Project Freedom

Project Freedom

Developers
	CI Games
Publishers
North America	Merscom
Germany	Cdv Software Entertainment
Russia	Russobit-M
Engines
	Impact 2
Release dates
Windows	November 9, 2004
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Shooter, Vehicle combat
Vehicles	Space flight
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Sci-fi, Space
Series	Starmageddon

Starmageddon
Project Earth: Starmageddon	2002
Project Freedom	2004

Key points

Also known as Space Interceptor in North America and Starmageddon 2 in some other countries.

Motion blur only works on some newer versions of the game (e.g. French, German, and Italian versions on Steam)^{[citation needed]}

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
itch.io
Steam

The DRM on the Steam version is sort of weird. The outer DRM on the executable is Steam DRM, and the inner DRM is an odd hand-written-assembly wrapper with a disabled disc check. In any case, the actual game EXE is not encrypted and can be extracted and run without Steam.^{[citation needed]}

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Instructions
Go to <path-to-game>\movies\ Delete or rename csati.mpg, cscda.mpg, and cs000.mpg. The Steam version does not have cscda.mpg.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\City Interactive\Project Freedom
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/34810/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Project Freedom savegames\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/34810/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

Options and Controls.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Stretches from 4:3. See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		An unofficial windowed patch is available. See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Even though there are registry entries to change Anti-Aliasing, they do not do anything.

Widescreen resolution

Using a non 4:3 resolution will cause stretching.

Widescreen resolutions cannot be set in-game. You must do it through the Registry.

Set video mode via Registry
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\City Interactive\Project Freedom\V4D Direct3D Renderer. Change Width and Height to the desired resolution, ColorBits to the bit depth to use, and Frequency to use a custom refresh frequency (0 for default).

Windowed

This game has no native windowed support.

An unofficial patch has been made to run the game in windowed mode.

Install windowed patch

Go to the installation folder. Back up projectfreedom.exe Download and unzip this file to the installation folder. Make sure the three files in the archive are placed in the same folder as projectfreedom.exe. For the retail version of the game, rename projectfreedom.exe to projectfreedom.dat. For the Steam version of the game, simply start the game. Run patch.cmd. It might require administrator privileges on Windows Vista and later. If the Steam version is used, it will be terminated to facilitate the patching process. patch.cmd, bspatch.exe, and pf_window_patch.patch can be deleted now. If the retail version was used and a rename was performed, the patching process may leave behind projectfreedom.dat, which can also be deleted. Notes This patch only works for the English version of the game. To restore full-screen mode, the backed up projectfreedom.exe will have to be used again.

Input

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

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

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

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Polish
Russian
French
German
Italian

Issues unresolved

Sound replay on hitch

If the game hitches, the audio engine will periodically replay a small portion of sound for about a second. The problem disappears after a level change or reloading a savegame.

Issues fixed

Game crashes due to missing codecs

The game may crash on Windows Vista and later because it can't decode the movies properly due to missing codecs. This issue manifests itself as sudden exiting after seeing the menu loading screen.

This can be fixed by either using a dummy mpeg.dll or removing the video files.

Install dummy mpeg.dll
Use the dummy mpeg.dll.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Display frame rate

The frame rate can be displayed in-game by enabling cheats (type "TIPS" at any time; don't mind the pause menu popping up) and pressing F.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, 2000, ME, XP	98, 2000, ME, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 700 MHz	1600 MHz Athlon XP or P4 class
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	420 MB	420 MB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon 7500 Nvidia GeForce 2 32 MB of VRAM	ATI Radeon 9500 PRO Nvidia GeForce 5600FX 64 MB of VRAM