Dungeon Siege

Dungeon Siege

Developers
	Gas Powered Games
macOS (OS X)	Westlake Interactive
Publishers
Retail	Microsoft Game Studios
Digital	Square Enix
OS X	MacSoft
Engines
	Siege Engine
Release dates
Windows	April 5, 2002
macOS (OS X)	May 2, 2003
Reception
Metacritic	86
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Scrolling
Controls	Point and select, Multiple select
Genres	ARPG
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Dungeon Siege

Dungeon Siege
Dungeon Siege	2002
Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna	2003
Dungeon Siege II	2005
Dungeon Siege III	2011

Warnings

The Mac OS X version of this game does not work on Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) or later due to the removal of support for PowerPC apps.

Dungeon Siege is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and scrolling ARPG game in the Dungeon Siege series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc Lite DRM.
Retail
GOG.com		Bundled with Dungeon Siege II, Dungeon Siege III, and Dungeon Siege III: Treasures of the Sun. Uses GOG's custom DirectDraw wrapper.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam		DRM-free when run directly from game executable.

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.

Version differences

Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna contains both Dungeon Siege and its main expansion Legends of Aranna.

The Steam and GOG.com versions have the multiplayer menu disabled. See Network for a workaround.

Essential improvements

Patches

• The latest official patch v1.11.1462 is available at www.patches-scrolls.de and at soggi.org.

Bonus Pack

• The Bonus Pack: Yesterhaven is available at soggi.org.

Skip intro videos

Run the game with the nointro=true command line argument

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dungeon Siege\Keys\current.gas %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dungeon Siege\DungeonSiege.ini %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dungeon Siege\prefs.gas
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/39190/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dungeon Siege\Save\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/39190/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			Highest natively supported resolution is 1024x768. See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor			See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen			See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD			Too high resolutions (above 1080p) will crash the game; use dgVoodoo2 for these resolutions.
Field of view (FOV)		See the WSGF entry.
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Use Nvidia Control Panel or comparable. Resolutions above 1024x768 perform exponentially worse with AA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Can cause framerate issues, it can be disabled with the vsync=false command line argument.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		No frame rate cap.

Widescreen resolution

Widescreen fixes only work in-game, not on the main menu.

Widescreen aspect ratios are Vert-; to set FOV see the WSGF entry.

Some higher resolutions will crash the game; use dgVoodoo 2 or GOG's dxcfg.exe for these resolutions.

Set in DungeonSiege.ini
Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dungeon Siege\DungeonSiege.ini Change the width = and height = numbers to match the desired resolution. Save the changes.

Set in launch options
Add width=#### and height=#### to the game's launch options. Replace #### with the desired resolution. Save the changes.

Windowed

Run the game with the fullscreen=false command line argument
Notes: Mouse cursor is not captured with this method.

Use DxWnd
In DxWnd, File → Import. There is a stock Dungeon Siege export available. Modify the game properties. Width and height should be 1024x768 (or desired resolution) Notes: Minimizes on Alt+Tab ↹. "Do not notify on Task Switch" causes camera to spin when switching tasks. Can cause significant UI/Menu glitches, which are fixed by restarting the game.

Input

Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Full keyboard remapping with secondary options.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Only inverts for camera movement.
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, SFX, Ambient, and Voice.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French				Retail and Steam only.
German				Retail and Steam only; download for GOG.com version
Italian				Retail and Steam only.
Japanese				Retail and Steam only.
Polish				Retail and Steam only.
Brazilian Portuguese				ScummBR. GOG.com or Steam.
Spanish				Retail and Steam only.

Network

Steam and non-Steam players cannot play together due to version differences.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play		Co-op For Steam and GOG.com, use the zonematch=true command line argument.
Online play		Co-op The official MSN Gaming Zone service has been shut down.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking		MSN Gaming Zone support has ended.
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
UDP	2300-2400, 6073

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

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created profile, requires dgVoodoo 2, see profile introdution. Note: Profile may not work with the latest wrapper, in case of issues please report to the vorpx forum.

Issues fixed

Flickering screen

Flickering screen[citation needed]
This fix has only been tested on the Steam version. Some users have complained about the screen flickering on Windows 7. A quick fix is to press the Windows button on the keyboard to minimize the game. Upon maximizing, the flickering stops (Changing between the main menu and the campaign/multi-player will require you to do this again).

Change Video settings
One of the following steps may work: Set DungeonSiege.exe to run in 16-bit color mode. In the config file, bpp=32 Disable anti-aliasing within the GPU driver settings. Running the game on a different GPU or monitor may prevent UI/cursor flickering. Switching between fullscreen or windowed mode.

Menu glitches

Menu glitches[citation needed]
Sometimes the game's menu stops responding, doesn't see saved games, gives "There are no maps currently available" error, shows visual glitches on character creation screen. This may happen regardless of how many times the game ran correctly. Installing the game in the default folder and turning off gameplay-tracking programs (ex. X-Fire, Raptr, Steam) may fix these issues.

Low frame rate in fullscreen mode

Run the game with the bltonly=true command line argument.

Fairies/Pixies can cause missing terrain and crashes

If a fairy or pixie restores a character's health or mana, the player may soon encounter missing terrain and crashes in certain circumstances.

Instructions
Download fairyfix.zip and extract into <path-to-game>\Resources to disable fairy/pixie spells.

Further issues can be resolved by referring to GenesisFR's troubleshooting guide.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	7

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	MSN Gaming Zone

Command line arguments

Command	Accepted values	Description
-nointro=	true/false	Toggles playing the intro on startup
-fullscreen=	true/false	Toggles fullscreen and windowed mode
-width=	number	Specifies resolution width
-height=	number	Specifies resolution height
-bpp=	number	Specifies color depth
-vsync=	true/false	Toggles vertical sync
-maxfps=	number	Specifies framerate cap. Setting it to 0 removes the cap (default setting).
-asynccursor=	true/false	Toggles the asynchronous cursor
-nospacecheck=	true/false	Toggles the free disk space and memory check on startup
-verifydata=	true/false	Toggles integrity check of game files and executable on startup
-simplerender=	number	Toggles multitexturing
-bltonly=	true/false	Toggles rendering mode
-zonematch=	true/false	Toggles whether the game will immediately open the multiplayer menu on launch; only way to access multiplayer in digital releases
-nosound=	true/false	Toggles game audio
-aa_screenshots=	true/false	Toggles anti-aliasing in screenshots
-turtle=	true/false	Toggles auto-disconnecting upon player time-out in multiplayer
-multi=	true/false	Toggles permission to run multiple game instances
-noalttab=	true/false	Toggles permission to minimize the game via Alt+Tab ↹
-nowinkey=	true/false	Toggles permission to minimize the game via ⊞ Win
-fpslog=	true/false	Toggles FPS log output to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dungeon Siege\Logs\Fps.log
-user_path=	folder path	Overrides main folder path for user files
-bits=	folder path	Overrides folder path for bits
-dsdll_path=	folder path	Overrides folder path for main game .dll file
-keys_path=	folder path	Overrides folder path for keys
-map_path=	folder path	Overrides folder path for maps
-mod_paths=	folder path	Overrides folder path for mods
-res_path=	folder path	Overrides folder path for resource files
-save_path=	folder path	Overrides folder path for saved games
-shots_path=	folder path	Overrides folder path for screenshots

Siegelets, maps and mods

Yesterheaven - official bonus multiplayer map for original Dungeon Siege made by Gas Powered Games. Single player conversion files are available here.

Myros Mod - converts the original Utraean Peninsula multiplayer map to singleplayer. Conversion files are available here or already prepared map can be downloaded here.

Utima V: Lazarus - a remake of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny.

Ultima 6 Project - a remake of Ultima VI: The False Prophet.

Many notable fan made siegelets and maps can be downloaded here; Mageworld, The Elemental, Lands Of Hyperborea, Copperhead: Retaliation, Realm of Kings.

Dungeon Siege high resolution textures - texture pack made for the original game using AI image upscaling ESRGAN.

SeeFar2020 - collection of modifications that increase the draw distance, add more camera control options, add support for more resolutions, fix 3D character preview in the inventory and slightly increase the default font size.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	98, 2000, ME, XP
Processor (CPU)	333 MHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	8 MB of VRAM

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)
Hard disk drive (HDD)