Making the game work!

This is a guide that will hopefully help you make the game work if you run into problems while launching it.

Introduction & GoG

It seems that the original CD version of the game will run fine under any OS all the way up to Windows 7 x64 (Not sure how 8 and 10 fare), however for some reason it's harder to make it work under the steam redistributed version, the GoG version typically runs fine I hear. You might be better off applying for a refund (if you still can) and getting the gog version instead of trying to fix the broken night dive version with the below guide, but if you want to try then the guide is here for you allright. Just be aware that while most have been able to get it working, not everyone has, there's an occasional exception (more frequent after the august 2019 update)

As for the Night Dive/Steam version, I have been able to make it work on Linux, Windows 7 and 10 (Did not try 8 but I assume it can work there too, ditto for 11).

Solution

If you are having trouble launching the game, the following solution is going to work for most people.

By "remove" i mean either delete or move it to a different folder (as backup)

Go to your game installation's "DLL" folder (Default: "C:\Program Files x86\Steam\steamapps\common\Wizardry8\Dll") and remove "srDD_Glide2x.dll" then run 3DSetup again and configure your game. I recommend running the game at "1024x768 x 32" or at the maximum resolution your monitor supports x 32. For sound i will always recommend "DirectSound3D Hardware Support".

You may need to start the game with the maximum resolution your monitor supports at least once before lower resolutions will work.

If the game still isn't working, try removing the .m3d files for the sound devices you definitely aren't going to use. Most likely the following:



Try fiddling with the 3DSetup and try different sound drivers and resolutions until the game launches, if it doesn't, another commonly needed fix is to move the game folder to your root directory (C:\) and renaming it to Wiz8.

To do this find your Wizardry8 Installation folder (Default: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Windows\steamapps\common\Wizardry8\") and then move that Wizardry8 folder to your hard drives root directory and rename it to Wiz8 (Example: "C:\Wiz8\", "E:\Wiz8\", "D:\Wiz8"...)

If you still don't understand what a root directory is, it's the folder you get when you go to computer, and double click/open a hard drive partition (like the usual "Local Disk (C:)")

After moving the game, you must launch the game by going to the game folder and double clicking the executable file. (Example: C:\Wiz8\Wiz8.exe)

If the game still doesn't work, try going through the Additional Info section at the bottom of this guide

Alternative Solution

There is a way to manually configure the 3DSetup through a settings file if the above didn't work or you just don't want to remove files from the installation folder. Keep in mind however that the success rate of this method is lower than the above solution.

In the game folder (C:\Program Files x86\Steam\SteamApps\common\Wizardry8\) there's a file named 3DVideo.CFG.

Here's my setup in the file.

DirectX7
1024
768
32
DirectSound3D Hardware Support

Basically what you need to do is configure your game within this file as you would with the 3DSetup.exe, but the 3DSetup.exe likely doesn't allow you to select a 32 bit color resolution (only 800x600x16 and 640x480x16) as long as it detects the "srDD_Glide2x.dll" file (hence my solution of chice is to remove it)

Even if linux might pull off running something in 16 bit mode, Windows Vista/7/8 usually won't.

The format of the file is:

API (DirectX7 or OpenGL)
Screen Width (1024)
Screen Height (768)
Bit Plane (16 or 32)
Sound Driver ("RAD Game Tools RSX 3D Audio" or "Miles Fast 2D Positional Audio" or "DirectSound3D Hardware Support")

As i said above, when it comes to sound i always recommend DirectSound3D. When it comes to API i always recommend DirectX7 as it provides better quality graphics effects than DX6 and OpenGL.

Set these values to what you want them to be, usually you can set the API and Sound driver in the 3D setup application, but you may need to set the screen width, height and colors manually to a resolution of your choice or the native resolution of your monitor, remember to set it to 32 bit color depth.

The GoG Fix

The GoG version fix can help fix the Steam version in some cases, but it requires the GoG version of the game to be installed in order to run.

I have figured out the required registry keys for the gog fix to run with the steam version and created a batch file that copies the required value from steam's wizardry 8 registry key.

So, to run the gog fix, all you need to do is:

• Make sure your Wizardry 8 game is in it's original install location (e.g. wherever steam originally installed it and not somewhere like "D:\Wiz8" as suggested earlier in the guide)
  
• Download the wiz8_fix from GoG[support.gog.com]
  
• Download & run this batch file[pastebin.com] to create the required registry key
  
• Run the fix (wiz8_fix.exe), and you're done.

I don't know what the gog fix actually does, just that I once had a problem with my game not working, and ran this gog fix, and then it magically started working; so if all else is failing, this might save your day.

And yes, the irony is not lost on me that a fix for the game meant for GoG is sometimes needed to make the game run on Steam...

Linux

The game runs out of the box thanks to Valve's new Steam Play (Proton) technology. So if you want to play this game on Linux, it's as simple as installing it and hitting play.

Update: Use proton version 5.13-6, newer ones can have problems.

That said, the 3D Setup utility does not work (requires mfc42 to work), and the game by default scales only to a 4:3 aspect ratio, nGlide's configuration utility does however work and through it we can fix this.

To configure the game, simply hit play in steam, select 'Configure nGlide' then hit Play again. You will now get a utility to configure the graphics in the game. I suggest selecting a low resolution that matches your aspect ratio (for most users this will be 1280x720), using fit to screen, refresh rate 60, and then disable the 3dfx logo splash screen, then hit ok, and now you will be able to play the game just fine.



That's it.

However, the settings are still configured for 16-bit-depth (seemingly has no effect on visual quality) and 2D audio, so if you are a stickler for having the best available settings, even if it probably has no actual effect on gameplay...

The configuration must be done via the file. You can find the 3DVideo.CFG config file if you right click the game in your library, go to local files and select the 'Browse Local Files' button.

The default configuration of 3DVideo.CFG is this:

Glide2x
800
600
16
Miles Fast 2D Positional Audio

And that works fine, but 16 bit depth with 2D positional audio and 800x600 upscaled graphics? While it's surprisingly ok quality wise... No thanks.

You are also likely to encounter an issue where the game is not scaled to the screens resolution (i.e. the game will follow the aspect ratio of the defined resolution in the config file) so you will have black borders on the sides of the screen.

The configuration I would recommend to solve all that is this:

DirectX7
1280
720
32
DirectSound3D Hardware Support

Since 1280x720 is a 16:9 aspect ratio resolution, setting it will allow the game to scale to that aspect ratio. Setting the resolution higher will not give you any better results btw so don't bother.

You may want to use 1024x768 instead to get the original 4:3 experience/avoid stretched graphics.

And that's it for linux, pretty easy right? It's kind of ironic that this windows exclusive game is easier to get up and running on Linux than on Windows :D

Additional Info

• If videos don't work right install dgVooDoo[www.gog.com]
  
• Try installing the wizardry 8 fan patch[www.postcount.net] and running the game with the patch's provided executable instead, just this could solve everything since most of the problems seem to stem from night dive's alterations to the game files (which would be overwritten by doing this)
  
• A crash on startup may be caused by inability to display in-game videos (likelier to be a problem on linux than windows), browse to "...\Wizardry8\Data\Flics" and remove/rename it's contents if you think you might be having this problem.
  
• If you're crashing on startup, try renaming/removing CurrentGame.SAV from "...\Wizardry8\Saves\".
  
• A possible alternative to moving your game to your root directory would be moving it to another steam library if you have one.
  
• The game may have issues on monitors with a higher than 60hz refresh rate (75hz possible limit), at least one user has reported that he could not run the game on such a device, enabling vsync and configuring the monitor to use 60hz should fix it.
  
• I've heard a couple of people could run the game with OpenGL but not DirectX, so you should try that. Make sure you have DirectX9.0c installed. if you want to run DirectX.
  
• You can try setting the sound driver to "None" as a temporary measure while troubleshooting.
  
• Some people have to launch the game via the .exe file in the installation folder (steam won't launch the game through library), and it goes without saying that if you moved the installation folder, you have to launch this way as well.
  
• Setting the .exe file to compatibility mode with an older version of windows (like Windows XP) is worth a try. You can also try in the same tab as you set the compatibility mode to set the game to run as administrator.
  
• It's common that older games have had problems with UAC (User Account Control) try disabling it. Remember that you have to restart your system for this to take effect if it was the problem.
  
• I've heard that launching the game from command line (CMD/Command Prompt) works for someone. To do this go to the wizardry 8 installation folder, Shift+Right click and "Open Command Window Here" then type in "Wiz8.exe" to run the game. (Or open the command prompt and navigate to the installation folder with the "cd" command, like "cd C:\wiz8")
  
• If all else is still failing, the final step i guess would be to move the game out of the steam folder, and cracking it with a No-Cd crack. (You can google it, i'm not sure if i'm allowed to link that here), be warned that you might end up downloading a virus or other forms of malware in the process. No-cd cracks are a common distribution platform for malware, or at least they were in the past. (Just like Wizardry 8 is in the past, meaning the chances are higher than with a modern game. It also means that the chances of an antivirus defending you against it are higher, so if you have one you should be safe. UAC will also stop it if it requests administrator access if you have it enabled, so if you try to open an exe file and it asks you whether you want to allow it administrator access, say no.)
  
• One user reported that setting the steam interface language to English made his game run (this is a weird one, and a long shot, but try it). However it did not completely fix the game since he couldn't actually manage to play it.
  
• If you're a Mac user and have problems launching the game, the only two options I can think of are to set the game to use the OpenGL renderer, and if that doesn't work, you would need to set up Wine, run the windows version of steam through wine, then install and play wizardry 8 through windows steam via wine. Please note that I have not personally tested this on Macs, but on Linux this solution does work. (It's just no longer needed on linux, thanks to steamplay/proton)
  
• There may be a file in your game folder called "wizardry8_installscript.vdf" (it's a steam installscript), try deleting it. Please leave a comment if this solved your issue, if enough people report it, I will add it to the official section of the guide to make sure more people know about it.
  
• Try disabling your antivirus software

If the game still isn't working after trying all these things, you might want to ask for a refund and buy the game over at GOG instead[www.gog.com] where none of these issues should be around (and even if you run into them GOG has a game fixer program that will auto-fix the game for you (It amazes me that it actually works, never seen programs like that work in my life except for theirs). The steam overlay doesn't work in Wizardry 8 (it does on Linux though) so maybe steam isn't worth the bother after all if you can get better, DRM Free results from GOG, free of Night Dive's tampering).

[HFM]

I have it running wit the Fan Patch 1.28 + HD textures. The only problem I have is the cutscene videos play in a tiny box in the middle of my monitor, just dealing with it can still see them.
Win 11 25H2
5070Ti
4K 240Hz OLED

[Rabcor]

@AbyssalChimera what OS are you on? I want to add this to the guide, but I need to know what OS you are on for the context.

[BOON: Springtrap In Fishnets]

So for me, the fan patch DID work, but the intro video would only play in the bottom right corner as a small box. Also tried dgVoodoo, but Defender was throwing up a trojan warning on the most recent version(2.86-2), so i tried the one prior; unfortunately to no avail...

HOWEVER - after a clean install (I had tried moving it to root C and never deleted it to be me guinea pig), I tried deleting the install script. It didn't work right away. But after setting it to compatibility mode for Win7, bam, it worked! I hadn't even looked at what my 3d settings were yet. It played the SirTech logo AND intro vid perfectly fine, and my resolution was not locked super low either.

Kinda annoying that it was THAT simple a fix, but hey, now I can add on my experience to aid others! Whether I use the fan patch or not is yet to be seen as I'm unsure to its actual usage and credibility.

[Rabcor]

Thanks, I've added it to the additional info section.

[BrązowyBear]

This guide helped me to make the game run. Deleting srDD_Glide2x.dll and setting the settings in
3DVideo.cfg was enough.
However the videos did not play. For that I installed dgVoodoo2. Thank you GoG forums, see this link where I found this information [www.gog.com].

[Vexing Vision]

Yes, I am on Windows 11. And I've been trying for a year to get the game running again.

The Fanpatch actually occasionally crashes, but with a disciplined saving routine, this is fine.

[Rabcor]

You're welcome! I haven't tested this at all on windows 11, i basically don't use windows anymore. But it's possible the issues with launching it somehow got worse on 11 leaving the fan patch as the only solution, are you on windows 11?

[Vexing Vision]

The fan patch makes it work, everything else failed for me. Thanks so much for the comprehensive guide!

[Obèle]

Thanks to you I can finally enjoy Wiz8

[sensacja]

It worked for me with a protom 5.x I can provide the exact version that stopped the problems but I remember being able to fix and play wizardry in one evening