Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
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Revision as of 00:31, 4 April 2024 by AlphaYellow (talk | contribs) (Added a note to reinforce that the game indeed uses Direct3D 8 for rendering, and preventing future changes to the field again, since it seems to be common lately with some editors changing the Direct3D version in some games, who are trusting on system requirements rather than actually testing the games beforehand, as many system requirements for very old games were often wrong and misleading.)
Developers | |
---|---|
Remedy Entertainment | |
Producer | 3D Realms |
Publishers | |
Rockstar Games | |
Russia | 1C-SoftClub |
Engines | |
MAX FX 2.0 | |
Release dates | |
Windows | October 14, 2003[1] |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 86 |
IGDB | 84 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | One-time game purchase |
Microtransactions | None |
Modes | Singleplayer |
Pacing | Real-time |
Perspectives | Third-person |
Controls | Direct control |
Genres | Action, Shooter, TPS |
Art styles | Realistic |
Themes | Contemporary, Detective/mystery, North America |
Series | Max Payne |
Max Payne | |
---|---|
Max Payne | 2001 |
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne | 2003 |
Max Payne 3 | 2012 |
Max Payne 1&2 Remake | TBA |
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is a singleplayer third-person action, shooter and TPS game in the Max Payne series.
General information
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | SecuROM DRM disc check. 3 CDs. | |||
Retail | Max Payne Anthology released only in Poland and Germany | |||
Green Man Gaming | ||||
Humble Store | ||||
Steam | Can be purchased in most countries since 8/2/2023; this excludes France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Myanmar and Venezuela. | |||
GamersGate (unavailable) | ||||
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable) | [2] |
- A demo is available.
- A faithful higher quality icons for Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne can be found here.
You must be logged in to download.
Essential improvements
Patches
- The latest version is v1.01. The Steam version is up-to-date.
Fix packs
- Max2Fixes. A combined patch with startup hang patch, ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix, different options for video wrappers and other fixes.
- Definitive Fix. A combined patch with startup hang patch, ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix, bonus maps for dead man walking, a d3d9 wrapper and other fixes.
Skip intro videos
Run the game with the -skipstartup parameter
|
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Skip launcher
Run the game with the -nodialog parameter
|
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Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | <path-to-game>\MP2_Init.ras[Note 1] HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Remedy Entertainment\Max Payne 2\ |
Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12150/pfx/[Note 2] |
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Max Payne 2 Savegames\ |
Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12150/pfx/[Note 2] |
- 10 save slots + 2 quicksave slots + 1 autosave slot available.
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
OneDrive | Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers. | |
Steam Cloud |
Video
- Can only be changed in the launcher
Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | Use ThirteenAG's fix. | ||
Multi-monitor | Use ThirteenAG's fix. | ||
Ultra-widescreen | Use ThirteenAG's fix. | ||
4K Ultra HD | Use ThirteenAG's fix. | ||
Field of view (FOV) | See Field of view (FOV). | ||
Windowed | Toggle with Alt+↵ Enter or use the -window parameter. |
||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | See Borderless fullscreen windowed. | ||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | Can be improved by forcing 16x in the graphics card control panel. | ||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | Not applied when Bullet Time is active; Nvidia users see Anti-aliasing (AA). | ||
High-fidelity upscaling | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | Triple buffering are available. Use d3d8to9 on Windows 10. ThirteenAG's fix includes d3d8to9 by default; enable it in global.ini . |
||
60 FPS | |||
120+ FPS | Uncapped frame rate causes minor issues. Physics objects and dead bodies jump more, NPCs may be knocked down by doors when opening them during scripted animations.[3] | ||
High dynamic range display (HDR) |
Field of view (FOV)
- Changing the FOV causes visual glitches during some in-game cutscenes, and might turn the nightmare levels unplayable, since these sections of the game already alter the camera FOV.
Use widescreen fix[4] |
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|
Use game's console command[5] |
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|
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Force borderless fullscreen[citation needed] |
---|
|
Anti-aliasing (AA)
- Graphical issues occur when using anti-aliasing.
Apply MSAA/SGSSAA[6] |
---|
Notes
|
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | Quick save/load cannot be remapped (set to F5 and F9, respectively). | |
Mouse acceleration | ||
Mouse sensitivity | ||
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Controller | ||
Controller support | [7] |
Controller types |
---|
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | ||
Surround sound | ||
Subtitles | ||
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | ||
EAX support | EAX 3.0 | |
Royalty free audio | Credits feature the song "late goodbye" by "Poets of the fall". |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Italian | ||||
Polish | Retail only. Patch for digital release here. | |||
Brazilian Portuguese | Fan translation, download. | |||
Russian | Retail only. Patch for digital release here. | |||
Spanish | Retail only. Patch for digital release here. | |||
Turkish | Fan translation, download |
Issues fixed
Application load error 5:0000065434
Set Anti-aliasing to Off [citation needed]
|
---|
The launcher does not start
Laptops using Nvidia Optimus must set the preferred graphics processor for Max Payne 2 to "Intel Integrated Graphics"[citation needed] |
---|
Set the compatibility mode to Windows 98 / Me [8]
|
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Error: setFullscreen - creating the device failed: E_FAIL
Use ThirteenAG's fix[citation needed] |
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|
Exception in engineInit: Unable to load save game "Files"
Reinstall the game on the C: drive[citation needed] |
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Error: Exception in startupInit: Directory \data not found
Move the game to a folder without spaces[citation needed] |
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Reinstall the game to a folder without spaces in the folder path (e.g. C:\Games\MaxPayne2). |
(Steam) Move the game to a folder without spaces[citation needed] |
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|
Game won't launch on modern AMD graphics cards, still shows up in task manager
Use the Unofficial startup hang patch[citation needed] |
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Set the compatibility mode to Windows 98 / Me [citation needed]
|
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Roll back CCC drivers to Catalyst 12.6[citation needed] |
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Force CPU affinity to one core[citation needed] |
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Launcher starts, but game won't launch on Nvidia graphics cards, crashes and doesn't show up in task manager
Make sure that Options->Video Settings->Antialiasing is set to 'Off' |
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Mods don't work
Make sure that version of the game contains few RAS archive files, instead of unpacked game files to folder "data". |
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Mouse hitches and stops oddly
Make sure that Options->Video Settings->Antialiasing is set to 'Off' |
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High frame rate and/or V-sync issues
- There appears to be Vsync issues when using DX8 on Windows 10 and Windows 11, since using d3d8to9 makes Vsync work again.
Use d3d8to9 |
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|
Reshade/SweetFX doesn't work
- This problem occurs when using the ThirteenAG's fix.
Use d3d8to9[9] |
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Edit INI file[10] |
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|
Max and/or Mona suddenly run continuously without pressing anything
Force CPU affinity to one core |
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Reduced color depth (Proton/Linux)
- Color banding may occur with Proton 6.3-8 or newer.
Use Proton 5.13-6 or older |
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|
The player's head is not rendered in the reflection while looking in a mirror
Use Fixed Payne[11] |
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Notes
|
VR support
3D modes | State | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
vorpX | G3D, Z3D Requires "D3D8to9" wrapper, see vorpx forum profile introduction. |
Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
Direct3D | 8 | [12] |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Windows |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Physics | Havok | |
Cutscenes | Bink Video |
Command line arguments
- See command line arguments on how to use the following options.
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
-screenshot | Enables F10 for taking screen shots. Screen shots are saved to the "screenshots" folder under the Max Payne 2 installation folder. |
-nodialog | Skips the Max Payne 2 startup dialog when loading the game (uses options previously set). |
-skipstartup | Skips the startup video. |
-disable3dpreloads | If the system runs out of texture memory while loading a level, this option may prevent the game from crashing due to a driver error. |
-window | Runs the game in a windowed mode, in the resolution selected from the Max Payne 2 launch dialog. Not all 3D accelerators support running in a windowed mode. |
-novidmemcheck | Disables the video memory check at the start of the game. |
-developer | Enables "developer mode", including console (toggled with ~). Mostly useful for mod developers. |
-developerkeys | Enables special developer keys (requires -developer as well). Note: you can break the game flow using developer keys. |
-showprogress | Sshows extended loading information. -developer is required. |
-profile | Enables in-game profiler. Toggle profile with F11, and see console aliases for profiling options. |
Dead Man Walking mode bonus chapters
- Official maps for the Dead Man Walking mode made by Rockstar games.
Modifications
Weapon patch
- Allows for mods to have more weapons than in the original game.
- Required by most mods.
- Will not work if there is
data
in<path-to-game>
, if this patch is used withdata
in<path-to-game>
, the folder andMP2_Arsenal.ras
have to be deleted andMP2_Data.ras
has to be redownloaded.
- Epilepsy Accessibility Mod Removes certain effects to make the game accessible to those with epilepsy issues.
- Payne Effects 3 Gameplay mod that adds new effects and overhauls most of the gameplay mechanics. (not recommended to use with EAX)
- Payne Evolution Gameplay mod that emulates the mechanics closer to that of Max Payne 3. (not recommended to use with EAX)
- Fixing the Payne Adds lots of minor tweaks like balance fixes, skipping bullet time reload cutscene, additional bullet cam, sounds ported from Max Payne etc.
- Xbox Rain Droplets Basic implementation of Xbox rain droplets from SkyGFX for other games.
System requirements
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 98 | 2000, ME, XP |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz Intel Celeron 1.2 GHz AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz AMD Duron 1.2 GHz |
Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz Intel Celeron 1.7 GHz AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz AMD Duron 1.7 GHz |
System memory (RAM) | 256 MB | 512 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 1.5 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | 32 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible | 64 MB of VRAM |
Sound (audio device) | DirectSound compatible sound card |
Notes
- ↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%
,%PROGRAMDATA%
, or%WINDIR%
might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
on Windows Vista and later (more details). - ↑ 2.0 2.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (12150) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
References
- ↑ Max Payne 2 Ships (retrieved) - last accessed on 2023-09-03
- ↑ Max Payne 2 - Games for Windows - last accessed on 2023-06-26
- ↑ Max Payne frame limit · Issue #568 · ThirteenAG/WidescreenFixesPack - last accessed on 9 June 2023
- ↑ Verified by User:AlphaYellow on 2023-12-15
- ↑ Verified by User:AlphaYellow on 2023-12-15
- ↑ Verified by User:Flang on 2019-07-21
- ↑ Joystick/Joypad support for Max Payne 2 on PC – Rockstar Support - last accessed on 9 June 2023
- ↑ Verified by User:Chick'n'Duck on 2023-11-30
- ↑ Verified by User:Averygoodperson on 2022-01-22
- ↑ Verified by User:Averygoodperson on 2022-01-22
- ↑ Fixed Mirror image - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ Verified by User:AlphaYellow on 2024-04-04
- Tested the vanilla version with Bandicam and can confirm it uses D3D8 for rendering.