Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II
General information
Availability
Improvements
Patches
Official Jedi Knight patch
One official patch was released for Jedi Knight; it fixes a joystick bug, and a freeze when enabling aiming crosshairs on systems with Voodoo2 graphics cards. You can download it from LucasArts.
Unofficial Jedi Knight patch
An unofficial patch for Mysteries of the Sith is available from JKHub. Among other things, it adds team chat to multiplayer and is required for many mods. This patch also installs the official patch. To install it, do the following:
- Back up your jk.exe file.
- Download JKUnofficialPatch_2008-01-16.zip from JKHub.
- Extract patcher.bat, bspatch.exe, patch.dat, and JK-Extension.dll to your Jedi Knight install directory.
- Run patcher.bat.
- Delete patcher.bat, bspatch.exe, and patch.dat. Leave JK-Extension.dll intact.
Unofficial Mysteries of the Sith patch
An unofficial patch for Mysteries of the Sith is available from JKHub. It is required for many mods. To install it, do the following:
- Back up your jkm.exe file.
- Download MotSUnofficialPatch_2008-06-28.zip from JKHub.
- Extract patcher.bat, bspatch.exe, and patch.dat to your Mysteries of the Sith install directory.
- Run patcher.bat.
- Delete patcher.bat, bspatch.exe, and patch.dat.
Game data
Save game cloud syncing
Template:Save Game Cloud Syncing
Video settings
Input settings
Issues and Fixes
3D Acceleration problems
Running the game with 3D acceleration turned on may cause crashes or graphics problems on some modern machines. If you experience problems, try the following steps (you may have to do this every time you launch the game):
- Run the game with the -displayconfig command line parameter to enable the advanced graphics settings menu.
- Click "Setup", then "Display".
- Uncheck "3D Acceleration" and "Backbuffer in System Memory".
- Click "Advanced".
- Under "3D Devices", select "RenderBot" or "RenderDroid".
- Click "OK" to return to the main display settings menu.
- Select your desired resolution.
- Click "OK" to return to the main menu.
Menu/cutscenes run in a window even when game is set to fullscreen
If you run the game with the -windowgui command line parameter, or if you have the Steam version, all menus and cutscenes will run in a window, even if the game is set to fullscreen. This is normal.
If you get a black screen instead of the menu, Alt+Tab away from the game and back. Alternatively, run the game with the -windowgui command line parameter.
Resolution issues
Running the game in a widescreen resolution is not recommended. The horizontal FOV is locked to a 4:3 aspect ratio, so running the game in widescreen will make everything look stretched horizontally.
The game's HUD and on-screen messages do not scale based on resolution; running the game at high resolutions may make them too small to see.
Changing the resolution in mid-mission is not recommended.
HUD does not appear, or screen has black border
Press - and = to adjust the screen size. Ideally it should be 9.
Miscellaneous fixes
On Windows Vista and 7, try setting JK.exe (JKM.exe for MOTS) to run in XP SP2 compatibility mode, with visual themes and desktop composition disabled.
If you are using an nVidia graphics card and the game crashes, try disabling Antialiasing, Texture Antialiasing, and Conformant Texture Clamp for JK.exe (JKM.exe for MOTS) in your graphics card settings.
Missing music (Steam)
The Steam version of the game does not include the original Redbook audio soundtrack. However, a Steam forum user has created BIN/CUE images of the audio tracks of both discs of Jedi Knight as well as Mysteries of the Sith. These can be mounted using Daemon Tools Lite or burned to disc. For Jedi Knight, Disc 1 is used for the first eight levels, and Disc 2 is used for the rest of the game.
If the music still does not work, open the Readme.txt file found on the disc 2 image (not the disc 1 image) and follow the instructions. WARNING: Always back up your registry before making any changes.
If the music still does not work after following both sets of instructions, you may need to make sure that the disc/image is mounted as the first CD-ROM drive letter (try D:\ or A:\). This Microsoft Knowledge Base entry shows you how to change drive letter assignments. Then, try following the instructions again.
Missing music (retail)
Make sure that the CD drive you are using is assigned to the first CD-ROM drive letter (try D:\ or A:\). This Microsoft Knowledge Base entry shows you how to change drive letter assignments.
Wrong music plays
Eject/unmount any other CDs or CD images from your computer.
Music does not loop
This is a known issue on some Windows Vista and 7 machines; there is no known fix.
Save file location
Control configurations are saved in the /Controls folder in the install directory.
Save files are saved in the /player folder in the install directory.
Texture/model enhancement
Jedi Knight Enhanced
Jedi Knight Enhanced is a model enhancement pack for Jedi Knight. It requires the unofficial patch to be installed; an older version of the patch is included in the download.
To install it, do the following:
- Download JK_enhanced.zip from JKHub. If you are having problems running the game with 3D Acceleration turned on, download JKE_8bit.zip instead.
- Extract the JKE folder (the folder itself, not just its contents) and JKE.bat into your Jedi Knight install directory.
- (Optional) Open JKE.bat in Notepad. At the end of the file, add a space, followed by
-windowgui -displayconfig
-windowgui forces the menus and cutscenes to run in a window, but avoids the "black screen" issue. -displayconfig enables the advanced graphics settings menu. - If you own the Steam version, right click the game's entry in your Steam library and click "Set Launch Options...". In the dialog box that appears, enter the following:
-windowgui -displayconfig -path JKE
- Launch the game via JKE.bat, or using Steam.
Jedi Knight Retexture Pack
Jedi Knight Retexture Pack is a texture enhancement pack for Jedi Knight, which can be used alone or in conjunction with Jedi Knight Enhanced. It requires the unofficial patch to be installed.
To install it, download jkr.zip version 0.4 from JKHub. If you are using Jedi Knight Enhanced, extract JKR.gob into the JKE folder in your Jedi Knight install directory. Otherwise, extract it into the Resource folder in your Jedi Knight install directory.
Jedi Knight Enhanced and Retexture Pack for Steam version
Steam is using patched JK to 1.01 which is not compatible with tools from jkhub.net and above instructions will NOT work with Steam version. However there is a solution:
- Download "star wars jedi knight.7z" and extract it to game folder (overwrite original files). Instructions within this archive will tell you to download some DLL's. Don't do it, everything you need is in that archive.
- Download JKSteamFix.zip, extract only
JK_.CDand overwrite original file inResourcefolder. This will fix CD check after mission 8. - In Steam right-click on Dark Forces II -> Properties -> Set launch options and paste
-windowgui -displayconfig -path Mod
- Launch game, create profile (if you don't have one), go to Setup -> Display and check Backbuffer in System Memory and Enable 3D Acceleration. Also set 3D Acceleration min texture size to 1
- This will not work in previously saved games mid-mission. You will have to finish mission or restart it to activate enhancements.
- ddraw.dll needed for JKE a JKR is not compatible with any overlay applications (Steam Community, Fraps, Ati Tray Tools, TeamSpeak 3...). Disable any overlay application if game fails to launch.
- If you are experiencing blinking window borders in fullscreen, shut down any applications, that often refreshes their windows - IM clients, hardware monitoring applications etc. In my case it was SpeedFan.
Installing on 64-bit systems
The retail version's installer is a 16-bit application, and will not install on 64-bit systems. Use the unofficial alternate installer (JediSetup.exe for the original release, SithSetup.exe for Mysteries of the Sith, or JediSithSetup.exe for the package that includes both).