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General information
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
- A demo is available.
- 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 version is v1.05. The Steam version is up-to-date.
- Fixes missing audio in cutscenes and certain areas.
- Forced Vsync, otherwise not possible on Windows 10, which prevents several bugs.
- Forced resolution solves several artifacts on the edges of polygons and allows supersampling anti-aliasing.
Fix Packs
- Complete FixPack. A patch that includes startup hang patch, ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix, a high-res texture pack, different options for video wrappers and other fixes.
- Definitive Fix. A patch that includes startup hang patch, ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix, a D3D9 wrapper and other fixes.
Skip intro videos
Skip Launcher
Unlock All Difficulties Without Completing the Game
Add this to your Windows Registry
|
Remove broken Adaptive Difficulty
- The adaptive difficulty feature in the game's standard difficulty mode ("Fugitive") is broken, and does not account for player deaths properly. This results in the difficulty escalating and then remaining on the hardest values.
Use this file to replace the minimum and maximum adaptive difficulty values with the original PC version's default/neutral values
|
Use this file to replace the adaptive difficulty values with the static ones from the remastered mobile version
|
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) |
$HOME/Documents/Max Payne Saved Games/ |
Steam Play (Linux) |
<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12140/pfx/[Note 2] |
- 10 save slots + 2 quicksave slots + 1 autosave slot available.
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.
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 nightmare levels unplayable, since these sections of the game already alter the camera FOV.
|
- The built-in Vsync requires workarounds to function on modern operating systems (Windows 10 and later).
Use Widescreen Fix[11]
|
- Download ThirteenAG's fix.
- Copy all contents to the game directory.
- Open
global.ini inside scripts .
- Change
UseD3D8to9=0 to UseD3D8to9=1 .
|
Use d3d8to9[11]
|
- Download d3d8to9.
- Copy
d3d8.dll to the game directory.
|
Input
In-game key map settings.
Audio
Localizations
- Some regions only have certain languages available. All audio languages can be downloaded from here.
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
|
|
|
|
Traditional Chinese |
|
|
|
|
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. Details |
Brazilian Portuguese |
|
|
|
Retail only.[12] 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 (Steam)
- The French version of Max Payne, on Steam, has corrupted files. Error message: "Invalid Data Read from R_memory File("part1_level1b)".
Reports indicate issues with the following files: x_level1.ras
, x_level2.ras
and x_level3.ras
.
Installer fails on Windows 7 64-bit and later (Retail)
- Default installer on disc root is 16-bit.
Run setup.exe[13]
|
- Run the
setup.exe file located in the Disk1 folder instead.
- Click Yes if the "insufficient memory" message pops up and install anyway.
|
Missing audio
Use DirectSound3D restoration software
|
Notes
- 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.
|
Use unofficial patch[14]
|
- Download the unofficial patch.
- Extract the contents to the game directory.
- Run
MaxBatch.bat .
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
Notes
- Relies on automatic recompression of audio files without quality loss to another format.
|
The launcher does not start
JPEG errors on AMD Zen 2/3-based CPUs
Game crashes or videos fail to load
Error: setFullscreen - creating the device failed: E_FAIL
Exception in engineInit: Unable to load saved game "Files"
Reinstall the game on the Local Disk (C:)[citation needed]
|
Exception in startupInit: Directory \data not found
Reinstall the game without specifying spaces in the folder path (e.g. C:\Games\MaxPayne)[citation needed]
|
Disable Anti-Aliasing[17]
|
Reinstall the game (Steam)[18]
|
- Set up a new Steam library folder without spaces in the folder path (e.g. C:\Steam).
- Reinstall the game to the new Steam library folder.
- Go to that folder and then to
SteamApps\common\ .
- Rename the
Max Payne folder to MaxPayne .
- Go back to the
SteamApps folder and open appmanifest_12140.acf with any text editor.
- Change the line
"installdir" "Max Payne" to "installdir" "MaxPayne" .
- Restart Steam.
- If needed, set the compatibility mode to
Windows 98 / Me .
|
Game won't launch, shows up in task manager, white screen
Roll back AMD Catalyst drivers to v12.6 from here[citation needed]
|
Random freezes
- It occurs when too many sound effects are played at once and the IndirectSound wrapper is used to fix the missing audio issue.
Replace IndirectSound with DSOAL[19]
|
Notes
- If DSOAL does not function, apply the registry changes listed here.
|
Game breaking bugs at high frame rate
- Shootdodge and jump distance are shortened, which makes certain areas incompletable.
- The game's built-in Vsync does not work on Windows 10 and later; requires a fix.
- Both Nvidia and AMD control panels cannot cap the frame rate, unless a wrapper is applied.[20][21]
Visible polygon seams
- On Windows 10, there are a lot of visible polygon seams when both Hardware T&L and anti-aliasing are enabled.
Disable anti-aliasing in the game launcher and force it through the GPU control panel
|
Reshade/SweetFX doesn't work
- This problem occurs when using the ThirteenAG's Widescreen Patch.
Edit INI file[citation needed]
|
- Open
global.ini in the scripts folder.
- Change
UseD3D8to9=0 to UseD3D8to9=1 .
- Install ReShade or SweetFX as DirectX 9.
|
Delete 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 {{folder<path-to-game>}}.
- Run the game with the environment variable
WINEDLLOVERRIDES set to "d3d8=n,b" . In the game properties on Steam, go to the General tab and add WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d8=n,b" %command% in the launch options field.
|
Use ThirteenAG's widescreen fix
|
- Download ThirteenAG's fix.
- Copy all contents to the game directory.
- 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 game properties on Steam, go to the General tab and add WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d8=n,b" %command% in the launch options field.
|
Use Proton 5.13-6 or older
|
- In the game properties on Steam, go to Compatibility.
- Enable Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.
- Select
Proton 5.13-6 or older from the drop-down menu.
|
VR support
3D modes |
State |
Notes |
vorpX |
| G3D Requires D3D8to9 wrapper, see vorpx forum profile introduction. |
Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
Direct3D |
8 |
|
DirectDraw |
|
DirectDraw for the intro video only. Everything else uses Direct3D 8.[23] |
OpenGL |
1.2 |
Mac OS only. |
Shader Model support |
1.1 |
|
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 taking screenshots with F10. They are saved to <path-to-game>\screenshots . |
-nodialog |
Skips the setup dialog when loading the game. Previously set options are used. |
-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. |
-window |
Runs the game in windowed mode, at the resolution selected from the setup dialog. Not all 3D accelerators support running in windowed mode. |
-novidmemcheck |
Disables the video memory check at startup. |
-developer |
Enables developer mode, including the 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
System requirements
Windows | Mac OS (Classic) | macOS (OS X) |
Windows |
|
Minimum[24] |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
95, 98, ME, 2000 | |
Processor (CPU) |
450 MHz
| 700 MHz |
System memory (RAM) |
96 MB |
128 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
| |
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 | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
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 |
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[5] 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.[6]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
References