help finding a game

T-K-O

Hi Guys,

Im trying to find one of the first pc games I played. It was about 8-10 years ago. The game was this guy exploring old cities from another world. He could transport from city to city in what looked like a star gate.. and got around on camel like creatures.

And spoke about the Ulaki ??

Dont laugh help me find it

marshbaboon

Outcast?

T-K-O

Legend... I didn't think I would get many replies based on my hazy description..

Have you played this game?

marshbaboon

Funnily enough no, I never played it.

T-K-O

Even more impressive..

I obviously bought this back in 99 but at the time my pc could just about handle it with the odd crash here and there. From what I re-call it sounded and looked amazing. I definitely going to get another copy.

thanks again

gizmo

Ah voxels, how unappreciated you were.

The game is awesome by the way and is still worth giving a shot today.

Adyx

Check out some of the mods for it on the GOG forum. They fix a number of issues but especially there's a mod that lets you use a higher resolution than the original game (which was 512 X 384 if I remember correctly). Otherwise it'll look crap on modern screens.

super_furry

Haha Outcast was a lot of fun but the one thing tht always sticks in my mind is the mystical and mysterious artefact you needed to use to save your game. That called it the sacred Gam Sav.

T-K-O

I'll check out those mods.

I just found http://www.openoutcast.org/wp/. Still some love out there for this game. I'm excited to get a copy and this time my PC wont brain freeze every half hour..

T-K-O

Can you guys recommend similar games. It's been awhile..

JohnMarston

T-K-O wrote: »

Can you guys recommend similar games. It's been awhile..

Myst 2

marshbaboon

T-K-O wrote: »

Even more impressive..

I think I've played nearly every PC game between '93 and now, and what I haven't played I've read about. I've been tempted to play outcast, but I'm just not an adventure game fan.

Take a look on GOG in the adventure section for other games. The user reviews are really spot on.

T-K-O

marshbaboon wrote: »

I think I've played nearly every PC game between '93 and now, and what I haven't played I've read about. I've been tempted to play outcast, but I'm just not an adventure game fan.

Take a look on GOG in the adventure section for other games. The user reviews are really spot on.

I've already began trolling through the reviews. Thanks again for the link.

These online games are new to me. Can I just sign up to GOG and download the game?

marshbaboon

T-K-O wrote: »

I've already began trolling through the reviews. Thanks again for the link.

These online games are new to me. Can I just sign up to GOG and download the game?

No bother. GOG is an online store. Basically they update older games to make them work on newer systems and sell them cheaply.

All the games come fully patched & have no DRM. When you make a purchase you'll download it through the GOG downloader. It's all very straight forward

T-K-O

marshbaboon wrote: »

No bother. GOG is an online store. Basically they update older games to make them work on newer systems and sell them cheaply.

All the games come fully patched & have no DRM. When you make a purchase you'll download it through the GOG downloader. It's all very straight forward

Brilliant, Off work for a few days from tomorrow so I guess Outcast will be my first download and I'll take it from there...

balkieb2002

Adyx wrote: »

Check out some of the mods for it on the GOG forum. They fix a number of issues but especially there's a mod that lets you use a higher resolution than the original game (which was 512 X 384 if I remember correctly). Otherwise it'll look crap on modern screens.

Outcast was a game I was fasinatated with at the time and read a lot about it but never actually got to play through it as my computer sucked!

I remember playing it years later but quickly gave up. I was in the starting area of the game and I think it was a combination of the, game not running properly, that horrible res and few CTDs that finally made me give up on the game.

Through a combination of GOG and those mods you mentioned I may actually get to finally play through this.

T-K-O

I downloaded the game from gog and found a resolution patch online. The make runs pretty smooth. So far so good... I'm gonna play for awhile before I look at mods


If anyone is thinking about getting this game the resolution patch is a must.

marshbaboon

Grabbed this today out of boredom. Only played a short bit but it seems really impressive!

I love anything to do with collecting resources, and survival in a hostile environment.

T-K-O

Did you get the resolution patch ?

marshbaboon

Yea. The 1280 x 1024 high resolution patch. I'm still having problems though. When I use the patch my frame rate drops right down.

T-K-O

Really, you can tweak the settings at that load / save screen. You can change it to high, that should fix resolution.

You need to click the down arrow - it a took me awhile to figure that one out.

I've played the game a few times and have really enjoyed it. However it has crashed on me once or twice.

I put that down to bootcamp ..

marshbaboon

The resolution works, but the game really slows down. The frame rate seems find if I use the cinemascope option but it's annoying playing the game in letterbox on my screen.

T-K-O

marshbaboon wrote: »

The resolution works, but the game really slows down. The frame rate seems find if I use the cinemascope option but it's annoying playing the game in letterbox on my screen.

Really? but you found those settings I mentioned.

I running a geforce 9400 card, I'm lead to believe that is a modest piece of kit and it runs fine

marshbaboon

Game only uses the processor I think. I'm sure I'll find a fix for it. I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy it!

It's been so long since I've played a game that has gotten me interested.

balkieb2002

marshbaboon wrote: »

The resolution works, but the game really slows down. The frame rate seems find if I use the cinemascope option but it's annoying playing the game in letterbox on my screen.

This thread was a nice reminder for me to test out those patches.

I have GOG version installed and working so I downloaded v3 of the res patch from here, followed the instructions for install but after applying 3 different resolutions, it's still running as a box in the centre of my monitor! Is there anything else I need to change?

Did you get a full screen resolution working ok?

EDIT: Haha OK I guess I didn't read the instructions that carefully... forgot to edit the changes in the Loader

marshbaboon wrote: »

The resolution works, but the game really slows down. The frame rate seems find if I use the cinemascope option but it's annoying playing the game in letterbox on my screen.

Now that I have it running (finally!) in full screen, really happy with the results. Getting around 40+ FPS in the starter area, just running around though going to try a few more tweaks.

Also I never noticed the zoom in/out function before... you can play game in first-person if you want or zoom a nice way out

marshbaboon

Have you got your settings turned down? It's running fine for me, I just might need to turn down stuff to get a better framerate.

Also how do you save?

balkieb2002

marshbaboon wrote: »

Have you got your settings turned down? It's running fine for me, I just might need to turn down stuff to get a better framerate.

Also how do you save?

I do find that 40+ mark is fine for me at present though may have a look to increasing that if I notice slowdown.

Actually I have them turned up to over max!! I edited some of the ini files that were mentioned on the GOG forum that increase various aspects and haven't noticed an additional performance hit/gain.

Wasn't too sure about saving either as I have to keep skipping that opening movie but I then read the manual

Outcast Manual wrote:

The game can be saved at all times using the Gaamsavv (:D) crystal found in the backpack.
However, several seconds are needed before Gaamsavv reaches full power; so be careful to save in calm places since Cutter is otherwise very vulnerable.

marshbaboon

Ahhh the crystal. Ok.

Made it all the way to the priest guy and it crashed when I asked him to heal me. Going to take a look at the configs and start again.

T-K-O

marshbaboon wrote: »

Game only uses the processor I think. I'm sure I'll find a fix for it. I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy it!

It's been so long since I've played a game that has gotten me interested.

My mistake that is correct, the audio in the game is pretty awesome. I cant believe the game is so old.

balkieb2002, what are these tweaks you speak of

balkieb2002

T-K-O wrote: »

My mistake that is correct, the audio in the game is pretty awesome. I cant believe the game is so old.

balkieb2002, what are these tweaks you speak of

yeah i quite like the soundtrack too.

Just some ini edits, I found on an outcast thread at GOG (this one). Just edited parts of the mentioned ini files - mixing and matching with the different ideas people had. Should have taken screenshots for before and after!

T-K-O

balkieb2002 wrote: »

yeah i quite like the soundtrack too.

Just some ini edits, I found on an outcast thread at GOG (this one). Just edited parts of the mentioned ini files - mixing and matching with the different ideas people had. Should have taken screenshots for before and after!

So I just compare the ini file and make the suggested changes on gog. What are the results? I see some guys have said it greatly improves the graphics

balkieb2002

You can actually completely copy and paste the text from GOG to your own ini files as the items are all the same, just the values have changed (even keeps the same format). Just make sure to back them up first.

I'm not 100% sure what's changed or what's really affected as I made the changes before I really started playing the game. It just looks nice in my view... though that may be more to do with the res change.

I'll try find a good spot to save and take a screenshot. I'll then restore my original inis and take another screenshot for comparision

T-K-O

Yeah I'll do the same once I get home. It will be interesting to see the results.

balkieb2002

Here's a couple of my comparisons. Not a huge noticeable difference as others have suggested though that may require more tweaking!

As I'm still at the start of the game, it's probably not the best area for it but once I find somewhere i.e. a town or nice view I'll try a few more comparisons.

T-K-O

I made some of the ini changes and the results are excellent. You can really see the difference when you enter the water or interact with the natives.

Unfortunately no print screens. Im using bootcamp and have a mac keyboard despite going through a lot of shortcuts I couldn't get the print screen to work.

Also have you full screen, I get the full height of the screen but not the width.

balkieb2002

Yeah did a few more tweaks and pretty happy with results thus far. Looks like this game can be edited a bit more from looking at the other configs though not 100% sure what everything does. Trial and error I suppose.

Wasn't sure if there was a print screen available in-game but as i was using Fraps to check FPS, I just press F10 to take a screenshot with that!

I upped the res to max available and have full screen with no borders... more or less same as bottom screenshots.

This is from my loader.ini

[performance]
antialiasing=High
voxeldetail=true
bumpmapping=true
highanimationdetail=true
resolution=HI-RES                   
chardetail=High
doc=High
prq=High
dof=High
crowdlevel=true
ambientsounds=true
highobjectdetail=High
cinemascope=false

marshbaboon

I have the black borders too. You can't get full screen with a widescreen monitor. That's the same for most older games.

The voxel technology uses the processor only, so I think my Q6600 just might not be compatible. Such a shame because the game seems awesome, I'd love to be able to get stuck into it.

balkieb2002

marshbaboon wrote: »

I have the black borders too. You can't get full screen with a widescreen monitor. That's the same for most older games.

As I said above after using the patch max res, I have full screen with no black borders plus I have a widescreen monitor so that statement is not true.

marshbaboon

How did you manage that? The max resolution on the experimental patch is 1280x1024, which isn't the right aspect ratio.

I've changed the INI and am using max resolution on the patch & Still get the borders. You can make it 16:9 using cinema scope but it just adds more borders to the top & bottom.

balkieb2002

marshbaboon wrote: »

How did you manage that? The max resolution on the experimental patch is 1280x1024, which isn't the right aspect ratio.

I've changed the INI and am using max resolution on the patch & Still get the borders. You can make it 16:9 using cinema scope but it just adds more borders to the top & bottom.

I'm actually not sure mate.

My monitor is a 22" Widescreen (max res is 1680x1050) and I'm running the game at 1280x1024 like you and while I get black borders on the opening cutscene as soon as I am in-game it goes full screen.