Neil_McCauley on 28/8/2006 at 17:50
I've just installed this game on my old 1999 Micron system (Celeron, Nvidia Riva, sheer crap for sound). Graphically, it's rendered nicely by the card on an old CRT. But the sound is shite. I have a very basic Maestro chipset. In this game and Thief, it can't handle all the different sound channels--in Thief, for example, the sounds of your footsteps sound very far off, and other sounds just get screwed up. In SS2 as well. I'm still at the beginning, after training and have to get through the ship. My sound card is struggling with all the different sounds: my footsteps, the hybrids, the alarm sounds, and it all sounds really terrible. I know, I need a new system. But reading about the joys of running SS2 on XP, maybe I don't.
In any case, a very cool game; reminds me of some old Genesis games like Flashback and Shadowrun.
Anyway, the purpose of this thread: when SS2 was released, did it need rather high-end audio and video?
Bjossi on 28/8/2006 at 18:03
It is easy to get SS2 running on XP, most of the issues have been resolved in a simplistic manner.
And I don't think there is an (easy) way to improve sound quality, since your computer is extremely outdated, I can't help you at all.
Cronos on 28/8/2006 at 18:05
Welcome to the Cult that never dies, brother ;)
Although running SS2 on XP can be a pain at first, but once you've got SS2 past the initial shock of running on a machine far beyond it's time, it settles quite nicely. I havent had a single crash for near on a year now.
As for you main problem, try adjusting the number of sound channels through Options -> Audio. That may alleviate the problem, though if it's truly a bad video card, there mightn't be much you can do =\
Vigil on 28/8/2006 at 18:12
It didn't require high-end sound or video at the time of release, though if you wanted environmental audio support you needed an EAX-capable card (i.e. an SBLive or newer.)
Your problem might be resolved by finding new audio drivers from the motherboard manufacturer though. You could also try disabling hardware-acceleration for sound in the System Shock 2 options, and lowering the number of channels.
Neil_McCauley on 28/8/2006 at 18:34
Quote Posted by Vigil
Your problem might be resolved by finding new audio drivers from the motherboard manufacturer though. You could also try disabling hardware-acceleration for sound in the System Shock 2 options, and lowering the number of channels.
Thanks, I'll try that. I don't think it worked for Thief.
I know I know, I really need a new machine. Working on that. But with wife being a grad student, baby coming any day now, not high priority. But becoming more and more of one, the more this system ages, and now that Windows 98 has officially been mothballed.
