Latest revision as of 23:55, 29 September 2016

FAQ

• Q: Will the game run on Windows 10?
  A: The old AppLocale program no longer works on Windows 10. NTLEA and Locale Emulator are somewhat functional, but the best results seem to be achievable using SBAppLocale. You probably should not go as far as to switch your system locale to Japanese, because you will experience issues with other stuff. Additionally, the Anniversary Update to Windows 10 causes some problems (namely huge slowdowns), which can be fixed only by placing a pre-Anniversary Update "d3d9.dll" into the game directory (or, if there's already a file named "d3d9.dll" there because of the subtitle mod, then under the name "d3d9_alt.dll").

System requirements

The installation footprint is around 8GB for a complete setup including the bonus disc and expansions.

Minimum system requirements

• OS - Windows 2000 / Windows XP Home
• DirectX 9.0c
• CPU - Pentium 4 2.0GHz
• RAM - 512MB
• Video card RAM - 64MB

Recommended system requirements

• OS - Windows 2000 / Windows XP Home
• DirectX 9.0c
• CPU - Pentium 4 3.0GHz
• RAM - 1GB
• Video card RAM - 128MB

Source: the official Illusion page for Artificial Girl 3 ( http://www.illusion.jp/js3/spec.html ). Several settings such as cdrom drive and supported resolution have been omitted since it is highly unlikely a configuration that does not meet such basic requirements is still in use.

Some users have experienced getting the game to run on lower spec cpus, even Celerons - it is highly likely they have decent graphic cards though. A computer which does not meet all system requirements may experience anything from longer load times to choppy frame rates and other graphical anomalies even if it can successfully run the game.

Setting up your computer to run AG3

1. Go to Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options, in the tab Advanced make sure Japanese is selected as Language for non-Unicode programs.
2. In the tab Languages, click the Details... button. This will bring the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box.
3. Click the Add... button. Select Japanese as Input Language and Microsoft IME Standard 2002 ver 8.1 as IME.
4. Make sure your normal language is set as default in Default input language so you can use your other applications as usual
5. (Optional) Click Language Bar and make sure Show the Language bar on the desktop is checked.

Your computer is set to run AG3 ! (You might have to restart your computer)

Don't want to set Japanese as system default?

• If you aren't an administrator, or if you just don't want to make everything assume it's in Japanese (see step 1), you can use this alternative.
• If you have a genuine copy of Windows XP or Vista, you can download the AppLocale utility from Microsoft and run AG3 through that. (You could probably find it from a non-Microsoft site even without having a genuine copy, but that's illegal, and we all know you won't do that. ;-))
• The AppLocale utility displays the languages in their native tongue. If you didn't already know, Japanese is "nihongo", which appears as ”日本語”. It should be selected for you by default (otherwise listed as the last option should manual selection be needed.)
• Create a shortcut on your desktop so you don't have to go all the way through the wizard again. It'll still bug you with a popup that it's intended for temporary purposes only, but it'll still save a mouseclick or two.
• Perform steps 2 through 5 above as normal.

Typing Japanese in the name box

• Click in the edit field
• Press ALT + SHIFT to switch to Japanese Input.
• Press CTRL + CAPSLOCK to switch to Hiragana.
• If that doesn't work, you can go to General, then to Advanced, pick a command that does work, then select it to Hiragana Key.
• You can now type Japanese using romaji, for example type "hayate" for "はやて" (notice the gray border around the text)
• Don't forget to press RETURN after entering the name, the gray border should disappear.

You must have set your "Language for non-Unicode programs" or be running the AppLocale activity or else this will fail and you will only get question marks.

((( Or to skip all that, get the save000.rar from HongFire. )))

And then copy its save000.js3wrd file to where you have installed AG3, like for an example, "C:\illusion\AG3\data\save". (Btw, unused copies of this file, that I have renamed to like "save001.js3wrd", "save002.js3wrd", etc, are working as new "AG3 worlds" for me, so far, mates.)

((( Or better still, get the [AG3][v1.03] English Launcher Release 3.5 )))

Then you can just type-in your own words.

And you will quickly find that in Hentai Game Mods (Downloads).

Problems With Systems with more the 4 cores

There is a hot fix under KB953028 that changes way DirectX allocates memory since DX9 creates a worker thread for each core/logical processor. Any system above 4 cores/logical units will not allocate memory to the worker threads and this will cause a crash.

Problems on 64bit Windows OS

(Moved by ToxicKing) I'm speaking about Vista64. The workaround doesn't seem to be needed on WinXP Pro x64.

I had to change the path in the registry in order to start the game. Else i was put back to desktop.

Change the path from

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/Illusion

to

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/Wow6432Node/Illusion

Easiest way to do this is to export the path, edit it with notepad and import it again. After that, the old (without Wow6432Node) can be deleted.

This helps on other 32bit programs, too.

Compatibility Issue with AMD/ATI Radeon HD2600XT (and 2400/2900)

The Ati Catalyst 7.11 and 7.12 Driver have some texture glitch with Artificial Girl 3, the most noticeable place is the eye gloss texture (that the eye gloss texture will stay 100% visible even if you set the eye gloss to only 10% in character creation for example.). Players with Ati Catalyst 7.11 and 7.12 Driver and ATI Radeon HD2000 Series graphics hardware will have to roll back to Ati Catalyst 7.10 to fix this issue.

There are also noticeable over-blur problem in the bathroom and this can be fixed by turning off the blur effect in the option setting before starting the game. (Tested in ATI 8.4 Hotfix Driver with Radeon 2600XT)

Note: This issue is tested in Windows XP SP2 with Radeon 2600XT and 2900.

Note: According to the Illusion website these issues are fixed with Catalyst drivers v8.6.

Note: Tested Windows XP SP2 with Radeon 2600XT on catalyst 8.7 driver and all issue fixed.

System crashes with nVidia GeForce cards

It appears that most recent nVidia drivers cause frequent system crashes (Blue Screen followed by a computer restart). A workaround for this is downloading and installing older versions of the drivers,such as version 195 and before.

I applied mod xxx but it does not showup ingame

Most mods that change visual appearances need you to take out the girl(s) from your game and put them back into the game after having saved them using the maker. Thus:

1. Start AG3(+)
   1. Select game then girl(s)
   2. Select Unload
   3. Exit AG3(+)
2. Start AG3(+)_Make
   1. Select Create Character
   2. Select Load Existing
   3. Find and select the *.js3cmi file of the girl(s)
   4. Select Save Character without any modifications. (You could but is not needed)
   5. Exit AG3(+)_Make
3. Start AG3(+)
   1. Select game then girl(s)
   2. Select Load
   3. Start to play

After doing this you should see your changes.

Alternate install method

Tired of messing around with regional settings? Here's a near-idiotproof way of installing everything (the complete game including bonus disc and expansions) and getting the interface and subtitles in English, from scratch. Yes, this means you can ignore all the directions in the above sections if they haven't worked for you. The procedure below has been tested and verified on a regular English install of Windows XP Pro SP3.

Caution: If you have previously attempted to install the game unsuccessfully, uninstall it and manually remove all remaining traces of the game from your system. Some of the common complaints on unsuccessful installations of the game are the result of botched re-installations over failed prior attempts, or attempting to follow multiple separate installation procedures (for example, if you obtained an expansion disc later and tried to graft it to your existing installation).

Step 1: the downloads

• Google is your friend! Hongfire no longer allows torrents; search the forums for the direct download links. If you find them then update this guide.
• You need one more download, i.e. the Illusion Wizzard. The latest version available as of January 2012 is version 0.5.2.

Step 2: the installs

• Mount the ISO you got from the torrent, and run the installer. It will install everything. After installation, do NOT run the game yet - this is the original Japanese install.
• Extract the Illusion Wizzard to it's own folder (it doesn't require installation). Use a path that makes sense, such as "C:\Program Files\Illusion Wizzard\". Optionally, create a Start Menu shortcut to its executable.
• Extract the all-in-one pack to a temp folder; it contains 2 folders and a .7z archive. One of the folders ("AG3") contains new files for the game, while the other simply contains a readme file.
• Take the "AG3" folder which you just extracted from the all-in-one pack and cut-paste move this folder to where you installed the game. By default, that would be "C:\Games\Illusion\" - note that there's already an "AG3" folder there. When you paste the extracted AG3 folder, say "yes" when windows warns you that files may be overwritten (since the AG3 folder already exists at the target location). For the curious, all it does is replace the two executables (one for the game, the other for the editor), a .dll (most likely for the subtitle mod, because I've seen the same type of .dll fix for RapeLay, which is also an Illusion game), and adds a text file containing the actual subtitles.
• Next, the .7z archive contains the actual translations and interface mods, so you need to move it to where the Illusion Wizzard can use it. So, open your Illusion Wizzard folder and go down into the AG3 subfolder. Create a new folder there and name it "mods", then paste the .7z archive in it.
• Run the Illusion Wizzard for the first time. From the dropdown menu, select AG3 then click start. You should see a list containing one entry, i.e. the all-in-one pack. Highlight it, click install. It'll take a couple of minutes. It contains 6 mods:

1 - AG3+ location icons -- changes the interface's location icons

2 - AG3+ English translation -- by Hentaijin, release 4.3

3 - AG3+ realistic uncensor for the guy

4 - AG3+ English interface -- by wurlox and darkhound

5 - AG3+ animated pussy mesh -- by uppervolta

6 - Illusion subtitle overlay mod v0.4.7 + subtitle revision 98

Technically you could simply search for the individual mods yourself on Hongfire. However, installing them manually one by one is beyond the scope of this document.

Note: The Subtitle overlay mod (included in the package) also comes with a cheat interface showing you the values of the variables concerning the traits and needs of each girl you load into a particular world. When you start the game, a list of hotkeys will be displayed including a toggle for this cheat interface. You may disable it if you don't want the numbers cluttering your display, or you can simply leave it running without modifying any values, because the numbers it shows are updated dynamically as the game progresses. So for example if you did something and received a reaction from a girl, you can see how exactly it affected her - e.g. it raised her friendship level, or lowered her bathing need, or increased her jealousy level, etc.

• UPDATE: There's a mod for an additional personality type, the A-type, which is basically a rip of the girl Kiryuu Aoi from another Illusion game (RapeLay). You can download the mod here: http://www.hongfire.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=470

Later on you may want to add more mods, like new clothes or additional areas ("maps"). Since you've already got the Illusion Wizzard installed because you followed these directions, you're all set. Simply download the mod you want and move the file to the /AG3/mods/ subfolder under the Illusion Wizzard's folder; after that, run the Illusion Wizzard to select and activate it.

• Updating the subtitles is also easy, just browse over the the game's /data/subs/ folder and replace the old subtitles.txt file with the newer one. As of September 30th, 2011, the latest official subtitle project covers 95.8% of the dialogues, download from post here [1]. You can also manually edit the file in a text editor because it is simply a text file. This allows you to customize the dialogue if you feel that you do not agree with a particular interpretation the translators (who are simply players just like you and me) used.

Improving the Visuals

Some people may not know it, but it's possible to significantly improve how the game looks just by setting a few settings in your graphics adapter control panel. These settings shouldn't impact performance noticeably unless you have an older graphics adapter or if you are running the game at a very high resolution.

NVIDIA 3D Settings

For NVIDIA graphics do the following:

1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel
2. Click Manage 3D settings
3. Click the tab Program Settings
4. Click add and browse to <Your AG3 folder>\AG3_Play.exe (for the Maker you should use <Your AG3 folder>\AG3_Make.exe)
5. Recommended settings for maximum visual effect:
   1. Anisotropic filtering: 8x
   2. Antialiasing - Gamma correction: On
   3. Antialiasing - Mode: Override any application setting
   4. Antialiasing - Setting: 32x
   5. Antialiasing - Transparency: 8x (Supersample)
   6. Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization: Off
   7. Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias: Clamp
   8. Texture filtering - Quality: High quality
6. Click Apply
7. Experiment with lower settings if you don't have a recent graphics card or to tweak performance vs. visuals.

ATi/AMD 3D Settings

For ATI graphics do the following:

1. Open AMD Vision Engine Control Panel
2. Click Gaming
3. Click the tab 3d Application Settings
4. Uncheck the Use application settings checkboxes under the Antialiasing and Anisotropic tabs.
5. Recommended settings for maximum visual effect:
   1. Antialiasing - Setting: 8x
   2. Antialiasing - Filter: Edge-detect
   3. Anisotropic filtering: 16x
   4. Catalyst A.I. - High Quality
   5. Catalyst A.I. - Enable Surface Format Optimization
   6. Mipmap Detail Level - High Quality
   7. Antialiasing Mode - Super-sample AA

• Note: Supersample AA can bring even the most powerful computers to sub 30 FPS in this game during H-scenes and conversations. If you find the FPS drop to be unbearable, Adaptive Multi-Sample AA is close to the same quality with drastically less of an impact on FPS.

1. Click Apply