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i have a rather old computer, to be honest i have no idea what its specs are since its not my computer (its my flatmates) and im a bit of a cave man when it comes to computers.

anyhoo, the point is that the screen shows up rather dark so i cant spot any manholes to get into the sewers and the other issue im having is getting into air vents. i was able to open it (in the security room/medical centre) but from there i cant figure out how to get inside it. apart from spinning round in circles i also cant move now. i cant jump, get off the desk, pace back and forth while i figure out what im supposed to do. the game hasnt frozen because i managed to shoot the wall and i can spin the camera angle around with the mouse.

if you havnt noticed by now, im not exactly good with computers or games, but i really enjoy his game so i dont want to just give up. especially since i've hardly just begun.

thankyou to everyone that reads this and offers any help. i looked through heaps of threads and help sites but they all assume you know the basics of getting into manholes and air vents. they forget about neanderthals like me

***spoilers***

ilyah wrote:i have a rather old computer, to be honest i have no idea what its specs are since its not my computer (its my flatmates) and im a bit of a cave man when it comes to computers.

anyhoo, the point is that the screen shows up rather dark so i cant spot any manholes to get into the sewers and the other issue im having is getting into air vents. i was able to open it (in the security room/medical centre) but from there i cant figure out how to get inside it. apart from spinning round in circles i also cant move now. i cant jump, get off the desk, pace back and forth while i figure out what im supposed to do. the game hasnt frozen because i managed to shoot the wall and i can spin the camera angle around with the mouse.

OK, first up, the darkness. I used to have this problem myself, and came up with a number of possible fixes. The first, and most obvious, is to adjust the brightness setting of your monitor (just like a TV). If that doesn't work, it gets trickier.

Right-click on the desktop, select properties from the pop-up menu, and then click on the settings tab. Click the button labelled Advanced. Then click on the tab labelled Adapter. This should give you either the control panel for your graphics adapter, or a button that will launch it (it varies from adapter to adapter).

Now, this is pretty much trial-and-error. First, try increasing brightness to see if you can get enough vision in the game. If you get that to maximum, and it still is too dark, look for a Contrast setting. If you have one, decrease the contrast gradually. Yes, I know that sounds backwards but trust me.

If you can fix the problem with contrast, fine. If not, the next thing to do is to look for an adjustment for Gamma. If you have such a thing, increase it gradually. Some cards have a color graph with a diagonal line running through it. If that's what you have, drag the center of the line towards the upper-left corner bit by bit.

Between all of them, you should be able to get the visibility level up to something playable.

If you have an older computer, then while you're mucking about with the video settings, try changing anything you can find from Quality to either Performance or Speed, whichever it uses. If you find a setting named Glow turn it off. These adjustments will degrade the appearance of the display in the game, but take some of the load off the computer, allowing the game to run faster. This should make your controls more responsive.

Next up, your stickyness. Try jumping in various directions, or saving and reloading. It's probably just a glitch. Jumping madly may seem idiotic, but sometimes it works, so just like picking up a girl, try anything that works.

In the worst case, start a new game. If your in the medical center, then you're not far in, so you won't lose much.

Finally, the vent. The one in the medical clinic has always been (for me, anyway) tricky. In any case, it's unnecessary. The following spoiler is blacked out, which means that if you want to read it, you have to drag the cursor over the text to highlight it before you can read it.

You're in the upper floor, yes? Sneak around, and the guard will tell you to leave. Do this a couple more times, and eventually the guard will get fed up and start shooting at you. On the left-hand side, you'll see the Masquerade icon change into the Gun icon. That means it's open season on the guard. Kill him and take his keys.

thanks, i already turned the brightness knob on the computer up as far as i could and changed the ausio and visual settings in the game, i switched the sound off and just have subtitles because the sound was stalling the game. i also reduced the quality of the graphics. i'll give your suggestion a go and see if it helps at all with vision. although im pretty sure that the only real way to fix it is by getting a newer computer and monitor.

with the vent, i cant even jump. but your idea of just starting a new game is probably the best hing anyway, from what im seeing in the forums, i really need to install the patches, or at least the newest one and i think im supposed to reinstall the game after? or at least start a new game, because trying to load a saved game reacts funny.

thanks

Also, what patch are you using? Manholes and especially vents are rather glitchy in v1.0 - so if you haven't done it yet, I'd suggest you patch your game with the official 1.2 patch and (if you want to) the unofficial in the latest version (3.2). Be sure to start a new game after patching, though.

[quote="ilyah] really need to install the patches"]

Deffinately download and install the official patch 1.2. The unofficial patches are purely optional, but they can improve performance in some cases. You don't have to re-install the game after applying one of the unofficial patches, just start a new one.

As Jhereg says, that particular vent in the Santa Monica clinic has always been tricky. What seems to happen is that when you open it, your character somehow gets caught between the vent and the wall or the table. You can use the game console and the noclip code if you really want to get up into that ventillation shaft but again Jhereg is correct in saying that it is not necessary.

vents

crouching and jumping will ofter do it.

thanks everyone.

ive put all the colour settings as low as i can, and i turned off the sound option and put the graphics settings as low as possible. i also installed the official patch, i tried to install the latest unofficial patch, but my computer says that there is no file to extract from the zipped folder i downloaded, hence downloading the official patch.

so thanks again for all your input. i'll give it another go. let you know if im still having problems. but then again, i just realised that im using a celeron 2.2 so that could explain why it cant keep up with the game.