Prince of Persia (2008)

This page is for the 2008 reboot. For the original, see Prince of Persia.

Prince of Persia

Developers
	Ubisoft Montreal
macOS (OS X)	TransGaming Inc.
Publishers
	Ubisoft
Retail (Russia)	Akella
Engines
	Scimitar
Release dates
Windows	December 9, 2008
macOS (OS X) (Cider)	March 24, 2009
Reception
Metacritic	82
IGDB	84
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Adventure, Platform
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Fantasy, Middle East
Series	Prince of Persia

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Prince of Persia (2008) is a singleplayer third-person action, adventure and platform game in the Prince of Persia series.

General information

Official franchise Discord server

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Retail version is DRM-free. Russian copies use StarForce 5 DRM.
GamersGate
GOG.com
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam
Ubisoft Store		Included with Ubisoft+.
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Ubisoft+.

DLC and expansion packs

The Epilogue DLC is not available for this game on PC; It was only released for the consoles.
Ubisoft stated they will not be porting it to PC, citing business reasons.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename Ubi_Logo.bik[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>\Videos\. Delete or rename Ubi_Logo.bik. If you're playing in a non-English language, rename the Ubi_Logo.bik inside the relevant language subfolder.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Ubisoft\Prince of Persia\1.0\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/19980/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Prince of Persia\Save\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/19980/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Ubisoft Connect

Video

Graphics settings in the launcher.

Example of a glitched, 16x AA launcher option. Do not select this option, if you see it.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor			See the WSGF entry.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD			See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 8x MSAA. There can be a glitch with Nvidia GeForce 10xx GPUs that causes a 16x option to show in this menu. Selecting it will cause the game to crash on launch.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Double buffered. Force triple buffering externally if having frame rate issues.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		See Run the game at screen refresh rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

Set resolution in registry[citation needed]
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Ubisoft\Prince of Persia\1.0\Engine\. Create or change ScreenResolutionWidth and ScreenResolutionHeight values to the desired resolution (careful to select decimal). If the resolution is different from the standard 16:9, create or change AspectRatioOverride vale to [desired width / desired height] x 100 (careful to select decimal).

Windowed

Force windowed[citation needed]
Download and run DxWnd. Click on "Edit", then "Add". Set the "Path" to <path-to-game>\PrinceOfPersia_Launcher.exe. Set the desired window position and size. Set "Desktop" for borderless fullscreen windowed. Set "Native" under "Screen resolution" in the "Video" tab. Click "OK", then "File" and "Save". Double-click the game icon in DxWnd to play.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		No mouse acceleration.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Steam Controller not supported due to not supporting Steam Overlay. When using an Xbox 360 controller the game doesn't display the proper names of the buttons.
Full controller support		Launcher requires mouse and keyboard. Create a shortcut for <path-to-game>\Prince of Persia.exe as a workaround.
Controller remapping		No remap option; only one layout.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Steam Input
Steam Input API support		Steam Overlay not supported.
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, voice, SFX.
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		May require DirectSound3D restoration software.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Retail only. Patch for digital release here or link #2.
Dutch
French
German
Hungarian				Retail only.
Italian
Polish				Retail only. Patch for digital releases here.
Russian				Retail and GOG version. Patch for other digital releases here.
Spanish

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			Use Helix Mod: Prince of Persia 2008 (old version) for better 3D support.
iZ3D

Issues unresolved

Steam overlay is not available

• Opening the Steam overlay in the retail game causes all input (keyboard or controller) to be ignored, requiring a restart of the game.

Game won't launch with Steam Controller connected

• The game will fail to launch while the Steam Controller is connected to your computer. This also means the controller isn't compatible with the game. Possibly related to the Steam Overlay not being supported.

Issues fixed

EAX doesn't work properly with Creative Alchemy/Audio dropout in certain locations when using Creative Alchemy

Use DSOAL with openAl-soft instead[citation needed]
Download the DSOAL DLLs. Unzip the files to <path-to-game>. Notes Doesn't use the hardware solution and EAX 4.0 emulation isn't feature complete in DSOAL at the moment.

To fix while using EAX hardware[citation needed]
Open creative alchemy and select the prince of persia application Click on edit and enter the following settings. Buffers=4 Duration=6 MaxVoiceCount=128 DisableDirectMusic=0 Click ok to save the settings in dsound.ini located in the game folder Run the game and reduce all volume gauges to half. Notes After a few hours, the audio may start to garble; Restarting will fix the issue.

Game freezes or hangs when starting a new game on Windows 10

Use Elisha's Windows 10 Patch[citation needed]
Download the Prince of Persia Windows 10 Patch. Unzip the files to the installation folder.

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Fullscreen mode defaults to 100 Hz, even if the screen refresh rate is set higher than that.

Set screen refresh rate[citation needed]
Install Special K by following the Special K Unofficial Guide. Start the game once and close it to allow the configuration file of Special K to be created. Open <path-to-game>\d3d9.ini or %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Mods\SpecialK\Profiles\Prince of Persia.exe\SpecialK.ini depending on the installation method you used. Change RefreshRate=-1 to RefreshRate=0 under [Render.FrameRate].

Use ForceFix

Install recommended software and system updates, if for Windows 7, under Ideal Conditions from Steam Guide. Download version of ForceFix for your operating system from Steam Guide. Unpack the archive and launch ForceFix. For refresh rates above 60 Hz, set frequency under Custom tab and Apply. Notes By default, the refresh rate in the game will go back to normal once you close the program. You can change it by unchecking Restore on Close option.

Use ReShade 5.6.0+

Download ReShade of any version post and including 5.6.0. Install ReShade by navigating to <path-to-game>, selecting PrinceOfPersia_Launcher.exe and DirectX 9 option in ReShade's installer. You don't need to install any effects. Go to <path-to-game> and open ReShade.ini with any text editor (i.e. Notepad). In the [APP] section of ReShade.ini find ForceDefaultRefreshRate=0 variable and change its value to 1. Notes This will force the game to use the display refresh rate set in Windows display settings.

In-game status is not showing in Steam

Create batch file
Open a text editor and add the following text to it: set SteamAppId=19980 PrinceOfPersia_Launcher.exe Save it as a .bat file in <path-to-game>. Run the file to launch the game.

Game may freeze on loading screens

Might happen with some nvidia drivers.

Turn Vsync on in the game launcher[citation needed]
Run Launcher.exe. Open Settings. Uncheck Widescreen. Check Vertical Sync.

Force Vsync in the GPU's control panel

Game may have slow or choppy motion

Might happen with some Nvidia drivers.

Lower anti-aliasing[citation needed]
Open launcher and lower anti-aliasing setting. Notes Drivers such as 197 or older do not have this issue.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c, 10
Shader Model support	3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)			This 32-bit-only macOS game does not work on macOS Catalina (10.15) or later.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Cutscenes	Bink Video

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP	Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium D AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	9 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X1600 Nvidia GeForce 6800 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3.0 support	DirectX 10 compatible