Hi folks,
Arx crashes quite a bit for me, with the 'memory error' dialog. This occurs when I 'bump' into creatures.
I have Vista and up-to-date drivers.
It seems like it might be related to the sneak skill check for pick pockets? Or maybe an audio 'bark' is called for the person to say something? My sneak skill is low, well below what is necessary to pick pockets.
It has occursed with trolls, goblins, Shany, a dog and almost everything except hostile creatures.
It doesn't seem like this is related to my configuration.
Any one have any ideas?

This happens to me a lot too.
The first time, the astronomer in the castle did it by pushing me through the wall :P
Bumping various NPCs causes it too (it once happened when I accidentally stepped on a chicken).
The one really annoying one, and the thing that causes it the most reliably for me, is attempting to cast Enchant Object. It *always* crashes as soon as I select the item. Doesn't matter if it's in inventory or not.

I have exactly the same problem on Vista - and selecting an object after casting the enchant spell causes that Fatal Memory Error every single time. I've been enjoying the game but I'm close to giving up because it's no fun when you have to save once a minute in case it crashes!
I know Arkane Studios put out the 1.19 patch for the GOG release, which is great - but they never seem to have addressed this issue - it's been around ever since the original release, judging by other forums

Any news on this please, lovely GoG people - Im trying to play this game cos i like it so much, but the constant crashes mean its on hold due to the fustration!!

up

I am hoping to read of a fix here before I buy the game. I have wanted to buy it but have been holding off until the crash issues appears resolved.

Any news on this?
I'm at the point of the game where I can start enchanting items myself, and right now the thing keeps crashing. I hope this can be fixed soon so I can continue exploring this line of the gameplay.

Still hopping there will be a fix, but as time passes i'm loasing faith in this.

Bumping the crash.
Either we get this or do we get credit towards another purchase?

This is a particularly serious bug, as it makes completing the game impossible. <Oracle-like voice on> You really *need* to be able to enchant a certain item at a certain part of the game... <Oracle-like voice off>

Actually, that point in the game is the one instance where you can cast enchant object without crashing.
Also, I think you can convince one of the NPCs to do it for you, but it leads to a not-so-happy ending for some of the characters...

Oh, I didn't know that. I did the enchanting myself (with a scroll, to be exact), but it's good to know the devs made alternate ways to enchant you-know-what possible.
Well, well, learn something new everyday. :)

I have Windows Vista and experienced the same problem with enchanting. So I googled in search of a solution, but I didn't find anything. However I noticed that it wasn't a problem specific to the GOG version (in a forum a user with the steam version complained about this bug) and that everyone who experienced the bug had Windows Vista. Then, I found a .txt file in the Arx directory named "ARX FAQ". I read it and a question was:
-----------
Question 1:
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How can I stop Arx Fatalis crashing all the time?
Answer:
Download the latest patch from the official site at http://www.arxfatalis-online.com
This should improve the game's stability.
If you still experience problems please ensure that you have no anti-virus software or background applications running whilst playing the game.
-----------
So I closed every background application and lanched the game. I used a Rock of Amikar with a random short sword, cast the enchant spell and... [drums rumble] it crashed!
However, I was far from giving up and I started thinking. The game has this bug under Windows Vista. And if I try to play under a compatibility mode? I know, it looks too easy, but I tried. I set the game to run under Windows Xp SP 2 compatibility mode but it crashed as always.
I decided to try a last thing: to run the game under Windows 98 / Windows Me compatibility mode.
I used again a Rock of Amikar with a random short sword, cast the enchant spell and... [another drums rumble] it didn't crash!
The game continued to run and in my inventory I had an unbreakable short sword.
I repeated the enchanting process about five times and didn't have a single crash.
Then, I rebooted my pc and tried again. This time all the background applications that usually run on my pc were running. I tried several enchantings and all succeeded, but I had two random crashes when I was just walking around, so it's probably useful to close all unneeded backgroung applications that are running.
In conclusion, set the game to run under Windows 98 / Windows Me compatibility mode and it won't crash when you enchant something and close all the useless running background applications before playing in order to experience less random crashes (but probably you'll still have one sometimes).
I hope this can be of some help.
EDIT: It seems that if the game runs under Windows 98 / Windows Me compatibility mode you won't be able to play using your screen higher resolutions. Widescreen resolutions can be selected though.

Wow, thanks for the tip nero! The crashing is driving me insane! I'll try this right away. Hopefully running in Windows 98 compatibility mode doesn't break anything else with the game since I'm having absolutely NO other problems... other than the font slow-down problem, but that hasn't really effected the gameplay since I got rid of the battle messages (Backstab, double damage, etc).
EDIT: Woohoo! That fixed it for me!
I couldn't enchant anything without it crashing. After switching to Windows 98 compatibility mode it works fine! :)
Only problem now is that I can't seem to get it to run at anything past 1280x1024 (actually 1280x960 since I'm on a 4:3 CRT), where as I had it running fine at 1600x1200 before.
Not a big problem though. The game looks good either way and now it shouldn't crash as much.
Thanks Nero!