Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

How to install the disc version of Knights of the Old Republic on Windows Vista / 7

This guide was taken from the LucasForums. It can also work for Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. To avoid any potential problems this should be done with an administrator account.

1: Download and install the latest version of DirectX.

2: Insert the game disc, and ignore any auto play screens.

3: Open up the Start Menu and click on “Computer”. Right click on the disc drive that has the game disc and select “Explore”.

4: Right click on “setup.exe” and select “Properties”. Click on “Compatibility” and select the options “Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP Service Pack 2(SP2)" and "Run as Administrator".

5: Run “setup.exe” and install the game as normal. The path where the game is normally installed is

C:\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\SWKotOR\

but you will want to install the game outside of Program Files

C:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\

6: Patch the game. Download the manual patch instead of using the game's auto updater. You can download the patch from LucasArts. Once the patch is downloaded, right click on the file, select “Properties”, and follow the same compatibility settings as done on “setup.exe”. If you own the Star Wars: The Best of PC version of Knights of the Old Republic you do not need to patch the game.

7: Explore the hard drive and find the folder where you installed the game. Right click on the folder, select “Properties”, un-check “Read-Only”, then click “Apply”.

8: Download the SecuROM updated .exe file from here. This is for the US versions of the game. For international versions, go through the SecuROM support website. Rename the old .exe files before copying the updated ones in the game folder. If you own the Star Wars: The Best of PC version of Knights of the Old Republic you do not need to replace the .exe.

9: Right click on every .exe file in the game folders and set the compatiblity modes to the same as in step 4.

10: Right click on the “kotor.exe” and select “Create shortcut”. Move the shortcuts to your desktop.

11: If you are using a multi-core computer, you will need to set CPU affinity. Right click on the shortcut and select “Properties”. In the target box, type in:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start "SWKOTOR" /D "C:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\" /high /affinity 1 "C:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\kotor.exe"

Replace

C:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\

with where you installed the game. This shortcut needs to be set to “Run as Administrator”. To change the icon to the shortcut, click on “Properties” and then “Change icon”. A new box will open. Find your game folder and select the game .exe.

How to make Star wars: Knights of the Old Republic Widescreen

Guide taken from www.wsgf.org

Patching:

Special Instructions for Steam Version

Unfortunately, because the Steam version executable is encrypted, UniWS can not be used to modify the Steam version of the game directly. However, UniWS will work on a no-CD (cracked) executable of the original disc version of the game. This executable can in turn be used with the Steam version's content files to play the Steam version in widescreen.

Please be aware that using a cracked exe could be seen as a violation of Steam's Subscriber Agreement, and you accept full responsibility for whatever resulting consequences, if any. In practice however, Steam has generally allowed us to discuss the mod openly on their forums and there are other precedents where they've allowed (or knowingly overlooked) the use of alternate executables for modding purposes.

1. We can not provide direct links to the no-CD executable, but search for "Kotor no-CD" in the search engine of your choice and you should find it quickly.

2. The no-CD version you need is the v1.03 fixed EXE by FairLight.

3. Unzip the no-CD executable and replace the executable in the game's install directory (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\swkotor\).

4. (Optional) After running UniWS described in the section below, you may wish to rename the edited executable so that it is not overwritten during Steam content verification, but you'll need to manually create a shortcut to it then, as it will not launch from the Steam Games menu.

Widescreen Resolutions

The game plays in Hor+ widescreen with the use of the UniWS patcher, originally developed by Wogg. The Patcher consists of two parts: Uniws.exe (which is the GUI interface and patcher), and the patches.ini file (which contains the game data to make the patch).

1. We strongly suggest making a backup copy of the KotOR executable (swkotor.exe) and placing it somewhere safe before modifying the game.

2. Download UniWS here: UniWS.zip. Unzip to a directory of your choice and run.

3. Choose "Star Wars: KOTOR (1024x768 interface)" from the Game dropdown menu, regardless of what resolution you want to patch to.

4. Locate the game's folder in the folder browser.

5. Enter your chosen widescreen resolution and click the Patch button. Note that widescreen resolutions lower than 1440x900 will not work! If you need to patch to a resolution lower than 1440x900 see the Notes below.

• If the Patch button or resolution boxes are greyed out, you have either not selected the appropriate directory, or your version of the game is not compatible with UniWS. UniWS only supports the v1.03 retail disc or no-CD versions of KotOR.

6. The new resolution should now be available in the game's options menu. However, some people have reported the resolution does not show up. For this reason, we recommend setting the resolution in the ini file before starting the game. Open swkotor.ini found in the game's main installation directory and edit the "Height=" and "Width=" settings to match the resolution you specified in UniWS.

HUD Correction

Sweetz (old username: Stevedroid), with the help of Malakaius (who originally discovered the HUD files could be edited), has created adjusted HUD files for all working common widescreen resolutions as well as corrected 2D backgrounds for the menus. Many thanks to both of them, without whom this would not be possible.

1. Download the appropriate file for your selected resolution from the below links.

1530x864 (Use for 720p HDTV or 1360/1366x768 displays)

1440x900

1680x1050

1920x1080

1920x1080 (Updated by nix3r)

1920x1200

2560x1600

2. Unzip the files into the "Override" directory found under your main KOTOR installation directory.

Troubleshooting

First, please review the instructions carefully, making sure you didn't miss a step. We've found that 9 times out 10 when someone reports trouble getting the mod to work correctly, they made a small mistake or skipped a step.

If you experience an issue where you can not move the mouse cursor all the way to the right edge of the screen, enable Hardware Mouse in the game's options.

If pre-rendered movies aren't playing correctly:

By default, KotOR is hardcoded to play pre-rendered movies at 800x600 regardless of game resolution. UniWS alters this so that movies will play at the same resolution the game is patched to, this fixes movie playback on some systems where it did not work. However, some people have indicated that while movies played fine in the pre-modded game, they do not display correctly after modding. As a possible solution, UniWS's patches.ini can be altered so that it will not modify the movie resolution.

1. First undo any previous patching using UniWS (you don't need to touch the HUD files, just run UniWS), or use your backup copy of the executable.

2. Open the patches.ini file that comes with UniWS in a text editor.

3. Find the section labled: [Star Wars: KOTOR (1024x768 interface)]

4. Remove the following lines in this section:

   ;movies edit 1
   p6modfile=swkotor.exe
   p6undofile=swkotorc.undom1
   p6sig=800200007515813DD8D17800E001
   p6sigwild=00000000000000
   p6xoffset=0
   p6yoffset=12
   p6occur=1
   ;movies edit 2
   p7modfile=swkotor.exe
   p7undofile=swkotorc.undom2
   p7sig=80020000C7442410E001
   p7sigwild=0000000000
   p7xoffset=0
   p7yoffset=8
   p7occur=1

Save the file and repeat the WS Resolutions steps using the updated patches.ini

• If using the widescreen patch the game may display a black screen while playing cutscenes. In many cases alt-tabbing out and back into the game during the cutscene will start the cutscene over with the player now able to see the video.

Other Fixes

• Dantooine Lag Fix - Go to the game folder

C:\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\SWKotOR\

or

C:\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\SWKotOR2\

and open the .ini file (either swkotor.ini or swkotor2.ini) with Notepad. Scroll down until you find “Graphics Options”. At the end of the graphics options section, and add the line "Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1" without quotes. Save the file.

• If the game crashes when an in-game movie plays, you will need to enable support for the resolution 640 x 480 in your graphics card driver's control panel. This can be found by clicking “Control Panel” in the Start Menu.

• If the game won't load, find the intro movies files in the game folder and rename them. The files are biologo.bik, leclogo.bik and legal.bik.

• If you encounter recurring issues with being unable to move your character, enabling Vertical Sync will greatly reduce the occurrences of this problem.

• The game can sometimes crash in two places. In the level "Prison Block", aboard the Leviathan, the game can crash when opening the detention cells (which hold the rest of your characters) and when activating the lift to go up to the bridge. Both of these crashes are fixed by rebooting your computer. On the console version, switching stealth mode off may help.

• The game can also crash right after a shooting sequence right after the Leviathan level. This can be easily fixed by entering the door that leads to the hangar as the protagonist.

• If using the widescreen patch the game may display a black screen while playing cutscenes. In many cases alt-tabbing out and back into the game during the cutscene will start the cutscene over with the player now able to see the video.

The Steam Version of KotOR and Mods

All mods can be easily installed by copying the relevant files into the override folder.

However, considering that most every KotOR mod was created before the Steam version's release, you should NEVER install a mod that involves a .2DK file, like Weapons of the Old Republic. Your game may begin having severe issues. You can delete the non-.2DK files mods that are causing the game trouble and still have compatible save files, but when deleted, .2DK mods will invalidate your saves, and you will have to waste numerous hours enabling cheats and wasting additional time on un-needed bugs and a consequently degenerating game.

Other mods without .2DK files are generally fine, and can be deleted if any issues arise, should issues crop up, without danger to your save games. Most small mods, such as "A Visual Kiss with Bastila," do not have .2DK files in them and are perfectly fine to install.

See Also

• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
• Star Wars: The Old Republic