Technical check list
 

This thread is meant to give you information on things …
… you may find useful for your purchase decision,
… which could help prevent incompatibilities,
… assist you in getting the game running correctly at first glance.

For tweaks and bug fixes please check the other thread nearby.


System requirements
According to a couple of reviews the following PC is okay for medium to high details on a resolution in the 12xx range:
- At least 2 cores, more has minimal positive effect.
- Something like an X2 3800 is okay. Faster = better!
- 2 GB RAM is fine. More is unnecessary.
- Graphics card with shader modell 3. See below! Generally speaking a 100$ card like a GeForce 8800 / 9600 or a comparable ATI will do.

Risen is CPU limited!
This means a fast CPU is more important than an expensive graphics card. Tests also have shown that Risen profits from 2 CPU cores, while the gain from the 3rd or 4th core is minimal, although positive. Faster clock speed on the other hand is always a plus.
Update: The first statement turned out to be incorrect. Risen has comparably low system requirements. It can be tweaked heavily even on inexpensive PCs.

GeForce 6 & GeForce 7 cards
- The GeForce 6 is too slow.
- As of today there is a technical problem on GeForce 7 cards. The whole screen is filled with fog, making the game unplayable. It's unclear whether it's only a bug or a permanent incompatibility. According to DS, Risen has been tested on the GF 7900 before the system requirements were published. Then the problem didn't surface.
- The obvious conclusion is that it doesn't make much sense to buy the game now for GF 6 or GF 7 users.
Update Oct. 5th: According to PB the cause of the problem has probably been found over the weekend. They also have an idea how to solve the issue. When testing has confirmed it works correctly, a hotfix will be released. Intense tests are necessary for this. They're talking days, not weeks.
Update Oct. 6th: Internal tests at PB were successful on all available GF 6 & 7 cards. The hotfix has been passed on to external testing.
Update Oct. 8th: A hotfix (1.01 international) has been released. The problem is solved.
Reports hint that Risen scales better than expected. It's possible Risen might be playable with reasonable details on faster GF 7 cards and low details on 6600+/7600+. Use this info at your own risk. ;)

Anti-Aliasing
Risen does not support AA. It can be enforced by tools and / or driver.
AA confirmed for nVidia cards, with nHancer. Use 2x2 Supersampling instead of Multisampling if your card is fast enough.
Enforcing AA on ATI cards seems to work, but there are many reports about uneven performance.

SLI / CrossFire
Works with the usual tricks. The effect is huge.

nVidia driver
The recommended driver is 181.20. New drivers may lead to performance leaks.
Update: In the meantime nVidia has included optimizations for Risen in later driver releases.


nVidia driver options
In case of performance problems make sure the following nVidia driver options are disabled:
- AA
- Pre-render frames [-> set to zero]
- Physx support by GPU

Demo
A demo for PC has been released. You can find it on the usual sites.

XBox 360: Patch
Sources say Deep Silver promised to publish a patch within 4 weeks after release.
It will try to squeeze better graphics out of the XBox 360.

Important update:
The NA XBox360 release already includes the improvements and seems to be solid. Deep Silver hasn't announced a release date for a Euro XBox360 patch though. It's not even sure it will come out at all!

Toshiba HD-DVD drives
Several of these drives apparently have a firmware issue. They don't support certain parts of the DVD standard needed by the Tages copy protection. Since the HD-DVD standard is dead, it's more than unlikely the problem will be fixed.
If you own such a drive, buy a download version.

Copy Protection
Retail: Tagès; disk check, no DRM, no activation.
Steam: Steam; Tagès, no disk check, with activation.
other DL services: unconfirmed.

Well, that lets me out for now, anyway. Sounds like I might be able to play it with my single core/hyperthread capable CPU since it's got a decent speed processor(3.8 ghz) but I have a 7900GTX card. Thanks Gorath.

Same here, I have even older vid card. Thanks for the info.

Unplayable… on GF7 cards.

I think I just died a little inside.

Updated. The demo is out.

Update: SLI / CrossFire

AA for NVIDIA is possible with nHancer and looks very nice.

Use the Vanguard setting and AA settings like this:

http://www.nonflamersguild.com/galle…geViewsIndex=1

http://www.nonflamersguild.com/galle…geViewsIndex=1

http://www.nonflamersguild.com/galle…isen3.jpg.html

Addition:
If you have enough graphic card power you can use 2x2 Supersampling instead of Multisampling. This works wonders against the flickering grass.

Plays at 30fps with some options set to low on:
1280 x 1024
AMD FX 55 2.6 GHz single core
8800 GTS 640mb
2 gb Ram
Xp Sp3

Pretty smooth as well. Doubt I would upgrade CPU / mobo as for this GFX aren't the point - its pretty enough for me.

I can confirm this. At night this game is unplayable and the whole swamp area is a place of no return because I can't see a thing in there. So there was no point of getting this game at release day and barricating myself inside of my gaming stronghold for the whole weekend. Why won't I ever learn? :(

I love the atmosphere and dialogs are really great, plus the small bit of combat i got to experience was tons of fun…but risen is at hold for some time now. Either they fix it or I have to a get a new graphics card.

Once again I should have read rpgwatch forums before buying.

This will be solved. DS and PB are working on it. The DS guys at WoR were quite surprised about the issue. Of course they tested on a GF 7 series card (GF 7900), and had no technical problems.

Got the game yesterday from gogamer, been playing a while and so far it's really good :). No issues running it except in swamp area the weather will constantly change every time I activate something, such as talk to someone or even open and close the character screen. I've looked around but haven't heard of anyone else having this problem pop up. Running on amd 6000 x2 3 ghz, ati 4890 hd, 2 gb 800mhz ram and xp sp3.

I get the "insert original Risen DVD" error. I bought it from Gogamer.com and this is one of the most infuriating bugs. The dvd is clearly in the drive, I can only imagine their copy protection is borked. I see other people have this problem on the official forum, but no solutions yet.

Well, I tried the demo, and yes, I have the white-ish fog. It seems that only a small spherical area around the camera is fog-free.

Glad to hear. I was already convincing myself that I'm going to play the game even with the fog! ;)

Hm, I also get black squares around certain objects. Has anyone else encountered this?

I don't get the fog but i tried all possible gamma settings and the still the nights in hell are less dark , i can not even follow characters around..maybe i have to carry a torch around all the time?
I have a nvidia gf gtx280

Are you really sure that they test the game in a 7*** board. Because every people with a G.F 6*** or 7*** have the problem that makes the game unplayable.
I pre-order the game and i cant play it . Am really pissed of with this situation.

I can only repeat what they said. And it does make sense to test for compatibility before you write something on the box.

The latest (non-)update is that both PB and nVidia are investigating the problem.

Update: Toshiba HD-DVD drives

Update: GeForce 7 issue

AWESOME news :)

I don't understand why there are so many people complaining about their GFX card. The 8000 series is 4y old -> They don't have to get a 7000 series card working, it's just goodwill. Krzychu and grinaris, buy another video card. It's not like they cost that much nowadays.