Condemned: Criminal Origins

Condemned: Criminal Origins

Developers
	Monolith Productions
Publishers
	Sega
Engines
	Lithtech Jupiter EX
Release dates
Windows	April 11, 2006
Reception
Metacritic	78
IGDB	74
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Genres	FPS
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary, Detective/mystery, Horror, North America

Warnings

SafeDisc DRM may not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected releases).

Condemned: Criminal Origins is a singleplayer first-person FPS game.

DirectInput FPS Fix should be installed, particularly for players with Logitech hardware, to prevent FPS drops.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc 4.60.000 DRM
Humble Store (unavailable)
Steam (unavailable)		DRM-free when launched directly from the executable. The Steam version is missing some sound effects.
Green Man Gaming (unavailable)
GamersGate (unavailable)		SecuROM 7 DRM
(unavailable)

SafeDisc DRM may not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected releases).

Not available in Germany and Japan.

A free demo can be downloaded here.

Essential improvements

Mulderland's Patchs Pack

An open-source installer based on NSIS.

Includes a selection of fixes (missing sound effects fix, widescreen fix) and improvements (FOV modifier, AI upscaled textures, intro video skipper) in a single setup.

• https://www.mulderland.com/games/patches/condemned-criminal-origins

Skip intro videos

Disable movies
Go to <path-to-game>. Edit autoexec.cfg with a text editor. Add "DisableMovies" "1" on a new line.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%PUBLIC%\Documents\Monolith Productions\Condemned\settings.cfg
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/4720/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%PUBLIC%\Documents\Monolith Productions\Condemned\Save\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/4720/pfx/

The Condemned Widescreen Fix can change the folder locations to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Monolith Productions\Condemned\,
making it possible to sync to Steam Cloud.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud		Despite the feature being activated, the game doesn't synchronize anything due to it being pointed to %USERPROFILE%\Documents instead of %PUBLIC%\Documents. See Save game data location

Video

Condemned's graphics settings menu

Condemned's detail settings menu

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Use Condemned Widescreen Fix to fix various issues.
Multi-monitor			Use Condemned Widescreen Fix.
Ultra-widescreen			Use Condemned Widescreen Fix.
4K Ultra HD			Use Condemned Widescreen Fix to fix various issues.
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 4x FSAA. Soft shadows are not rendered when enabled. See Anti-aliasing (AA) for an alternative. Users with an Nvidia graphics card can force high quality SGSSAA with the 0x000000C0 AA flag in the Nvidia Profile Inspector.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Seems to disable itself sometimes when adjusting graphic settings.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Higher framerates make walking up/down the stairs slower, while framerates above 144 fps break ragdolls causing them to slide on the ground or even spin in mid air from time to time.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

High refresh rate

The game sets the display refresh rate to 60 Hz in fullscreen.

Edit configuration file[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>. Edit autoexec.cfg with a text editor. Add "ScreenRefreshRate" "XX" Replace XX for the desired refresh rate in Hz.

Widescreen

Normally the game is stretched when using widescreen.

Use widescreen fix[citation needed]
Download the widescreen fix. Extract into <path-to-game>.

Field of view (FOV)

This game uses vertical FOV. See FOV Calculator for help.

Edit configuration file[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>. Edit autoexec.cfg with a text editor. If using a widescreen resolution add this line: "FovYWidescreen" "XX.00" where XX is the vertical FOV value. If using a non-widescreen resolution use "FovY" "XX.00"

Windowed

Edit configuration file
Go to <path-to-game>. Edit autoexec.cfg with a text editor. Add "Windowed" "1" at the end. For borderless windowed mode, use Condemned Widescreen Fix.

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Force SGSSAA (Nvidia only)

Disable the in-game FSAA option. Download and run Nvidia Profile Inspector. Search and open the game profile. Set Antialiasing - Compatibility (DX9) to 0x000000C0. Set Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling to 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling or your desired level of SGSSAA. Set Antialiasing (MSAA) - Mode to Override any application setting. Set Antialiasing (MSAA) - Setting to 4x [4x Multisampling] or your desired level of MSAA. Apply changes.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Acceleration is off by default; mouse smoothing can be adjusted by slider.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		DirectInput. For XInput controllers, see Controller support.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Assign controls in keyboard menu.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Use the newly updated ThirteenAG Fix.
Xbox button prompts		Not shown during gameplay.
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Controller support

A fix is required to assign triggers on the Xbox 360 Controller.

May not be compatible with the DirectInput FPS Fix.

Use the newly updated ThirteenAG Fix Notes For more information, see ThirteenAG's Steam Guide.

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, sound effects and speech.
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 2.0 and EAX Advanced HD.
Royalty free audio

May require DirectSound3D restoration software to enable EAX and surround sound functionality on Vista and newer Windows operating systems.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				1) Fan translation for the interface available here; 2) Fan made dub available here.
French
German
Italian
Polish				Fan translation available here.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation by GameVicio available here.
Russian				1) Fan translation including cinematics available here. 2) Fan translation by ENPY Studio/Spirit Team available here.
Slovak				Fan translation available here.
Spanish
Turkish				Fan translation available here.
Vietnamese				Fan translation available here.
Simplified Chinese				Fan translation available here. Password: cbh8

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, for important hints see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues unresolved

Load aborted/Error loading Level

Saved games do not load from the main menu when "Exit to title" is chosed after playing. The first time the game is loaded from the title works fine.

Use the load game dialog from pause menu, or if you are in title menu and doesn't work, restart the game

Issues fixed

Low frame rate

Frame rate may drop to around 20-30 FPS after a few minutes of play.

Use DirectInput FPS Fix
Download the DirectInput FPS Fix. Extract into <path-to-game>.

Missing sound effects in Steam version

In particular, the train sounds at the end of chapter four are missing. The footage from "The Dark" game prototype is also corrupted.

Use Condemned Missing Steam Files Fix

Keyboard settings reset to unassigned

Some settings can not be saved unless the game is launched as administrator.

Use Condemned Widescreen Fix[citation needed]
Notes This fix moves save game data location from %PUBLIC%\Documents to %USERPROFILE%\Documents.

Soft shadows don't work with in-game FSAA

This is due to the features of the engine and the artificial limitation of the simultaneous use of anti-aliasing with soft shadows, since they can cause graphic artifacts on the shadows.

Disable in-game FSAA[citation needed]
To make use of anti-aliasing, see Anti-aliasing (AA).

Invisible menu text on Windows 10

Change game's language to English

Use compability mode with older version of Windows[citation needed]

If DPI scaling is set in Windows settings, change this option and use custom DPI setting[citation needed]

Since the keybindings are invisible for languages other than english, the player can also click in the invisible space underneath subtitles, located in options in order to gain access to the keybindings and control settings of the game.

Black screen on startup

Disable fullscreen optimization in the game executable's compatibility settings

Glitched flickering lights

The effect for flickering lights may render incorrectly on modern hardware, producing artifacts. Particularly noticeable in Chapter 3, Metro Station Platform.

Enable V-Sync in the options menu

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	EAX Unified	4.0
Cutscenes	Bink Video	1.8g

Modifications

• HD Textures - Neural Origins mod. Original game textures upscaled with neural networks. All game textures are upscaled. Download on ModDB and Nexus.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon		Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon
System memory (RAM)	512 MB		768 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	8 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 6200 ATI Radeon 9500 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0 compatible		Nvidia GeForce 6800 ATI Radeon 9800 256 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0 compatible