Right this is mostly problem,
i have gotten it to work like... twice, than quickly quit the game via quit button so as to preserve its operating status.
When attempting to start the issue reoccured :/

the issue:
starting RF1 launcher apepars, i select play, game changes resolution, goes into black screen and thangoes back to OS with the resolution it swaped into. and just hangs.

NO i do not want to install 3rd party solutions (pure faction), i have no reason to trust such programmes. This also requires systematic solution rather than ad hoc patch.
And i am wierded out by how it DID work 2 times. there is clearly something going on with the drivers

Attempted solutions:
reinstall, run the game in compatibility mode (win XP, admin rights).
uninstall (save no data) - restart PC - install

i have not been able to replicate first instalation susccess in running the game inexplicably.

Hi James, thanks for stopping by the community Discord ( http : // redfaction . chat ) earlier, it was great chatting with you.

I'll quickly summarize our earlier conversation for the benefit of anyone who happens to read this thread:

Unfortunately, the behaviour you described is expected for Red Faction v1.21 (the version that ships with the Steam and GoG distributions) - Red Faction was made 18 years ago to run on the software and hardware of the time. Despite the minor compatibility improvements Volition made for the Steam and GoG re-releases, it still doesn't run properly on modern systems without community-made fixes.

As detailed in my quickstart guide and FAQ on http : // redfaction . help , the free and open source community-made Dash Faction patch resolves all of the known compatibility issues with the game, in addition to fixing a huge amount of bugs in the game, and adding numerous feature enhancements to improve the user experience.

I would (and have, in my quickstart guide on http : // redfaction . help) highly recommend using Dash Faction - it will let you run the game on your system, and you won't have to deal with these bugs and compatibility issues. Furthermore, Dash Faction is open source (GitHub link is listed in the "comparison of client versions" chart on http : // redfaction . help). Although there's nothing untrustworthy about the standard Dash Faction distribution, you could compile it from source yourself if you're uncomfortable with using the standard distribution.

Regardless, I hope you enjoy the game and become a member of the community - I've been involved with the game's community for close to 18 years now, and it's an awesome community. :)

As always, if you (or anyone else who is reading this) run into any other issues, want to try some Red Faction custom mods or levels, or just want to chat with the community, you're always welcome to join the community on Discord at http : // redfaction . chat

PS. Among the feature enhancements in Dash Faction is support for custom and widescreen resolutions - stock Red Faction supports only four 4:3 resolutions: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024

Thanks, this helped me. Dash Faction works!