American McGee's Alice (2011)

This page is for the 2011 remaster. For the original release, see American McGee's Alice.

American McGee's Alice (2011)

Developers
Original game	Rogue Entertainment
Remaster	Spicy Horse
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	id Tech 3
Release dates
Windows	June 14, 2011
Reception
Metacritic	85
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Platform, Puzzle, Shooter
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Fantasy, Horror, Victorian
Series	American McGee's Alice

American McGee's Alice
American McGee's Alice	2000
American McGee's Alice (2011)	2011
Alice: Madness Returns	2011

Key points

"Remastered" version of American McGee's Alice featuring native widescreen resolutions, controller support, updated character textures, and compatibility fixes for modern systems. The visuals can be further improved with the Alice HD Texture Pack.

This version does not contain the HD Interface such as proper HUD scaling and HD Menu elements and High quality FMV cutscenes present in the PS3 and Xbox 360 version.

The developer console (~) from the original game is completely disabled in this remaster as a means to prevent cheating, however, this means modifying CVars and fine-tuning other settings in-game is no longer possible.

Availability

This game was only available through pre-ordering Alice: Madness Returns or purchasing The Complete Collection, with the latter being no longer available outside of GameStop.com and Dell.com (available only in the USA).

A demo version of the original 2000 release for Windows can be downloaded here.

Essential improvements

Launch without Alice: Madness Returns

The 2011 remastered version of American McGee's Alice is normally launched through Alice: Madness Returns from its main menu for those who received this game through pre-ordering the latter or purchasing The Complete Collection.

Launch the game using the -RunningFromAlice2 command line argument
This launch parameter should be added to <path-to-game>\Game\Alice1\bin\alice.exe, NOT <path-to-game>\Game\Alice2\Binaries\Win32\AliceMadnessReturns.exe. This is important, otherwise the command will not work.

Fix by using a hex editor
Open <path-to-game>\Game\Alice1\bin\alice.exe with a hex editor such as HxD. Search for the -RunningFromAlice2 text string. Replace the first byte (2D) with null (00).

Prevent Alice: Madness Returns from launching on exit

This game normally re-launches Alice: Madness Returns upon exit.

Move the Alice1 folder from <path-to-game>\Game to another location

Fix by using a hex editor
Open <path-to-game>\Game\Alice1\bin\alice.exe with a hex editor such as HxD. Search for the ..\..\Alice2\Binaries\Win32\AliceMadnessReturns.exe text string. Replace the first byte (2E) with null (00).

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\American McGee's Alice\config.cfg

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\American McGee's Alice\save\

Video

General settings.

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		FMVs, HUD and menus are stretched out when playing in widescreen.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Set Camera Distance to maximum. HUD and menus stretched, but still playable.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of View (FOV)
Windowed		Can also be toggled with Alt+↵ Enter.
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)		Vsync is disabled by default and cannot be enabled in-game. See Vertical sync (Vsync) for a workaroound.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Capped at 60 FPS by default. See High frame rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Enable Vsync
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open config.cfg with a text editor. In the Cvars section, add seta r_swapinterval "1" as a new line, then save the changes.

Level of detail

Default LOD settings can be overridden to make the game render highest quality models all the time.

Instructions
Run the game at least once, so the configuration file gets created. Open <path-to-game>\Base\config.cfg file with a text editor. Add lines seta r_lodbias "-2" and seta r_lodcurveerror "10000" in the Cvars section. Save the changes and run the game.

High frame rate

Remove frame-rate cap
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open config.cfg with a text editor. In the Cvars section, add seta com_maxfps "0" as a new line, then save the changes. This can break animations such as Alice's eye blinking, which is noticeable in the settings menu.

Field of view (FOV)

Use Peixoto's patch
If there are issues with taking screenshots or recording the game, remove the line HD=wide nofov from Peixoto\Scripts\Alice - Remaster.ini..

Hex editing Go to <path-to-game>\Alice1\bin Open fgamex86.dll in a hex editor. Go to offset 0x15AC96. The stored value is FOV x2. The default value is 0xB4 = 180 = 90. So, e.g. to get an FOV of 107 (suitable for 16:9), write 0xD6, which is 214, therefore the in-game FOV will be 107.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		At the Save/Load screen, the A button is to load a file, X button is to save a file, and Y is to delete a save file.
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity		Handled through the game's Sensitivity setting.
Controller Y-axis inversion		Handled through the game's Invert Mouse setting.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 

  Keyboard remapping.

• 

  Controller screen.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Sound Effects
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		A3D 1.0 and 2.0, EAX and EAX 2.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Dutch				Use the Alice Dutch Patch.
French
German
Italian				Fan translation, download. Also compatible with the original release.
Spanish

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See How to Play American McGee's Alice in 3D using 3D Vision.

Issues unresolved

Chesire Help does not work

For reasons unknown, the summon Chesire function (bound to C by default) for hints or clues about the level Alice is currently in does not work in this remaster.

Issues fixed

Game runs at a low frame rate

The game may run poorly even on modern hardware.

Edit config.cfg
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open config.cfg with a text editor. In the Cvars section, add seta r_primitives "2" as a new line, then save the changes.

Enable EAX reverb

Install Creative ALchemy for the game

Download & install ALchemy. Launch ALchemy Add a new Profile, name it Alice Select "Use Game Path" Navigate to the executable's directory (For example C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Alice Madness Returns The Complete Collection\Game\Alice1\bin) Click "OK" Click The newly created profile and then click ">>" to enable it. Close ALchemy & launch the game Go to settings, audio, and set the sound driver to EAX2

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
OpenGL

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Alice HD Texture Pack

Install the Alice HD Texture Pack

Download the HD texture pack here, then extract its content somewhere conveniently accessible on your computer. Go to <path-to-game>\base, then move or delete the pak1_large.pk3 file. This is required for the game to load the HD textures. Copy the *.cfg and *.pk3 files from the HD texture pack into <path-to-game>\base. Now run the game. The game's visuals should be changed with those from the HD texture pack. Further improves the overall look of the game. It is also compatible with the original 2000 release. The mod's zzpak10_modHud.pk3 file does not work with the 2011 remastered version, however, the mod has been updated to include a new HD HUD with the base mod. Deleting this file is recommended when using this mod with the remastered version. Features an expanded tweaks/cheats menu and optional Overkill mod that adds more lighting effects and enemies. Can be omitted by not installing the z(Mod)OverKill.pk3 file. The cheats menu, however, does not work with the 2011 remastered version.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3	Vista SP2, 7 SP1
Processor (CPU)	AMD Athlon X2 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	8.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X1650 Nvidia GeForce 7600 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible