AquaNox
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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 |
AquaNox | |
---|---|
Archimedean Dynasty | 1996 |
AquaNox | 2001 |
AquaNox 2: Revelation | 2003 |
Aquanox: Deep Descent | 2020 |
Warnings
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
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | SafeDisc v2 DRM[Note 1]. | |||
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GOG.com | ||||
Green Man Gaming | ||||
Humble Store | ||||
Steam |
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
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] |
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|
Force higher resolutions[citation needed] |
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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 |
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XInput-compatible controllers | See Xbox 360 Controller. | |
---|---|---|
Xbox button prompts | ||
Impulse Trigger vibration |
DualShock 4 controllers |
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Generic/other controllers | ||
---|---|---|
Button prompts | ![]() |
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.
Recommend settings for Xbox 360 Controller[5] |
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Direction of View section
Direction of Movement section (click More for Joystick settings)
Weapon's config section
Make sure to set Joystick: On under Joystick Section. |
Audio
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] |
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Screen flickering (black frame)
Lag compensation[5] |
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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
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
- ↑ 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]
- ↑ 2.0 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
- ↑ 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 ..."
- ↑ 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."
- ↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
- ↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Verified by User:Suicide_machine on 2016-08-19
- ↑ Pricing | GameSpy Technology
- ↑ Verified by User:Suicide machine on 2020-11-10
- Out of 8 attempts, it crashed 5 times. No idea why.
- ↑ Verified by User:Eddmanx on 2022-09-20
- ↑ Verified by User:Nessy on 2019-08-17
- Version number found in Mss32.dll in the game installation folder.