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AquaNox

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
AquaNox
AquaNox cover
Developers
Massive Development
Publishers
2000-2002 Fishtank Interactive
2002-2011 JoWood Productions
2011-2016 Nordic Games
2016-present THQ Nordic
Engines
KRASS Engine
Release dates
Windows November 30, 2001
Reception
Metacritic 67
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, Shooter, Vehicle combat
Vehicles Naval/watercraft
Themes Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Series AquaNox
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AquaNox on HowLongToBeat
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AquaNox on MobyGames
AquaNox on Wikipedia
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AquaNox
Archimedean Dynasty 1996
AquaNox 2001
AquaNox 2: Revelation 2003
Aquanox: Deep Descent 2020

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

AquaNox is a sequel to 1996's Archimedean Dynasty (also known as Schleichfahrt). It is a vehicle combat game developed by now defunct Massive Development and published by Fishtank Interactive, using their proprietary KRASS Engine. The game complexity was significantly reduced compared to the original, simplifying the dialog system to a minimum and focusing almost entirely on arcade combat. The game's then impressive graphics and DirectX 8 implementation resulted in a special version of the game being made and used for benchmarking graphics cards.[1]

The game was released in 2001 to generally mixed reviews. While reviewers praised the graphics, it was criticised for its simplistic, repetitive gameplay, and the cuts made when compared to its predecessor.[2] It was released in digital distribution in 2010.

The game is generally playable in current state, although applying SilentPatch is recommended in order to negate issues with high-polling mice.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
 SafeDisc v2 DRM[Note 1].
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
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Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
Green Man Gaming
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Windows
Humble Store
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Windows
Steam
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Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Essential improvements

Patches

The newest patch for non digital releases is 1.17. Patches for the game can be found here.
Digital release is labelled as version 1.18.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/39630/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %APPDATA%\AquaNox
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/39630/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings.
Video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
 
 See the WSGF entry.
Multi-monitor
 
 See the WSGF entry.
Ultra-widescreen
 
 See the WSGF entry.
4K Ultra HD
 
 See the WSGF entry.
Field of view (FOV)
See the WSGF topic.
Windowed
640x480, requires a workaround for higher resolutions. See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
FSAA up to 8.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
No frame rate cap.

Windowed

Starting the game in windowed mode[5]
  • Start a game with an attribute: -window.
Force higher resolutions[citation needed]
  1. For higher resolutions install AutoHotkey and use the script: 
    F12::
WinGet, TempWindowID, ID, A
If (WindowID != TempWindowID)
{
  WindowID:=TempWindowID
  WindowState:=0
}
If (WindowState != 1)
{
  WinGetPos, 0, 0, 1280, 960, ahk_id %WindowID%
  WinSet, Style, -0xC40000, ahk_id %WindowID%
  WinMove, ahk_id %WindowID%, , 0, 0, A_ScreenWidth, A_ScreenHeight
}
Else
{
  WinSet, Style, +0xC40000, ahk_id %WindowID%
  WinMove, ahk_id %WindowID%, , WinPosX, WinPosY, WindowWidth, WindowHeight
}
WindowState:=!WindowState
return
  2. Edit the resolution in line WinGetPos, 0, 0, 1280, 960, ahk_id %WindowID%.
  3. After you've changed the window size using the script, go to options and change the in-game resolution for the game's render to adjust to changes.

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
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
See Xbox 360 Controller.
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
DualShock 4 controllers
Generic/other controllers
Button prompts Input settings icon - Generic Controller.svg
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts
Cursor detection

Xbox 360 Controller

This game works well with Xbox 360 Controller. However actions can not be bound to Left and Right Triggers. Below are recommended settings for X360 and similar controllers.
Recommended settings for X360 controller.
Recommended settings for X360 controller.
Recommend settings for Xbox 360 Controller[5]

Direction of View section

  • Up/Down - Joystick u-Axis, Sensitivity 15%, Tolerance 15%,
  • Left/Right - Joystick r-Axis, Sensitivity 15%, Tolerance 15%, Inverted

Direction of Movement section (click More for Joystick settings)

  • Fwd/Back - Joystick z-Axis, Sensitivity 60%, Tolerance 10%, Inverted
  • Left/Right - Joystick x-Axis, Sensitivity 30%, Tolerance 10%, Inverted
  • Up/Down - Joystick y-Axis, Sensitivity 30%, Tolerance 10%

Weapon's config section

  • Primary Fire - Joy Button 6 (Right Bumper)
  • Secondary Fire - Joy Button 5 (Left Bumper)
  • Next Weapon - Joy POV up
  • Last Weapon - Joy POV down
  • Throw Buzzer - Joy Button 3 (X)
  • Lock Enemy - Joy Button 4 (Y)
  • Secondary Fire - Joy Button 5 (Left Bumper)

Make sure to set Joystick: On under Joystick Section.

Audio

Audio settings.
Audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Sliders for sound effects and music.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Can not be disabled.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Can not be disabled.
EAX support
EAX 1.0, EAX 2.0, A3D 1.0, A3D 2.0
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
German
Retail and Steam only; download for GOG.com release.
Italian
Retail and Steam only.
Spanish
Retail and Steam only.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
16
Online play
16 GameSpy services have been shut down;[6] see GameSpy for workarounds.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D
User created profile, requires DGVoodoo2 v 2.55.4. See important instructions here, 3D screenshots samples here. Note: Profile may not produce stereo output with newer versions of DGVoodoo2.

Issues unresolved

Game crashes during the intro to mission "War in Neopolis"

  • Sometimes the game crashes during the intro to the mission War in Neopolis. This crash doesn't seem to be consistent.[7]

Issues fixed

Unresponsive mouse

Use SilentPatch.[5]

Screen flickering (black frame)

Lag compensation[5]
  • Disable lag compensation under graphical options.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 8 [8]
Shader Model support 1.0 Pixel Shader 1.0, Vertex Shader 1.1
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio Miles Sound System 6.1c[9]
Cutscenes Bink Video
Multiplayer GameSpy

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98 ME, 2000
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 3 400 MHz
AMD Athlon 400 MHz		 Intel Pentium 3 700 MHz
AMD Athlon 700 MHz
System memory (RAM) 128 MB 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 500 MB 800 MB
Video card (GPU) AGP 2X Video Card
16 MB of VRAM
DirectX 8.0 compatible 		AGP 4X Video Card
64 MB of VRAM
Shader model 1.0 support


Notes

  1. ↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[3] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[4]
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/39630/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (39630) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. ↑ GeForce FX 5800 Ultra review by Guru3D - last accessed on 2020-06-10
    "One of my favorite benchmarks is AquaMark based upon the Krass engine that the upcoming title Aquanox serves. (...) Aquamark is a very good benchmark to test graphics cards, it utilizes the videocard probably better than any test software available accept CodeCreatures maybe ..."
  2. ↑ AquaNox review by GameSpy (archived) - last accessed on 2020-06-10
    "Archimedean Dynasty was a critically acclaimed, but obscure game, that mixed adventure and futuristic submarine combat. Now Massive Development has returned with a sequel, AquaNox, which takes you back to the dystopian undersea world of Aqua. It turns out that AquaNox wasn't really worth the long wait: it features technically impressive graphics, but otherwise it's a simplistic, dull, and at times amateurish game."
  3. ↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
  4. ↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Verified by User:Suicide_machine on 2016-08-19
  6. ↑ Pricing | GameSpy Technology
  7. ↑ Verified by User:Suicide machine on 2020-11-10
    Out of 8 attempts, it crashed 5 times. No idea why.
  8. ↑ Verified by User:Eddmanx on 2022-09-20
  9. ↑ Verified by User:Nessy on 2019-08-17
    Version number found in Mss32.dll in the game installation folder.