Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II is a 1997 first-person shooter game, designed by Justin Chin and developed and published by LucasArts. It is the second game in the Jedi Knight series and is the sequel to Star Wars: Dark Forces. An expansion pack, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, was released in 1998; the original retail release required the original game in order to play, while the Steam version does not. Both the original game and the expansion were later rereleased as a single package.
The base game includes twenty-one single player missions. It also includes a multiplayer component, with three capture-the-flag maps and six deathmatch ("Jedi Training") maps. Multiplayer is playable over LAN, via modem or serial connection, or online. The server browser was hosted by the now-defunt MSN Gaming Zone; you can still play online, but you must manually enter a game's IP address in order to connect to it.
Mysteries of the Sith adds 14 new single-player missions, including ten where the player plays as Mara Jade rather than series protagonist Kyle Katarn. It also has a separate multiplayer component from the original game. It adds an optional "personalities" feature, where players can choose between four distinct character classes, each with its own movement and health characteristics and its own selection of weapons and Force powers. Twenty deathmatch maps are included: sixteen "Multiplayer Duel" maps that include a full assortment of weapons, and four lightsaber-only "Lightsaber Training" maps. There are also six "Kill the Fool with the Ysalamiri" maps; in this mode, players score points by holding the ysalamiri, which negates all Force powers within ten meters.
System requirements
Installing on 64-bit systems
The retail version's installer is a 16-bit application, and will not install on 64-bit systems. Use the unofficial alternate installer (JediSetup.exe for the original release, SithSetup.exe for Mysteries of the Sith, or JediSithSetup.exe for the package that includes both).
Patches
Official Jedi Knight patch
One official patch was released for Jedi Knight; it fixes a joystick bug, and a freeze when enabling aiming crosshairs on systems with Voodoo2 graphics cards. You can download it from LucasArts.
Unofficial Jedi Knight patch
An unofficial patch for Mysteries of the Sith is available from JKHub. Among other things, it adds team chat to multiplayer and is required for many mods. This patch also installs the official patch. To install it, do the following:
- Back up your jk.exe file.
- Download JKUnofficialPatch_2008-01-16.zip from JKHub.
- Extract patcher.bat, bspatch.exe, patch.dat, and JK-Extension.dll to your Jedi Knight install directory.
- Run patcher.bat.
- Delete patcher.bat, bspatch.exe, and patch.dat. Leave JK-Extension.dll intact.
Unofficial Mysteries of the Sith patch
An unofficial patch for Mysteries of the Sith is available from JKHub. It is required for many mods. To install it, do the following:
- Back up your jkm.exe file.
- Download MotSUnofficialPatch_2008-06-28.zip from JKHub.
- Extract patcher.bat, bspatch.exe, and patch.dat to your Mysteries of the Sith install directory.
- Run patcher.bat.
- Delete patcher.bat, bspatch.exe, and patch.dat.
Miscellaneous fixes
On Windows Vista and 7, try setting JK.exe (JKM.exe for MOTS) to run in XP SP2 compatibility mode, with visual themes and desktop composition disabled.
If you are using an nVidia graphics card and the game crashes, try disabling Antialiasing, Texture Antialiasing, and Conformant Texture Clamp for JK.exe (JKM.exe for MOTS) in your graphics card settings.
3D Acceleration problems
Running the game with 3D acceleration turned on may cause crashes or graphics problems on some modern machines. If you experience problems, try the following steps (you may have to do this every time you launch the game):
- Run the game with the -displayconfig command line parameter to enable the advanced graphics settings menu.
- Click "Setup", then "Display".
- Uncheck "3D Acceleration" and "Backbuffer in System Memory".
- Click "Advanced".
- Under "3D Devices", select "RenderBot" or "RenderDroid".
- Click "OK" to return to the main display settings menu.
- Select your desired resolution.
- Click "OK" to return to the main menu.
If you run the game with the -windowgui command line parameter, or using the Steam launcher, all menus and cutscenes will run in a window. This is normal.
If you are not using the -windowgui command line parameter or the Steam launcher, and you see a black screen instead of a menu, Alt+Tab away from the game and back.
Resolution notes
Running the game in a widescreen resolution is not recommended. The horizontal FOV is locked to a 4:3 aspect ratio, so running the game in widescreen will make everything look stretched horizontally.
The game's HUD and on-screen messages do not scale based on resolution; running the game at high resolutions may make them too small to see.
Changing the resolution in mid-mission is not recommended.
Music
Music in Steam version
The Steam version of the game does not include the original Redbook audio soundtrack. However, a Steam forum user has created BIN/CUE images of the audio tracks of both discs of Jedi Knight as well as Mysteries of the Sith. These can be mounted using Daemon Tools Lite or burned to disc. For Jedi Knight, Disc 1 is used for the first eight levels, and Disc 2 is used for the rest of the game.
If the music still does not work, open the Readme.txt file found on the disc 2 image (not the disc 1 image) and follow the instructions. WARNING: Always back up your registry before making any changes.
If the music still does not work after following both sets of instructions, you may need to make sure that the disc/image is mounted as the first CD-ROM drive letter (try D:\ or A:\). This Microsoft Knowledge Base entry shows you how to change drive letter assignments. Then, try following the instructions again.
Music does not loop on some Vista/7 machines
There is no known fix for this.
HUD does not appear/black border around screen
Press - and = to adjust the screen size. Ideally it should be 9.
Save file location
Control configurations are saved in the /Controls folder in the install directory.
Save files are saved in the /player folder in the install directory.
Texture/model enhancement
Jedi Knight Enhanced
Jedi Knight Enhanced is a model enhancement pack for Jedi Knight. It requires the unofficial patch to be installed; an older version of the patch is included in the download.
To install it, do the following:
- Download JK_enhanced.zip from JKHub. If you are having problems running the game with 3D Acceleration turned on, download JKE_8bit.zip instead.
- Extract the JKE folder (the folder itself, not just its contents) and JKE.bat into your Jedi Knight install directory.
- (Optional) Open JKE.bat in Notepad. At the end of the file, add a space, followed by
-windowgui -displayconfig
-windowgui forces the menus and cutscenes to run in a window, but avoids the "black screen" issue. -displayconfig enables the advanced graphics settings menu. - If you own the Steam version, right click the game's entry in your Steam library and click "Set Launch Options...". In the dialog box that appears, enter the following:
-windowgui -displayconfig -path JKE
- Launch the game via JKE.bat, or using Steam.
Jedi Knight Retexture Pack
Jedi Knight Retexture Pack is a texture enhancement pack for Jedi Knight, which can be used alone or in conjunction with Jedi Knight Enhanced. It requires the unofficial patch to be installed.
To install it, download jkr.zip version 0.4 from JKHub. If you are using Jedi Knight Enhanced, extract JKR.gob into the JKE folder in your Jedi Knight install directory. Otherwise, extract it into the Resource folder in your Jedi Knight install directory.
External links
- Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II at ReplacementDocs
- Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith at ReplacementDocs
- Unofficial installer
- Official patch 1.01 at LucasArts
- Unofficial patches at JKHub
- Music images for Steam version
- Daemon Tools Lite
- Microsoft Knowledge Base entry on changing drive letters
- Jedi Knight Enhanced at JKHub
- Jedi Knight Retexture Pack at JKHub
- Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II on Steam
- Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith on Steam