The Punisher (2005)

The Punisher
Subseries of Marvel
The Punisher	1990
The Punisher (2005)	2005

The Punisher is a singleplayer TPS game developed by Volition and published by THQ.

The PC version of The Punisher released on January 18, 2005.^[2]

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 5 DRM disc check

Demo

A one-mission demo of Central Zoo, beginning from the piranha interrogation and ending at the next level segment transition in the Aztec altar room.

Available to download from PCGamingWiki Files.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Skip intro videos^{[citation needed]}
Install The Punisher Widescreen Fix. Open `ThePunisher.WidescreenFix.ini` with a text editor. Change `SkipIntro = 0` to `SkipIntro = 1`.

PunisherPlugin

Removes "black and white" filter from interrogations.

Optionally disable score penalties for executing enemies.

Optionally enable dual wielding every weapon.

Supported pun.exe size: 2 605 056 bytes.

Debug Menu

Enables various debug options.

Change player model, enable infinite health/ammo, freecam mode, etc.

The Punisher Gore Patch

Removes "black and white" filter from interrogations.

Restores unfinished blood effects on faces and a few quick kill animations.

Compatible with PunisherPlugin if using pun.exe instead of The Punisher No Black & White Effects.exe; this is recommended because it allows skipping the trainer included in the "gore patch" to disable the black & white filter.

Compatible with both US and UK versions of the game. All European versions of the game are compatible with the UK version of the patch.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\profiles\^{[Note 1]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\profiles\^{[Note 1]}

Video

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor		See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen		See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD		See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)	See Widescreen resolution.
Windowed	See Widescreen resolution.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See Widescreen resolution.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
High-fidelity upscaling	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS
120+ FPS	60+ FPS is Possible With Thirteen AG Patch. Fixes Aiming/Interrogation See The Punisher Widescreen Fix
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Color blind mode	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Widescreen resolution

Use The Punisher Widescreen Fix^{[citation needed]}
To change the FOV, open `ThePunisher.WidescreenFix.ini` and increase the `FOVFactor` value. To run in windowed mode, create `wndmode.ini` in the installation folder. To change the FPS limit, open `d3d8.ini` and modify the `FPSLimit` value. Some elements like HUDs and menus could look very tiny in high resolutions. Some elements may overlap.

Input

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

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Effects, Music, Voice.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Fan translation - #1
French
Italian
Polish				Local retail only.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation.
Russian
Spanish

Issues fixed

Interrogations and aiming issues

Use ThirteenAG's fix
Copy the content of the archive to `<path-to-game>`.

Limit the Framerate to 60 FPS^{[citation needed]}
See Frame rate capping.

Use d3d8to9 wrapper^{[citation needed]}

Use this method only if not already using ThirteenAG's fix and do not intend to play the game in widescreen.

Download d3d8.dll.
Copy it to <path-to-game>.
Set monitor refresh rate to 60 Hz.

Fixing "blurred" graphics

Do this steps before opening the game:

Open regedit.exe.
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000\UMD\.
Find the value PixelCenter.
Change 30 00 00 00 to 31 00 00 00.
After closing the game, change PixelCenter back to 30 00 00 00.

Notes

This method also helps in other games with blurred graphics, like in The Matrix: Path of Neo.

This method was tested on AMD videocards (maybe it will also work on NVIDIA videocards).

Incorrect black levels

Black level correction with ReShade^{[citation needed]}

Download and install dgVoodoo 2 for this game.
Download the latest version of ReShade and run the ReShade Setup program.
Click Select game, then select pun.exe found in <path-to-game>.
Delete d3d9.dll.
Select Direct3D 9 as the rendering API.
Allow to download shaders/effects, click "uncheck all" and select only Levels.fx.
Run the game, press Home/Pos1 to enter the configuration menu and follow the tutorial to create a new config.
Enable Levels.fx and change the range to 15-255.
In the Settings tab, under Usage Mode select Performance Mode.
Press Home/Pos1 to exit the configuration menu.

{{Fixbox|description=Color correction with Gamma Panel|fix=

Download the free Gamma Panel tool [1].
Launch The Punisher in borderless windowed mode using the Widescreen mod (see Widescreen resolution).
Keep it lo-res to leave the Desktop visible for tweaking, then use Gamma Panel to make adjustments to color values.
Save your settings in Gamma Panel's profile manager for future use.
Exit the game and relaunch it at a higher resolution (with Gamma Panel still active in the background).

Greenish smoke/fog, rough color transitions, visual artifacts during closed captions

Use dgVoodoo 2

Stuttering on HDD

Disable APM^[3]

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8.1

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows^[4]
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98 SE, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz AMD Athlon XP 1.0 GHz	Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB	256 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	64 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible	Nvidia GeForce 4 ATI Radeon 8500 128 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 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).

References

↑ Volition on X - last accessed on 2023-10-19
"All of our games run on our own engine that we developed in-house."
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 The Punishing Begins - IGN - last accessed on 2023-06-02
↑ Stuttering on secondary HD - Tom's Hardware - last accessed on May 9, 2014
↑ The Punisher back cover - last accessed on 2023-10-19

[gamedir-3] 1.0 ^1.1 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).

[1] Volition on X - last accessed on 2023-10-19
"All of our games run on our own engine that we developed in-house."

[release-2] 2.0 ^2.1 The Punishing Begins - IGN - last accessed on 2023-06-02

[4] Stuttering on secondary HD - Tom's Hardware - last accessed on May 9, 2014

[5] The Punisher back cover - last accessed on 2023-10-19

[1]

[2]

[Note 1]

[3]

[4]

Developers

	Volition
Publishers
	THQ
	Russobit-M
Engines
	CTG^[1]
Release dates
Windows	January 18, 2005^[2]
Reception
Metacritic	67
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Shooter, TPS
Art styles	Comic book, Realistic
Themes	Contemporary, North America
Series	The Punisher