfix or a statement from Obsidian or LA before then. If it were just in-game glitches I'd be tempted to keep the game and wait patiently but with an issue as serious as this, I'd be annoyed if I ended up out of pocket for a product that wont work at all. Frankly, I'm astounded that something like this could slip past QA, given that so many ATI users are reporting this error.

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@9mak9,

 

If you've never done this before, I suggest you download the software tool for doing this. It's called Dhmodtool and you can get the latest version here...

 

http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/

 

It's very easy to use.

 

Download the latest Cat drivers.

Run the exe and allow them to extract to the default path (this is important).

Do not try to install at this time...cancel.

Run the modtool and select your card.

Run ATI setup again and you should be good to go.

 

If this doesn't work PM me and I can send you the modded infs or explain how to edit manually.

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Right, for anyone who's interested, I'm trying the driver modding thing suggested by Boba Fett now on a 345M for the Cat 5.2's... I shall keep thee posted.

Blue lorry yellow lorry blue lorry yellow lorry blorry. D'oh.

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Good luck Darth. I've tried the 5.2s myself and no go but others are reporting success with these (and then a further switch back to Cat 4.11 after the loading screen for smoother framerates).

 

Well, it didn't work :) . Still a few more options, but it doesn't look good.

Blue lorry yellow lorry blue lorry yellow lorry blorry. D'oh.

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I'm assuming by didn't work you mean the game, not the driver modification process? I can assure you the latter works so if you ran into difficulties with this, I'd be more than willing to help you out.

 

Well, I've now run out of options myself. So I can only:

 

i) return game for a refund

ii) wait for a patch, not knowing if it will even sort the issue out or not

and/or

iii) wait for the new Omega drivers, not knowing if it will even sort the issue out or not

 

Option 1 is looking like the clear winner so far. Normally I'd be willing to wait but I've never seen a game as FUBAR as this one before.

 

What puzzles me most is that the devs already knew about many ATI issues from KOTOR. From what little I've seen of the game and from reviews/screenies the game engine looks pretty much the same in TSL. KOTOR worked out of the box on my crappy Mobilty card and any minor bugs I experienced were shared by almost all users, regardless of card manufacturer. I'd have to say Obsidian / LA have simply got it in for ATI, if that wasn't being paranoid.

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Very doubtful, but it your willing to spare the time, I don't suppose it could hurt. From what I've read those particualr drivers are unstable. So far, I've always stuck with the proprietry ATI set or Omega, who should be releasing the 5.2 modded set in the not too distant future. I've now tried four different drivers with no luck so I'm not very hopeful myself.

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yea ive tried the 5.2 cats and now the omega 4.9s.

ive also put in the Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1 line as some people said

i dont know what else to do except wait for the patch but that might not be enough

cause im hearing the radeon 7500 wont work, and the fact that i have a laptop means i cant upgrade my graphics card :unsure:

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If they make a decent patch, then I doubt they'll leave such a big issue unresolved- its been happening on lots of ATI cards- and there is evidence to suggest that Obsidian have at least allowed for a patch, guess it all hangs on LA.

 

P.S. Yea, it was the game that didn't work, the modding bit worked fine- first thing this weekend that's gone right, lol!

Blue lorry yellow lorry blue lorry yellow lorry blorry. D'oh.

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Darth, under most circumstances I'd put money on an early patch fixing such an issue but two things concern me: the silence from devs/pubs and the rumours of KOTOR III coming soon (may just be BS but who knows). LA are well know for ditching patch development the minute a sequel is announced. Recent example being KOTOR 1.03. Now that patch did fix a lot of issues but many went unresolved. Having said that KOTOR, was a unique and spectacular game that I just had to love in spite of the bugs/glitches. If I have to end up going for a refund and missing out on a sequel then so be it. I can alawys catch up on the storyline through the boards :D Wont lose any sleep over it, that's for sure. In fact I'll have plenty of that to catch up on after this weekend's marathon puter tweak fest.

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Hmmm, I fear that you may be right on that one. Shame.

 

EDIT: that said, the first game was released on November 17th 2003 for PC in america, and it took them till 2nd December to make the first patch, so there is time yet... and there are few LA games which don't have at least one patch.

Blue lorry yellow lorry blue lorry yellow lorry blorry. D'oh.

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