Crimson Skies

Crimson Skies

Developers
	Zipper Interactive
Publishers
	Microsoft
Engines
	GameZ
Release dates
Windows	September 17, 2000
Reception
Metacritic	83
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Vehicle combat
Vehicles	Flight
Themes	Interwar, North America, Piracy

Warnings

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).

Crimson Skies is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person and third-person action and vehicle combat game.

General information

MontanaRaiders.com - A fan site for the Crimson Skies series

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc DRM.

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

A free demo version is available from Archive.org.

Essential improvements

In-game general settings.

Patches

• The latest official patch v1.02 is available here or at soggi.org.

Modern hardware support

Use csfix[citation needed]
Make sure the game is patched to 1.02. Download the Crimson Skies FOV Fix (this download includes CSFix and corrects the FOV to work with any aspect ratio). Extract to the installation folder. Ensure that DirectPlay and Windows Media Player are enabled.

Use dgVoodoo2[citation needed]
Download dgVoodoo 2. Extract dgVoodooCpl.exe and the contents of the MS\x86 subfolder to <path-to-game>. Run dgVoodooCpl.exe and under the DirectX tab, tick Application controlled fullscreen/windowed state.

NVIDIA settings[citation needed]

In addition to csfix, turn off AtiFix in csfix.ini to fix view circles appearing as squares. To fix FPS issues, in the NVIDIA Control Panel's 3D Settings, change these options for Crimson Skies: Maximum Prerendered Frames: 1 Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum performance Threaded Optimization: Off Vertical Sync: Fast Windows Compatibility Administrator (32 bit) may need to be used to apply the DWM8And16BitMitigation setting to fix preview circle glitching. If cutscenes run slower than the audio (causing sync issues), try enabling DisableDXMaximizedWindowedMode in the aforementioned Compatibility Administrator.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\SavedGames\

Video

In-game video settings.

External video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See the WSGF entry.
Multi-monitor			See the WSGF entry.
Ultra-widescreen			See the WSGF entry.
4K Ultra HD			See the WSGF entry.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
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.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS
120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

In-game general controls settings.

In-game key map settings.

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		XInput controllers will not detect LT and RT as an axis properly. See XInput-compatible controllers.
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers

Generic/other controllers		See XInput-compatible controllers.
Button prompts

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

XInput-compatible controllers

The game will not detect buttons above 11 and are practically unusable

Use XInput Plus

Download XInput Plus Set the target program to crimson.exe Go to "DirectInput" and check "Enable DirectInput Output" Assign "DPAD" to "POV" Go to "Customize" Assign "Left Stick X" to "X Axis" Assign "Left Stick Y" to "Y Axis" Assign "Right Stick X" to "Z Rot" Assign "Right Stick Y" to "Z Axis" Assign "LT" to "Button7" Assign "RT" to "Button8" Assign "DPAD Up" to "POV_Up" Assign "DPAD Right" to "POV_Right" Assign "DPAD Down" to "POV_Down" Assign "DPAD Left" to "POV_Left" Assign "A" to "Button1" Assign "B" to "Button2" Assign "X" to "Button3" Assign "Y" to "Button4" Assign "LB" to "Button5" Assign "RB" to "Button6" Assign "LS Button" to "Button9" Assign "RS Button" to "Button10" Check "Enable ForcefeedBack Emulation" Press apply, this will install a DLL file in <path-to-game> (which will be automatically used when you start the game). Notes Edit the button layout in the in-game key map settings. Use the HRTR control layout as a reference. [1]

Audio

In-game audio settings.

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

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
German
Japanese

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		16	TCP/IP or IPX
Online play		16	The official MSN Gaming Zone service has been shut down.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	28805, 28801, 3040, 1121

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Other information

API

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Windows Media Player
Multiplayer	MSN Gaming Zone

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 266 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	700 MB	1 GB
Video card (GPU)	8 MB of VRAM DirectX 7 compatible	16 MB of VRAM DirectX 8 compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectX compatible
Other	4x CD-ROM