try the solution mentioned here:
Buried in Time Videos Off-Center

no promises

Hmmm, I checked it out, but how does that appear to be related to my problem at all? Maybe my problem description put too much emphasis on the "transportation animation video" that played. The same thing plays everytime I change regions, and the problem only happens when I try to enter Talanzaar.

i thought it was a video problem ?
anyway it would only take 2 mins worth a try

or you could try the teleport cheat to get you to Talanzaar

ps: you could try one of those cpu slowdown programs

I saw the thread, and I simply don't dare to change my system.ini file over something like this. At any rate, it's not the same problem at all, and not related at all.

I didn't know about the teleport cheat, but now that I've tried it, I've found that exactly the same thing happens, which is interesting.

The game is not old enough to warrant CPU slowdown, nor does it suffer from the sync/timing issues that plague the ones that do. Again, it's unrelated.

1. make sure that you have the correct 3.0 patch for your game. there is a "play the games compilation" patch which is smaller and not compatible with the original game.
2. try reinstalling the game with the 3.0 patch to a different directory. to avoid problems you should use the patch to install outcast (do not install OC and apply the patch after that).
3. normally outcast should work without compatibility modes in winxp, but when using it, make sure that you applied it to all .exe files (oc1.exe - oc3.exe). outcast.exe is only the launcher app...

if nothing helps, install outcast without any patches and test it with default launcher settings first.

davros was also right, outcast definitely has problems with faster CPUs (over 2ghz). but it only affects gameplay (slow moving in swamps, twon-ha not jumping...)

Thanks for your three pointers. Maybe it's the patch thing, I don't remember where I got it from... I need only add that whenever I applied compatibility I did it directly to oc3.exe, the game's "core", as it were.

I'll try everything you suggested tomorrow when I have the time, and then update the thread accordingly. However it pans out, though, thanks for the help.

EDIT - Well, what do you know! Reinstalling without the patch (it was the correct 11mb one, btw) solved it! I just hope I don't run into any trouble by playing it unpatched. At any rate, thanks a lot!

Can anyone direct me to a thread or links to any patches/info on running Outcast in XP? I cannot get the Outcast.exe to work (after install the Outcast shortcut wants to install the game again!) Loader.exe always tells me the wrong CD is in or no CD is in at all, and the oc1.exe, oc2.exe and oc3.exe just give me 'Bad Audio Tracks'! I have tried with no patches, I have installed with patch #1, I have installed patch #2, I have never been able to install patch #3 because it says I have an illegal copy (which I don't!)

Any help for me to play this great game again would be welcomed!

PS: I have searched on the web and only found a couple threads that have bad links and no real info. Mostly you get 'Jdi Knight: Outcast and bittorrent sites!

Maybe? http://www.patches-scrolls.de/

Thanks Minimax. Turned out I had a bad patch #3 and found a good one that when installed got the game working. Thanks for replying so quickly and being so helpful - it's why I love this site! Thanks again! 😀

I have a problem of the music not playing, but I can live with that!

Now ifOnly I could get it playing at full screen I would be a happy man. The game seems to keepputting a crossed in the 'frame' option! 🙁

There are some good tips on www.metzomagic.com on running Outcast:

1. On the Outcast CD-ROM, right-click on Setup.exe and tweak it to run in Compatibility Mode for Windows 98/ME. Then run it to install the game.
2. Download Outcast Patch 3 and apply it.
3. If you have a late model Pentium IV with hyperthreading, or a dual core processor, you'll need to run imagecfg.exe on the Outcast.exe file.
4. Now you can run the game, and when you eventually get to the game menu, open Settings > PERFORMANCE SETTINGS, then hit the down arrow. Up the Resolution to 512 x 384, and make sure all the other settings are on High (except Depth of Field on the last page, which you can leave at Med). Then hit the 'OK' button to save your settings.
5. Finally... before you run the game, if you don't use a slow-down programme to slow down your processor, you'll find that three undesirable things will happen:

1. Combat will be difficult.
2. You'll have extreme difficulty wading through even the shallowest water.
3. You won't be able to ride a kwon-ha (you can mount him but he won't move).

So... I've had good results in the past using Turbo, but this can be tricky with dual core, as it just hops to the free core and you get no slow-down. However, I believe if you bind Turbo itself to the same core that Outcast is using, with imagecfg.exe, that it will work. I can't verify this though, as I need some time to get to the part of the game where you obtain a kwon-ha to try it. Some people have reported success with CPU Grabber.

Marian - all good info - well done! Also recommend a freeware program called SpeedSwitchXP, which is designed to save battery power on laptops by switching the CPU power when 'Maximum Battery' option is used.. This means on my dual core it goes down for 2.8ghz down to 1ghz per cpu. Use imagecfg and turn off one cpu and you now have a 1ghz PC. This is enough for some PC's to run Outcast, but on some PC's, like mine, I still need to set my cpugrabber to around 55 to be able to avoid the twon-ha, riss field and music track playing problems.