Ultima IX: Ascension
From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
 |
|
| Developers | |
|---|---|
| Origin Systems | |
| Publishers | |
| Electronic Arts | |
| Release dates | |
| Windows | November 24, 1999 |
| Taxonomy | |
| Monetization | One-time game purchase |
| Modes | Singleplayer |
| Perspectives | Third-person |
| Genres | Action, RPG |
| Themes | Fantasy |
| Series | Ultima |
 |
|
Key points
- Change the renderer if you get a black screen when starting the game.
General information
- The Codex of Ultima Wisdom - A huge wiki for the series
- GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
- GOG.com Support Page
Availability
| Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | |
SafeDisc DRM[Note 1]. Install Patch v1.18f to remove. | |
|
| GOG.com | |
|
||
| Origin | |
Not available in some regions. | |
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
- A free demo version is available from Archive.org.
Essential improvements
Patches
- The latest official patch 1.18f is available at community.pcgamingwiki.com, www.forgottenworld.de and at soggi.org.
- The latest unofficial patches 1.19f and 1.19h are available at www.forgottenworld.de and at soggi.org.
Skip intro videos
- The intro video is automatically skipped once
start.datis generated.
| Delete/rename column.dat[citation needed] |
|---|
|
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| Windows | <path-to-game>\Options.ini[Note 2] |
- Key mappings are stored in
<path-to-game>\Default.kmp.
Save game data location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| Windows | <path-to-game>\savegame\[Note 2] |
-
start.datdetermines the default starting save but saves can still be loaded without it (after completing enough of the tutorial to unlock save/load functions).
Save game cloud syncing
| System | Native | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GOG Galaxy | ||
| Origin |
Video
In-game settings.
Setup tool settings.
| Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Widescreen resolution | For a wider FOV see the WSGF entry. | ||
| Multi-monitor | See the WSGF entry. | ||
| Ultra-widescreen | |||
| 4K Ultra HD | |||
| Field of view (FOV) | See the WSGF entry. | ||
| Windowed | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
| Borderless fullscreen windowed | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
| Anisotropic filtering (AF) | |||
| Anti-aliasing (AA) | |||
| Vertical sync (Vsync) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
| 60 FPS | Use Direct3D mode and a 32-bit color screen depth. | ||
| 120+ FPS | |||
Input
| Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Remapping | Edit Default.kmp. Left and right mouse buttons are hard-coded. |
|
| Mouse acceleration | ||
| Mouse sensitivity | ||
| Mouse input in menus | ||
| Mouse Y-axis inversion | Toggle with Ctrl+I. | |
| Controller | ||
| Controller support |
Audio
Audio settings.
| Audio feature | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Separate volume controls | Master, Music and Speech. Set in options (Ctrl+O). | |
| Surround sound | Set in Options.ini. |
|
| Subtitles | Enabled by default. Set in options (Ctrl+O). | |
| Closed captions | ||
| Mute on focus lost | ||
| EAX support | EAX 1; set in FinalSetup.exe. |
|
| Royalty free audio |
Localizations
- Thai, Russian, Polish, Italian, Dutch/Greek, Spanish and Portuguese retail only have the manuals translated.[3]
| Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| French | French retail only; not available digitally. | |||
| German | German retail only; not available digitally, but as Fanpatch Download | |||
| Japanese | Japanese retail only; not available digitally. | |||
| Spanish | Fan translation, download. |
Issues fixed
Black screen
| Change Game Rasterizer in Options.ini[4] |
|---|
|
Error when launching setup tool
- The setup tool may open with an error: "The device you have selected does not appear to support all the functions required for Ultima IX: Ascension."
| Change Game Rasterizer in Options.ini[4] |
|---|
|
See Black screen. |
FMV cutscenes are blank
| Uninstall codec packs[5] |
|---|
|
Uninstall any codec packs (e.g. K-Lite). |
Game fails to start
| Game installs but does not run. The game exe U9.exe does not run for more than a second or two. |
|---|
|
Choose another folder, with a shorter path or nearer the root directory to run the game. |
Other information
API
| Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Direct3D | 7 | |
| Glide |
| Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows |
System requirements
| Windows | ||
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Recommended | |
| Operating system (OS) | 95, 98 | |
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Pentium II 266 MHz | |
| System memory (RAM) | 64 MB | |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) | 600 MB | 2 GB |
| Video card (GPU) | 2 MB of VRAM DirectX 7 compatible | |
| Sound (audio device) | DirectX 7 compatible | EAX compatible device like Soundblaster Live! |
Notes
- ↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%,%PROGRAMDATA%, or%WINDIR%might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStoreon Windows Vista and later (more details).
References
- ↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
- ↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
- ↑ Ultima Collectors Guide - Ultima IX - IBM PC - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Verified by User:Garrett on 2014-01-03
- ↑ Ultima 9 no cutscenes, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023