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Max Payne

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Template:Infobox game/row/macporterTemplate:Infobox game/row/osxporter
Max Payne
Max Payne cover
Developers
Remedy Entertainment
Publishers
Windows Gathering of Developers
Mac OS MacSoft
Rockstar Games
Engines
MAX-FX
Release dates
Windows July 23, 2001
Mac OS (Classic) July 16, 2002
macOS (OS X) July 16, 2002
Max Payne guide on StrategyWiki
Max Payne on Wikipedia
Max Payne
Max Payne 2001
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne 2003
Max Payne 3 2012
Max Payne 1&2 Remake TBA

Key points

Requires an unofficial patch to fix a missing audio issue on Windows Vista and later.
Unofficial startup hang patch should be applied to prevent the game from locking up during startup.

General information

Remedy's Forums for game
Max Payne Wiki
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc v2 DRM[Note 1].
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Amazon.com
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Humble Store
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Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
Demo

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.05 is the latest official patch for the game. The Steam version is already patched.

Unofficial patches

Startup hang patch
Max Payne Fix It All A combined patch with ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix, Direct X 9 wrappers for Vsync, and a sound fix

Skip intro videos

Launch the game with the -skipstartup parameter[citation needed]

Game data

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Remedy Entertainment\Max Payne\
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12140/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Max Payne Savegames\
Mac OS (Classic) {Boot}:Documents:Max Payne Saved Games or user's Documents folder
macOS (OS X) ~/Documents/Max Payne Saved Games/
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12140/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Launcher general settings.
Launcher general settings.
Launcher advanced settings.
Launcher advanced settings.
In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.
Can only be changed in the launcher.

Template:Video settings

Field of view (FOV)

Set FOV with widescreen fix[citation needed]
  1. Install ThirteenAG's fix.
  2. Edit MaxPayne.WidescreenFix.ini.
  3. Set FOVFactor to the desired value.

Notes

FOVFactor value is capped at around 1.43.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Force borderless fullscreen[citation needed]
  1. Download and run DxWnd.
  2. Click on Edit, then Add.
  3. Set the Path to <path-to-game>\maxpayne.exe.
  4. Set Desktop for borderless fullscreen windowed.
  5. Click on DirectX tab, set DirectX 8.
  6. Click OK, then File and Save.

Input settings

In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game mouse settings.
In-game mouse settings.

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Some regions only have certain languages available. All audio languages can be downloaded from here.
Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Spanish
Retail version, download.
Turkish

Issues unresolved

Corrupted files in the French version

The French Steam version of Max Payne has corrupted files, with the error message Invalid Data Read from R_memory File("part1_level1b"). Reports indicate issues with the files x_level1.ras, x_level2.ras, and x_level3.ras.[3][4]

There are visible polygon seams when running under Windows 10

When the game is running under Windows 10 there are a lot of visible polygon seams when both Hardware T&L and MSAA (any type) enabled. The only known workaround to this is to disable one of these options or use supersampling (use Nvidia Inspector for Nvidia Cards)

Issues fixed

Installer fails on Windows 7 64-bit and later (Retail)

Default installer on disc root is 16-bit
Run from setup[5]
  1. Run Disk1\setup.exe from the disc instead
  2. Click "Yes" on prompts regarding not enough memory and install anyway

Missing audio

Use an unofficial patch[6]
  1. Download the unofficial patch.
  2. Extract the contents to the installation folder.
  3. Run MaxBatch.bat
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Use IndirectSound[7]
Alternative solution is to use Creative Lab's ALchemy Software[8]
  1. Download & install ALchemy.
  2. Launch ALchemy
  3. Add a new Profile (Skip to Step 11 if using retail version of the game).
  4. Name it "MaxPayne"
  5. Select "Use Game Path"
  6. Navigate to Max Payne's install directory (For example D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Max Payne\)
  7. Set "Buffers" = 4
  8. Set "Duration" = 25
  9. Set "Max Voice Count" = 128
  10. Click "OK"
  11. Click The newly created profile and then click ">>" to enable it.
  12. Close ALchemy & play game

Notes

The Max Payne profile will automatically show up in ALchemy when using retail version of the game.

The launcher does not start

Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 98 / Me[citation needed]

Game crashes or videos fail to load

Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 98/Windows Me[citation needed]

Error: setFullscreen - creating the device failed: E_FAIL

Use ThirteenAG's fix[citation needed]

Exception in engineInit: Unable to load save game "Files"

Reinstall the game on the C:\ drive[citation needed]

Exception in startupInit: Directory \data not found

Move the game to a folder without spaces[citation needed]

Reinstall the game to a folder without spaces in the folder path (e.g. C:\Games\MaxPayne).

(Steam) Move the game to a folder without spaces[citation needed]
  1. Set anti-aliasing to 0, if doing this does not work, please follow the following steps:
  2. If using Steam, set up a new Steam library folder without spaces in the folder path (e.g. C:\Steam).
  3. Remove the game and install it to the new Steam library folder.
  4. Go to that folder and go into SteamApps\common.
  5. Rename the Max Payne folder to MaxPayne.
  6. Go back to the SteamApps folder and open appmanifest_12140.acf with a text editor.
    • If Windows Notepad can't read it, use another text editor like Notepad++.
  7. Change the line "installdir" "Max Payne" to "installdir" "MaxPayne"
  8. Restart Steam.
  9. If needed, run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 98 / Me.

Game won't launch on AMD graphics cards, still shows up in task manager

Use the Unofficial startup hang patch[citation needed]
Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 98 / Me[citation needed]
Roll back CCC drivers to 12.6 from here[citation needed]
See Force CPU affinity to run the game on one core[citation needed]
Force CPU affinity by creating a batch file inside the Max Payne 1 folder[citation needed]
  1. Create a text document for Max Payne 1
  2. Paste this for Max Payne 1 Start /affinity 1 MaxPayne.exe
  3. Save this as "Max Payne 1.bat" inside the Max Payne 1 folder.
  4. Now start the game by double clicking the file. After a few seconds, the launcher will start.

Jumps and dodges are too short, making the second nightmare level impossible

Cap the game to 60 FPS
Use a Direct3D 8 to Direct3D 9 wrapper

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 7, 8 Direct3D 7 in cutscenes only. Everything else is in Direct3D 8.
OpenGL
Mac OS only.
Shader Model support 1.1
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Mac OS (Classic)

Command line arguments

See command line arguments on how to use the following options.
Parameter Description
-screenshot Enables F10 for taking screen shots. Screen shots are saved to the "screenshots" folder in the Max Payne installation folder.
-nodialog Skips the Max Payne startup dialog when loading the game (uses options previously set).
-skipstartup Skips the startup video.
-disable3dpreloads If the system runs out of texture memory while loading a level, this option may prevent the game from crashing due to a driver error.
-window Runs the game in a windowed mode, in the resolution selected from the Max Payne launch dialog. Not all 3d accelerators support running in a windowed mode.
-novidmemcheck Disables the video memory check at the start of the game.
-developer Enables "developer mode", including console (toggled with F12).
-developerkeys Enables special developer keys. Requires developer mode. Using developer keys can break the game flow.
-showprogress Shows extended loading information. Requires developer mode.
-profile Enables in-game profiler. Toggle profile with F11, and see console aliases for profiling options.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95 OSR2
Processor (CPU) 450 MHz
System memory (RAM) 96 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 530 MB
Video card (GPU) 16 MB of VRAM
DirectX 8.0 compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectSound compatible
Mac OS
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 9.1, 10.2
Processor (CPU) PowerPC G3 400 MHz
System memory (RAM) 128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 900 MB
Video card (GPU) OpenGL compatible
16 MB of VRAM

Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
  2. 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>/12140/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (12140) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References