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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 22:04, 4 January 2021 by SoloMael (talk | contribs) (→‎Peixoto's patch: Fixed a broken link)

This page is for the original release. For the remake, see Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time cover
Developers
Ubisoft Montreal
Publishers
Ubisoft
Engines
Jade
Release dates
Windows December 2, 2003
Reception
Metacritic 89
IGDB 84
Taxonomy
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer
Perspectives Third-person, Bird's-eye view, First-person
Controls Direct control
Series Prince of Persia
Themes Middle East
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on IGDB
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time guide on StrategyWiki
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on MobyGames
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on Wikipedia
Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia 1989
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame 1993
Prince of Persia 3D 1999
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time 2003
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within 2004
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones 2005
Prince of Persia (2008) 2008
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands 2010
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown 2024
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake TBA

Key points

A remastered version of Prince of Persia (1989) can be unlocked on 6th gen consoles, but not in the PC version.

General information

Ubisoft forums for game series
Prince of Persia Wiki
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc v3 DRM[Note 1].
Russian copies use StarForce 3 DRM[Note 2].
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Ubisoft Store
Icon overlay.png
Uplay+ version may be DRM Free
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
StarForce DRM for this game does not work on modern versions of Windows (see above for affected versions).

Essential improvements

Peixoto's patch

Peixoto's patch

  • Disables the postprocess blur shader that the game employs
  • Gets fog working correctly
  • Keyboard\mouse emulation with Xinput gamepads
  • Super sampling anti aliasing

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename video files[7]
  1. Go to Video in the installation folder.
  2. Delete or rename Bink.int, Intro.int, nvidia.int, poplogo.int and ubisoft.int

Skip loading screens

Doing this will cause the game to soft lock at some screen transitions [8]
Delete/rename loading files[citation needed]
  1. Go to Video in the installation folder.
  2. Delete or rename Loading.int, POP_IN.int, and POP_OUT.int

Game data

Configuration file location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Hardware.ini[Note 3]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/13600/pfx/[Note 4]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Profiles\[Note 3]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/13600/pfx/[Note 4]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud
Ubisoft Connect

Video settings

Basic video settings.
Basic video settings.
Advanced video settings.
Advanced video settings.

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Apply Widescreen Fix (Hor+)[9]
  1. Download Widescreen fix by nemesis2000 from Here or from our Mirror.
  2. Extract pop.7z files into <path-to-game> (archive password: pop).
  3. Edit pop.ini to set your desired resolution and FOV multiplier.

Notes

Supported exe size: 4 280 320 bytes.

Windowed

Force windowed[citation needed]
  1. Download and run DxWnd as administrator.
  2. Click on Edit, then Add.
  3. Set name to Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time.
  4. Set path to <path-to-game>\POP.exe.
  5. Set launch to <path-to-game>\PrinceOfPersia.exe.
  6. Set Acquire admin caps.
  7. Set Desktop for borderless fullscreen windowed.
  8. Click on Mouse tab, set Cursor visibility to Hide.
  9. Click OK, then File and Save.

Post-processing

Disable bloom, blur, and distortion
  • Use Peixoto's patch to disable the blur shader.
  • Use 3D Vision fix to disable the low resolution distortion effect as well as the bloom effect.

Input settings

Input settings.
Input settings.

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Audio settings.
Audio settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
German
French
Spanish
Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Italian
Not available in the GOG.com version; download.
Russian
Retail and GOG version. Patch for digital release here.
Polish
Patch for digital release here
Czech
Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Hungarian
Fanmade translation available here.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
See Helix Mod: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
vorpX
G3D
User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.See here for an alternate profile.

Issues unresolved

Water effects not rendering

When the Water effects graphics option is enabled, water does not render on certain modern systems, such as those employing Intel HD Graphics. Disabling the setting is a working—albeit sub-optimal—solution.

Most of the dialogue has low volume causing it to be inaudible and no subtitles are provided

Appears to be a problem on modern systems only.
No known fixes. [10]

Issues fixed

Controller input not detected.
Unable to use Power of Haste when using Controller

Gamepads are not working on some systems.[11] The game also has sensitivity issues with diagonal input for XInput controllers (running diagonally does not work because the game expects DirectInput values).
XInput Controllers need the below fix to enable both triggers to work simultaneously to use The Power of Haste in the game.[12]
Use XInput Plus[13]
  1. Download XInput Plus and extract it to any folder.
  2. Launch XInput Plus
  3. Set the Target Program by browsing to the <path-to-game> and selecting pop.exe.
  4. Go to Sticks tab and for the Left Stick change the Rect Correction slider from 0 to 1
  5. Go to DirectInput tab and check Enable DirectInput Output.
  6. In the same tab click on LT/RT and select Button 12/13 from the dropdown menu.
  7. Click Apply, this will install a DLL file to your game folder that will automatically be used when you start the game.
  8. Start the game and rebind the triggers in Options.

Notes

If pressing Left Stick fully forward results in walking instead of running, go to Sticks then Left Stick and reduce Saturation in 5% increments until rectified.

Extreme amounts of fog

Fixed in the GOG.com version.[14]
Use Peixoto's patch[citation needed]
Disable "Fog" option in video settings[citation needed]
Edit Hardware.ini[15]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Open Hardware.ini.
  3. Change the following values as noted.
    • ForceVSFog=1
    • InvertFogRange=0
  4. Save the file, then right-click on it and select Properties.
  5. Check Read-only, and click OK.

Missing interface

Edit Hardware.ini[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Open Hardware.ini.
  3. Change the following value as noted.
    • CanStretchRect=0
  4. Save the file, then right-click on it and select Properties.
  5. Check Read-only, and click OK.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Cutscenes Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98SE
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium III 800 MHz
AMD Athlon 800 MHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1.5 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 3
ATI Radeon 8500
DirectX 9.0 compatible

Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] 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.[2]
  2. This version of StarForce DRM does not work on Windows Vista or later.[3][4][5][6] For supported versions of Windows the StarForce driver may need to be updated manually using SFUPDATE.
  3. 3.0 3.1 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).
  4. 4.0 4.1 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>/13600/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (13600) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
  2. Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
  3. Windows Vista support - StarForce Support
  4. Windows 7 support - StarForce Support
  5. Windows 8.1 support - StarForce Support
  6. Windows 10 support - StarForce Support
  7. Verified by User:Anon on 2020-07-01
  8. [1] - last accessed on 2020-01-13
    "Most of the screen goes black. The prince's sword remains, floating in space. Random arrows from the background keep getting shot, on fire. Landing nowhere."
  9. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Widescreen HD Test №2 PC - YouTube - last accessed on 2017-03-02
  10. Verified by User:Sidspyker on 2020-09-22
    I have tested this on 3 different Windows 10 systems with varying hardware and audio configurations along with enabling and disabling EAX/Audio Virtualisation options in the game.
  11. Gamepad not working; Graphics not working. :: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time General Discussions
  12. Verified by User:Sidspyker on 2020-09-22
  13. https://www.gog.com/forum/prince_of_persia_series/pcgamingwiki_now_has_a_xbox_360xinput_fix_for_prince_of_persia_sands_of_time/post1
  14. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time has been updated! Details inside :D, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com
  15. Verified by User:Anon on 2020-07-01