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The Operative: No One Lives Forever

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Revision as of 09:11, 31 March 2018 by Mirh (talk | contribs) (→‎Low frame rate on Windows 8 and higher: better blitz archival)
Template:Infobox game/row/osxporter
The Operative: No One Lives Forever
The Operative: No One Lives Forever cover
Developers
Monolith Productions
Publishers
Fox Interactive
Sierra Entertainment
OS X MacPlay
Engines
LithTech 2.2
Release dates
Windows November 9, 2000
macOS (OS X) November 21, 2002
The Operative: No One Lives Forever on Wikipedia
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Warnings

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).
The Mac OS X version of this game does not work on Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) or later due to the removal of support for PowerPC apps.
GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).
No One Lives Forever
The Operative: No One Lives Forever 2000
No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way 2002
Contract J.A.C.K. 2003

Key points

The source code was made available in 2001.
Exceeding 60 FPS causes timing-related issues.[1][2]
Certain Intel graphics cards cannot display water properly, rendering some missions unplayable.[citation needed]
G-Sync Incompatible: Old Lithtech engine games will crash giving "MFC application has stopped working" if you try to use g-sync with this game. Disable it for "lithtech.exe" in the Nvidia Control Panel.[citation needed]

General information

UnityHQ - A fansite for the series
UnityHQ Forums

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)
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
This game is not available digitally.
A demo is available.

Essential improvements

Patches

The official No One Lives Forever website has been shut down so you have to download the patches from a third party. The fansite UnityHQ still host all the files needed to play online.

  • 1.003 - Official Patch (required to update to latest version)
  • 1.003 - 1.004 update - Official Patch updates the game to GOTY edition (requires 1.003 to install)

Map Packs

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename Movies folder[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Delete or rename the Movies folder.

Skip launcher, intro videos and CD-check

Use a custom shortcut[citation needed]
  1. Create a shortcut to <path-to-game>\lithtech.exe.
  2. In shortcut properties add these command line parameters:

-rez NOLF.rez -rez NOLF2.rez -rez nolfu003.rez -rez NOLFCRES003.rez -rez NOLFGOTY.rez +DisableMovies 1

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\autoexec.cfg[Note 2]
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Save\[Note 2]
macOS (OS X)

Video settings

Video settings.
Video settings.

Template:Video settings

Field of view (FOV)

Use a command-line parameter[citation needed]
  1. Start the game's launcher and click on Advanced.
  2. In Command-Line field type in: +FovX "value" to set the horizontal FOV to another value.
  3. Make sure Always specify these command line parameters is checked.
  4. Click on "OK" and launch the game.

Windowed

Use a command-line parameter[citation needed]
  1. Start the game's launcher and click on Advanced.
  2. In Command-Line field type in: +windowed 1
  3. Make sure Always specify these command line parameters is checked.
  4. Click on "OK" and launch the game.

Input settings

Lacks an option to toggle crouch mode.[5]

Template:Input settings

Remapping

There is an issue with saving custom keyboard binds on localized Windows version (or on localized keyboard layouts). Manual keys mapping is required.
Mouse buttons and scrolling wheel is not assigned to any action.
Custom remapping[citation needed]

Keyboard

  1. Go to the game installation folder.
  2. Locate file autoexec.cfg and open it with text editor.
  3. Locate section starting with line enabledevice "##keyboard".
  4. In this section keyboard keys are represented as a number: ##xx, change them for your binds. For references which number is which key, see table under this fixbox.
  5. Check for duplicities, multiple actions on one key can cause problems.

Mouse

1. Launch the game, navigate to the controls menu and assign any action to any mouse button. Mark the name of mouse button.
2. Open file autoexec.cfg in the installation folder.
3. Locate section enabledevice "##mouse" and insert these lines:
rangebind "##mouse" "Button 0" 0.000000 0.000000 "Fire"
rangebind "##mouse" "Button 1" 0.000000 0.000000 "Activate"
rangebind "##mouse" "Button 2" 0.000000 0.000000 "Reload"
4. Change Button x to the button name, you've marked in step 1.

Alternatively, use these lines: 

rangebind "##mouse" "##3" 0.000000 0.000000 "Fire"
rangebind "##mouse" "##4" 0.000000 0.000000 "Activate"
rangebind "##mouse" "##5" 0.000000 0.000000 "Reload"

Note: These numbers are for US keyboard layout (QWERTY layout).
If you defined another layout (e.g. French AZERTY layout), you should perform the transposition yourself.
For example, to bind the 'A' key using the AZERTY keyboard layout, you should use the number ##16 (the 'Q' key in table below).

Key ## Key ## Key ##
A 30 Caps Lock 58 [ 26
B 48 Backspace 14 ] 27
C 46 TAB 15 ; 39
D 32 left SHIFT 42 '' 40
E 18 right SHIFT 54 , 51
F 33 ENTER 28 . 52
G 34 left CTRL 29 / 53
H 35 right CTRL 59 ~ 1
I 23 left ALT 56 - 12
J 36 right ALT 58 = 13
K 37 SPACE 57
L 38 1 2
M 50 F1 59 2 3
N 49 F2 60 3 4
O 24 F3 61 4 5
P 25 F4 62 5 6
Q 16 F5 63 6 7
R 19 F6 64 7 8
S 31 F7 65 8 9
T 20 F8 66 9 10
U 22 F9 67 0 11
V 47 F10 68
W 17 F11 69
X 45 F12 70
Y 44
Z 21

Audio settings

Audio settings.
Audio settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
German
Blood and death cries censored, "MoreBloodOption" cheat useless
Polish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
16
Online play
16 GameSpy services have been shut down;[6] see GameSpy for workarounds.

Connection types

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

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 2300-2400, 7000-10000
UDP 27888
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues unresolved

Pickup messages lower frame rate

The frame rate can drop from 60 FPS to as low as 35 FPS whenever multiple inventory pickup messages are displayed.
Disable pickup messages[citation needed]
  1. Go to Options, then Game.
  2. Decrease the Pickup message duration slider completely.

Issues fixed

Cutscenes and dialogue play too fast

Cap the frame rate at 60 FPS[citation needed]

Camera movement is laggy or uneven

Cap the frame rate at 60 FPS[citation needed]
Set V-sync and Triple Buffering to on and the Mouse Smoothing slider to full[2]

Low frame rate on Windows 8 and higher

(Windows 8 and 8.1 only) Download ddraw.dll and put it in <path-to-game>[7]
(Windows 8 - 10) Use the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit[7]
  1. Download the Microsoft ADK and install the Application Compatibility Toolkit.
  2. Run the Compatibility Administrator (32-bit)
  3. Select "New Database(1)" and press the Fix button
  4. Enter a name for the fix and point the program file to lithtech.exe in the No One Lives Forever folder
  5. Press Next twice
  6. Select under "Compatibility Fixes" the fix DXPrimaryEmulation
  7. Press the Parameters button
  8. Enter -DisableMaxWindowedMode into "Command line" and press OK.
  9. Press Next and Finish.
  10. Save, name the database and select a save location
  11. Right click the database and select Install
Run the game in Windowed mode[citation needed]

Graphics are glitched and game is practically unplayable

Install the game on your primary drive[citation needed]

Black screen when underwater

Download dgVoodoo 2 and copy D3D8.dll, D3DImm.dll and DDraw.dll to <path-to-game>[citation needed]

Framerate drops when changing weapons/function or when zooming in

Use dgVoodoo 2[citation needed]
  1. Download dgVoodoo 2 and copy D3D8.dll, D3DImm.dll and DDraw.dll to <path-to-game>.
  2. Using the dgVoodoo Control Panel, under the DirectX tab, set Videocard to anything other than "dgVoodoo Virtual SVGA Card"

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 7
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Multiplayer GameSpy

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95, 98
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium II 300 MHz Intel Pentium III 500 MHz
System memory (RAM) 64 MB 128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 400 MB
Video card (GPU) 8 MB of VRAM
DirectX 7 compatible 		32 MB of VRAM

Notes

  1. ↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[3] 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.[4]
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 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).

References