[ILLUSION] Artificial Academy 2 (ジンコウガクエン2) - Discussion and FAQ

[Arylin]

Just a random shot, but did you install fully using the steps in the Wiki and not with a pre-installed version? See if a reinstall helps; if not, maybe your files are the problem.

(This game's pretty old, so don't expect people to really give tech support on it anymore.)

 

[chimara38]

Is there a pastebin link for AA2 by markdown.

 

[heero]

Has the work been discontinued? Do you continue the updates on the DLC patch and patch?

 

[Arylin]

It's a pretty old game, so I'd be surprised if there were any works (fan or official) on this anymore. Haven't been to Hongfire in a while, but things aren't so good there it seems.

 

[Senpaiwakoko]

Guys, I think one of the recent windows updates screwed this game over again but I'm not sure.
Has anyone suddenly gotten any problems with AA2 as of this date?

I was able to play the game perfectly fine this summer, until now. Pressing ''Play'' opens the window and closes it a second later. (not playing with mods, game files have been untouched ever since) I gave it a try to replace the d3d9.dll with the original d3d9, and that made the game working fine, but then we have the severe frame drops again.
It could just be me, it could not. I just want to hear if anyone else has problems with launching the game with the fixed d3d9 that was released ages ago.

 

[Arylin]

I've had the same issue a few weeks past, but at this point I've just given up on getting it to run; too much of an annoyance to deal with d3d9 all over again. Just wish we'd get an AA3 sometime in the future.

 

[Senpaiwakoko]

I've had the same issue a few weeks past, but at this point I've just given up on getting it to run; too much of an annoyance to deal with d3d9 all over again. Just wish we'd get an AA3 sometime in the future.

In that case I suppose its the damned windows update. I can't blame people for giving up on trying to find a fix to this on their own. 2-4 years more and there will probably be another update that screws this game over again. I think even Illusion has given up because I haven't seen any posts on their site addressing this. It's pretty sad to see AA2 and the older games go down like this. I suppose there's no reason for me to even keep schoolmate2 anymore since the d3d9 fix was also required for that game.
I mean.. This game is still for sale. What can new players with recent updated computers do to bypass this?
You can't tell your players to ''just endure it'' since conversations time out before you manage to navigate your cursor to ''Yes'' or ''No'' in time due to the heavy lag.

But I'm with you there. I'm not sure if they will do AA3 since a third game doesn't seem like that's something they do often. Last title that got a third game was in 2007. I wish for AA3 since I found the concept of having customizing your own class, clubs, and the big selection of personalities, traits and everything else made the game quite exciting for me. You never know who ends up with who and who does what. I find it a bit boring with the harem games they did with no other competing npc's. (koikatsu disappointed me :/ )
I don't know if the request for a third game is even high enough for the developers to even consider it.. But until Illusion says something... Never say never. (please illusion make a third game before I grow old)

 

[EddieGT]

For people with problems on Windows 10, you can use AA2Unlimited. Among many other things, it has support for the dreaded slow D3D9 that makes the game slowdown to crawl. After installing it, start the game (it will open a launcher) go to the "Scripts" tab on the launcer and either check "wine3d" or "win10fix" (never select both). IMO, the best performer is the "win10fix", if you check that one click on the "Settings" button on the side fo the launcher window and select the "dgVoodoo2" option.

If for some reason you don't want to use AA2Unlimited, you can try to install DgVoodoo2 manually.

 

[Arylin]

I'll keep that in mind if I come around to finding my install ISOs again. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[sershur]

You could check with the AAU discord. Those people are actively trying to keep the game alive while adding features to it.

 

[Eira]

Yes, aau adds a large array of functionalities not present in the vanilla game, and they have also re-packaged the game into a much easier to install and much more fool-proof installation. the changes that aau brings is simply too many to list, so it is definitely worth checking out.

 

[FrenchFryMonster]

I just finished installing the game and patches, but every time I try running it, It looks like the game just crashes since it creates a dmp file with crash in the name

any possible idea?

 

[Bryanis]

I just finished installing the game and patches, but every time I try running it, It looks like the game just crashes since it creates a dmp file with crash in the name

any possible idea?

I don't have any informatic knowledge so the content of the crash file won't help me.
But when a Japanese game always crash at start it's usually one of the following reason (outside technical issue where the crash file will tell you what if you know how to read it) !
- You need Japanese local setting or emulating tool to run it (from memory, AA2 run fine with applocale, NTLEA or Local emulator - avoid applocale since it's not supported by MS anymore and not made for newest version of window - ie win 8 and later)
- The path to the game exe is too long and / or contain japanese (especially true when running on PC not fully set to japanese setting) - try replacing the game in a shortest path / name (like c:\AA2\AA2.exe).
- You mess up somewhere aplying patches and damaged some important file from the game. Unless able to find out which file(s), you'll need to do a clean install
- your antivirus is messing thing up, try disabling it / adding an exception.

 

[FrenchFryMonster]

I don't have any informatic knowledge so the content of the crash file won't help me.
But when a Japanese game always crash at start it's usually one of the following reason (outside technical issue where the crash file will tell you what if you know how to read it) !
- You need Japanese local setting or emulating tool to run it (from memory, AA2 run fine with applocale, NTLEA or Local emulator - avoid applocale since it's not supported by MS anymore and not made for newest version of window - ie win 8 and later)
- The path to the game exe is too long and / or contain japanese (especially true when running on PC not fully set to japanese setting) - try replacing the game in a shortest path / name (like c:\AA2\AA2.exe).
- You mess up somewhere aplying patches and damaged some important file from the game. Unless able to find out which file(s), you'll need to do a clean install
- your antivirus is messing thing up, try disabling it / adding an exception.

- I made sure to run using Local emulator under Japanese, so i'm doubting that's the issue for that

- when installing the game, I just set it up straight to my external Hard drive, so instead of C: it went to E:\Folder where I set it up. unless somehow having the game install into a folder on my external makes the name too long, not sure if that's the problem. file path looks like it's just e:\folder\AA2play.exe

-this is most likely where I went wrong, but I don't know how. when I installed the game, I had a different problem(said folder disappearing and not being able to be shown despite existing). now it installs fine for the most part, except when it comes to applying the updates. the instructions said to replace the files, but there were no files to replace, and unless I somehow missed it, I don't know where said files could be. they did mention to run the game once before installing the updates, but even beforehand the game wouldn't open up.

- fairly new laptop, only antivirus I can think of that's running is Windows Security, but since i'm not super familiar with Windows 10, I checked and haven't noticed anything about them preventing anything from running.


Sorry in advance for causing problems, thank you for taking the time to reply and helping.

 

[Bryanis]

- I made sure to run using Local emulator under Japanese, so i'm doubting that's the issue for that

- when installing the game, I just set it up straight to my external Hard drive, so instead of C: it went to E:\Folder where I set it up. unless somehow having the game install into a folder on my external makes the name too long, not sure if that's the problem. file path looks like it's just e:\folder\AA2play.exe

-this is most likely where I went wrong, but I don't know how. when I installed the game, I had a different problem(said folder disappearing and not being able to be shown despite existing). now it installs fine for the most part, except when it comes to applying the updates. the instructions said to replace the files, but there were no files to replace, and unless I somehow missed it, I don't know where said files could be. they did mention to run the game once before installing the updates, but even beforehand the game wouldn't open up.

- fairly new laptop, only antivirus I can think of that's running is Windows Security, but since i'm not super familiar with Windows 10, I checked and haven't noticed anything about them preventing anything from running.


Sorry in advance for causing problems, thank you for taking the time to reply and helping.

So, AA2 is starting to get old, so if you got a new version of window 8 or 10, there moght be a compatibility error - try to start the game using forced admin mod and compatibility (try using win 7 for compatibility version).

If it still fail, I think either it's compatibility to a recent win version requiring specific method or a problem during the installation.
To check for installation failure, the best step would be to uninstall the game, delete the folder. Do a clean install. Just the game at first, no mod or patch. Then try starting the game. If it fail the same way, well, it's most likely an OS problem, else it's a patching problem.

To patch an illusion game you usually apply the Illusion DLC in order or release, then the costume dlc. And after that you apply the mod. If the game work free of patch, try starting it again after applying the patch. Then after the mod (usually a big mod like the HF patch make it simple to avoid trouble, put dunno if it's still avaiable somewhere).

If it's an OS problem, either check the threads here to see if other had the same problem and how they solve it, or ask again - adding the crash file detail - but I won't be able to help for that.

 

[BumpHase]

I downloaded Artificial Academy 2 virgin edition (pretty much original version, but it's extracted files and a .reg file), but those assholes told me to get nocd separately. Where can I get it? I don't really want translation.

Downloaded all updates separately, haven't installed them yet.

 

[HFred]

AA2 was a fav of mine, but after a W10 update the trick of using an old d3d9.dll just stopped working for me, and attempts to use DX9 to DX11 wrappers like 'dgVoodoo2' would cause all sorts of visual horrors, so I just gave up. However recently I learnt about DXVK on GitHub which is a DX9 to Vulkan wrapper, so decided to give it ago and it works! I also tried it successfully on a few other old games which stopped working with the move to W10.

I've updated the HGames Wiki, but short version here is remove any old d3d9.dll d3d9_alt.dll, grab latest dxvk.tar.gz, unblock and extract the x32\d3d9.dll into your AA2 folder, run game. Use 'mode 2' for best performance and to get rid of those jaggies force an 8x anti-aliasing by creating a dxvk.conf in the same folder with the line: d3d9.forceSwapchainMSAA = 8

Also if like me you haven't played in a while, a reminder you have to run with Japanese locale ( with something like SBApplocale.exe ) or the game makes the characters refuse all requests.

 

[samara45]

When I try to do H-scenes or sex it freezes and black screen , closes out how can I fix that ? I am on windows 10, the game works fine until I try t o have sex or h-scenes it turns black and freezes the same with the sex scenes please help its like I am stuck in a loop

 

[yowai]

AA2 was a fav of mine, but after a W10 update the trick of using an old d3d9.dll just stopped working for me, and attempts to use DX9 to DX11 wrappers like 'dgVoodoo2' would cause all sorts of visual horrors, so I just gave up. However recently I learnt about DXVK on GitHub which is a DX9 to Vulkan wrapper, so decided to give it ago and it works! I also tried it successfully on a few other old games which stopped working with the move to W10.

I've updated the HGames Wiki, but short version here is remove any old d3d9.dll d3d9_alt.dll, grab latest dxvk.tar.gz, unblock and extract the x32\d3d9.dll into your AA2 folder, run game. Use 'mode 2' for best performance and to get rid of those jaggies force an 8x anti-aliasing by creating a dxvk.conf in the same folder with the line: d3d9.forceSwapchainMSAA = 8

Also if like me you haven't played in a while, a reminder you have to run with Japanese locale ( with something like SBApplocale.exe ) or the game makes the characters refuse all requests.

Good work HFred. The DXVK d3d9.dll file works perfectly. Having just setup Artifical Academy 2 and expecting issues I had a stable of 5 alternate d3d9.dll's ready to swap in but none worked properly. Thanks for your find!