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

Chrnocat and I traveled to Sydney on the 28th of September for the annual Animania Festival! Needless to say we had quite the adventure. Throughout the entire visit, I was convinced The Chaser would be out somewhere causing trouble. Unfortunately for me, they were causing troubles in places that I wasn’t in.

Since I am tired and just about ready for bed, I am going to type this as fast as possible and hopefully avoid making any mistakes. I have been meaning to cover this topic and take care of this post for some time, and at this point in time, as depressed and irritated as I feel, I believe now is a good time to write.

Day One 28th of September

I had never been on a plane before, and on an air plan was our designated travel style for this trip. We boarded a “Dash 8” at the Narrabri Air Port for out what seemed to be a short 2.5 hour flight. We first had a stop over at Moree, before finally making the leg to Sydney. The flight to Moree takes roughly 30 minutes. The plane simply flies up, and then down again, without leveling off or reaching normal flight altitude. Needless to say, I was very excited about being on the plane, and when we landed in Moree for a refueling before continuing on, all I wanted was for the plane to be back in the air again. It was a very surreal experience, and reminded of all the hours I used to spend playing Sim City.

Upon arrival, we collected our luggage, and left the Sydney Airport terminal by train. After finally arriving in the city, we set out to find the hotel we had booked our accommodation at. A week before our trip, the hotel manager had contacted us and informed as that they were undergoing maintenance and were moving us to a different hotel. Not only was the different hotel completely tacky (and the coffee was nasty as), it was even further away then our original location, which was still too far away from the location the Festival was being held (Town Hall). I don’t know what Chrnocats mother was thinking when she said “Oh the hotel is in Kirribilly, it’s near everything”. Fark that! It was near nothing, and we needed to travel by ferry to get there and back again. After canceling our accommodation at both hotels and getting a refund, we ferried back to the city, found an internet cafe and book some real accommodation at they Sydney Central Travel Lodge.

Finally after checking in at the hotel, we headed to Town Hall for the evening opening ceremony and other random events that began the Animania Festival. We were hoping to get some shopping in today, but unfortunately we were unable to.

Finally late in the night, we made it back to our hotel for showers, costume preparations for the big day on Saturday, and sleep. Chrnocat realised she had lost one of her hair clips. I reassured her she would find it at the air port when we got back. I hadn’t seen it fall off, but I had a good feeling I was right.

Summary of Firsts:

• First time on a plane
• First time taking the air port train to the city
• First time on a Ferry

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written by Easton Royce \\ tags: Adventure, air, animania, Anime, aquarium, Chrnocat, Comedy, computers, excitement, food, fun, Games, Movies, pc, port, Random, Rant, sydney