Cognition

If any Gameboomers members have played Cognition, I'd like to know if anyone has experienced my problem; once talking to Rose in the antique shop, I am unable to go to the FBI office; I get kicked back to my desktop when I click on the office on the map.

I was hoping that someone might have the magic setting that will allow me to continue playing the game. My video card is 256 mb; and I'd like to know if others playing the game have a similar Radeon video card.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bootskitty,
Can you tell us the model number of your Radeon card? The driver version would also be good to know, as well as your version of Windows, since XP drivers (usually 32bit) are different from Vista or Win7 drivers (which are usually 64bit).

You can get the video card information from dxdiag. If you're using XP, click the Start button, then Run, type
dxdiag
in the box and OK it.

If you're using Vista or Win7, click the Start button and enter
dxdiag
in the Start Search to start dxdiag.

Video card information is on the Display tab. The "Name:" of the card is on the left and the "Driver:" date and version is on the right.

Since the minimum requirements listed at Gamersgate list a video card with 512MB of video RAM, that may be the problem. You may be able to get past this part with a saved game and continue playing if this is the only part of the game that requires extra video memory or that conflicts with your computer in some other way.

I'm running XP Pro. I have an ATI HD 2400 256 mb
video card version 6.14.0010.7240. I've actually tried using a game save after my crash point, but it doesn't work. Can I upgrade my video card to a 512 mb?

Thanks Much.

As long as you have a desktop (not a laptop or all-in-one) and your power supply has enough wattage to handle a newer video card, you can install one (or have it installed). The best way to find the wattage of a power supply is to open the case and look to see what's printed on the power supply. But if your computer is a name brand, you may be able to find out the power supply wattage by looking up the name and model number of the computer.

Thank you so much.

I have a 256mb card and running Win XP Pro and Cognition ran without a problem for me. It may be something else. I will bet that by posting your computers specks as Jenny stated above you may get other suggestions. Another thing off the top of my non-techie head is to check that your sound and video acceleration is turned all the way up and the same with Direct X in case any of these was turned down when playing another game.

Thanks much. Now I'm really upset because it probably IS something else besides my video card. I will check my acceleration; although I believe it is at full.

If the game can play using only 256MB of video RAM, it might just be the video card drivers that's the problem. Or the crash might be caused by not doing things in the order the game developers anticipated.

Also I've heard that the Catalyst Control Suite can cause problems. If you can uninstall the Catalyst stuff without uninstalling the drivers, that might help.

While you're at it check your DirectX drivers as well. It sounds liek a game bug to me, but it never hurts check.

Edit -

If you have a save game just before the point it crashes, maybe you can send it to Greyfuss to see if it behaves the same on his rig.

Just a thought -



That's interesting - the developers web site lists 512MB minimum. Is your card an ATI as well?

NVidia GeForce 8600 GT 256mb I really didn't see a reason why it would be 512 mb's as the game isn't very graphically intensive as far as I saw.

I'd have to agree from the screenshots I've seen.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I've tried everything to no avail. Sad, because I really like the game. Phoenix tech support is trying to help me; but we haven't found a solution. How odd that the game runs perfectly until transitioning to the FBI office. Phoenix says there is a lot of data at that point in the game.
Still, I have many, many adventure games that all play just fine.

Not a Radeon then.
The fact that the game doesn't "look" like it needs 512MB of graphics doesn't mean it's well optimized. Maybe it was tested (and optimized) more for Nvidia drivers than for Radeons. Maybe the drivers for the 8600GT handle video memory better than the drivers for the HD 2400. According to gpureview, the 8600gt has 3.5 times as much memory bandwidth and is a faster card
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=513&card2=525
That might be enough to make a difference in the game.

The fact that it's crashing at a point when it's trying to load a lot of data (more than earlier in the game) makes me think it's either a matter of drivers or not enough resources or a combination of both.

So I still think the problem is the video card.

That may very well be why they recommended 512MB minimum -

I can't say thank you enough to everyone at Gameboomers who responded to my post. You won't believe that tech support at Phoenix on line - after - many emails - sent me a setup file to download, install and try. This file worked! When I clicked on the FBI office it loaded, and I could continue on with the game. This is still very baffling because I did nothing but install from a different site.

For now, I'm just happy to be able to complete the Episode 1; but it still doesn't answer the question as to why my game purchase through GameStop didn't work?????

Unless Phoenix created a tweaked version of the game especially for you, it sounds like the version you got from GameStop was defective -- either you got a bad download or your game was crippled with some sort of DRM trigger function that didn't recognize you had a valid retail version of the game and crashed on purpose.

Maybe it changed the screen resolution - whatever it did, I'm glad you got it working.

I'm starting to think that something is a bit goofy with how Gamestop is distributing the game. I have talked to several people who got it from there and finished it no problem, but also several others who are having this specific issue. If you've had this problem of the game crashing when you try to go to the FBI Station after talking to Rose at the antique shop, please do shoot me an email at weldon@postudios dot com and I'll be more than happy to help get you up and running.

Thank you for the offer, Wilco64256.

I'm using an Nvidea Gforce 7300GS with 256 mb's and the game works fine on mine. Weird huh ?

Maybe it's ATI the game has problems with -- at least older ATI.