Darkstar One

Darkstar One

Developers
	Ascaron Entertainment
Publishers
Retail (Europe)	Ascaron Entertainment
Retail (North America)	cdv Software Entertainment
Retail (Russia)	Akella
Digital	Strategy First
Release dates
Windows	May 18, 2006
Reception
Metacritic	71
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Vehicle combat
Vehicles	Space flight
Themes	Sci-fi, Space

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		TAGES 5 DRM. in English release. ProtectDISC Software 6 DRM in German release. StarForce 4 DRM in Russian release. Custom DRM code may sabotage the game by increasing in-game prices tenfold.
GamersGate
GOG.com
Green Man Gaming
Steam
ZOOM Platform

StarForce DRM for this game does not work on modern versions of Windows (see above for affected versions).

A free demo can be downloaded from 4players or Gameswelt.

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest patch for the retail version is 1.3, available from PCGamingWiki (English only) and Patches-Scrolls.de (multiple languages).

Digital distribution versions already include this patch.

A hotfix for contemporary Nvidia cards experiencing a crash in trade stations was also released.

Skip intro videos

Use replacement ascaron.bik
Extract the empty video file to <path-to-game>\video\Movies\[language] and overwrite the existing file. Do not delete the file completely, or the game will crash on startup.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Ascaron Entertainment\Darkstar One\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12330/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Ascaron Entertainment\Darkstar One\Save\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12330/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Some resolutions crash the game, see #Some resolutions crash the game.
Multi-monitor			3D elements are rendered at a lower resolution.
Ultra-widescreen			If game has black graphics, disable in-game FSAA.
4K Ultra HD			Menus and texts do not scale accordingly.
Field of view (FOV)		Cockpit FOV can be changed by pressing F3, and the perspective with F4.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Works with Borderless Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FSAA. May cause black graphics at higher resolutions.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Locked to 60 fps.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Mouse-based space flight uses a cursor so it can not be inverted.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		Click the red rectangle beside the axis to toggle inversion.

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

Advanced controls

The game poorly explains its controls. Strafing sideways and flying backwards can be used to the player's advantage, but some keybindings do not appear in the options menu - look those up in the manual (digital versions contain it in the game directory).

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Ambient, Effects and Speech.
Surround sound		Set Speakers in-game accordingly.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Retail only.
French				Retail, GOG.com and Zoom Platform only.
German				Retail only; download for digital releases. The German manual is available here.
Italian				Retail only.
Polish				Retail only.
Spanish				Retail only.

VR support

3D modes	Native	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, see important hints on copy protection issues with retail game here: vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues fixed

Some resolutions crash the game

Darkstar One may crash when using certain resolutions due to bundling an outdated version of iphlpapi.dll.

Delete Darkstar One's iphlpapi.dll
Go to the installation folder. Delete or rename iphlpapi.dll Darkstar One will now use Windows' version of this file instead.

Black graphics at higher resolutions

Disable FSAA in the game optoins

"netman.dll not found" error

This is caused by Darkstar One shipping with an outdated version of this file.

Delete Darkstar One's netman.dll and iphlpapi.dll[citation needed]
Go to the installation folder. Delete or rename netman.dll and iphlpapi.dll Darkstar One will now use Windows' versions of these files instead.

Ship throttle is backwards

If the controller's throttle is detected the wrong way around (e.g. putting it at the full speed position makes the ship stop instead), invert the "Throttle" axis by clicking the red rectangle beside it.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Shader Model support	1.1

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000 SP4	XP SP2
Processor (CPU)	1.6 GHz	2.6 GHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	6.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 3 ATI Radeon 8500 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible Shader model 1.1 support	Nvidia GeForce 6600 ATI Radeon X800 256 MB of VRAM Shader model 3.0 support