Max Payne

Max Payne

Developers
	Remedy Entertainment
Mac OS (Classic)	Feral Interactive
macOS (OS X)	Westlake Interactive
Publishers
Windows (Past)	Gathering of Developers
Windows (Current)	Rockstar Games
Mac OS	MacSoft
Russia	1C-SoftClub
Engines
	MAX-FX
Release dates
Windows	July 23, 2001
Mac OS (Classic)	July 16, 2002
macOS (OS X)	July 16, 2002
Reception
Metacritic	89
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Shooter
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	North America, Contemporary
Series	Max Payne

Max Payne
Max Payne	2001
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne	2003
Max Payne 3	2012
Max Payne 1&2 Remake	TBA

Max Payne is a singleplayer third-person action and shooter game in the Max Payne series.

Key points

Some sounds are missing on Windows Vista and later. See Missing audio.

Unofficial startup hang patch should be applied to prevent the game from locking up during startup.

The game does not work on AMD Zen 2-based processors. See JPEG errors on AMD Zen 2-based CPUs.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v2 DRM.
Retail		Max Payne Anthology released only in Poland and Germany.
GamersGate
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Mac App Store
Steam		Can only be purchased in specific countries. Among others: USA, Canada, UK, Switzerland and some European countries. Notable exceptions: Brazil, Croatia, Germany and Russia.
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)

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

Max Payne Demo

Faithful higher quality icons for Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne can be found here. You must be logged in to download.

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest official patch v1.05 is available at Rockstar's support page, PCGamingWiki and soggi.org. The Steam version is already patched.

Peixoto's Patch

Fixes missing audio on cutscenes and in some areas.

Forced Vsync - which is not possible via driver on Direct3D8\Windows 10 anymore - also prevents some bugs.

Forced resolution solves some artifacts on the edges of polygons and allows super sampling anti aliasing.

Unofficial Patches

Complete FixPack A combined patch with startup hang patch, ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix, a high-res texture pack, different options for video wrappers and fixes.

Definitive Fix A combined patch with startup hang patch, ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix, a D3D9 wrapper and fixes.

Skip intro videos

Launch the game with the -skipstartup parameter

Skip Launcher

Launch the game with the -nodialog parameter

Unlock All Difficulties Without Completing the Game

Add This to your Windows Registry.

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Remedy Entertainment\Max Payne\
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12140/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Max Payne Savegames\
Mac OS (Classic)	{Boot}:Documents:Max Payne Saved Games or user's Documents folder
macOS (OS X)	~/Documents/Max Payne Saved Games/
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12140/pfx/

10 save slots + 2 quicksave slots + 1 autosave slot available.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

Launcher general settings.

Launcher advanced settings.

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Use ThirteenAG's fix.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			Use ThirteenAG's fix.
4K Ultra HD			Use ThirteenAG's fix.
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Toggle with Alt+↵ Enter or use the -window parameter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Can be improved by forcing 16x in the graphics card control panel.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 8x MSAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Always enabled. See Vertical sync (Vsync) on Windows 10.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		High frame rate breaks physics. See Game breaking bugs at high frame rate. Game appears to be completable when locked to 144 fps.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Field of view (FOV)

Set FOV with widescreen fix[citation needed]
Install ThirteenAG's fix. Edit MaxPayne.WidescreenFix.ini. Set FOVFactor to the desired value (capped at around 1.43). Notes It might turn the nightmare levels unplayable, since these sections of the game already alter the camera FOV.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Force borderless fullscreen
Install ThirteenAG's fix. Go to <path-to-game> and create a file called wndmode.ini.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Using Vsync on modern systems (Windows 10+) requires a workaround.

Activate d3d8to9 in Widescreen Fix
Download ThirteenAG's fix. Copy all contents to the installation folder. Open global.ini in the scripts folder. Change UseD3D8to9=0 to UseD3D8to9=1.

Use d3d8to9 by itself
Download d3d8to9. Copy d3d8.dll to the installation folder.

Input

In-game key map settings.

In-game mouse settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Effects
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output with DirectSound3D restoration software.
Subtitles		Cutscenes only, not in-game voices and intro.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Some regions only have certain languages available. All audio languages can be downloaded from here.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Fan translation, download
French
German				Fan translation, download.
Italian
Japanese				Ported from mobile version and converted with sound patch, download.
Polish				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Brazilian Portuguese				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Russian				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Slovenian				Fan translation, download
Spanish				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Turkish				Fan translation, download.

Issues unresolved

Missing intro video (Proton/Linux)

With Proton 5.13-6 and newer, the intro video before the main menu plays audio only. (It can be skipped by adding -skipstartup to the launch options.)

With Proton 5.0-10 and older, the intro video before the main menu is skipped entirely, even if the -skipstartup parameter is not used.

Issues fixed

Corrupted files in the French version

The French Steam version of Max Payne has corrupted files, with the error message Invalid Data Read from R_memory File("part1_level1b). Reports indicate issues with the files x_level1.ras, x_level2.ras and x_level3.ras

To solve the crash
Download the files. Copy & paste the content in the game folder.

Installer fails on Windows 7 64-bit and later (Retail)

Default installer on disc root is 16-bit.

Run from setup
Run Disk1\setup.exe from the disc instead. Click Yes on prompts regarding not enough memory and install anyway.

Missing audio

Use DirectSound3D restoration software.
In case of missing audio when using dgvoodoo with the above solutions, use version 2.72 or older. For newer versions, run the game as administrator through the right-click menu (the "Run this program as administrator" option in the Compatibility tab doesn't work).

Use an unofficial patch.
Download the unofficial patch. Extract the contents to the installation folder. Run MaxBatch.bat. Follow the on-screen instructions. Relies on automated loseless sound files recompression into other format.

The launcher does not start

Set the compatibility mode to Windows 98 / Me[citation needed]

JPEG errors on AMD Zen 2-based CPUs

Use a fixed rlmfc.dll
Download this file. Extract it in <path-to-game> and overwrite rlmfc.dll. Instructions to do the fix manually here.

Game crashes or videos fail to load

Set the compatibility mode to Windows 98 / Me[citation needed]

Error: setFullscreen - creating the device failed: E_FAIL

Use ThirteenAG's fix[citation needed]

Exception in engineInit: Unable to load save game "Files"

Reinstall the game on the C: drive[citation needed]

Exception in startupInit: Directory \data not found

Move the game to a folder without spaces[citation needed]
Reinstall the game to a folder without spaces in the folder path (e.g. C:\Games\MaxPayne).

Disable Anti-Aliasing[citation needed]

(Steam) Move the game to a folder without spaces[citation needed]

Set up a new Steam library folder without spaces in the folder path (e.g. C:\Steam). Remove the game and install it to the new Steam library folder. Go to that folder and go into SteamApps\common. Rename the Max Payne folder to MaxPayne. Go back to the SteamApps folder and open appmanifest_12140.acf with a text editor. If Windows Notepad can't read it, use another text editor like Notepad++. Change the line "installdir" "Max Payne" to "installdir" "MaxPayne" Restart Steam. If needed, run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 98 / Me.

Game won't launch, shows up in task manager, white screen

Use the unofficial Startup hang patch[citation needed]

Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 98 / Me[citation needed]

Skip the intro or delete it in the game folder[citation needed]

Force CPU affinity to one core[citation needed]

Roll back AMD Catalyst drivers to 12.6 from here[citation needed]

Game breaking bugs at high frame rates

An extremely high uncapped frame rate reduces your shootdodge and jump distance and may make some areas unfinishable.

d3d8to9 already uses the game's built-in Vsync. Use d3d9 wrapper only if you need to cap the frame rate to lower than your display's refresh rate. Alternatively, you can lower the display's refresh rate.

Vsync (Enabled by default) not working on Windows10
Vsync is enabled by default, but in Windows 10 it does not work because the Vsync of DirectX 8 in Windows 10 is broken. Download the d3d8to9. Copy D3D8.DLL from the folder to the game install directory and set the monitor refresh rate to 60 Hz.

Visible polygon seams

Under Windows 10, there are a lot of visible polygon seams when both Hardware T&L and anti-aliasing are enabled.

Enable anti-aliasing with a different method
Disable anti-aliasing (MSAA) in the launcher and force MSAA through the GPU's control Panel, or enhance with supersampling (use Nvidia Inspector for Nvidia Cards).

Use dgVoodoo2

Reshade/SweetFX doesn't work

This problem occurs when using the Thirteen AG Widescreen Patch.

Use the d3d8to9 wrapper[citation needed]
Open global.ini in the scripts folder. Change UseD3D8to9=0 to UseD3D8to9=1. Install ReShade or SweetFX as DirectX 9.

Remove dinput8.dll or rename it to d3d8.dll

Reduced color depth (Proton/Linux)

Color banding may occur with Proton 6.3-8 or newer.

Use d3d8to9
Download d3d8to9. Copy d3d8.dll to the installation folder. Run the game with the environment variable WINEDLLOVERRIDES set to "d3d8=n,b". (In the General tab of the game's Properties window in Steam, put WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d8=n,b" %command% in the launch options field.)

Use ThirteenAG's widescreen fix with UseD3D8to9 enabled
Download ThirteenAG's fix. Copy all contents to the installation folder. Open global.ini in the scripts folder. Change UseD3D8to9=0 to UseD3D8to9=1. Run the game with the environment variable WINEDLLOVERRIDES set to "d3d8=n,b". (In the General tab of the game's Properties window in Steam, put WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d8=n,b" %command% in the launch options field.)

Use Proton 5.13-6 or older
In the Compatibility tab of the game's Properties window in Steam, enable the "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" option and select Proton 5.13-6 or older from the drop-down list.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D Requires D3D8to9 wrapper, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Devices
Novint Falcon

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8
DirectDraw		DirectDraw for the intro video only. Everything else uses Direct3D 8.
OpenGL		Mac OS only.

Executable	PPC	16-bit	32-bit	64-bit	ARM	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)						PowerPC applies for retail version only. ARM aplies for Mac App Store version only.
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

No middleware information; you can edit this page to add it.

Console commands

See this article.

Command line arguments

See command line arguments on how to use the following options.

Parameter	Description
-screenshot	Enables F10 for taking screen shots. Screen shots are saved to the "screenshots" folder in the Max Payne installation folder.
-nodialog	Skips the Max Payne startup dialog when loading the game (uses options previously set).
-skipstartup	Skips the startup video.
-disable3dpreloads	If the system runs out of texture memory while loading a level, this option may prevent the game from crashing due to a driver error.
-window	Runs the game in a windowed mode, in the resolution selected from the Max Payne launch dialog. Not all 3d accelerators support running in a windowed mode.
-novidmemcheck	Disables the video memory check at the start of the game.
-developer	Enables "developer mode", including console (toggled with F12).
-developerkeys	Enables special developer keys. Requires developer mode. Using developer keys can break the game flow.
-showprogress	Shows extended loading information. Requires developer mode.
-profile	Enables in-game profiler. Toggle profile with F11, and see console aliases for profiling options.

Mods

• Max Payne Remastered HD texture pack using ESRGAN, an upscaling method that takes a low-res image and adds realistic details to it.
• Max Payne: Echo of the Past Restores cut content of Max Payne.

System requirements

Windows

Mac OS (Classic)

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95 OSR2		98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	450 MHz		700 MHz
System memory (RAM)	96 MB		128 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	530 MB		830 MB
Video card (GPU)	16 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.0 compatible		32 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	DirectSound compatible

Mac OS
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	9.1		9.2.2
Processor (CPU)	PowerPC G3 400 MHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	900 MB
Video card (GPU)	OpenGL compatible 16 MB of VRAM

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.2
Processor (CPU)	PowerPC G3 400 MHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	900 MB
Video card (GPU)	OpenGL compatible 16 MB of VRAM