Easton (The Quince Man Quincy) Royce

Kudos go to my girlfriend for sussing this one out.

Recently, we came across a conundrum concerning the computer game Sacred 2 running under Windows 7. Long story short, it just wouldn’t work. It should be noted that the reason for this not working, has nothing to do with Nvidia / ATI Graphics cards, but it is related to Physx/Ageia. Make sure you have the latest version of Physx installed. Sacred 2 does come with the last version of Physx known as Ageia Physx (before nvidia bought it and rebranded it to just Physx). You can also obtain the latest stand alone Physx package from the nvidia website. Even if you have an ATI graphics card, you still need to have this installed to play Sacred 2 and any other games that require Physx. So long as your CPU supports it and it is powerful enough, you’ll get CPU powered physics, instead of physics powered by your graphics card. Some people call this “Software Physics” or “Software” mode. I’ve noticed no performance difference between a computer playing Sacred 2 with an Nvidia graphics card and a computer with an ATI graphics card.

This fix should work for owners of Sacred 2 under Windows 7, regardless of the version you have (Steam, Impulse, Stand alone or whatever).

1. Create a shortcut to the Sacred 2 executable. You’ll find it in the game directory, in another directory called ‘system’. For me, it is: D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\Common\Sacred 2\System\Sacred2.exe
2. Put the shortcut on your desktop, or somewhere handy.
3. Right click the shortcut and select properties
4. Click the Shortcut tab
5. In the Target field, you need to add the following: -skipopenal -nocpubinding. The contents of my Target field look like this: "D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\sacred 2\system\sacred2.exe" -skipopenal -nocpubinding
6. Click Apply and Click OK.
7. Double click the shortcut and play Sacred 2!

Still can’t get it to work? Leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do to help you out. Further comments and suggestions are welcome. These are just simply the steps that worked for us. In case you are wondering, we are using the RTM (Release To Manfacture) version of Windows 7 (we are Microsoft Technet Partners). This is the same version that is available to consumers and end users as of mid October 2009.

written by Easton Royce \\ tags: Ageia, Computer, Game, Impulse, pc, Physx, Sacred 2, Steam, Windows 7

RF Online is quite possibly the best MMORPG I have ever played, given that I have only played it for 2 hours so far, and I am already hooked! The music, the beautiful graphics, the story line, the playability, everything, it’s perfect! It even has FMV cut scene footage! Better yet, it is entirely free to play! That’s right! No fees, no credit card required! Entirely free to play forever!

For ages I have been searching for an MMORPG that I could really sink my teeth into, without having to worry about losing money or credit time, because I had to work, and now I have found it! I had found a few before, but the graphics were always clunky, the game play strange, and it just never really stuck with me. RF Online has certainly changed that!

Chrnocat recently began a free Ragnarok Online server, called Pegasus Ragnarok Online. In fact, we are set to have a Ragnarok LAN this weekend! A few of us are meeting up at our place to play together, and the rest play remotely. 10x10x10 stats (at least I hope) so that we can make a good amount of progress over the weekend. Should be good fun!
I wonder if I can convince them all to play RF Online instead? I love this game so much already! I have found my calling!

written by Easton Royce \\ tags: Awesome, Fantasty, Games, Graphics, MMORPG, Music, Playing, RF Online, Role, Romance, Romantic, Sounds