Make your KOTOR playthrough more enjoyable

This guide describes how to modernize KOTOR by applying several mods to add widescreen support, improve the graphics and fix several bugs in "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic".

Why I made this Guide

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is undoubtedly a timeless classic amongst all Star Wars games and videogames in general. It is a product of the golden era of Bioware RPGs and features an extensive story with great characters, a dense atmosphere and rich environments that should delight every Star Wars fan.

However, something that won’t delight most players are the outdated gameplay mechanics and graphics of this old gem. KOTOR was released in 2003 and you can definitely tell. This game is greatly in need of a Remake, one that was just recently announced but then probably cancelled (?) for at least a good while.

For this reason and since I recently modded the game for my own playthrough, I put together this guide for those who don’t want to wait for a potential Remake and enjoy a modernized playthrough of KOTOR that stays true to the original vision of the developers.

Agenda

First, this guide will describe how to apply several bugfixes that hopefully should get rid of many annoying bugs present in the latest release version of KOTOR. Following that, widescreen support is being added to the game together with multiple mods improving the textures for characters, environments, skyboxes, FX, particles, loading screens and blasters. Lastly, a small troubleshooting section at the end might offer some help in case anything goes wrong during the modding process.

All mods, fixes and patches have been tested with the Steam version of KOTOR. If any of the modfiles give you trouble, try installing the game on a different harddrive than C (since C:/Program Files is admin protected, it may cause problems).

Bugfixes

To fix a bunch of bugs in one go, we will install the K1 Community Patch. This awesome bugfix compilation already includes most of the common bugfix collections like the Comprehensive Kotor Bug Fix Collection and the Bastila Romance Scriptfix (thanks Qui-Gon Glenn!).

As of recently, the Community Patch was officially updated to the 1.10.0 version. This also means, that the installer for the patch was replaced with the newer HoloPatcher. Because this patcher was created using python and bundled into a single EXE, some AntiVirus softwares detect it as a virus (sometimes this removes the INSTALL.EXE completely while extracting the archive). It is most likely a false positive, but it is up to you to decide whether you want to use it or not. In any case, I recommend downloading the latest HoloPatcher from HERE[deadlystream.com] and to use it instead of the bundled INSTALL.EXE.

• Optional: Download the latest HoloPatcher[deadlystream.com] and use it instead of the bundled INSTALL.EXE contained in the K1 Community Patch
  
• Download and install the K1 Community Patch[deadlystream.com]. All you have to do is point the installer to your game directory (the swkotor folder, e.g. D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\swkotor)

(I would also link you the older 1.9.2 version as alternative, but I couldn't find it anywhere and hosting it myself would be against the mod authors wishes. I recommend checking the HoloPatcher exe using VirusTotal and to draw your own conclusions)

Widescreen Fix

Without widescreen fixes, the game will not run in widescreen mode and everything will be stretched to fit the screen. In order to make widescreen possible, the game EXE must be hex editable so that the patches can be applied. Technically, this is a pirated EXE and I will take no responsibility for the file offered in the link. But thus far, Steam has been fine with the discussion and use of this file for modding purposes. If you have the CD- or GOG-Version installed, you should be good to go and can skip step 1.

1. Make a backup of swkotor.exe in your game directory. Then replace swkotor.exe with the hex editable version from here[deadlystream.com] (needs to be unzipped using e.g. 7zip)
   
2. Download and run uniws[community.pcgamingwiki.com]. Select "Star Wars: KOTOR (1024x768 interface)" in the dropdown menu and locate your swkotor game directory. Select your desired game resolution (e.g., 1920x1080) and click "Patch"
   
3. Open the swkotor.ini file in the game directory and change the "Height=…" and "Width=…" values to your selected game resolution (simply add both lines below [Graphics Options] if they're not there yet)
   
4. Download KotOR High Resolution Menus[deadlystream.com] and copy the files from the folder named after the chosen resolution into the Override folder (e.g., gui.1920x1080 for 1920x1080)
   
5. Copy hires_patcher.bat and hires_patcher.exe into the swkotor folder and run hires_patcher.bat (Again enter the desired resolution, for the rest you can just press enter)

Here is an example of how uniws should look like before hitting Patch if you want the game to run at 1920x1080:

Bigger font

For resolutions of 1080p or higher, the on-screen text might get too small for comfortable reading.
So if you would like bigger texts, you can install this font mod[deadlystream.com].

The text is separated into three categories: Names, Menu and Dialogue/Descriptions.
For each section, you may choose one folder to copy the files from into your Override folder. You can choose between the default size, medium, big and very big.

The font size "Big" seems to cause crashes for some, so choose "VeryBig" instead.

If you choose a bigger font size than default for the Dialogue/Descriptions category, you won't be able to see the small number next to items indicating the item count. So sadly, if you want the dialogue text to be bigger you have to live with this downside.
Otherwise, just don't copy any files from the Dialogue/Descriptions category and the item count number will work.

Texture Mods

First, download High Quality Blasters[www.nexusmods.com] and run the installer like you did with the Community Patch. All the following mods must simply be downloaded and loosely placed in the Override folder (no subfolders!). You usually know that you are copying the right files if you see some .tga or .txi files. Some mods give you the choice between the uncompressed TGA version and the slightly worse but better performing TPC version, so choose according to your hardware constrains. BUT: In order for the Fen's character textures to work correctly, you need to download the uncompressed TGA version of Ultimate Character Overhaul. Otherwise Fen's doesn't correctly override the crew member textures. (Thanks Diagyx!).
Install in the following order and override when asked:

• Ultimate Character Overhaul Redux (Choose the TGA version here)[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Fen's Bastila[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Fen's HK-47[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Fen's Juhani[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Fen's Jolee[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Fen's Zaalbar[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Fen's Canderous[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Fen's Mission[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Fen's T3-M4[www.nexusmods.com] (gives T3-M4 a black paint job)
  OR
  Astro Droids Pack HD[www.nexusmods.com] (keeps original paint job, thanks Edelcast!)
  
• Fen's Carth[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Fen's Player[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Fen's Female Player[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• High Quality Skyboxes II[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Ultimate Taris High Resolution[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Ultimate Tatooine High Resolution[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Ultimate Kashyyyk High Resolution[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Ultimate Manaan High Resolution[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Ultimate Korriban High Resolution[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Ultimate Dantooine High Resolution[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Ultimate Unknown World High Resolution[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Ultimate Endar Spire High Resolution[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Hi-Res Beam Effects 2.0[deadlystream.com]
  
• Fire and Ice HD[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• High Resolution Lightsaber Beams[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Loadscreens in Color[www.nexusmods.com]

Reshade

To further boost graphics, you can use a reshade preset like Fens – Reshade[www.nexusmods.com].
I personally tried it and ended up removing it again, but it comes down to a matter of taste.

Gameplay

I deliberately left out any mods changing the gameplay (e.g., starting as jedi, restore cut content, add modded items, …) to stay as true to the original game as possible for players attempting their first playthrough.

After the bugfixes, widescreen support and visual overhaul you are still left with a very janky and outdated game of course. If you are not from that era of games or have a high resilience against janky gameplay, the game might make you want to quit after a few hours of playing. I encourage you, however, to give the game a chance and play at least till you reach the second planet before deciding to give up on the game.

Character Builds

From what I have heard from friends, read online and experienced myself, the game can be quite challenging, especially if you screw up your build.

Here is a link to some nice KOTOR builds[sites.google.com] that I used in my personal playthrough. The first planet can be quite rough using these builds, as you don’t level up early on to receive more Jedi/Sith levels, but after that the game becomes almost too easy. So, if you want to enjoy the game and lore without many hiccups (apart from the start), I can definitely recommend these builds.

Planet Order

I don't want to give too many hints as this might spoil some of the fun of the game, but if you are lost and want a rough recommendation for when to visit which planet, try this one to start with (if you are light side):

1. Dantooine
   
2. Tatooine
   
3. Kashyyyk
   
4. Manaan
   
5. Tatooine (Sidequests)
   
6. Dantooine (Sidequests)
   
7. Kashyyyk (Sidequests)
   
8. Manaan (Sidequests)
   
9. Korriban
   
10. Tatooine (Sidequests)
    
11. Kashyyyk

Troubleshooting

My game keeps crashing at a certain point in the game (e.g. on Taris)

Getting Kotor to run smoothly on AMD graphics cards can be difficult, many people run into issues like game crashes. One common fix for those crashes is to roll back the AMD graphics driver as described in this guide. Another fix that could help is using windows xp sp3 compatibility mode (right click swkotor.exe -> Compatibility). Additionally, turning off the steam overlay or starting the game through the swkotor.exe instead of steam might fix the issue.

I can't find the "Width=..." and "Height=..." entries in swkotor.ini

If you don't see these entries, you can simply add them below the [Graphics Options] entry like this:

[Graphics Options]
Height=1080
Width=1920

I applied UniWS, but my game is still running in low resolution

Make sure you followed step 3 of the widescreen section correctly and input the correct resolution for the "Width=<your resolution>" and "Height=<your resolution>" entries.

I can't enter values in the resolution fields of UniWS

This happens if UniWS can't find an editable swkotor.exe in the folder you have selected.
Make sure that:

1. You selected the correct folder location (swkotor folder)
   
2. You replaced the swkotor.exe with the editable one (step 1 in the widescreen section)
   
3. You selected the correct dropdown item in UniWS (KOTOR 1024x768)
   
4. You are running UniWS as admin

The menu is zoomed in and only half of it is visible

Make sure that screen scale within Windows is set to 100% and not something like 125%

After the widescreen fix I only get a blank menu screen (New Game, ... are missing)

This is a direct result of installing the HD Menus mod (copying the files in the Override folder) but the game not running in the corresponding widescreen resolution (e.g. if you copied the files from the gui.1920x1080 folder, your game needs to be running at 1920x1080).

This means that either UniWS was not run correctly or the entries in the swkotor.ini were not made correctly.

In order to fix this problem, try redoing these steps:

1. Replace swkotor.exe again with the hexeditable EXE
   
2. Run UniWS again: Make sure to select the CORRECT item in the dropdown menu, select the CORRECT game directory location and enter the CORRECT resolution corresponding to your copied menu files.
   
3. Adjust the "Width=..." and "Height=..." entries in swkotor.ini to the CORRECT corresponding screen resolution
   
4. Also redo the hires_patcher.bat step in the widescreen fix section

Make sure that your game now runs in the correct resolution, ALL of the resolution have to match (the one used in UniWS, the one entered in the swkotor.ini, the one used to identify the correct HD menu resolution Override files, the one entered in the hires_patcher.bat)

If the problem still remains, try removing the HD Menu files from the Override folder. If you can now see the menu properly (even if it is scaled wrong/behaving incorrectly), you can be sure you did something wrong with the steps above. If the menu is still blank, you may have encountered a different problem I am yet unaware of.

I did every widescreen step but the position of my mouse and the menu items seem off (e.g. it hovers the wrong menu item)

This usually happens if the hires_patcher.bat/hires_patcher.exe step was done incorrectly.
Make sure you place both files in the game directory (where the swkotor.exe is) and run hires_patcher.bat.
Also make sure, that you enter the correct resolution within the script.

Some of the dialog boxes are not showing up correctly

If that happens, these are things you can try to fix it:

• Try enabling VSync in the ingame options menu
  
• Redo the widescreen fix and in the hires_patcher.bat step, type in 'yes' instead of 'no' when asked about the dialog letterboxing

I can't move after combat / my game behaves weird/freezes

Try locking the framerate (e.g. to 60) or enabling VSync.
The game might not work well with very high framerates.

My game crashes instantly after applying UniWS

If you have chosen a resolution below 1440x900, UniWS most likely will not work properly as explained here[www.wsgf.org].
There is a fix described here for the resolution 1280x800, maybe this helps fix your problems.

The menu is not working correctly after doing the widescreen steps

Please make sure that you followed ALL of these steps closely:

1. Replace the EXE with the editable one
   
2. Patch with UniWS (Select KOTOR 1024x768 in dropdown AND enter the final resolution e.g. 1920x1080 )
   
3. Edit/Add "Width=1920" and "Height=1080" in swkotor.ini (replace values with final resolution)
   
4. Copy the modfiles from the HD Menu mod to Override (e.g. files from inside 16-by-9\gui.1920x1080)
   
5. Copy hires_patcher.exe and hires_patcher.bat into the game folder and run hires_patcher.bat
   
6. While running it, enter the final resolution (e.g 1920x1080) and press enter for the rest

The movies in-game are black/not working

Try and redo all the widescreen patch steps but modify the patches.ini of uniws before applying it as it is described in point 7 of this forum post[www.gog.com]

The grass/fog in-game seems to be stretched across the screen (as little lines)

The grass can be bugged for some hardware configurations.
Try disabling the grass in the swkotor.ini file.

Textures for the crew members seem unchanged/Fen's textures are not working

Make sure you downloaded the .TGA version of the Ultimate Character Overhaul mod.
Otherwise the Fen's textures don't overwrite the files correctly and the ones from UCO are used instead.

My game is crashing right after character creation

Try setting the line 'FrameBuffer=1' to 'FrameBuffer=0' in the swkotor.ini.

After pressing "Install Mod" in the Bugfix installer, nothing happens/I can't select a game folder

After pressing "Install Mod", a popup should open which allows you to select a game folder.
The popup might be not visible if it is on a different monitor and since the installer is waiting for a selection, nothing is happening on the installation screen.

Try to deactivate all monitors except your main monitor.

It seems like none of the modfiles have been loaded in the game (e.g. old textures, color loading screens not working, ...)

If you have installed KOTOR on your main drive (i.e. C:\), try moving it to a different drive to avoid problems with admin protected folders.
Additionally, make sure that there are no subfolders within your Override folder. All files need to be placed directly into the Override folder without any subfolders.
If all of this doesn't fix the issue, try uninstalling the game, remove the Override folder and reinstall the game again.

[Parsboii]

Thank you for this. Haven't played in over a year (vanilla version). Appreciate the deadly stream links. I am running this on windows 8.1 (lol). Thank God steam still runs on my OS. But the links from Dstream worked still and the halo installer installed the K1 bundle (so far seems like no problem). 11,754 patches in 3 mins. lol. Very excited to play this again with these patches.

[Kova Lurien]

Nevermind, I found the hires_patcher files. For anyone else wondering, they are included in the KotOR High Resolution Menus pack.

[Kova Lurien]

So, I've got through every other step of the guide. Now, where in the blue blazes are the hires_patcher files coming from? I didn't see them in any locations I would have thought they would be. Any chance you could clarify that in this guide, nor just for me but for any others that may be confused?

[AAron]

Edit: It seems like it doesnt matter what I do, my pc turns off just after having the game open for a while, like its time based or something.

[AAron]

Hey so I feel like I did everything correctly, but when I go into character creation and click on attributes my whole computer shuts down? Every time without fail. But if I go to quick character this doesnt happen. All these mods are just sitting in my override folder and I have no idea how to troubleshoot them by doing one at a time. Please help

[Shadow74]

@minestroke7 Try to follow the steps one step at a time. Does everything work correctly before applying the menu mod? The menu mod only helps with the stretched out menus, widescreen should already work properly after the steps before it. Double check that your game is running with the correct resolution

[Shadow74]

@R4KUZEN Good finds, I might add them to the troubleshooting section!

[minestroke7]

i have followed the steps for "after the widescreen fix i only get a blank menu screen" troubleshoot perfectly now on 3 separate fresh installs and nothing is working. help pls.

[R4KUZEN]

Also locking max fps through your graphics card control panel to 60 or up to 80 is obligatory. Game seems to break and work bad if it runs on 85 and higher fps. Not to mention the texture anomalies. If you installed HD textures, you need to do this. Otherwise, the textures are completely broken and there's no point in having them.

[R4KUZEN]

Hello. I just wanted to give some advise to people, if they encounter the "zoomed it" menu problem. No need to change the resolution scale from 125% to 100% in the Windows display settings before launching the game and then changing it back to 125% after exiting it. It's just annoying to do every time and is absolutely unnecessary. A better fix would be to right click on swkotor.exe, open compatibility settings tab, click on the "Change high DPI settings" tab on the bottom and then check the box "Override high DPI scaling behaviour. Scaling performed by: Application". Now, everything should look nice and pretty without needing to do anything else. Hope this helps. Enjoy the game!