American McGee’s Alice (2011) – PCGamingWiki PCGW – bugs, fixes, crashes, mods, guides and improvements for every PC game

This page is for the 2011 remaster. For the original release, see American McGee’s Alice.

Key points

“Remastered” version of American McGee’s Alice featuring native widescreen resolutions, controller support, updated character textures, and compatibility fixes for modern systems. The visuals can be further improved with the Alice HD Texture Pack.

This version does not contain the HD Interface such as proper HUD scaling and HD Menu elements and High quality FMV cutscenes present in the PS3 and Xbox 360 version.

The developer console (~) from the original game is completely disabled in this remaster as a means to prevent cheating, however, this means modifying CVars and fine-tuning other settings in-game is no longer possible.[1]

Availability

This game was only available through pre-ordering Alice: Madness Returns or purchasing The Complete Collection, with the latter being no longer available outside of GameStop.com (delisted), Humble Store (delisted) and Dell.com.

A demo version of the original 2000 release for Windows can be downloaded here.

Essential improvements

Launch without Alice: Madness Returns

The 2011 remastered version of American McGee’s Alice is normally launched through Alice: Madness Returns from its main menu for those who received this game through pre-ordering the latter or purchasing The Complete Collection.

Launch the game using the -RunningFromAlice2 command line argument[2]

This launch parameter should be added to

<path-to-game>\Game\Alice1\bin\alice.exe

<path-to-game>\Game\Alice2\Binaries\Win32\AliceMadnessReturns.exe

Fix by using a hex editor[3]

1. Open

   <path-to-game>\Game\Alice1\bin\alice.exeHxD.

2. Search for the -RunningFromAlice2 text string.
3. Replace the first byte (2D) with null (00).

Prevent Alice: Madness Returns from launching on exit

This game normally re-launches Alice: Madness Returns upon exit.

Move the

Alice1 folder from

<path-to-game>\Game[4]

Fix by using a hex editor[3]

1. Open

   <path-to-game>\Game\Alice1\bin\alice.exeHxD.

2. Search for the ..\..\Alice2\Binaries\Win32\AliceMadnessReturns.exe text string.
3. Replace the first byte (2E) with null (00).

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System
Location

Windows
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\American McGee’s Alice\config.cfg

\My Games\American McGee’s Alice\config.cfg

Save game data location

System
Location

Windows
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\American McGee’s Alice\save\

\My Games\American McGee’s Alice\save\

Video

General settings.

Video settings.

Enable Vsync[5]

1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
2. Open

   config.cfg with a text editor.

3. In the Cvars section, add seta r_swapinterval "1" as a new line, then save the changes.

Level of detail

Default LOD settings can be overridden to make the game render highest quality models all the time.

Instructions[6]

1. Run the game at least once, so the configuration file gets created.
2. Open

   <path-to-game>\Base\config.cfg

3. Add lines seta r_lodbias "-2" and seta r_lodcurveerror "10000" in the Cvars section.
4. Save the changes and run the game.

Remove frame-rate cap[7]

1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
2. Open

   config.cfg with a text editor.

3. In the Cvars section, add seta com_maxfps "0" as a new line, then save the changes.

This can break animations such as Alice’s eye blinking, which is noticeable in the settings menu.

Use Peixoto’s patch[8]

If there are issues with taking screenshots or recording the game, remove the line HD=wide nofov from Peixoto\Scripts\Alice - Remaster.ini..

Hex editing

1. Go to

   <path-to-game>\Alice1\bin

2. Open

   fgamex86.dll in a hex editor.

3. Go to offset 0x15AC96.
4. The stored value is FOV x2. The default value is 0xB4 = 180 = 90. So, e.g. to get an FOV of 107 (suitable for 16:9), write 0xD6, which is 214, therefore the in-game FOV will be 107.

Input

• 

  Keyboard remapping.

• 

  Controller screen.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature
State
Notes

Separate volume controls

Music, Sound Effects

Surround sound

Subtitles

Closed captions

Mute on focus lost

EAX support

A3D 1.0 and 2.0, EAX and EAX 2.

Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language
UI
Audio
Sub
Notes

English

Dutch

Use the Alice Dutch Patch.

French

German

Italian

Fan translation, download.
Also compatible with the original release.

Spanish

VR support

Issues unresolved

Chesire Help does not work

For reasons unknown, the summon Chesire function (bound to C by default) for hints or clues about the level Alice is currently in does not work in this remaster.

Issues fixed

Game runs at a low frame rate

The game may run poorly even on modern hardware.

Edit config.cfg[9]

1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
2. Open

   config.cfg with a text editor.

3. In the Cvars section, add seta r_primitives "2" as a new line, then save the changes.

Enable EAX reverb

Install Creative ALchemy for the game[10]

1. Download & install ALchemy.
2. Launch ALchemy
3. Add a new Profile, name it Alice
4. Select “Use Game Path”
5. Navigate to the executable’s directory (For example C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Alice Madness Returns The Complete Collection\Game\Alice1\bin)
6. Click “OK”
7. Click The newly created profile and then click “>>” to enable it.
8. Close ALchemy & launch the game
9. Go to settings, audio, and set the sound driver to EAX2

Other information

API

Technical specs
Supported
Notes

OpenGL

[11]

Executable
32-bit
64-bit
Notes

Windows

Alice HD Texture Pack

Install the Alice HD Texture Pack[12]

1. Download the HD texture pack here, then extract its content somewhere conveniently accessible on your computer.
2. Go to

   <path-to-game>\base

   pak1_large.pk3 file. This is required for the game to load the HD textures.

3. Copy the

   *.cfg and

   *.pk3 files from the HD texture pack into <path-to-game>\base.

4. Now run the game. The game’s visuals should be changed with those from the HD texture pack.

Further improves the overall look of the game. It is also compatible with the original 2000 release.

The mod’s

zzpak10_modHud.pk3 file does not work with the 2011 remastered version, however, the mod has been updated to include a new HD HUD with the base mod. Deleting this file is recommended when using this mod with the remastered version.[13]

Features an expanded tweaks/cheats menu and optional Overkill mod that adds more lighting effects and enemies. Can be omitted by not installing the

z(Mod)OverKill.pk3 file. The cheats menu, however, does not work with the 2011 remastered version.[14]

Middleware

Middleware
Notes

Audio
Miles Sound System

System requirements

Windows

Minimum
Recommended

Operating system (OS)
XP SP3
Vista SP2, 7 SP1

Processor (CPU)
AMD Athlon X2 1.6 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6 GHz

System memory (RAM)
2 GB

Hard disk drive (HDD)
8.5 GB

Video card (GPU)
ATI Radeon X1650
Nvidia GeForce 7600
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible

References