*Unofficial* TROUBLESHOOTING Ultima IX: Ascension FAQ
Authors: Windforce Dragon & DarkSharp
Release-Date: 99-12-01
Version: 1.2 (Major Revision)
URL: http://www.gulbsoft.de/faq1.2.txt
Many people are experiencing problems running Ultima IX: Ascension. In the
interest of consolidation, we have scanned the forums of the UIX/OSI official
boards, Horizons and EA support culling these bits of information into a
FAQ. Sorry, I did not credit any of the posters, we figured getting the
information into the hands of players quickly was more important than
credits.
Caveat: These are nothing more than suggestions and are not guaranteed to
work. Use them at your own risk. we do not even have the game yet (lousy EB)
Note: We would love for someone with serious knowledge of API's, Win 98/2000k
to take this over and embellish it with their knowledge and experience. If
you are interested, contact us: (mailto:darksharp@bendcable.com) or Windforce
Dragon (mailto:windforce@gulbsoft.de)
PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME REGARDING QUESTIONS ON HOW TO FIX
YOUR PROBLEMS. As we are not techical wiz's, your questions will be ignored.
Sorry.
Note: THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE FAQ (Except Gameplay issues which might be
considered to have some very minor spoilers)
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DISCLAIMER
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The author of this FAQ is not liable for any damage that may occur to your
hard or software by using any of the tips in this FAQ. Use at your own risk
Ultima IX Ascension (UIXA, UA, UIX,U9) is a registered trademark of Origin
Systems and EA.
All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
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INDEX
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---- NEW NEW NEW ----
Revision History, check here for the latest tips!
0. Patch Information
1. Installation Issues
2. Speed/Performance Issues
2.1. Journal Options
2.2. Hardware and Windows Tuning
2.3. The Hardware Setup Program
2.4. Specific 3dfx solutions
2.5. Specific D3d solutions
3. Movies Issues
4. Sound Issues
5. Options.ini / Keymap file
6. Interface/Controlling/UI issues (Mouse/Keyboard function)
7. General Gameplays Issues
7.1. Plot related issues
7.2. Gameplay crashes and quirks
7.3. Gameplay issues
7.4. Savegame issues
7.5. Misc.
8. Additional help/Links
9. Credits
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REVISION HISTORY
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FAQ 1.2 * Reorganized the FAQ *
- Added Hardware Comparison Board at
http://server5.ezboard.com/fgulbsoftforumu9techforum.html
- Added Option.ini Section
- Added Credits Section
- Created Interface/UI/Controlling Section
- Added link for removing DirectX
----
FAQ 1.1 German translation released at http://www.gulbsoft.de/u9techfaq
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0. PATCH INFORMATION (as 30-11-99)
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0.1 Patch Availability (as 11-30-99)
----------------------------
- The first patch is being QA'd right now. It fixes some
crashes & plot problems, and it fixes the TNT2 driver
problem. QA will take several days at least.
- The next patch will address D3D performance more
aggressively, to the best of our ability; it'll also fix any
crashes & plot problems we find between now & then. That one
will take some time, since our D3D performance issues are
really a research task. If we knew exactly what changes to
make, we could provide an accurate estimate. The majority of
the time will be spent determining what change(s) to make to
the renderer.
QA must play through the game every time we change the map
data or the engine, to be sure we haven't introduced new
problems even worse than the ones we fixed.
We wish we could just ship out a patch right now; but that
isn't possible, and it wouldn't be wise.
The following note was dropped by CapnBill (LeadProgrammer) on
the official boards:
Game design issues: The problems we'll be looking to fix in
future patches won't be related to game design, unless they're
plot-stoppers. In other words, there isn't much we can do about
requests for more NPC schedules, etc. But, there are things we
can do about blatant bugs (creatures standing still while you
hit them, plot-stoppers, etc).
Before we shipped, all our testers played through the game
in its entirety; we fixed every plot problem we identified.
We never had any intention of treating you like Beta testers!
So, the game is play-through-able as is..and, it's getting
better, largely as a result of all the feedback here. So,
thanks, and please be patient!
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1. INSTALLATION ISSUES
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NOTE from CapnBill: Performance perception issue: The Install scales the game
engine's settings up, based on the type of CPU you have. So, if you have a
fast CPU, you'll have more bells & whistles than others, but at the cost of speed. You probably don't notice the fact that your game looks better
than someone else's (because you can't see their screen), but you do
notice that it doesn't seem to run faster. So, you can just scale
down your Journal Options settings for
more speed.
1.1. Q: I chose to install compressed textures but when I check this in the
Hardware Options the compressed textures setting is not selected.
A: When installing Ultima IX Ascension be sure to choose a custom install
and select compressed textures
1.2. Q: During installation, I reached the point where the program asks for an
installation directory. Pressed the "Browse..." button and got an
invalid page fault.
A: This is a problem with some video drivers, and not specific to UIX: A
(It's actually the installshield application that's crashing here, and
other apps will crash if you hit the 'browse' button). You should be
okay if you manually type in the path rather than using the browse
functions.
1.3. Q: I have chosen a custom install of Ultima IX Ascension and the installer
reported that zero kilobytes were installed. The installed used 480 MB
of hard drive space? What is taking up so much space?
A: The hard drive space is not missing. Even though there was nothing
selected in the custom install it still copies over the core of the
program resulting in used hard drive space.
Q: What version of DirectX comes with Ultima IX Ascension?
A: Ultima IX Ascension includes DirectX 7. An option to install DirectX 7
appears upon installation of the game. Many TNT2 and GeForce users are
expericiencing problems with DirectX 7. Consider using DirectX 6.1.
A tool for removing your current DirextX version can be found here:
http://www.ebrink.com/dxun/downloads.html
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2. IMPROVING SPEED/PERFORMANCE
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2.1 Journal and Ingame Options
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2.1.1. A: Tips from the official webpage for performance tuning:
Journal Options are the best way to affect performance.
To maximize your frame rate, set both clipping plane sliders
("Viewable Item Distance" and "Additional Terrain Viewing" all
the way to the left. Then, select the left-most checkbox in the
"Performance vs Quality" section. Close the Journal to save your
settings.
Note: if you run the Hardware Setup program after you set your journal
options, you must repeat this step.
2.1.2. A: Try turning down the details and the viewable distance located in the
options menu in your Journal. There is also the option to turn off Mip
mapping. This can be found by clicking on the Start menu > Programs >
Ultima 9 > Hardware options.
Infos from the Capn: mip-mapping: Mipmap level of 0 turns mip-mapping
off; only the highest detail level is used for textures. Level 1 is
on, with the nearest textures being the highest detail level. Level 2
is on, with nearest being the next-lowest detail level, etc.
2.1.3. A: Try bringing the camera closer into the Avatar using Crtl + Page up.
This author has experienced very good results with this technique.
2.2 Hardware and Windows Tuning Options
-----------------------------------------
GENERAL Official Tips from the Development team:
- Run Scandisk/Defrag
- Tip 2.2.4
- Setup a 500 MB Swapfile -> 2.2.2
- Tip 2.2.14
NOTE: To allow you to compare your systems performance with the performance
other users get with their system, I've set up a messageboard at
http://server5.ezboard.com/fgulbsoftforumu9techforum.html
It can also be used to find out what hardware will give you the best
performance when upgrading. (currently 30-11-99 there are approx. 30
posts in the forum. If you want to help, please add you own system
and your performance to the board. Thank you.
2.2. Q: I am getting terrible framerates in UIX, is there any way to improve
my framerate
2.2.1. A: Try setting your desktop resolution to the same size as the game
resolution (i.e.800x 600). This may also be the reason some people
can not get their mouse to work in some areas of the screen.
2.2.2. A: Try changing your computer to a file server. Go to Settings/Control
Panel/System/ Performance tab, at the bottom, click on "file system".
Change your HD to be treated like a "network server".
2.2.2. A: Virtual memory
Rules of thumb regarding virtual memory:
1. In almost every case, you will want to multiply the amount of
ram on your system by 2 to get your virtual memory size. (ex. 64
megs of ram = 128 meg swap file for virtual mem, 128 megs of ram = 256 meg swap file for virtual memory)
2. A system with over 64 meg of ram should be set to "network
server" under control panel/system/performance/file system. This
is the "typical role" setting.
3. You should create your own swap file by going to control
panel/system/performance/ virtual memory and specifying your
minimum and maximum the same size. This creates a permanent swap
and keeps windows from expanding and contracting the amount of
space allowed for swap. Letting windows specify on a
fragmented hard drive will really put a hit on performance.
4. When creating a swap file (changing virtual memory) if possible,
Specify a drive other then your C: drive. Also, you should
defrag before and after you set your permanent swap file.
5. There is a such thing as too much virtual memory when running
certain processes including games. For gaming purposes, you
shouldn't need more then twice the amount of system ram as stated
before.
2.2.3. A: Close all non essential programs including ICQ. If you have things like "crash guard" running in the background this will hurt your
performance and probably also cause other problems with the game, the
best bet is to close all non critical programs before running U9
check task manager by hitting ctrl-alt-delete there should really
only be two things listed here. explorer and systray ...and I've heard
you can do without systray as well.
2.2.4. A: Try turning off mipmapping with the Hardware Setup of UIX. (Official) Selecting a lower detail level for mip-mapping can improve D3D
performance. Lower detail levels require less video memory, and take
less time to load from disk. But, they look a bit blurrier.
You can also turn mip-mapping off. This also reduces your video memory
requirements, and can improve performance.
2.2.5. A: Defragment your hard drives. There is a built-in utility in Windows
98. Go the Help file and lookup Defragment under the Index tab. A
thing to consider is the Windows 98 utility does not defrag your VM
swap file, consider using Norton Disk Doctors Speed Disk.
2.2.6. A: Purchase more RAM if you have less than 128megs. Many people report
good results with 128 and even better results with 256 megs. You can
never have TOO much RAM.
2.2.7. A: If you own a Glide card yet have D3D card installed..try reinstalling
your Glide Card.
2.2.8. A: Play around with your resolution settings. Many people experience
better framerates at higher levels.
2.2.9.A: If the game runs slow with 16-bit textures, consider reinstalling
using 8-bit textures.
2.2.10.A: Since ram is the big factor in this game, you need to make sure you
have as MUCH free as possible when loading into the game. There is a
great program found at:http://tweakbase.gxnetwork.com called Cacheman.
It allows you to change some internal settings in windows (min/max
file cache sizes, etc) that free up ram considerably, AS WELL AS HELP
DISK PERFORMANCE. Try using these settings with it:
Min / Max cache 1mb / 6mb
ChunkSize 256 (helped disk performance alot)
FileCache 2048
DirCache 64
For those that are scared to mess with these things, these settings
are extremely conservative, only a shade lower than the original
settings. However, after doing this,normally my system on bootup
would have approx 30mb of the 64mb free (cacheman can tell you this).
After doing the changes, it went up to 43mb free.
2.2.11.A: If you have Office 97 installed it can take up huge amounts of system
resources... To increase your speed follow this procedure:
1. Open control panel2. Run Find Fast3. Press the menu called 'Index'
2. Press 'Delete Index...'
3. Delete all of the indexes, you should only have one on your 'C:'
4. Press 'Ok'
5. Press the menu called 'Index' again8. Press 'Close and Stop'
Reboot your system and then try Ultima IX again
You can also remove findfast.exe from the autostart by using
msconfig.exe
2.2.12.A: Change your hard Drives to DMA. Some people have experienced less HD
swapping by doing this. Go to windows control panel/system/device
manager then click on the disk drives folder..find the folder that
most resembles your hard drive (ex. GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE47) then
click on that and hit the properties button at the bottom. Under
settings you will see a list of settings, some will have check marks
others will not. Some boxes may be greyed out (unavailable). You
"should" see a box that says dma. If its not greyed-out check it and
restart your computer. If it's greyed out or there is no box..
chances are your hard drive does not support it.
2.2.13 A: Try shutting down USB to improve performance.
2.2.14.A: This tip was grapped from the official boards and confirmed later by
Origin as performance tip:
- Start the game:
- Once you're in the game, press Alt+Esc to go to the desktop.
- Press CTRL+ALT+DEL once to pull up the list of running programs.
- There is two entries, Ultima 9 and U9.
- End Task on U9. It'll come back saying not responding, so End Task
again.
- Then just go back to the game.
If you are not able to do alt-esc check section 6 on how to activate.
Looks like this u9 process is the copy protection and consuming some
amount of performance. Is I understand this kind of cp it is used once
to decrypt u9.exe which is encrypted on the cd. Maybe it respawns when
you are reloading while in the game.
2.3. HARDWARE SETUP PROGRAM
----------------------------
2.3.1. NOTE from the DevTeam:
We've identified another bug in the Hardware Setup program;
it over-writes any settings you made in your Journal Options.
So, if you set your Journal to make the game run faster,
then run the Hardware Setup program, you game will probably
run slower. To fix this, just change the Options in your
Journal again. We're fixing the Hardware Setup program; it'll appear in a future patch.
2.4. 3DFX/GLIDE ISSUES/SUGGESTIONS
----------------------------
NOTE: Make sure you have the latest drivers from www.3dfx.xom
2.4.1. First you want to try the following tips from the official webpage
1. Make sure you install and run with 8-bit textures.
2. Run the game, and use your in-game Journal to change your game Options
for maximum speed
2.4.2. One user suggested the following settings for a Voodoo 3 under the
system.ini
[vcache]
Chunksize=12288
MinFileCache=8192
MaxFileCache=8192
2.4.3. Q: I have a Voodoo 3 and I am running in Direct 3D but It does not look
as good as Glide.
A: Select Glide as the API
2.4.4. Q: I see rainbow textures at lower resolutions.
A: Try a higher resolution
2.4.5 Another author has found that a single V2 (8 megs) works better than a v3
2000 on a comparable system. Go figure. Sigh. (:P
2.5. D3d ISSUE/SUGGESTIONS
---------------------------
NOTE: OSI has repeadetly emphasized that UIX is specifically optimized for
GLIDE. You may want to consider buying one or two Voodoo 2 Cards and run them in
SLI Mode (Richard Garriots prefered config) or a Voodoo3 2000 for $75.
Go to pricewatch.com for the best prices.
NOTE: From the UIX Programmers: We found an issue with the 3.53 drivers and
DirectX 7 when it was too late to fix before shipping. As some of the
players have discovered, the older (2.08 or 2.40) drivers work well with
DirectX 6.1
Note on DirectX7:
DirectX 7 is still fairly new. Hardware manufacturers have not had time to
optimize their drivers fully yet. So, older DirectX 6.1 drivers may give you better performance. Contact your video card manufacturer for these drivers.
Note on Running Win2k from CapnBill:
Win2k (builds 2153? and greater) *require* DX7 drivers
for D3D. There is a list of currently supported cards and cards with
support forthcoming, but I'm not aware of what they are. Anybody who plays
Ascension here at the office under Win2K is most likely running Glide
on a Voodoo[1,2,3] card.
Note on Windows 98 and TNT cards : If so, did you re-install DirectX as part of
the game's install? We've had similar problems with TNT cards and Win98.
Sometimes, Win98 suddenly starts crashing constantly, usually in an app called MPREXE or something like that; that's part of explorer. Sometimes this would
happen even without changing the Windows configuration in any way; it suddenly
just decided it hated the video driver. If this is the problem you're having,
it's related to the TNT driver, not the game. I'll pass this on to customer
service--they should be able to recommend a fix. I think you may need to re-
install your video driver. (Capn Bill)
2.5.1 A: First you want to try this tips from the official website:
Quick Help: Running faster with D3D
1. Install the game with 16-bit textures. The "Compressed for D3D"
textures require less disk space, but run slower.
2. Use the Hardware Setup program to select Mip-Map Detail Level
"Medium"; or, select this option when you install the game.
3. Also using the Hardware Setup program, select a 32-bit screen
resolution for your D3D card, if any are available. You can tell a 32-
bit screen resolution because it'll say, for example, "800 x 600 x 32"
instead of "800 x 600 x 16".
4. Run the game, and use your in-game Journal to change your game Options
for maximum speed.
5. If your performance is still extremely slow, try installing different
drivers for your video card.
2.5.2. Q: I have CL TNT card and I see transparent textures that shouldn't be
transparent.
A: Go to the Creative Labs -Blaster TNT website. Get the new Bios
Software update, and the latest TNT Drivers.
2.5.3. Q: When will there be a D3d patch?
A: Check out the Patch Section at the beginning of this Document
2.5.4. Q: I get an invalid pixel format with my TNT card
A: Use the 2.08 drivers. A user reported that this is not an option for
GeForce users. Also this does NOT solve the problem if you still have
DX7. Maybe the 2.08 drivers work with DX6.X. Check the Installation
Section for tips to remove DX7. Origin is working on this issue.
2.5.5. Q: Hello, I have a problem with Ultima IX. I have a STB Velocity
4400 16 MB card. No matter what settings I use, there are no walls,
floors, ect. Everything just breaks up, I can't see where I'm going in
the game. The opening cinematic ran fine. What should I do? Any help
will be greatly appreciated.
A: Sounds like a driver, perhaps Direct X issue. Anyone experiencing the
same?
2.5.6. Q: Where to find current drivers for my D3dcard.
A: If you own a riva chipset card (128,tnt,tnt2), try www.nvidia.com or
the webpage the vendor (i.e. diamond.com for diamond cards).
Visit www.rivazone.com for general performance tuning tips and tools
2.5.7. A: Try playing around with your AGP Apertures Size setting in BIOS. Some
users reported much less swapping for their TNT systems after setting
it to a very large (256) or very low (32) setting. Can any hardware
guru have a look at this. Its possibly connected with your ram.
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3. MOVIE ISSUES
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3.1. SUGGESTION: If your movies are not playing (i.e. Intro, cut-scenes) try
removing your DVD software. Also try installing the movies on your hard
drive and changing the "MoviePath" setting in options.ini to point to the
directory on the hard drive instead of the cd/dvd drive?
3.2. SUGGESTION: if your movies aren't playing and you didn't put them on your
HD then try changing CDs. The movies are on the second CD and they wont play (or give an error!) if you have disk 1 still in there.
3.3. Q: I get sound but a black screen when the movies play
A: Make sure you installed Quicktime during the install process
3.4. A: An other user reported this: Apparently, U9 doesn't like dual CD-ROMs.
I installed it off the E drive, and the game runs fine off it, but it still
put the D drive as my path for the movie files - hence, no movies.
Simply hacking the .ini to the right path fixed it no problem.
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4. SOUND ISSUES
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Note: It has been confirmed by the DevTeam, that your sound performance may be
somewhat linked to the overall performance of the game. If you get sloppy framerates
you will most likely get choppy sound
4.1. Q: The sound stutters
4.1.1. A: Try turning down the acceleration on the sound and possibly lowering
the amount of Voices in the options.ini
4.1.2. A: If you are experiencing audio stuttering, try upping your Stream
Duration to 3000 under your options.ini
4.1.3. A: Triple check under your options.ini that your Speaker Configuration is
not 5= Surround. For some reason this slows down the game. Set it to
stereo. Or if using headphones to the appropriate config.
4.1.4. A: Try turning off EAX support (Suggested by CapnBill, Lead Developer)
4.1.5. A: Reduce the CD-Rom supplemental cache-size:
1)Alt+2click "my computer"
2)click "performance" tab (top right) then click "Filesystem"
3)Click the CD-ROM tab, then click in the "Optimize access
pattern for:" box, choose QUAD-SPEED OR HIGHER.
4)Move the "Supplemental cache size:" slider to "small" then click
apply.
4.2. Q: I am getting an annoying pause before the music starts up, anyway to
get rid of this?
4.2.1. A: This problem is caused by the Audio Cache, CD spinning-up and loading
the music off your HD. Try doing a full install or turn off music
altogether.
4.3. Soundblaster-Live: After trying EVERYTHING, and editing every possible
line in the options.ini file, I finally found the one. I did two things,
although it is the second that fixed the problem (the first doesn't hurt,
and is a good idea, anyway):
Both are under the {sound} section:
1) Change the UseNotify from UseNotify=0 to UseNotify=1
2) The second is the most ironic. It involves chnages the "rolloff"
value for the 2D and 3D sounds (yeah, the one that the comment line
says is NOT a good idea to touch to tweak the sound performance...).
Anyway, the default is Rolloff=1.0. Instead, change the value to read
"Rolloff=0.0". And then voila! Sounds and EAX galore!
4.4. With EAX, one user reported that with OSR2 he could not get the SFX to
unless he set the the USENOTIFY and ROLLOFF setting in options.ini.
Additionally the SFX worked fine every time when the game was loaded in
His regular 98 boot. So he installed a bare-bones 98 and installed the
Drivers and SFX worked fine again with both DX6 and DX7.
4.5 Q: Does this Rule Britannia Soundtrack play forever?
A: Its a bug, confirmed by OSI and possibly taken care of in the patch.
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5. Options.ini / Keymap file
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If you have any information on this file you think important or interesting,
please mail them
This is a example system posted by CapnBill on the official Boards:
specs: PII 400
128 MB RAM
Windows 2000 Professional, build 2114
Voodoo 2 with WinNT 4 Glide 2.x
Awe64 sound card
SCSI hard drives
OPTIONS settings that matter:
Clipping planes: 2000 middle, 4000 far
Lighting SkipFrames: 4
TreeShadows: 1
WaterShading: 1
ASoundCount: 5
NASoundCount: 3
8-Bit textures
800x600 resolution
Frame Rate in Britain: 12-15
On earth: 25
This options.ini was posted by Kelendral on the official boards. I've added
some comments from CapnBill.
Origin will soon post a guide on how to edit this file for performance tuning.
;************************************************************************
;
; Ultima IX - Option settings file
;
; This file should be modified only by experinced users
; Incorrect entries can cause game errors and failures
; Please be careful when adjusting these settings!
;
; Please use semi-colons to mark
; comment lines as is done with these lines
;
;*************************************************************************
[Interface]
; Current keymap
Current_Keymap=default.kmp
; Spells are cast as soon as key is hit
QuickSpellTargeting=1
[Performance]
; Camera focal length
CameraZoom=600
; Camera distance from Avatar
CameraDistance=400
;______________________________________________
; Recommended Performance Settings:
; CPU Speed MiddleClip FarClip WarnPolyLimit
; P200/233: 2500 2500 2000
; P266: 2500 3500 2500
; P330/333: 2750 4000 3000
; P400+: 3000 5000 3500
;______________________________________________
; Clipping planes
FarClippingPlaneDistance=5500
MiddleClippingPlaneDistance=3300
; Default clipping plane setting for underground maps
DungeonClippingPlaneDistance=2200
; Screen radius of objects culled, and distance culling
;starts
MaxObjCullSize=10
CullStartDist=1000
; Enables 16-bit texture maps
Use16BitTextures=1
; Use S3 Savage4 Texture Compression or not
UseCompressedTextures=0
; The range through which windows can be seen through
MaximumPortalRange=770
; Are particle-system flames allowed?
PoofFlames=1
; Poof optimization level:
; 0=no optimization
; 1=non-critical particles calculated but not transformed
; 2=non-critical particles are neither calculated nor
;transformed
; 3=non-critical particles cease incepting children
PoofOptimize=0
; High Resolution Sky Textures
HiResSky=1
; Default is 0
; Unknown - Assuming max processor percentage
; MaxProcessPercent=?; CapnBill;We have a debug screen (not in the final
; game) that shows %CPU usage of various Processes in the our
; engine--this value affects that debug screen
[Sound]
; Sound Device configured for Use
; Default is the Primary DirectSound Device Found
DeviceName=DirectSound (SB Live! Wave Out [B400])
; Turn Sound On/Off
SoundEnabled=1
; SpeakerConfig has the following values:
; 1 - Headphones
; 2 - Mono
; 3 - Quad
; 4 - Stereo
; 5 - Surround
SpeakerConfig=4
; SpeakerGeometry specifies the angle
; between speakers if you choose Stereo
SpeakerGeometry=20
; The number of simultaneous non-associated (2D, or "faked" 3D) sounds
; allowed at one time
NASoundCount=4
; The number of simultaneous associated (3D) sounds allowed at one time
ASoundCount=9
; Enables virtual 3D sound effexts
Enable3D=1
; The fall off rate with distance of non-associated sounds
; (this is the number of world units at which the sound will
; be muted - linearly falls off from 0 to this number)
Falloff2D=2200
; The amount to quiet the Avatar's own sounds so they aren't too loud
; (in %. 0=full volume, 100 = mute)
AvatarOffset=8
; The # of milliseconds to load from CD per frame
StreamDuration=5000
; Turn on and off EAX environmenta audio extensions (Echo's etc)
EnableAcoustics=1
; Master volume, 0=silent, 100 = max (in percent)
MasterVolume=100
; Volume of music, 0=silent, 100 = max (in percent)
MusicVolume=60
; Volume of speech, 0=silent, 100 = max (in percent)
SpeechVolume=85
; How many frames must pass before updating 3D values
(position,
; orientation, velocity, etc.)
SkipFrames=0
; Use the DirectSound "notification interface" to let the sound
; system know when to update (rather than polling the play position).
; Default is '0' (This will theoretically be fixed/work better
; in DirectX 8)
UseNotify=1
; For debugging, use a streamer that reads the *entire*
; sample at once.
DebugStreamers=0
; To get around a bug in Win98 Gold (our famous "crackle" problem),
; offset the "bad" frequency by this amount. It also doubles as
; the "range around the bad frequency" that we wish to monitor.
; (Ie, using 50 here would make any frequency from 22000kHz to
; 22050kHz be 22000kHz, and any frequency from 22050kHz to
; 22100kHz be 22100kHz.)
CrackleOffset=1
; This value overrides the "minimum perceptible attenuation" distance
; for 3D sounds. At distances less than this number (meters), the
; sounds will get no louder. (Increasing this number in effect makes
; all 3D sounds appear louder at the same distance from you.) The
; dialog that adjusts this value for individual templates ranges from
; 1.0 to 25.0, so I'd recommended playing in the 1.0 to 5.0 area.
; Default 1.0MinDist=1.0
; This value specifies how "fast" 3D sounds "roll off" to silence.
; The default (recommended) is 1.0. Less than that means roll off
; "slower", greater means "faster". Don't go less than 0.0, and
; I'd advise not to go greater than 1.0, as our balance issue is
; already apparent enough (greater than 1.0 will amplify the issue).
; However, the *A/V guys* (read as "not designers, programmers, or
; anybody else") should tweak this value in attempt to better
; balance 2D and 3D audio.
; Default 1.0
Rolloff=0.9
[Conversation]
EnableAudio=1
; Start of game settings
EnableText=0
; 0=Audio off, 1 = On
EnableConvoReplies=1
; 0=Avatar doesn't echo chosen responses, 1 = does
[Lighting]
; Allows flickering lightsources
Flicker=1
; Max distance flickering lights effect
FlickerRange=500
; Max # of lights used at any time (sorted by distance from camera)
MaxCount=100
; How many frames between each lighting system update
SkipFrames=0
AvatarSkipFrames=0
; How far a light moves before it relights its area
MoveDelta=5
; 3=Highest, 2 = Regular, 1 = Low, 0 = Poor
LightQuality=3
; Allows water depth to affect lighting
WaterShading=1
; Allows trees to cast shadows
TreeShadows=1
[Demo]
; testingMoongates=1
; CapnBill: unknown, lost in the mist of time
[Game]
; 0=Run, 1 = Walk
DefaultToWalking=1
; 2400 clock
StartTimeOfDay=600
; Lag before tool tips shows up
TooltipDelayTime=0
; Durration of tool tip
TooltipDisplayTime=999999999
; 2=D3D, 3 = Glide
Game Rasterizer=2
PromptForDevice=0
GameScreenWidth=1280
GameScreenHeight=1024
GameScreenDepth=32
GameMipMapLevel=1
DDGUID=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
D3DGUID=2229681632,18090,4559,129,111,0,0,192,32,21,110
; Game starts with 2=None, 1 = Minimum, 0 = Full
Show GUI=0
; Where to find the Flics
MoviePath=c:\gamez\ultima ix\Movies
; Are LOD levels set by distance from the Avatar, or camera?
LODsFromAvatar=0
; Is Z ignored for LODs?
IgnoreZforLODs=1
;
AttackHoldDuration=5000
Start=0
SaveStatePath=0
; Language
Language=En
; Speed Factor
SpeedFactor=5
; Set to disable Windows Key, Alt-Tab, Ctrl-Esc
DisableWinKey=0
; Set to 1 to force alpha textures to draw as 4444 (for 3dfx in D3D)
Force4444Alpha=0
[System]
; 1=allow exception handling (traps errors), 0 = just crash
TrapErrors=0
; 1=After trapping an exception, show the crash; 0 = just say "game over"
ShowErrors=0
; AutomaticMonoScreen=???
; CapnBill: useful only if you have an MDA (Mono Display Adapter).
; Shows a frame-rate counter if set to 1.
; MoveSysMonoType=???
; Capn Bill: Another debug screen option
; drawCollisionCylinders=???
; CapnBill: if enabled, will draw the "collision
; cylinder" for every creature in the world. We use it for
; debugging. Slows the game way, way down.
; WarnSpeedLimit=???
; Capn Bill: if on, stop signs appear on the screen in
; areas that are too slow. We used this for tuning the speed
; of various areas of the game.
; WarnPolyLimit=???
; CapnBill: WarnPolyLimit: stop sign for too many polys
; WarnMeshNumLimit=???
; CapnBill: WarnMeshNumLimit: stop sign for too many meshes
; WarnMeshRAMLimit=???
; CapnBill: stop sign for too much RAM used by meshes
; TerrainGridColor=???
; CapnBill: unknown, lost in the mist of time
; TerrainLODTextures=???
; CapnBill: enables custom textures for far-away
; terrain. Should be 1.
; TintProblemChunkCrossingItems=???
; Capn Bill: unknown, lost in the mist of time
[Video]
GammaRed=1.0
GammaGreen=1.0
GammaBlue=1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
6. Interface/Controlling/UI issues (Mouse/Keyboard function)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
6.1. Q: My armor/weapon bar suddenly disappeared
A: Try picking something up
6.2. Q: I can not scroll left or right and up or down while in hand mode.
A: Depending on where the Avatar is standing the scroll feature will
not be made available at times. Approach the object from a different
angle then enter hand mode again.
6.3. Q: I am in the water next to a wall when I get stuck inside the wall
after casting a spell.
A: You will be able to free yourself from the wall by pressing the
Escape key.
6.4. Q: Where is the in game options menu?
A: At first, there are no options due to the fact that the options for
The game are located in the Journal that is located in the downstairs
Living room. Once this Journal is acquired the -in game options- will
Become available by clicking on the Journal now located in the bottom
right next to your tool belt.
6.5. Q: How can I skip past repeated audio of NPCs?
A: Hit ENTER or click on the subtitle text.
6.6. Q: How to enable/disable the windows keys (alt-tab, etc)
A: Hack Options.ini as follows (Section [Game])
DisableWinKey=0
6.7. Q: Can I get item descriptions
A: There sure is. First, go into object/hand mode (press the '~' key).
Then, move the cursor over the item/icon you wish to examine, and hold
down the 'X' key. If the designers gave the item a description, it
should show up (from CapnBill)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
7. GENERAL GAMEPLAY ISSUES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
*Warning this area contains VERY MINOR SPOILERS
7.1. Plot related issues
----------------------------
7.1.1. Q: I'm stuck somewhere in the game and...
A: If really desperate, try Jeff Allens Walkthrough at
http://www.mindspring.com/~allenhouse1/ultima9
Read from end to beginning to translate (No, its not german :-))
Plot related bugs:
///////////////////////////////POSSIBLE SPOILER////////////////////////////////
7.1.2 Q: kcorkcalb fo seceip eerht ym ezingocer tnow cisnirT
ni htimskcalb ehT. (Trinsic)
A: Bug confirmed by Capn Bill and adressed in the next patch
7.1.3 Q: dellacer eb tonnac dna esuoh a otno tuo bmuj ro ffo llaf uoy fi kcuts
steg taob gniylf eht(Moonglow)
A: Reported, No answer yet
7.1.4 Q: deerf eb tonnac ociN dna dellik eb tonnac eh snaem sihT .sraeppasid
evoC fo nezitic tsrif ehT (Cove)
A: Reported, no answer yet
7.1.5.Q: nam netaeb eht ot klat ot gniyrt nehw potksed eht ot sehsarc emag eht
noitcua lrigevals eht ta nam eht gnitaeb etarip eht gnillik retfA
(Bucs Den), reproduced 5 times in a row by DarkSharp)
A: Nothing yet.
///////////////////////////END POSSIBLE SPOILER////////////////////////////////
7.1.6 A: telescope bug in Britannia: This bug is caused in LB's castle, up on
the. "patio"? where the telescope is. If you happen to use the
telescope at night to look at the moons, you will introduce the Hail
Britannia bug. The only current way to avoid this bug is to back up to
a previous savegame (before the telescope) and either NOT use the
telescope, or only use the telescope during the day. This will be fixed
in the (second?) patch. The bug itself is fixed, and there will be a
new keyboard command you can use to "fix" Hail Britannia if you saved
after the bug occurred, but before you installed the patch.
7.2. Gameplay crashes and quirks
----------------------------
7.2.1. Q: I crash every time I open a book or my Journal
A: Save game may be corrupted. Go back to an earlier saved game.
7.2.2. Q: When I try to use the "game" cd to play the game, the game would
crash at certain places in the game. (such as when I enter the
moongate, 1st meet Raven. . .etc) However, thegame plays fine
with the install disk.
A: No answer yet.
7.2.3. Q: If I play the game for (X) hours straight, the game gets slower and
slower.
A: Apparently this is a memory leak due to Win 95/98 and Win2k
Recommend rebooting your Ultima and if that does not work, reboot
your PC.
7.2.4. Q: When I enter the Moongate with my sword drawn the game crashes
A: DO NOT enter the Moongate with your weapon drawn
7.2.5. Q: Sometimes when I try to drag an item the game will crash
A: CapnBill reported some bugs regarding this issue are fixed with the
patch
7.3. Gameplay issues
----------------------------
7.3.1. Q: Do the NPC have schedules as promised?
A: Apparently most of the NPCs DO NOT have schedules or have very
limited schedules contrary to what was promised by Richard Garriot
and OSI.
7.3.2. Q: I didn't see the movie that came with the demo after I enter the
Moongate, instead it jumped straight to stonegate.
A: See the MOVIE ISSUES section
7.3.3. Q: I am inside Lord British's Castle and when I double click on the bag
located on the bed that Lord British has prepared for me I lose my
keyboard functions.
A: Pick the bag up first and place it in either your tool belt or your
backpack then double click on it to place or view contents of the bag.
7.3.4 Q: Why does it rain inside LB's Castle?
A: Unknown at this time. Sloppy collision detecting is this authors
guess.
7.3.5 Q: Why does the AI not work most of the time?
A: Unknown at this time. Probably OSI ran out of time. Supposed to be fixed in the upcoming patch
7.3.6. Q: Those spectres keep killing me, they're invulnerable
A: No, they're not. Try magic.
7.3.7. backpack bug: This is a known bug that is fixed in the patch, which
should be available shortly. Somehow multiple items are incorrectly
sharing the same inventory slot, and this causes a crash when the
backpack is full. The patch rectifies this removing these "stacked" items
and attempting to place them elsewhere in your inventory (belt, bag,
etc.), or on the ground if no suitable place occurs.
Until the patch is available, you could try loading your most current
non-crashing savegame and double-checking all your inventory slots. If
you find items that are overlapping, remove both/all of them and put them
in the world. Then close all your invetory gumps (backpack, bags, etc.)
and save. Then attempt to re-place the items back into your inventory and
save again. This might/should solve the crash.
7.3.8 castle music bug: We have a bug in our save/load that causes this problem.
I can't recall currently if we've fixed it in the patch; if not, we'll
look into fixing it (if we can reproduce it). We had this problem before
we shipped, and thought we'd fixed it....grr.
You can go to an earlier savegame that doesn't play this music; or you can
travel the world until another piece of music replaces this one (this can
be hard to do). (Capn Bill)
7.4. Savegame issues----------------------------
Note: U9 tends to corrupt its savegames sometimes. To protect your savegames
from being corrupted make sure you copy your savegames to a different folder
i.e. after you leave the game
7.4.1 Q: When I open U9 it starts to load the most recent save, like it should.
It loads the music successfully and then as soon as I get an image,
The program closes. I tried moving the most recent savegame file out
of the directory, but then it loads the beginning of the game instead
of the next most recent save! What can I do!?
A: When it starts a new game, run downstairs and pick up your journal and
then try to load a game. It will probably show you a list of games you
can load then choose one other than the one that keeps crashing on
you.
7.5. Misc.
--------------------------
Q:: Whats this file collis.log
A: Debug infos forgotten to take out. Taken care of in the patch
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
8. ADDITONAL HELP
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
8.1 Official Support Sources
----------------------------
Electronic Arts Official Support:
http://www.ea.com/tech_support/index.html
By Fax 650-628-5999 Our fax machine receives faxes 24 hours a day. Faxes are
answered only during working hours (M-F, 8:30a.m. to 4:30p.m., PST) and are
answered in the order they are received.
Ultima Ascension Official Boards
http://boards.owo.com/
8.1 Unofficial Support Sources
----------------------------
Ultima Horizons
http://www.allgaming.com/ultimaix
Ultima Horizons discussion board:
http://server5.ezboard.com/fultimahorizonsmain.html
http://216.151.221.145/cgi-bin/index.pl
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------9. CREDITS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
"Binaryz"
Brock
Jason "loonyboi" Bergman
Jeff Allen
Lucas, Perry P
Tom Grandgent
Kelendral
And:
The U9 Development Team
and all other people who submitted to this faq and were forgotten here.
Mail (mailto:windforce@gulbsoft.de) if you think you should be included here.