After the End

Not to be confused with After the End: The Harvest.

After the End

Developers
	KraiSoft Entertainment
Release dates
Windows	December 8, 2004
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action
Art styles	Pre-rendered graphics
Themes	Space

Key points

Campaign has 7 broken levels while Firing Range has at least 9 broken levels, there could be more, you must have an older version of the game ready to work around with this issue.

After the End is a singleplayer bird's-eye view action game.

The game features a worldwide scoring list though this functionality has been broken for several years now with the game crashing when users attempt to upload their scores.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Developer website

Essential improvements

Use dgVoodoo2 or dxwrapper.

Use the D3D8.dll for both wrappers, this restore minor animations, such as the fading animation when selecting something in the main menu, this may also fix the black floor bug on the old version (1.4.2) as well as some minor texture issues, please take note that any of these wrappers will not fix the black floor bug if the game has Program Compatibility registry keys applied for it, which can be manually deleted in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers.

Use a dsound.dll wrapper, such as IndirectSound or DSOAL.
This resolves the CTRL3D buffer issue that can be found within the game log, this may also resolve a minor in-game audio issue where the music could change in pitch or tone slightly after playing the game for at least an hour or more.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\KraiSoft\After The End

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Campaign.cdf <path-to-game>\Safari.cdf

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		The game is most likely locked on 30 FPS or below.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Ray tracing (RT)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		The game allows all actions that can be possibly done to be remapped (switching of primary weapons, secondary weapon usage, movement)
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		The game allows mouse usage for weapon aiming and firing
Mouse input in menus		The game has its own custom cursor
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

• 

  The first part of remap controls section for secondary weapon usage

• 

  The second part of remap controls section for weapon switching and movement

Audio

Sound settings of After the End, including the Brightness option

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		The game has a separate volume slider for Sound and Music
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Issues resolved

Game crashes on certain levels starting from Campaign Level 42, preventing any further progress (Access violation)

The game has a major bug starting from Level 42 where once you attempt to progress a level that is broken, the game will crash, to resolve this, download the zip file here or here (also uploaded in PCGamingWiki Community) choose your method and follow the steps for it below:

The broken levels are the following: Mission 42, 45, 46, 50, 52 (no error will be shown), 68, and 73 (the crash in Level 73 will happen when the player submits their score by clicking "Post", to avoid this, press "Enter" on your keyboard instead or finish Level 73 with Method 1.)

Do not run both After the End versions on Compatibility mode! This will produce a registry value/key that will alter how the game works which can only removed by manually searching for it in the registry with Registry Editor, the registry key is located in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers and the "fix" applied is DWM8and16BitMitigation, this change will prevent the black screen bug from being fixed.

Method 1: Downgrading

Open the method 1 folder and open the Setup.exe, this installs an old version of After the End from Reflexive Arcade, the version is 1.4.2, follow the instructions, put the game on an easy to find location and set it aside for now Go to the folder location of your current After the End which should be in the latest version or 1.5.6, look for the Campaign.cdf file, this is your Campaign progress save which should be on a broken level, make a backup of this file just in case, after making a backup, copy your file then go to the folder location of the old After the End, paste your save in there and open the game, click "Play Now" Finish the said broken level as is, the floor will be black unless a wrapper is used, but the game won't crash, once the broken level is over you can go ahead and update your backup save while also pasting it back to your default After the End copy and continue playing from there.

Method 2: Bypass

Open the method 2 folder and choose what save file you want to use, the save files are situated on different levels including broken ones, some save files are intended for skipping a broken level completely, after choosing a save file, copy it then paste it to your current/default After the End copy, you could keep your current save by moving it away from the folder location of your current After the End copy or delete it, rename the copied save back to Campaign.cdf then play the game.

Method 3: Resource.tdf file swap

If the old version of After the End is started with d3d8.dll wrapper and no Compatibility options are applied for it in the Registry yet the game still has the black floor bug, this method may be used. Assuming that you've already done the steps in Method 1, go to step 2, otherwise do step 1 from Method 1 then stop for now Open the method 3 folder and install the newest trial version of After the End from Kraisoft, after the installation is complete or assuming that this is your current copy, open the folder location of the latest After the End then go inside the RESOURCE folder, look for the file named resource.tdf Copy the .tdf file then go to the folder location of the old After the End, go inside the RESOURCE folder, rename the resource.tdf inside there to resourceREFLEXIVE.tdf.bak or any other filename as long as it will be renamed, then paste the resource.tdf from the latest After the End inside this folder Do step 2 in Method 1, then step 3, repeat as needed, this should resolve the issue, but if this method doesn't work for you, remove the new resource.tdf inside the RESOURCE folder of the old After the End, then rename the old resource.tdf back to its default file name.

Game crashes on Firing Range mode starting from Mission 14 (Access violation)

Confirmed broken levels in Firing Range are: 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 26, 35, 37

Methods 1, and 3 is also applicable to fix this issue, but this time instead of copying the Campaign.cdf file what you have to copy is Safari.cdf, as that is the save file for Firing Range, don't forget to create a backup of your Safari.cdf while swapping between game versions

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

No middleware information; you can edit this page to add it.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	98
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II
System memory (RAM)	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	80 MB
Video card (GPU)	32 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible