Sacred 2 on Windows 7

Kudos go to my girlfriend for sussing this one out.

Recently, we came across a conundrum concerning the computer game Sacred 2 running under Windows 7. Long story short, it just wouldn’t work. It should be noted that the reason for this not working, has nothing to do with Nvidia / ATI Graphics cards, but it is related to Physx/Ageia. Make sure you have the latest version of Physx installed. Sacred 2 does come with the last version of Physx known as Ageia Physx (before nvidia bought it and rebranded it to just Physx). You can also obtain the latest stand alone Physx package from the nvidia website. Even if you have an ATI graphics card, you still need to have this installed to play Sacred 2 and any other games that require Physx. So long as your CPU supports it and it is powerful enough, you’ll get CPU powered physics, instead of physics powered by your graphics card. Some people call this “Software Physics” or “Software” mode. I’ve noticed no performance difference between a computer playing Sacred 2 with an Nvidia graphics card and a computer with an ATI graphics card.

This fix should work for owners of Sacred 2 under Windows 7, regardless of the version  you have (Steam, Impulse, Stand alone or whatever).

  1. Create a shortcut to the Sacred 2 executable. You’ll find it in the game directory, in another directory called ‘system’. For me, it is: D:GamesSteamSteamAppsCommonSacred 2SystemSacred2.exe
  2. Put the shortcut on your desktop, or somewhere handy.
  3. Right click the shortcut and select properties
  4. Click the Shortcut tab
  5. In the Target field, you need to add the following: -skipopenal -nocpubinding. The contents of my Target field look like this: "D:GamesSteamSteamAppscommonsacred 2systemsacred2.exe" -skipopenal -nocpubinding
  6. Click Apply and Click OK.
  7. Double click the shortcut and play Sacred 2!

Still can’t get it to work? Leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do to help you out. Further comments and suggestions are welcome. These are just simply the steps that worked for us. In case you are wondering, we are using the RTM (Release To Manfacture) version of Windows 7 (we are Microsoft Technet Partners). This is the same version that is available to consumers and end users as of mid October 2009.