Ground Control

Ground Control
Ground Control	2000
Ground Control II: Operation Exodus	2004

Key points

Ground Control has been released as a free download.

General information

Ground Control Veterans

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM DRM.
GamersGate		Anthology. Also bundled with the sequel.
GOG.com		Anthology
Steam		Anthology
ZOOM Platform		Anthology
GamersGate (unavailable)		Anthology.
Green Man Gaming (unavailable)		Anthology

The base game has been released as a free download in order to promote the sequel.

A free demo version is available from SierraHelp.

Version differences

Ground Control Anthology includes the base game and the Dark Conspiracy expansion pack.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Dark Conspiracy	To access, run `gc.exe` with the `-mod DARKCONS` command line argument.

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest official patch is 1.011, and is available from Patches-Scrolls.

Map packs

Five official map packs are available from Patches-Scrolls.

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\data\games\settings.dat^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/254820/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\data\games\game*^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/254820/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game general video settings.

In-game advanced video settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Only supports 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 by default. See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		See Widescreen resolution.
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.
Vertical sync (Vsync)	Forced Vsync in hardware rendering, software rendering is uncapped.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	Follows display refresh rate.

Widescreen resolution

Use Ground Control Resolution Changer^{[citation needed]}
Improved successor to the below resolution changer application

Instructions^[2]

Download the following archive.
Go to the installation folder.
Extract all the files from the archive and overwrite.
Open Resolution Changer.exe, then set the desired Width and Height.
Launch the game through the Launch Ground Control.bat file.

Notes

If using Dynamic Super Resolution or Virtual Super Resolution and 4K Ultra HD, see this fix.

Input

In-game key map settings.

In-game mouse settings.

In-game joystick settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Game uses "software mouse". This means cursor will be laggy at lower frame rates.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Very limited modern controller support.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

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

Audio

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

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French				Retail and GOG.com only.
German				Retail and GOG.com only.
Italian				Retail only.
Spanish				Retail only.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		8
Online play		8	The official WON service has been shut down.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated		Requires download of official files.
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	15001, 15101, 15200, 20000-21000, 25000-25499
UDP	20000-21000

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

Issues fixed

Poor framerate on Windows 8

Instructions^{[citation needed]}
Download the following archive. Go to the installation folder, and extract the file.

Near-illegible text and buttons when using downscaling

If Dynamic Super Resolution or Virtual Super Resolution is used to achieve 4K resolutions, the game's text and buttons will become nearly illegible due to the downsampling involved.

Use dgVoodoo 2^[3]

Follow all instructions for the widescreen resolution fix, ensuring width and height are set to one of the following:
1. 16:9 monitors: 1024 width, 576 height
2. 16:10/8:5 monitors: 1024 width, 640 height
3. 21:9 monitors: 1024 width, 432 height
Download the latest version of dgVoodoo 2.
Extract D3Dlmm.dll and DDraw.dll from the MS\x86 subfolder to <path-to-game> from the downloaded ZIP file.
Extract dgVoodooCpl.exe to <path-to-game>.
Run dgVoodooCpl.exe and click on the DirectX tab.
Under Resolution, select your monitor's native 4K resolution from the dropdown list.
Click on the Apply button to save the configuration, the click OK.

Notes

This fix has been tested with Nvidia Dynamic Super Resolution.

Issues unresolved

Crash related to wireless peripherals

The game crashes on startup if the user has wireless peripherals (headsets, mice...), either with a black screen or with an error message reporting an access violation. Before the game is run, the USB dongle needs to be unplugged, and only plugged back in when the game's intro/menu is shown.^[4] ^[5]

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	7

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	WON (World Opponent Network)

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, ME	2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 233 MHz	Intel Pentium II 333 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	250 MB	450 MB
Video card (GPU)	4 MB of VRAM DirectX 7.0a compatible
Other	4X CD-ROM

The game has software rendering mode, which may have lower system requirements.

Windows 98 and ME are only supported with the original ATI Radeon, ATI Radeon 7200, and Nvidia video cards

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^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>/254820/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (254820) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ High Voltage Software Additional Games
↑ Verified by User:Expack3 on 2016-06-30
↑ Verified by User:Expack3 on 2016-06-06
↑ Game won't start / Black Screen :: Ground Control II General Discussions - last accessed on 2022-09-11
↑ Verified by User:Plok on 2023-01-11
Confirmed with the Logitech G533 wireless headset.

[gamedir-2] 1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[Proton_path_note-3] 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>/254820/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (254820) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[High_Voltage_Software-1] High Voltage Software Additional Games

[4] Verified by User:Expack3 on 2016-06-30

[5] Verified by User:Expack3 on 2016-06-06

[GroundControl2Crash-6] Game won't start / Black Screen :: Ground Control II General Discussions - last accessed on 2022-09-11

[7] Verified by User:Plok on 2023-01-11
Confirmed with the Logitech G533 wireless headset.

[1]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

Developers

	Massive Entertainment
Dark Conspiracy	High Voltage Software^[1]
Publishers
2000-2008	Sierra Entertainment
2008-present	Rebellion Developments
Release dates
Windows	June 1, 2000
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Ground Control