Messiah - PCGamingWiki PCGW - bugs, fixes, crashes, mods, guides and improvements for every PC game (2024)

Messiah
Developers

	Shiny Entertainment
Publishers
	Interplay Entertainment
Retail re-release	Sold Out Software
Release dates
Windows	March 29, 2000^[1]
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Sci-fi, Supernatural

1 Availability
2 Essential improvements
- 2.1 Patches
- 2.2 Peixoto's patch
3 Game data
- 3.1 Configuration file(s) location
- 3.2 Save game data location
- 3.3 Save game cloud syncing
4 Video
5 Input
6 Audio
- 6.1 Localizations
7 VR support
8 Issues fixed
- 8.1 Fix slowdown and 32-bit color
- 8.2 Game crashing when opening door
- 8.3 Game doesn't launch
9 Other information
- 9.1 Command line arguments
10 Other information
- 10.1 API
11 System requirements
12 Notes
13 References

Messiah is a singleplayer third-person action game.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		LaserLock DRM.
GOG.com		Comes pre-configured with nGlide 1.0.4.^[2]
Steam

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest version is v0.2. Digital distributions include an outdated MessiahGlide3x.exe and may still require the patch.^[3]

Peixoto's patch

Forced resolution allows high resolution without shrinking the HUD\menus. Super sampling anti-aliasing is also possible

MCI emulation gets the CD music working properly

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/577980/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\SAVE^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/577980/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See the WSGF entry.
Multi-monitor		See the WSGF entry.
Ultra-widescreen		See the WSGF entry.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Input

In-game control settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Limited modern controller support.
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		Uses same toggle.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French				Retail only.
German				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Italian				Retail only.
Polish				Retail only.
Russian				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Spanish				Retail only.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D/Z3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues fixed

Fix slowdown and 32-bit color

In modern GPUs the game has severe slowdown issues and is locked to 16-bit color only support. This can be addressed by the game itself, but it requires either a custom shortcut or running the game from the command line:

Change the rendering settings^{[citation needed]}
The logo, intro, and ending videos will not render properly in 32-bit mode Run the game with the -x argument, like MessiahD3D.exe -x (or create a shortcut to MessiahD3D.exe with the -x argument added). Select one of the available resolutions and press Ok. Another resolution selecting window will appear. Leave the graphics card option as is. Select Direct3D HAL (do not select Direct3D T&L HAL - this will cause slowdowns!) From the third option scroll to find the resolution you picked in the first window (widescreen modes do not seem to work). Make sure it says "x 32" at the right side (which means 32-bit color), otherwise you will get nasty color banding since modern GPUs lack dithering support for 16-bit modes. Press Run game.

Change the rendering settings^{[citation needed]}

The logo, intro, and ending videos will not render properly in 32-bit mode

Run the game with the -x argument, like MessiahD3D.exe -x (or create a shortcut to MessiahD3D.exe with the -x argument added).
Select one of the available resolutions and press Ok. Another resolution selecting window will appear.
Leave the graphics card option as is.
Select Direct3D HAL (do not select Direct3D T&L HAL - this will cause slowdowns!)
From the third option scroll to find the resolution you picked in the first window (widescreen modes do not seem to work). Make sure it says "x 32" at the right side (which means 32-bit color), otherwise you will get nasty color banding since modern GPUs lack dithering support for 16-bit modes.
Press Run game.

Game crashing when opening door

A good chunk into the game, there is a certain door after an elevator that can crash the game whenever opening it, making progress impossible. There are two possible fixes for this:

Run in safe mode
Safe mode completely disables sound After the game crashes, start it again. It will offer you to run in safe mode. Now you can open the door and proceed. You have to play through the entire next chapter in safe mode, without sound. At the end of the chapter, save and exit the game. After restarting the game (without safe mode), you can load your safe and continue playing normally.

Run in safe mode

Safe mode completely disables sound

After the game crashes, start it again. It will offer you to run in safe mode. Now you can open the door and proceed.
You have to play through the entire next chapter in safe mode, without sound.
At the end of the chapter, save and exit the game.
After restarting the game (without safe mode), you can load your safe and continue playing normally.

Download patch 02 and disable pre-loading cached files
Patch 02 might pop up the message "error opening mci device" whenever launching the game. You can ignore that. Another solution is to download patch 02, which is not included with most game versions (e.g. GOG). You can see if you already have that patch installed if you have the option "pre-load cached files" in the options menu. Download and install patch 02, e.g. from here, if you don't have it already. Now go to the options menu and disable "pre-load cached files". Then you can open the door without crash and continue playing.

Download patch 02 and disable pre-loading cached files

Patch 02 might pop up the message "error opening mci device" whenever launching the game. You can ignore that.

Another solution is to download patch 02, which is not included with most game versions (e.g. GOG). You can see if you already have that patch installed if you have the option "pre-load cached files" in the options menu.
Download and install patch 02, e.g. from here, if you don't have it already.
Now go to the options menu and disable "pre-load cached files". Then you can open the door without crash and continue playing.

Game doesn't launch

If you use third-party tools like Rivatuner Statistics Server (RTSS), deactivate it.

Other information

Command line arguments

See command line arguments on how to use the following options.

Parameter	Description
-i	Skip intro logos
-s	Disable sound
-o	Disable Fog
-v	Disable mip-mapping
+!	Fixes Windows 2000 crashes on some machines when switching from the game to the game menu.
-p	Will disable any gamma control for users who wish to use their windows gamma and not in game gamma settings.
+T	Enables verbose debug information for sound cards.

Other information

API

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium MMX 233 MHz	Intel Pentium II 300 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB	128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	600 MB
Video card (GPU)	8 MB of VRAM DirectX 7 compatible	16 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^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>/577980/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (577980) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Messiah receives warm reception at Oscars (retrieved) - last accessed on 2024-02-01
↑ Verified by User:Mystyle48 on 2024-02-01
↑ Verified by User:Mystyle48 on 2024-02-02
Checked with the GOG.com version in Process Monitor. The build date of MessiahGlide3x.exe is 2000-03-16, like the original retail release, rather than 2000-05-22, like v0.2. MessiahD3D.exe does not have this issue.

Messiah - PCGamingWiki PCGW - bugs, fixes, crashes, mods, guides and improvements for every PC game (2024)

Contents

Availability

Essential improvements

Patches

Peixoto's patch

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

Save game data location

Save game cloud syncing

Video

Input

Audio

Localizations

VR support

Issues fixed

Fix slowdown and 32-bit color

Game crashing when opening door

Game doesn't launch

Other information

Command line arguments

Other information

API

System requirements

Notes

References

References