Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura - PCGamingWiki PCGW - bugs, fixes, crashes, mods, guides and improvements for every PC game

Arcanum:
Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura
Developers

	Troika Games
Publishers
	Sierra Entertainment
	Activision
Release dates
Windows	August 21, 2001
Reception
Metacritic	81
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time, Turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls	Point and select
Genres	RPG
Themes	Fantasy, Industrial Age, Steampunk

Contents 1 Availability 2 Essential improvements 2.1 Patches 2.1.1 Official patch 2.1.2 Multiverse Edition 2.1.3 Unofficial patch 2.1.4 High Resolution Patch 3 Game data 3.1 Configuration file(s) location 3.2 Save game data location 3.3 Save game cloud syncing 4 Video 4.1 Windowed 5 Input 6 Audio 6.1 Localizations 7 Network 7.1 Multiplayer types 8 VR support 9 Issues fixed 9.1 Files not installed properly 9.2 Loading screen freezing 9.3 Graphical issues 9.4 Performance issues 9.5 Launches with black screen 10 Other information 10.1 API 10.2 Middleware 11 System requirements 12 Notes 13 References

Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric RPG game.

General information

Terra Arcanum Forum - a large fansite

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 4 DRM disc check.
GOG.com		Patched to official patch v1.0.7.4.
Steam

A demo is available from Archive.org and PCGames.de.

Essential improvements

Patches

Official patch

1.0.7.4. Not needed for the GOG.com release.

Multiverse Edition

Complete overhaul with all the patches listed in this article, as well as others, bundled together in one installer that offers a lot of options.

For a widescreen monitor, it is recommended to use a 1366x768 resolution. Higher values can make the UI and dialogue difficult to see.

Arcanum Multiverse Edition [ENG] by the Multiverse Team.

Unofficial patch

Highly improved townmaps and soundtracks (from the vanilla 128kbit/sec to 320 kbit/sec) can be found alongside this patch.

Not compatible with older savegames.

200611 (2.0.2) by Drog Black Tooth. Highly recommended bug fixes.

High Resolution Patch

If you are unable to pan the camera past the edge of the screen with the high resolution patch enabled, add -scrolldist:0 -scrollfps:70 to the target line in the shortcut of the game.

The High Resolution Patch is already included in the Unofficial Arcanum Patch. For a separate installer check out 1.5 by Drog Black Tooth. Allows any user-set resolution, UI tweaks, larger fonts.

Game data

Game options

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\arcanum.cfg^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/500810/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\modules\Arcanum\Save\^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/500810/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Video options

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Use the High Resolution Patch.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed	See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Windowed

Set windowed mode^{[citation needed]}
Download and install the unofficial patch Add `-Window` in the target line of your Arcanum shortcut

If the game stops responding with windowed mode^{[citation needed]}
Go to the installation folder and find `ddraw.dll` and rename it to `draw.dll.old` or something like that. Launch the game and this should solve the problem with the game not responding.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		For hotkeys, see here.
Mouse acceleration		No option. Follows Windows default behavior.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Sound options

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Effects, voice and music
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
German				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Polish				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Russian				Grand Fix Download and Readme
Spanish				Fan translation by Clan Dlan, download.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play	8	Co-op, Versus
Online play	8	Co-op, Versus The official WON service has been shut down.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		2D Game is 2D only. Play 2D with DGVoodoo2 and vorpx default DGVoodoo2 profile.

Issues fixed

Files not installed properly

Recommended to avoid default installation folder, as this can lead to issues where certain files are not properly installed.

Run installed as administrator^{[citation needed]}
When running the installer, be sure to right-click on the .exe, and select "Run as Administrator".

Loading screen freezing

Freezing known to happen on systems with multi-core CPUs.^{[citation needed]}

Set CPU affinity^{[citation needed]}
Setting CPU affinity should solve this problem. Create a shortcut, and in the shortcut's "Target" field, insert `%WINDIR%\System32\cmd.exe /C start "ARCANUM" /D "C:\ARCANUM" /high /affinity 1 "C:\ARCANUM\arcanum.exe"` Be sure to replace `C:\ARCANUM` with your actual Arcanum installation folder. If needed, you can add additional command-line parameters to the end.

Graphical issues

Set target field^{[citation needed]}
Adding `-no3d -doublebuffer` to the end of your Arcanum shortcut's "Target" field.

Delete or rename ddraw.dll^{[citation needed]}
Delete or rename `ddraw.dll`.

Performance issues

Modify the SierraLauncher.ini file^{[citation needed]}
Go to the installation folder Open `SierraLauncher.ini` Find `Game1Cmd=` and replace line with `Game1Cmd= -no3d -doublebuffer -scrolldist:0 -scrollfps:70`

Use Aqrit's DDrawFix for Infinity Engine games^[1]
Download ie-ddrawfix.zip Open the archive and navigate to `wined3d` Extract the contents of the folder to `<path-to-game>/Arcanum` If prompted, click yes to replace `ddraw.dll`

Launches with black screen

If you use third-party tools like Rivatuner Statistics Server (RTSS), deactivate it.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw	7.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	WON (World Opponent Network)	Was shut down in 2008

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	95, 98, ME, 2000
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 300 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.2 GB
Video card (GPU)	VGA capable Card 8 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/500810/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (500810) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Fix for slowdown on Windows 10 - last accessed on May 2023