Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

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Legacy of Kain
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain	1997
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver	1999
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2	2001
Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2	2002
Legacy of Kain: Defiance	2003
Nosgoth	Cancelled

Key points

A straight conversion of the PlayStation version, with none of the enhancements of the Dreamcast port.

Frame rate is capped at 30 FPS; use SRHook to fix.^[1]

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc DRM^{[Note 1]}
		Includes Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2, Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance.
GOG.com
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam

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

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename video files^{[citation needed]}
Go to the installation folder. Delete or rename `crylogo.bik` and `publogo.bik`

Wrace's SR1 Patch

Fan patch created by Wrace that improves compatibility with modern versions of Windows, fixing various bugs, adding subtitles, several graphical updates, unlocking 60 frames per second, adding a map and in-game achievements.

Installation of Wrace's SR1 Patch^{[citation needed]}
Download Wrace's SR1 Patch. Extract `SR1_Patch124.zip`. Move all of the files to `<path-to-game>`, overwriting already existing files if needed.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/224920/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\savegame.her^{[Note 3]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/224920/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Use D3DWindower.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Use Borderless Gaming.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS		Frame rate is capped at 30 FPS; use SRHook to fix.
120+ FPS		Frame rate is capped at 30 FPS; use SRHook to fix.

Widescreen resolution

This fix causes disappearing textures on the sides of the screen, which becomes progressively worse with wider aspect ratios.

Hor+ widescreen support^[4]

Download SRHook.
Copy the contents to the installation folder.
Open kain2.exe with a hex editor such as HxD.
Press Ctrl+F and change the Datatype option to Hex-Values.
Type 0000203F in the text field.
Replace the 0000203F value with:
- ABAA2A3F to set 5:4 aspect ratio
- 8988083F to set 25:16 aspect ratio
- 5555053F to set 16:10 aspect ratio
- 0000003F to set 15:9 aspect ratio
- 0000F03E to set 16:9 aspect ratio
- 0000B43E to set 21:9 aspect ratio
Save the changes.
Download dgVoodoo 2.
Copy the contents of the MS folder to the installation folder.
Run dgVoodoo Setup and add the installation folder to the list.
Go to the DirectX tab and set the desired resolution.
Uncheck the dgVoodoo Watermark option.
Apply the changes.
Set any 4:3 resolution in the game config.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Use Peixoto's patch to add support for XInput controllers.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Use Peixoto's patch for more options.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

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

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Sound, Music, and Speech.
Surround sound
Subtitles		Use Wrace's SR1 Patch.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				Use Wrace's SR1 Patch.
German
Hungarian				Fan translation
Russian				Use Wrace's SR1 Patch.
Spanish				Retail only. Download.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
vorpX		Z3D User created profile, requires DGVoodoo2 v 2.6, see profile introdution. `Note:` Profile may not work with the latest wrapper, in case of issues please report to the vorpx forum.

Issues unresolved

Cutscenes skipped if SRHook is installed

If you use SRHook to be able to play at >30fps, the game will skip all prerendered cutscenes.^[5]

Game crashes when reaching Melchiah gates after loading a game

After doing all the puzzles before Melchiah, if you load the game again and try to reach the gates before the boss battle, it'll crash.

It's strongly recommended to save only after finishing the elevator puzzle and defeating Melchiah past this point, without reloading (you won't need to go back there anyway).^[6]

Issues fixed

Raziel runs in circles if a gamepad is connected

Use theafien's soulreaver-gamepad-fix^{[citation needed]}

Use Peixoto's patch^{[citation needed]}

Crashes with resolutions larger than 640x480

Use Winplay DLL^{[citation needed]}

Crash when the game starts

Use Peixoto's patch^{[citation needed]}

Gamma calibration not working

Use Peixoto's patch^{[citation needed]}

Low frame rate on Windows 8

Use windowed mode^{[citation needed]}
Set up D3DWindower to run the game in windowed mode.

Use DLL fix^{[citation needed]}
Download Windows 8 Fix. Extract the DLL to the installation folder.

Hardware acceleration not available

Delete atiumdag.dll^{[citation needed]}

Go to the installation folder and delete or rename the file atiumdag.dll.

Notes

This fix is useful for AMD GPU.

Audio issues

On modern computers, audio may have issues such as dialogue skipping at some points. In this case, to solve the issue you have to set the sampling frequency from the control panel of your audio card to a lower level (44.1 kHz should be fine).^{[citation needed]}

Other information

API

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III AMD Athlon MP
System memory (RAM)	32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	512 MB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 7 compatible	DirectX 9 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
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 (224920) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
↑ 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

↑ Widescreen hack/framerate uncapper for SR1 - Square Enix Forums
↑ 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
↑ Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - Widescreen Tutorial - YouTube
↑ Helix Mod: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
↑ Game crshes on elevator to before Melchiah

[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]

[Proton_path_note-5] 2.0 ^2.1 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 (224920) may differ in some cases.
Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

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

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

[5] The app ID (224920) may differ in some cases.

[6] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

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

[gamedir-6] 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).

[FPS_cap-1] Widescreen hack/framerate uncapper for SR1 - Square Enix Forums

[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

[7] Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - Widescreen Tutorial - YouTube

[8] Helix Mod: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

[9] Game crshes on elevator to before Melchiah

[1]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	Crystal Dynamics
Publishers
	Eidos Interactive
Engines
	Gex Engine
Release dates
Windows	September 8, 1999
Taxonomy
Series	Legacy of Kain