Troubleshooting Sacred 2 on Alienware

[evil_artifact 0]

Hey all

 

I'm here because there seems to be issues with Sacred 2 running on Alienware computers and laptops, so after months of tweaking, and some help from Kiyeri I have gotten Sacred 2 to run on high settings with minimal problems. So Im going to tell you all what I did to achieve this, and hopefully it will work for you.

 

1) AlienFX and AlienSense: Now, Sacred 2 was originally meant to co work with Alienware laptops, in the way that the colours on it will do things like go green when your at full health, red when nearly gone, and rainbow colours when you go up levels, and so on. However, this feature is broken! What it actually does is flash random colours at random times. What you need to do is turn off AlienFX (and maybe AlienSense for safe measures). How you do this is you go to your bar next your clock, and look through the icons for AlienFX, right-click it, and either click 'exit' or 'Go Dark'. (I chose exit for good measure). AlienSense can be turned off by going to Alien Command Centre > AlienSense > Put slider to Off.

 

2) Nvidia PhysX: Make sure this option is OFF on both the game settings and your computer. You can do your computer by going to Nvidia Control Panel (usually in toolbar) > PhysX configuration > Click on Select a Physx processor and choose CPU.

 

3) Graphics drivers: Make sure you have to most up to date drivers, as Dell (who make Alienware) dont have to most up to date drivers installed. You may have to do a clean install if the first try doesnt work. Nvidia Driver Instructions Go to this url, Im not tech savvy enough to guide you through the process myself lol

 

4) AVG: I find shutting this down while gaming seems to free up a few problems too. With the new version I havent found out how to shut it down without going to msconfig, so if anyone here knows how, do tell Anyway, go to Run > type in msconfig > Startup > Deselect AVG Internet Security. Then reboot

 

5) Setting on Sacred 2: Try to find the game settings that work best for you, but make sure to run in window mode! it seems to run smoother

 

6) Community Patch: Download the Community Patch, but only if you have Ice and Blood.

 

7) Stealth Mode: This service should be discontinued by now, but if you have this on your Alienware, make sure you get a screen popping up saying that it is Off. Sometimes it can be a bit fiddly and not go off properly.

 

8) Graphics processing: Make sure you are using High Processing when playing Sacred 2. For Nvidia, you go to Control panel > Select Sacred 2 (or add the .exe file. Shortcut on desktop will do.) > Make sure the preferred Graphics card is high processing by clicking on drop down menu > Click apply.

 

Thats my guide done, hope this helps you guys with Alienwares. Deds to Kiyeri for telling me about some of the things on here

[Kiyeri 34]

 

Glad to see you got it working Evil. It's just a matter of being persistent since not every fix works for everyone. BUT.. it's definitely worth the effort!

 

Oh and as an interesting aside... Sacred2 runs much better on my Alienware Laptop then on my PC.. there is a post in here somewhere with all the work I had to go through to get it working on my Desktop and it still runs at about half the quality of my laptop.

 

Kiy

Edited August 2, 2011 by Kiyeri

[gogoblender 3,069]

This is a nice writeup

Welcome to DarkMatters Shane!

Guide stickied

 

 

gogo

[Kiyeri 34]

Thanks Gogo...

Its my guide from may 20th re-written

 

Posted 20 May 2011 - 09:59 PM

Hiya Shane,

 

Have you gotten Sacred 2 to work on you new lappy? I have an Alienware m15x i7 laptop, and have FINALLY after months of tweaking gotten Sacred 2 to play on it.

 

Here are what I have determined made it worked for me. Of course, sadly I have to say "this is what worked for me, it may not work for anyone else", just keep tweaking at it and as frustrating as it is eventually you will get it.

 

1. Delete the Nvidia Driver in Device manager (simply updating it didn't work for me I had to do a clean install of it)

 

2. Download and install the most recent Driver DIRECTLY from the Nvidia website, DO NOT install Dell's driver (Dell now owns Alienware

in case you didn't kno). Nvidia has fixed some issues causing incompatibility with Sacred 2. But the Drivers available from Dell are several months behind and do not include these fixes. After many many hours on the phone with Dell Tech Support because I couldn't game on my gaming laptop... NVM long story but.... as a result Dell working on updated drivers with Nvidia expected release late June 2011.

 

3. Download and install the most recent Community Patch from Dark Matters if you can... you will need Ice & Blood version 2.51 (this also made the game run smoother with less crashing to desktop)

 

4. turn off PhysX and SLI both on your lappy AND PhysX in the graphics menu in game.

 

5. Run game in Windowed mode (yea it seems to run smoother idn why)

 

6. I Set graphics to medium, but I have more power... set to minimum and then turn up in small increments till you get the balance you like. turn off anti-aliasing, weather, v-sync

 

7. VERY VERY IMPORTANT.... on my laptop when Stealth Mode is turned on it is actually OFF and I am not getting all the power my lappy is capable of... and when it says it is OFF it is in fact turned ON... This is a known issue with these laptops and is being discontinued from the design. If you have Stealth Mode... MAKE SURE WHEN IT FLASHES ON THE SCREEN THAT IT SAYS IT IS OFF.

 

Good luck, hope my experience helped some.

 

*hugs*

Kiy