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Wizardry 8

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Wizardry 8
Wizardry 8 cover
Developers
Sir-Tech Canada
Publishers
Retail (North America) Sir-Tech Canada
Retail (Europe) Crucial Entertainment
Retail (Japan) Locus Company
Retail (Russia) Buka Entertainment
Retail (North America) re-release Encore
Digital (2013-2022) Gamepot
Digital (2013-present) Nightdive Studios
Digital (2022-present) Drecom Co.
Engines
SurRender 3D
Release dates
Windows November 15, 2001
macOS (OS X) November 15, 2013[1]
Reception
Metacritic 85
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Continuous turn-based, Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control, Point and select
Genres Adventure, ARPG, RPG
Themes Fantasy
Series Wizardry
Wizardry 8 on HowLongToBeat
Wizardry 8 on IGDB
Wizardry 8 on MobyGames
Wizardry 8 on Wikipedia
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord 1984
Wizardry: Knight of Diamonds - The Second Scenario 1986
Wizardry: Legacy of Llylgamyn - The Third Scenario 1987
Wizardry: The Return of Werdna - The Fourth Scenario 1988
Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom 1988
Wizardry: Bane of the Cosmic Forge 1990
Wizardry: Crusaders of the Dark Savant 1992
Wizardry Gold 1996
Nemesis: The Wizardry Adventure 1996
Wizardry: Llylgamyn Saga 1998
Wizardry: New Age of Llylgamyn 2000
Wizardry Empire: Princess of the Ancient 2001
Wizardry Chronicle 2001
Wizardry 8 2001
Wizardry Empire II Plus: Legacy of the Princess 2004
Wizardry: Prisoners of the Battles 2005
Wizardry: Five Ordeals 2006
Wizardry Online 2013
Wizrogue: Labyrinth of Wizardry 2017
Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls 2020
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (2023) EA
Wizardry: The Five Ordeals EA
Wizardry Variants Daphne TBA

Wizardry 8 is a singleplayer first-person adventure, ARPG and RPG game in the Wizardry series.

General information

Characters can be imported from Wizardry: Crusaders of the Dark Savant or Wizardry Gold (see Import characters).
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
PostCount.Net Wizardry Series forum

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc DRM[Note 1].[4]
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
GOG.com
DRM-free
Pre-packaged with nGlide.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Pre-packaged with nGlide.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
The OS X release is Wine-based.[citation needed]


Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.2.4 fixes issues with the retail version. Retail versions that state version 1.2.4 on the CDs do not need this patch. Digital distribution versions are already fully patched.
For the Polish version, use the Ascension Peak patch.

Fix for blurred text

Enable setting in the game's options[citation needed]
  1. Go to Options → Video.
  2. Enable "Correct for Blurred Text". Text and 2D elements will now be sharper.

Low framerate fix for Windows 8 and later

Use the Wizardry 8 low frame rate fix

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename intro file[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Data\Flics\Intro.
  2. Delete or rename sirtech.BIK.

The 3dfx logo is shown when starting the game with the Glide renderer as a default nGlide setting.
Disable the "3dfx logo splash screen" setting in the nGlide configurator.

Running in 32-bit color

The Glide renderer (the default for digital distribution versions) runs in 16-bit color; 32-bit color is noticeably more detailed.
Use DirectX7 mode[citation needed]

Use DirectX7 mode (see Widescreen resolution).

Adjust combat speed

Wizardry 8's default combat speed is quite slow; Wiz8Fast can be used to increase it.
Use Wiz8Fast[5]
  1. Download Wiz8Fast (Alternative link).
  2. Extract it into <path-to-game>.
  3. Run it and choose a speed. Test and adjust as needed (the game needs to be exited before readjusting).

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\*.CFG[Note 2]
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/245450/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Saves[Note 2]
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/245450/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Import characters

Characters can be imported from Wizardry: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (*.DBS) or Wizardry Gold (*.SGM) saves.
Wizardry: Bane of the Cosmic Forge saves share the *.DBS extension but cannot be imported directly; import them into the sequel, then import that into Wizardry 8.
Import saves[citation needed]
  1. Copy the saves (*.DBS or *.SGM) into <path-to-game>\Saves\Import.
  2. Start a new game and click the 7→8 button.
  3. Choose the desired save file to import from.
Some aspects vary depending on the content of the save that was imported; see the manual for details.

Video

Video settings.
Video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Use Ctrl+F12 or /window parameter[6] (must be using 32-bit color).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Set in Options, Video Sync.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
For Windows 8 and later use the low frame rate fix.
No frame rate cap.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

Widescreen resolutions stretch from 4:3; this mod makes gameplay Hor+ for 16:9 and 16:10 resolutions.
The HUD, menus and all other 2D elements still stretch from 4:3.
Use Extender[7]
  1. Download the Wizardry 8 Extender for Widescreen Support.
  2. Extract srVP_Wiz8Extender.dll into <path-to-game>\Dll.
  3. Go to <path-to-game>.
  4. Edit 3DVideo.CFG with a text editor.
  5. Change the first line to DirectX7 (try DirectX6 if that does not work)
  6. Change the second and third lines to the width and height of the desired resolution.
  7. Change the fourth line to 32
  8. Save the changes. The game will now be Hor+ for 16:9 and 16:10 resolutions.
  9. In case of further problems, use dgVoodoo 2. Download the latest version, and extract dgVoodooCpl.exe and all the files from \MS\x86 to <path-to-game>.

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Toggle Mouse Smoothing setting in Options, General, page 2 / 3.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Set in Options, General, page 2 / 3.
Controller
Controller support
Controller types

Audio

Audio settings.
Audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, Sound Effects, Footsteps and Speech.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Spoken dialogue is subtitled by default.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
Set in 3DSetup.exe.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
Fan translation, download here.
German
Fan translation, download here.
Japanese
Local retail version only.
Japanese
Unknown if taken from the Japanese retail version of the game or retranslated from English into Japanese, download
Polish
Local retail version only.
Russian
Local retail version only.

Issues fixed

Game does not launch (GOG.com)

Try this fix for the GOG.com version if the game does not start after installing normally.

{{Fixbox|description=Use wiz8 fix|ref=[citation needed]|fix=

  1. Download wiz8 fix.
  2. Run it and choose Yes to confirm patching.
Use compatibility mode for Windows XP

Setup tool only lists 640x480 and 800x600 resolutions

See Widescreen resolution.

Lines visible in-game

The OpenGL and Software (MMX) renderers have visual problems on modern systems; see Widescreen resolution.

Unable to move

Press Alt again[8]

Play in DirectX 6 mode.

Unable to move (after using Alt+Tab )

Using Alt+Tab will make the game act like Alt is held down, preventing movement.
Press Alt again to restore movement.[9]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 6, 7
DirectDraw 6, 7
OpenGL 1.0
Glide 2.4
Software renderer
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio Miles Sound System Version 6.0m
Cutscenes Bink Video Version 1.0q

Modifications

The Cosmic Forge Modder allows editing and modding of the game.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 95, 98, 2000
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium MMX 233 MHz
System memory (RAM) 64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1.2 GB
Video card (GPU) 8 MB of VRAM
DirectX 6 compatible


Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[2] 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.[3]
  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).
  3. 3.0 3.1 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>/245450/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (245450) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References