Any tips on how to get this to work? Every time I try to install the unofficial patch it prevents the game from running at all.
Too bad this is such a poor Steam release. Switching resolutions to do the FMV and basically no music? Really, LucasArts? Really, Valve?
Whatever. The first level was grand. I don’t remember many specifics, but I didn’t have any trouble making my way through it. I found 2 secrets.
I’m going to make the prediction that next to the force powers it’s going to be level design that’s the secret sauce here. And not visual design, God knows. Just the shapes of the spaces, the passages, the flow. These guys did a lot with very little.
You need to use this to get a non-steamed EXE (apparently sourced from the Lucasarts FTP - I admit this is getting into grey area). It’ll give you 3 EXE’s, use the version that is .01. That should fix your issues and let you use the unofficial patch as well as the texture mods.
Essentially what Versper said.
I’d suggest you skip the unofficial patch version that comes with the mod and install the newer version I linked to in my later post instead, though.
Its patcher comes with a proper checksum check that will prevent the patch from running in the first place instead of destroying your executable (happened to me the first time also).
Here’s another install tutorial for those still struggling. It deals with both the Steam and CD versions of the game.
Note that there’s the 2013 patch which I think makes the DDraw-fix obsolete.
Like I already mentioned, switching to a 32bit resolution was key in getting this to run properly for me. Well, despite what the readme says, running with the windowgui argument makes my entire game running windowed (albeit at a fullscreen window) while smaller windows come up if I enter the menu or a video plays, but I can live with that inconvenience.
rezaf
I saved the one time midway through, and then forgot. I figured I’d blast through on Easy, but it got harry when I ran out of “bullets” a couple of times.
If you don’t have the CD, I would really recommend getting the music working, as, as Tom said, the sound/music does a lot of the heavy lifting. I’m getting tepidly pumped for Episode VII!
So I played the first level, and, uh, yeah. The 90s, man. Crazy time. I actually had forgotten this game employed FMV for the cutscenes, but it all came back to me. But it’s pretty good, you know, once you accept those weird tropes of turning a corner and finding an enemy in your face, or awkward button combinations - I really need to remap this if I’m going to keep going. But it definitely takes me back to a time when Star Wars meant something to me, and we were all a little starved for Star Wars content, quality be damned.
There’s also a sound that plays when you discover a secret area. Speaking of sound, I THINK I have no music, despite using the 2013 patch. What do I need to make it play again?
Also, yeah, playing JK neatly showcases how much shooters have changed.
I made those same adjustments krazykrok mentioned - especially the inverted axis drove me nuts.
But when it comes to keyboard commands, I was amazed how JK came pre-configured with a set of commands that mirrors what I use in shooters to this very day. Numpad for moving, num1 and num3 to strafe, right mouse button for jumping … and you can reconfigure everything as you desire. There’s developers to this very day that don’t see a need to let you customize the controls, or if you can, let you use all keys on the keyboard.
JK rubs it in how this was even possible in 1995.
rezaf
How did you turn off auto aim?
Also, I had real problems with mouse sensitivity – even at 0 it was still too sensitive, and checking that raw option was completely insensitive, even on max! I just turned down my Windows sensitivity 2 notches and it’s ok now, though I also switched to 3d acceleration which might have changed it as well. (I switched to 3d, even though I prefer the non-filtered look of the CPU one, simply because the CPU-based timer for the gun animations drove me nuts and there was some weird problem with specular highlights being completely saturated).
Just download the patch linked in the first post and run the .bat file. If you’ve changed your exe since originally installing the music patch then you need to re-do it?
I made those same adjustments krazykrok mentioned - especially the inverted axis drove me nuts.
But when it comes to keyboard commands, I was amazed how JK came pre-configured with a set of commands that mirrors what I use in shooters to this very day. Numpad for moving, num1 and num3 to strafe, right mouse button for jumping … and you can reconfigure everything as you desire.
I’m not 100% sure this is the original config. However it might be – I seem to remember doing lots of WASD+mouse buttons to do the different saber swings. But what tips me off is that you go to “save/load config” on the options screen you’ll see there’s already one titled “modern”.
I deleted all buttons I wasn’t going to use and use mapped it to a standard modern controls: WADS + space + E, mouse wheel click to use the force, mouse1/2 for shoot1/2 etc.
There’s developers to this very day that don’t see a need to let you customize the controls, or if you can, let you use all keys on the keyboard.
JK rubs it in how this was even possible in 1995.
Especially games ported from consoles to PC. (I’ve only ever seen two console games taht let you rebind controls. One was the Orange box game, and the other I can’t remember. Dead rising?).
The only thing JK2 doesn’t let you properly bind is mousewheel up/down for gun changing. It only lets you bind mousewheel scrolling to axis changes or movement, which is incredibly bizarre to my modern senses. But I’m not sure my mouse even had a mousewheel when I first played this game!
The game has 3 speed controls - run (shift), jog (normal), and slow (ctrl? or did I rebind that). There’s also crouch, which changes your speed, and giant bunny jump. I’m not sure of the need for the middle speed. I often slow down when doing a few precise shots but other than that I speed around like I’m playing do. Do you lot have “always run” on?
I think the game’s combat, especially in open areas, is something of a “momentum management” game. Standing around and trading fire is not the way to play this game, especially if you’re on hard! You have to duck in and out of doorways shooting people, and then sprint out into the open areas, continually moving around and shooting. You have to whiz around, trying not to stop, to avoid getting hit by the thematic spray of a million blaster rounds. So if you want to turn you can’t immediately change direction, as the slow, weighty acceleration of your character basically kills all of your speed. It’s not as good as Doom’s shooting, but it’s the exact same sort of thing. And once you get the lightsabre and basically stop using guns you need to keep this up, as it only deflects some of the blasts, but not all of them.
I much prefer the projectile avoidance type of FPS than the lean-out-of-cover-and-spray-hitscan weapons. Especially when the projectiless are pew-pew Star Wars lasers that spray all over the place, just like in the movies.
Well I can get it to run under Win 8.1 by using compatibility mode, but only in the lowest resolution. I can’t enable the video card or run it in 1920x1080, the program resets it because “your video card is not powerful enough” or somesuch. Weird.
I don’t think you really want to run in high res anyway. It doesn’t make the game look any prettier (the textures are still tiny) and at high res the fonts and UI are tiny and unreadable. I’ve went with 1024x768 instead.
Well, like I wrote above, with the texture and model mods in use, I think running at 1920x1080x32 is a sound choice. I’ll post a screenshot later.
rezaf
The FMV’s crack me up. Who were these actors and what are they doing now? I remember reading somewhere that the actor who played Gabriel Knight is in real estate sales now.
Yeah, I read that too, somewhere, although that was years ago. He actually appeared on a couple of early episodes of Frasier, playing the waiter at Frasiers go-to café.
Tim Curry?
Google-Fu. Appearently he could only get over the experience with aclohol.
Also … That’s me. Gabriel Knight..
rezaf
So I still have this on my desk. It was a promo when buying Dark Forces. Sadly I have nothing similar for DF2.
And they say there are no second acts in American lives.
Done with level 2. 3 of 8 secrets only … but I’m SO not going through that crate labyrinth again.
rezaf
I can’t get this game to run properly in Win 8.1. Launches, but when you actually get past the cut scenes and in game, I have the UI and an all black screen.
I had that too. Turn off 3d acceleration.