Shadow Ops: Red Mercury

Shadow Ops: Red Mercury

Developers
	Zombie Studios
64-bit version	Ryan C. Gordon
Publishers
2004-2014; 2023-present	Atari
2014-2023	Retroism
Engines
	Unreal Engine 2
Release dates
Windows	September 21, 2004
Reception
Metacritic	61
IGDB	57
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Shooter, FPS
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Africa, Contemporary, Europe, Middle East

Shadow Ops: Red Mercury is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action, shooter and FPS game.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 5 DRM disc check.
GamersGate
GOG.com
Green Man Gaming
Steam

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Shadow Ops Profiles\<user-id>\ <path-to-game>\System\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/286770/pfx/

RM.ini contains general settings.

User.ini contains camera FOV, mouse, keyboard/controller bindings and other settings.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Saves\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/286770/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings.

Details settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Widescreen resolution. The HUD (particularly ammo count) may not display correctly in non-4:3 aspect ratios.
Multi-monitor			See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen			See Widescreen resolution. Image is Vert- and FOV will need to be adjusted to compensate. At ultrawide resolutions the ammo counter does not display at all.
4K Ultra HD			See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)		85° by default. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Toggle with Alt+↵ Enter. See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See Anisotropic filtering (AF).
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Off by default. To turn it on, see Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS
120+ FPS		High framerates cause enemies to get stuck when jumping obstacles. See Run the game at screen refresh rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

Custom resolutions can be set manually. Note that image is Vert-, and FOV should be increased to compensate for the first two options.

Set custom resolution in-game
While in game, open the console with ~. Enter setres XXXXxYYYY (for example setres 1920x1080).

Edit ini file
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open RM.ini. Go to the [WinDrv.WindowsClient] section. Set FullscreenViewportX and FullscreenViewportY to the desired resolution. Notes HUD and menus remain stretched. Some menu elements become cropped.

Use the Widescreen Fix
Notes Weapon and camera FOV are both fixed during gameplay and in-engine cutscenes. Menu elements are no longer cropped. HUD and menus are stretched.

Field of view (FOV)

Set default FOV in-game
While in game, open the console with ~. Type fov x, where x is the desired FOV.

Edit ini file

Launch the game at least once then close it. Open User.ini. Define FoV in following lines: DesiredFOV=85.000000 DefaultFOV=85.000000 Notes To maintain identical vertical FOV to the 4:3 FOV at 16:9 resolutions, use 106. At 21:9 resolutions, use 121. Game could start to randomly reset those values. If so, edit those values in <path-to-game>\System\DefUser.ini too. Weapon FOV stays the same. High values (approximately 100 and over) may result in objects at long range such as buildings not being rendered.

Windowed

Edit ini file
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open RM.ini. Find the section [WinDrv.WindowsClient]. In that section, find an entry WindowedViewportX= and set its value to your desired window width. In that section, find an entry WindowedViewportY= and set its value to your desired window height. Set StartupFullscreen= to False to start the game in windowed mode.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Use SRWE
Start the game in a window. Download and run SRWE. Attach the game process. Enable Remove borders. Enable Fake fullscreen.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Edit ini file
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open RM.ini. Change the line LevelOfAnisotropy=1 to any value desired (between 1 and 16).

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Edit ini file
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open RM.ini. Change the line UseVSync=False to UseVSync=True.

Input

Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Some keys are system reserved and must be bound manually in User.ini.
Mouse acceleration		Enabled by default, see Mouse acceleration to disable it.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Set UseJoystick=True in RM.ini under [WinDrv.WindowsClient].
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Edit in User.ini.
Controller sensitivity		Edit in User.ini.
Controller Y-axis inversion		Edit in User.ini.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Mouse acceleration

Edit ini file
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open User.ini. Change the line MouseAccelThreshold= to 0. Notes [Engine.PlayerInput] entries are created upon inverting mouse y-axis or adjusting sensitivity.

Mouse sensitivity

Set custom sensitivity in-game
While in game, open the console with ~. Enter setsensitivity x (for example setsensitivity 5).

Edit ini file
[Engine.PlayerInput] entries are created upon inverting mouse y-axis or adjusting sensitivity in the game settings. Open User.ini. Change the line MouseSensitivity= to the desired value.

Jerky/Uneven mouse movement

Edit ini file

Launch the game at least once then close it. Open User.ini. Go to the following lines and change 6 to 0.1: MouseX=Count bXAxis | Axis aMouseX Speed=6 MouseY=Count bYAxis | Axis aMouseY Speed=6 Change the line MouseSmoothingMode= to 1 and MouseSamplingTime= to: 0.008 for 125Hz polling rate 0.002 for 500Hz polling rate 0.001 for 1000Hz polling rate Change the line MouseSensitivity= to 50 in User.ini (more or less, if needed to adjust). Open RM.ini. Go to the [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] section and change ReduceMouseLag= to False. Notes Opening the control settings in-game to adjust mouse sensitivity will reset the value to 10 or below, making aiming way too slow.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Effects, Music, Dialog and Voice sliders.
Surround sound		THX Certified 5.1. Up to 7.0 output with DirectSound3D restoration software or OpenAL.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX Advanced HD.
Royalty free audio

DefOpenAL32.dll works as DirectSound3D driver which can be used with DSOAL to restore EAX.

Surround sound

By default the game ouputs to stereo on modern versions of Windows. This will force the game to use the system OpenAL device as ouput and restore surround sound.

Forcing the game to use system OpenAL device may lead to audio dropouts, missing and substituted audio samples.

Restore surround sound
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open RM.ini. Set Use3DSound=True and UseDefaultDriver=False, and save.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play		Direct IP only as the master server has shut down.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Type open <ip address:port> in the console.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D, Z3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues fixed

Gamma too high

Edit ini file
Open RM.ini. Go to class [WinDrv.WindowsClient]. Change Gamma=1.900000 to Gamma=1.000000.

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Maximum selectable refresh rate is 60 Hz. This does not limit FPS, but may set your monitor's refresh rate to 100 Hz, which may result in screen tearing on a 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitor.

Set fullscreen refresh rate
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open RM.ini. Find the line DesiredRefreshRate=60. Change the value to set your monitor's refresh rate. For example, 120 or 144. Notes Modifying any video options will undo the custom refresh rate.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows			A special 64-bit version of the game arrived later after the release.[citation needed]

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	OpenAL

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 3 @ 1 GHz AMD Athlon @ 1 GHz	Intel Pentium 4 @ 1.5 GHz AMD Athlon @ 1.5 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	64 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0 compatible	128 MB of VRAM