Hello and welcome to the official ‘Lionhead Support’ topic for ‘Fable: The Lost Chapters’. This is the place to come if you require any ‘Support’ for ‘Fable: The Lost Chapters’. Detailed below are all of the problems that we have been made aware of and ways of working around them.
Before continuing with this topic, please make sure that your PC is up-to-date and has the following: -
- Meets ‘Fable: The Lost Chapters’ minimum PC specification requirements: - Operating System – Microsoft Windows XP. Processor – 1.4 GHz Pentium 4 equivalent or higher. RAM – 256 Megabytes. Hard Disk Space – 3 Gigabytes. Optical Drive – 32x CD-Rom drive or faster. Graphics Card – 64 Megabyte, Pixel Shaders 1.1 compatible graphics card.
- The latest Nvidia drivers if your PC has an Nvidia graphics card,
Nvidia.com.
- The latest ATI drivers if your PC has an ATI graphics card,
ATI.com.
- Make sure that you have the latest Direct X installed,
http://www.microsoft.com/directx.
- Double check that your graphics card is officially supported by Fable,
http://www.microsoft.com/games/fable/support.aspx.
- Lastly, make sure that every other driver on your PC is up to date, as well as your Bios. Running things like ‘Disk Defragmenter’ and ‘Scan Disk’, as well as updating and running virus/spyware scans would also help. The issues below have been listed in the order of importance, and the order in which seems to be the worst, and most predominant issues.
Each issue is numbered, and the table of contents is as follows: -
1. Sound Cards
2. Disappearing Subtitled Text
3. Windows XP Themes
4. Screen Refresh Rates
5. AutoSave Corruption
6. Hero Save/World Save explanation
7. Resolution Resetting Issues
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1. Sound Card Problems Sound cards appear to be the cause of 90% of the problems encountered with ‘Fable: TLC’. There are several ways of fixing this problem. These fixes are as follows: - - Creative Cards - Go to
CreativeLabs.com and use their ‘Auto Update’ feature. This will install the latest Creative sound card drivers on your system. - OpenAL32 – Download and install OpenAL32. ‘Google’ for it. - Sound Acceleration – If none of the above has any effect, try turning down your sound acceleration. To do this: - - Open the ‘Start’ menu. - Click on ‘Run’. - Type ‘DxDiag’. - Select the ‘Sound’ tab. - Turn the ‘Hardware Sound Acceleration Level’ slider down until you get a positive result.
2. Disappearing Subtitled Text Many Nvidia graphics cards appear to suffer from a disappearing/flickering text issue. Positive results have been found by turning V-Sync On/Off. If no luck is found with this, and the disappearing text is found to be too much of an annoyance to continue playing, the subtitles can be turned off via the ‘Gameplay Options’ menu.
3. Windows XP Themes Certain Windows XP themes can cause Fable to either run incorrectly or not at all. The easiest way to fix this is to change the theme back to the default (“Windows XP”) theme. To do this: - - On the desktop, Right-Click and open ‘Properties’. - Select the ‘Themes’ tab. - On this page, click on the arrow of the ‘Theme’ drop-down box. - Select ‘Windows XP’. - Click on ‘Apply’, followed by ‘OK’. The theme will now be changed. If changing the theme doesn’t help, try setting the Windows XP compatibility to ‘Windows 2000’. To do this: - - Right-Click on the ‘Fable: The Lost Chapters’ game shortcut and select ‘Properties’. - Select the ‘Compatibility’ tab. - Click on the ‘Run this program…’ tab, and select ‘Windows 2000’ from the drop down box. - Tick the ‘Disable Visual Themes’ box and click ‘Apply’.
4. Screen Refresh Rates If you usually play games on a very high refresh rate, but are having problems with Fable: TLC, it could be down to this high refresh rate. If the game doesn’t run, or has issues, try setting your monitors refresh rate to 60. If doing this makes the game run, the refresh rate can always be turned back up in-game using the ‘Video Options’ menu.
5. AutoSave Corruption Some people have encountered problems with their AutoSaves. It seems as though repeated saving and loading with some save games can cause it to become corrupted. There is no simple fix for this, other than don’t keep saving and loading to try and exploit the game, and frequently use ‘Manual Saves’.
6. Hero Save/World Save Explanation There seems to be some slight confusion as to what the exact difference is between ‘Hero Saves’ and ‘World Saves’. If you are one of these confused people, hopefully the following will help clear this up: - Hero Saves – A ‘Hero Save’ is made during a quest. This will save your Heroes current stats, experience, items etc, but will not save your location in that quest. As such, upon loading a ‘Hero Save’, the Hero will be loaded at the beginning of the quest that the save was made in, but with all of the items that they have attained up until that save was made (Example – If a ‘Hero Save’ is made during ‘Guild Training’, if the save is then loaded, the Hero will be loaded at the beginning of the quest, in ‘Lookout Point’). World Saves – A ‘World Save’ can be made at any time outside of a quest. This save will save everything, including the Heroes location. Upon loading, the Hero will be exactly as he was when the save was made, and will be loaded at the entrance of the region that he was in when the save was made.
7. Resolution Resetting Issues If the video options are changed on the ‘Front-End’, but these video options exceed what your PC can handle, then upon loading the game all settings will have returned to default. The most common cause of this is with people cranking the ‘Shadows’ slider to max. ‘Fable: The Lost Chapters’ only supports the next-generation ‘Pixel Shaders 3.0’ when the ‘Shadows’ slider is set to max. Currently, only the very latest Nvidia cards (‘6800 GT’, and ‘7800’) support this feature. The next ATI cards will support this, but the current X800 series does not. This is not an issue with the game, but an issue with ATI graphics cards. If you have an ATI card, you will not be able to set the ‘Shadows’ slider to max until the next generation R500 series hits the shelves.
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Microsoft Technical Support Technical Support In the U.S., visit
http://support.microsoft.com/games. In Canada, visit
http://www.microsoft.ca/support. Outside the U.S. and Canada, visit
http://support.microsoft.com/international.aspx. On these Web sites, you can: • Download the latest updates. • Find Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that target specific issues. • View “Show Me How” videos for solving common problems. • Access other support services. Microsoft support services are for technical issues only—please do not use them to request game hints, codes, or cheats. Chat & E-mail Support: To chat immediately with a Microsoft Support Professional, or to submit your issue by e-mail (e-mail responses may be delayed by several hours), visit the location-appropriate Web site listed above. Phone Support: To speak with a Microsoft Support Professional (long hold times may be experienced), in the U.S. call (800) 537-8324 and in Canada call (800) 876-8533. TTY Support: To use Microsoft text telephone, in the U.S. call (800) 892-5234 and in Canada call (866) 857-9850. Conditions: Microsoft’s support services are subject to then-current prices, terms, and conditions, which are subject to change without notice."
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These are all of the issues that we have been made aware of. Please keep the 'Fable: The Lost Chapters' board free of technical issues, and put them in the 'Support' board instead, as that is why it is there. This page will be updated whenever an update is required. We hope the above helps to resolve your issues, and allows you to enjoy our game. Regards, “Team Fable” Disclaimer: - Lionhead takes no responsibility and is not liable for any third party software used. Please read their relevant disclaimers very carefully, and anything done is at your own discretion.