Current Known Issues & Solutions

[Anyaira]

This post simply aims to gather all the issues that the community has found and will find, as well as solutions to these problems until Konami patches them up. This is for PC only, Deck users should create a different post.

Legend

• Number between brackets (eg. [1]): These indicate there's a solution for the problem which is listed at the end of the post, simply look for the same number for the specific solution
  
• [-A-] Issue can be solved by the user alone
  
• [-B-] Issue can be solved by a community patch/mod
  
• [SOLVED] Issue is solved from Konami's side and you might need to update your game
  
• [FIXED*] Issue is considered solved since there have been no reports for a long time related to the listed issue

[Updated on Sept 29 2024]

Many of the issues below can be fully or partially solved with mods, here's a Link to the repository of mods in this discussion forum.

Issues

General Known Issues:

• Games crash directly on some systems. (Still appens as of v2.0)
  
• Games output to a black screen on some systems. [FIXED*]
  
• Games output with black bars. [-A-][-B-][1][FIXED*]
  
• No option to change screen resolutions. [-A-][-B-][2][SOLVED]
  
• No option to change output mode (Full Screen, Windowed, Borderless Windowed). [-B-][2][SOLVED]
  
• Forced windowed mode (ALT+ENTER) on monitors with higher refresh rates than 60Hz can cause games to run above 60FPS with gameplay speed tied to the FPS speed (120Hz will cause game to run at 2x speeds). [-A-][3][SOLVED]
  
• Game runs at a higher speed than normal [-A-][3][FIXED*]
  
• Game has audio synching issues. [-A-][3][FIXED*]
  
• Language Packs are not available unless the player uses the SteamDB.
  
• Keyboard keybinds can not be changed. [SOLVED]
  
• Inconsistent controller input between the 3 games for Confirmation/Cancel (O and X, or A and B), MGS1 uses O/B to confirm and X/A to cancel, while MGS2 and MGS3 use the opposite. [FIXED*]
  
• Games have stretching on monitors that are not 16:9. [-B-][2][FIXED*]
  
• Games do not inhibit sleep mode on monitors (needs repro reports) [FIXED*]

MGS1:

• Internal Resolution locked to 240p, further forcibly upscaled to 1080p using a simple bilinear upscaler. [-A-][4]
  
• Steam Cloud Saves are not available. [SOLVED]
  
• Input lag is higher than normal.
  
• True analog mode is missing, analog stick is mapped to 8 directions only (emulates direction arrows).

MGS2:

• Internal Resolution locked to 720p, further forcibly upscaled to 1080p. [-A-][-B-][2][SOLVED]
  
• There is no way to exit the game unless the player goes back to the main menu by either dying or using a node.
  
• Steam Cloud Saves are not available. [SOLVED]
  
• Controller remapping gets reset every time the game is launched. [FIXED*]
  
• Audio is too loud, no in-game sound controls. [-B-][5]
  
• Audio is low quality and sounds distorted. [-B-][5]
  
• Audio issues in some/all cutscenes (low quality, crackling, audio compression?).
  
• Anisotropic Filtering is off/too low. [-A-][6]

MGS3:

• Internal Resolution locked to 720p, further forcibly upscaled to 1080p. [-A-][-B-][2][SOLVED]
  
• Steam Cloud Saves are not available. [SOLVED]
  
• Controller remapping gets reset every time the game is launched. (some reports say it does not carry over to the game but does work in the launcher) [FIXED*]
  
• Mouse has no RAW input, emulated through the right thumbstick only.
  
• Mouse buttons do not work. [FIXED*]
  
• Audio is too loud, no in-game sound controls. [-B-][5][SOLVED]
  
• Audio is low quality and sounds distorted. [-B-][5]
  
• Anisotropic Filtering is off/too low. [-A-][6]
  
• Brightness, Saturation, and Gamma levels are different from the original versions, and the game does not offer any tools to correct this. [-A-][7]
  
• Grass draw distance set too close to camera compared to original version.
  
• When playing at 720p, a blue line artifact crosses the entire screen whenever a particle effect is on-screen. [FIXED*]
  
• Controller inputs remain active even when the game is minimised/alt tabbed. [SOLVED]
  
• Awkward use of TAB for opening the start menu causes the menu to open/close when ALT+TAB out or into the game. (needs repro reports) [FIXED*]
  
• Introduced on patch 1.5 - Controllers are no longer detected by default, requiring players to go through steam's controller options to make them detectable. [-A-][SOLVED]

Solutions

Many of the solutions below can be found in this thread of this very same duscussion forum It also lists a plethora of other useful things that improve the game, so do give it a look for a more satisfying experience. This is the same link found above.

1. Black bars solution Steam community post, now also a community patch.[github.com]
   
2. Screen Resolution Workaround: This requires a Hex edit of your game files, or using a community patch that does the same thing , here's another option - This works for 3, but also technically for 2 as well, though it results in glitches for postprocess effects and the UI. A third option now, which also fixes the black bars issue.[github.com] This also adds borderless and windowed modes.
   
3. Forced window mode, high speed gameplay, and audio desynch can be fixed by going to the control pannel for your graphics card and locking the maximum FPS for the games to 60, Konami added a workaround guide, you can follow this community guide. This is reported to not always work.
   
4. MGS1 bilinear upscale fix or partial fix by some steam community members.
   
5. Audio fix for low quality audio in MGS3 in Nexu Mods.[www.nexusmods.com]
   
6. In order to fix the anisotropic filtering issue, you need to go into your Graphics card's control pannel and enforce it (to 8x or 16x, it has little cost).
   
7. Gamma/Brightness/Saturation can be fixed by the user by changing the Brightness to -12 and Saturation to 115 (reported to work for AMD cards through the control pannel but likely can be done so for all other vendors)
   
8. Link to the community guide on the fix to patch 1.5's issue with controller detection.

Credits

I don't take credit for any of these issues being identified nor their solutions and workarounds, this is just a collection for easy access. Most of these issues I have identified from posts in the metal gear solid reddit, as well as this discussion section on steam.
Any other issues that get identified, you can post below and I will add the little by little to the above post. If it gets too large, I might have to create a different post, or I will delete those issues that have been [SOLVED].

[Espire Mike]

Thanks for making this post!

[Aker]

Here's one more. Not necessarily a bug, but a feature that should be added. MGS1, MGS2 and MGS3 are all meant to be played at a certain brightness level. The games are actually brighter than what's recommended, and MGS1's color is wrong because they removed dithering without increasing the color depth.

[BOSS]

MGS2 and 3 crash after starting a new game on Steam Deck.

[Kyo Tanaka]

Originally posted by BOSS:

MGS2 and 3 crash after starting a new game on Steam Deck.

Speaking of, has anyone tried moving a save file from windows and seeing if said file worked on deck?

I can try that myself, but I'd need to know where the saves are located.

[Tycho]

Originally posted by Kyo Tanaka:

Originally posted by BOSS:

MGS2 and 3 crash after starting a new game on Steam Deck.

Speaking of, has anyone tried moving a save file from windows and seeing if said file worked on deck?

I can try that myself, but I'd need to know where the saves are located.

Should be in the install folder.
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid_3:_Snake_Eater_-_Master_Collection_Version

[Kyo Tanaka]

For those interested about steam deck version of 2 and 3:

It's not just the introduction cutscene that crashes the game, it's ALL cutscenes. A workaround to getting around the introduction cutscene can be done, but you won't get very far. If you are interested, you can simply port your windows save over to linux/steam deck save. Browse local files and you can find a foldier named mgsx save win, copy that entire folder for the respective titles.

There are also no voices in MGS2 VR Missions or in codecs in MGS3. It bugged the ♥♥♥♥ out of me not hearing the cold war quote.


I don't know if this info is useful for anybody but our crashing problem might originate from cutscenes. And voices seem to be a separate issue altogether, since these two titles are playable without them if you can get around cutscenes altogether.

Tl;dr, MGS3 is virtually unplayable, unless modders step up. MGS2 is somewhat playable through VR missions and Snake Tales, which is basically a retelling of Plant but you play as Snake and all cutscenes are replaced with novels.

[BOSS]

Originally posted by Kyo Tanaka:

For those interested about steam deck version of 2 and 3:

It's not just the introduction cutscene that crashes the game, it's ALL cutscenes. A workaround to getting around the introduction cutscene can be done, but you won't get very far. If you are interested, you can simply port your windows save over to linux/steam deck save. Browse local files and you can find a foldier named mgsx save win, copy that entire folder for the respective titles.

There are also no voices in MGS2 VR Missions or in codecs in MGS3. It bugged the ♥♥♥♥ out of me not hearing the cold war quote.


I don't know if this info is useful for anybody but our crashing problem might originate from cutscenes. And voices seem to be a separate issue altogether, since these two titles are playable without them if you can get around cutscenes altogether.

Tl;dr, MGS3 is virtually unplayable, unless modders step up. MGS2 is somewhat playable through VR missions and Snake Tales, which is basically a retelling of Plant but you play as Snake and all cutscenes are replaced with novels.

Summed up nicely. However, I'd rather Konami or Valve step up with the former fixing these issues or the latter coming up with a compatibility layer that fixes these problems.

[Aker]

Originally posted by Anyaira:

This post simply aims to gather all the issues that the community has found and will find, as well as solutions to these problems until Konami patches them up. This is for PC only, Deck users should create a different post.

Is there a way to keep this discussion at the top of the list?

[Anyaira]

Originally posted by Aker:

Is there a way to keep this discussion at the top of the list?

Not afaik, so it's up to all of us if we wantt to keep it up there for visibility. Unless a mod pins it.

[Aker]

Originally posted by Anyaira:

Not afaik, so it's up to all of us if we wantt to keep it up there for visibility. Unless a mod pins it.

Gotcha. Ironically enough, apparently the NES games have 4k support already. It's likely just a matter of when they can get the patch ready at this point.

[Aker]

Originally posted by Anyaira:

This post simply aims to gather all the issues that the community has found and will find, as well as solutions to these problems until Konami patches them up. This is for PC only, Deck users should create a different post.

Update. Konami's going to see what they can do about the game speed and went out of their way to link the workarounds until then. https://www.konami.com/mg/news/us/en/#231026_2

[dizee]

Thanks for posting this. Please keep it updated!

[Anyaira]

Added the Konami workaround to the compilation of solutions.

For now this seems to be the full list of issues that affect the games as a whole. Stuff like the AK47 not working as intended, or small audio queues looping are minor bugs which I have not seen several reports on, so I will keep them "in reserve", and will add them later if more people repro them.

I was also thinking maybe the bug solutions/workarounds are not easy to follow, should I change them into numbered solutions and add those numbers behind the issues themselves for easier tracking? Opinions on this are appreciated.

Additionally, should I include an "expected feature set" of options that are missing and should be included in any and all PC releases? Such as AA, SSAO, AF, etc.? not unrealistic stuff like getting RT or somesuch, just basics to avoid jagged edges everywhere, blurry textures when seen from an angle, and SS AO that makes the game feel grounded. Just a few examples. Maybe a separate list would make more sense, but I feel like some of these options are a must tbh, sicne they are cheap and easy to implement (heck, they can be added from your (GPU's control pannel...)

Anyway, keep the bugs coming people.

[Aker]

Originally posted by Anyaira:

Anyway, keep the bugs coming people.

I went ahead and linked your post in a message to customer support. Hopefully it'll help.

The Message: "Hello again. Please disregard the previous post. I've found a list in MGS3 covering known glitches in the entire collection. Please take a look at the following links for details. Love how this collection is going and I hope all works out in the end. Thank you for your time!

List: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2131650/discussions/0/3878221733380295349/?tscn=1698244407 

Requested Feature for MGS1-3: Brightness/Contrast/Saturation options."

... Also, by what I mean by love how it's going is that I'm glad I finally have these games natively on PC and functioning for the most part. The bugs are ridiculous though.

[Ty]

A dude on Reddit found a fix for sound issues in MGS3, which also makes the game run on Steam Deck:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/17g8enj/metal_gear_solid_steam_deck/

Basically you need to download xaudio2_9.dll (make sure it's the 64 bit version!) and put it in the main game directory where the game exe is