Key points
- Greatly improved experience on newer systems thanks to unofficial mods.
- Official Servers were shut down in 2008
General information
- Terra Arcanum Forum - a large fansite
- GOG.com Community Discussions
- GOG.com Support Page
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
Demo
A demo is available here (German site, scroll down to download).
Essential improvements
Patches
Official patch
- 1.0.7.4. Not needed for the GOG.com release.
Multiverse Edition
- Complete overhaul with all the patches listed in this article, as well as others, bundled together in one installer that offers a lot of options.
- For a widescreen monitor, it is recommended to use a 1366x768 resolution. Higher values can make the UI and dialogue difficult to see.
- Arcanum Multiverse Edition [ENG] by the Multiverse Team.
Unofficial patch
- Highly improved townmaps and soundtracks (from the vanilla 128kbit/sec to 320 kbit/sec) can be found alongside this patch.
- Not compatible with older savegames.
- 200611 (2.0.2) by Drog Black Tooth. Highly recommended bug fixes.
High Resolution Patch
- If you are unable to pan the camera past the edge of the screen with the high resolution patch enabled, add
-scrolldist:0 -scrollfps:70
to the target line in the shortcut of the game.
- The High Resolution Patch is already included in the Unofficial Arcanum Patch. For a separate installer check out 1.5 by Drog Black Tooth. Allows any user-set resolution, UI tweaks, larger fonts.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
Save game data location
Video
Set windowed mode[citation needed]
|
- Download and install the unofficial patch
- Add
-Window in the target line of your Arcanum shortcut
|
If the game stops responding with windowed mode[citation needed]
|
- Go to the installation folder and find
ddraw.dll and rename it to draw.dll.old or something like that.
- Launch the game and this should solve the problem with the game not responding.
|
Input
Audio
Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
Separate volume controls |
|
Effects, voice and music |
Surround sound |
|
|
Subtitles |
|
|
Closed captions |
|
|
Mute on focus lost |
|
|
Localizations
Network
Multiplayer types
VR support
3D modes |
State |
Notes |
vorpX |
| 2D Game is 2D only. Play 2D with DGVoodoo2 and vorpx default DGVoodoo2 profile. |
Issues fixed
Files not installed properly
- Recommended to avoid default installation folder, as this can lead to issues where certain files are not properly installed.
Run installed as administrator[citation needed]
|
When running the installer, be sure to right-click on the .exe, and select "Run as Administrator".
|
Loading screen freezing
- Freezing known to happen on systems with multi-core CPUs.[citation needed]
Set CPU affinity[citation needed]
|
Setting CPU affinity should solve this problem. Create a shortcut, and in the shortcut's "Target" field, insert %WINDIR%\System32\cmd.exe /C start "ARCANUM" /D "C:\ARCANUM" /high /affinity 1 "C:\ARCANUM\arcanum.exe"
Be sure to replace C:\ARCANUM with your actual Arcanum installation folder. If needed, you can add additional command-line parameters to the end.
|
Graphical issues
Set target field[citation needed]
|
Adding -no3d -doublebuffer to the end of your Arcanum shortcut's "Target" field.
|
Delete or rename ddraw.dll[citation needed]
|
Delete or rename ddraw.dll .
|
Performance issues
Modify the SierraLauncher.ini file[citation needed]
|
- Go to the installation folder
- Open
SierraLauncher.ini
- Find
Game1Cmd= and replace line with Game1Cmd= -no3d -doublebuffer -scrolldist:0 -scrollfps:70
|
Use Aqrit's DDrawFix for Infinity Engine games[1]
|
- Download ie-ddrawfix.zip
- Open the archive and navigate to
wined3d
- Extract the contents of the folder to
<path-to-game>/Arcanum
- If prompted, click yes to replace
ddraw.dll
|
Other information
API
Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows |
|
|
|
Middleware
System requirements
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Operating system (OS) |
95 |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium II |
System memory (RAM) |
64 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
1.2 GB |
Video card (GPU) |
VGA capable Card 8 MB of VRAM |
Notes
References