The Thing

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the 2002 game based on the John Carpenter film of the same name. For the unrelated 1988 game, see The Thing (1988).

The Thing
The Thing cover
Developers
Computer Artworks
Publishers
Vivendi Universal Games
Release dates
Windows August 20, 2002
Reception
Metacritic 77
IGDB 69
Taxonomy
Themes Antarctica
The Thing on IGDB
The Thing on MobyGames
The Thing on Wikipedia
Icon overlay.png
Icon overlay.png

Availability[edit]

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
 SecuROM 4 DRM.
Windows
This game is not available digitally.

Essential improvements[edit]

Patches[edit]

Patch 1.2 adds mouse look (enable in options under advanced controls).

Bump mapping[edit]

Enabling bump mapping
  1. Download and extract Sui's Wrapper to <path-to-game>\bin\ directory.
  2. Edit d3d8.ini with a text editor and make sure BumpMapping is set to 1.
  3. Download bump maps and extract them to <path-to-game>\data\textures.

Notes

Patch 1.2 is required.

Game data[edit]

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

System Location
Windows HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Computer Artworks\The Thing\1.0\

Save game data location[edit]

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\bin\[Note 1]

Video[edit]

Game settings.
Game settings.
Audio and video settings.
Audio and video settings.
Key mappings screen.
Key mappings screen.
Advanced controls (enable mouse look here).
Advanced controls (enable mouse look here).

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
 
 Use Sui's Wrapper.
Multi-monitor
 
Ultra-widescreen
 
 Use Sui's Wrapper.
4K Ultra HD
 
 Use Sui's Wrapper.
Field of view (FOV)
Use Sui's Wrapper.
Windowed
Use Sui's Wrapper.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Use Sui's Wrapper.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Use Sui's Wrapper.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Use Sui's Wrapper.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Use Sui's Wrapper.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Widescreen resolution[edit]

Enabling widescreen resolution
  1. Download and extract Sui's Wrapper to <path-to-game>\bin\ directory.
  2. Edit d3d8.ini with a text editor and change Width and Height to your desired resolution.

Input[edit]

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio[edit]

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Master volume option only.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Spanish

Issues fixed[edit]

White screen, no intro movie error[edit]

Missing data paths will result in a white and black screen when starting the game or broken menu graphics.
Reinstall the game
Or add the necessary paths to the registry by hand:
  1. Copy the following code block to a text editor
  2. Save as a .reg file and run (merge) it
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Computer Artworks\The Thing\1.0]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Computer Artworks\The Thing\1.0]
"RESOURCEDIR"="c:\\thething\\data;c:\\thething\\data\\mainui.pak"
Edit the paths accordingly if the game is not installed to C:\thething.

VR support[edit]

3D modes Native Notes
vorpX
G3D
User created game profile(s), (DGVoodoo2 2.54/D3D8to9), see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Other information[edit]

API[edit]

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 8
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware[edit]

Middleware Notes
Audio DirectSound3D

Enabling cheats[edit]

Cheats are enabled in the registry:
  1. Copy the following code block to a text editor
  2. Save as a .reg file and run (merge) it
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Computer Artworks\The Thing\1.0]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Computer Artworks\The Thing\1.0]
"PlayerInvulnerable"="1"
"NPCInvulnerable"="1"
"FullWeaponEquip"="1"
"Fullammo"="1"
These parameters are included in d3d8.ini that comes with Sui's Wrapper

System requirements[edit]

Windows[1]
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 98
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium II
System memory (RAM) 64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 600 MB
Video card (GPU) 3D Accelerator Required
8 MB of VRAM
DirectX 8 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).

References

  1. ↑ The Thing for Windows (2002) Tech Info - MobyGames - last accessed on November 30, 2016