Playing KotOR 2 on Windows 7

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has anyone been able to do it? i get past character creation and that initial "floating text plot intro" and then the thing just shuts down. i've googled the problem and tried to fix it. i replaced the mss32.dll file with the "fix" that everyone says is supposed to work and have tried to run the .exe file in xp compatibility mode, but the same thing keeps happening :/

anyone know of a way to sort this out? i got kotor to work on my windows7, so i'm pretty sure there's a way to get this one to work as well

 

Unlike KotOR (which is relatively unfussy), KotOR II is a very picky beast. Allegedly, folk have got it working even under Vista, but only for nVidia-based machines. If you've got an ATI card, you might find the same problems extend to 7, but I couldn't say as I don't have 7 myself. If you've got an nVidia card, see if you can find information on back-compatibility in their website; that might help.

Otherwise, sacrifice a chicken & light 13 candles whilst saying a prayer to the twin gods of Bill Gates & Intel. Usually works for me.

 

I have an ATI and I got it working under Vista...

I replaced the dll I needed from KotOR1 though not from a download, maybe cannibalising the first game might be more effective?

 

I'm playing this game right now on Win7, got all the way to Malachor. I installed as Admin and in WinXP SP3 compatability mode, and run the same. The only bug I've encountered so far was from the Restored Content Mod.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I downloaded and installed the patch manually, I read somewhere that the auto-patcher only works on older versions of Windows. I also stongly suggest looking into the mod I mentioned above (TSLRCM) at the Deadly Stream forums. I haven't played vanilla yet, but I haven't run into any of the problems I've been reading about, so I think this mod might have fixed more than just the cut content.

 

I have several pieces of advice.

* First, I'd suggest trying the Vista instructions. I recall I had to fully patch the game, set it to run in XP compatibility mode, and then download a "Vista .DLL".

Here's a quick Google search for the Vista fix:
http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/file/TSL_Windows_Vista_Fix;85439

I recall I had to do a few other tweaks to get it to work without slowdowns on my ATI Radeon 3450 video card.

* If once you get it running your game slows to a crawl when you encounter the smoke in the hot mine shaft, try editing the swkotor2.ini file
Under [Graphics Options] add the following lines, only one is required but I never tracked down which one. I've seen references to both and I don't know which is the right one. I never bothered to figure it out.

Code:

Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1
DisableVertexBufferObjects=1

* Also, try turning off antialiasing. Heck, start by disabling all the graphics options and turn them back on one-by-one. I had to turn down the antialiasing on mine.

I think there was one more thing I did that I'm forgetting. I apologize, I did this a year ago under Vista and haven't worked on it since. If I recall, I'll post it. I might be wrong, but I just have that nagging feeling in my gut I've left something out.

 

I remember now what the last thing was. You need to make sure that DirectX 9.0c is installed, even if you have DirectX 10 or 11. Unlike other versions of DirectX, 9.0c and 10 can be installed concurrently.

It can't hurt to download and install it again just in case.

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Oh, make sure you download the latest version of DirectX 9.0c and not the one on the CD. I'm not sure what the difference is, but I know it was updated for Windows 7.