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Risen

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Risen
Risen cover
Developers
Piranha Bytes
Publishers
2009-2020 Deep Silver
2020-present THQ Nordic
Release dates
Windows October 2, 2009
Reception
Metacritic 77
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres RPG, ARPG
Themes Fantasy
Series Risen
Risen on HowLongToBeat
Risen on IGDB
Risen guide on StrategyWiki
Risen on MobyGames
Risen on Wikipedia
Risen
Risen 2009
Risen 2: Dark Waters 2012
Risen 3: Titan Lords 2014

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
TAGES Solidshield DRM disc check; use Patch 1.11 Final to remove.
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Not available in Australia and New Zealand.[1]
Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.11 Final fixes various issues and removes copy protection.
The Risen Unofficial patch fixes a number of minor issues with gameplay, localisation, quests and dialog that were not addressed in the official patches. Works on official patch versions 1.10 and 1.11.
FPS and aspect ratio fix UI fix for ultra wide monitors, a frame limiter that prevents bugs with falling, updated in 2023.

Skip intro videos

Remove intro videos from playlist[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\data\extern\videos\
  2. Open logo.ini.
  3. Delete all of its contents.
  4. Save the file.

Game data

General options, including subtitles and mouse Y-axis inversion
General options, including subtitles and mouse Y-axis inversion

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\Risen\ConfigUser.xml
<path-to-game>\data\ini\ConfigDefault.xml[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/40300/pfx/[Note 2]
ConfigUser.xml overrides ConfigDefault.xml; make changes in ConfigUser.xml unless otherwise noted.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Risen\SaveGames\
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Risen\SaveGames\
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Risen\achievements.bin
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/40300/pfx/[Note 2]
The save location was changed in the February 2023 update. Old save files can be manually copied over to the new location if not present.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Added with the 2023 patch.
Steam Cloud
Added with the 2023 patch.

Video

Video settings
Video settings
Performance settings
Performance settings

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen
See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD
Native 3840x2160 support. Can go higher in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Risen\ConfigUser.xml
Field of view (FOV)
60° – 100°. FOV can be changed in-game after 2023 patch.
Windowed
See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Nvidia users can force SGSSAA. See Anti-aliasing (AA).
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Added with the 2023 patch.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
No frame rate or refresh rate cap.[2]
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Better graphics

Quality can be further improved (e.g. higher draw distance) by editing config files.[3][4]

Widescreen resolution

Aspect ratio is fully correct for 16:9 only. 16:10 resolutions are listed in-game but have some UI elements slightly squashed.
Fix aspect ratio[5]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\data\ini
  2. Edit ConfigDefault.xml
  3. Under Aspect16x9 change VirtalWidth= to match the equivalent of your aspect ratio for a height of 768 pixels (e.g. use 1228 for 16:10).
  4. Go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Risen
  5. Edit ConfigUser.xml
  6. Change Bottom= to the resolution's full height (not the scaled height set before).
  7. Change Right= to the resolution's full width.

Notes

The sizing of the HUD, fonts, and inventory/map/journal screens can be changed by adjusting the values for both VirtalWidth= and VirtalHeight= (use values that still equal a correct aspect ratio for the resolution you are using). Non-default settings will cause some minor positioning issues.

Windowed

Enable windowed mode in config file[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\data\ini
  2. Edit ConfigDefault.xml.
  3. Change FullScreen="true" to FullScreen="false"

Notes

Desktop cursor will appear in-game.
Alternative file to override fullscreen might be <path-to-game>\data\ini\ConfigLocal.xml

Anti-aliasing (AA)

SGSSAA (Nvidia only)[citation needed]
  1. Open Risen driver profile via Nvidia Profile Inspector.
  2. Change Antialiasing compatibility to 0x000002C1[6]
  3. Change Antialiasing - Mode to Override any application setting.
  4. Change Antialiasing - Setting to 4x [4x Multisampling] or 8xQ [8x Multisampling].
  5. Change Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling to 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling or 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling. This should match your Multisampling selection.
  6. Apply changes.
  7. Set Depth of field to Off in the games video settings

Notes

High quality anti-aliasing.
Performance demanding.

Input

Key rebinding menu
Key rebinding menu

Mouse sensitivity

Change sensitivity in config file[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\data\ini
  2. Edit ConfigDefault.xml
  3. Find SensitivityX="0.5f" and change 0.5 to a value of your choosing for X-axis sensitivity.
  4. Do the same for SensitivityY="0.5f" for the Y-axis sensitivity.
Does not affect mouse sensitivity in menus; only affects mouse-look speed during gameplay.
Recommended values are -0.29 for X axis and 0.1 for Y axis. If the negative value for the X axis is below a certain number the axis gets reversed.

Audio

Audio settings
Audio settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, voice, effects, ambient and master volume.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Under Game settings.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation; download. Guide (Steam).
Russian
Russian
Spanish
Improved fan translation by Clan Dlan, download.
Turkish
Fan translation. Details missing—please edit this page and add it.

Issues fixed

"The program cannot start because PhysXLoader.dll is missing from your computer" error at launch

Install PhysX[citation needed]

Install the NVIDIA PhysX System Software.

"The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect" error at launch

Install Visual C++ 2005 (x86)[7]

Install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86).

The above link appears to be broken now, try this link instead (restart computer after installing to take effect): Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package MFC Security Update.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
Shader Model support 3.0
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
64-bit support added with the 2023 patch.

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics PhysX
Audio FMOD 4.24.0
Cutscenes Bink Video 1.8i

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP SP3
Processor (CPU) 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 2.5 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 7900
ATI Radeon X1800
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Shader model 3.0 support
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9.0c compatible


Notes

  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. 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>/40300/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (40300) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References