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

Painkiller

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Painkiller
Painkiller cover
Developers
People Can Fly
Publishers
Retail DreamCatcher Interactive
Retail (Russia) Akella
Digital (2007-2020) THQ Nordic
Digital (2020-present) Deep Silver
Engines
Pain Engine
Release dates
Windows April 12, 2004
Reception
Metacritic 81
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, FPS, Shooter
Art styles Realistic
Themes Dark, Horror, Supernatural, Zombies
Series Painkiller
Painkiller on HowLongToBeat
Painkiller guide on StrategyWiki
Painkiller on MobyGames
Painkiller on Wikipedia
Painkiller
Painkiller 2004
Painkiller: Overdose 2007
Painkiller: Resurrection 2009
Painkiller: Redemption 2011
Painkiller: Recurring Evil 2012
Painkiller: Hell & Damnation 2012

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Painkiller is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action, FPS and shooter game in the Painkiller series.

General information

Painkiller Zone - A fansite for the series (archived)
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
Steam Community Discussions Gold Edition

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc v3 DRM[Note 1] internationally.
StarForce 3.04 DRM[Note 2] in Russian releases.
Windows
Retail
DRM-free
Black Edition
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
CD key
Black Edition. Serial keys for multiplayer available by request to GOG support team.[7]
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
CD key
Black Edition
Windows
GamersGate (unavailable)
DRM-free after installation (requires an internet connection during installation)
Windows
GamersGate (unavailable)
DRM-free after installation (requires an internet connection during installation)
Painkiller Universe
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Black Edition
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
StarForce DRM for this game does not work on modern versions of Windows (see above for affected versions).
Painkiller: Black Edition includes the base game along with the "Battle out of Hell" expansion.
Painkiller Universe includes the base game along with the "Battle out of Hell" expansion and Painkiller: Overdose.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Battle out of Hell
Windows

Demo

A free demo can be installed on Steam by using a direct link (allow Steam popup): steam://install/3210.

Essential improvements

Patches

A list of official patches can be found here. Digital distribution versions are already patched.

Unofficial Patch v1.66

Install Unoffcial Patch[8]
  1. Download the patch.
  2. Copy the contents to <path-to-game>.
  3. If the game language is other than English, download this archive and copy the contents of the desired language.

Notes

Contains fixes for various issues like broken items, enemies placement, levels logic, weapons and tarot cards behavior.

Randomguy7's Fix Compilation

Install Fix Compilation[9]
  1. Download the patch.
  2. Copy the contents to <path-to-game>.

Notes

Fixes slowdown on dual-core CPUs, FOV and HUD can be modified among other fixes.
Latest version includes fixes from the unofficial patch v1.66.
Both versions of the patch are available to those who prefer the older fix.
The new version of the patch fixes clipping issues with HUD elements.

Skip intro videos

Instructions[10]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Data\Movies\.
  2. Delete or rename logo-dreamcatcher.bik, logo-nvidia.bik and logo-pcf.bik.

Game data

In-game HUD settings.
In-game HUD settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Bin\config.ini[Note 3]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/39530/pfx/[Note 4]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\SaveGames[Note 3]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/39530/pfx/[Note 4]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game general video settings.
In-game general video settings.
In-game advanced video settings.
In-game advanced video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Use the Widescreen HUD Fix.
Multi-monitor
Use the Widescreen HUD Fix.
Ultra-widescreen
Use the Widescreen HUD Fix.
4K Ultra HD
Use the Widescreen HUD Fix.
Field of view (FOV)
Use the Widescreen HUD Fix or the fov number console command.
Windowed
Use ThirteenAG's D3D9 Wrapper.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Use ThirteenAG's D3D9 Wrapper.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
In-game MSAA disables support for overclocked refresh rates.
Use driver level anti-aliasing instead.
High-fidelity upscaling
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
It can be forced through the drivers.
If playing at 60Hz, it may cause slowdowns when the player takes damage.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

In-game control settings.
In-game control settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse smoothing can be disabled in the control options.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Controller types

Audio

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Master, music (battle & ambient), and sound.
Surround sound
Up to 8 speakers.[11]
Subtitles
Subtitle files to be viewed via media player.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
A3D, EAX 3.[12][13]
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Retail and Steam only. Download for GOG.com version.
Italian
Retail only. Download.
Polish
Retail and GOG.com only.
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation. Download.
Russian
Retail and GOG.com only. Patch for Steam release here.
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
16 Versus
Online play
16 Versus
GameSpy services have been shut down;[14] see GameSpy for workarounds.

Connection types

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 3455
UDP 3455
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
This is the default port used. It can be changed in-game by the user.

VR support

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

Issues fixed

Fluctuating game speed

Enable Vsync in the GPU control panel[15]

Notes

If it does not fix the issue, try disabling it.

Editor asks for CD-ROM

Edit hex code[16]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Bin\Editor\.
  2. Open PainEditor.exe with a hex editor.
  3. Go to offset 36C1, and change 75 0C to EB 0C.

Bypass GameSpy Installer

Delete or rename GameSpy Installer
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\GameSpy\.
  2. Delete or rename ArcadeInstallPAINKILLER14c.exe.

Low frame rate on GeForce FX series and similar old cards

Disable Bloom in the advanced video settings

Game doesn't fill screen (Proton/Linux)

With Proton 6.3-8 and newer, the game occupies only a small area of the screen and may not be fully visible.
Use Proton 5.13-6 or older
  1. In the game properties on Steam, go to Compatibility.
  2. Enable Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.
  3. Select Proton 5.13-6 or older from the drop-down menu.
GameScope
  • Alternatively, set the windowed mode and run the game via gamescope with the -f flag to play in fullscreen.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 8.1, 9
Shader Model support 2, 3 Shader version 3 requires game to be patched to 1.61 (or higher).
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok 2
Audio Miles Sound System 6.6a
Cutscenes Bink Video 1.6g
Multiplayer GameSpy

Unlock all levels

Install "all levels" mod.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium III 1.2 GHz
Intel Pentium 4 1.6 GHz
AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 384 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 2.6 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce2 GTS
ATI Radeon 8500
64 MB of VRAM
DirectX 8.1b 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. This version of StarForce DRM does not work on Windows Vista or later.[3][4][5][6] For supported versions of Windows the StarForce driver may need to be updated manually using SFUPDATE.
  3. 3.0 3.1 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).
  4. 4.0 4.1 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>/39530/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (39530) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References