Uru Will Not Work

Uru keeps crashing, despite all I have tried:
- installed lastest drivers for ATI Radeon 9000
- installed Intel application accelerator
- installed Uru 1.2 upgrade
- installed no-CD patch to eliminate CD drive use
- uninstalled & reinstalled Uru, upgrade & no-CD
- set game graphics to lowest settings

I shouldn't be having these problems, as the Windows XP Game Advisor website says my system has 2880% of the minimum requirements (Pentium- 4, 2.53 gigahertz, 512 MB, DirectX 9.0).

Does anyone have any suggestions as to other things I could try? Ubisoft can't seem to offer any help other than "upgrade your drivers".

Are you using DirectX 9.0b? Other than that I cannot see why you would have a problem running this game. Even the DirectX thing, I guess, shouldn't really matter much.
Rusty

The patch was supposed to correct the problem with crashes and Radeon cards. Make sure 3D sound is turned off in the game options. That seems to cause problems in a lot of games. You might also try turning off antialiasing and anisotropic filtering in the game options, if the game gives that option.

Found this on the Uru forums, maybe it'll help:

Thanks for the ideas. Yep, using DirectX 9.0b, and my system passes all graphics and sound tests. Turned off EAX sound, put all graphics settings to lowest levels, turned off antialiasing and anisotropic filtering. Uninstalled ATI Radeon 9000 Catalyst 3.9 drivers and installed Catalyst 3.8 version. My Intel motherboard only supports 4x AGP grapics cards, so I couldn't change that setting.

Is anyone aware of Uru problems coming from SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio? The motherboard has the sound function built in; no separate sound card.

I guess a new graphics card is what is needed, although the Radeon 9000 is supposed to work. Now to decide if I'm willing to spend the money.

Any other suggestions?

I really don't think it is your video card. Is there a list somewhere of the video cards that this game supports? Yours should be on it. How about trying the game with your built-in sound turned off? If it happens to work then you know it is a sound problem.
Rusty

It says on the box ATI Radeon 7000 - 9800 or better.
It says the same thing on the Ubisoft website.
So an ATI Radeon 9000 should work.

I'd suggest going back to DirectX 8.1 and using older drivers, if that were possible. But I don't know of a reliable uninstaller for DirectX 9.

Also, the problem may be nothing to do with the video card anyway. Are you sure that NoCD "patch" you used was for your version of the game? If you used the 1.0 NoCD "patch" after updating the game with the patch from Ubisoft, that could cause a problem.

I know there were some issues with Radeon cards, and a patch has been released for that. Sorry, I don't know the details (didn't pay attention - don't have Radeon)
Have you got that patch?

Thanks, Rusty. I turned off the sound and got further along than before with no problems. Turned the sound back on, but disabled the "Load on Demand" option. That seems to have helped. I finally made it to Relto for the first time. Guess I need to see if Intel has some updated sound drivers for my motherboard. Yep, Jenny100 and mystmum, I have previously updated the game to the 1.2 release and made sure the no-CD patch was the correct one for the 1.2 release. Now to try increasing the graphics settings and see if it keeps working. I'll let you know what happens. Thanks, all!

Then it seems like a sound issue to me. Keep us posted.
Rusty

Well, I guess it really was a sound problem. I have an Intel Pentium 4 motherboard (model D850EMV2L) with the sound function built in. It passes all of the Direct Sound tests in DXDIAG, but Uru seems not to like it. I have been playing the game for 2 days now with no crashes after turning off the "Load on Demand" option on the "Audio" tab, with all other sound options on and the number of sounds set to "High". Have been able to raise the graphics settings also with no problems, so I guess my ATI Radeon 9000 can handle the game OK. I'll just keep playing until the game is finished or I encounter more problems, in which case I'll probably be back here whining again! Thanks again for your suggestions.

Rusty

Hi,

I finally got our GeForce4 video card installed today Yay! and played the demo with no problems but when I tried to start the full game, it crashed to desktop without even loading the avatar screen. My system also has integrated sound. I will also try clicking off "load on demand" and see what happens.

Wish me luck!
Susan

Yep! that fixed the problem for me

Now back to more puzzling goodness!