The Longest Journey

The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey	1999
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey	2006
Dreamfall Chapters	2014

Key points

Performance is fairly poor on modern operating systems, with multiple issues with the way that the game window is rendered and movie compatibility.

Fixes listed on this article make the game playable, but the experience is relatively unfriendly.

General information

Official game site

Official forums

Official forums support section

The Longest Journey Wiki

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Steam Users' Forums

Availability[edit]

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
GOG.com		1.42
Steam

The soundtrack is available for free at developer's website.

GOG.com and Steam[edit]

Both digital releases of the game have major compatibility issues and require tweaking to get around them

Retail[edit]

4 CD-ROMs, a 2 CD as well as a DVD re-release has been made.^[1]

Essential improvements[edit]

Patches[edit]

Patch 1.61 adds an external configuration tool along with some bug fixes. This patch is for retail releases only.

Patch can be forced on other versions by using an archive utility to extract the files. However, you may have sound issues.

Game data[edit]

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\Funcom\TLJ <path-to-game>

Save game data location[edit]

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\Funcom\TLJ <path-to-game>\Save

Save game location can changed, see Issues fixed section.

Save game cloud syncing[edit]

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings[edit]

Launcher options

In-game options

Graphics option	Option	Notes
Widescreen resolution		dgvoodoo Can increase the resolution, but the aspect ratio will stay at 4:3.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Can be forced in driver. See Graphic glitches/flickering with forced AA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Force through dgvoodoo.
60 FPS		Cutscences capped are capped at 15fps, gameplay at 30.
120+ FPS
Color blind mode

Windowed[edit]

No native option to run in windowed.

Game only runs at resolution at 640x480 (whether fullscreen or windowed)

Game window cannot be moved or manipulated, and there are no fixes for this issue.

Fix: Edit Preferences.ini^{[citation needed]}

Open %APPDATA%\The Longest Journey\Preferences.ini (or Preferences.ini in your game install folder).
Under the [DirectX] heading, type bool_StartFullscreen=0, and save your changes.^[2]

Fix: Secondary Monitor^{[citation needed]}

Will not work on every graphics card.

Sometimes connecting an external monitor will force the game into "windowed mode".

Set compatibility mode for 640 × 480^{[citation needed]}

This is the simplest and most stable solution.

640x480 is not supported by many modern displays.

Right click the game shortcut.
Choose Properties.
Go to the Compatibility tab.
Choose "Run in 640 × 480 screen resolution".
Click OK.

Input settings[edit]

Keyboard and mouse	Native	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio settings[edit]

Audio options	Native	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles		Some subtitles mismatch audio.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	CC	Notes
English

Issues fixed[edit]

Blank Game Exit Box[edit]

Blank game Exit Box^{[citation needed]}

This appears to only affect Windows 10.

Method 1:

Use ALT-F4 to exit the game instead.

Method 2:

The blank box is confirming your wish to exit. You can blindly answer y for yes or n for no.

Method 3:

You can add some compatibility bits to the game. An unofficial patch has been made for this which you can download from here.

Change Save Game Location[edit]

Change Save Sub-Folder^{[citation needed]}

You can use any number, just remember to create the numbered folder under the Save folder first.

Open %APPDATA%\The Longest Journey\Preferences.ini (or Preferences.ini in your game install folder).
Add the line SaveDir=02.
Save the updated Preferences.ini

Change Save Folder^{[citation needed]}

Can be used to use Dropbox or OneDrive for cloud saving if the service can be mapped to a drive letter.

If using a cloud service mapped drive ensure allow off-line use is enabled.

Open %APPDATA%\The Longest Journey\Preferences.ini (or Preferences.ini in your game install folder).
Edit line SaveDir with the full path you wish to use for saves.

Example: SaveDir=D:\TLJ\Saves

Save the updated Preferences.ini

Fonts[edit]

Default fonts can be very difficult to read.

Customize Fonts^{[citation needed]}

Be sure to backup the gui.ini file!

Customize fonts and sizes.

Some text may not align properly in dialog boxes.

Open %APPDATA%\The Longest Journey\gui.ini (or gui.ini in your game install folder).
Subtitles/Dialog Choices: change the font name and/or font size:

bigfont=Slurry

bigheight=19

Tooltips: change the font name and/or font size:

smallfont=Garamond

smallheight=11

Save the updated gui.ini

Movie and graphics problems[edit]

Issue with not being able to view the Bink-encoded movies.

Issue with not being able to display a game window (black screen).

The fixes work for most people, but others have persistent problems and cannot get the game to work properly

Versions prior to 1.61 do not have a separate Configure.exe utility.

(These versions have options presented when the game is launched instead.)

Run in Software Mode^{[citation needed]}

This fix turns off the game's hardware graphics acceleration.^[3]

Only affects the 3D models on screen, as backgrounds are rendered in 2D.

Slightly worse visual quality.

Go to the installation folder.
Run Configure.exe that you'll find in the above folder. Change one of the options (doesn't matter which) and click ok - this will create the config file. You can open Configure.exe again and switch the option back if you want.
Open %APPDATA%\The Longest Journey\Preferences.ini (Or Preferences.ini in the game install folder.)
Under the section that starts with [DirectX] add or change the following settings:

bool_IsDoubleBuffer=0

bool_UseHardware=0

Multiple displays^{[citation needed]}

If it doesn't work, try to create multiple display (VGA, extend), as shown in this video. Also u can put those two monitors you have just created in cross position, so your mouse will not run "out of screen".

Fix: High Performance Power Plan^[4]

This fix only applies to laptops.

Change the power settings to 'High Performance' in the Control Panel.

Crash to desktop[edit]

Game exits to desktop with an error message as soon as a cutscene (FMV) stops playing

Fix: Skip cutscenes^{[citation needed]}

Press Escape before the cutscene finishes. Also, save at every new location. That way you can watch the cutscene, then reload your game after the crash and skip ahead.

Fix: Use low quality video^{[citation needed]}

Open %APPDATA%\The Longest Journey\preferences.ini (Or Preferences.ini in the game install folder.)
Under the [Preferences] heading, change bool_HighResVideo=1 to bool_HighResVideo=0 and save.

For digital releases, go to in-game options and uncheck "High Quality Video".

Crash at Police Station[edit]

On some graphics cards, the game will crash upon entering the Police Station.

Fix: GOG.com Patch^{[citation needed]}

Fixed with a special patch: <path-to-game>\station_fix\TLJ_PoliceStationFix.exe.

Notes

If necessary contact GOG.com support for a copy of the patch file.

Fix: Patch

Fixed with the 1.61 patch.

If you find the patch is unable to be installed (for example, with the GOG.com version of the game), you may be able to fix the crash by changing some options on the game's launcher:

Turn off 3D acceleration
Turn off high quality models
Set the game to 16 bit color.
(You can then re-enable these after you get past that section of the game.)
If all else fails you can try right-clicking the game icon, select Properties, select the Compatibility tab and check the box for "Run in 640 x 480 screen resolution".

Graphic glitches/flickering with forced AA[edit]

Graphic anomalies can be seen when forcing Anti-aliasing through driver's Control Panel

Fix: Force single buffering^{[citation needed]}

Run Configure.exe found in the main game directory. In the launcher, go to Advanced Options.
Check "Force Single Buffer".

An alternative solution can be found here

Alternative Anti-Aliasing/High Resolution Support[edit]

This solution isn't perfect, you may still see mouse trails (they clear each time a mouse button is pressed.)

Enables running the game at higher resolutions and with anti-aliasing on cards that aren't supported by the game directly.

Uses an emulated GPU.

Any GPU driver profile for Longest Journey should have anti aliasing disabled.

The game's "High Resolution April Model" option must be enabled.

Allows use of ReShade for additional post-processing.

Fix: Anti Aliasing/High Resolution^{[citation needed]}

Download and install dgVoodoo (Official Web Site)
Copy the three DLLs from dgVoodoo\MS folder to your Longest Journey game folder.
Run the dgVoodoo setup/configuration tool
dgVoodoo: General Setup Page
1. Add your Longest Journey game folder for "config folder/ running instance"
2. Output API: "Best available one"
3. Adapter to use/enable: select your GPU.
4. Appearance: Full Screen, scaling mode "Stretched, keep aspect ratio"
5. Full Screen Output: Default
6. Miscellaneous: Both checked.
7. Color adjustments: Defaults or change to taste.
dgVoodoo: DirectX Page
1. Videocard: Select "ATI Radeon 8500" with 256MB VRAM (emulated display)
2. Texturing: Force bilinear filtering, all others unchecked
3. Behavior: All unchecked
4. Miscellaneous: All unchecked except "force vSync"
5. Antialiasing (MSAA): Off (4x or 8x work but will leave mouse trails)
6. Resolution: Must be a multiple of the game's native resolution (640x480).
dgVoodoo: Click Apply
Run the game with hardware acceleration on.

System requirements[edit]

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Pentium 166 MHz	Pentium II 266 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	300 MB	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	640x480 SVGA high colour (16bit) video card 2 MB of VRAM	3D accelarator card (Direct 3D compatible) 4 MB of VRAM

References

[1] Wikipedia:The Longest Journey

[2] ttp://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7631112&postcount=2

[3] ttp://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=558693

[4] ttp://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=23571841&postcount=8

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Developers

	Funcom
Release dates
Windows	November 19, 1999