Getting the Steam Version Working

Get tips on getting your steam version working, straight from the staff of the best, modded version, complete with support.

The How-To Video

Step by Step version of the Guide

Edit: I have heard your feedback, you can skip the matchmaker steps with the URL below, just remember we can't provide you support unless you're around to ask us

http://www.populous3.info

I still recommend watching the video to avoid mistakes, but here you go, as requested:

• Start by buying the game, and installing it!
  
  
• Get familiar with the directory that steam has installed the game in
  
  
• Head to www.popre.net
  
  
• Make an account and download the matchmaker, even if you don't want to play online! A spell used in level 1 is "Blast"
  
  
• Install the matchmaker, then run the matchmaker as an administrator, log in!
  
  
• In the settings, make sure the matchmaker shows your steam install as your populous directory
  
  
• Type !beta in the chat!
  
  
• When you received the message (updates complete) navigate to your install
  
  
• Find the file ddraw.ini
  
  
• Edit the contents beneath the header of [poptb]
  
  
  Height and Width should be your monitor resolution, not the resolution you want to play the game in. Setting both windowed and fullscreen to true = borderless window
  
  
• Edit the contents beneath the header of [pop3] to match what you've put in poptb, don't change the header
  
  
• GG you're done!

Alternate Launch Commands

If your Populous is launching Hardware Mode, and you don't want it to, or it's failing to launch the hardware mode, you can put this in the advance launch properties:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Populous 3\popTB.exe" %command%

Remember to edit the directory to point to your version.

If you want to launch the 1.5 version from steam it's very similar

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Populous 3\pop3.exe" %command%

Heard about the Multiverse Launcher?

"Lovenji says get 1.5, someone else says get multiverse launcher, what is the difference?"

Without drowning you in the technicalities, the difference is in how they're constructed. You may here from people that Multiverse is for Singleplayer and 1.5 is for Multiplayer, This is not strictly true!

Both versions are and can be used for Singleplayer, modders have yet to find a preference with new campaigns being released for each, so the short answer is: I recommend having both on your machine.

You haven't actually answered the question though, what's the difference?

The Multiverse Launcher was developed by wunderkind Populous Superfan Toxicity as a project to teach themselves development, it is a tool that modifies the base game, think of it as the tool that amends your popTB executable. It does that with a strong and robust set of DLL injections, I won't bore you with the technical details, but that's the long and the short of it, it was designed with the historical campaigns in mind, making running them a piece of cake using convenient pack files, discord Now Playing integration and even tracking your play time. It even has some difficulty levels that alter the games constants, making the player gain population faster or slower, and Toxicity's friendly nature makes it easy to learn.

The Enhanced Edition (or 1.5. as I call it) is owned by Populous:Reincarnated with TylerTheFox as its lead developer, the build was constructed from an early build version of Populous' code using C++, and as it is its own executable with modifiable code, the modding potential within the tool is exceptionally powerful, if something is not possible through the LUA scripting, it doesn't take long to become possible thanks to the development team's direct access to what makes the game tick. This brings with it a re-written sound engine, a newer smarter pathfinding algorithm, an improved wood engine and much more.

Whilst a lot of the things the two versions do appears to be the same, the way in which they do them is very different, which is why I always recommend using both, because modders will choose the tool that they enjoy the most. You have the newest horror-themed campaign that came out on Multiverse, and the Spring pack that came out on 1.5!

Confusing I know, but there you are.

Okay so where do I get the multiverse launcher from.

Simple! Head over here[thebeginning.uk] and get the download kicked off, there is a separate support discord for this one as it's managed by a different team.

[۩artz۩ -《sam》]

put it in startup options:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Populous 3\Matchmaker.exe" %command%

[Sol4rSky]

is there yet a way to have the game show up on steam when we launch matches in the match maker?

[Evil Tiger]

bad guide

[Lovenfloofen]

If the highest resolution you see is only 800x600 add hardcodedResolutions=true to your ddraw ini for the executable you want to use. This will add some resolutions (but not all)

[Lovenfloofen]

No worries! I am always happy to help! Enjoy your journey to Godhood!

[Gwennec]

Ignore me, I was being blind! Serves me right for getting distracted at work haha. Thanks for making this guide, super excited to get back on this after all these years!

[SvenS2]

Thank you for keeping the community alive

[Lovenfloofen]

Did you patch your game in via the Matchmaker or by the download link

[Gwennec]

Following the install instructions but when I go to find ddraw.ini, I can only find it as a DLL file.
Opening that in Notepad++ just gives a load of garbled code. Any suggestion?

[Lovenfloofen]

AHH! Good, I was just about to take your query to the developer, so thanks for getting back to me. Glad you got it fixed!