Posted March 09, 2019
THE STORY SO FAR:
2 days ago I got a copy of GOG's Icewind Dale 2 from my girlfriend after she told me that the game worked like a charm on her WIN 8 machine. I installed the software with not a single problem (offline install withtout that well known Galaxy train wreck) but when I executed the game it just freezed itself and I had to terminate it thru the Program Manager.
For starters I have Windows 7 configured manualy, meaning that instead of eating 800+ Mb of RAM under normal operation, it bites only 150~180 Mb at best (250Mb after 5+hours of heavy use) so I knew that there was not a problem with the Services of Windows, not the UAC, or the Firewall because I disabled every single one of them 10 minutes after the SO instalation.
Now when Icewind Dale 2 freezed itself I realized that the program stoped at 30 Mb of RAM comsuption but the CPU usage was up to 90~97% so there was some process runing during the entire time. Furthermore the game's icon spawned in the task bar and the mouse was "invisible" in the desktop but NOT in the taskbar itself meaning that the game had a priority over there wich equals to: the game was runing but freezed right when the first graphics were going to be rendered/displayed, and of course NO error window or "crash" sound appeared at all... the software just stopped.
Before going foward, for the record my backup gaming machine (after a lucky lightning strike in my original gaming rig) is this:
Mainboard: Asrock P4I45GV R5.0
CPU: Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz
RAM: 1 Gb DDR 400
GPU: Nvidia Geforce 6200 256 Mb @ 128 bit
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1
Yes I know what you're thinking: "You can barely run WIN 7 in that thing!" but hear me out, I played Neverwinter Nights 2 (GOG Edition) without any single crash or tweak required. So if this thing can run that unoptimized game at 25~30 FPS with Low/Medium settings... IWD2 would be a snack for it, yet the game didn't ran despite EVERY single other Infinity Engine software running with not a single problem.
So after my initial tests I searched the network for 2 long days trying to grasp a solution or better yet, a way to understand the cause of the problem, even to the point that THIS topic itself was being created to report it in the first place, but during the process of writing it I found out a fix.
THE FIX:
Well is very anticlimatic but here it goes:
Step 1: Download the latest "Infinity Engine ddraw fix", I don't know if I can spread the download link so you'll have to google it under "bitpatch ie-ddrawfix."
Step 2: Unzip/rar the files in the main IWD2 directory (the one with the .exe/.ini/.something)
Step 3: Execute ddraw fix.exe and select the option [DDRAW EMULATION], normaly option 1.
Step 4: Hit ENTER and execute the game normaly.
Now just to be sure, when I copyed the files into the IWD2 directory windows informed me that there was already a file named "ddraw fix.exe" in the folder, so it could be possible that GOG already included the "patch" with the instalation, so CHECK IT BEFORE downloading anything from internet.
VERY IMPORTANT: When I was patching the game I realized that the second option (wine ddraw something) was already applied by the GOG installer, meaning that the game was running by default under that patch. So the problem could be completly related to THAT instead of an SO/Driver issue with the system.
FINAL WORDS:
I hope that this topic helps anyone having troubles running this or any other Infinity Engine software under WIN7, in my case was an direct draw issue that prevented the game to execute completly, for you it could be a completly different issue. But keep in mind that the "compatibility mode" or the "run as administrator" thingies could be a waste of time since the product itself is already listed as "win 7/8/10" compatible.
Best regards and good luck!
2 days ago I got a copy of GOG's Icewind Dale 2 from my girlfriend after she told me that the game worked like a charm on her WIN 8 machine. I installed the software with not a single problem (offline install withtout that well known Galaxy train wreck) but when I executed the game it just freezed itself and I had to terminate it thru the Program Manager.
For starters I have Windows 7 configured manualy, meaning that instead of eating 800+ Mb of RAM under normal operation, it bites only 150~180 Mb at best (250Mb after 5+hours of heavy use) so I knew that there was not a problem with the Services of Windows, not the UAC, or the Firewall because I disabled every single one of them 10 minutes after the SO instalation.
Now when Icewind Dale 2 freezed itself I realized that the program stoped at 30 Mb of RAM comsuption but the CPU usage was up to 90~97% so there was some process runing during the entire time. Furthermore the game's icon spawned in the task bar and the mouse was "invisible" in the desktop but NOT in the taskbar itself meaning that the game had a priority over there wich equals to: the game was runing but freezed right when the first graphics were going to be rendered/displayed, and of course NO error window or "crash" sound appeared at all... the software just stopped.
Before going foward, for the record my backup gaming machine (after a lucky lightning strike in my original gaming rig) is this:
Mainboard: Asrock P4I45GV R5.0
CPU: Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz
RAM: 1 Gb DDR 400
GPU: Nvidia Geforce 6200 256 Mb @ 128 bit
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1
Yes I know what you're thinking: "You can barely run WIN 7 in that thing!" but hear me out, I played Neverwinter Nights 2 (GOG Edition) without any single crash or tweak required. So if this thing can run that unoptimized game at 25~30 FPS with Low/Medium settings... IWD2 would be a snack for it, yet the game didn't ran despite EVERY single other Infinity Engine software running with not a single problem.
So after my initial tests I searched the network for 2 long days trying to grasp a solution or better yet, a way to understand the cause of the problem, even to the point that THIS topic itself was being created to report it in the first place, but during the process of writing it I found out a fix.
THE FIX:
Well is very anticlimatic but here it goes:
Step 1: Download the latest "Infinity Engine ddraw fix", I don't know if I can spread the download link so you'll have to google it under "bitpatch ie-ddrawfix."
Step 2: Unzip/rar the files in the main IWD2 directory (the one with the .exe/.ini/.something)
Step 3: Execute ddraw fix.exe and select the option [DDRAW EMULATION], normaly option 1.
Step 4: Hit ENTER and execute the game normaly.
Now just to be sure, when I copyed the files into the IWD2 directory windows informed me that there was already a file named "ddraw fix.exe" in the folder, so it could be possible that GOG already included the "patch" with the instalation, so CHECK IT BEFORE downloading anything from internet.
VERY IMPORTANT: When I was patching the game I realized that the second option (wine ddraw something) was already applied by the GOG installer, meaning that the game was running by default under that patch. So the problem could be completly related to THAT instead of an SO/Driver issue with the system.
FINAL WORDS:
I hope that this topic helps anyone having troubles running this or any other Infinity Engine software under WIN7, in my case was an direct draw issue that prevented the game to execute completly, for you it could be a completly different issue. But keep in mind that the "compatibility mode" or the "run as administrator" thingies could be a waste of time since the product itself is already listed as "win 7/8/10" compatible.
Best regards and good luck!
