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Witchaven

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Witchaven
Witchaven cover
Developers
Capstone Software
Publishers
United States IntraCorp
Europe U.S. Gold
Digital SNEG
Engines
Build
Release dates
DOS September 20, 1995
Windows (DOSBox) June 9, 2021[1]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, FPS
Art styles Digitized, Realistic
Themes Fantasy
Series Witchaven
Witchaven on HowLongToBeat
Witchaven on IGDB
Witchaven guide on StrategyWiki
Witchaven on MobyGames
Witchaven on Wikipedia
Witchaven
Witchaven 1995
Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance 1996

Witchaven is a 1995 sword & sorcery fantasy FPS game with a heavy focus on melee combat. It features light RPG mechanics and blends fast-paced first-person combat with a rudimentary experience and leveling system. It is the first game licensed to use the Build engine, and as such uses an earlier version than Duke Nukem 3D. It is known for hazardous map triggers and game physics that cause slippery player movement, sudden deaths, and faulty hit detection. Its singleplayer mode is twenty-five levels long and it has six multiplayer-only maps

Witchaven received a few patches before developer Capstone Software became defunct. The game would receive little attention after 1996 until a former development team member released the game's source code in 2006.[2] After this, EGwhaven and a Dehacker tool would appear that alleviate problems with mouse control and gamelogic issues. Witchaven support was added to BuildGDX in 2018, and is the most accessible way to play this game on modern systems.

For a high-fidelity, accurate, and accessible implementation of the game use BuildGDX. For a bugfixed version of the original DOS executable and game code use EGwhaven inside DOSBox or on a Pentium DOS computer.

General information

ETTiNGRiNDER's Witchaven Shrine Fanpage that catalogues much of Witchaven's content & bugs.
Witchaven entry at RTCM Lots of information & patches relating to Witchaven.
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)
DOS
GOG.com
DRM-free
Prepackaged with DOSBox.
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Bundled with Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Prepackaged with DOSBox.
Windows
GOG.com and Steam versions include the original retail build, as well as an Enhanced build (both running on DOSBox with a custom configuration tool). The Enhanced build features fixes introduced in EGwhaven, and the controls are remapped to be more consistent with modern first-person games.[3][4]

Demo

July 1995 Witchaven Demos

Identical shareware demos containing the first three maps of the game. These demos have different enemy placement and game mechanics than retail. Capstone released a patch for them based on player feedback through a Usenet newsgroup.

Witchaven 3 Level Interactive Preview

Features finalized versions of the first three maps. Includes cinematic intro by Animation Factory. Performs disc check.

Essential improvements

EGwhaven A bugfix/enhancement patch to the original executable. Improves mod-ability, player movement, and adds a human-readable config file.
ETTiNGRiNDER's Unofficial Witchaven level patches Fixes issues for two maps.
Witchaven can be set to read its SMK files from the hard drive. Use the LOCAL parameter when launching the game.

Source ports

Name Description
BuildGDX Reverse-engineered gameplay-accurate port written in Java. Adds high resolutions support, OpenGL renderer, modern controller support and improved mouse control. Fixes most issues with the game. Discontinued.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
NuBuildGDX Fork of BuildGDX aiming for stability, bug fixing and performance improvements.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

DOSBox

DOS32A

DOS32A is a memory extender for DOS games. It is an open source replacement to DOS4GW which was often used in game development. It can improve both the performance and stability of Witchaven.

Game data

Most of Witchaven's save data and settings are stored in non-human-readable .DAT files. It is possible to modify them with a hex editor.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\PREF.DAT
<path-to-game>\SETUP.DAT
<path-to-game>\SETUP.INI
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1655410/pfx/[Note 2]
PREF.DAT contains values changeable ingame.[5]
SETUP.DAT contains values changeable by setup utility.[6]
SETUP.INI is the main config for the HMI sound system.

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SVGM*.MAP
<path-to-game>\SVGN*.DAT
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1655410/pfx/[Note 2]
SVGM*.MAP stores map data. Witchaven uses Build MAP format version 6.[7]
SVGN*.DAT stores player data.[8]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Witchaven's video settings screen.
Witchaven's video settings screen.
Certain parts of Witchaven's gamelogic were written to be dependent on framerate. If unmodified it begins to malfunction at 30FPS and up.[9][10]
EGwhaven remedies this by capping the framerate to 24FPS.

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Using setup.exe.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
During gameplay press F12 and then use to select between the X and Y axes. Then press to adjust the sensitivity of your selected axis. Press F12 again to confirm.
Mouse input in menus
The Witchaven Setup Utility supports mouse use. The ingame menu and sound card configuration program do not.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
See the Glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller must be configured first.
Controller remapping
Using setup.exe.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
See the Glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
PlayStation controllers
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Tracked motion controllers
The VFX1 cyberpuck is supported via a patch. Controls are configured in VFX1.CFG.
Button/gesture prompts
Generic/other controllers
Button prompts
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
During gameplay press F9 and then use to select between music and sound effects. Then use to modify volume. Press F9 again to confirm.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
LAN play
16 Versus, Co-op
Online play
16 Versus, Co-op
IPX

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Self-hosting
IPX

Multiplayer clients

  • Classic Gaming Arena is a service for IPX-based multiplayer games running within DOSBox. Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

VR support

Headset Native Notes
Forte VFX1
Supported via a patch by Capstone. Type WH VFX1 to use.
Victormaxx Cybermaxx 2.0
Supported via a patch by Capstone. Type WH CYBER to use.
Virtual i-O I-Glasses
Supported via a patch by Capstone. Type WH IGLASS to use.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes SVGA, SVGA (VESA), VGA

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio HMI Sound Operating System Configured by editing HMISET.CFG, PATCHES.INI, and SETUP.INI.
Cutscenes Smacker Video
Multiplayer DWANGO Support was added by Capstone via a patch

Modding

Map Editing

Texture packs

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 5.0
Processor (CPU) Intel 486DX/33 MHz
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 5 MB
Video card (GPU) SuperVGA, VESA, VGA
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7, 8.1
Processor (CPU) Dual Core
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1 GB
Video card (GPU) 512 MB of VRAM


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data.
  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>/1655410/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1655410) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References