How To Get AVP Gold Edition To Work Flawlessly On Modern Operating Systems

This guide will help you play the original Gold edition on a modern operating system without graphical issues and without the use of the AvPx mod.

The Problem

If you've tried to play Aliens versus Predator Gold Edition in the last ten years or more, you've probably run into a very frustrating problem. The game will load and the menu will be fine, but the levels and the gameplay will have extremely messed up graphical issues. As I understand it, the problem is that newer versions of DirectX can't figure out what to make of the engine's graphics. You will end up getting huge clouds of black or, worse, the screen copying itself over and over as you look around.

Up until now, there were a couple of ways to reduce the problem. The first way is to simply stay in the marine's image intensifier mode or, as a predator, stay permanently cloaked and/or stay in green vision mode. For some reason, those vision mode changes would not cause the graphical issue. Unfortunately, there is no way to play as the alien without graphical issues if you used this method. The other way was to download sirlemonhead's AvPx mod[homepage.eircom.net]. This is a standalone .exe which resolves the issue for single-player and skirmish mode. Sadly, there is no multiplayer mode, and this mod also does not solve the graphical issues for the Cancer Black mod or for the MelPyth mod.

Fortunately, my friend, a phenomenal programmer named UberFoX, discovered a fix that allows you to play the original Aliens versus Predator Gold Edition (NOT Classic 2000 or AvPx) without graphical errors. This fix allows you to do everything you could do with normal Gold Edition, that is, namely, run multiplayer as well as the Cancer Black and MelPyth mods without graphical interference.

The Solution

1. You will obviously need Aliens versus Predator Gold Edition on disc. If you don't have it, get it. Install the game (I assume you're not brain-dead and can figure out how to install it yourself).
Near the end of the installation process, it will ask you if you want to install DirectX 6; DON'T install it. At the end of installation, it will ask you if you want to read the readme and run the game; don't do either.

2. The setup.exe will automatically install the game to C:\Program Files(86)\Fox\Aliens versus Predator. Open up this file location (or wherever you installed the game) and keep it open.

3. Now, go to this link and download dgVoodoo v2.45: http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2.html
dgvoodoo is a program that simulates Voodoo graphics cards. It is freeware.

4. Once you've downloaded dgVoodoo v.2.45, open it up in winrar. Return to your Fox\Aliens versus Predator folder and create a folder called dgvoodoo. Copy the contents of dgVoodoo2_45.zip and paste them into your newly created dgvoodoo folder. Once pasted, find the folder called MS. Inside should be two .dll files, one called D3DImm.dll and the other called DDraw.dll. Copy both of these files and paste them into the regular Aliens versus Predator folder.

5. Now go back to your dgvoodoo folder. Launch dgVoodooSetup.exe. At the top of the menu, you will see a directory. Add this directory to it: YourDrive:\Program Files(x86)\Fox\Aliens versus Predator. Then click Add. Look at these three screenshots and adjust your program so that it matches these.







7. Once you've set the parameters to match these screenshots, you can now run avp.exe. You should not get any graphical problems.

Note that this game still has an audio bug: if you interrupt the startup movie with the Fox Interactive and Rebellion logos, as well as any other of the game's intro/outro videos, the audio will loop endlessly. To prevent this from happening, you can do one of three things:

• Spam the Enter button at the opening logos so you skip them before they launch. Then at the menu, go Audio/Video Options and set Intro Videos to Off (this is my personally preferred method).
  
• Never interrupt the opening logos or intro/outro videos.
  
• You can download UberFoX's AVP Launcher, which skips all videos (including the opening logos). The launcher can be found here: http://avpunknown.com/avpclassic/files/avp_gold_launcher.zip

BONUS: Getting Inteng (Level Editor) To Work Properly

Here's a little bonus for anyone who wants to edit levels or HUD/NPC models in the game. The same (or a similar) problem as above will occur for the game's editor, Inteng. The same method as above works for getting this program to work. I will briefly summarise in bullet-points.

• Install Gold Edition if you haven't already. Then install the AVP Gold Tools if you haven't already.
  
• Download dgVoodoo[dege.freeweb.hu] if you haven't already. Open the zip file but don't do anything yet.
  
• Go to your Fox\Aliens versus Predator\Tools folder. Create a new folder called dgvoodoo.
  
• Extract the contents of the zip file you downloaded to the dgvoodoo folder.
  
• Go inside the dgvoodoo folder and find a folder called MS. Inside should be two .dll's. Copy them, go back two folders, and paste them into the tools folder.
  
• Go back into the dgvoodoo folder and open up dgvoodoosetup.exe. Under Config folder/Running instance, click Add, then add this directory's location (YourDrive:\Program Files (x86)\Fox\Aliens versus Predator\Tools) to the program.
  
• Make sure your setup is the same as mine in the above three screenshots.

To run Inteng, first go to your avp_rifs folder. Right-click one of the level files (they end in .rif) and click Open With -> . Select "Choose default program." Then find Inteng.exe. Now when you double-click a .rif file, it should open in Inteng and you shouldn't get any draw distance problems.

Troubleshooting

If your game crashes when loading a level: Try different Videocard options in the DirectX tab of dgVoodoo. Also try "Disable and passthru to real DirectX" located above the Videocard options. In the Glide tab, try the different 3dfx card options.

If you don't get different multiplayer options: You may be running avp.exe in compatibility mode. Make sure that you are NOT running in compatibility mode.

Legal

This guide was written solely by me (Olde). However, it would not be possible without the efforts of UberFoX, who made this amazing discovery. You can (and should!) use this guide and share it with others. However, you should not distribute it while giving authorial credit to either yourself, someone else, or to nobody at all. You may quote from it at length but please do not post the entirety as a guide on any other forum or site without my express permission. I also reserve the right to remove or modify this guide at any time and/or make it unavailable, with or without providing a reason.

I hope you enjoyed this guide! I'm not very tech-savvy but if you post a question below, I will try to answer it. Thanks for reading!

[veritazz]

Doesn’t work for me on Win10 64Bit Maschine. When Iam in avp
Menu an want to start skirmish or singleplayer it interrupt Mango back to windows desktop without any error. I did all preference from your guide. Thx for helping get I worked.

[Patrxgt]

Wouldn't it be possible to do a downgrade from Classic 2000 to Gold Edition? As far as I am concerned the only things, that are different between those builds are executables and music files.

[FoxYin_11♥♣•]

I had other problem, my screen blackouts randomly and then returns back to normal, which is not normal to me

[RoyaleWare_X51]

I think the Redux mod alone has a widescreen resolution support and can run the original classic flawlessly on modern system, but thanks for this guide

[ShadowDeathBlade93]

Oh yeah dgvoodoo I used that for Incoming

[Olde]

You don't need it, but you can't complete missions in debug mode so I was thinking you could just lower the speed and count them as complete yourself when you get to the end of each stage, then move on.

[Nitro]

Ok thanks man i will try it for sure becouse i miss this title. Do I need that 100% profile to enter debug mode?

[Olde]

This is the game's speed. What you can do is download a completed profile and then play through the game after opening it up in debug mode (open up the command line in Steam and type -debug) and setting the gamespeed lower by typing TIMESCALE 0.75 or something similar in the console. Anything above 1 is faster than normal, anything between 1 and 0 is slower.

[Nitro]

I also have AVP classic 2000 from steam but can someone help me to slow down this game?? I used to play in AvP in the past and im sure that marine was not running SO fast!!! Playing with alien is almost impossible.

[BLUExephos7612]

I remember wanting that game to work for so long. I'm actually playing avp classic 2000 right now on steam. It's tons of fun and its usually $1.24 so why not just pick up the digital version? It works great.