Problem Solving FAQ - The Angel of Darkness
Written and produced by Simulation
Index
Essential Software
Installing the game
Common problems
Acknowledgements
ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE

TR: AOD Patches (Download)

Download and install the TRAOD patches. V42 followed v49 (or v52, but this is not particularly recommended).

 

TRAOD Startup Configuration Utility (Download)

The AOD SCU application configures The Angel Of Darkness to run using all three patches released by Eidos Interactive. Includes God Mode cheat option, game recording functions, additional environment information and support for XPD (eXtended PaD files).

Note: V52 patch does not support benchmark facility.

 
INSTALLING THE GAME
 

Install TRAoD as normal. We would reccomend a Full install as you do not need the CD in the drive to play the game and gameplay performance is better.

Install the v42 followed by v49 patches by downloading the programs and double clicking the files in the explorer. The programs will automatically find and install the patches to the installation folder.

 
Before checking the problems below make sure you have checked the following
 
Downloaded the latest drivers for your Graphics, Sound card and Motherboard AGP.
 
Reinstall DirectX 9.0a or later. The latest version can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx
 
Disable Windows Blinds or Style XP as they can cause black screen and/or graphic problems.
 
NOTE: TRAOD is using the latest graphic and sound technology so it is very important that your computer drivers are up to date. Most reported problems are fixed by updating.
 
COMMON PROBLEMS
 
What is the PC specification for TRAOD?
 
Minimum (with TnL Graphics card):
500 MHz CPU
16MB Graphics card 100% TnL capable, DX9 compatible
200 MB hard drive space
Windows 98 (Win95 is not supported) 128 MB Ram
 
Minimum (without TnL Graphics card):
1.5 GHz CPU
8MB Graphic card
300 MB hard drive space
Windows 98 (Win95 is not supported)
128 MB Ram
 
Recommended:
1.5 GHz CPU
64MB Graphic card 100% TnL capable, DX9 compatible
3D Soundcard (EAX2 or I3DL2)
200 MB hard drive space
Windows 2000 / Windows XP 128 MB Ram
 
What cards do support TnL? Transform and Lighting
 
nVidia GeForce FX range
nVidia GeForce 4 range
nVidia GeForce 3 range
nVidia GeForce 2 range
ATI Radeon range (except 7000)
 
What cards do not support TnL?
ATI Rage series (128, Pro, Fury etc)
Intel (810, V3800)
SIS (650/750 etc)
S3 (Pro Savage, Twister)
Matrox (Mystique, Millenium etc)
Voodoo 3DFX (3, 5 etc)
ATI RAdeon 7000
Geforce TNT, TNT2 (Ultra, Pro etc)
Diamond Viper
Kyro 2 based cards.
 
What cards support DX9?
nVidia® GeForce FX range
nVidia® Quadro FX range
ATI® 9000 range
ATI® X range
 
Lara sounds like a chipmunk. Talks very fast.
Update the sound card driver. Confirmed problem on the Realtek Sound chip. If this still doesn't work go to your Windows Control Panel (->Start ->Settings ->Control Panel. Click Sound and Multimedia. Once you are in Sound and Multimedia Properties click the Audio tab. In the box 'Sound Playback' click Advanced, choose the Performance-tab and set the Hardware acceleration from Full acceleration to Basic acceleration or No Acceleration.
 
sys_error_d3d error
Usually caused by an unsupported graphics card or an out of date driver.
Update the Graphics Driver.
If there are still problems try adjusting the graphic settings. In the first pre-game menu screen , go to SETTINGS.
 
 
General Tab
Set Frame Rate Compensation to to Active and Fast.
Make sure Processor has been set correctly.
 
 
Graphics Tab
Click on FF in the Default group (Fixed Function).
 
 
Once you have TRAOD running you can go back and select Normal and check if that works OK. This option turns on the default settings for your particular card type.
 
If this proves to be alright you may wish to modify various settings to improve screen resolution or quality.
 
N.B Some of the options may be greyed out if your card does not support the higher functions.
 
Crashing at Strahov Fortress.
Uncheck multi-threaded and check/uncheck AMD 3D Now! and SSE.
 
GAME_ERROR_STRUCTURED_ EXCEPTION_HANDLE or SYS_ERROR_STRUCTURED_ EXCEPTION_HANDLE
Sound card problem. Check for updates for your driver and/or turn down the hardware acceleration on the Sound tab of Dxdiag.exe. Can also relate to a corrupted saved game.
 
Game doesn't start. Black screen after Eidos Logo.
Check USB devices. Unplug unnecessary USB devices like cameras, scanners, printers etc. Go to TRAOD Settings and see if there are any USB devices listed that are not game related and disable them. There have been reports of settings displaying multiple keyboards. Turn all off except one.
 
I don't see any shadows.
The shadows are drawn using DX9 functions. This means older cards may not display any shadows. Click here for example image.
 
Everything looks out of focus.
The game has a Depth of Field (DOF) option on DX9 compatible cards. This is used to give the illusion that items further away are out of focus and changes the aspect.
 
To see the difference comapare these images.
Radeon 9800 Pro DOF On
Radeon 9800 Pro DOF Off
 

The DOF function is very processor intensive and can dramatically reduce the frame rate on the less powerful cards such as the nVidia FX5200.

The nVidia 45.23 drivers do not handle Depth of Field correctly. Install the latest driver from nVidia to see if this corrects the problem.

 
The menu moves so fast. I can't select most of the options.
Turn on the "Wait for VSync" in the graphics Tab of the TRAoD Settings dialog. This can be a problem on the high performance graphic cards.
 
I get a message "Insert Disc 1" when I start the game.
Check that there is at least 200MB of free disk space available on the TRAoD installation drive. The game creates temporary files while running and the size changes denpending on the complexity of the scene.
 
The MAC version asks for a registration number, but I don't have one.
Some packages were shipped without the nessesary installation code. You need to contact the Aspyr support team.
support@aspyr.com
http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/mac/traod/
 
MAC bug in the Storm drains.
After turning the valves in the storm drains the water doesn't fill up as the Cutscene fails to run. Disable the Distance fog in the Configuration Utility before starting the game. It is also fixed by this Patch 1.0.1 which can be downloaded from Tomb Raider Chronicles.
 
General Crashing on AMD processors.
Try turning off multi-threaded and SSE options in your SETTINGS of the game as these are PENTIUM options only and could cause your AMD processor problems when trying to run Tomb Raider.
 
FMV ERROR (tomb raider font Italic white writing on menu screen).

Make sure that in your game settings, the second screen (graphics options) in the OPTIONS box has FMV, Overlay Mixer and Texture Renderer TICKED and that everything else is unticked.

IF you do not have the FMV box, download the patches and then check the options.

Make sure on the Sound tab that you also have your sound ON and that "always use windows default device" is selected and matches that of your sound card.

You will also need to ensure the desktop resolution matches the in game resolution.

Then if you exit out of the game, and to your START button, then up to RUN then type in DXDIAG and press OK, (if it asks you a question, click YES), this should bring up a Diagnostics toolbox. Click on the Sound Tab at the top (sound 1 for people with more than one device) and move the Hardware Acceleration line to BASIC. Exit the Dxdiag and try and run the game again.

 
Where do I get the latest graphic drivers?

The PC manufactures web site should have a driver update page, but they don't always have the latest versions. The most popular graphic chip manufactures do supply generic drivers and they are the latest and greatest. These are links to the more popular makes :

N.B. For Notebooks always use the PC manufactures drivers.
 
Do graphic cards effect the quality of TRAOD?
Yes. The graphics card can make a huge difference in performance and quality as can the settings you choose.
 
   
Click on the link above to see the difference between graphically capabilities.The first half shows the limitation of card that can only run Fixed Function, while the second half uses the high end effects you would expect to see on a fully enabled card.
 
Do graphic cards effect the performance of TRAOD?
The three graphs below compare :
 
nVidia FX5200 (low end DX9 card) on a P43.06Ghz
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (High end DX9 card) on a Athlon 1700+
nVidia GeForce2 GTS (Medium DX7 card) on a Athlon 1700+
 
As can be seen the FX5200 slows down dramatically when the advanced Pixel Shaders are enabled compared to the 9800 Pro which is running on a much slower CPU. The GeForce2 GTS, which is a slightly older card will run the game OK, but cannot use any of the Pixel Shaders. This means many effects are inhibited such as shadows, water reflections, Depth of field etc.
 
KEY
HWFF - Hardware Fixed Function
SWFF - Software Fixed Function
PS1.0 - Pixel Shader v1.0
PS1.4 - Pixel Shader v1.4
PS2.0 - Pixel Shader v2.0
 
 
 
 
 
What do the Patches fix?
This is the readme.rtf supplied with the v49 patch.
The original instruction supplied by Eidos recommended installing v42 then v49.
 
V42: Stopped Crashes when Keyboard is remapped to selected keys, System deadlocks if the correct is not present when playing an FMV, System deadlocks or crashes just after loading a level, Missing ShotGun, EAX Logos incorrect, FMV player now supports machines with the VMR9 interface.
 
V49: Save game time are now in local time and not GMT, Fixed Lightning effects in final battle and hanger, Added build version to start screen, Changed conversation to use action key, Multisampling and post process are no mutually exclusive (only possible with DX9.0a or higher), Stopped ammunition decreasing too fast, Added key remapping for cycle weapons, Stopped quick-save from producing empty filenames, Fixed incorrect lighting on staticly lit animated objects, Stopped failed controller profile from removing existing profiles, Added user clip plane support to projected shadows.
It also supplies all the command line parameters that can be used with TRAOD, including such commands -Benchmark -godmode -debugkeys etc.
 
V52: A bug fix list was NOT supplied. The obvious change was that the command line option -benchmark was removed and v49 saved games don't work.
 
Camera is looking at Lara's Face. Bio-Research Facility.
Walk up to a wall and go into stealth mode. Press action to get Lara to hug up next to the wall and the camera should correct itself.
 
How do I start DXDIAG?
Click Start, and then run. Type dxdiag and click ok. In the new window click save information as... and save the file to your hard drive by clicking ok again. In that file you have now everything you need to know about your computer. You can then paste this into a reply. See TechHelp for more details
 
TRAOD Graphic settings - What do they mean?
Interesting article here that explains all the graphic settings in TRAOD and how to benchmark your card. http://www.beyond3d.com/downloads/traod/index.php
 
Download the benchmark demo at this link which includes a readme file with an explanation of the settings. http://www.beyond3d.com/downloads/traod/b3d_traodreadme1.zip
 
Windows Blinds and Style XP can causes black screen and/or graphic problems.
It has been reported that Window Blinds and Style XP (A windows interface skins utility) can cause problems with TRAOD. Unload the program before running the game.
 
How do I take a Screen Shot?
Start the game and when ever you wish to capture the screen press the PrtScn key (print screen). The game will pause for a second as the image is written to disk. The images are saved in TGA format (Truevision Targa). The image file is saved into a sub folder where TRAOD is installed. .......\TRAOD\ScreenShots\
 
The setup option in TRAOD does indicate that Ctrl + PrtScn can be used to capture a scaled image, but this causes the game to crash so should be avoided.
 
Note that Microsoft Paint, Microsoft Media Player and Microsoft Imaging do not support TGA format so it may be nescessary to install a viewer/editor program.
If you do not already have a suitable viewer there are many photo/paint programs available to download as shareware, freeware or purchase that will do the job. One recommended freeware viewer is IRFANVIEW.
 
Where can I find Saved Games?
You can download the saved games from Tomb Raider Chronicles. The zip file contains 3 smaller zip files.
 
How do I use a saved game?
Once you have downloaded the aod_saves.zip open the zip file. It contains 3 other zip files.
 
Batch1.zip: Derelict Apartment Block to The Archaeological Dig
Batch2.zip: Tomb of Ancients to The Sanitarium
Batch3.zip: Maximum Containement Area to Eckhardt's Lab part 3
 
The saved games are located in the ...\Eidos Interactive\TRAOD\SaveGame directory. Just unzip the files and copy them into this folder
 
Note: Before copy the contents of the Zip file into the SaveGame folder we would recommend you backup the existing save files.
 
Can I run TRAoD without the CD in the drive?
Yes. Run a FULL installation and you can run the game without needing the CD in the CD-ROM drive. This also means there are less pauses in the game as it is quicker for the game to get the information from the hard disk than the CD-ROM.
 
Can I cheat on the PS2?
Yes you can. For most of the cheats you will require a Cheats Disk that can bought from any good Games shop. The more popular versions are GameShark, Action Replay and Code Breaker. The one cheat that can be performed without a cheat disk is Level Skip.
 
What is EAX?
EAX is a trade mark of Creative Technology and is available on the Sounblaster Audigy and Audigy 2 range which offers dramatically increased 3D audio performance and functionality. See http://eax.creative.com for further details.
 
Acknowledgements
 
TRF Members : Bokkie, Elen, Joseph, Neteru, Nicky, and tlr online.
 
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