game crashes to desktop when entering a cave

[Calamitara]

as the title says. i want to do a playthrough as a dark elf but i can not enter the cave. game is very slow and lagging in the first place, might be related but i don't know why the animations are so stop and go either.

Or is it because i'm on a laptop? is there a difference between a gaming laptop and a pc in regards of wether or not the games can be played properly?

regards, cala

[kkgobkk]

That's a new one for me, the only things that i can suggest (but i have no clue if they could actually help) are:

• Disable fullscreen by running the "config.exe" program in the sacred installation folder.
  
• Enable compatibility mode by right clicking on sacred.exe in the same directory, then clicking on properties, then compatibility mode, then selecting windows xp-sp2 in the drop down menu
  
• In the same tab, just in case, check "run as administrator". (note that this will disable the steam overlay, so i'd recommend doing this only if the previous two methods aren't working)

Hope this helps.

[Calamitara]

thank you for the quick reply!
sadly none of the ideas worked or had a positive impact but no negative one either.
i even downloaded and ran the game in ReBorn and on the lowest solution.

[HiFive]

Try lowering the fps for the game. I used the NVIDIA control panel to lower the fps on a lot of my older games to 30. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, especially for my gaming pc, but it really works. Machines back in those days couldn't do more than 30 fps, so the games were designed to run best at that rate. The game doesn't look any different to me, but I will mention that I have an older monitor, so you might have to fiddle with different settings a bit if 30 fps looks bad for you.

Anyway, doing this solved a lot of game "bugs" for me on my older games.

[Calamitara]

Originally posted by HiFive:

Try lowering the fps for the game. I used the NVIDIA control panel to lower the fps on a lot of my older games to 30. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, especially for my gaming pc, but it really works. Machines back in those days couldn't do more than 30 fps, so the games were designed to run best at that rate. The game doesn't look any different to me, but I will mention that I have an older monitor, so you might have to fiddle with different settings a bit if 30 fps looks bad for you.

Anyway, doing this solved a lot of game "bugs" for me on my older games.

I read in another thread that somebody did that but i have no clue how to do that or what program to install to enable it. What do you use/ did you do?

[HiFive]

Originally posted by Calamitara:

Originally posted by HiFive:

Try lowering the fps for the game. I used the NVIDIA control panel to lower the fps on a lot of my older games to 30. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, especially for my gaming pc, but it really works. Machines back in those days couldn't do more than 30 fps, so the games were designed to run best at that rate. The game doesn't look any different to me, but I will mention that I have an older monitor, so you might have to fiddle with different settings a bit if 30 fps looks bad for you.

Anyway, doing this solved a lot of game "bugs" for me on my older games.

I read in another thread that somebody did that but i have no clue how to do that or what program to install to enable it. What do you use/ did you do?

As I stated, I used my NVIDIA control panel to limit the fps. If your rig doesn't use an NVIDIA graphics card then you will need to find another way to do it.

If you DO have an NVIDIA graphics card installed, then you might find an icon on your Windows desktop that you can use to access the settings. I have a Windows 10 machine, so on the bottom right of my screen, there is a tiny "up arrow" that looks like this: ^
I click on that and can see icons for Steam, NVIDIA, and a few other programs. If I right-click on the NVIDIA icon, I can open the control panel. On my machine, the NVIDIA control panel takes a long time to finally open, so I have to be patient. The control panel is also a bit confusing, at first, so it might take a little effort to locate the proper place to adjust the fps on any of your games. Let me know if you need help with that.

[Calamitara]

thank you, i can't test it now but i will let you know later how it went!

[Calamitara]

Originally posted by Calamitara:

thank you, i can't test it now but i will let you know later how it went!

okay, didn't work either and crashed again. then again, it is very slow not only in game but during the menu and charakter selection too. at this point i think i will have to accept it: sacred doesn't run on laptops :(

[dibmeller]

Did you ever find a solution to this?

I'm in exactly the same place, crashes every time I go into the first cave.

[HiFive]

Perhaps try some different Windows compatibility settings for this game? Don't use the automatic compatibility finder, just type in different ones and see if they work.
Mine is set to Windows XP Service Pack 2, but I am on Windows 10 and making this choice can be different for different rigs.

[HiFive]

Okay . . . . I did a search on the word "lag" and found these threads that have some good ideas on how to fix lag issues in this game. Someday I'll probably have to compile the actual "fixes" so people don't have to read the entire threads, but here you go:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/12320/discussions/0/3128289322277922583/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/12320/discussions/0/3276939823286332361/#c3276943773288094440

https://steamcommunity.com/app/12320/discussions/0/558751812704905062/#c558756255844884955

https://steamcommunity.com/app/12320/discussions/0/412448158158744594/#c412448158162763922

https://steamcommunity.com/app/12320/discussions/0/558756256323012619/#c46476145658295564

https://steamcommunity.com/app/12320/discussions/0/3500920615272353756/#c3730700942543796053

https://steamcommunity.com/app/12320/discussions/0/1319961857045308968/#c1319962683448910657

[dibmeller]

Originally posted by HiFive:

Perhaps try some different Windows compatibility settings for this game? Don't use the automatic compatibility finder, just type in different ones and see if they work.
Mine is set to Windows XP Service Pack 2, but I am on Windows 10 and making this choice can be different for different rigs.

Hey, thanks for trying to help. Unfortunately I've tried all of those fixes already and non worked.

My issue isn't with lag, the game runs perfectly. I just can't enter the first cave. It crashes every single time I try to enter the starting cave for the wood elf.

[nepisman]

These might be stupid suggestions, but did you try running the GoG version of the game instead of the Steam one, as I find it a lot more stable and not buggy like the one on Steam (pirated versions are mostly from GoG so you can try before you buy). Running the game as admin fixes some stability problems for some reason. Using programs like Dxtory (I don't think it's free for use anymore) is a good option if you think your FPS is making problems in the game.

[Calamitara]

Originally posted by nepisman:

These might be stupid suggestions, but did you try running the GoG version of the game instead of the Steam one, as I find it a lot more stable and not buggy like the one on Steam (pirated versions are mostly from GoG so you can try before you buy). Running the game as admin fixes some stability problems for some reason. Using programs like Dxtory (I don't think it's free for use anymore) is a good option if you think your FPS is making problems in the game.

I didn't try the GoG Version yet but came to an interesting conclusion: while visiting my parents i tried the game on the computer (am usually on gaming laptop) and the game ran pretty well, minimal lag and no crashes only the horses keep on disappearing. same system, laptop has better specs. the game doesn't like laptops it seems.

I am gonna try the GoG version one of these days but for now i am gonna go with this and just play it when i visit my parents.

Thanks!

[HiFive]

I wouldn't assume that the game does not work on All laptops. There are so very many variables in how any computer (desktop or laptop) is configured that such statements don't usually hold water. It may not work on Your laptop, but it might work just fine on other people's laptops.

The following three items usually apply to people who can't open the game, but they might have an effect on the issue you are experiencing, as well.

Have you already tried reinstalling the game?

Have you already played with the settings in the config.exe file?

Have you right-clicked on the Sacred.exe file and played with different Windows Compatibility modes? Don't use the automatic finder. It seldom gives me the right one. Just manually set it to different versions of Windows. Mine is set to: Windows XP (service pack 2)

GoG's platform has made a point of trying to ensure that their older games run well on most systems. Steam prefers to focus on newer games. So, definitely take a look at the GoG site.

I don't know if this game already has a limiter for single core usage, but you can try going into the task manager and making sure that the game only uses one core of your choice. This helps on some older games.

Another issue that sometimes crops up for older games is which version of Direct X is being used.

Sometimes it's the other items that are plugged into your computer that affect an older game.

Sometimes software that is supposed to help you optimize your games and give you an fps counter, and other features, will actually interfere with the correct functioning of a game.