American McGee's Alice (2011)

This page is for the 2011 remaster. For the original release, see American McGee's Alice.

American McGee's Alice (2011)

Developers
Original game	Rogue Entertainment
Remaster	Spicy Horse
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	id Tech 3
Release dates
Windows	June 14, 2011
Reception
Metacritic	85
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Adventure
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Fantasy, Horror
Series	American McGee's Alice

American McGee's Alice
American McGee's Alice	2000
American McGee's Alice (2011)	2011
Alice: Madness Returns	2011

Key points

Remastered version of American McGee's Alice featuring native widescreen resolutions, controller support, updated character textures, and compatibility fixes for modern systems. Visuals can be further improved with the Alice HD Texture Pack.

This game was bundled with Alice: Madness Returns as a pre-order bonus and as part of The Complete Collection, which is only available at GameStop.com Target.com and Dell.com.

The developer console (~) from the original game is completely disabled in this remaster as a means to prevent cheating, however, this means modifying CVars and fine-tune other settings in-game is no longer possible. Summoning Cheshire for hints is also missing in this remaster.

Availability

This game was only available through pre-ordering Alice: Madness Returns or purchasing The Complete Collection, with the latter being no longer available outside of GameStop.com Target.com and Dell.com.

Essential improvements

Launch without Alice: Madness Returns

This game is normally launched through Alice: Madness Returns from its main menu for those that received this game through pre-ordering the latter or purchasing The Complete Collection.

Launch the game using the -RunningFromAlice2 command line argument

Fix by using a hex editor
Open <path-to-game>\Game\Alice1\bin\alice.exe with a hex editor such as HxD. Search for the -RunningFromAlice2 text string. Replace the first byte (2D) with null (00).

Prevent Alice: Madness Returns from launching on exit

This game normally re-launches Alice: Madness Returns upon exit.

Move the Alice1 folder from <path-to-game>\Game to another location

Fix by using a hex editor
Open <path-to-game>\Game\Alice1\bin\alice.exe with a hex editor such as HxD. Search for the ..\..\Alice2\Binaries\Win32\AliceMadnessReturns.exe text string. Replace the first byte (2E) with null (00).

Alice HD Texture Pack

Further improves the overall look of the game. It is also compatible with the original 2000 release.

The mod's HUD graphics from the 2020 version however does not work properly with this remaster. Removing the file zzpak10_modHud.pk3 as a workaround is recommended.

Features an expanded tweaks/cheats menu and optional Overkill mod that adds more lighting effects and enemies. Can be omitted by not installing the z(Mod)OverKill.pk3 file.

Install the Alice HD Texture Pack
Download the texture pack here, then extract its content somewhere conveniently accessible on your computer. Copy the INT folder, as well as the autoexec.cfg, and zzpak*_mod.pk3 files into <path-to-game>\bin\base. Now run the game. The game's visuals should be changed with those from the HD texture pack.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\American McGee's Alice\config.cfg

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\American McGee's Alice\save\

Video

General settings.

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		FMVs, HUD and menus are stretched out when playing in widescreen.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Set Camera Distance to maximum. HUD and menus stretched, but still playable.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Called Camera Distance in the Game Options settings.
Windowed		Can also be toggled with Alt+↵ Enter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Run the game in your display's native resolution and Borderless Gaming.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Anisotrophic filtering can be forced via GPU control panel.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Anti-aliasing can be forced via GPU control panel.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Vsync is disabled by default and cannot be enabled in-game. See Vertical sync (Vsync) for a workaroound.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Capped at 60 FPS by default. See High frame rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Enable Vsync
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open config.cfg with a text editor. In the Cvars section, add seta r_swapinterval "1" as a new line, then save the changes.

Level of detail

Default LOD settings can be overridden to make the game render highest quality models all the time.

Instructions
Run the game at least once, so the configuration file gets created. Open <path-to-game>\Base\config.cfg file with a text editor. Add lines seta r_lodbias "-2" and seta r_lodcurveerror "10000" in the Cvars section. Save your changes and run the game.

High frame rate

Remove frame-rate cap
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open config.cfg with a text editor. In the Cvars section, add seta com_maxfps "0" as a new line, then save the changes. This can break animations such as Alice's eye blinking, which is noticeable in the settings menu.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		At the Save/Load screen, the A button is to load a file, X button is to save a file, and Y is to delete a save file.
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity		Handled through the game's Sensitivity setting.
Controller Y-axis inversion		Handled through the game's Invert Mouse setting.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 

  Keyboard remapping.

• 

  Controller screen.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Sound Effects
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		A3D 1.0 and 2.0, EAX and EAX 2.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Dutch				Use the Alice Dutch Patch.
French
German
Italian				Fan translation, download. Also compatible with the original release.
Spanish

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See How to Play American McGee's Alice in 3D using 3D Vision.

Issues unresolved

Chesire Help does not work

For reasons unknown, the summon Chesire function (bound to C by default) for hints or clues about the level Alice is currently in does not work in this remaster.

Issues fixed

Game runs at a low frame rate

The game may run poorly even on modern hardware.

Edit config.cfg
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open config.cfg with a text editor. In the Cvars section, add seta r_primitives "2" as a new line, then save the changes.

Enable EAX reverb

Install Creative ALchemy for the game

Download & install ALchemy. Launch ALchemy Add a new Profile, name it Alice Select "Use Game Path" Navigate to the executable's directory (For example C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Alice Madness Returns The Complete Collection\Game\Alice1\bin) Click "OK" Click The newly created profile and then click ">>" to enable it. Close ALchemy & launch the game Go to settings, audio, and set the sound driver to EAX2

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9
Shader Model support	3.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3	Vista SP2, 7 SP1
Processor (CPU)	AMD Athlon X2 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	8.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X1650 Nvidia GeForce 7600 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible