Is anyone still playing DS1 online on multiplayer Steam?

Yes most steam players do not play multi player because steam disabled multiplayer. How where you able to bypass this? I am sure people would like to know. For those of us who are using the retail versions of DS1, DS1 Legends of Aranna, DS2 and DS2 Broken world there are some that play multi player. The easiest fix is to replace the Steam version of DungeonSiege2.exe with one that allows you to interface with non steam players on multi player games. This Link http://siegetheday.org/~bare_elf/execs/DungeonSiege2.exe
There are several forum posts on the site here for people asking for multi player matches and ways to work around ZoneMatch being non operational. Please look for them.

Hello there, I've been a fan of DS1 since it's release and just bought the steam version. Unfortunately I'm on an intel windows 8 and haven't figured out how to get it running without horrible texture/graphics problems. If I did I'd be down to play through TCP/IP, if there are still people who play that is...

Thanks for your reply! There's a guide on steam by a guy called "Killah" that has a download link to a fix that allows players to get LoA working and multiplayer working as well. You can get to the ZM/Internet/LAN part of the menu and can play LoA as well as the original game.

Basically my issue is my laptop has windows 8 and a terrible "Intel (R) HD Graphics Family" graphics card (Whatever that is) and no matter what I do there are horrible graphics issues running the steam version. I downloaded the same version to an older windows 7 laptop that has an AMD Radeon graphics card and I think I am actually fully functional on it (except the laptop sucks). Right now I'm trying to figure out what I can do to fix the graphics on this windows 8 laptop.

So how do people usually arrange games? Is it just private offline friends or is there a channel or forum or whatever somewhere? I'd love to get back into the game a bit and I think I could if I really needed to

The problem with the graphics might be that your video card is not included in the System_detail.gas. There are several ways to correct this. There are various posts here on the site in the DS1 and DSLoA forums - Look around to see what you can find. It could also not be the graphics chip but how the processor is set up for the game. Since the processor actually handles a large part of the graphics there are also forums reflecting this both in the DS1 and DS2 forums.

There are forums also about how to set up multi=player games. Since support was closed by microsoft for all the games the regular links for multiplayer are gone.
Could you post a link to the items you found by a guy called "Killah" as I would like to see what he has to say.

I am sure there are people here using windows 8 that have had the same issues as you. Just wait for them to reply. Also please do not upgrade to windows 8.1 as that can cause major issues with the Dungeon Siege Games

So here is the URL for the steam guide which goes through getting LoA and multiplayer working on the steam version, it runs nicely on my older windows 7 / amd radeon laptop. I put 5 hours into it already and it's flawless so far. I can host TCP/IP games and play LoA as well as the base game.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=384309700

Can you tell me more about upgrading the system_Detail.gas file for the graphics card? I tried looking around here and got nowhere so far. It's maybe the one intervention I've heard of that I haven't tried in getting my windows 8 laptop to run DS. I looked through some stuff on this site and added a few lines in the folder for my graphics card, but even now it's not working any better.

I went through my laptop info and unfortunately its already windows 8.1. Strangely though the whole things runs really smoothly EXCEPT the graphics issues that I think are stemming from the intel graphics card...

http://ds2.bplaced.net/sysdat/ - although KillerGremal made this for ds2-step 1 and step 2 can still be used for ds1. would need to edit ds1 system_detail.gas and update it with the Intel video information

if system_detail.gas don't fix it, changing the launcher desktop icon by adding width=1920 height=1080 fullscreen=true vsync=false maxfps=120 bltonly=true as provided by in the Killah's guide link above..may need altered as width and height may not be what you laptop uses
vsync = false is usually what most use to fix, but sometimes it need to be true
maxfps=120 is a bit much I doubt there is a laptop than can run ds at that fps be lucky to get 45 on a laptop so maxfps=120 probably needs removed...bltonly=true may or may not fix it, but if not try false.

being an intel graphic driver, may also need to check for driver update if not found one, and experiment with the software that comes with intel to check to see if it has high detail lowered to medium, shaders off etc.

On a side note I am not happy with the Killah's Guide offering a Bonus Pack with maps/mods without permission, the idea was good, but those downloads should be made separate instead of in a pack, and permission asked before including in a pack...

anyways the guide is quite nice otherwise.

Updating the System Detail Gas won't help as that will only remove the annoying messages about your graphics card not being recognized. Quite obviously no modern graphic card will be recognized in system_detail.gas as they weren't around when DS1 was first released. Why on Earth the developers left this in is a mystery. It was probably good at the time for checking against older graphic cards but since graphic cards evolve so quickly, it was only a couple of months before players started getting these messages. It must have driven customer support mad at the time.

Anyhow I did a quick search of the Internet about your problem. You provided little information to help so I can only offer generic suggestions. For instance you say an Intel HD card but didn't say which one. I suspect since your laptop is running Win 8.1, it'll be an Intel HD 4000 at least. I do understand that Microsoft makes it as hard as possible to find useful information about your computer by hiding everything in the new start screen. By the way if you install Start8 by Stardock corporation, it will restore the old desktop for you. I tried it and will never be without it.

Looking at the compatibility lists for Intel HD 4000 series, it is suppose to be able to run games such as Dungeon Siege III at 30 frames per sec, albeit with many graphic options turned down. You didn't provide any screenshots of the graphical issues you're having but I found a couple on the Net using the same game and graphics card.

The most common solution was to install DirectX 9.0c which Dungeon Siege 1 and many other older games require to run. In their wisdom (or lack thereof), Microsoft only provides drivers for DirectX 11 with Windows 8. DirectX 11 seems backwards compatible with Direct X 10 but not 9 or earlier. I don't know whether you have DirectX 9 installed on your laptop or not but if you don't then go to this link http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35 and download and install DirectX 9.0c on your laptop and your problem will probably disappear.

If you've tried DirectX 9.0c then try updating your graphic card driver. This link will tell you how to find out which one it is; http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-009482.htm

This link will guide you in selecting which graphic card driver you need; http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ In the Find by category section select 1. Graphics Driver 2. Laptop graphics driver and 3. Your Graphic Card for Select a product name.

Try all of the above and let us know how you go.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I've tried the following:

-getting directx 9 from the link you suggested
-updating the graphics driver
-adding the line to the steam launch options

The graphcs card is "Intel(R) HD Graphics Family"

I'm still having the same problem as before. When I launch I get horrible graphics/texture problems.

On the other hand, the steam version of DS+LoA is running beautifully on my older laptop and I've got TCP/IP games up with a friend. Now I just need to find more players ^ ^

An updated system_detail.gas file may help (probably not solving all matters though).
So check out this thread once: www.siegetheday.org/?q=node/3090#comment-44163
 

Thanks for all of your help you guys. I still can't get things going for this windows 8 / intel laptop.

I have, however managed to get the steam version running on multiplayer on my old laptop.

There's a newly-founded Dungeon Siege group dedicated to playing multiplayer using Killah's fix, and I've actually been able to get Hamachi games running pretty regularly with a few people. It's mostly low level stuff for now since we just started recently. You can find it here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/DungeonSiegeOfficialGroup
I go by the name ZuluZealot, if anyone wants to play DS through steam you can feel free to add me.

Hi BL001. Here is some small print from the retail DS1 (LoA) back cover: "Onboard/Integrated graphics chipsets and laptops are not supported".

Thoughts/info on that anyone?

Well I'm no tech expert but that just about describes my graphics card, and may explain why I can't run it on my newer laptop....

Nowadays they're better and should be able to run the game but possibly there's hardware bugs in the 4000 series that wasn't present in the 3000 series of Intel HD Graphics going on this thread; http://steamcommunity.com/app/39190

Its a similar sad tale unfortunately. Most software and hardware manufacturers couldn't care less about compatibility with older games.