Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Condemned: Criminal Origins

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Condemned: Criminal Origins cover
Developers
Monolith Productions
Publishers
Sega
Engines
Lithtech Jupiter EX
Release dates
Windows April 11, 2006
Reception
Metacritic 78
IGDB 74
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Genres Brawler, FPS
Art styles Realistic
Themes Contemporary, North America, Detective/mystery
Condemned: Criminal Origins on HowLongToBeat
Condemned: Criminal Origins on IGDB
Condemned: Criminal Origins on MobyGames
Condemned: Criminal Origins on Wikipedia

Key points

DirectInput FPS Fix should be installed, particularly for players with Logitech hardware, to prevent FPS drops.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc 4 DRM[Note 1]
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
DRM-free when launched directly from the executable. The Steam version is missing some sound effects.
Windows
Green Man Gaming (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Demo

A demo can be downloaded here.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Disable movies[3]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Edit autoexec.cfg with Notepad.
  3. Add "DisableMovies" "1" on a new line.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %PUBLIC%\Documents\Monolith Productions\Condemned\settings.cfg
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/4720/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %PUBLIC%\Documents\Monolith Productions\Condemned\Save\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/4720/pfx/[Note 2]
The Condemned Widescreen Fix can change the folder locations to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Monolith Productions\Condemned\, making it possible to sync to Steam Cloud.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Despite the feature being activated, the game doesn't synchronize anything due to it being pointed to %USERPROFILE%\Documents instead of %PUBLIC%\Documents. See Save game data location

Video

Condemned's graphics settings menu.
Condemned's graphics settings menu.
Condemned's detail settings menu.
Condemned's detail settings menu.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Use Condemned Widescreen Fix to fix various issues.
Multi-monitor
Use Condemned Widescreen Fix.
Ultra-widescreen
Use Condemned Widescreen Fix.
4K Ultra HD
Use Condemned Widescreen Fix to fix various issues.
Field of view (FOV)
See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 4x FSAA. The soft shadows option has no effect if the FSAA option is enabled.
Nvidia users can force SGSSAA, see Anti-aliasing (AA).
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Seems to disable itself sometimes when adjusting graphic settings.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Widescreen

Normally the game is stretched when using widescreen.
Use widescreen fix
  1. Download the widescreen fix.
  2. Extract into <path-to-game>.

Field of view (FOV)

This game uses vertical FOV. See FOV Calculator for help.
Set custom FOV[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Edit autoexec.cfg with Notepad.
  3. Add "FovY" "XX" at the end where XX is the desired vertical FOV.

Windowed

Set windowed mode[4]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Edit autoexec.cfg with Notepad.
  3. Add "Windowed" "1" at the end.
  4. For borderless, use Condemned Widescreen Fix.

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Force SGSSAA (Nvidia only)[5]
  1. Disable the in-game FSAA option.
  2. Download and run Nvidia Profile Inspector.
  3. Search and open the game profile.
  4. Set Antialiasing Compatibility to 0x000000C0.
  5. Set Antialiasing Mode to Override any application setting.
  6. Set Antialiasing Setting to 4x Multisampling or your desired level of MSAA.
  7. Set Antialiasing Transparency Supersampling to 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling or your desired level of SGSSAA.
  8. Apply changes.

HD Textures

Neural Origins mod. Original game textures upscaled with neural networks. All game textures are upscaled. Download on ModDB and Nexus.

Doesn't include the normal maps, so textures look flat and unnatural.

Input

Controller support

A fix is required to assign triggers on the Xbox 360 Controller.
May not be compatible with the DirectInput FPS Fix.
Fix remapping issues[6]
  1. Download and run XInput Plus.
  2. Set the "Target Program" to Condemned.exe.
  3. Go to "DirectInput" and check "Enable DirectInput Output".
  4. Assign LT/RT to Button 11/12.
  5. Click Apply and OK.

Notes

For more information, see ThirteenAG's Steam Guide.

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, sound effects and speech.
Surround sound
Up to 7.0 output.[7]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
EAX 2.0 and EAX Advanced HD.
Royalty free audio
May require DirectSound3D restoration software to enable EAX and surround sound functionality on Vista and newer Windows operating systems.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Polish
Fan translation, download.
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation: download (GGames)
Russian
1) Fan full sound and cinematics translation available here.
2) Fan translation by «ENPY Studio/Spirit Team».
Spanish
Turkish
Fan translation, download.
Vietnamese
Fan translation, download.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D
User created game profile, for important hints see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues unresolved

Load aborted/Error loading Level

Savegames doesn't load from main menu when you do an "Exit to title" after playing. The first time you load the game from title works fine.[8]
Use the load game dialog from pause menu, or if you are in title menu and doesn't work, restart the game.

Issues fixed

Low frame rate

Frame rate may drop to around 20-30 FPS after a few minutes of play.
Use DirectInput FPS Fix
  1. Download the DirectInput FPS Fix.
  2. Extract into <path-to-game>.

Missing sound effects in Steam version

In particular, the train sounds at the end of chapter four are missing.[9] The footage from "The Dark" game prototype is also corrupted.[10]
Use Condemned Missing Steam Files Fix[11]

Keyboard settings reset to unassigned

Some settings can't be saved unless the game is launched as administrator.
Use Condemned Widescreen Fix[citation needed]
This fix moves save game data location from %PUBLIC%\Documents\ to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\.

Soft shadows don't work with in-game FSAA

This is due to the features of the engine and the artificial limitation of the simultaneous use of anti-aliasing with soft shadows, since they can cause graphic artifacts on the shadows.
Disable in-game FSAA[citation needed]
If you want anti-aliasing, see Anti-aliasing (AA).

Invisible menu text on Windows 10

Change game's language to English[12]
Use compability mode with older version of Windows[citation needed]
If you use DPI scaling in Windows settings, change this option and use custom DPI setting[citation needed]
Since the keybindings are invisible for languages other than english, the player can also click in the invisible space underneath subtitles, located in options in order to gain access to the keybindings and control settings of the game.

Slow loading level and aero disabling

Occurs only on Windows Vista and Windows 7 because of the special graphic stack WDDM.
Install game only on Windows XP, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10[citation needed]
Using Windows 8.1 or 10 significantly reduces the launch time of the level; perhaps this is due to improvements in the WDDM graphics stack.[13]

Black screen on startup

Disable fullscreen optimization[14]

Right-click on the game executable -> properties -> compatibility -> check "Disable fullscreen optimization".

Glitched flickering lights

The effect for flickering lights may render incorrectly on modern hardware, producing artifacts. Particularly noticeable in Chapter 3, Metro Station Platform.
Enable V-Sync in the options menu [15]

Other information

API

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

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio EAX Unified 4.0
Cutscenes Bink Video 1.8g

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
AMD Athlon
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 8 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 6200
ATI Radeon 9500
128 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0 compatible
Sound (audio device) 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. 2.0 2.1 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>/4720/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (4720) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References