Dead Man's Hand

Dead Man's Hand

Developers
	Human Head Studios
Publishers
	Atari
Engines
	Unreal Engine 2
Release dates
Windows	March 16, 2004
Reception
Metacritic	63
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS, Shooter
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	North America, Western

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Game lacks an FPS limiter or Vsync and causes clipping bugs on stairs with frame rates higher than 60 FPS.

Suffers from poor performance on Windows 8/8.1/10/11, due to their bad DirectDraw emulation. See Issues fixed.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 5 DRM.

Essential improvements

Patches

Retail patch 1 updates the game to the latest version. Includes bug fixes and 6 additional multiplayer maps.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\System\*.ini

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Saves\SaveDMH\

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD		See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)		80° by default. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		You can toggle between fullscreen and windowed mode with Alt+↵ Enter. To start in windowed set StartupFullscreen in DMH.ini to StartupFullscreen=False.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See Anisotropic filtering (AF).
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Use dgVoodoo2.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		See Run the game at screen refresh rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Widescreen resolution

Edit INI files
Uses correct aspect ratio but reduces vertical FOV. Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open DMH.ini. Adjust the following lines accordingly to your resolution [WinDrv.WindowsClient] WindowedViewportX=640 WindowedViewportY=480 FullscreenViewportX=800 FullscreenViewportY=600 MenuViewportX=640 MenuViewportY=480

Field of view (FOV)

Edit User.ini

Launch the game at least once then close it. Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open User.ini and DefUser.ini. Search for the line 34 and change the line to Aliases[27]=(Command="fov 106",Alias=SetFOV) Add SetFOV in front of one of the keyboard letters that says <Keyname>= While in-game press the key to activate the new FOV. Notes To maintain identical vertical FOV to the 4:3 FOV at 16:9 resolutions, use 106. At 21:9 resolutions, use 121. Game could start to randomly reset those values. If so, edit those values in <path-to-game>\System\DefUser.ini too. Weapon FOV stays the same.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Edit ini file
Open DMH.ini within configuration file(s) location with a text editor (make sure you have run the game at least once) Go to class [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]. In this section adjust line LevelOfAnisotropy=1 (maximum is 16).

Use dgVoodoo2.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Edit ini file[citation needed]
Open DMH.ini within configuration file(s) location with a text editor (make sure you have run the game at least once) Go to class [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]. In this section find UseVSync=False which can be set to true to enable v-sync

Use dgVoodoo2.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Mouse acceleration and smoothing enabled by default
Mouse sensitivity		Max of 10. For higher, see Mouse sensitivity.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Enable by setting UseJoystick=True in DMH.ini. Auto aim from the Xbox version can be re-enabled. See Enable aim assist and Steam Input for button mapping. Original Xbox layout can be used for reference.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Edit bindings in User.ini.
Controller sensitivity		Edit in User.ini.
Controller Y-axis inversion		Edit bindings in User.ini.

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

Mouse acceleration

Edit User.ini[citation needed]
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open User.ini (make sure you have run the game at least once) Change the line MouseAccelThreshold= to 0. [Engine.PlayerInput] entries are created upon inverting mouse y-axis or adjusting sensitivity

Mouse sensitivity

Edit User.ini
Calculate your sensitivity for UT2004 on mouse-sensitivity.com Open User.ini Change the line MouseSensitivity= to the desired value. [Engine.PlayerInput] entries are created upon inverting mouse y-axis or adjusting sensitivity.

Enable aim assist

Edit DMH.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open DMH.ini (make sure you have run the game at least once). Find AutoAim under [Engine.GameInfo]. Change the value from 0.000000 to 1.000000.

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Effects.
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 with Creative ALchemy
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play		8
Online play		8	Direct IP connect possible. Alternatively, see GameSpy for alternative master servers.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Open the console with ~ and type in open [ip address:port].

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	7777
UDP	7777

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

Issues fixed

Jerky/Uneven mouse movement

Edit User.ini

Launch the game at least once then close it. Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open User.ini. Go to the following lines and change 6 to 0.1: MouseX=Count bXAxis | Axis aMouseX Speed=6 _ MouseY=Count bYAxis | Axis aMouseY Speed=6 Change the line MouseSmoothingMode= to 1 and MouseSamplingTime= to: 0.008 for 125Hz polling rate 0.002 for 500Hz polling rate 0.001 for 1000Hz polling rate Change the line MouseSensitivity= to 50 in User.ini (more or less, if needed to adjust). Opening the control settings in-game to adjust mouse sensitivity will reset the value to 10 or below, making aiming way too slow.

Issues unresolved

Clipping problems when climbing stairs

At high frame rates (+150fps), there will be clipping problems on some stairs.

Issues fixed

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Maximum selectable refresh rate is 60 Hz. This does not limit FPS, but may set your monitor's refresh rate to 100 Hz, which may result in screen tearing on a 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitor.

Set fullscreen refresh rate[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>\system. Open DMH.ini. Find this line: DesiredRefreshRate=60. Change the value to set your monitors refresh rate. For example 120 or 144. Notes Modifying any video options will undo the custom refresh rate.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	GameSpy

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 3 - 800 MHz AMD Athlon - 800 MHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.2 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 2 32 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0 compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0 compatible