Hexen II

Heretic
Heretic	1994
Hexen: Beyond Heretic	1995
Hexen II	1997
Heretic II	1998

Hexen II is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action and FPS game in the Heretic series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Game must be installed from CD, otherwise disc not required. Portal of Praevus requires disc in drive.
GOG.com
Microsoft Store
Steam		Free demo: `steam://install/9120` (use direct link)
Bethesda.net (unavailable)

Version differences

Hexen II: Continent of Blackmarsh is an extremely rare demo version of the game that was bundled with Matrox M3D series video cards. It includes the entire first chapter of the game.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Mission Pack: Portal of Praevus	The expansion is not available digitally.

Essential improvements

Recommended engines

Hammer of Thyrion

Hammer of Thyrion is a source port based on the source code release of the HeXen II engine. Many new improvements and features include OpenGL and Widescreen support.

Play the game on modern systems

Hexen II was originally made for Windows 95, but it is difficult to get the game working on modern systems.^[2]

Play Hexen II with the Hammer of Thyrion source port^[2]

Download Hexen II: Hammer of Thyrion .
Copy the content of the archive to a folder of choice.
Copy the Hexen II game files pak0.pak and pak1.pak into the data1 folder.
- If you have the original CD, the game files are in CD:\INSTALL\HEXEN2\data1.
- If you have an installed game, the game files are in <path-to-game>\data1.
Update the game files to version 1.11 if necessary by running h2patch.exe in the Hammer of Thyrion folder.
Start the game by running glh2.exe.

Play Portal of Praevus with the Hammer of Thyrion source port^[2]

Install Hexen II and Hammer of Thyrion files as described above.
Copy the pak3.pak file from the CD:\Install\Data\portals folder of the original installation CD, into the portals folder of your Hammer of Thyrion installation folder.
Create a shortcut to the glh2.exe file.
Add the -portals command line argument to the shortcut and start the game.
To play Portal of Praevus, choose 'New game'.
To play the original Hexen II game, choose 'Old game'.

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\data1\*.cfg^{[Note 1]}
Mac OS (Classic)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/9060/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\data1\s\.*^{[Note 1]}
Mac OS (Classic)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/9060/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game screen resolution settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		A source port is required. See Hammer of Thyrion.
Multi-monitor		See the WSGF entry.
Ultra-widescreen		See the WSGF entry.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)	Not functional in GL version. See also Hammer of Thyrion.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)	A source port is required. See Hammer of Thyrion.
Anti-aliasing (AA)	Anti-aliasing can be hacked through video card settings.
Vertical sync (Vsync)	For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS
120+ FPS	72 FPS limit. There are 'FPS limit'-removing source ports (FTEQW, UQE Hexen II), but they have other drawbacks.
High dynamic range display (HDR)	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

In-game key map settings.

Keyboard and mouse, touch	State	Notes
Remapping		Weapon selection (buttons `1` to `4`) can't be remapped from the menu.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Touchscreen optimised		A source port is required.
Controller
Controller support		DirectInput
Full controller support
Controller remapping		A source port is required.
Controller sensitivity		A source port is required.
Controller Y-axis inversion		A source port is required.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Tracked motion controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

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

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles		No spoken text
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
Red Book CD audio		On Windows, CD music might not play correctly; see the troubleshooting guide for solutions.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
German				Retail only; download for digital versions
Brazilian Portuguese				Retail only: CD Expert. Download.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play	4	Follow this guide.
LAN play	16	Co-op, Versus
Online play	16	Co-op, Versus

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	26900
UDP	26900

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

This is the default port used. It can be changed in-game by the user.

VR support

Headsets	State	Notes
SteamVR
Oculus VR (LibOVR)
Windows Mixed Reality
Forte VFX1		Requires a driver.^[3]

Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Traditional controller		See Input for details.
Keyboard/Mouse

Issues fixed

Problems on modern systems

Delete included OpenGL wrapper
As the included opengl32.dll is a 3dfx-specific MiniGL wrapper, it should be deleted on systems not using 3dfx cards.

OpenGL extension string issue

Check OpenGL extension limit
This is one of the few games that have problems with long OpenGL extension strings. Regarding Nvidia, older drivers had the option to toggle extension string limit, but current drivers omit this option and instead have all problematic games hardcoded to limit the string. Therefore, the game should start up fine with up-to-date drivers. This can be verified and altered via Nvidia Inspector.

Rainbow color issue (software-rendered h2.exe only)

Set XP SP3 compatibility mode
XP SP3 compatibility mode fixes this issue.

"You need to re-install Hexen 2 on this computer!"

Reinstall or use Hammer of Thyrion

This is a type of copy-protection, activates if you reinstalled the OS or moved the game to a different computer.

You can reinstall the game from the CD, install Hammer of Thyrion, or ensure that you also copy registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName\ComputerName\RAID.

Black lines in dialog box textures (Hammer of Thyrion)

Use GLOverride

Download GLOverride: http://www.humus.name/index.php?page=Cool
Extract it to <path-to-game>.
Edit opengl32.ini and find FixClamp = 0 and change it to FixClamp = 1.

This does nothing for the status bar, that has a separate problem.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
OpenGL
Software renderer
DOS video modes

Executable	PPC	16-bit	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows					64-bit requires a source port, for instance Hammer of Thyrion.
macOS (OS X)					Hammer of Thyrion lists a vague "Universal" OS X version.
Linux					Requires a source port, for instance Hammer of Thyrion.
Mac OS (Classic)

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	NT 4.0, 98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 90 MHz	Intel Pentium 120 MHz
System memory (RAM)	16 MB	24 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	120 MB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 3a compatible	DirectX 5 compatible

Mac OS
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	8.6	9.2.2
Processor (CPU)	PowerPC 7xx 233 MHz PowerPC G3 233 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 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>/9060/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (9060) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Hexen II: Hammer of Thyrion - last accessed on 10 March 2023
"2006-11-22: Initial DOS port for Hexen II: Hammer of Thyrion"
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 Hexen 2 on Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10: uHexen2
↑ vfx1h2.zip - Wayback Machine

[gamedir-3] 1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[Proton_path_note-4] 2.0 ^2.1 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>/9060/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (9060) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[1] Hexen II: Hammer of Thyrion - last accessed on 10 March 2023
"2006-11-22: Initial DOS port for Hexen II: Hammer of Thyrion"

[dosgamers-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 Hexen 2 on Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10: uHexen2

[5] vfx1h2.zip - Wayback Machine

[1]

[2]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[3]

Developers

	Raven Software
Mac OS (Classic)	Contraband Entertainment
Publishers
	id Software
Mac OS	MacPlay
Engines
	Quake engine
Release dates
Windows	September 11, 1997
Mac OS (Classic)	October 4, 2002
DOS	November 22, 2006^[1]
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Heretic