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Difference between revisions of "Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne"

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(→‎Issues fixed: Proton 6.3 causes the same color depth issue as with the first Max Payne. Again, using older Proton fixes it. The d3d8to9 solutions listed for Max Payne don't seem to be working with Max Payne 2, though — at least, not for me.)
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|minaudio = DirectSound compatible sound card
 
|minaudio = DirectSound compatible sound card
  
|recOS    = 2000, ME, XP
+
|recOS    = 2000, ME, 11
 
|recCPU  = Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz<br />Intel Celeron 1.7 GHz
 
|recCPU  = Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz<br />Intel Celeron 1.7 GHz
 
|recCPU2  = AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz<br />AMD Duron 1.7 GHz
 
|recCPU2  = AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz<br />AMD Duron 1.7 GHz

Revision as of 23:06, 3 December 2021

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne cover
Developers
Remedy Entertainment
Publishers
Rockstar Games
Russia 1C-SoftClub
Engines
MAX-FX
Release dates
Windows October 14, 2003
Reception
Metacritic 86
IGDB 84
Taxonomy
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 2: The Fall of Max Payne on HowLongToBeat
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne on IGDB
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne guide on StrategyWiki
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne on MobyGames
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne on Wikipedia
Max Payne
Max Payne 2001
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne 2003
Max Payne 3 2012
Max Payne 1&2 Remake TBA

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SecuROM DRM disc check, 3 CD's Roms
Windows
Retail
DRM-free
Max Payne Anthology released only in Poland and Germany
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Can only be purchased in the USA, Canada, UK, Switzerland, EU countries except Croatia, and Russia.
Windows
demo
A 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

Patch 1.01 is the latest version.

Unofficial patches

Startup hang patch

Dead Man Walking mode bonus chapters

Skip intro videos

Launch the game with the -skipstartup parameter[citation needed]

Skip launcher

Launch the game with the -nodialog parameter

Game data

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\MP2_Init.ras[Note 1]
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Remedy Entertainment\Max Payne 2\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12150/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Max Payne 2 Savegames\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12150/pfx/[Note 2]
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 general settings.
Launcher advanced settings.
Launcher advanced settings.
In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.
Can only be changed in the launcher

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Use ThirteenAG's fix.
Multi-monitor
Stretched
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)
Not applied when Bullet Time is active; Nvidia users see Anti-aliasing (AA).
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Always enabled.
Use d3d8to9 on Windows 10.
60 FPS
120+ FPS
Uncapped frame rate causes minor issues. Physics objects and dead bodies jump more, NPCs may be knocked down by doors when opening them during scripted animations.[1]
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

Use widescreen fix[citation needed]
  1. Install ThirteenAG's fix.
  2. Edit MaxPayne2.WidescreenFix.ini.
  3. Set FOVFactor to the desired value.
Use game's console command[citation needed]
  1. Start the game with the -developer command line argument.
  2. Type in the command fov x where x is a value.
Changing the FOV causes visual glitches during some in-game cutscenes, and might turn the nightmare levels unplayable, since these sections of the game already alter the camera FOV.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Force borderless fullscreen[citation needed]
  1. Install d3d8to9 to the installation folder.
  2. Install Special K by following the Special K Unofficial Guide.
  3. Start the game once and close it to allow the configuration file of Special K to be created.
  4. Open <path-to-game>\d3d9.ini or %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Mods\SpecialK\Profiles\maxpayne2.exe\SpecialK.ini depending on the installation method used.
  5. Change Borderless=false to Borderless=true and Fullscreen=false to Fullscreen=true under [Window.System].
  6. Change ForceWindowed=false to ForceWindowed=true under [Display.Output].

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Graphical issues occur when using anti-aliasing.
MSAA[2]
  1. Disable antialiasing in the Max Payne 2 launcher.
  2. Select the Max Payne 2 driver profile in Nvidia Profile Inspector.
  3. Change Antialiasing compatibility to 0x00000040 or 0x02000001
  4. Change Antialiasing - Mode to Override any application setting
  5. Change Antialiasing - Setting to 4x [4x Multisampling] or another level of MSAA.
  6. Apply changes.

Notes

Default Nvidia profile does not use any compatibility bits. Without these, MSAA or SGSSAA will not be applied when the Bullet Time effect is active.
SGSSAA[citation needed]
  1. Follow the above instructions for MSAA.
  2. Change Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling to 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling or any other level of SGSSAA.
  3. Apply changes.

Notes

Amount of SGSSAA used should be equal to MSAA for proper application.

Input

In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game mouse settings.
In-game mouse settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Quick save/load cannot be remapped (set to F5 and F9, respectively).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
[3]
Controller types

Audio

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
EAX 2.0

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Polish
Patch for digital release here.
Brazilian Portuguese
New fan translation. MixMods.
Russian
Patch for digital release here.
Spanish
Patch for digital release here.

Issues fixed

Application load error 5:0000065434

Set the Anti-aliasing to Off[citation needed]

The launcher does not start

Laptops using Nvidia Optimus must set the preferred graphics processor for Max Payne 2 to "Intel Integrated Graphics"[citation needed]
Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 98 / Me[citation needed]

Error: setFullscreen - creating the device failed: E_FAIL

Use ThirteenAG's fix[citation needed]
  1. Download ThirteenAG's fix.
  2. Extract the contents to the installation folder.
  3. Disable anti-aliasing in the game's launcher.

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

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

Error: 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\MaxPayne2).

(Steam) Move the game to a folder without spaces[citation needed]
  1. Set up a new Steam library folder without spaces in the folder path (e.g. C:\Steam).
  2. Remove the game and install it to the new Steam library folder.
  3. Go to that folder and go into SteamApps\common.
  4. Rename the Max Payne 2 The Fall of Max Payne folder to MaxPayne2.
  5. Go back to the SteamApps folder and open appmanifest_12150.acf with a text editor.
    • If Windows Notepad can't read it, use another text editor like Notepad++.
  6. Change the line "installdir" "Max Payne 2 The Fall of Max Payne" to "installdir" "MaxPayne2"
  7. Restart Steam.
  8. If needed, run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 98 / Me.

Game won't launch on modern AMD graphics cards, still shows up in task manager

Use the Unofficial startup hang patch[citation needed]
Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 98 / Me[citation needed]
Roll back CCC drivers to Catalyst 12.6[citation needed]
See Force CPU affinity to run the game on one core[citation needed]

Launcher starts, but game won't launch on Nvidia graphics cards, crashes and doesn't show up in task manager

Make sure that Options->Video Settings->Antialiasing is set to 'Off'

Mods don't work

Make sure that version of the game contains few RAS archive files, instead of unpacked game files to folder "data".

Mouse hitches and stops oddly

Make sure that Options->Video Settings->Antialiasing is set to 'Off'

High frame rate Issues

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.
  1. Download the d3d8to9.
  2. Copy D3D8.DLL from the folder to the game install directory and set the monitor refresh rate to 60 Hz.

Reshade/SweetFX doesn't work

This problem occurs when using the Thirteen AG Widescreen Patch.
Use the d3d8to9 wrapper[citation needed]
  1. Rename Thirteen AG Widescreen Patch's d3d8.dll file to dinput.dll. It is located in the game's root folder.
  2. Download d3d8to9 and place it in the game's root folder.
  3. Install ReShade or SweetFX as DirectX 9.

Max/Mona suddenly runs continuously without pressing anything

See Force CPU affinity to run the game on one core

Reduced color depth with Proton 6.3 (Linux)

Color banding may occur with Proton 6.3.
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, Z3D
Requires "D3D8to9" wrapper, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 8
Shader Model support 1.1
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Audio DirectSound3D
Cutscenes Bink Video

Command line arguments

See command line arguments on how to use the following options.
Parameter Description
-screenshot Works with Developer Keys. Allows taking screenshots with F3.
-skipstartup Skips the intro for Max Payne 2 and goes straight to the loading screen.
-window Shows Max Payne 2 in a window rather than full screen.
-developer Activates Developer Mode, which allows seeing the game's core input and output. Also enables the console (toggled with ~).
-developerkeys Activates Developer Keys, which allows access to special functions that commands doesn't allow.

Modifications

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz
Intel Celeron 1.2 GHz
AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz
AMD Duron 1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1.5 GB
Video card (GPU) 32 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9 compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectSound compatible sound card


Notes

  1. 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).
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/12150/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (12150) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References