Key points
- Re-released on GOG.com as Homeworld: Emergence due to "Cataclysm" being a registered trademark of Blizzard Entertainment.[1]
General information
- Homeworld Shipyards - A fairly old but big Homeworld fan site
- GOG.com Support Page
Availability
- A free demo version is available from GameFront.
Essential improvements
Patches
A full list of all available patches can be found here.
Hardware acceleration fix for Windows 8 and above
- For Windows 8.x, 10, and 11, use the Homeworld hardware acceleration fix
Skip intro videos
Delete intro videos[2]
|
- Navigate to
<path-to-game>\Movies
- Delete or rename the following files:
sierra.bik (Sierra logo)
bdogintro.bik (Barking Dog Studios logo)
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Use the launch argument /disableAVI [2]
|
Notes
- Despite the name of the parameter, mission briefing cutscenes are still functional while using this method.
|
Restore original title (GOG.com release)
Delete or rename files[3]
|
- Go to
<path-to-game> .
- Delete or rename the folders
feman and credits .
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Game data
Configuration file(s) location
Save game data location
- Separate folders are used to store Singleplayer saves, Multiplayer saves, Recorded games (replays), and saves from the Training mode.
Video
Modify the game registry keys[4]
|
- Navigate to the Configuration file(s) location using RegEdit.
- Change the
ScreenHeight and ScreenWidth registry keys to the desired width and height.
Notes
- On 64-bit versions of Windows, the configuration files may be in a different location if the game is not run in Administrator Mode.
- See the Game data article or the Configuration file(s) location tooltips and notes for more information.
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Use launch arguments
|
- For Windowed mode, Use the launch argument
-window .
- For Borderless fullscreen windowed mode, use
-window -noBorder .
Notes
- For standard windowed mode, the game must be set to less than the screen resolution. Otherwise, the game will crash.
- Alternatively, use the borderless command.
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Input
Action keybinding options (1/6).
Special action keybinding options (2/6).
Tactics/Formation keybinding options (3/6).
Camera/selection keybinding options (4/6).
Views/Misc. keybinding options (5/6).
Grouping keybinding options (6/6).
Audio
Advanced settings (Audio).
Localizations
Network
Multiplayer types
Connection types
Issues fixed
Black screen/game window not appearing in GOG.com Re-release
- Some users may find that the game window will stop rendering correctly as the video intros end, with only the desktop visible as the menu is supposed to appear.
- The issue appears to be an incompatibility with nGlide.
Remove and/or replace nGlide
|
- Remove or move the following files:
glide.dll , glide2x.dll , and glide3x.dll (nGlide related DLLs)
nglide_config.exe (nGlide configurator)
3Dfx (folder, contains a DLL that links 3DFX OpenGL support to nGlide)
- Optionally, the following files can be removed as well:
nglide_readme.txt (readme file for nGlide)
3DfxSpl.dll , 3DfxSpl2.dll , and 3DfxSpl3.dll (3DFX animated splash screens)
Notes
- After removing these files, the game may default to Software mode. This can be changed in options. The OpenGL renderer(s) are recommended.
- 3DFX-enhanced OpenGL mode may be unusable after applying this fix. If desired, it can be restored using dgVoodoo 2; otherwise, standard OpenGL will still be available.
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Use OpenGL rendering[citation needed]
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Set launch arguments
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Run the game with the following launch arguments: /nofastfe /noglddraw
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Enabling OpenGL rendering on Windows 8 and later
- OpenGL rendering can solve severe lag problems in menus. However, NT4 compatibility mode is required.
- NT4 compatibility mode is no longer offered by default for Windows 8 and 10.
Restoring NT4 Compatibility Mode
|
- Download the Homeworld hardware acceleration fix to apply NT4 compatibility mode.
- Download the zip file and extract its contents.
- Follow the instructions in the
readme.txt file.
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Game runs on wrong screen (multi-monitor setup)
Use Windows key shortcuts to move the window
|
Use ⊞ Win+⇧ Shift+← or ⊞ Win+⇧ Shift+→ to move the game to another window.
Notes
- This may cause the game window to render incorrectly/off-center from the screen, or cause the mouse cursor to be caged to the wrong monitor.
- Pressing Alt+Tab ↹ and returning to the game should fix mouse cursor bugs.
- Change resolutions once to fix off-center screens.
- This fix should only be necessary once.
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Other information
Command line parameters
- The following command-line parameters may improve quality on newer systems, or enable extra functionality:
Parameter |
Description |
/triple |
Enables OpenGL triple buffering, improves graphical quality and removes flickering at higher resolutions. Use unless it causes problems. |
/enable3DNow |
Enables the 3DNow processor instruction set if available. Use unless it causes problems. |
/enableSSE |
Enables the SSE processor instruction set if available. Use unless it causes problems. |
/disableAVI |
Disables the intro movies when the game starts. |
/nofastfe |
Disables the fast graphical frontend. Use this only when having graphical problems like flickering |
/noglddraw |
Don't use DirectDraw to setup OpenGL renderers. Try this is you're having problems getting OpenGL to work. |
/safeGL |
Don't use possibly buggy optimized features of OpenGL for rendering. Try this if you're having problems getting OpenGL to work. |
/heap BYTES |
Allows the game to use up to BYTES bytes RAM for the heap since by default the game isn't allowed to use much. 256 MB should suffice: /heap 268435456 but if you have more, try raising it to 1 GB: /heap 1073741824 |
- A list of all recognized command line options (can be viewed by passing an invalid option):
SYSTEM OPTIONS
/heap <n> - Sets size of global memory heap to [n].
/prepath <path> - Sets path to search for opening files.
/CDpath <path> - Sets path to CD-ROM in case of ambiguity.
PROCESSOR OPTIONS
/enableSSE - allow use of SSE if support is detected.
/forceSSE - force usage of SSE even if determined to be unavailable.
/enable3DNow - allow use of 3DNow! if support is detected.
SOUND OPTIONS
/dsound - forces mixer to write to DirectSound driver, even if driver reports not certified.
/dsoundCoop - switches to co-operative mode of DirectSound (if supported) to allow sharing with other applications.
/waveout - forces mixer to write to Waveout even if a DirectSound supported object is available.
/reverseStereo - swap the left and right audio channels.
DETAIL OPTIONS
/rasterSkip - enable interlaced display with software renderer.
/noBG - disable display of galaxy backgrounds.
/noFilter - disable bi-linear filtering of textures.
/noSmooth - do not use polygon smoothing.
/noCPV - do not use vertex CPV.
/nilTexture - don't ever load textures at all.
/stipple - enable stipple alpha with software renderer.
/noShowDamage - Disables showing ship damage effects.
VIDEO MODE OPTIONS
/safeGL - don't use possibly buggy optimized features of OpenGL for rendering.
/triple - use when frontend menus are flickering madly.
/nodrawpixels - use when background images don't appear while loading.
/noswddraw - don't use DirectDraw for the software renderer.
/noglddraw - don't use DirectDraw to setup OpenGL renderers.
/sw - reset rendering system to defaults at startup.
/noFastFE - disable fast frontend rendering.
/fullscreen - display fullscreen with software renderer (default).
/window - display in a window.
/noBorder - no border on window.
/640 - run at 640x480 resolution (default).
/800 - run at 800x600 resolution.
/1024 - run at 1024x768 resolution.
/1280 - run at 1280x1024 resolution.
/1600 - run at 1600x1200 resolution.
/device <dev> - select an rGL device by name, eg. sw, fx, d3d.
/nohint - disable usage of OpenGL perspective correction hints.
/aiplayerLog - enable AI Player Logging
/SaveMPGames - periodically save multiplayer games
/LoadMPGame...
TEXTURES
/nopal - disable paletted texture support.
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
Direct3D |
|
|
OpenGL |
1.1 |
|
Software renderer |
|
|
Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows |
|
|
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Middleware
System requirements
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
95, NT 4.0 |
98 |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium II 233 MHz
| Intel Pentium II 350 MHz |
System memory (RAM) |
32 MB |
64 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
80 MB |
600 MB |
Video card (GPU) |
4 MB of VRAM
| 12 MB of VRAM |
Notes
References