Forgotten World: Possible Fix for Rune/Sigil Bug
I didn’t make mention of this earlier, but it really is worth its own news posting, because let’s face it: the Rune/Sigil Bug has been a source of much grief for many people who have played — or attempted to play — Ultima 9. I would encourage everyone who has Ultima 9 installed at present to test this proposed solution out and report back as to whether it solves the problem.
In a comment posted late last week, Iceblade wrote:
Uh, Hey guys. I think I just found a really good fix for the Floating Sigil/Rune problem:
Set the Middle Clipping Plane to 5000. You will probably want to set the Far Clipping Plane to 5000 or greater, but I this appears to have no impact.
I would like a few people to test this out before I make a larger announcement.
In Options.ini, you will find the following: replace your current Clipping Plane Distances with those below.
[Performance]
; Clipping planes
FarClippingPlaneDistance=6000
MiddleClippingPlaneDistance=5000
Keep in mind that even at these settings, you’ll still get an improved, longer-distance view in the game; the clipping fog won’t be right in front of your nose by any means. As I say: if you have Ultima 9 installed, test this change out and see if the Rune/Sigil Bug disappears. Report back with your results!
Great job! Anyways, I’v run into a bit of a annoyance and I’m wondering if this is normal. Every time I open my Journal or Spellbook, the game freezes for a bit. Is there a fix for this or will I have to suffer through it?
Unfortunately, we have no idea what could be causing this other than a simple performance issue.
Bugs are many and fixes are good. Celebrate each one.
Forgive my ignorance, can you elaborate on what the sigil/rune bug is?
When you cleanse a shrine in the game, you place the corresponding rune & sigil atop the shrine as part of the ritual. During the ritual, the rune & sigil are lifted into the air.
On faster systems (the bug has long been thought to be processor-related), the rune and sigil tend to get stuck in mid-air, beyond the reach of the Avatar. As the runes are needed for the endgame, this is technically a game-breaking bug.
That said, workarounds do exist. But a fix is better.
Actually, after the whole sequence is over with, the rune and sigil you see disappear or are destroy ed. The actual Rune and Sigil you get are actually objects with an Editor flag set that are placed way above the Shrine. Sense they are editor objects, physics doesn’t act on them. When the sequence is done, a trigger is activated that makes these objects real, so Physics then acts on them and they fall. However, the Physics system doesn’t is really buggy and appears to not always work on objects outside the fast area. IE if those objects are not in range of the Avatar, then the physics engine may not function on them. Also since they aren’t in the field of view, they don’t have an Item Handle property, which would ensure they would be acted on by the Physics engine.
The increased clipping distance appears to help, but isn’t a consistent fix, so I have another fix in mind. Lower those Editor objects, so they are in the field of view and they will most assuredly fall then.
OMG, I lower the stupid things to just in view of the Avatar, and they don’t even fall. Their Physics system sucks very very very very very badly. That is the problem.
I am so fed up by this bug. Does anybody mind if the Rune and Sigil just appear on top of the shrine after cleansing rather than falling? That would be an extremely easy and non-buggy solution.
Can they appear in a magic flash of light? Something? Or fade into view?
Actually they appear, but the flash from the storm and the thunder helps with the sudden appearance. But considering that in the past they disappear from view anyway. Them appearing near the top of the shrine and fall a foot or two.
Unfortunately I don’t have a way to show you what it looks like, but I can provide you a gamestate with the corrected nonfixed file if you want to take a look.
Couple of news posts. One FW and one BB.
Hilarious explanation Iceblade.
And thanks for the tip WTF, I’ve never had this happen nor heard of it before.
Thank you so much for this fix – I was just on the verge of finishing this and couldn’t pick up a sigil (Justice) – and this fixed it straight away.
There have been additional updates and fixes: check http://ultima9.ultimacodex.com!