Funny/Interesting Sacred 2 Screenshots

[desm 329]

A good catch of my brave new bishop! It's gonna hurt!

 

[gogoblender 3,068]

hurt would just be the beginning...

 

gogo

[gogoblender 3,068]

The Bishop Model and look is outstanding!

 

gogo

[desm 329]

I love this char!

 

Carnage in Grunwald Forest, one of my fav place to farm.

 

 

 

I've obtained a nice armor and a nice sword All skill +2 (I'm +9 currently)

 

 

 

Now I'm a bit afraid to go to the Mounts Island as I lost my previous char on the Hydra (!). That's why I leveled my Barbarian high before going there. I precise I play D2F of course.

Edited April 21, 2017 by desm

[desm 329]

 

 

I've bravely succeeded in my test and have been rewarded with a unique mount (at a certain price...). But I've heard rumors that said a new merchant with very special mounts has arrived in the Jungle region. Have to look for it when I be there.

Gar', prepare! I'm there for you!

[Hooyaah 2,817]

Most excellent, indeed. I observe that you have PhysX enabled as well.

 

[desm 329]

Yes, no crashes at all (ok, just 1) since I reinstalled the game on the 32 bits partition. It's a great pleasure to be able to do sessions longer than 5 minutes... And yes I can have all maxed out, PhysX, Meteo and all (only Elite textures I don't have for they make my game hangs). I hope I will be at last able to fully explore the Blood Forest freely, haven't tested yet.

 

 

Night time, bye bye.

[Androdion 875]

Having a 32-bit partition to play the game must be one of the few methods (if not the only) to play the game in full splendour without having major crashes no? Though I do remember FA v2.43 being a memory hog, never had a problem with v2.40, but sadly never tried I&B v2.65 on a 32-bit system.

 

Can you share some of your experience mate?

Edited April 21, 2017 by Androdion

[desm 329]

I started playing with Sacred 2 Gold, haven't tried any earlier version. But what I can say it's that for me, the only way to have no crashed is a 32-bit OS yes; must depend of the pc spec too as some players can anyway play with no crashes on a 64-bit OS.

 

I've tried all the possible solutions findable on the net, nothing to do, still hangs. Long time ago I had installed XP Pro 32-bit and indeed no crahes but I've had to install 7 Pro 64-bit after that. And then the problems began.

 

I tried XP pro 64-bit too but still crashes. So I decided as a radical solution to install 7 Home basic 32-bit on a dedicated partition and I don't regret it! No more fear to open the map, to teleport 'massively', to walk around in thylysium freely without being pressed by time before it crashes, hopefully the Blood Forest will be the same; no more fear of random hangs despite the fact I have sometimes a non-response of the game for 1 second or so but it goes on anyway while before it would have simply hang.

 

So yes, the only real solution is a 32-bit OS in my case and opinion

And with the arrival of Diablo 2 Fallen v8 it was a necessary step but like I said I don't regret it, I only regret to not have it done earlier lol

Cheers

[Androdion 875]

Thanks for the detailed info mate!

[Dorimil 224]

probably the original retailed versions need a 32-bit OS? I have got the Steam and the GoG-Version running including CP on Win 7 and 10, both 64-bit...

[desm 329]

With no crashes or hangs? You are lucky. I have too the retail version, the steam version and the gog version and it's all the same (currently I'm playing on the gog version).

Finally, the only solution is for me the dedicated 32-bit partition. But I find strange and a little bit disapointed that I can't use the Elite textutes. But well, at least it plays fine.

[Hooyaah 2,817]

Yes, no crashes at all (ok, just 1) since I reinstalled the game on the 32 bits partition. It's a great pleasure to be able to do sessions longer than 5 minutes... And yes I can have all maxed out, PhysX, Meteo and all (only Elite textures I don't have for they make my game hangs). I hope I will be at last able to fully explore the Blood Forest freely, haven't tested yet.

 

 

Night time, bye bye.

 

^ I can see that Bishop is not "fooling" around. He's totally wicked, bro!

 

I believe that there are so many variables that affect the way Sacred 2 (Diablo 2 Mod or not) plays and its stability that it's not so easy to pin point what is causing the problems. I'm curious if anyone else has used Fraps to see their frame-rates in the game. Also, does anyone else use Benchmark tests like Firestrike or Heaven (by Unigine) to test their rig? Often such benchmarks can help in finding areas that are strong and expose the opportunities for improvement. Any PC setup is only as stable and fast as its weakest link allows and benchmarks are a good way to find them.

[desm 329]

He's totally wicked, bro!

ahah He follows the Shadow Path, that's it. Finished Silver too.

 

A new Avatar (in self-drop, level 17):

 

I precise my other, old or recent, games runs perfectly, only Sacred 2 is causing troubles so I really don't know. Maybe I will give Heaven a try.

[Hooyaah 2,817]

 

He's totally wicked, bro!

ahah He follows the Shadow Path, that's it. Finished Silver too.

 

A new Avatar (in self-drop, level 17):

 

I precise my other, old or recent, games runs perfectly, only Sacred 2 is causing troubles so I really don't know. Maybe I will give Heaven a try.

 

My rig is running it all OK but with weather activated itoften makes it crash with the first rainstorm. It works with PhysX enabled but I don't really care so much for those green leaves blowing around. I mean, where are all of the nearby trees and bushes devoid of foliage? I run the game at 40 - 60 FPS with very few hiccups when I load the game. Still, the game seems to hold all of the data regarding game progress, map coverage, etc. that sooner or later it results in crash if I don't save and exit every hour or two. It seems to be just the way the game was written and because it's a 32bit game, having more than 3.5 GB of RAM and a quad core is of no help. A 2 GB GPU should be sufficient enough, but unless it's a NVidia card it won't play with PhysX enabled unless one has a dedicated PPU and a separate GPU. With a NVidia card one must go to the NVidia control panel and set it to run PhysX from the GPU, not the CPU. Doing so should prevent crashes resulting from PhysX running.

 

Unigine's Heaven is a free Steampunk-themed Benchmark and may be found here: Heaven

3DMARK's basic, free edition of Fire Strike* may be found here: Fire Strike

 

*Fire Strike will do tests (including a Physics test) of your rig and allow you to compare it's composite score to other systems that it has tested so you may determine how yours measures up.

[desm 329]

PhysX is not only for the leaves; it has some great particles effects for spells, personnaly I like to play with PhysX enabled, very beautiful/oneiric. I find the High Elf casting glacial spikes marvellous for example.

 

 

I'll try Fire Strike by curiosity but I doubt it makes things clearer for me.

Edited April 25, 2017 by desm

[Hooyaah 2,817]

I concur, the High Elf's Glacial thorns do create a ineffably spectacular effect. The Seraphim's Flaring Nova is impressive as well. Thanks for reminding me. Perhaps it's worth tolerating the annoyance of the ever swirling leaves.

[desm 329]

I agree there's a bit too much leaves flying around lol But for me it worth it. Like the thunder, all the screen goes white, a little bit too much for me but well...

 

[Flix 5,116]

Some of the spells are completely transformed by PhysX. Try Mortifying Pillory (or Dim Vision in D2F). Without PhysX there's this weak little green light that shines for a moment. With PhysX enabled, this humongous green tidal wave cascades across the screen. It was gorgeous. I may try to make a gif of it later.

 

By the way, thanks for the tip about assigning PhysX to be handled by the GPU in the Nvidia control panel. That seems to have made it stable on my system. It's like I'm playing a whole new game now.

[Hooyaah 2,817]

Some of the spells are completely transformed by PhysX. Try Mortifying Pillory (or Dim Vision in D2F). Without PhysX there's this weak little green light that shines for a moment. With PhysX enabled, this humongous green tidal wave cascades across the screen. It was gorgeous. I may try to make a gif of it later.

 

By the way, thanks for the tip about assigning PhysX to be handled by the GPU in the Nvidia control panel. That seems to have made it stable on my system. It's like I'm playing a whole new game now.

 

^ You are most welcome, indeed. Another thing that I have learned is that setting shadows to "very high" tends to over-tax a system. Setting shadows to medium or high is not so visually noticeable (except in screenshots) but it does help with stability.

[gogoblender 3,068]

Some of the spells are completely transformed by PhysX. Try Mortifying Pillory (or Dim Vision in D2F). Without PhysX there's this weak little green light that shines for a moment. With PhysX enabled, this humongous green tidal wave cascades across the screen. It was gorgeous. I may try to make a gif of it later.

 

By the way, thanks for the tip about assigning PhysX to be handled by the GPU in the Nvidia control panel. That seems to have made it stable on my system. It's like I'm playing a whole new game now.

never seen that wave!!

 

gogo

[Androdion 875]

Gah, this is funky...

 

So after all this PhysX talk I went on and tried it, after not even starting the game for like half a year. Yes, shame on me and all that. Anyway, configured PhysX to be taken cared of by the GPU on the Nvidia CP (GTX 960 here) started the game and activated it. I will say, maybe it's placebo maybe it isn't, but the game did look better. It seems to leave it more fluid, with less hang outs here and there, and PhysX content being displayed doesn't behave like before when it would slow down. Cool, so I tried force-crashing the game. All it took was a small roadtrip to the Blood Forest and bam! Oh well, let's try and lower the shadows to just "high". Teleporting here and there, running through the Swamp/Jungle/Blood Forest and everything seemed to run smoother and all, until it went bye bye again. I've tried it again and after a while same ol. Once it even crashed when casting Shadow Step.

 

All in all, maybe it's better maybe it isn't. I couldn't really tell from the hour or so I've spent around it. I think I could only tell it if I'd be playing the game regularly for at least a couple of hours a day. You know, through regular use. Sorry that I can't be of further assistance...

 

PS: I'd give it a go for double check on a 32-bit system, but I have no desire to put down my current setup just for that. I'd have to break down my HDD into different partitions, install two different iterations of the OS, drivers, yada yada. Yeah, not really no.

Edited April 27, 2017 by Androdion

[desm 329]

PS: I'd give it a go for double check on a 32-bit system, but I have no desire to put down my current setup just for that. I'd have to break down my HDD into different partitions, install two different iterations of the OS, drivers, yada yada. Yeah, not really no.

I used to be like that. Not really want to go through all that, but the thing is, it worth it! I haven't tried the Blood Forest yet I mut say.

[Androdion 875]

Hey mate, which 32-bit OS are you using, Win7 or WinXP? I just remembered I have a spare IDE HDD lying around.

[desm 329]

I've put Win7 Home basic (not pro just in case) because there is no more drivers for XP for recent material, else I would have put XP. Use EasyBCD (find some link where you don't have to register) to easily configure your boot.