Hey guys,

that patch will just not run for me.
I extracted it, set the darkfix.exe to compatibilty mode with Win95 but it won't even start anything.

Did I miss an important step?

I am experiencing the performance issues in the GOG version so am really looking forward to a solution to this.

regards

Stordyr

-> If your game is not installed on your C: drive you have to edit the DARK.FIX file and change the first two lines in order to match with your installation folder (e.g. C:. -> D:.)

-> Try Darkfix.exe / Compatibility / Run in 640x480
OR
-> Lower the desktop resolution to less than 1920x1080 and start the game
OR
-> Lower the DPI scaling of Windows 10 to 100% (this seems to be the main issue for many older games!)

All solutions worked for me ;-)

Yeah I had that same problem. I've not found a way to make it take the alt+tab without locking me up, but I did figure a way to at least recover my windows session without logging out or hard resetting:

I ended up writing an autohotkey script that remaps one keyboard key (I used the "Break" key) to run taskkill.exe /IM darkfix.exe

the code is:

Break::
Run taskkill.exe /IM darkfix.exe
Return

this needs to be put into a text file with .ahk extension (and you need autohotkey installed obviously).

I should point out I actually use nircmd instead of the windows native "taskkill", but it's the same deal (except smoother).

Also, I actually came here to add my lament: the patch seems to work fine for the most part, but SOMETIMES it's incredibly difficult to not die from half a second of getting shot at. I assume this means the game runs at inconsistent speeds for me, using darkfix.exe.. I did not use any compatibility options for the first 5-10 hours, but Ive tried a few now, and they are basically the same.
My suspicion is, if I recall correctly, the difficulty sort of auto-adjusts upwards the more kills/missions you have flown. I guess the only reason I didn't notice it being impossibly hard due to speed is, because they weren't shooting that accurately before.
But now I'm like 150 kills in - and they kill me in 2 seconds flat.. unplayable.. :(

Alt-tab with old windows games is almost always a bad idea, they just weren't made with that in mind since keeping anything too heavy running in the background would have been a bad idea anyway with the computers of the time.

That's oversimplifying things. It would usually end up taking a minute but it was definitely possible with the majority of games. That was one of the main ideas of windows after all, that you can switch between tasks that way.

Either way though, I bet few games would deadlock the user as finally as darkfix.exe does when alt+tabbed.

This reminds me, I added some precautions to the autohotkey script, disabling the windows and alt tab keys while the script is running:


; Disable Alt+Tab
!Tab::Return

; Disable Windows Key + Tab
#Tab::Return

; Disable Left Windows Key
LWin::Return

; Disable Right Windows Key
RWin::Return

I remember very few games that let me alt-tab at all under windows 98 (went from DOS to win98 skipping win95) and of the few that did most of them had some kind of issue with it.
Alt-tabbing was made with office applications in mind, not with games (especially 3D accellerated ones really didn't like it), alt-tabbing in games started to be more common only from windows XP onwards and became commonplace during that time but before? It wasn't guaranteed.
Hell, most games didn't even have windowed mode, it was either fullscreen or nothing.

Yeah, the instructions need clarification for me.

"If you are using an original CD version you need to copy the files from all three CDs into the installation folder."

I end up overwriting things and screwing myself over. Help. If somebody could give me a strictly idiot-proof step-by-step guide on how to make it work,i will be most grateful. I have Privateer 2 special edition on DOS. I'm EB_Nall#3863 on discord.

This gave a blank screen then ctd.

Oops,I used the C: drive dark shortcut and the game fired up.

This command moves your dark folder to the C drive via a shortcut that points to the D drive install.

I changed the line "GogGames" to "Gog games" as that is what my gaming directory for GOG games is called.

TY very much mate for the fix.

Hi, thanks for making such a neat patch! It's alway nice when ild games are getting some love.

I was wondering if there is a possibility to have a DOS executable, because I'd like play the game with DOSBOX on a raspberry pi...

Or is there any other (easy) way to patch the DOS executable for deinterlaced videos?

just installed the game and felt relieved by the better sound properties and non striped video's that the patch offers
now to see if i can play the game like i did when i was young ;)

much thanks

I'd just like to pass on my thanks to whoever coded this patch. It's made this game playable for me.

It's kind of sad that the "DarkFix" patch hasn't seen an update since 2014.
I keep stumbling over the problem of some error occuring and then being unable to stop the game.

Haven't tried the Custom Hotkey approach yet, maybe i'll have to.

I'm very thankful that DarkFix exists, but at the same time, i wish it wasn't one of those "magical" closed source community patches that could be improved further, but aren't because the original author has lost interest or is otherwise unable to further work on it.

Sadly Privateer 2 isn't the only old game where this is the case.

You are a life saver thanks I installed this patch and wondered what I was doing wrong!

Am I the only one that notices that the music for spaceflight on the gog version with this patch (in win 95 compat mode) is different than the music on my original dos cd's?