Key points
- Requires an unofficial patch to fix a missing audio issue on Windows Vista and later.
(Alternatively use IndirectSound or Creative Alchemy (for Creative cards).
- Unofficial startup hang patch should be applied to prevent the game from locking up during startup.
General information
- Remedy's Forums for game
- Max Payne Wiki
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
- Demo
Essential improvements
Patches
- Patch 1.05 is the latest official patch for the game. The Steam version is already patched.
Unofficial patches
- Startup hang patch
- Max Payne Fix It All A combined patch with ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix, Direct X 9 wrappers for Vsync, and a sound fix
Skip intro videos
Launch the game with the -skipstartup parameter[citation needed]
|
Skip Launcher
Game data
In-game general settings.
Configuration file(s) location
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/[Note 2] |
System |
Native |
Notes |
OneDrive |
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Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers. |
Steam Cloud |
|
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Video settings
Launcher general settings.
Launcher advanced settings.
- Can only be changed in the launcher.
Template:Video settings
Set FOV with widescreen fix[citation needed]
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- Install ThirteenAG's fix.
- Edit
MaxPayne.WidescreenFix.ini .
- Set
FOVFactor to the desired value.
Notes
-
FOVFactor value is capped at around 1.43 .
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Force borderless fullscreen[citation needed]
|
- Download and run DxWnd.
- Click on Edit, then Add.
- Set the Path to
<path-to-game>\maxpayne.exe .
- Set Desktop for borderless fullscreen windowed.
- Click on DirectX tab, set DirectX 8.
- Click OK, then File and Save.
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Input settings
In-game key map settings.
Template:Input settings
Audio settings
Template:Audio settings
Localizations
- Some regions only have certain languages available. All audio languages can be downloaded from here.
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
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French |
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German |
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Italian |
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Polish |
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Brazilian Portuguese |
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Retail only. Patch for digital release here. |
Russian |
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Retail only. Patch for digital release here. |
Spanish |
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Retail only. Patch for digital release here. |
Turkish |
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Fan translation. |
Issues unresolved
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.[5][6]
There are visible polygon seams when running under Windows 10
- When the game is running under Windows 10 there are a lot of visible polygon seams when both Hardware T&L and MSAA (any type) enabled. The only known workaround to this is to disable one of these options or use supersampling (use Nvidia Inspector for Nvidia Cards)
Issues fixed
Installer fails on Windows 7 64-bit and later (Retail)
- Default installer on disc root is 16-bit
Run from setup[7]
|
- Run
Disk1\setup.exe from the disc instead
- Click "Yes" on prompts regarding not enough memory and install anyway
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Missing audio
Use an unofficial patch[8]
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- Download the unofficial patch.
- Extract the contents to the installation folder.
- Run
MaxBatch.bat
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
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Alternative solution is to use Creative Lab's ALchemy Software[10]
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- Download & install ALchemy.
- Launch ALchemy
- Add a new Profile (Skip to Step 11 if using retail version of the game).
- Name it "MaxPayne"
- Select "Use Game Path"
- Navigate to Max Payne's install directory (For example D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Max Payne\)
- Set "Buffers" = 4
- Set "Duration" = 25
- Set "Max Voice Count" = 128
- Click "OK"
- Click The newly created profile and then click ">>" to enable it.
- Close ALchemy & play game
Notes
- The Max Payne profile will automatically show up in ALchemy when using retail version of the game.
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The launcher does not start
Game crashes or videos fail to load
Error: setFullscreen - creating the device failed: E_FAIL
Exception in engineInit: Unable to load save game "Files"
Reinstall the game on the C:\ drive[citation needed]
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Exception in startupInit: Directory \data not found
Move the game to a folder without spaces[citation needed]
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Reinstall the game to a folder without spaces in the folder path (e.g. C:\Games\MaxPayne).
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(Steam) Move the game to a folder without spaces[citation needed]
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- Set anti-aliasing to 0, if doing this does not work, please follow the following steps:
- If using Steam, 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.
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Game won't launch on AMD graphics cards, still shows up in task manager
Roll back CCC drivers to 12.6 from here[citation needed]
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Force CPU affinity by creating a batch file inside the Max Payne 1 folder[citation needed]
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- Create a text document for Max Payne 1
- Paste this for Max Payne 1
Start /affinity 1 MaxPayne.exe
- Save this as "Max Payne 1.bat" inside the Max Payne 1 folder.
- Now start the game by double clicking the file. After a few seconds, the launcher will start.
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Jumps and dodges are too short, making the second nightmare level impossible
Reshade/SweetFX doesn't work
Instructions
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- Probably you use Thirteen AG Widescreen Patch. Rename it's d3d8.dll to dinput.dll inside root game folder.
- Download https://github.com/crosire/d3d8to9/releases and place it in game folder.
- Install Reshade or /SweetFX as DirectX 9.
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Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
Direct3D |
7, 8 |
Direct3D 7 in cutscenes only. Everything else is in Direct3D 8. |
OpenGL |
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Mac OS only. |
Shader Model support |
1.1 |
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Executable | PPC | 16-bit |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows | | |
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macOS (OS X) | | |
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Mac OS (Classic) | | | |
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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. |
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 |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
530 MB |
830 MB |
Video card (GPU) |
16 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.0 compatible
| 32 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.0 compatible |
Sound (audio device) |
DirectSound compatible | |
Mac OS |
|
Minimum |
Operating system (OS) |
9.1, 10.2 |
Processor (CPU) |
PowerPC G3 400 MHz |
System memory (RAM) |
128 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
900 MB |
Video card (GPU) |
OpenGL compatible 16 MB of VRAM |
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:
References