Category: Gaming

Remap Ansel hotkey

Ansel is Nvidia’s tool that is used for making high resolution, 360° and stereoscopic screenshots. You can move around freely in a paused scene to capture your character’s best side.

Sadly during action ALT+F2 is quite hard to hit. Let’s remap the key.

Launching the configuration utility

To launch the utility hit Windows+R and paste this path:

%PROGRAMFILES%\NVIDIA Corporation\Ansel\Tools\NvCameraConfiguration.exe

You should be greeted with this window:

The input hotkey is used to remap, hit the key or the combination you wish to use then confirm and save.

I have tested this on Windows 10 with the Witcher 3.

Source: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/957949/ansel/any-way-to-rebind-keys-/

Downgrading S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl to 1.0005

Not long ago I decided to go back to the Zone and do some casual stalking. But my game was updated in 2013 to 1.0006 and the complete mod I used just broke.

Disclaimer

This only works for the English version. You are responsible for anything that could happen including, but not limited to, radioactive fallout, mutants appearing and the Monolith trying to recruit your family.

If you’re not playing the English version please move on or buy one on Steam or GOG.

Downgrading to 1.0005

To downgrade the game to 1.0005 we are going to trick the 1.0005 patch into thinking it’s updating from 1.0004 in the registry, then we will install the official 1.0005 patch.

First you will need to navigate into the registry and locate the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\GSC Game World\STALKER-SHOC

Set the string value InstallLang to en, if it doesn’t exist create it.
Set the string value InstallVers to 1.0004, if it doesn’t exist create it.
Set the string value InstallSource to stk-for-pack-noprot-efis, if it doesn’t exist create it.

Now download the 1.0005 patch:

Install it and disregard the error message about the readme file, we will now how to move the files manually.

Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\THQ\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl with your file explorer and copy the following folders and files to your game installation folder:

  • bin;
  • mods;
  • gamedata.dbb;
  • gamedata.dbc.

My game folder is located at D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl.

The last step is to delete an unwanted file that was installed with 1.0006. Delete gamedata.dbd in the game folder. You can now go back to the Zone!

Source: https://www.gog.com/forum/stalker_series/downgrade_instructions

Use more than 2GB of RAM

You will need to patch the XR_3DA.exe file. Download this and extract it into the game’s bin folder:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009/downloads/stalker-soc-3gb-ram

Before doing anything you must always think about making a backup, in this case you can zip the file we are about to patch so you have a copy just in case.

Copy XR_3DA.exe into the extracted folder, run Start.bat and follow the instructions. Once the game binary patched copy it back to the bin folder.

This will help with mods.

90° FOV

The modification can and will most certainly ban you from multiplayer!

For a wider field of view you will have to go to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl page on the PCGaming Wiki and go down to the Field of View section.

You will be prompted to download an archive, from that archive you will need to extract to the bin folder the file fov90_v10005.exe. Once extract it launch it once so it patched the game.

Enjoy!

Star Wars: Republic Commando

Star Wars: Republic Commando is my favorite Star Wars game, the main theme is Vode An.

This game came out in 2005, and was by LucasArts (they’ll be missed). In the game you’re a soldier fighting for the republic with a couple teammates !
There are spoilers following.

Geneosis

You start in Geneosis, just like in Clone Wars. You simply have to follow the linear story without really bothering about the several droids or oversized toasters.
It’s like they can really hurt you with your shield on.

You’re the commander of Delta squad and your “name” is RC-1138. You’re team is composed of 3 other members with nicknames: Scorch (RC-1162), Sev (RC-1207), Fixer (RC-1140).

Prosecutor

After Geneosis you will investigate the Prosecutor, a spacecraft than went silent. Nothing really new since the game is still like a corridor.
The difference is about how you command your squad.

Kashyyyk

This is the last chapter, you’ll be visiting Kashyyyk since the wookies need your help. You’ll even catch a glimpse of General Grievous’ face and fight his guard while hunting down some Trandoshans.

Multiplayer

Even if the multiplayer is not as played as Dota 2, Counter-Strike or any other games, it wasn’t half bad. Like for modern military shooters you had a primary weapon and a secondary, you had the three types of grenades from the story mode.
You also had to pick a side Republic or Trandoshan.

The game can still be fun with other people, but you’ll need to connect with an IP.

RollerCoaster Tycoon

UPDATE 2020/03/04: Yo check out OpenRCT2!

RollerCoaster Tycoon was made by Chris Sawyer at the end of the 90s. This game is about maintaining an amusement park, building rides, building food stores…
It’s about YOUR amusement park !

The game was written in assembly and C (to interface with Windows) and can be played on today’s up to date Windows 8.1 64bit with the GoG’s version.

Can my toaster run this ?

Yes it can !
To run this game you’ll need Windows 95 or newer, a 90MHz CPU.
You’ll also need 1MB of video memory and 16MB of RAM, your toaster should run this game fine.

Play it in windowed mode

Since it’s an old game, I highly suggest you to play it in windowed mode. You might encounter some glitches when ALT-TABing or trying to click out of the window to do something with another app whithout having the click be registered.
The workaround is to right click RollerCoaster Tycoon title bar on the windows and then click out of the window.

Obviously ALT-TABing with your keyboard will work just fine.

The worst anti-cheat: GameGuard

Phantasy Star Online 2: The GameGuarding

Update (04/05/2016): It seems that most of the issues don’t occur anymore. It has been like that for a month or two. While I doubt about how effective it is, I know that there are mods that can hook into the game so maybe GameGuard is just being more tolerant on our systems.

GameGuard is often bundled with Free 2 Play games especially when they’re Asian games. But it’s trash.

I play Phantasy Star Online 2 and it’s bundled with it.

What is GameGuard?

GameGuard is produced by nProtect and is supposed to be one of many anti-cheat software.

Its main job is to hide the game’s process. It seems to make sure that some DLL don’t get loaded by the game or any other app.

The issues I experienced

I have experienced a few issues, some have had me reinstall my system and some have just given me headaches.

The issues I had were generally:

  1. No process can be spawned (start menu, desktop icon, run prompt);
  2. No console, such as cmd.exe or cygwin, can be opened;
  3. No process in cygwin can be spawned (could not fork);
  4. GameGuard does not end when the game is closed and I can’t restart the game because GameGuard doesn’t want me to spawn another GameGuard;
  5. Google Chrome doesn’t work;
  6. Can’t reboot (can’t spawn shutdown.exe ?);
  7. My DNS breaking and not accepting domains I don’t have in cache;
  8. Some software will crash when started:
    • Google Chrome;
    • Media Player Classic (CCCP);
    • hexchat.

The list goes on.

Mailing the support

I once contacted the nProtect’s support because my issue was going nowhere. This was the mail I sent:

To: support@nprotect.com
Subject: Issue with GameGuard not closing after game ends

Hi,

I’m currently having an issue with GameGuard for Phantasy Star Online 2 (PSO2). Everytime I play PSO2 and finish I must reboot my computer (sometimes do a hard reboot) because the “GameMon64.des” process does end when the game is closed.

I know it doesn’t end because when I relaunch the game, the new “GameMon64.des” process that was spawned doesn’t hide the game’s or GameGuard’s process and is the only process to not end once I’m greeted with a “np1002” error.

If I try to kill the process I’m notified that I don’t have the required permissions for that (which I do have since I have admin powers).

I have tried deleting the whole GameGuard folder everytime I launch the game and nothing changed.

I’m running Windows 8.1 64bit and Kaspersky.

What can I do to not have anymore issues ?

Thanks.

I never got a response but after a while the issue was gone.

Conclusion

I hate GameGuard, it doesn’t stop cheating and people can still inject DLLs anyway so what’s the point?

I’ll still use it because I have no choice if I want to play PSO2.

Playing Star Wars: Battlefront 2 online

SW_BF2-header

With the new Star Wars Battlefront being teased and disappointing people, you can still play the old Battlefront 2 online even without GameSpy.

The easy steps

  • Go to the download page;
  • Download the corresponding archive, “BattlefrontII_1.1_europe_clientfiles_english.zip” was the one I downloaded for me;
  • Extract it to the game folder “\Steam\SteamApps\common\Star Wars Battlefront II\GameData”;
  • In-game: create an account like if it was a GameSpy one;
  • Execute order 66.

Source: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Battlefront_2

No gamepad in Evoland ?

Evoland 2014-05-13 15-10-51-29

Evoland is a journey through the history of action/adventure gaming. You unlock technologies, gameplay systems and graphics upgrade as you progress through the game.

For some people the game won’t detect gamepads. I’m running Windows 8.1 and this is how I resolved my issue:

  • Navigate to Evoland’s folder: \Steam\steamapps\common\Evoland\;
  • Rename dinput8.dll as _dinput8.dll;
  • Launch pad.exe to see if your gamepad is detected;
  • Enjoy the game.

Get PSO2es’ APK file

Update: The game has been release, you can get it on Arks-Layer.

If you don’t feel like setting up a VPN or if you can’t set it up, there is another way to obtain the game. You’ll need:

  • An android device (2.1+)
  • Google Chrome (on a desktop)
  • A Google Chrome’s extension called APK Downloader
  • Drag’n’Drop skill points

Disclaimer

I’m not responsible of anything. If something breaks or works it’s because of you.
If you follow the instructions, it should work, otherwise the instruction were not followed correctly.

Continue reading Get PSO2es’ APK file