Note: This page has been moved to the new UESP-Wiki. The same content, just a different presentation.
This page very likely contains outdated information (last updated in 2005).
[the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, 227x71, 4.2kb] UESP Main Page
Arena
Daggerfall
Battlespire
Redguard
Morrowind

Redguard Tech and Hacks

15 February 2011

This page contains technical and hacking information on the game of Redguard. Feel free to Contact the Webmaster to contribute suggestions, information not included here, or links to sites that include technical and hacking info. The various topics are sorted according to the date on which they were last updated or added.

Major Topics - Seperate Document
Texture File Format - 15 February 2011
Description of the TEXBSI files format containing various image data.
SYSTEM.INI Info - 15 February 2011
Explanation of the some of the options in this configuration file.
Minor Topics - Found Below in Document
Screen Shots - 27 February 1999
Various methods of obtaining screenshots in the game.
Running Without the CD - 3 December 1998
How to run the game without a CD to increase the movie playback rate.
Installation Notes - 3 December 1998
A few notes and tips on installing the game.


Installation Notes - 3 December 1998

  1. Demo Conflicts: It appears that you cannot properly install the game when you have the demo installed. Before you install game make sure you uninstall the demo (goto the Control Panel and select the Add/Remove Programs icon).
  2. Game Size: The installed game takes up around 350MB initially with more required as you save games. Save games range in the size of around 2MB and more so put aside a bunch of extra space for that (perhaps at least 20-30MB). If you are running without a CD you'll need an additional 480MB of space for the movies. In all the game will easily eat up a 500MB, or a GB without the CD, of space.
  3. Registry Entries: The game makes a number of registry entires when installing the game. They are stored in the path HKLM/SOFTWARE/BETHESDA/REDGUARD (HKLM stands for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE). The specified CDROM drive there is only used by the Windows options program which you usually use to start the game and modify options. From there the settings are saved to the file SYSTEM.INI in the Redguard directory.


Running Without the CD - 8 December 1998

This is primarily of importance to those with a slow CDROM drive since only the movies/cut scenes are stored on the second CD. By copying these files to the hard drive you can greatly improve the movie playback rate. Here are the steps to get this to work:

  1. Find a free 480MB on one drive somewhere...this is the minimum space needed to copy all the files from the second CD.
  2. Make a convienent directory to store the files, for instance I used f:\redguard\cdrom\.
  3. Copy all the files from the 2nd, Game CD to this directory (copy the empty RedBook sub-dir too).
  4. Put the CD away because we are done with it.
  5. Edit the file SYSTEM.INI in the main Redguard directory. Find the line 'animation_drive', it should point to your current CDROM. Don't change this entry because it is overwritten by the configuration program. Instead, copy the line to a place just below it and change that path to match the one where all the CD files are. For instance, in my case the SYSTEM.INI file looks like:
    		animation_path=h:\
    		animation_path=f:\redguard\cdrom\
    Update: Although this appeared to work for me at least once I've run into problem getting the movies to play in the game with this dual line setting. Thus, you'll probably only have to use only one animation_path line which you must edit every time you use the main options program.
  6. You can still use the main Redguard startup program to change the options but not to run the game since it checks to see if the CD is in the drive. Instead, you'll have to run either of the PIF files RG3DFX.PIF or RG.PIF, depending on your system. You cannot directly run the EXE files...they freeze while loading a game. You may have to modify the path entries in the the PIF files for them to run properly.
Thats it...you should now be able to run the game and view the movies without the CD...it works fine for me. If you do have problems, please Let Me Know.

Screen Shots - 27 February 1999

While in the game you can use the ALT-F1 key combination to save a screen shot into your game directory. The images are saved as BMP files. If you are using Win95/98 and have the Print-Screen and Alt-PrintScreen keys activated, you can use these to capture a screenshot to the clipboard (which you can then paste into any picture editor of your choice).

It appears as though each game saves the number of screenshots taken and outputs new screenshots using that number. This makes it rather easy to overwrite existing screenshots. Say, for instance, you load up a game and take a few ss. You then die and have to reload the game. If you take anymore screenshots after you reload you will overwrite the previous screenshots taken before you reloaded. Thus, if you want to keep any images you have to exit the program before you load a savegame.


[Print] Display this document for printing (some pages may not display properly).

If you have any problems, suggestions or comments on this page or website, please feel free to use the Contact Form to send a message to the WebMaster.
This document was last modified on: Tuesday, 15 February 2011, at 20:29:13 and has been accessed 7430 times ( /redguard/tech/redtech.shtml ).

Please note that this site is Completely Unofficial and is in no way connected to Bethesda softworks or Zenimax. Bethesda Softworks, Battlespire, XnGine, Morrowind, Redguard, Daggerfall, Arena and The Elder Scrolls are trademarks of Media Technology Limited, Copyright © 1994-2001 Media Technology Limited.