Starting the game with a 32 MB video card

[Vahrokh]

Hi,

I have an old iron computer I'd want to recycle to just load a vault alt character that would stand still all day, so I don't care if it's slow or has no graphics.

I just need to start.

I have been told that there is a setting to tweak (else the game incorrectly will say it finds only 29M of video card memory and will quit - checked with several old 32 M video cards and all do that - no I don't have with more memory [;)]) to make the game start anyway.

Any good soul knows how?

[Werkseikojin]

:o there are a couple of things in the games .def files that can be done to help ease the strain on your machine...

As my signin name suggest (with some mispelling) this is seikojin and Im at work... When I get home I will dig through the def files and reply with what I find...

[Seikojin]

:o I looked through the def files and cant recognize where it was or what value it was to change, but there is a way to enable frame buffering...You could also disable the bug logging and error tracking things from the def files... I will post the lines and more info when I can...

[Fridlekh]

6 steps to runnung HZ on a really old and crappy computer.


step 1: Horizons\resources\cameconst.def

see these two lines?

int minSystemRAM = 256
int minVideoRAM = 32

Change them. I'd recommend something like 2 for the minVideoRam


step 2:Horizons\prefs\ClientPrefs_Graphic.def (maybe Horizons\ClientPrefs_Graphic.def? I play with my defs a lot can't remember :P)

Out of game graphics prefs setting... copy/paste

TClientGraphicPrefs
{
int screenResolution =0
int globalGraphicDetail = -1
int globalTextureDetail = -1
int maxFullCharacters =2
int maxSemiCharacters =4
bool displayFullRemoteCharItems = false
int mainWinSizeX =640
int mainWinSizeY =480
int mainWinPosX =0
int mainWinPosY =0
int debugWinPosX = 200
int debugWinPosY = 200
bool fullscreen = true
float maxFrameRate = 80
float loadDist = 100
float unloadDist = 160
float terrainLoadDist = 125
float terrainUnloadDist = 185
bool terrainTimeSlice = true
bool terrainLodEnabled = true
int terrainLODTextureRes = 128
float terrainLodSwitchDist = 1
int terrainLodGeomRes = 25
int terrainTextureDetail = 32
float chunkLoadTimeStep = 0.003
bool terrainLines = false
bool plotLines = true
bool clutterEnabled = false
float clutterDistMult = 1
float fogStartDist = 50
float fogEndDist = 100
float fieldOfView = 90
float camZoomMaxSpeed = 15
float camZoomAccel = 40
float mouseWheelZoomMaxSpeed = 60
float mouseWheelZoomAccel = 180
float mouseWheelZoomDamping = 30
float camPitchMaxSpeed = 60
float camPitchAccel = 120
float camYawMaxSpeed = 90
float camYawAccel = 360
bool turnToSidestepInMouselook = true
float keyboardFreeLookSpeedUpMult = 4
bool invertPitch = false
bool firstPersonRotationSmoothing = false
float firstPersonRotationSmoothingTension = 9.5
float firstPersonFieldOfView = 90
float firstPersonVerticalRangeOfView = 160
float firstPersonHorizontalRangeOfView = 180
bool firstPersonCombatAutoTargeting = true
float mouseLookSpeed = 1.05
int numMouseFilterPositions = 2
float yawAutoPanSpeed = 3
bool headBobbingEnabled = false
bool headBobbingInCombatOnlyEnabled = true
float thirdPersonLookAtPitchOffset = 0
float thirdPersonCameraFollowTension = 7
float thirdPersonVerticalRangeOfView = 140
float thirdPersonFieldOfView = 90
bool thirdPersonInvertYaw = false
bool enableCameraCollision = true
int currentCameraMode = 0
bool enableCameraSnapback = true
bool noRotateThirdPersonCameraWithCharacter = false
bool displayHandItemsInFirstPerson = false
bool displayHandItemsInFirstPersonCombatOnly = true
bool charCreationWithNormalCamera = false
vector fogColor = 0, 0, 0
vector lightDiffuseColor = 1, 1, 1
vector lightAmbientColor = 0.5, 0.5, 0.5
vector lightDirection = 0, 0, -1
bool backfaceCullingEnabled = true
string defaultSkyDome = "default_skydome.ent"
bool celestialLighting = false
int aghGlobalTextureReduction =1
int aghCharacterTextureReduction = 1
float aghTextureReductionMult = 1
float globalMipmapBias = 0
bool enableMouseOver = false
bool selectionGlow = false
bool selectionBrackets = true
string selectionEnt = "selection_godray.ent"
bool autoSelectAttacker = true
bool gammaEnabled = true
float renderGamma = 1.3
float renderBrightness = 0
float renderOverBright = 1.5
vector defaultObjectColor = 0.3, 0.3, 0.3
bool lodEnabled = true
bool charactersEnabled = true
bool charLODEnabled = true
bool charFrameSkipEnabled = true
float charLODMult = 1
bool charTexLODEnabled = true
float charTexLODMult = 1
bool visMgrEnabled = true
bool visMgrTerrainEnabled = true
bool displayWorldCoastline = false
bool renderedTexturesEnabled =false
int displayShadowDetail = 1
bool displayDynamicRealShadows = false
bool displayStaticRealShadows = false
bool displayDynamicBlobShadows =false
bool displayStaticBlobShadows = false
bool enableBackBufferCopy = false
bool consolidateDefaultAttributes = true
bool globalShareShaders = false
float hydroFadeDistance =1
float decalFadeDistance =1
bool decalsEnabled =false
bool clothSimEnabled =false
bool useLowestLevelShader =true
float minTextureMemMarkMB =2
bool globalReflectMapEnabled = false
int globalReflectMapUpdateInterval = 10
bool useGlobalReflectDebugMaps = false
bool characters = true
bool ents = true
bool terrain =false
bool environment =false
int maxTextureSize =64
int maxImageSize =64
bool effectsOn =false
float effectMaxLoadRange =1
bool environmentSystemLightingSystemOff =true
bool environmentSystem =false
bool environmentSystemDebug = false
bool combatFloatingNumbers =false
bool combatRegenFloatingNumbers =false
bool combatFloatingActions =false
bool combatFlashing =false
bool combatSpellEffects =false
bool combatSpellEffectsChangeStage =false
bool flipCharacterUVs = false
bool OnlyUserLight = false
bool CharacterLights =false
float floatingNameScale = 1
string floatingFont = "GaramondMed"
int floatingFontSize = 16
float nightTimeSlider = 0.24397
int playerLightSources =0
float effectMaxRange = 1
float effectMinRange = 1
int renderBitsAlpha = 0
int renderBitsDepth =16
int renderBitsColor =16
int renderBitsStencil = 0
}

I went through and edited that by hand, so it's not tested by me, but should work... I would NOT recommend using that on anyone's system that wants to have a game that looks remotely pretty. it will run at 640x480 fullscreen with no sky and only a few characters will display at any given time. Not sure how many of the other toggleable switches work anymore, but it may not even show textures. No shadows or light sources will be shown, no spell effects and the view distance won't let you see very far past your feet. it SHOULD, however, allow even aCompaq with 128 MB of RAM and an 8 MB shared memory video card to launch the game. you can adjust settings up from their current state in the options.


Step 3: set your desktop to 16 bit color


Step 4: Horizons\Clientprefs.def

bool requireCommandLineParams = true <- change to false
string password = "your password" <- quotes matter

I'm going to assume the rest of the info is already in the file if you've tried launching that character before.


Step 5: Run Horizons.exe


Step 6:Pray.

[Pharcellus]

I remember back in the day asking tech support if there was any way to get HZ to run with a Matrox G400 card. I was told repeatedly and unequivocably that it would never ever run on any non-hardware T&L capable card.

Obviously, they were regurgitating what they were told by the "techs", but I didn't have the intestinal fortitude to go mucking around with the client settings back then to see for myself.

Not that it matters anymore, but I guess I will have to try that and see if it does work.

[Fridlekh]

Note: When I lat got it running on that Compaq with 128 MB of RAM and 8 MB of shared video RAM, I got maybe 2 textures to show onscreen, and the text was not readable. (as the fonts are rendered to textures before displayed) I was getting a seconds-per-frame rate, and you could hardly call it playable. But if all you want is a mule, then it should work fine.

[pogowolf]

Blah, that's just because you where running it on a Compaq. [:D]

[Akhorishaan]

I run Horizons fine on a Compaq Presario 1500 with a 2.4GHz P4 processor, 1 GB DDR 333MHz RAM, and a 32MB ATI Radeon Mobility GFX card.

The laptop runs the game wonderfully :)

Although there are a couple problems whereas the weapon/shield/tool pictures in an item tooltip will crash the game, also had the same problem with signpost overlays, but fixed that myself

[Stranyr]

the slowest comp I have had HZ running on was a celeron 1ghz with 256mb ram and a 16mb nVidiaVantavcard, it looked like Crap, but was o.k. for mining... (except when the nodes disapeared and I needed to "guess" where they were.

I certainly couldn't fight anything that might possibly hurt me on it though.

Going to see if I can get it running with an old ati card I have around here (8mb lol) cause the vanta puked one day on me (not while playing HZ but while installing linux and accidently setting things wrong and blowing it up lol)

[imported_Kepesk]

I remember back in the day asking tech support if there was any way to get HZ to run with a Matrox G400 card. I was told repeatedly and unequivocably that it would never ever run on any non-hardware T&L capable card.

Heh, I got the game running on a 16 MB Matrox card once. Textures didn't load properly, and coming too close to a road sign would crash it, but it's all I had for about two or three weeks, so I was happy enough. And ever since then, I've had the locations of every single road sign on the map memorized, along with how to avoid them. Mahagra is the hardest. ;)

I have gotten the game to run adequately on other 16 MB cards just by turning all of the video settings down rediculously low. I wouldn't reccommend it, but in a pinch, it can work. :)

-Your friendly neighborhood stripey dragon

[imported_Virtul]

i've played with some ClientPrefs_Graphic.def settings and... umh... how do i get sky back? =)
i mean which strings could disable it?