How to get CrossfireX working in Sacred 2

[Onslaught2k3 0]

SOURCE FROM SACRED 2 FORUMS: http://forum.sacred2.com/showthread.php?t=69390

 

Today I just downloaded a handy program called Crossfire Xtension v1.4. I managed to "supposedly" get crossfire working in this game with my 4870x2 (yet to be tried with my standalone radeon 3870s which I have laying around). Please do not ask me any questions about SLI because I do not own any nvidia gfx card nor have worked with them EVER. I managed to get a whopping 60FPS solid v-synced (single player, MP not entirely sure yet) with very high settings and 0 lag. I was able to check this by turning on the "crossfire x" symbol through CCC. I will show everyone pictures proving this within the next 12 hours when I get back from work. I just wanted to inform the community (who own a Crossfire setup) that it IS possible to force multi-GPU support in this game without sacrificing stability!

 

Anyways.. I can't manage to get the crossfirex symbol to show up in the screenies so I'll post some instructions here:

 

Download link to nab the application: http://www.ati-forum.de/files/Downloads/To...CF_Xtension.rar

 

Make sure you have Crossfire enabled in CCC as well set Cat AI to ADVANCED or STANDARD to ensure both GPUs are being used.

 

When running ATI CF Xtension, this program forces cf by duping CCC in to thinking Sacred 2 is another application in which DOES have CF support. For instance, I choose Direct3D rendering mode and I use the application "3dmark06.exe". The method used for CF should be left on "choose what's best by driver" (usually the first option). Choosing another crossfire rendering method will cause weird artifacts to show up on screen. You can choose to force visual effects such as AF or AA through CFxtension but those options are already available through CCC.

 

I also have to let you folks know is that you HAVE to run Sacred 2 through ATI CF Xtension itself. This program is cross-compatible with many other game titles available today.

 

Run Sacred 2. The only way I managed to get it to work this method is by:

 

-right click on ATI symbol at bottom right-hand corner of screen in system tray. Select your primary display adapter used (one that IS connected to your monitor), go to "Crossfire X settings" and select "show crossfire icon".

-run game in full screen.

-run game in HIGH settings minimum. I believe the HIGH settings have to be the render settings, not shadowing or effects.

-your audio settings should hold no bearing on activating crossfire in Sacred 2.

-enjoy what crossfire has to offer.

 

I personally have some blemishes while running the game (not perfectly smooth in terms of the game world tiles blinking, showing up inverted colours flashing, etc, but this doesn't make the game crash (if you have crashing issues already those may not be remedied by forcing crossfire in sacred 2).

 

In terms of choosing an application name to change Sacred 2 into, you can choose any of them listed but it's best to choose a cousin engine to this one. I don't know of any other game titles that use sacred 2's graphics engine so that's why I chose 3dmark06 and it seems to work. You are welcome to fiddle around with this but MOST will not allow you to force crossfire including "crysis.exe".

 

I wish you all luck with trying to get Sacred 2 to work in crossfire mode.

 

PS - after a few reboots of Sacred 2 and changing from windowed mode to fullscreen mode the blinking tiles issue I mentioned above seems to have disappeared. This also seems to work regardless of renderer settings in the graphics option of the main menu screen. Because ATI doesn't have a profile for Sacred 2 this is your only remedy to get it to work and stress your GPUs less in this game while providing the best possible FPS your computer has to offer to this hungry game.