Warhammer: Dark Omen

Warhammer: Dark Omen

Developers
	Mindscape
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Release dates
Windows	March 1998
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Point and select
Genres	RPG, Strategy
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Warhammer

Warhammer: Dark Omen is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view RPG and strategy game in the Warhammer series.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail

A free demo version is available from Archive.org.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Move, delete or rename files
Go to <path-to-game>\MOVIES. Move, delete or rename INTRO.TGQ and ENG.TGQ (English version) / GER.TGQ (German version).

Dark Omen Mod Pack

Makes the game playable on modern systems, enables 3D hardware renderer, allows mod selection from the main menu, adds infinite zoom-out, fixes colored cursor crash and prevents dead bodies from disappearing.

Mod pack installation
Select maximum installation when installing Dark Omen. Back up the <path-to-game>\PRG_ENG folder. Copy the Movies folder from the game disc and paste it into <path-to-game>. Download the Modpack. Unpack and override armytmp, Mods and PRG_ENG into <path-to-game>.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Dark Omen\1.0\Options

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\SaveGame

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Use dgVoodoo 2.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Use dgVoodoo 2.
4K Ultra HD		Use dgVoodoo 2.
Field of view (FOV)		Dark Omen Mod Pack enables infinite zoom-out.
Windowed		Has to be changed in registry.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Use dgVoodoo 2.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16x with dgVoodoo 2.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 8x MSAA with dgVoodoo 2.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Force through GPU settings or dgVoodoo 2. Game seems to default to screen refresh rate by itself.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Game seems to default to screen refresh rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		PSX version only.

Controller types

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Has to be changed in registry. Dark Omen uses single slider for sound and music. You can only disable one by boosting the other from in-game settings.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
German
Brazilian Portuguese

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play		2	Versus
Online play		2	Versus GameSpy services have been shut down; see GameSpy for workarounds.

Issues fixed

Full 3D mode fix

Made obsolete by Dark Omen Mod Pack.

Only CPU mode works unless you apply the fix below

Full 3D mode fix for modern Windows

Install Dark Omen with a full installation as administrator. Download this file and place it in <path-to-game> and overwrite everything. Go to <path-to-game>\PRG_ENG and run EngRel 3d Fix &Extreme Camera zoom & Overhead Map.exe in [[Windows Compatibility Mode]|compatibility mode]] for Windows 98 / ME, in 640x480 screen resolution in 16-bit color mode. Run the game using EngRel 3d Fix &Extreme Camera zoom & Overhead Map.exe. Notes All visual settings can be turned on except for Colored Cursors, which crashes the game. The tutorial will seem like it does not recognize the camera movement at first, but keep doing it for a few minutes and the tutorial will move on.

Colored cursor fix

Made obsolete by Dark Omen Mod Pack.

Colored cursors fix[citation needed]
Download the fixed files. Copy files to <path-to-game>\Graphics\Cursors and overwrite all. Notes Make sure the colored cursors are 'off' in the graphics menu, as that settings crashes the game. This is a workaround of that crash that enables the colored cursors to work.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D
Glide

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	95
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium
System memory (RAM)	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU)	2 MB of VRAM DirectX 5 compatible
Other	4x CD-ROM drive