Arcanum High Resolution Patch Version 1.5 Release

[Black Angel]

Just copy the DLL to the same folder as Arcanum.exe, overwriting the existing files.

Didn't work. Still blackscreen instead of going to the intro logo and cinematic I'm sad....

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Just copy the DLL to the same folder as Arcanum.exe, overwriting the existing files.

Didn't work. Still blackscreen instead of going to the intro logo and cinematic I'm sad....

What's your system like? Windows version, GPU?

 

[Black Angel]

Windows 8.1 64-bit, i5-3317CU CPU @ 1.70GHz (4 CPUs), ~1.7GHz, 10GB of RAM, GPU Nvidia GeForce GT 640m

 

[MaskedHuzzah]

I'm on Windows 10 and I'm seeing a different error - I'm able to reach the main menu screen, but there's no text or way to progress on it while the high-res patch is installed. Any ideas?

 

[MaskedHuzzah]

Never mind, it would appear that retrying with a fresh install fixed the problem - I must have made a mistake while installing.

 

[HoboForEternity]

So what is drog's newest alt accoun again?

 

[Modron]

Not sure he ever made one, I know he was still somewhat active on terra arcanum's forums at least when I looked like 5 months ago. Somebody should go create an account and pressure drog to finish UAP 2.0 minus race mod or with it I don't really care as long as it gets released.

 

[Latelistener]

Anyone knows if there is some sort of scaling mode like in the Fallout hi-res patch? The last time I played Arcanum I was using a 17'' CRT so I didn't need anything like that. Now if you set 1920x1080 everything is so fucking small I can't see shit, but if you choose a smaller resolution everything is blurry. I don't know which is worse.

I tried manually setting it at 960x540, thus mimicking the 2X scaling mode from Fallout, but it seems like the game's minimum resolution is 800x600 so the resolution patch doesn't allow me to enter 540.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Anyone knows if there is some sort of scaling mode like in the Fallout hi-res patch? The last time I played Arcanum I was using a 17'' CRT so I didn't need anything like that. Now if you set 1920x1080 everything is so fucking small I can't see shit, but if you choose a smaller resolution everything is blurry. I don't know which is worse.

I tried manually setting it at 960x540, thus mimicking the 2X scaling mode from Fallout, but it seems like the game's minimum resolution is 800x600 so the resolution patch doesn't allow me to enter 540.

I spent days trying to figure this shit out just recently. No, there's nothing. Apparently everyone's happy with teeny tiny shit on their screens.

Anyway, I figured out the only way to play it is to set resolution to 1366*768 and then upscale the image to full-screen using the monitor's in-built functionality. Not all monitors have it. Fortunately, mine also applies a sharpen filter on top of it, so it looks really good.

There are no other ways.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Thats what I do as well. Just choose a lower resolution, and scale it up. Your monitor doesn't need to have this functionality! Most (all?) graphics card will also offer upscaling! Remember to choose "keep aspect ratio scaling" so it doesnt stretch the image!

 

[Latelistener]

Thats what I do as well. Just choose a lower resolution, and scale it up. Your monitor doesn't need to have this functionality! Most (all?) graphics card will also offer upscaling! Remember to choose "keep aspect ratio scaling" so it doesnt stretch the image!

I don't think you can do anything with it via drivers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/9e27wk/its_2018_nvidia_wheres_integer_scaling/
http://tanalin.com/en/articles/lossless-scaling/

Turns out my monitor also has a function of similar nature: https://www.samsung.com/hk_en/support/computing/what-is-magic-upscale-on-my-monitor/
Although it just sharpens image and makes it a bit more vivid. Still, it's better than nothing.

 

[Sigourn]

I just got used to playing with my monitor close to my face, running Arcanum in windowed mode at its vanilla resolution. Not the most elegant solution, but it is what it is.

If only we could simulate CRT somehow in these games, then we could upscale them and hide the razor-sharp pixels.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Anyone knows if there is some sort of scaling mode like in the Fallout hi-res patch? The last time I played Arcanum I was using a 17'' CRT so I didn't need anything like that. Now if you set 1920x1080 everything is so fucking small I can't see shit, but if you choose a smaller resolution everything is blurry. I don't know which is worse.

I tried manually setting it at 960x540, thus mimicking the 2X scaling mode from Fallout, but it seems like the game's minimum resolution is 800x600 so the resolution patch doesn't allow me to enter 540.

have you tried just setting your monitor's resolution to 800x600?
your graphics card will upscale it to your monitor's default resolution
check around for a 'preserve aspect ratio' option or something or else it will be stretched

 

[Latelistener]

have you tried just setting your monitor's resolution to 800x600?

What would be the point of that? It will still look blurry.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

have you tried just setting your monitor's resolution to 800x600?

What would be the point of that? It will still look blurry.

your graphics card should use some type of filter to upscale it

Alternatively, try dosbox. IIRC, Arcanum was Win95 compatible. Dosbox has a bunch of pixel scaling algorithms to use(namely, xbrz — can't remember if they have any NEDI ones.)
edit: pcem might also be worth looking at

 

[aweigh]

Resizing is NOT upscaling. Carry on

BTW, why not just ReShade to sharpen the image? AdaptiveSharpening shader is really good.

 

[Latelistener]

your graphics card should use some type of filter to upscale it

I posted a couple of links above: as of 2018, both AMD and Nvidia do not have a proper upscale filter.

Alternatively, try dosbox.

It doesn't work in DOSBox.

edit: pcem might also be worth looking at

I don't have a slightest idea how to launch Arcanum in it. It's probably more trouble than it's worth to be honest.

BTW, why not just ReShade to sharpen the image? AdaptiveSharpening shader is really good.

I think Arcanum is using DirectDraw. I'm not sure if ReShade will work in it, and even if it will I will probably need some kind of 3rd party wrapper, which again, may or may not work.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

These games that fall between the Dos times and modern times are a pain to deal with. I wanted to play Need for speed 2 some time ago. Couldn't launch it in ANYTHING. Had to install Windows 95 on a virtual machine and then fuck for hours with it so it could play the game with audio. Arcanum isn't as old, but falls into this category of software that has no "dosbox"-like program to help launch it.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Pretty sure you can get NFS2 (SE at least) to run just fine on modern systems, even with Glide.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Yeah right.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Well, you could Google. There are patches.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Well, you could Google. There are patches.

I tried them all, they don't work. The glide that you mention, specifically. A lot of people report the same error.

 

[Latelistener]

Made it 1280x720. Not too small (and it looks okay with the monitor's function enabled).

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Yeah you just have to find a good compromise between size and bluriness. That resolution works for me too.

It helps having a monitor that doesn’t go too wild with the native res. I have a 24“ monitor with a 1920x1080 resolution.

 

[soulburner]

I would very much love to play older games with some form of pixelated scaling and sometimes an added subtle "CRT scanline" effect. Unfortunately, I think '2x scaling' is only available in Fallout and nothing of this sort was implemented in similar mods to other games. The scaling found built-in to displays and the scaling available in graphic cards' drivers are very lacking and all result in a blurry image. I could live with a blurry image, because a CRT screen blurred images slightly too, however, the scaling methods used result in a blurry and ugly image when dealing with older, pixelated 2D graphics. So... yeah, it sucks.