Darkstone

Key points

For Windows 8 and later use the low frame rate fix.

A Quest Editor is available for making custom content.

Major graphics glitches on recent AMD drivers (see Broken graphics on AMD graphics cards).

The in-game music will frequently skip and stutter on modern hardware. There is no known fix.^[1]

General information

Darkstone Database community site

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc DRM^{[Note 1]}.^[4]
GOG.com
Steam

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

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Journey in Uma	Released for free.

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest patch is v1.05b. Some previous patches are required. The GOG.com version is already fully patched.

Peixoto's patch

Peixoto's patch allows high resolution, super sampling anti aliasing and gets the installer working on 64 bit windows

Skip intro videos

Add -nointro to shortcut^{[citation needed]}
Go to the shortcut properties. Add `-nointro` to the end of the target. Click OK to save your changes.

Quest Editor

The Darkstone Quest Editor supports adding or editing monsters, NPCs, buildings and quests.

Journey in Uma addon

Journey in Uma is an official quest pack built with the Quest Editor.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\config^{[Note 2]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/320320/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\save^{[Note 2]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/320320/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

General settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See the WSGF entry.
Multi-monitor		See the WSGF entry.
Ultra-widescreen		See the WSGF entry.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed	See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS	For Windows 8 and later use the low frame rate fix.
120+ FPS	Capped at 60 FPS.^[5]

Windowed

Add -32bit -window to shortcut^[6]

Use the -32bit -window command line arguments.

The 32-bit parameter must be present or the interface will be broken.^[6]

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Set in `<path-to-game>\config\keyboard.txt`.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		SFX, Music, Voices
Surround sound
Subtitles		Disabled by default.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Swedish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play	Not supported (Steam store page is incorrect).^[7]
LAN play	2	Co-op
Online play	2	Co-op

Connection types

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

Issues fixed

Broken graphics on AMD graphics cards

Characters and buildings display incorrectly on recent AMD drivers.

3D elements are broken on AMD drivers newer than Catalyst 13.1.^[8]^[9] The -sortbyz command line argument will fix some issues but others remain.^[10]

Use dgVoodoo2^{[citation needed]}

Download dgVoodoo2.
Open the ZIP file downloaded and copy DDraw.dll and D3Dlmm.dll from the MS folder.
Paste the file into the installation folder.

Notes

If you use a multi-monitor setup and intend to play the game fullscreen, you'll also need to extract dgVoodooSetup.exe to the folder of your choosing so you can set the display monitor to your primary (See Readme.txt, included in the ZIP file, for more details).

Broken interface in windowed mode

Setting 32-bit color mode fixes the windowed mode interface.^[6]

Set 32-bit color mode^[6]
Use the `-32bit` command line argument

Low frame rate in fullscreen mode

This game has frame rate issues on Windows 8 and later when running in fullscreen mode.

Apply necessary fixes^{[citation needed]}
Install the Darkstone low frame rate fix. Use the `-32bit` command line argument to avoid flickering/invisible graphics.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	6

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Xaudio MPEG Audio Engine

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 233 MHz MMX (or AMD equivalent)	Intel Pentium II 350 MHz MMX (or AMD equivalent)
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	170 MB	380 MB
Video card (GPU)	4 MB of VRAM DirectX 6.1 compatible	4 MB of VRAM DirectX 6.1 compatible

Notes

↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[2] 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.^[3]
↑ ^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).
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1
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 (320320) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

References

↑ Music skipping, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com
↑ 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
↑ Talk:Darkstone — StrategyWiki, the video game walkthrough and strategy guide wiki
↑ Verified by User:Expack3 on 2019-03-16
Tested by using my monitor's 48 Hz refresh mode, disabling vsync, and simply running the game normally.
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 ^6.3 A way to run this in windowed mode?, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com
↑ Local coop :: Darkstone General Discussions
↑ Game does not work, Cannot send support ticket either...., page 1 - Forum - GOG.com
↑ Latest ATI drivers have broken some GOG games on Win7 (info inside), page 1 - Forum - GOG.com
↑ Exhaustive List of Command Line Parameters, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

[4] SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[2] 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.^[3]

[gamedir-6] 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).

[Proton_path_note-7] 3.0 ^3.1 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 (320320) may differ in some cases.
Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[4] File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.

[5] Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.

[6] The app ID (320320) may differ in some cases.

[7] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

[8] See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[1] Music skipping, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

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

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

[5] Talk:Darkstone — StrategyWiki, the video game walkthrough and strategy guide wiki

[8] Verified by User:Expack3 on 2019-03-16
Tested by using my monitor's 48 Hz refresh mode, disabling vsync, and simply running the game normally.

[windowed-9] 6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 ^6.3 A way to run this in windowed mode?, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

[10] Local coop :: Darkstone General Discussions

[11] Game does not work, Cannot send support ticket either...., page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

[12] Latest ATI drivers have broken some GOG games on Win7 (info inside), page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

[13] Exhaustive List of Command Line Parameters, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

[1]

[Note 1]

[4]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	Delphine Software International
Publishers
	Gathering of Developers
	Anuman Interactive
	VectorCell
	Gravity Europe SAS
Release dates
Windows	July 27, 1999