[Fixed] Get KOTOR 1/2 Working on Vista

[paulodavidvic]

I posted this somewhere else but i guess it should have been here in the first place... Sorry about that!

 

Ok, everyone... very long time since i last posted on these forums. First, i wanna give my thanks to everyone who helped to make the amazing and useful installation guide for KOTOR/KOTOR2 on Windows VISTA and 7, especially Q. It's fantastic to see the huge number of people the guide has helped in the last years (me included)!

 

That being said, i wanted to point out some curious facts about KOTOR.

 

First, i own ALMOST ALL original editions of KOTOR for PC, except the Steam version.

I have the original USA, UK and Asia/Pacific/Australia boxed editions (no real differences on data or the executable, except the USA has an extra movie ad for hyperspace and the Asia/Pacific/Australia edition usually comes with a fifth CD with a black and white version of the pdf manual); the Best of PC version (patched to version 1.03 and NO securom) and the USA and UK editions of The Collection.

 

Apparently i've always been lucky because i've managed to install and run all those game editions on VISTA and 7 without any problems... until recently, when i changed to Windows 7 64 bits and i got a new graphics card (Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti)... I still manage to install all editions of KOTOR but i started having random crashes, even after following all the instructions on the main guide.

 

I then started experimenting with settings and configurations and tried all sorts of things until i went and bought yet another version of KOTOR, this time the so called GOG edition...

As you guys probably noticed already, and i'll stand by what i'm saying here, guys at GOG ship their games using modified executables to remove DRM. But just how do they usually do this? They usually get some well known working crack from some "scene group" and modify it to remove any reference to the original cracker... Ironic isn't it?

 

For KOTOR, they released the game patched to version 1.03 along with the Fairlight group cracked exe (they edited out the line saying "Hellspawn Reborn" left by the cracker)... So, yes, people are actually paying for recycled cracked exes, which is ok as long as the game works, so fine with me...

 

In GOG's case, it did for me... Not because of the game exe, but because of the compatibility settings they used for the exe to run in the first place! That did the trick for me...

 

On the compatibility settings for the swkotor.exe file they marked three boxes, leaving all others unmarked: Disable visual themes, Disable desktop composition and Disable display scaling on high DPI settings. I haven't tried changing these options to figure out which ones (maybe all) actually make the game run better on Windows 7 but the thing is it worked without having to do anything else. In case you're wondering, using those options also works with the original 1.03 exe, the one from Best of PC and even the securom fixed ones (i have two different ones), the Collection ones or other different cracked executables.

 

Other curious thing is that the Best of PC version of KOTOR is also patched to version 1.03 and has no DRM at all! That's right, the swkotor.exe there has no securom at all, so people at GOG could have used that, but they went with Fairlight's crack instead...

 

Another thing i noticed is that the so called "kotor_2_vista_fix" is just the Mss32.dll file from KOTOR 1! It's present on all patches (1.01, 1.02 and 1.03) and i guess that's the reason why it says on the guide there is no need to copy the Mss32.dll file to the KOTOR installation dir (it gets installed automatically with any of those patches anyway!)... The readme file on that fix says that the author, some guy nicknamed "A_Dead_Jedi" and some "friends were able to make it almost exactly like the Kotor one (but not exactly the same)", and i'm quoting from the same readme file... That's odd, because the file on that fix is precisely the same on those KOTOR patches i mentioned... What's even more interesting is that at a very known site for game cracks there's another file, this one is called "kotor1-2_vista-w7_fixed_dll", which indeed has a modified version of the Mss32.dll file. Maybe this is the one that "A_Dead_Jedi" and his friends modified? I have no way of knowing because the readme file on this fix only has this:

SW KotOR 1 & 2 Vista/Win7 Crashfix

this is for both Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2

This DLL solves startup crash on Vista and Windows 7.

Unpack to the game folder and play!

 

 

but the files are indeed different... I have no idea about what the differences actually are but i used it before too and also didn't help fixing the startup crashes on KOTOR (no idea about KOTOR 2 yet).

 

One last thing i should mention is that there are actually two official 1.03 patches for KOTOR. They have the same name but the older one was released March 1, 2004 (26.026.060 bytes) while the newer one (and final) was released two days later on March 3, 2004 (this one has 26.027.813 bytes). Only difference between the two is on the DIALOG.TLK file they install. From what i can tell, people using the older patch will have problems somewhere during the game (no idea where or what kind of problems) but back in 2004, Bioware released the DIALOG.TLK file to people who had used the older patch (or people can just update the game again using the newer one). Apparently, the Bioware autoupdater still works too!

 

I hope these informations are useful to someone and i wanna thank again all the people who made the guide at the beginning of this thread! Cheers!

[darth_cantplay]

After 12 hours of trying everything my google could find on solutions to my problems I have broken down and will seek the help of you wise Jedi/Sith Lords

 

[sWKotOR]

ReportDateTime=11/4/2015 4:05:12 PM

SysInfoVersion=v1.00.60

GameExists=1

GameVersion=v2.10.427

GameInstallLocation=C:\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\SWKotOR2\

 

[OS]

Name=WinXP

Version=Windows XP v5.1 build 2600 Service Pack 2

Service Pack=None

Status=Pass

 

[swapFiles]

?:\pagefile.sys=0

?:\pagefile.sys=0

 

[CPU]

CPUCount=4

CPUSpeed=1996

CPUFamily=15

CPUModel=0

CPUStepping=1

CPUVendor=AMD

CPUName=AMD A8-6410 APU with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics 1996MHz

Status=Pass

 

[Memory]

RAM=2048

Status=Pass

 

[Disk Free Space]

C: (NTFS), UNICODE=843.14GB

D: (NTFS), UNICODE=2.20GB

F: (NTFS), UNICODE=582.36GB

Status=Pass

 

[CD-ROMs]

DriveLetters=E:\

Drives=

 

[Video]

Video Card Name=AMD Radeon R5 Graphics

Video Memory=4096

Desktop Resolution=0x0x0

DirectX=DirectX 9.0c (4.09.00.0904)

OpenGL Version=4.5.13399 Compatibility Profile Context 15.201.1101.0

OpenGL Vendor=ATI Technologies Inc.

OpenGL Renderer=AMD Radeon R5 Graphics

ATI Driver=(null)

Vid Card Status=Warning

Vid Card Driver Status=Fail

GL Status=Pass

DX Status=Pass

 

[Audio]

Sound Card Name=Speaker/HP (Realtek High Definition Audio)

Status=Pass

 

 

;Game Options from swkotor2.ini

 

[Display Options]

FullScreen=1

Disable Movies=0

Disable Intro Movies=0

Sort Modules=1

Width=640

Height=480

BitsPerPixels=32

RefreshRate=60

 

[sound Options]

Disable Sound=0

 

[Graphics Options]

EnableHardwareMouse=1

FullScreen=0

 

[Game Options]

 

[config]

firstrun=0

 

Ive intalled, uninstalled, reinstalled, patched, updated drives, burnt dinner, and all so I could finally play a game I missed out on years ago. But the foul curse has spread to my notebook and alas I am gameless. What gives? Am I not doing something right?!?!

 

SAVE ME BARRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!