Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun


⤏ Go to series page
Command & Conquer	1995
Command & Conquer: Red Alert	1996
Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor	1997
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun	1999
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2	2000
Command & Conquer: Renegade	2002
Command & Conquer: Generals	2003
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars	2007
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3	2008
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising	2009
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight	2010
OpenRA (unofficial)	2010
Command & Conquer (2013)	Cancelled
Command & Conquer Remastered Collection	2020
Renegade X (unofficial)	EA

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric RTS game in the Command & Conquer series.

Key points

It's advised to download the game from a fan mirror because it is patched with the latest community updates and comes with a custom multiplayer client.

Released for free in 2010.

General information

Command & Conquer Wiki - A wiki for everything Command & Conquer-related

Project Perfect Mod - The most expansive TS mod site.

CnCNet (multiplayer replacement)

Tiberian Sun section on CNC.community

Tiberian Sun section on C&C Communications Center

Tiberian Sun section on CNCNZ.com

Firestorm section on CNCNZ.com

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v1 DRM^{[Note 1]}.
Official website		Version that has been released for free by EA. Serial key applied by running the .reg file within the distribution.
Origin		Bundled with other games in the franchise up to Tiberian Twilight. Included with EA Play.

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

A simple custom icon based on the box art can be found here.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Firestorm	Combines with the base game executable, allowing to switch back and forth between the base and expansion modes without technically exiting the game. Comes bundled with the The First Decade and Ultimate Collection compilations, as well as the freeware releases.

Unofficial downloads

TS Installer

A streamlined fan-created installer that applies fixes for various issues, adds modern networking support and Windows support, and includes the FinalSun map editor. The cutscenes are a separate optional download due to their size.

Pre-configured packages for OS X and Linux are also available for download on CnCNet.

The "full game" installer for Windows TSinstaller.exe requires an Internet connection, as it downloads the individual components (music, movies, extras, etc) from various servers.

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest official patch is v2.03, which is available from CNCNZ.com, C&C Communications Center, and Patches-Scrolls.de (only for original retail versions).

TSpatch

HyperPatch is included with this patch

Not compatible with any other unofficial patch

A fan patch that adds modern networking support, fixes for various issues, new renderers, a new game launcher, and the semi-official FinalSun map editor.

HyperPatch

This is a small fan patch made as an add-on which is meant for fixing several engine glitches. It is included within TSpatch.

LAN patch

This is a small patch that lets you play LAN on Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun in Windows 2000 and above by changing IPX protocol to UDP.

Game data

General options menu

Fan-made external general options menu (for the TSpatch and TS Installer version of the game).

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\sun.ini^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\SAVE****.sav^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin

Video

Video options menu

Fan-made external video options menu (for the TSpatch and TS Installer version of the game).

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor		TSpatch (or a pre-patched version of the game) is required. See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed	Run with `-win` parameter. See Windowed for further information.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	Working using -win and Borderless Gaming or the CnC-DDraw renderer.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Widescreen resolution

Set values in configuration file, method 1
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open `sun.ini`. Go to the `[Video]` section. Change `ScreenWidth` and `ScreenHeight` strings to resolution of your choice.

Set values in configuration file, method 2

Another way to change resolution is to add this line beneath the [Video] lines in sun.ini:

AllowHiResModes=yes

This will let you change the resolution in the game menu to any supported by your computer.

"Widescreen in multiplayer works as described above. However, many hosts enforce resolution limits. If you try to join a game with a resolution limit, you will be forced to play the game at a non-widescreen resolution (usually 640x480). If you host a game and are using a widescreen resolution, you will not have the option of enforcing a resolution limit."^[3]

Windowed

The game can only run in windowed mode if it is run in 16-bit color mode or has a fan-made renderer that bypasses this requirement.

There are two methods to run the game in windowed mode:

Add `-win` to shortcut target^[4]
Right-click `sun.exe` and choose Properties. In Settings tab, tick the Reduced color mode checkbox, select 16-bit (65536) color and click OK. Right-click and drag `sun.exe` to Desktop or any path of your choice and choose Create shortcuts here. Right-click on newly created shortcut and choose Properties. In the Target area, add `-win`.

Use Run options to execute the game with `-win` option^[4]
Press `WinKey`+`R` to execute the Run dialog box. In the Open textbox, enter `"<path-to-game>\sun.exe" -win`

Input

Input options menu

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		For scroll speed.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio options menu

Fan-made external audio options menu (for the TSpatch and TS Installer version of the game).

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Voices, music and sound
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German				Censored; in-game blood replaced with oil as soldiers are non-human bots. Several cutscenes edited.
Spanish				Firestorm expansion wasn't officially localized. Fan translation available here: download.
Ukrainian				Fan translation and full dubbing by TSF, download.

Network

Network options menu

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		8	Versus Uses IPX protocol. Requires LAN patch to replace with UDP.
Online play		8	Versus

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	3840, 4005, 4808, 4810, 4995, 7000-7002
UDP	1234-1237, 4000, 5400

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Game doesn't show sub-menu options when clicking an option in the main menu, causing it to think that the game is crashed

When clicking on an option in the main menu, nothing shows up that led to think of the game locks up

Download and install TSpatch^{[citation needed]}
Alternatively, installing a pre-patched version of the game also works.

Build lag

On some systems, the building process slows down the game to a couple of frames per seconds

Download and install TSpatch^{[citation needed]}
Alternatively, installing a pre-patched version of the game also works.

Crash upon loading a campaign map

Delete excess save games
Tiberian Sun will crash to the desktop upon loading some later campaign maps if there are too many saved games. Delete some saved games and the level will work.

Download and install TSpatch
Using the Tiberian Sun Launcher included with TSpatch, click "Configuration" and set `Renderer` to `Direct3D 9`.

Cannot Alt+Tab

Download and install TSpatch^{[citation needed]}
From Launcher settings, set `Renderer` to `Direct3D 9`.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw	6

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	VQA
Multiplayer	Westwood Online

OS X/Linux emulation

Setup Wine^{[citation needed]}

Download the game.
Run the installer with Wine (right-click):
Edit SUN.INI and choose whatever you want (resolution, etc.):
Open winecfg.
On the Applications tab, click on "Add Application", and point to the GAME.exe
On the Libraries tab, add "wsock32.dll" for the library replacements.
Add the following tricks (from WineHQ):
Run 'wine regedit', browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine. If there is no key (the stuff with folder icons) called AppDefaults, then create it.
Right-click on that key and create a new key game.exe
Create a new subkey Direct3D. In that key create two string variables:

DirectDrawRenderer with value opengl
RenderTargetLockMode with value readtex

Run the game through Wine and enjoy.^[5]

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98, NT 4.0 SP3
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 166 MHz	Intel Pentium II 233 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	200 MB
Video card (GPU)	2 MB of VRAM DirectX 6 compatible	4 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[2]
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 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).

References

↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
↑ WSGF - Tiberian Sun
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Verified by User:KyoriAsh on 2020-08-23
Tested successfully in Window mode
↑ http://cnc-comm.com/community/index.php?topic=1712.msg8490#msg8490

[3] SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[2]

[gamedir-4] 2.0 ^2.1 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).

[1] Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16

[2] Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16

[5] WSGF - Tiberian Sun

[WindowMode-6] 4.0 ^4.1 Verified by User:KyoriAsh on 2020-08-23
Tested successfully in Window mode

[7] ttp://cnc-comm.com/community/index.php?topic=1712.msg8490#msg8490

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[1]

[2]

Developers

	Westwood Studios
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Release dates
Windows	August 27, 1999
Taxonomy
Monetization	Freeware, Expansion pack
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS
Art styles	Realistic, Live action
Themes	Europe, Middle East, North America, Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Series	Command & Conquer