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.

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 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.