No matter what I set in dark.fix, it will not recognize my joystick at calibration.

The normal dosbox GOG version recognizes it fine.

Any tips on getting it to recognize my stick?

Have you any other peripheral that might take priority in windows without you noticing?

No, I checked the windows control panel for game controllers and it only lists the Xbox One controller I have plugged in, and it says that is the "active" controller

Probably because it's Xinput only?
The game only takes Direct Input.

Is that specific to just the darkfix version? Like I said, the normal GOG version recognizes the controller fine

Normal GOG version runs under DOSbox IIRC, Darkfix basically converts it to the windows version along all other things.

Thanks! I just installed this today and ran into this issue. I appreciate your post!

Running it on Windows 10, everything seems to work fine except I have no sound effects in space (but I do have music) and the same for the stationary screen where you can click on the booth - no sound effects. (but all the FMV works fine with sound)

Also, is there a way to load an old save game with the new patch?

My old saves are still there, but they do not show up in the load menu...

Any input greatly appreciated...

Just noticed that there is an update to the patch version listed in the OP post: https://www.wcnews.com/news/2014/09/30/the-darkening-s-enhancement-patch-gets-even-better

I am trying it now in the hopes it will fix those problems... nope same issues remain...

I'm running version 3 of the unofficial patch, and it mostly works very well. I've only had a couple of minor issues which may have been issues in the original game too, such as a crash at Hades while missions were active that placed Kiowan Cruisers there; I went to EXTREME distance and jumped away, and next time I came back to Hades during the mission, the game crashed. So I went back to a previous save and avoided that combination of missions - I always keep a save before accepting missions until they're complete to ensure mission-based crashes don't ruin my progress.

But I'm having a separate non-gameplay-related issue and I'm wondering if anyone can help. I'm not able to Alt-Tab out of Privateer 2 under any circumstances. If I try, Privateer 2 instantly takes the focus back. I don't want to have to play in Windowed mode to work around this, so does anyone know how I can fix this? I'm not using any compatibility settings and I'm using Windows 10. I'd like to be able to use Alt-Tab to check commodity prices in a spreadsheet for trading purposes. I'm sometimes able press Win then hold the mouse pointer over the spreadsheet icon at the bottom to view it, but this doesn't always work. All other ways of task switching also fail, with Privateer 2 stealing focus every time.

So is there any way to make sure task switching works using this version? Thanks!

I tried the Unofficial Patch yesterday, p2_patch_test3 to be exact. I'm using my retail copy of DOS-based Privateer 2 (not the Deluxe Windows 95 version), but I also have implemented the No-CD solution as well (copying all the three CD images to a folder, then pointed to it in the DARK.FIX file.


Here's the contents of my DARK.FIX, by the way: Everything went pretty well. In fact, the Privateer 2 Unofficial Patch works pretty well with my VirtualMIDISynth despite the fact I'm using large soud fonts. Yet the patch never shows problem playing in-flight songs (which are MIDI).

The problem is: I cannot jump, pressing J is not working. ALT+N (open Nav Map) doesn't work either. It usually happens after intense combat. Before battle, J and ALT-N work normally as usual. Oddly enough, ALT-O (Game options) and ALT-X (Exit Game) work normally, even after combat.

I suspect the bug is triggered by frantic keypresses, hence it happens after combat. Oddly enough, the bug only affects the buttons J and ALT-N, while ALT-O and ALT-X is unaffected.

Does anyone else share similar experience?

I guess I should add my experience for posterity.

I tried installing the patch and by setting Windows compatibility mode to XP service pack 3 I did get the game running. However, once the game opens to the bar scene, the mouse gets driven to the bottom right and I can't select anything in the scene. By right clicking and holding down the button I can get the twin options (talk to the bartender or leave the bar) I can highlight options, but otherwise the game is uncontrollable.

I wish I had just a little bit more insight because this feels like the game is driving mouse x and y values to maximum (top left is 0,0). Maybe it's something about modern wireless mouse inputs or the mouse driver? Maybe some other windows device is triggering max?

Note: I did have to edit the dark.fix file to change my install drive to E:. So People attempting this in the future should be aware of that. You do not need to change the dark.cfg file. The original GoG install handles that for you.

Thanks for the creator and anyone involved for making this patch.
Initially I had some problems with it or my joystick not working but reading through the comments in this thread eventually I got it to work.

Things I had to do is to edit DARK.FIX to change C: and C:\ to D: and D:\, since Privateer 2 is on my D: drive.
That got the patch to work but my joystick still didn't work, for that I had to enter joy.cpl in the searchbox for Windows and in advanced select my joystick as the preferred device (it said none before).

I don't know if somebody already mentioned this, but if you experience a lot of CTD or freezes try to limit the framerate to 30 fps using RTSS or videocard driver.
It also helps with the soundseffects not playing after a while of playing.
The game really runs smooth now and I haven't had any crashes or freezes so far.

If anyone else can confirm.

Did you ever find a solution to this? I'm having the same issue.

The solution to this is mentioned earlier in this thread.

One option is to set DPI scaling to 100% in Windows before starting the game.

For posterity, it's possible to automate this:

Just grab SetDPI.exe from https://github.com/imniko/SetDPI/releases/ and save it to your Privateer 2 directory. Afterwards, use a text editor (such as Notpad) to create a file named DARKFIX.BAT file in your Privateer 2 directory and paste the following into it: If you have multiple monitors, you might need to adjust the file, the documentation for SetDPI.exe can be found at https://github.com/imniko/SetDPI

Then, in the future, double click DARKFIX.BAT instead of DARKFIX.EXE to start Privateer 2. It should then automatically switch to 100% dpi scaling before starting the game and switch back to your original scaling afterwards.

Note: I did not write the SetDPI.exe tool, I just stumbled about it while looking for a solution to fix this problem for myself.