The Suffering

The Suffering

Developers
	Surreal Software
	Midway Home Entertainment
	Next Level Games
Publishers
	Midway Games
Engines
	Riot Engine
Release dates
Windows	June 8, 2004
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS, TPS, Survival horror
Themes	Horror, Contemporary, Supernatural, North America
Series	The Suffering

The Suffering
The Suffering	2004
The Suffering: Ties That Bind	2005

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v3 DRM or StarForce 3 DRM disc check, depending on region.
GOG.com

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).

Not available for sale on GOG in Germany.

Free version

This game was released as a free download sponsored by the US Air Force.

It can be downloaded here. Install the AiO Unofficial Patch or The Suffering Widescreen Fix to remove the online DRM.

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.1 updates the game to the latest version. GOG.com version is already patched.

AiO Unofficial Patch

All-in-one patch for The Suffering series which fixes numerous bugs and adds widescreen support.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\GameConfig.ini %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\The Suffering\Torque.ini

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Saves\ %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\The Suffering\Saves

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

General settings.

Graphics settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Use AiO Unofficial Patch or The Suffering Widescreen Fix.
Multi-monitor			Use AiO Unofficial Patch or The Suffering Widescreen Fix.
Ultra-widescreen			Use AiO Unofficial Patch or The Suffering Widescreen Fix.
4K Ultra HD			Use AiO Unofficial Patch or The Suffering Widescreen Fix.
Field of view (FOV)		Use AiO Unofficial Patch or The Suffering Widescreen Fix. Settings above 1.2 cause minor visual glitches.
Windowed		Set in launcher.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Texture filtering setting only affects close-up texture quality. Cannot be forced.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Set in launcher. Up to 6x MSAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Frame rates above 60 FPS causes glitches and AI problems.[citation needed]
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Mouse sensitivity can be really high by default, making small adjustments to the aim hard. It is suggested to lower the in game mouse sensitivity and, if needed, to increase the system one.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		You can easily bind your controller to keyboard inputs, see the glossary page for more info. Character movement is limited to 8 axis and a single speed on the console versions of the game as well so binding a controller to keyboard inputs won't lose any accuracy.

Controller types

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Effects, dialog, music
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output with DirectSound3D restoration software. GOG version comes with IndirectSound wrapper. Creative Alchemy does not support this title, you are able to add it, 3D hardware can be enabled through the RIOT engine setup config, but no EAX effects are available despite what dsoundlog tells you. The Audio sounds identical whether "The Suffering" is enabled through Creative Alchemy or not, this is why Alchemy had an official list of supported titles.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		DirectSound3D.

An option for Environmental FX is included, but no actual reverb is used in the entire game.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
German				Retail only
Italian				Retail only
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation for retail & GOG version. Download (TriboGamer).
Russian				Official localization by ND Games from retail version.
Spanish				Retail only. Download.

Issues fixed

Saves not working

Caused due to the game having trouble detecting hard drives larger than 2TB.^{[citation needed]}

Use the AiO_Unofficial_Patch Notes autosaves are still broken in recent windows and won't work, use manual save.

Missing sound effects (Retail)

Use IndirectSound
Download IndirectSound. Extract the contents to the installation folder. In new version indirectsound you can use "3D Sound Buffers" in game launcher. Notes GOG.com version has this fix applied by default. This might cause crashes.

Use Creative ALchemy (if you have a Creative Sound Card)[citation needed]
Download and install Creative ALchemy. Select the "add" option and specify the executable path and game title. Move the entry from the "Installed Games" box to the "ALchemy-enabled Games" box using the arrow buttons. Close the program.

Use the AiO_Unofficial_Patch Notes Remove the IndirectSound files that might be included with your version of the game as this mod makes them unnecessary.

DirectX 8.1 is not installed error

On Windows 10 you might get this error when launching the game for the first time. Not sure if this error is also applied on Windows 8, if it is here's the steps to fix it .^{[citation needed]}

Windows 10 1809 or later immediately prompts you to install the directplay components when you start the game

Enable Direct Play in Legacy Components in the Control Panel[citation needed]

Go to Programs and Features in your control panel. On the left side collum you'll see Turn Windows features on or off, click on that. Look for Legacy Components and expand it and you'll see Direct Play. Click on the small box to the left and click ok and then wait a few moments till it's finished installing the files, then close it. Try again to start the title and you should see the launcher startup after the fix.

Run the game at screen refresh rate

When using The AiO Unofficial Patch, the game will set monitor's refresh rate to 60 Hz when in fullscreen mode.

Set refresh rate manually
Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\The Suffering\. Open Torque.ini. Change RefreshRate=60 to the desired value (e.g. RefreshRate=120).

Glitchy enemies and NPCs AI

With a frame rate higher than 60, there are many problems with the AI of both monster and human characters. The game is possibly un-finishable due to the risk of certain NPCs not triggering key cutscenes.^{[citation needed]}

Cap frame rate[citation needed]
Cap the frame rate at 60 FPS.

[citation needed]
Enable vsync in options game and set monitor to 60hz

Access the launcher

After the first time launching the game, the launcher won't show up again and you will be unable to configure the settings.

Use launch parameter
Use the -setup command line argument.

Hold Shift while launching
Open SUFFERING.EXE while holding ⇧ Shift.

Microstutter on modern machines

Limit FPS to 64. Notes Possibly introduces occasional FPS deterioration, fixable by alt-tabbing to desktop and back to game.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, (DX9 with official patch) see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	DirectSound3D

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98 SE	ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz	Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	32 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.0 compatible	64 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible