Red Faction FAQ

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Red Faction

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FAQ

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IMPORTANT: To potentially save you a lot of time, if you're not already running the Alpine Faction patch, it's highly recommended you install it. The patch resolves the vast majority of issues with the game and adds modern features like widescreen support, window modes, autosaving, and achievements.

• You can download it here: Alpine Faction

This page provides fixes to commonly encountered issues, and answers to frequently asked questions.

For issues or questions that aren't covered on this page, feel free to join the Red Faction Community Discord below for help from other community members.

Join the RF Community Discord

Common Game Launch Issues

Nothing happens when I try to launch the game, or it launches but immediately crashes

Cause: If you're running an official Red Faction version, this issue is likely a compatibility issue with modern hardware or a modern operating system. If you're running Pure Faction, you may experience this issue as Pure Faction is not compatible with certain versions of Windows 10. Solution: Installing and switching to Alpine Faction should resolve this issue for you.

Error "Please insert Red Faction CD 2"

Cause: You're running Red Faction version 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2, and those versions require CD 2 be in your CD-ROM drive for the game to launch. Solution: Official version 1.21, as well as all commonly-used community versions of Red Faction resolve this issue and allow you to launch the game without CD 2 in your CD-ROM drive.

Error "Unable to initialize DirectX 8.0"

Cause: This issue occurs when launching Red Faction (particularly in full screen mode) on some new hardware. Solution: All commonly-used community versions resolve this issue - we recommend using Alpine Faction for maximum compatibility with new hardware and operating systems. You may need to launch the community version you choose in "windowed" or "stretched" mode as opposed to full screen mode to resolve this issue.

Error "At least 8 MB of available video memory is required"

Cause: This error occurs when Red Faction 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2 is launched on a system with 2GiB or more available video memory. At a technical level, the issue is caused by a signed DWORD being read as less than the minimum of 5MiB, and is resolved with the replacement of a signed less than comparision with an unsigned less than comparison. Solution: You can resolve this issue in either one of the following three ways: Use Alpine Faction (easy, recommended): Alpine Faction resolves this issue and allows you to launch the game on systems with 2GiB or more available video memory. Use another patch (alternative): Official version 1.21, and the deprecated community-made patch Pure Faction also resolve this issue. Manually fix the issue (advanced): Edit an affected RF.EXE - find "3D 00 00 50 00" and change the following "7D" (JGE) by "EB" (JMP) to bypass the check.

Error "Unable to read project sound information. Is bluebeard.bty missing?"

Cause: This error occurs when the stock file bluebeard.bty is missing from your Red Faction directory. Solution: The fix for this issue is very simple. You will need to download an original Red Faction bluebeard.bty file (available on FactionFiles.com) and drop it into your Red Faction directory. The default Red Faction directory for Steam copies of Red Faction is C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\red faction\ The default Red Faction directory for non-Steam copies of Red Faction is C:\games\RedFaction\

Error "Unsupported game executable has been detected."

Cause: If you get this error when attempting to launch Alpine Faction, it means you've tried to hook an incompatible version of the game. Alpine Faction was built as an add-on for Red Faction v1.20 (NA), and it requires that version to run. Solution: The easiest way to resolve this issue is to reinstall Alpine Faction via the installer, which should patch your game as required so you have the right version. In very rare cases however, you may need to manually download the necessary version of rf.exe, place it in your Red Faction directory, and configure the Alpine Faction "Game executable" (via the Options button in the Alpine Faction Launcher) to the rf.exe you just downloaded. You can download an original, unmodified rf.exe from v1.20 (NA) from FactionFiles.com. The default Red Faction directory for Steam copies of Red Faction is C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\red faction\ The default Red Faction directory for non-Steam copies of Red Faction is C:\games\RedFaction\

Error "failed to inject DLL [...] win32 error 126 The specified module could not be found."

Cause: If you get this error when attempting to launch Alpine Faction, it means the required AlpineFaction.dll file is not in the same directory as AlpineFactionLauncher.exe. This may be because you've moved AlpineFactionLauncher.exe to your desktop or another location, when you intended to instead create a shortcut. Solution: The easiest way to resolve this issue is to reinstall Alpine Faction via the installer. Alternatively, if you know that you've moved AlpineFactionLauncher.exe and/or AlpineFaction.dll out of the directory that contains the other Alpine Faction files, you can fix this issue by moving them both back.

Error "../../launcher_common/process.h:126 : win32 error 5 Access is denied."

Cause: If you get this error when attempting to launch Alpine Faction, it usually means the game executable is requiring elevation to run. Solution: The easiest way to resolve this issue is to simply run AlpineFactionLauncher.exe with elevated rights by right clicking on it and clicking "Run as Administrator".

Error "Game executable has not been found. Please set a proper path in Options."

Cause: If you get this error when attempting to launch Alpine Faction, it means the "Game executable" field in the Alpine Faction Options (accessible via the launcher) is not properly configured. This may be because you've moved your Red Faction executable to a new location. Solution: To resolve this issue, click the "Options" button in AlpineFactionLauncher.exe and click the "Browse" button next to the "Game executable" field. Specify a Red Faction v1.20 NA executable, then click OK. If you don't have this file, you can download an original, unmodified rf.exe from v1.20 (NA) from FactionFiles.com. This rf.exe file should be dropped into your Red Faction directory. The default Red Faction directory for Steam copies of Red Faction is C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\red faction\ The default Red Faction directory for non-Steam copies of Red Faction is C:\games\RedFaction\

Common In-Game Issues

Submarine explodes after Geothermal Plant

Cause: This error occurs when Red Faction is running with a high framerate (FPS), as will almost always occur when its running on a modern computer. Solution: There are 2 ways to handle this issue - the first a solution to the issue and the second a temporary workaround: Install the modern Alpine Faction patch which completely resolves the issue without requiring you to take any additional action (This is the best way to handle this issue and is highly recommended to fix this and other crippling issues with the game) Alternatively, as a workaround you could limit your framerate/FPS to less than 60 via external methods as the submarine drops from the crane

I can't shoot, move, or jump; or my game is stuttering, glitching, warping, or running too fast

Cause: Red Faction has numerous issues when running on systems with newer hardware and/or software, including but not limited to those in this list. There's not one issue to point to as the cause of these issues. Solution: We recommend using Alpine Faction, as it resolves these issues and is compatible with all known hardware/operating system configurations. Some other community-made Red Faction clients resolve some amount of these issues, but Alpine Faction is the most comprehensive solution.

Game has severe graphical issues

Cause: Red Faction, particularly official versions v1.00 through to v1.20, suffers from a number of very severe graphical issues on modern hardware. Solution: We recommend using Alpine Faction, as it resolves these issues and is compatible with all known hardware/operating system configurations. Some other community-made Red Faction clients resolve some amount of these issues, but Alpine Faction is the most comprehensive solution.

I'm getting severe framerate/FPS drops

Cause: If you're running official version v1.21, this issue occurs when some specific levels are loaded. At a technical level, it's caused by v1.21 not properly handling invalid floating point values within the entity orientation matrix. Solution: No commonly-used community-made RF clients suffer from this issue. We recommend Alpine Faction as it does not suffer from this issue, and fixes the vast majority of other issues you may encounter.

I'm getting severe framerate/FPS drops and I'm already using Alpine Faction

Cause: If you're already running Alpine Faction, this issue sometimes occurs when OBS or OBS Studio attempts to hook the game for recording/streaming if you have anti-aliasing enabled in the Alpine Faction launcher. Solution: To resolve this issue, exit the game and turn off anti-aliasing in the launcher options panel, then relaunch the game.

Game crashes when I pick up items

Cause: This issue occurs on official version v1.21 when you attempt to pick up weapon, health, armor, or ammo pickups while running the game at high resolutions. Solution: No commonly-used community-made RF clients suffer from this issue. We recommend Alpine Faction as it does not suffer from this issue, includes proper support for high/custom/widescreen resolutions, and fixes the vast majority of other issues you may encounter.

Game crashes when I attach pistol silencer, or when I get the "monkey suit"

Cause: This issue usually happens when you have a custom Pistol mod installed that doesn't have a proper silencer included. Solution: Unfortunately, there is usually no easy way to repair Pistol mods to include a proper silencer. Therefore, you should remove your custom Pistol mod to fix this issue. If you don't remember which file included the mod, an easy way to remove any installed clientside mods is to empty (or rename) your \user_maps\multi\ and \user_maps\single\ directories.

Sound from vehicles/robots/weapons is very loud or cuts off

Cause: Red Faction doesn't correctly handle scaling sounds when you move the "Sound Effects" slider in the options menu, resulting in some sounds being very loud and/or cutting in and out based on your proximity to their source. The problem isn't known to occur with music or message volume. Solution: If you're running Windows Vista, 7, 2008, 2008 R2, 8, 2012, 8.1, 10, or 2016, it is recommended to set the in-game Red Faction "Sound Effects" volume (in the Options->Audio panel) to 100%, then use the Windows volume mixer to scale the game's audio to the desired level.

HUD elements are all jumbled together in top left corner of screen

Cause: Red Faction official versions only support four resolutions (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024). If you try to use an official version of the game with any other resolution (including any widescreen resolutions), all HUD elements will be jumbled in the top left corner of the screen. Solution: Several community-made patches resolve this to varying degrees. We recommend using Alpine Faction, as it fully resolves this issue in all situations. Furthermore, Alpine Faction includes a "Big HUD" option, to enlarge the HUD when running at higher resolutions.

Rail Driver scope is bugged and displaying yellow lines

Cause: This issue usually happens when Red Faction is running in 16-bit mode. Solution: To resolve this issue, set Red Faction to run in 32-bit mode. If you're using an official version, you can make this change by pressing the "SETUP" button in the Red Faction launcher, and setting "Framebuffer" to "32 Bit" on the "Video" tab, then pressing "OK." If you're using Pure Faction, you can make this change by going to the "Game Settings" tab of the Pure Faction launcher and setting "Colour Depth" to "32 Bit," then pressing "Save Settings." If you're using Alpine Faction or Dash Faction, you can make this change by pressing the "Options" button in the corresponding launcher, and setting "Color Depth" to "32 bits," then pressing "OK."

Character reflection in mirrors is broken

Cause: This issue (dubbed "Frankenparker" by the community) exists in all official versions of Red Faction after version 1.1, as well as all community-made versions except Alpine Faction and Dash Faction, and is caused by the skin for the miner Parker character model being applied to the mesh for undercover Parker. Solution: This bug is fixed in Alpine Faction.

Audio in cutscenes isn't synced with facial animations

Cause: This known issue occurs on all official Red Faction versions, as well as all community-made versions except Alpine Faction and Dash Faction, and is caused by timing issues affecting the game to varying degrees based on the game's framerate while the cutscene is playing. Solution: The Alpine Faction community made Red Faction version resolves this issue.

I can't jump out of the water

Cause: This known issue occurs on all official Red Faction versions when running at high framerates (FPS). Solution: Alpine Faction, Dash Faction, and Pure Faction resolve this issue. We recommend Alpine Faction as it also fixes the vast majority of other issues you may encounter.

Odd graphical or audio issues after the game has been open for a while

Cause: A memory leak exists in all official Red Faction versions, as well as all community-made versions except Alpine Faction and Dash Faction (v1.5.0+), which causes strange graphical or audio glitches if Red Faction has been open through a very large amount of level loads - this can occur when you save and load extremely often while playing through the single player campaign. This issue will eventually lead to your game fully freezing and/or crashing, and the loss of any unsaved progress. Solution: Installing and using Alpine Faction is the best solution for this issue. Alternatively, as a workaround, you can restart your game the first time you notice this issue occurring.

After loading a saved game, I'm in a different place in the level and I lost all my weapons

Cause: This issue occurs when you save (or quicksave) your game when your character is out of bounds while using Pure Faction, resulting in an essentially corrupt savegame file. At a technical level, this issue is caused by a "spawn error" because the game is unable to determine the proper entity to which your player should be assigned. When a "spawn error" occurs, you spawn as a new "miner1" entity with 100/100 health/armour and a 12mm Pistol with maximum ammo. Solution: Unfortunately, as this issue is caused by a savegame file that has essentially been corrupted, no easy fix exists. We encourage you to save your game often, using different savegame filenames, so that if this rare issue were to occur, you can simply revert to an earlier savegame file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I get a copy of Red Faction?

Answer: Red Faction is available for purchase as a digital download or physical copy (CD). Digital: Steam GOG.com Physical: Amazon

Will Red Faction run on my computer?

Answer: Red Faction's recommended system requirements are listed below, but virtually any system built in the last 10 years should have no issue meeting them. Most newer hardware and operating systems however will not run the game properly by default. To resolve these issues, we recommend you use one of the great community versions of the game that have been developed by dedicated community members. Official Red Faction Minimum System Requirements Operating System: Windows® 2000/XP DirectX Version: DirectX 8 Processor: Pentium II 400 MHz or greater Memory: 64 MB RAM Video Card: 3D Graphics Accelerator Card (8MB) Sound: Direct X Certified audio hardware

I've heard about Alpine Faction, Dash Faction, and/or Pure Faction. What are they, and should I download them?

Answer: Alpine Faction, Dash Faction, and Pure Faction are third-party community-made patches for Red Faction that fix bugs, add features/enhancements, and provide a better play experience than the base game. In some cases, especially on modern systems and Windows versions, these third-party community-made patches may be the only way to play Red Faction, as the official versions suffer from numerous issues that commonly cause the game to run poorly or not at all. Pure Faction has not been in active development for some time and should be considered obsolete. Dash Faction is in active development and will provide a significantly better play experience than Pure Faction or any official versions. Alpine Faction is a fork of Dash Faction, and adds many additional useful features, bug fixes, and enhancements. As always, if you have any questions or run into any issues with Red Faction, please visit the Red Faction Community Discord

Where can I go to talk to other Red Faction fans, find people to play with, or ask for help with an issue?

Answer: The Red Faction community lives on the Red Faction Community Discord. The vast majority of the game's community is there, and we'd love to have you as well! We're an inviting and approachable community of old school and new Red Faction players, and we should be able to help you with any issue you may be experiencing with the game. The #rf1-matchmaking channel on the Discord server is intended to be used for organizing multiplayer matches.

Where can I find community-made Red Faction mods or levels?

Answer: FactionFiles.com is the most extensive source of community-made mods and levels for Red Faction. Some specific categories of community-made Red Faction files from Faction Files are listed below. Throughout Red Faction's 18+ year history, many other community sites have come and gone such as Red Faction Planet, Levels4You, RED tech, and RF HQ. The only file hosting site from RF's early history to still be available online is RedFactionView.net

How do I install and play custom mods?

Answer: NOTE: We've tried to standardize the distribution format of mods on FactionFiles.com and this guide assumes you're installing mods from there. These steps may not work for you if you obtained a mod from another source. Installing Conversion Mods Please see our step-by-step guide: Installing Conversion Mods (RF1) Installing Clientside Mods (Weapon Skins, Player Skins, or HUD / UI / Sound / Texture Mods) Please see our step-by-step guide: Installing Clientside Mods (RF1)

How do I install and play custom levels/maps?

Answer: NOTE: We've tried to standardize the distribution format of both single player and multiplayer maps on FactionFiles.com and this guide assumes you're getting them from there. These steps may not work for you if you obtained maps from another source. If you're using Alpine Faction, you can click the "Install with Alpine Faction" button on many FactionFiles pages in order to quickly install the map or mod in question. Otherwise, reference the below guides. Installing Multiplayer Maps To install custom multiplayer maps, simply extract all .vpp files contained within the file you downloaded for the map to your "...\user_maps\multi" directory. (Normally this will be C:\Steam\steamapps\common\red faction\user_maps\multi for Steam users, and C:\games\RedFaction\user_maps\multi for non-Steam users) After the .vpp files are extracted, restart your game, then the newly installed map should be visible in the "Create Server" panel. Alternatively, if you're using a community version of Red Faction, you can simply join an existing multiplayer server running a map you don't have. As long as that map is available on FactionFiles.com, you will be prompted to press a button to download and install it when you try to join. IMPORTANT: Some maps, particularly newer maps, may require you to be running the modern Alpine Faction client. Installing Single Player Campaigns/Maps Most single player campaigns/maps you download will include a text file with installation instructions. If the one you downloaded has such a text file (normally named "How to play MODNAME.txt"), follow those instructions. If such a text file doesn't exist, extract all .vpp files contained within the file you downloaded to your "...\user_maps\single" directory. (Normally this will be C:\Steam\steamapps\common\red faction\user_maps\single for Steam users, and C:\games\RedFaction\user_maps\single for non-Steam users) Once extracted, you'll need to launch the game, open console by pressing ~ (or `), then type "level LEVELNAME" and hit enter, where "LEVELNAME" is the filename of the first level. If you're unsure what filename this is, and it's not indicated in a text file distributed with the campaign/map, please join us on the Red Faction Community Discord for assistance. Of course, if you run into any issues installing or playing multiplayer or single player maps, please join us on the Red Faction Community Discord for assistance.

How do I make my own custom mods or levels?

Answer: Red Faction maps are made in RED, and mods are made using a mixture of Table files, meshes exported from 3Ds Max, and textures (.tga and .vbm). Visit the RF1 Editing Main Page for documentation, tutorials, and other developer resources. The Red Faction community lives on the Red Faction Community Discord The vast majority of the game's community is there (including level designers and mod developers), and we'd love to have you as well! We're an inviting and approachable community of old school and new Red Faction players, and we would be more than happy to help you learn to create maps and mods for Red Faction!

Does anyone speed run Red Faction?

Answer: Yes! Red Faction on speedrun.com Red Faction Speedrunning Channel on the Community Discord

What are the major differences between the PlayStation 2 and PC versions of RF?

Answer: While Singleplayer campaign is pretty much identical in both ports and their menu interfaces are different, the major differences lays down in Multiplayer domain. Apart from small design changes upon few multiplayer maps, chances of survival within online PC multiplayer are minimal while facing veteran fighters as the weapon damage properties are different in multiplayer than singleplayer. The important changes are listed below: PS2 Splitscreen (offline) and AI Bot matches are not available on PC. PC version comes with competitive online multiplayer to be played against real players instead of bots. PS2 Autoaim and Zoom-In are taken out on PC port because it could be exploited for real-time cheating. Bonus level Marooned from PS2 version is replaced by GlassHouse on PC port. Some of the player multi-characters exclusively on PS2 version are also unavailable on PC version. Capture The Flag mode is introduced in PC port while PS2 version doesn't have it.

Can I play the PlayStation 2 multiplayer maps on the PC version?

Answer: Yes! Download PlayStation 2 Classic RF Map Pack.

Does Red Faction automatically save my progress in single player?

Answer: No. Red Faction on both PS2 and PC never had the option to autosave. You were required to save manually only. Thankfully, both the Alpine Faction and Dash Faction (1.8.0+) community-made patches for the PC version have a checkpoint autosave feature.

How do I kill the giant robot (combot/trash disposal bot)?

Answer: Despite what you may have read elsewhere online, the scripting for this section does function perfectly fine (though it's signposted very poorly). You have to deal enough damage to the robot to make Hendrix tell you "There's a disposal pit at the lowest point of this level" - this is the catalyst for the rest of the scripting in this level. Once you've seen that radio message, you'll be able to complete the rest of the sequence: The robot will chase you, so lure him out onto the cover of the disposal pit. Once he's there, climb the ladder and press both buttons. Sometimes he can be stubborn and it'll take a minute or two, but it will work. Note that if the robot gets stuck on a wall or a corner, he may stop moving. If this happens, the best way to unstick him is to quicksave your game (via the bind configured in options) and then quickload. Note that no method exists to destroy the robot purely with weapon fire from the weapons available to you at this point in the game - it is impossible. However, the robot will automatically destroy itself 9 minutes after Hendrix's "disposal pit" radio message, so if you really can't figure out away to get him into the pit, you can just shoot him until you hear that radio message, then wait it out. Once the robot is destroyed, a cutscene will begin.

How do I enable anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering?

Answer: You can turn on both features in the Options panel in the Alpine Faction or Dash Faction Launcher.

How do I enable DirectInput for my mouse input?

Answer: Turn on DirectInput in the Advanced in-game options panel in Alpine Faction, or Use DirectInput in the Dash Faction Launcher.

How do I run RF in a window or at a custom/widescreen resolution?

Answer: Red Faction official versions only support four resolutions (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024). Both Alpine Faction and Dash Faction properly support custom/widescreen resolutions. Pure Faction also supports custom/widescreen resolutions, however it doesn't properly scale the FOV for widescreen resolutions or properly display vehicle HUDs or radio messages (from Eos, Hendrix, etc.) in single player. We recommend using Alpine Faction.