"How To" KOTOR 2 On Vista

[NiklzNDimz]

Ah, another 8800 card.. but this seems to be a big issue. Is it a legal copy?

 

Of the game? Yes it is. So I'm guessing 8800's are notorious for problems?

[MrMidas]

Just need to clarify a couple things.

 

When i go to "run as admin" and tell it to run as winXP am i going to the tab at the bottom of the shortcut/file and selecting "run as XP" and then going back to the icon itself and choosing to "run as admin"?

Do i need to "run as admin" every time i launch the game?

 

And, what about patches? Do i patch after i have done everything else and which patch should i use?

 

Thanks!

[ryane]

hay Bass

 

 

 

no dice! it won't work but there must be sumthing i can d o

 

keeep in mind im on a laptop (mabye that will help)

 

 

 

i will spend up to $50 if need be

 

 

 

from ryan

[SteveThaiBinh]

KotOR2 doesn't work on laptops, because it wasn't written to. A few people may have managed to get it to work, but still a lot of people who come here with laptop issues never get them resolved, even laptops than can play seemingly more demanding games. If you have a laptop, you don't meet the minimum requirements, I'm afraid.

[FullMetalHollow]

KotOR2 doesn't work on laptops, because it wasn't written to. A few people may have managed to get it to work, but still a lot of people who come here with laptop issues never get them resolved, even laptops than can play seemingly more demanding games. If you have a laptop, you don't meed the minimum requirements, I'm afraid.

 

 

If only we knew that before we bought it

[Bass-GameMaster]

Well theres been occations few have got them to work, but it might be a lost cause. And MrMidas. right click it and open "Propertie" the go to "Security" check the box for run as admin, and click on windows xp aswell..

[MrMidas]

Thanks heaps! So glad i stumbled here. I didnt think i would ever see this run. You guys rock!

[Bass-GameMaster]

Im glad this has helped you, tell your friends.

[MrMidas]

Almost there but i still havent got it quite right.

 

If i right click on the shortcut i have the option to "run as administrator".

 

So i go to properties. That has 5 tabs up the top.

 

Under the "compatability" tab i have an option to

 

"run this program in compatability mode for

windows xp(service pack 2)"

 

down the bottom of this tab i have a greyed-out option called "Privilege Level" "Run this program as an administrator".

 

 

I havent been able to find anything like this in the security tab.

 

Thankyou for the help!

 

 

system details:

 

CPU

You Have: 2 processors running - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+

CPU Speed

You Have: 3.00 GHz Performance Rated at 9.00 GHz

System RAM

You Have: 2.0 GB

Video Card

You Have: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (GeForce 8800 GT)

 

Video Card Features:

Video RAM You have - 1.2 GB

Video Card 3D Acceleration You have - Yes

Video HW Transform & Lighting You have - Yes

Vertex Shader Ver You have - 4.0

 

Video Card Driver Version (DirectX)

Your driver version number is: 7.15.11.7516

DirectX Version

You Have: 10.0

[Bass-GameMaster]

Yes, which is why I stated I wasnt sure.

[babydol]

KotOR2 doesn't work on laptops, because it wasn't written to. A few people may have managed to get it to work, but still a lot of people who come here with laptop issues never get them resolved, even laptops than can play seemingly more demanding games. If you have a laptop, you don't meet the minimum requirements, I'm afraid.

 

Erm... Guess I'm just lucky then, cuz I've never had any problems. Actually runs better on my laptop then my hubby's desk top computer. Also ,(doi) with Vista.

[Gorth]

KotOR2 doesn't work on laptops, because it wasn't written to. A few people may have managed to get it to work, but still a lot of people who come here with laptop issues never get them resolved, even laptops than can play seemingly more demanding games. If you have a laptop, you don't meet the minimum requirements, I'm afraid.

 

Erm... Guess I'm just lucky then, cuz I've never had any problems. Actually runs better on my laptop then my hubby's desk top computer. Also ,(doi) with Vista.

I think it might be an impression that people get because of the number of laptops with Intel gfx chips out there. People with ATI or Nvidia gfx in their laptops are better off as a rule of thumb. Even then, there are some quirky laptops out there when running the old Aurora Engine based games

[MrMidas]

"Original disc can not be found or authenticated"

 

Ran fine for a day or two

 

Im not sure i had the whole "run as admin" thing right.

 

Apologies for lots of questions. I should be set now once it gets up and running again .

Edited August 31, 2008 by MrMidas

[Bass-GameMaster]

If your getting a disc error you might have to contact SecuRom for a new exe..

[Bass-GameMaster]

Err... bam?

[omnipace]

SOLUTION TO KOTOR AND KOTOR 2 RANDOM CRASHES, STARTUP CRASHES AND DRIVER STOPPED RESPONDING PROBLEM IN VISTA WITH NVIDIA DRIVERS :

 

This worked for me like a charm and took hours to solve the problem, but the game runs wonderful now without any crashes. (Just don't alt-tab while playing, the game doesn't like it.) Please note that I worked in a non-patched version of the game. But even with the patch there should be no random crashes except the game's original bugs.

 

PART 1 : INI file

 

Go to c:\program files\lucasarts\kotor2 and move swkotor2.ini to desktop, be sure the graphic options part is as follows :

 

[Graphics Options]

RefreshRate=60

Height=768

Width=1024

V-Sync=0

Anisotropy=8

Frame Buffer=0

Anti Aliasing=4

Texture Quality=2

Grass=1

Soft Shadows=0

Shadows=0

Brightness=57

EnableHardwareMouse=0

FullScreen=0

 

Sound options are as follows :

 

 

[sound Options]

Number 3D Voices=16

Number 2D Voices=24

2D3D Bias=1.00

Force Software=1

EAX=0

Sound Init=0

Music Volume=85

Voiceover Volume=85

Sound Effects Volume=85

Movie Volume=85

Disable Sound=0

 

After editing the file if required, remove it back to c:\program files\lucasarts\kotor2 folder.

 

PART II : NVIDIA Control panel

 

Go to your desktop right click and open NVIDIA control panel, now to the manage 3d settings and select global settings, change it as follows :

 

Anisotropic filtering : 16x

Anti-gamma : On

Antialias mode : App-cont

" - transparency : supersampling

Conformant text clamp : Use hardware

Err rep : Off

Ext. limit : off

Force mipmaps : Trilinear

Max. prerendered frames : 8

Multidisp/mix GPU : Single performance

Tex-filtering neg. bias : Clamp

Tex-filt. quality : High Q

Thread opt : off

Trip buffer : off

Vsync : force off

 

PART III : Registry setup

 

Click start, click start search, type regedit, run it. Search for "_swkotor.exe" (without commas). For me there were 3 entries and one of them is like :

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Cl ass\{4D36E968-E421-11DE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000]

 

Under this folder, you will find _swkotor.exe entry. All entries must be REG_BINARY.

 

Check and add these entries :

 

_swkotor2.exe:D3D_16579523 01 00 00 00

_swkotor2.exe:D3D_30913648 01 00 00 00

_swkotor2.exe:D3D_60461791 47 67 41 08

_swkotor2.exe:D3D_94118636 00 00 00 00

_swkotor2.exe:D3DOGL_03385531 02 00 00 00

_swkotor2.exe:D3DOGL_12677978 60 16 62 51

_swkotor2.exe:D3DOGL_67207556 11 00 00 00

_swkotor2.exe:D3DOGL_70835937 27 00 32 22

_swkotor2.exe:D3DOGL_74095213 10 00 00 10

_swkotor2.exe:OGL_25631692 02 00 00 00

_swkotor2.exe:OGL_DefaultSwapInterval ff ff ff ff

_swkotor2.exe:OGL_ExtensionStringVersion 00 00 00 00

_swkotor2.exe:OGL_TexClampBehavior 00 00 00 00

_swkotor2.exe:OGL_ThreadControl 02 00 00 00

_swkotor2.exe:OGL_TripleBuffer 01 00 00 00

 

: D (with no gap changes to smile)

 

Close the registry editor, restart your computer and goodbye crashes... I believe OGL_ThreadControl is the critical point here. But to be sure I write all entries. Also changing all _swkotor2.exe entries to _swkotor.exe solves kotor 1 crashes, you may add them as seperate entries.

 

Also I changed my swkotor.ini file as follows :

 

 

[Graphics Options]

V-Sync=0

Anisotropy=8

Frame Buffer=0

Anti Aliasing=4

Texture Quality=2

Emitters=1

Grass=1

Soft Shadows=0

Shadows=0

Brightness=57

EnableHardwareMouse=0

FullScreen=0

RefreshRate=60

Width=1024

Height=768

 

PART IV : Bad TDR, Bad TDR...

 

This is an application for graphics drivers. When a driver stops responding, vista resets the device driver so the system continues stable. But the problem is old games sometimes stops responding naturally and vista thinks the game crashed. There is a fix for that problem incase your problem consists of this :

 

start regedit and go to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Gr aphicsDrivers], add a new REG_DWORD entry as

 

TdrDdiDelay 120

TdrDelay 60

 

Close regedit.

 

PART V : RESTART YOUR COMPUTER

 

Somehow these changes requires restarting the computer to take effect.

 

PART VI : PLAY YOUR GAME AND SAVE OFTEN INCASE

 

Start your game in SP2 compability mode. Old mss32.dll is required also.

 

The game starts in windowed mode, but when you changed the resolution from the graphic options, it turns to fullscreen.

 

You should try turning on frame buffer effects and shadows as well from the ini file (Just set them to 1). I didn't care so I didn't try. But you may if it is important for you.

 

The game is also buggy and rarely crashes to desktop after these settings so save often. Good game although, or may be best...

 

RESULT : NVIDIA Drivers somehow sucks...

 

PART VII : LAST RESORT

 

Change your vista theme to classic to turn off windows aero subsytem. Also close the sidebar. As an option use CPU-control program and direct all processes to CPU1 incase you are using dualcore cpus.

Edited September 13, 2008 by omnipace

[Guest The Architect]

Thanks man! I was having trouble installing KotOR2 but thanks to your instructions I managed to install it. I appreciate it.

[GaspardDeadlyAssailant]

KotOR2 doesn't work on laptops, because it wasn't written to. A few people may have managed to get it to work, but still a lot of people who come here with laptop issues never get them resolved, even laptops than can play seemingly more demanding games. If you have a laptop, you don't meet the minimum requirements, I'm afraid.

 

Erm... Guess I'm just lucky then, cuz I've never had any problems. Actually runs better on my laptop then my hubby's desk top computer. Also ,(doi) with Vista.

Ummm yea it works on laptops mine works more than perfactly

[Nole4694]

this will be my first (and probablly last) post. Thankyou so much, I found the game again just last week and I tried installing it on my new computer but it wouldnt work. I had lost all hope when I found this. again thankyou.

 

 

 

P.S. The first Kotor seemed to work fine without any of this how odd.

[Bass-GameMaster]

Yeah, sorry im late but your welcome.

[Kooky]

Hey I tried this only I did it wit hthe game already installed and now I cannot uninstall the game. What am I supposed to do now?

[CorporalAris]

Okay, I have followed the instructions to the letter, Opening Disk 1, going to Setup.exe's Properties, changing compatibility to both XP (SP2) and Win2000. All files on my computer are set to run as Administrator as I have turned off UAC, but I still clicked to run as Administrator. The Install Wizard pops up, then a second later, an Error pops up that says, "Setup.exe Has Stopped Working."

 

What is going on?

 

My specs are not the problem, but are as follows:

Intel C2D E7200

Windows Vista Ultimate x86 (32bit)

nVidia evga 9600GSO

4GB RAM

120GB HDD

 

Help would be nice.

 

Thanks in advanced,

--CorporalAris

[CorporalAris]

Still waiting...

--CorporalAris

[jonjon]

What a life saver!

 

You're a star Bass-Games Master, thanks.

 

I just bought a new pc... (yep, vista) and couldn't get this to work on the new machine until I read your post.

 

It kept telling me my graphics were the problem even though I have a HD 4870 1GB and the drivers are bang up-to-date.

 

Cheers.

[Kodiackk]

Ok, i think i've tried everything now but i keep getting the same message

"Runtime Error"

Program: C:\Program Files\LucasArts\SWKotOR2\swkotor2.exe

Abnormal program termination

 

it also tells me my graphics card is out of date

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE

ive downloaded several drivers that havent worked either

 

what can I do before I loose my mind?