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How to get System Shock 2 working on new computers
Version 1.1 - Last Updated May 23rd 2009
Welcome. This guide will help you get System Shock 2 running on your computer in less then 15 minutes.
Installing The Game Koyla Tools Enabling EAX in Windows Vista (Realtek Onboard Sound) Enabling EAX in Windows Vista (Creative Sound Card) DDFix Dark Widescreen Mod Modifying CAM.CFG Changing Resolution In Game Movies Not Playing

Installing The Game	Top
First of all. You need the System Shock 2 CD. Pirated Versions are NOT supported by this guide. If you really value the game, you'd go out and buy it! Pop the install CD in your CD drive, Open up Windows Explorer. Go into your CD and click on Setup.exe to start installing the game. Do a FULL INSTALL of the game. This tutorial will assume that you are installing to "C:\Games\System Shock 2" but you can install it wherever you like, just substitute the directory above for your own directory. Now, with System Shock 2 installed. Download the Editor called ShockEd from the link below: ShockEd Find ShockEd.zip inside and extract the contents of that Zip file into your System Shock 2 installation overwriting any files it finds. All is going well, now System Shock 2 should be installed successfully.

Koyla Tools	Top
This pack is the most efficient tool for getting System Shock 2 ready for play. Simply download it and run it. It will tell you what it will do when you run it. Thread to Koyla Tools download This tool is HIGHLY recommended for getting System Shock 2 up to speed. So mush so that most of this guide has been revised because Koyla Tools does all of the manual steps for you.

Enabling EAX in Windows Vista (Realtek Onboard Sound)	Top
Software called Realtek SoundBack allows you to regain lost EAX functionality in System Shock 2. Realtek SoundBack Page Install this and follow the instructions it gives you to get everything working.

Enabling EAX in Windows Vista (Creative Sound Card)	Top
This part requires that you have a Creative Sound Card. Windows Vista handles sound differently. Old games will not have the ability to have EAX enabled because Microsoft removed DirectSound from Vista. DirectSound allowed EAX to work. Fortunately, Creative have created software called Creative ALchemy. This software allows OpenGL sound to be translated back into DirectSound. Creative ALchemy Homepage Depending on what card you have, Download the relative software and add System Shock 2 to the list. Once you have done that, the software will automatically pick up on when you start the game and will begin translating!

DDFix	Top
Now, things become a little more advanced from here on in. DDFix will automatically added to your System Shock 2 installation when you use Koyla Tools. Open DDFIX.INI and you'll be faced with a number of options. These options are important to get the game working properly. I will run through my personal options because I found them the most reliable, stable and effective. [Main] ;Screen resolution ;Must be 800x600 or greater gWidth=800 gHeight=600 You can set this to whichever screen resolution. If you want a different resolution like 1024 x 768 then change the corresponding numbers after the =. However, make sure that your CAM.CFG says the same resolution as you put here. This will be explained in more depth later. ;Set to 1 to fix the duel core related crash MultiCoreFix=1 This is the DDFix for Multi core Machines. Best to have it on 1 for all Dark Engine Games. ;Set to 1 to automatically register lgvid.ax each time thief is started up VideoFix=1 1 is recommended as it will register the codecs the game requires to play FMV's on startup. ;This can be set to zero to get a more accurate z-buffer ;Doesn't usually make a noticable difference to picture quality UseCompatibleZBuffer=1 1 should be on by default. Personally, any other number crashes the game on starting a mission but it could be different for you. ;Turns on the 32 bit texture loader and adds support for some unsupported screen resolutions ;Will cause a crash if used with an unsupported exe ; 0 - Disable ; 1 - Determine exe automatically ; 2 - Thief 2 v1.18 Thief2Extensions=1 For System Shock 2. This should be set to 1. ;Set to 1 to disable the windows keys while thief is running DisableWindowsKey=0 ;Set to 1 to enable anisotropic filtering AnisotropicFiltering=0 ;If you want to share overriden textures between thief installations, uncomment the next line ;It should contain the absolute path to the equivilent of \res\ddfix, including the trailing \ ;TexturePath=C:\Games\Thief2\res\ddfix\ I personally left the first at 0, AF to 1 and left the TexturePath option alone but, again, it's down to you to decide what you want. ;XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ;XX Compatibility settings XX ;XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ;Changes the way direct writes to the frontbuffer are handled ;SS2 players should set these options to '2' and '0xf81f' respectively ;Thief 2 players with corrupted in game text should use '2' and '0x0000' ;Players who experience slowdown with UseSysMemOverlay=2 should set both options to 0 UseSysMemOverlay=2 OverlayColourKey=0xf81f I left this option alone from its default.

Modifying CAM.CFG	Top
Open CAM.CFG with Notepad and you will see something like this:
Add this line to the bottom of the document; Always_Play_Intro Now the document will look something like this:
Keep this document open for the final step.

Changing Resolution	Top
If you haven't from the last step covered. Open CAM.CFG with Notepad and find a line called game_screen_size. You'll see two numbers next to that line (default is 640 480). You can change these numbers to match what is in your DDFIX.INI file. If you set DDFIX.INI up to look like this :gWidth=1440 gHeight=900 Then change game_screen_size 640 480 to game_screen_size 1440 900.

In Game Movies Not Playing	Top
Download the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack from CodecGuide.com This is a pack of codecs that allow you to play movie files on your PC. This pack has something called ffdshow which handles the playback of System Shock 2's AVI files which are encoded with Indeo codec technology (which is very old and unsupported nowadays)

That's It!	Top
OK, you should now have a fully working copy of System Shock 2. It can now be played on Windows XP/Windows Vista in glorious widescreen! Here are some pictures of the first mission in 1680x1050 I took after following my own guide.



This guide is Copyrighted © Saleck. Feel free to print/repost this guide anywhere but please give credit where credit is due. That's all I ask :)