Problems with Precursors
Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 12:21 pm
Recently I bought The Precursors using the digital download service yuplay.ru and have been trying to get it into a reasonably playable state using the various patches and Wesp5's translation. I'm going to share some of my experiences in case it helps other people in the same situation since I haven't found these issues mentioned in any other forums. Also, I hope other people can help solve some of my problems, or at least reassure me that I'm not the only one having trouble!Patches:There are two versions of the Russian 1.1 DVD patch that I could find.1) precursors_1.1_DVD_version.exe, 21,993,344 bytes, md5: 4CB8935473D2E12DF9E553DA42626030From the Patch Scroll's website (http://www.patches-scrolls.de/precursors.php). This installer works.2) precursors_1-1_DVD_version.exe, 23,959,666 bytes, md5: 3E951478EA09B383DAD3C38277A3D97EFrom The Russobit-M website (http://russobit-m.ru/download/patches/precursors_1-1_DVD_version.exe). This file is digitally signed by Russobit-M. Installer doesn't work but instead flags up an error, probably in Cyrillic if I had that font installed. Does anyone know what the error is saying?However, the download version from yuplay already seems to have the 1.1 patch so this isn't necessary.Official ATI flicker fix:precursors_ati_fix.exe, 308,624 bytes md5: 68BFD8C0DED808FB058D6EEF869D04EAFrom The Russobit-M website (http://russobit-m.ru/download/patches/precursors_ati_fix.exe). This file is digitally signed by Russobit-M. Installer doesn't work but flags up an error, probably in Cyrillic if I had that font installed. This is the same error message as the precursors_1-1_DVD_version.exe installer so I'd definitely like to know what it says. Fortunately there are a few other methods the fix the flicker.Intro videos:If, like me, you don't like unskippable intro videos then find the file GAME.INI, probably located in C:\Users\Public\Documents\Precursors\INI. Change the lines:VIDEO0=Video\publisher.ogg;MUSTVIDEO1=Video\deepshadows.ogg;MUST;CROPVIDEO2=Video\loading.ogg;MUST;LETTERBOX;DRAWPROGRESSVIDEO3=Video\loading2.ogg;LETTERBOX;DRAWPROGRESSto:VIDEO0=Video\loading2.ogg;LETTERBOX;DRAWPROGRESSThis will stop the other three videos from playing.Menu lag:When the program has started and is menu screen after a short time I found the mouse becomes increasingly laggy and hard to control. This seems to be a side-effect of the replacement menu0_1.ogg file in Wesp5's Unofficial Translation. I am using version 1.2, downloaded from the the Patch Scrolls. If I use the original Russian file, which is animated, then there is no problem. My guess is that the lag is a side-effect of the replacing an animated file, which is on continuous loop, with a static one. I hope Wesp5 might be able to comment about this.Map crash:When playing the game if I press 'm' to go to the map, if I press 'm' again then the game crashes! Other HUD related keys such as 'l', 'o' and 'p' can also cause crashes. It seems the only safe way to exit the HUD is to use the escape key. Needless to say, this makes playing the game very difficult, so I haven't tested this outside the training area. This problem occurs for me even with a freshly install, so I am surprised no one else seems to have mentioned it. Has anyone else experienced this or know any solutions?NoCD patch:The Russian 1.0 noCD patch seems, in my very limited experience, to work fine with this version. The advantage is that the game starts much more quickly with the noCD patch. What is starforce doing that takes so long?