FAQ Technical - Edge of Chaos

Although it doesn't need a CD, the games' programming prevents it from starting up if there is no drive. If you have a computer without a CD drive, you can use our NoCD patch to remove this check from the game.

This is caused by the game being based on DirectX 7, which never supported those high resolutions.

There are two options: You can either download DDrawCompat and drop its ddraw.dll file into the bin/release folder of the game or you can play the game on Linux through Steam, since it uses Proton to translate the ancient DirectX 7 calls to Vulkan, and bypasses the resolution limit.

Note that the UI does not scale with the resolution, so if you're playing in 1440p or higher, the UI elements get very small.

If the total frequency of your CPU (base clock × multiplier) is greater than 2^32 (which is roughly 4.294 GHz) the game runs too fast, because it calculates its physics based on the speed of your processor and the calculation breaks on such high speeds.

There is no good solution to fix this at the moment. The only workaround we've found so far is to lower the FCH Base Clock (BCLK) in your BIOS to get below the threshold or run the game in a VM.

If you know how to fix this and provide a better solution, please let us know!

Starting with Windows 8, the game may only run with 30fps due to some code changes. There are two ways to solve this:

• 1. Edit the flux.ini and change the value full_screen = 1 to full_screen = 0 . Now you can use fullscreenizer to run the game with more fps.
• 2. You can apply an inbuilt compatibility setting from Windows called DisableMaxWindowedMode, which fixes this problem. That can either be done manually (which is more complicated and explained here) or you can use a tool from Garrett which was posted on the pcgamingwiki here.

If your text ingame looks like this:

you may be able to solve it by changing these values in the flux.ini from:

  override_pixel_texel_offsets = 0
  pixel_offset_y = -0.5

to

  override_pixel_texel_offsets = 1
  pixel_offset_x = 0.4
  pixel_offset_y = 0.4

This problem is called Z-Fighting and seems to be caused by some graphics drivers. It was even around when the game just came out.

Try to edit the flux.ini - in the section [fcGraphicsDeviceD3D] change the value use_static_buffers = 0 to use_static_buffers = 1

A. This is a problem with the graphics driver. Try upgrading it, you may find newer ones on the Intel/AMD/NVidia website. If upgrading doesn't help, you can try one of two things:

• Try running the game in 16bit mode
• Try editing the flux.ini file (make sure you backup the original first) and change the option use_w_buffer = 1 to use_w_buffer = 0

Save the file and run the game.

Some features from a future graphics upgrade for the game accidentally made it into the latest patch. This didn't cause any problems when the patch was tested, but it seems that on some user's setups it can cause problems.

To fix it simply delete the following folder from the game:

<install folder>\resource\images\planets

This will disable the feature that's causing the problem.

A1. The only solution I found for the stuttering sound and movies was to copy the movies to a Movies directory in my IWar 2 main folder and edit my flux.ini. Open the flux.ini file in notepad, look for the entry [FcResourceManager] and add this line: 

search_paths[2] = .\Movies

A2. I decided to switch the binkw32.dll in the \bin\release with one that worked well from another game, version 1.0f, and the vids now play flawlessly.

Password protection and private servers were implemented in Version F12. If you have Version F10 you will need to upgrade with the Edge Of Chaos Patch 1 before you can use these features. You can password protect your server by changing the appropriate section of your flux.ini file, which is located in the folder where you installed the game. We recommend you make a backup of the flux.ini before you start editing it. Add the following under the appropriate headings in the flux.ini:

[FcServer]
password = "your password"

Anyone trying to join your server must supply the same password in their flux.ini file under the FcClient section:

[FcClient]
password = "your password"

If the server password is set to "" then any client is allowed entry. Furthermore, you can make your server invisible to GameSpy and the in-game internet browser by changing the Internet visible' setting:

[FcServer]
Internet_visible = 0

Users can still join the game provided you tell them your IP address and session name, which they can supply as command line parameters to the game to automatically connect to your server, e.g.

bin\release\loader.exe -hsn -hip i.e. bin\release\loader.exe -hsn "Templar's Clan" -hip "127.63.15.7"

You will need to run this command from the Edge of Chaos installation directory.

Open up the file flux.ini and change the values according to this:

[icArcadeCamera]
Default = 1.2
16:10 = 1.37
16:9 = 1.48

[icChaseCamera]
Default = 1.2
16:10 = 1.37
16:9 = 1.48

[icConversationCamera]
Default = 1.1
16:10 = 1.27
16:9 = 1.37

[icDollyCamera]
Default = 1.2
16:10 = 1.37
16:9 = 1.48

[icDropCamera]
Default = 1.1
16:10 = 1.27
16:9 = 1.37

[icExternalCamera]
Default = 1.25
16:10 = 1.43
16:9 = 1.54

[icInternalCamera]
Default = 1.1
16:10 = 1.27
16:9 = 1.37

[icTacticalCamera]
Default = 1.2
16:10 = 1.37
16:9 = 1.48

[icTwoShotCamera]
Default = 1.1
16:10 = 1.27
16:9 = 1.37

It seems like some systems prevent the game from saving if the "saves" folder is missing inside of the game folder.

Especially the GOG version is notorious for this, as it doesn't create this folder by default (sometimes).

The solution is simple: Go into the game directory (C:/GOG Games/Independence War 2) and create a folder called "saves".

Running a dedicated server is as simple as starting up:

loader.exe -ac iwar2.icServerApp -argument "1" -argument "2"

from the top-level game directory.

This will run the server with the default settings from flux.ini. You can pass additional parameters, too:

• sqp - Server Query Port, default: 26900
• aic - AI Count (Number of Bots), default: 0
• ais - AI Skill, default: 0.6
• aib - AI Bots, enables and disables the bots (buggy, use the flux.ini for it)
• am - Arcade Mode
• c - Console for headless servers, seems to be broken here
• spl - Server Player Limit, default: 16
• sfl - Server Frag Limit, default: 10
• stl - Server Time Limit, default: 600
• sn - Server Name, default: Templar's Lair
• sm - Server Map, default: ini:/multiplayer/maps/generic_02
• sp - Server Package/Gametype, default: dm

The server can also be run on Linux with wine, but it will spawn a second screen. On a headless server, run it like this:

Xvfb :1&
export DISPLAY=:1
cd ~/.wine/drive_c/GOG\ Games/Independence\ War\ 2/ && \
nohup wine ./bin/release/loader.exe -ac iwar2.icServerApp -sp dm -sn "i-war2 GOG" -stl 600 -sfl 10 -sm ini:/multiplayer/maps/piracy -aib 1 -aic 2 > /dev/null 2>&1 &

The DEP probably prevents the game from loading. Follow these steps to disable the DEP for I-War 2:

• Open Control Panel, select "System Security" then "System" followed by "Advanced System Settings". Choose the Advanced tab, then "Settings..." in the Performance section.
• Choose the "Data Execution Prevention" tab and add EdgeOfChaos.exe (or loader.exe for the GOG version) as an exception (found in .\Independence War 2 - Edge of Chaos\bin\release)

Additionally, your antivirus may delete some of the DLL files in the bin/release folder while playing - make sure to add this folder to the exception list.