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Technical Advice » Tomb Raider Anniversary

» Essential Software
» Optional Software
» Installing the Game
» Common Problems
» Windowed mode
» Acknowledgements

Essential Software

No patches available

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Optional Software

» TR Anniversary Demo (Download Freeware)
Try out the game to see if your hardware can run the game. Note that Next Generation graphics are disabled.

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Installing the Game

Before checking the problems below make sure you have checked the following:

» Download the latest drivers for your Graphics, Sound card and Motherboard AGP.

» Turn off your antivirus software when installing the game. It may cause the installation to fail.

» Reinstall DirectX 9.0c. The latest version can be downloaded from Microsoft.

» Your PC must support the SSE instruction set.

NOTE: Anniversary 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.

» What is the PC specification for Anniversary?

Minimum (with TnL Graphics card)
Recommended

• Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• Pentium 3 1.4Ghz or Athlon XP 1500+
• 256MB (for Windows 2000/XP) 512MB (for Windows Vista)
• DirectX 9.0c -compatible 64MB 3D Accelerated Card with TnL
• DirectX 9.0c -compatible Sound Card
• 4x DVD-ROM drive
• 4GB free disk space
• Win2000/XP/Vista compatible mouse and keyboard

• Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• Pentium 4 3.0Ghz or Athlon 64 3000+
• 1GB RAM
• DirectX 9.0c compatible 64 MB 3D Accelerated Card with Vertex Shader 2.0 and Pixel Shader 2.0
• DirectX 9.0c -compatible Sound Card
• 4x DVD-ROM drive
• 4GB free disk space
• Win2000/XP/Vista compatible mouse and keyboard

» What cards do support TnL? Transform and Lighting

nVidia
AMD/ATI
Other supported cards

• nVidia GeForce 7 series
• nVidia GeForce 6 series
• nVidia GeForce FX series
• nVidia GeForce 4 series
• nVidia GeForce 3 series
• nVidia GeForce 2 series
• nVidia Quadro FX series
• nVidia Quadro 4 series

• ATI Radeon X1 series
• ATI Radeon X series
• ATI Radeon series (except 7000)

• Intel 965
• XGI Volari V5
• XGI Volari V8
• Matrox Parhelia

» What cards support DX9?

nVidia
ATI

• nVidia GeForce 8 series
• nVidia GeForce 7 series
• nVidia GeForce 6 series
• nVidia GeForce FX series
• nVidia Quadro FX series

• ATI Radeon X1 series
• ATI X series
• ATI Radeon 9xxx series

» What cards support Shader Model 2?

nVidia
ATI

• nVidia GeForce 8 series
• nVidia GeForce 7 series
• nVidia GeForce 6 series

• ATI Radeon X1 series

» What cards do not support TnL? (and will not be able to play Anniversary)

• 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

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Common Problems

» Error when installing - "TRA Demo can only be played on a PC that supports the SSE instruction set, which isn't supported on your PC."
Basically, the PC is too old and does not support the SSE (or 3DNow!) instruction set that was introduced on the Pentium III processor.

» CRC Error when installing downloaded TRA Demo
The file has become corrupted during transmission. Try downloading again from a different site.

» The Installation hangs.
Option 1: (if you have patience) The installation can take a long time to complete the final part of the installation. DirectX is being updated and this has been known to take over 30 minutes to complete.

Option 2: Create a temporary folder on your hard drive and copy the contents of the DVD except the dx9.0c folder. Now run setup.exe from your temporary folder. Once complete you can delete the temporary folder and it's content.
If you are not sure if you have DirectX 9.0c you can download it from Microsoft and install.

Option 3: When the installation appears to hang at 95% open the Task Manager and select the process Tab. You will see that "SET58.tmp" is running 100%. Right mouse click on the process and Set the Priority to "Below Normal". The installation should then complete shortly.

» Demo Game crashes after the Copyright page.
Disable Data Execution Prevention (DEP). This is a Microsoft security program that may stop TRA from running. To disable this option press :
Start Menu > Control Panel > System > Advanced Tab > Performance Settings > Data Execution Prevention Tab.
Select the second radio button and press Add... navigate to the install folder and select TRA.EXE and press Open and then Apply. Your system may require rebooting.

» Installer will not start.
Ensure you are logged on as Administrator or a user with Administrator privileges.

» Game crashes at Start up
Try disconnecting any USB game pads converters and game pads.

» Can I switch on Next Generation?
TRA does not have a Next Gen Mode.

» My Profile won't load?
There is a problem with the game loading some profiles. As a temporary fix try the following.

Launch the game
Create a new profile from the main menu
Start a new game Save the game Press ALT+Tab to minimise the game
Open up My Documents and go in to the EIDOS folder then the Tomb Raider Anniversary folder
Open the folder for your original profile
Select all the files in this directory and right-click on them
Select Copy from the menu
Go back to the previous folder and enter the folder for the new profile
Right-click on an empty space and choose paste
Press ALT+Tab again to go back in to the game
Press Escape to bring up the menu and choose the Save option
Create another new Save game
Press Escape again and choose Load
Your previous save games should be available for loading

You may have to repeat this operation if it happens again.

» They is no option to resume/load my save game?
Occasionally, when starting a new profile, the option to resume or load your previous game does not appear. If you find this happening, start a new game and once in the game you should be able to press ESC to bring up the menu and load from your previous save game. Once you have saved to your profile again the resume/load option should appear again from the main menu.

» error that framedyn.dll is missing when I try to launch the game
The file is part of .net framwork which is supplied by Microsoft. You should first run Windows update and select custom. From there you should be able to update your system with .net framwork. You may need to run the update twice to pick up additional updates.
http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate

» Static noise from music and ambient sound in the game.
First check that the latest sound drivers are installed. If it is still a problem, then disable the hardware acceleration on the sound card.
Control Panel > Sound & Audio > Audio Tab > Advanced > Performance > Slide bar to None.

» I get a black screen and the message "out of range" or "unsupported format"
You have selected a screen resolution that is not supported by your monitor. Go to Start Menu > Eidos > Tomb Raider Anniversary > Setup and select a different resolution.

» Graphic gliches after running the game for a period of time.
This could be due to the graphic card overheating.
1. If the card has been overclocked, try reducing the clock speed to normal settings.
2. The card may be covered in dust. Try cleaning the card, fan and heatsink with compressed air.

» Error message - Conflict with Emulation Software detected?
The DVD protection software is reporting that you are running a DVD/CD drive emulation software. Uninstall the program.

» Water has no texture?
This is a bug in the nVidia driver for some cards. Update to the latest driver.

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TRA Windowed Mode solution
DXWnd application (Download Freeware)

Instructions:

1) Launch dxwnd.exe.
2) Right click the application's window pane.
3) Select "Add".

4) Use the "..." button to browse for your fullscreened executable.
5) Select the DirectX version of your executable if it's known, if not, leave it set to "Automatic".
6) Select "DirectInput is hooked" and "Auto-Correct Mouse Position" options.

7) Click "OK".
8) Now that you have an entry for your executable, simply double click it or run the game/application itself. What's neat is as long as dxwnd is running, it will intercept the launching of the application itself, so it's not necessary to use dxwnd itself to launch your game/application.


Non-severe glitch: in game menu mouse cursor "crawls" to the upper border of the window. It "behaves" normal in game though.

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Acknowledgements
TRF Members: EscondeR, jamieoliver22, jaywalker

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