Has anyone tried the v1.3 fan patch that was recently released?

Found it on here: http://www.daikatananews.net/

Looks like it adds support for widescreen resolutions, custom FOV (via FOV x console command), Anisotropic Filtering and it disables vsync on the loading screen (so you can have vsync turned on without the stupidly long level loading times).

UPDATE: New link to the downloads: https://bitbucket.org/daikatana13/daikatana/wiki/Downloads

Thanks for the heads up, I'm downloading now. I've been waiting for the 1.3 release (although this is just a beta)

Works fine for me, widescreen support works, the new rendering engine works, it's smooth and I'd say this is a must have update for the game. It fixes a lot of things apart from the must-have graphics update, such as:

-support for mouse buttons 4 and 5
-perfect support for v-sync (i.e. fast loading even with v-sync on)
-client for customization
-FOV scaling
-better AI
-sidekicks are invincible in easy mode
-etc.

Go get it, it's a beta, but it seems to be pretty smooth. :)

(am using Windows 8.1, AMD HD7950, AMD FX8350, AMD Catalyst 14.4 WHQL at 2560x1440 resolution)

I wasn't aware of these changes. Good to know. :)

I'd say this patch makes Daikatana a way better and enjoyable game, it's like rediscovering a forgotten classic :)

This is like Daikatana should have been.

Just want to check something here. If you extract to the game folder then doesn't that leave a lot of unnecessary files?

The reason I ask this is that the instructions DGibson gives are to extract the 2014-06-01 FULL PACKAGE archive to your chosen location and then to copy the contents of the Data folder from the game into your newly extracted folder and run the daikatana.exe in the new folder. As such it no longer uses the installed game location, just the new folder, so you could then uninstall the game.

I wonder how much it matters which way you use it?

It's funny that you wrote that because 1.3 changes hardly anything gameplay/design wise. It's just a bug fix / technology update. I bought Daikatana when it was launched and 1.2 patch fixed a lot of the issues the Daikatana had and that's the state the game should have been launched in. The world needs another John Romero big budget FPS game. I hope he's going to have more luck with the development if that ever happens. It doesn't matter which way we do it. I'll work all the same. I've done both. "the copying "data" folder only" method for my Linux installations of Daikatana, and used "the extract into folder" method for my Windows installations of Daikatana. Both work as intended as far as I can see at the moment.

No, it isn't really funny at all. A better renderer, FOV support, widescreen support for 1440p and invincible sidekicks on easy.

What makes or breaks a game is not a huge deal. I'm surprised you think it is funny.

Those things you mention are technical features and improvements that don't affect the core gameplay I was talking about. In late 90s / early 2000 widescreen support wasn't needed. 1.3 does nothing but fix bugs in the game and add some features so the game works on modern hardware better (and some tiny additions or alterations). Core gameplay is by large untouched.

I have my own opinions about what Daikatana should have been at launch. I would for example change in the Daikatana is the opening scenes so that the game opens with a bang like all Romero's other high profile FPS games did. But I do agree that the bots on easy difficulty should have been invincible at the release version. That's a core gameplay altering change.

Good, answer yourself, saves me the trouble I guess. Though I'll let you in on a secret. Telling someone that his opinion is wrong because it is based on something you don't agree with is silly enough. But then agreeing with the basis that you disagreed on before in the very same paragraph, a few lines before, well that twice as silly.

You also changed the argument from "1.3 changes hardly anything gameplay/design wise" to "don't affect the core gameplay".

Now I am no English expert, but "hardly anything gameplay/design wise" is not the equivalent to "core gameplay". That much I do know.

So I'll tell you what: stop trying to tell me my opinion and just discuss the patch. Seems pretty reasonable.

Eh??? At which do you think I claimed that your opinion is "wrong"? I have not explicitly written that "your opinion is wrong". I have not said that you're wrong. Everybody is entitled to their opinion. And I didn't even think that my message(s) could be be interpreted that way. Perhaps there's some kind of misunderstanding here?

I just think it's funny, no offence, how you said that the 1.3 is how the game should have launched. Especially after you mentioned features that were not relevant at early 2000. You didn't mention any of the actual major fixes that 1.3 introduces like fixing the V-Sync loading screen bug and how it squeezes bugs in the maps of the game that improve e.g. the sidekick nodes.

I own a retail boxed version of the Daikatana 1.0 and it's pretty much garbage (it's prone to crashing often). The patches 1.1 and 1.2 made it very enjoyable and playable game already back in the early 2000. I've played it several times through and I've come to think of it as a cult classic after the releases of patches 1.1 and 1.2.

The Daikatana community for years has been lamenting over the fact that Eidos didn't give the Ion Storm the time it was needed to play test Daikatana properly and correct the problems from the game before it was put into a box and sold at stores. One of the things I hear a lot is that the Daikatana should have launched in the state the patches 1.1 and 1.2 updated it into. And that's true. It should have had more polish to it.

The most of the main issues in the game are mostly related to the programming and quality assurance. And that's what the patch 1.3 is here for. It's intended to correct the technical issues of the Daikatana. Not to alter the gameplay or the design of the game.

Eh? Was this an argument? Sorry but I didn't realise that.

Apparently I need to point out that I have not changed my mind or "changed my argument". If I did, I'd like to hear more details about that from your perspective. Because I sure don't know what's the difference between the "gameplay" and... the "gameplay"?

"Changes hardly anything" means that the gameplay or design of the game have not changed in any significant way. What is a significant change then in my opinion?

I'd consider it a significant change if the patch 1.3 would remove the bots and make the game work like the N64 version where the sidekicks are not present in the game but do show up in the cutscenes. That's both "core gameplay" and "core design" altering significant change.

Increasing the sidekick health to the point they're invincible on easy difficulty is not a significant improvement in my opinion. it is not a "core design" related change. It is a "core gameplay" altering change because player can take it easy and forget that the sidekicks are there. However it's not a significant change.

Why it isn't a significant one? Because it's unlikely that sidekicks die if you've taken care of the needs of the sidekicks like you're supposed to in the Daikatana. Daikatana is not very difficult game after you learn how it works. And even with that small change, the game still plays out the same way.

However many people that play the game think it's egocentric FPS. And that's is a very, very large mistake. Daikatana is not an egocentric FPS. You're supposed to manage the given resources and share things with the sidekicks. We could draw comparisons to Valve's "the Left 4 Dead" games where you need to manage and share resources with your companions.

If you want we could argue about the matter. And then my argument would be that 1.3 doesn't chance anything significant in the gameplay or the design of the Daikatana at its core when compared to the version 1.2. Version 1.3 is a technical update that corrects bugs from the Daikatana.

Perhaps there has been some misunderstanding, but I did mention the V-Sync loading screen bug-fix and changes to sideckicks in my very first post.

And as you say "most of the main issues in the game are mostly related to the programming and quality assurance" which was exactly why wrote that "This is like Daikatana should have been."

That was my main point, which may have not come across to you, but even so I think the "etc." in the end should have dispelled any notion that I was making an exhaustive list of important improvements to the game.

"Increasing the sidekick health to the point they're invincible on easy difficulty is not a significant improvement in my opinion. it is not a "core design" related change." - and that's your opinion.

If you base your entire statement on your subjective opinion on what constitutes a "core gameplay change", well who am I to stop you, but don't be so indignant about it. In my opinion it is a core gameplay change.

Eeeeh? I am not and I have not been angry or indignant during this conversation about anything. I honestly don't know where you pulled that out. Let me just try to compact this thing somehow...

You speak of widescreen support, extra mouse buttons, improved rendering engine, automatic FOV scaling, etc. You mention a "better AI" when 1.3 makes only two changes to the AI (and adds better access to few variables that already were in the game). Then you also talk about "invincible" sidekicks on Ronin difficulty when sidekick health isn't even the most important issue with the sidekicks. Especially when playing the game on Ronin difficulty where the game is already ridiculously easy. We can talk about these changes if you so wish. But let me get to the point first...

These things have led me to understood your message(s) this way: You're hoping that the Daikatana would have had technical features (among other things) in late 1990s which would have been impossible to implement in any game for several reasons. Not to mention that these features are only relevant for gamers in 2010s such as the 16:9 widescreen support which gained momentum in 2008 but only in 2011 became the most common monitor type according to the statistics of Steam's hardware survey. (16:10 appeared on market 2003 and its peak of popularity was in 2008 according to sources noted in Wikipedia).

I think that what you wrote is amusing because in reality it would have been impossible to have the Daikatana to launch with the features which as of now in 2014 make you write this is how the Daikatana should have been (at launch) and how the game is now a forgotten classic. It's still the same game (from the perspectives of the design and the gameplay) as in early 2000 when it launched even if you do install patch 1.3. It still has the issues that made it flop. It's still the John Romero's Daikatana. :-D

Ion Storm already in early 2000 released patches that fixed the issues the game had in launch. However the Daikatana had issues even after the patch 1.2. After playing the game several times through with the 1.3, I can safely say that 1.3 doesn't fix those issues either.

If you doubt me you're welcome to open Daikatana (you have 1.3, right?) and... for example... start a new game on Samurai difficulty and then using map command to jump to e4m4b. Take a look at the elevator shaft's cover. It's missing right? Next if you start a new game with Ronin or Shogun difficulty and use the map command to jump to e4m4b and look at the elevator shaft's cover. Can you tell me if something has changed? Guess how much fun it is when Mikiko runs to her death (even when you have 1.3 installed).

The bot AI is not significantly improved in 1.3. What has improved however in 1.3 are the placements of the sidekick AI controlling nodes. Those invisible things in maps that explain to bot AI what items they can pick up and when to crouch, jump, and so forth. But there are numerous places in episodes 2, 3, and 4 where sidekicks refuse to pick up items just because a single node is placed wrong (e.g. e3m2a, cross the topmost bridge in a lava cave and try to make either of the sidekicks pick up the shield, arrows, or the large HP pack. I'm positive that picking up the shield was impossible at least for Mikiko.).

In 1.3 sidekicks can still get stuck to the ground in all the same places they do get stuck in 1.2. Especially the fountains in episode 2 and Mikiko don't mix well together. If you want to see it yourself then take Mikiko to fountain in e.g. e2m3c or e2m4e. By the way did I mention that Mikiko can still fall through the bridge (the one you open by lowering the boulder) in e2m4d if you don't take it slow and walk her over slowly.

It's true that Superfly has less issues in 1.3 with certain spots that in 1.2 are problematic. But that just makes stuff hit harder in to your face when you realise that the probability that Superfly now can get stuck in ladders inside vents in 1.3 is higher than in 1.2. One such vent is in e1m4b right before the map transition. And Mikiko has similar issues in E4 during the "Tower of Crime".

I could go on and on about these things but let me just end things here for now with these words. For 1.3 to be what the Daikatana should have been when it launched the patch 1.3 should fix these and numerous other issues. It already fixes a loads and loads of issues with the game and I'm extremely grateful for those guys doing this for us all. I don't want to undermine their achievement. But being a realist I acknowledge the fact that there's still plenty of things to do.

I've tried to explain my views here and I've based them into verifiable facts from the game. If you feel these views are too subjective then you're free to challenge them. In fact that would be great in my opinion and I welcome you to do so. We could compare our experiences in the game and comment the gameplay. You know I actually play the Daikatana and I play it a lot. And I'd like to play it even more if I only could get some people to play the multi-player with me. We could play coop and have a short (less than an hour) commentary track at Youtube or something for example.

See you around! And sorry for the long message but I felt it was better to be more open and verbal about the matter.

( ^^)ノ

Take note that the 1.3 patch is still in Beta, so there are still unfixed bugs. Make sure to report them ASAP.