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Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance
Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance cover
Developers
Capstone Software
Publishers
United States IntraCorp
Europe U.S. Gold
Spain Proein S.L.
Digital SNEG
Engines
Build
Release dates
DOS May 6, 1996
Windows (DOSBox) June 9, 2021[1]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, FPS
Art styles Digitized, Realistic
Themes Fantasy
Series Witchaven
Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance on HowLongToBeat
Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance on IGDB
Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance guide on StrategyWiki
Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance on MobyGames
Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance on Wikipedia
Witchaven
Witchaven 1995
Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance 1996

Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance is a fantasy FPS game with light RPG mechanics and a heavy focus on melee combat. It's story picks up directly after Witchaven.

The game's source code has been made available as of 2006 by a former developer.[2]

For a high-fidelity, accurate, and accessible implementation of the game use BuildGDX. For a bugfixed version of the original DOS executable and game code use EGwhaven2 inside DOSBox or on a pentium DOS computer.

General information

ETTiNGRiNDER's Witchaven Shrine Fanpage that catalogues much of Witchaven II's content & bugs.
Witchaven II entry at RTCM Lots of information & patches relating to Witchaven II.
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
DOS
GOG.com
DRM-free
Prepackaged with DOSBox.
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Bundled with Witchaven.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Prepackaged with DOSBox.
Windows
GOG.com and Steam versions include the original retail build, as well as an Enhanced build (both running on DOSBox with a custom configuration tool). The Enhanced build features fixes introduced in EGwhaven, and the controls are remapped to be more consistent with modern first-person games.[3][4]
A free demo version is available from Archive.org.

Essential improvements

EGwhaven2 A bugfix/enhancement patch to the original executable. Improves mod-ability.
FGSFDS's Unofficial Witchaven II level fixes Fixes issues for two maps.
Witchaven II can be set to read it's SMK files from the hard drive. Use the LOCAL parameter.

Source ports

Name Description
BuildGDX Reverse-engineered gameplay-accurate port written in Java. Adds high resolutions support, OpenGL renderer, modern controller support and improved mouse control. Fixes most issues with the game. Discontinued.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
NuBuildGDX Fork of BuildGDX aiming for stability, bug fixing and performance improvements.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

DOSBox

DOS32A

DOS32A is a memory extender for DOS games. It is an open source replacement to DOS4GW which was often used in game development . It can improve both the performance and stability of Witchaven II.

Game data

Some of Witchaven II's save data and settings are stored in non-human-readable .DAT files. They can be modified with a hex editor.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\PREF.DAT
<path-to-game>\CONTROLS.CFG
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1655430/pfx/[Note 2]
PREF.DAT contains values changeable ingame.[5]

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SVGM*.MAP
<path-to-game>\SVGN*.DAT
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1655430/pfx/[Note 2]
SVGM*.MAP stores map data. Witchaven II uses Build MAP format version 7.[6]
SVGN*.DAT stores player data.[7]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Witchaven II inherits the first game's gamelogic issues. If unmodified it begins to malfunction at 30FPS and up.[8][9]

Input

In-game control settings.
In-game control settings.
Withaven II uses scancodes to represent different keys inside CONTROLS.CFG. An exhaustive list of keys and their codes can be found here.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Using setup.exe or CONTROLS.CFG.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Must be configured first.
Controller remapping
Using setup.exe or CONTROLS.CFG.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Support for the Logitech Wingman only.
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
PlayStation controllers
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Tracked motion controllers
The V2.0f patch by Capstone adds VFX1 cyberpuck support. Configure in CONTROLS.CFG
Button/gesture prompts
Generic/other controllers
Button prompts
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

In-game sound settings. Includes jukebox feature.
In-game sound settings. Includes jukebox feature.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, Effects
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
LAN play
16 Versus, Co-op
Online play
16 Versus, Co-op
IPX

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Self-hosting
IPX

Multiplayer Clients

VR Support

Headset Native Notes
Forte VFX1
Supported in version 2.0f. Type WH2 VFX1 to use.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes SVGA, SVGA (VESA), VGA, MCGA

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio HMI Sound Operating System
Cutscenes Smacker Video

Modding

Map Editing

  • The Build map editor was included on the CD. It is tailored to Witchaven II and does not work with Witchaven 1. Uses map version 7.

Texture packs

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 5.0
Processor (CPU) Intel 486DX2 66 MHz
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 62 MB
Video card (GPU) SuperVGA, VESA, VGA
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7, 8.1
Processor (CPU) Dual Core
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 2 GB
Video card (GPU) 512 MB of VRAM


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data.
  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>/1655430/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1655430) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References