Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic cover
Developers
BioWare
macOS (OS X) Aspyr Media
Publishers
LucasArts
Disney Interactive Studios
Engines
Odyssey
Release dates
Windows November 19, 2003
OS X September 7, 2004
 
 
 
 
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2003
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords 2005
Star Wars: The Old Republic 2011

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
Steam Users' Forums for game series
LucasArts forums
LucasForums for game series

Availability[edit]

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
 
 DRM: SecuROM disc check
 
 
Amazon.com
 
 Bundled with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, is fully patched and compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7.
 
GamersGate
 
 
 
Gamesplanet
 
 
 
Games Republic
 
 
 
GOG.com
 
 
Green Man Gaming
 
 
 
Humble Store
 
 
 
Mac App Store
 
 
Steam
 
 
 

Essential improvements[edit]

Patches[edit]

Patch v1.03 is the latest patch.
Not required for Steam version

Skip intro videos[edit]

Instructions[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Movies
  2. Delete or rename leclogo.bik, biologo.bik, and Legal.bik.

Gameplay mods[edit]

KotOR 1 Restoration[edit]

Restores small bit of cut content and fixes any remaining bugs.

Game data[edit]

Configuration utility
Configuration utility
Gameplay options
Gameplay options

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\swkotor.ini
<path-to-game>\swconfig.ini
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location[edit]

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\saves
macOS (OS X) ~/Library/Application Support/Knights of the Old Republic/saves

Save game cloud syncing[edit]

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings[edit]

Graphics Options.
Graphics Options.
Advanced Graphics Options.
Advanced Graphics Options.
Graphics option Option WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
 
 Follow instructions here (no-CD exe for Steam version can be found at GameCopyWorld -- use v1.03 exe by FairLight). Flawless Widescreen also works but doesn't always apply, doesn't play nice with modifications to the game, and makes the game unstable -- not recommended.[citation needed]
Multi-monitor
 
 Use Flawless Widescreen.
Ultra-widescreen
 
 Use Flawless Widescreen.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Use Borderless Gaming with Auto-Maximize disabled.[1]
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS
See High frame rate.

Windowed[edit]

Windowed solution[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Open swkotor.ini.
  3. Set FullScreen to 0.
  4. Add AllowWindowedMode=1 under [Graphics Options]
  5. Use Alt+↵ Enter to switch to windowed mode in game.

High frame rate[edit]

Edit configuration file[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Open swkotor.ini.
  3. Find RefreshRate under [Graphics Options] and change to desired value.

Input settings[edit]

Mouse options
Mouse options
Keyboard and mouse Native Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse pointer will use default Windows behavior
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
See below if you have any troubles
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller[edit]

Controller is not natively supported.
Xpadder controller profile[citation needed]

A Xpadder profile created by Heraske is available to use. It is approximately 90% full controller support that is NEAR IDENTICAL to the original Xbox game. Also supports DS4 controller out of the box. Requires VERY minimal mouse movement. Here is a video demonstrating it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7a3XeWhC-4 Features

  • 8-Directional movement with varying speed between walk and run
  • Left and right trigger target selection
  • A button for action and select
  • X to flourish weapons
  • Arrow keys mapped onto D-PAD to go through inventory and chat dialogue
  • 1, 2, and 3 mapped to D-PAD for combat (Need to hold them down longer to prevent arrow keys to activate)
  • Character switch on Right Bumper
  • B to exit combat

Runs just by opening Xpadder and the configuration with the proper profile; No file installation in the game data files required

Audio settings[edit]

Sound options
Sound options
Advanced sound options
Advanced sound options
Audio options Native Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, voice-over, effects, movie
Surround sound
[2]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
EAX 3

Localizations

Language UI Audio CC Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Polish
Only available in Polish retail release. Not available digitally.
Spanish
Turkish
A Turkish fan patch is available here.

Issues fixed[edit]

Installing retail version on modern versions of Windows[edit]

Some users may have problems installing retail versions. Installation should be done with an administrator account for best results.
Install retail version[3]
  1. Download and install the latest version of DirectX.
  2. Insert the game disc, and ignore any auto play screens.
  3. Open 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.
  5. Click on Compatibility and select the options Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP Service Pack 2(SP2) and Run as Administrator.
  6. Run setup.exe and install the game as normal. Default installation path 
    C:\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\SWKotOR\
    . Recommended to install outside program files. 
    C:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\
  7. 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.
  8. Go to the installation folder.
  9. Right click on the folder, select “Properties”, un-check “Read-Only”, then click “Apply”.
  10. 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 installation 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.
  11. Right click on every .exe file in the installation folders and set the compatibility modes to the same as in step 4.
  12. Right click on the “kotor.exe” and select “Create shortcut”. Move the shortcuts to your desktop.
  13. 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:

%WINDIR%\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”. However, the "Run as Administrator" box will be greyed out in the Compatibility tab; it must instead be ticked in the Advanced options under the Shortcut tab. To change the icon to the shortcut, click on “Properties” and then “Change icon”. A new box will open. Find the installation folder and select the game .exe. To prevent the command window from popping up briefly while launching, under the shortcut properties change the "Run" mode to "Minimized".

Lag and CTD[edit]

Lag[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Edit swkotor.ini.
  3. Scroll down until you find “Graphics Options”. At the end of the graphics options section.
  4. Add the line Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1
  5. Save the file.
This fix does not affect image quality, as Vertex Buffer Objects were just a mean of improving performance back then.

Game crashes when a movie is played[edit]

Game crashes when a movie is played[citation needed]
  • If the game crashes when a movie is played, you will need to enable support for the resolution 640x480 in your graphics card driver's control panel.[citation needed]
  • Another solution is to play in windowed mode.

Game crashes when using AMD graphics[edit]

This issue occurs due to poor support for older OpenGL implementations in several versions of AMD Catalyst Display Driver.
Game crashes when using AMD graphics[citation needed]

There are two ways to resolve this:

I. Quick and ugly - disable Frame Buffer Effects (this will make certain graphical effects extremely simplistic - e.g. Stealth field):

  1. Inside the game's installation folder, open swkotor.ini using a simple text editor (e.g. Notepad).
  2. Under [Graphics Options] section, change Frame Buffer=1 to Frame Buffer=0.
  3. Save the change and play.
This negatively affects image quality.

II. Long and proper - replace the game's atioglxx.dll with a version that works (at the moment, one from Catalyst Display Driver v14.4):

  1. Download Catalyst Display Driver v14.4 for your version of operating system from AMD website (look for a link called "Previous Drivers and Software", usually located on the latest driver download page).
  2. Using 7-Zip or another compatible archiving utility, extract the downloaded driver exe file into a new folder.
  3. Inside the folder into which you just extracted the driver, do a search for a file called atioglxx.dl_ (yes, with an underscore).
  4. Using 7-Zip or another compatible archiving utility, extract the atioglxx.dl_ file. This will give you the final atioglxx.dll.
  5. Copy the newly extracted atioglxx.dll file into your game's installation folder, replacing the atioglxx.dll inside.
  6. Play the game.

Notes

This fix will not work on many GPUs, especially the newest ones.

Game Won't Load[edit]

Game Won't Load[citation needed]
  1. Find the intro movies files in the installation folder
  2. Rename, move or remove the following files: 
biologo.bik
leclogo.bik
legal.bik.

Unable to move your character[edit]

Unable to move your character[citation needed]
  1. Hold down both the right and the left mouse button.
  2. Press the quicksave button and keep both mouse buttons pressed during the whole saving process.
  3. Once the saving process is completed your can release both mouse buttons. The character should control normally again.
  • If you encounter recurring issues with being unable to move your character, enabling Vertical Sync will greatly reduce the occurrences of this problem.

Game minimizes after escaping Taris and refuses to maximize again[edit]

Some users experience this issue after boarding the Ebon Hawk for the first time and are thus unable to progress past Taris.
Game minimizes after escaping Taris and refuses to maximize again[citation needed]
  1. Open swconfig.ini (in the same folder as swkotor.exe)
  2. Locate the line: FullScreen=1
  3. Change to: FullScreen=0
  4. Save the file and continue playing the game, reverting the change once you've landed on Dantooine

Crashes when opening detention cells and activating lift[edit]

Crashes when opening detention cells and activating lift[citation needed]
  • 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. Alternatively, changing the resolution to 800x600 may help if a reboot is unsuccessful. Disabling mouselook may also work.

Crash after a shooting sequence - Leviathan level[edit]

Crash after a shooting sequence - Leviathan level[citation needed]
  • 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.

Cutscene bug with Saul Karath on Leviathan[edit]

Game won't play an important cutscene at the end of the Leviathan level and just does not continue[citation needed]
  • Download the fix and follow the instructions.

Black Screen While Playing Cutscenes[edit]

If using the widescreen patch, the game may display a black screen while playing cutscenes.
ALT-TAB out of and back into the game[citation needed]

Notes

Flawless Widescreen may not need this fix.[citation needed]
Set game to use dedicated graphic card[citation needed]

Cannot use your mouse in main menu[edit]

Disable hardware mouse support[citation needed]
  1. Run swconfig.exe in <path-to-game>.
  2. Disable the option Enable Hardware Mouse

System requirements[edit]

Steam[edit]

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 3 1 Ghz
AMD Athlon 1GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 3.5 GB
Video card (GPU) Hardware T&L
32 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0b compatible
Sound (audio device) Directx 9.0b compatible
OS X
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion), 10.9.5 (Mavericks), 10.10.5 (Yosemite), 10.11.1 (El Capitan)
Processor (CPU) 1.8 GHz Intel chipset
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 5 GB
Video card (GPU) NVidia Geforce 7300
ATI Radeon X1600
Intel HD 3000
128 MB of VRAM

Retail[edit]

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98, 2000, ME, XP 98, 2000, ME, XP
Processor (CPU) 1 GHz 1.6 GHz
System memory (RAM) 128 MB 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 4 GB 4 GB
Video card (GPU) 32 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0b compatible 		512 MB of VRAM

References

  1. ↑ KotOR 1 is made full screen instead of windowed borderless · Issue #259 · Codeusa/Borderless-Gaming
  2. ↑ The Star Wars Sound Experience - Soundblaster.com
  3. ↑ KOTOR 1+2: Vista Fix & Windows 7 Report - LucasForums