Arx Fatalis

What can one say about Arx Fatalis? It's a 1st person RPG from way back (originally released in 2002) made by Arkane Studios (same folks who did "Dark Messiah of Might and Magic"). It was meant to be Ultima Underworld III but due to not being able to secure a license became it's own game. I'm glad it's not tied to an existing franchise. It uses a skill based system as well as requiring the player to use mouse gestures to cast spells. The game is in the same vein as Morrowind/Oblivion but is much, much smaller in scale than either.
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Support summary

Grades:-

Widescreen: B
Multi-Monitor: Incomplete

Tested Version:

1.17

Screen change:

Hor+

Widescreen Method:

.ini edit

Hud Stretch:

None

Multi-monitor Method:

.ini edit

Multi-monitor HUD:

Rendered cut-scenes:

Hor+

FMV cut-scenes:

Additional WSGF Links:

Game information

Release Date:

Friday, 28 June, 2002

Game status:

Released

Setting:

Fantasy

Genre:

RPG

Play styles:

Single player

Developer:

Arkane Studios

Developer feedback:

Links:

⋅ ⋅ ⋅ Metacritic ⋅ Moby Games ⋅ Wikipedia ⋅

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Forum Thread: Arx Fatalis: Detailed Report

Solutions & Anomalies

Solution

The video resolution can be changed in-game (under "Options->Video Settings") or from out-game settings (on first run). If you want to see the out-game settings configuration window, do this:

1. Open the following file:
"..\Arx Fatalis\cfg.ini"
2. Change the following line under the 'FIRSTRUN' section from '1' to '0':
int=0
By default, the game only supports/list the following resolutions (in 16/32 bits; for this report, the game is set to 32-bits):
640x480
800x600
1024x768
1280x1024
1600x1200
But you can force it to almost any resolutions. I went through all the possible resolution for my card and only one did not work:
2560x1600
When I set to 1600x1050 (not valid; typo on my part; correct res is 1680x1050 -- which works fine; thanks Ibrin), the game reverted to 640x480. At 2560x1600, I get an error window that says this:
"Unable to Create Direct3DDevice Object..."
Drat! Yet another game that doesn't like my native resolution, 2560x1600.
Thanks to Nomad's post:
You can force resolutions by doing the following:
1. Open the following file:
"..\Arx Fatalis\cfg.ini"
2. Change the following line under the 'VIDEO' section to the resolution you want:
resolution=1920x1080
After that, when you look ingame option, it says the resolution is set to 640x480. Just ignore what it says. But don't make any changes ingame or else it will revert back to the original, limited list.

Eyefinity / Surround Specific Solution

3D Solution

Single player anomalies

According to wxRubrick xls and the old wiki, they both say it's Stretch. But from what I can tell, it's not scretch but Hor+. I'm not sure why there is a discrepency (maybe it was based on an earlier version?). In any case, I'll keep the score as outlined in the xls file until told otherwise. (just been told otherwise by cranky)
Also, the title screen definately looks like it stretches.
The logo video doesn't play for me (you can hear the sound but the screen is black; hit ESC key to skip). The 'logo.avi' movie is encoded as 'Indeo 4' (an ancient codec that doesn't playback on my modern system). You can rename this file to make the game skip the publisher logo. It's located in the following folder:
"..\Arx Fatalis\misc\logo.avi"
The intro video appears to use the ingame engine as well as the movie when you start a new game/New Quest. They look Hor+ to me.

Multiplayer anomalies

This game doesn't have multiplayer support.

3D anomalies

Comparison Screenshots