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Legacy of Kain: Defiance

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
Legacy of Kain: Defiance cover
Developers
Crystal Dynamics
Windows Nixxes Software[1]
Publishers
2003-2009 Eidos Interactive
2009-2023 Square Enix
2023-present Crystal Dynamics
Retail re-release Sold Out Software
Release dates
Windows December 17, 2003
Reception
Metacritic 70
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action
Themes Fantasy
Series Legacy of Kain
Legacy of Kain: Defiance on HowLongToBeat
Legacy of Kain: Defiance on IGDB
Legacy of Kain: Defiance on MobyGames
Legacy of Kain: Defiance on Wikipedia
Legacy of Kain
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain 1997
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1999
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 2001
Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 2002
Legacy of Kain: Defiance 2003
Nosgoth Cancelled

Legacy of Kain: Defiance is a singleplayer third-person action game in the Legacy of Kain series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Essential improvements

Unofficial patches

Unsupported Patch 1.1 patches the North American retail release to version 1.1. Not required for any other version.

Skip intro videos

Instructions
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\movies.
  2. Delete or rename eidos.bik.

Extra setup dialog options

Add DWORD value
  1. With the Registry Editor, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Legacy of Kain: Defiance\1.00.000.
  2. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value and rename it to ExtendedDialog.
  3. Change its value data from 0 to 1.
  4. Run the game and tick Show devtech options in the setup dialog.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Legacy of Kain - Defiance\
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Legacy of Kain: Defiance\1.00.000
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/224300/pfx/[Note 1]
The config file is not in plain text format.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Legacy of Kain - Defiance\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/224300/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
See Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
See Widescreen resolution
Ultra-widescreen
See Widescreen resolution
4K Ultra HD
See Widescreen resolution
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
See Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See Windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Enabled/disabled, no description of method.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Run defiance.exe with -setup command line argument and tick Vertical Sync
60 FPS
120+ FPS
Causes Kain's cloak and Raziel's wings to be glitchy, dialogues skipping at certain points, animations speed up and very complicated closing of the status menu.
See Uncapped frame rate issue.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

Widescreen fix[2]
  1. Download Widescreen fix by nemesis2000.
  2. Extract sr3.7z files to the installation folder.
  3. Edit sr3.ini to set the resolution.

Notes

Password: sr3
Supported exe size: 1 421 312 bytes

Windowed

Use DxWnd
  1. Download and run DxWnd as administrator.
  2. Click on Edit, then Add.
  3. Set name to Legacy of Kain - Defiance.
  4. Set path to <path-to-game>\defiance.exe.
  5. Set Acquire admin caps.
  6. Set Desktop for borderless fullscreen windowed.
  7. Click on DirectX tab, set DirectX9.
  8. Click on Mouse tab, set Cursor visibility to Hide.
  9. Click OK, then File and Save.
  10. Run the game directly from DxWnd.

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Uses DirectInput. XInput controllers may experience issues.
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
Generic/other controllers
Generic DirectInput controllers are supported.
Button prompts Input settings icon - Generic Controller.svg Refers to the action and not the button tied to it.
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Option to enable or disable.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Has on/off options for sound and music
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Pauses when focus is lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
Retail and GOG only. Patch for other digital releases here.
German
Retail and GOG only. Patch for other digital releases here.
Hungarian
Fan translation
Italian
Retail only. Download.
Brazilian Portuguese
Translation.
Spanish
Retail only. Download.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
See Helix Mod: Legacy of Kain: Defiance
vorpX
G3D
User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues fixed

Uncapped frame rate issue

Limit the frame rate to 60 FPS[3]
Enable VSync and set the refresh rate to 60Hz

Random crashes and freezes

Force CPU affinity to one core[4]
Use DxWnd

Use the following configuration in DxWnd:

  • Under the Compat. tab, tick Set single core process affinity.

Low FPS when running from DxWnd

Running from DxWnd, the frame rate is often capped at 40 FPS.
Replace version of Binkw32.dll
  1. Download the version 1.8w of the DLL here.
  2. Copy the DLL file to the game directory by overwriting the existing one.

Insert CD error

Error: "Please insert the original Legacy of Kain: Defiance disc and press OK to continue".
Modify DWORD value
  1. Press Win+R.
  2. Type regedit and press Enter.
  3. Go to:
  4. Open FullInstall and change its value data from 0 to 1.
  5. Click OK.

Textures and backgrounds are missing

Run defiance.exe with -setup command line argument and tick Compatibility mode
Modify DWORD value
  1. Press Win+R.
  2. Type regedit and press Enter.
  3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Legacy of Kain: Defiance\1.00.000.
  4. Open DisableVShader and change its value data from 0 to 1.
  5. Click OK.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0b
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98SE, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium III 700 MHz or Athlon equivalents
System memory (RAM) 128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 2 GB
Video card (GPU) 32 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0b compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9.0 compatible
Controller
Other 4X CD-ROM
Windows 95/NT is not supported

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 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>/224300/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (224300) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References