How I got finally Crysis to run on W7 64bit (& Crysis Warhead)

[knuddelholic]

Ok, here are some tips how I finally make Crysis run on my Windows 7 64 bit system on a 1920x1080 resolution after spending hours with different suggestion which didn’t worked by themselves.

In a nutshell those steps should upgrade your game with files to run on 64 systems and prevent after that the black screen which haunted most of us.

I try to make those instructions as clear as possible for those which are less used to such software fixes. (Crysis Warhead solution is in the second posting below !)
Please read the instructions through once first and don't try to start the game halfway through the steps.

Thanks to the players ‘Postal Dude’, ‘embak’ and ‘Spudsy’ for supplying links and important thoughts to the solution.

1. First go to C:\Users\-Administrator- or –your name-\Documents\My Games\Crysis and delete in that folder the complete Profiles folder with its content as those files are created every time you run the game and might mess with your following try to fix it. Thanks ‘Spudsy’ for the tip.

2. Next I got ‘Postal Dude’s’ (PD’s) BIN64 files which I put on a server together with the second file (9KB) needed in point 4. You can find the file (18MB) in this location: www.outfoxed.net/crysis-fix

3. Unzip the file and copy the Bin64 into the main folder of the Crysis game, renamed the existing Bin32 to Bin32.OLD and rename PD’s Bin64 to Bin32. Inside our new Bin32 folder I went to properties from ‘Crysis.exe’ and changed its compatibility mode to Vista & SP2. Do NOT do this with the ‘Crysis64.exe’ file, do it just with the ‘Crysis.exe’.

4. Now I went to a post from ‘embak’ at http://germancrysis.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1702 and got me the small zip file of 10KB ‘Crysis 1_ultrahighqualitycfg_1.3.1.zip ‘ and unzipped it. You can get it also from: www.outfoxed.net/crysis-fix

5. Under C:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Crysis\Game\Config I renamed the folder CVarGroups to CVarGroups.OLD and then copied ‘embaks’ CVarGroups folder into C:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Crysis\Game\Config

6. Last step: In C:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Crysis I renamed autoexec.cfg into autoexec.cfg.OLD and then copied ‘embek’s’ autoexec.cfg into C:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Crysis


Important This should be it. Do NOT try to start the game between step 2 to 6 or the game will create new profiles in C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\My Games\Crysis which will mess up again any start attempt.

Important I suggest to NEVER use the start button in Steam as it will very likely mess up the profiles and you have to redo the whole procedure. Always start the game via desktop icon.

I tried it several times and it works fine even you might face quite some delay before the EA splash screen comes up.
I suggest NOT messing around with the setup in the option menu as that might mess up again the profiles folder. But the game should now run at least and with pretty nice settings.
Worst case: If you play around with the settings and you have crashes again, just repeat the six steps and you're fine again.

Thanks again to the others which helped with suggestions and provided files. My goal was just to be able to run and enjoy the solo campaigns. For multiplayer you can find enough other posts which help with that issue.

I hope this helps at least some people.
P.S. for Steam: Creating posts in Steam forums with format is such a pain in the @$& .

[knuddelholic]

Actually, I just found a simple solution which makes Crysis Warhead run on my W7 64 system on a 1920x1080 resolution in the Warhead forum:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/17330/discussions/0/882966056834602600/

Lithonion's posting, on the first page, the second after the OP's posting does the trick for me.
Now I just still try to find a way how I can go beyond the 1600x1200 resolution in Warhead.

EDIT: Here's the COMPLETE solution for Crysis Warhead:

1. First delete in C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\My Games\Crysis_WARHEAD the entire profile folder with all its content to get rid of old trashy settings.

2. Then start the game with the Crysis64.exe in the BAN64 folder. Make a shortcut of that Crysis64.exe on your desktop to start the game later.

3. Then start the game with the shortcut. Do NOT start the game with the ‘Play’ button in Steam.

4. Without the old profiles the game should start without problems. Put all the settings up to max (enthusiast level). You will see that the game just goes up to 1600x1200 at this point. Save and close the game.

5. Now go back to C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\My Games\Crysis_WARHEAD and open the file game.cfg with Notepad. (Tip: Use the double click into the location bar to copy&paste the path from Explorer into the 'open window' from Notepad and choose all files *.*)

6. Now modify r_Height = 1080 and r_Width = 1920. All sys_spec_ at the bottom from GameEffects to Texture should show the number 4 as value. Save and close.

That’s it. Just remember to start the game always from the desktop and NEVER out of Steam directly or you have to repeat this whole procedure from 1 to 6.

Enjoy

[Killer7]

I'll have to try this when Postal Dude gets back and uploads the file again. Seems MEGA took it down and he's not at home to re upload it.

[knuddelholic]

Thank you for bringing that to my attention. Mega must have nuked Dude's upload soon after I created this summary help guide. I work on a solution to make both files (Dude's and embak's) unchanged available for everybody once I got them uploaded. Just to make sure everybody has access to them in case Dude is not back for a while.

EDIT: I am quite sure that the reason why Postal Dude’s file got nuked from the MEGA site he uploaded to was the cracked files inside it included as MEGA’s server probably detected those on a routine check and deleted them.

To allow people trying out the solution and create a more stable download source I removed from Postal Dude’s zip files which are not necessary for the solution, meaning the Bin32 folder, the cracks and the mini image file, just leaving the needed Bin64 folder.

If someone still needs the deleted files please contact Postal Dude and request a complete upload. That will be tricky when servers will be able to detect the cracked files in his zip collection.

Again, thanks a lot to everybody who helped and provided to the common solution of this stable fix. Enjoy :)

[Prof. Orribilus]

After this procedure, is it possibile to run the game through Steam, so with Steam Overlay?

[knuddelholic]

Unfortunately that is not possible because of the nature of the problem that the Steam version for Crysis doesn't support 64bit in the first place.
Warhead does also not run with the overlay because of the way of the solution.

The main focus of the solution was to make both games at least possible to run stable under Windows 7 64 bit systems and they work for me both stable after restarting them several times.
The secondary goal was to improve the graphics up to 1920x1080 and with best settings as possible without endangering the stability.

I already sank a lot of time into researching the solutions and had not the nerve to experiment after achieving stability with even higher settings, inlcuding higher resolutions.
Everybody who wants is welcome to experiment with ven better settings if you want and post them in here. For me 1920 for the old game was enough as stability was for me the main goal.

Important reminder: Please remember to start after the fix both games ALWAYS with the icons on your desktop. Crysis will work from the 'Play game' button in Steam, Warhead WILL crash with the same 'Play' button. As overlay doesn't work anyway for both games, I suggest to get used to start both games just from the desktop shortcuts.

[Prof. Orribilus]

Ok, thanks.

[knuddelholic]

Prego. Seems like it works as I see you're in-game.

[Prof. Orribilus]

No, i am playing with original 32bit :)

[Killer7]

Knuddel, you guide works like a charm. Nice to play a game I bought years ago lol! I need to buy you a number of beers.

[knuddelholic]

Thanks for the feedback. I just extracted out of the main discussion the tips and provided files into a new thread to help others to not dig through the back and forth of that very extensive thread and put it into an easy step by step guide to help those which are less used to deal with such technical fixes. Many instructions in the main thread were to jumpy and incomplete and didn't helped the technical more challenged folks.

I guess it will get more attention by the next time the games get on sale again. Maybe someone from Steam can pin this thread at some point to prevent it from getting lost if they are unwilling and/or unable to solve the issue because of legal reasons but at least to @(#$ off less customers with modern systems.

I am still curios if someone can later provide additional improvements like higher resolutions or mods which run on top of the solution without hopefully destabalizing it.
I did my part to help the Crysis Steam community by creating the simple guide, let others see if they contribute something on top of it as well.

Danke for the beers, never cared for beer, so drink one for me. Prost :)

[Dusk of Oolacile]

Or just keep your OS up-to-date. It's been patched 100 years ago.

[knuddelholic]

My OS is on auto update and I have no isuses with games until the Steam release is not done properly. I think why Crysis produced issues for many on Steam was maybe leftovers of old retail installs in the profile folders and were never really removed. Would be not the first game which leaves a lot of old trashy entries behind which can become an issue later.

[MrMcSwifty]

Originally posted by Dusk of Oolacile:

Or just keep your OS up-to-date. It's been patched 100 years ago.

Are you serious right now?

[Killer7]

Originally posted by Dusk of Oolacile:

Or just keep your OS up-to-date. It's been patched 100 years ago.

Ha. Haha. HAHAHAHAAH!!!! This....this is rich.

[LordDarak]

hi i have both retail and steam version of the game, and i run them in windows 10 x64 pro. Retail version work's fine whit patch and some compatibility mode on it, but the steam version not work, i fixed warhead like you tell and it works fine, but your solution for crysis 1 on win 10 don't work for some reason: 1 cannot make the crysis.exe compatible in any way there is no option 2 putting the crysis64.exe or the runme application in sort of compatible mode both ask for dvd ... any idea to fix on win 10 for crysis one?