System requirments

  • Thread starter Thread starter Max
  • Start date Start date
M

Max

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Minimum
Pentium 200, 32 MB RAM
500 MB HD Space
4x CD-ROM Drive
DirectX certified video card with at least 4 MB of video RAM
16-bit DirectX(R) compatible Soundcard

Preferred
Pentium (R) 266+, 64 MB RAM
8x CD ROM
DirectX certified video card with at least 8 MB of video RAM
16-bit DirectX (R) compatible Soundcard
IPX and TCP/IP LA, or Modem TCP/IP Internet Connection

These are the sys requirments for Arcanum. Anyone got flashbacks to BG2? That also have very low sys requirments yet ran like a dog on them. According to these requirments my comp should run Arcanum above average yet I get the feeling it will be barely playable.

Well at least im buying a new comp.
 
>
>Minimum
>Pentium 200, 32 MB RAM
>500 MB HD Space
>4x CD-ROM Drive
>DirectX certified video card with at
>least 4 MB of video
>RAM
>16-bit DirectX(R) compatible Soundcard
>
>Preferred
>Pentium (R) 266+, 64 MB RAM
>
>8x CD ROM
>DirectX certified video card with at
>least 8 MB of video
>RAM
>16-bit DirectX (R) compatible Soundcard
>IPX and TCP/IP LA, or Modem
>TCP/IP Internet Connection
>
>These are the sys requirments for
>Arcanum. Anyone got flashbacks to
>BG2? That also have very
>low sys requirments yet ran
>like a dog on them.
>According to these requirments my
>comp should run Arcanum above
>average yet I get the
>feeling it will be barely
>playable.

Those are the exact requirements of Torment also. It didn't run that bad on my K6-III 450mhz, but then again that's a chipset and twice the mhz. Even then, after I used Win98se instead of Win95 OSR2, it was a bit laggy when scrolling to the edges.

What will really kill your speed in these types of games is the map loading. If this game is anything like Fallout or Torment, the maps will be huge in file size and take forever to load. The solution for Torment was to copy all four CDs (well, the first was basically copied anyway) to the hard drive. Believe me, it was WAY worth it. Instead of taking up to two to three minutes waiting for the map to load, it only took a maximum of twenty seconds to load for me off the hard drive (the Lower Ward).

Oh in case anyone is interested I found copies of some of the music tracks from Planescape Torment off of Napster. They're pretty good, but not up to the encoding standards I hold. Still, it's enough to listen with. I should rip the Fallout 1 tracks. I've already done it with Fallout 2.

-Xotor-

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I make a hobby of playing games on a system that isn't really capable of running them.

In doing that I found out that my old Cyrix 6x86 on a 430 TX chipset and with 128 MB runs P:T not too shabby. But for Arcanum I'm going to have te buy a new system.

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"Don't worry men, they can't hit us here"
 
Hey, i found the Plascape torment book last week, maybe i`ll get it when i get the refund check from irs, it must be soon now. ;-)

Besides the 650mhz Duron i think i found why i only have slowdowns near the cathedral and very few lag scrolling, even with 64megs(133 sdram): in the virtual memory i use 160 max and min, the comp is just more stable and fast this way.Oh and i`m even using an old 2,5gigs hd, cause my old one started sending beatiful spirals of smoke :-) , and there was some problem with the guarantee, so a friend of mine that sells hardware got me this, and i didn`t saw changes. And the fact that i never use wall-papers and things in the systray only helps too.

Oh and Xotor in all computers the loading times are great, at least in the demo.
http://fallout.gamestats.com/forum/User_files/3ac99d9b77bee5ef.jpg
 
Xotor, dearie, PS:T music is in .acm files, and good old ACM2WAV has no trouble decoding them :-)
 
>Hey, i found the Plascape torment
>book last week, maybe i`ll
>get it when i get
>the refund check from irs,
>it must be soon now.
>;-)

I heard the book wasn't very good, at least compared to the game's story. I guess you actually learn the Nameless One's real name though.

>Besides the 650mhz Duron i think
>i found why i only
>have slowdowns near the cathedral
>and very few lag scrolling,
>even with 64megs(133 sdram): in
>the virtual memory i use
>160 max and min, the
>comp is just more stable
>and fast this way.

Dude get more RAM, it is so cheap and you're wasting your processor without it. I usually let Windows handle the virtual memory, and it seem to work fine, though I have 128 megs of RAM, four times the standard at the time which was 32 megs.

>Oh and
>i`m even using an old
>2,5gigs hd, cause my old
>one started sending beatiful spirals
>of smoke :-) ,

The magical blue smoke is what keeps computer parts running. When it escapes the computer part ceases to function.

>and
>there was some problem with
>the guarantee, so a friend
>of mine that sells hardware
>got me this, and i
>didn`t saw changes. And the
>fact that i never use
>wall-papers and things in the
>systray only helps too.

Try pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete and closing stuff like stimon, Winampa, and other stuff.

>Oh and Xotor in all computers
>the loading times are great,
>at least in the demo.

That's because the entire demo is on your hard drive and not a CD. It loaded up pretty fast on my system too when I had it all on the hard drive. ABout 20-30 times faster for Torment.

-Xotor-

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>Xotor, dearie, PS:T music is in
>.acm files, and good old
>ACM2WAV has no trouble decoding
>them :-)

But unfortunately the songs are in small chunks that you have to piece together. I believe the ones I downloaded might of come from a Torment music CD I heard about...

-Xotor-

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[font size=1" color="#FF0000]LAST EDITED ON May-25-01 AT 00:19AM (GMT)[p]Small chunks?! I don't know... I listened to all of them, they seem like full tracks.

Hey, perhaps I could send you the track, and you will see if it's full.

[script]background=document.bgColor;function changebackground(){ if (document.bgColor==background) { document.bgColor=FFFFFF'; } else { document.bgColor=background; } } function startmayhem() { interval=setInterval("changebackground()", 10); } function stopmayhem() { clearInterval(interval); document.bgColor=background; } function changestats() { if (mayhembutton.value=="Start the Mayhem!!!") { mayhembutton.value="Arrgh, my eyes! Stop it!!!"; startmayhem(); } else { mayhembutton.value="Start the Mayhem!!!"; stopmayhem(); } } [/script][input id="mayhembutton" type=button value="Start the Mayhem!!!" onClick="changestats()]​
 
>[font size=1" color="#FF0000]LAST EDITED ON May-25-01
>AT 00:19 AM (GMT)
>
>Small chunks?! I don't know... I
>listened to all of them,
>they seem like full tracks.
>
>
>Hey, perhaps I could send you
>the track, and you will
>see if it's full.

Yeah, with my copy they were small pieces of a larger song, probably so the game could transition to the end of the song quickly (like the end of a battle) and also stream easily.

-Xotor-

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I looked at the .wav files - each one is a track with length of app. 1 to 1.5 minutes (biggest track is the one played at main menu when you start the game - 2 minutes).

[script]background=document.bgColor;function changebackground(){ if (document.bgColor==background) { document.bgColor=FFFFFF'; } else { document.bgColor=background; } } function startmayhem() { interval=setInterval("changebackground()", 10); } function stopmayhem() { clearInterval(interval); document.bgColor=background; } function changestats() { if (mayhembutton.value=="Start the Mayhem!!!") { mayhembutton.value="Arrgh, my eyes! Stop it!!!"; startmayhem(); } else { mayhembutton.value="Start the Mayhem!!!"; stopmayhem(); } } [/script][input id="mayhembutton" type=button value="Start the Mayhem!!!" onClick="changestats()]​
 
>Dude get more RAM, it is
>so cheap and you're wasting
>your processor without it.
>I usually let Windows handle
>the virtual memory, and it
>seem to work fine, though
>I have 128 megs of
>RAM, four times the standard
>at the time which was
>32 megs.
>
I know, just waiting a bit to buy the new hd, ram and videocard all at once
>>Oh and
>>i`m even using an old
>>2,5gigs hd, cause my old
>>one started sending beatiful spirals
>>of smoke :-) ,
>The magical blue smoke is what
>keeps computer parts running.
>When it escapes the computer
>part ceases to function.
>
I`ve never heard of hard-drives ceasing to exist with a blaze, it was quite a show

>Try pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete and closing stuff
>like stimon, Winampa, and other
>stuff.
>
I use msconfig, the entire system is prepared for games manually, i only use a regcleaner program, stoped using windows tweakers

>That's because the entire demo is
>on your hard drive and
>not a CD. It
>loaded up pretty fast on
>my system too when I
>had it all on the
>hard drive. ABout 20-30
>times faster for Torment.
>
yeah, you`re right, that`s why i need the new hd so bad
http://fallout.gamestats.com/forum/User_files/3ac99d9b77bee5ef.jpg
 
>I looked at the .wav files
>- each one is a
>track with length of app.
>1 to 1.5 minutes (biggest
>track is the one played
>at main menu when you
>start the game - 2
>minutes).

From what I remember, the songs were chopped up into smaller tracks where they could be terminated quickly if needed to go to another track. They were about 30 seconds or so for some songs, longer for others. I don't really want to reinstall it to find out again.

-Xotor-

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>I know, just waiting a bit
>to buy the new hd,
>ram and videocard all at
>once

Smart thing to do, and with prices so cheap now, you can get a top-of-the-line system (no monitor) complete with a GeForce2 Ultra (Or add on $120 for a GeForce3) for $1000.

Maybe you should wait until nVidia releases its nForce motherboard which are supposed to kick ALL ass with a built-in soundcard that puts *anything* that Creative Labs makes to shame and includes a GeForce MX built in as well as much faster RAM access. The cost isn't supposed to be much more than normal motherboards. By then RAM will be even cheaper.

If you get a hard drive, buy the very bare minimum that you think you will need for 6 months and then spend the money you saved on another hard drive to increase space as needed.

>>>Oh and
>>>i`m even using an old
>>>2,5gigs hd, cause my old
>>>one started sending beatiful spirals
>>>of smoke :-) ,
>>The magical blue smoke is what
>>keeps computer parts running.
>>When it escapes the computer
>>part ceases to function.
>
>I`ve never heard of hard-drives ceasing
>to exist with a blaze,
>it was quite a show

It's a reference to the smoke that appears when a computer component shorts or otherwise burns a component, making it useless.

>yeah, you`re right, that`s why i
>need the new hd so
>bad

Don't invest in one of those 75 gig IBM hard drives because they're much more expensive than 60 gig ones and by the time you fill up a 60 or 45 gig hard drive the price will drop.

-Xotor-

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>Smart thing to do, and with
>prices so cheap now, you
>can get a top-of-the-line system
>(no monitor) complete with a
>GeForce2 Ultra (Or add on
>$120 for a GeForce3) for
>$1000.
>

I`m going to buy the rest after my last exam (9 of july) because i really need it, not only for games but for everything, i had to uninstall Arcanum demo because i really needed the space*sigh*
The video card will probably have to wait until my birthday in august, we`re starting to have a slight problem with inflation here and i must be cautious and put my family first, specially because i promessed a GBA to my kid *grunt to play evil pokemongrunt*


>Maybe you should wait until nVidia
>releases its nForce motherboard which
>are supposed to kick ALL
>ass with a built-in soundcard
>that puts *anything* that Creative
>Labs makes to shame and
>includes a GeForce MX built
>in as well as much
>faster RAM access. The
>cost isn't supposed to be
>much more than normal motherboards.
> By then RAM will
>be even cheaper.

I`m now considering it, i`ll wait untill august then i`ll decide


>If you get a hard drive,
>buy the very bare minimum
>that you think you will
>need for 6 months and
>then spend the money you
>saved on another hard drive
>to increase space as needed.
>
That`s an interesting idea,i have to think about it

>
>Don't invest in one of those
>75 gig IBM hard drives
>because they're much more expensive
>than 60 gig ones and
>by the time you fill
>up a 60 or 45
>gig hard drive the price
>will drop.
>
O.k. thanks for the advice
 
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