American McGee's Alice - Detailed Report

zoom · Post by **zoom** » 17 Mar 2008, 19:24

Game Information

American McGee's Alice is a third-person puzzle/shooter computer game, which takes place in the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland universe. It was developed by Rogue Entertainment and published, distributed and marketed by Electronic Arts, and under the Sold-Out Software label as well. Alice was designed by American McGee, and featured music composed by former Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna.

Version

Retail game, original version. There are currently (as of March 17th, 2008) three patches:

1) Patch for Matrox graphics
2) Patch for Macintosh version
3) Patch to add Dutch subtitles

None of these patches were used in tested version.

Method

Game doesn't support widescreen resolutions through Options. To use such resolution you have to edit config.cfg according to this post.

Screen change

Main menu is using 2D graphics and therefore is Stretched. Video (pre-rendered) cut-scenes are also Stretched. In-game cut-scenes are Vert- except 2D subtitle frame (an image), which is Stretched. The game itself is Vert-.

4:3 screenshots:

16:10 screenshots:

Supported resolutions

The game supports following resolutions by default: 640Ã—480, 800Ã—600, 960Ã—720, 1024Ã—768, 1152Ã—864, 1280Ã—1024, 1600Ã—1200

List of widescreen resolutions the game successfully ran at: 1280Ã—720, 1280Ã—800, 1920Ã—1200, 2560Ã—1600
List of widescreen resolutions that were not tested: All others

Singleplayer anomalies

In-game Vert- view also clips the bottom of two energy bars and Alice herself (see screenshots). Other 2D graphics is Stretched. Also in main menu there are some mysterious black lines (also in non-wide game-supported resolution), but they have no effect on functionality whatsoever.

Multiplayer support

N/A; This game doesn't have multiplayer.

Aspect ratio support

The game clips the viewable size (Vert-) for each AR differently (4:3, 16:9 and 16:10).

16:9

16:10

HUD stretch

In-game 2D HUD elements are stretched and cut off at the bottom.

Cut-scenes

Pre-rendered video cut-scenes are Stretched.
Cut-scenes using in-game engine are Vert- against normal resolution.

Grading

Calculated grade: C+

CCE: 100%

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 18 Mar 2008, 00:42

I could have sworn someone already did a DR for this game. All the info in the rubric is already filled out.

Anyway, all resolutions are supported. So:
C+, 100%

jd-smith77 · Post by **jd-smith77** » 02 May 2008, 17:47

I went to try this today, so I installed but there's no cfg file anywhere to be found. Any ideas?

Post by **skipclarke** » 02 May 2008, 19:07

You may need to run the game once. Many games don't write a config file until they have been run. Also, make sure you're looking at hidden files.

jd-smith77 · Post by **jd-smith77** » 02 May 2008, 23:59

thanks for the idea, but unfortunately that didn't work... I'm puzzled.

Tanuki · Post by **Tanuki** » 06 May 2008, 04:31

The file should be in there somewhere. Otherwise your game would never be able to know what your last selected resolution was.

Try changing the resolution in game and see if it sticks.

DoctorM · Post by **DoctorM** » 07 May 2008, 08:16

So the first post here on the full report suggests changing the resolution and moving the camera out.
The "Confirmed" solution is Vert- (just setting the new resolution).
Frankly, I don't understand the confusion here.

Alice is built on a modified Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.Â² engine.
So use the Heavy Metal answer: Hor+ with FOV!

Don't believe me? Ok.

The same
-----------
Go to Base, open the config.cfg file with notepad and change the line:
seta r_mode "-1"

Add the lines:
seta r_customwidth "1920"
seta r_customheight "1200"
(or your resolution of course)

And Now
----------
Bop on over to the FOV calculator:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/fovcalc.php

Alice's default FOV says "0", but it's actually 90.

Now here's the problem: you can't set the FOV in the .ini file.
In fact, if you try to set it that way, the game will lock out your ability to adjust it from the console.

Go up to the bindings, pick your favorite key, and bind your new FOV.
If you have a 16x10 panel like I do:
bind M "fov 100.39"

Now run the game. After every save game and level load, hit your bound key. (Yes, it stinks, but it beats Vert-).

The HUD is still clipped and stretched. The cut scene videos are still stretched.

Screenies:
4x3

16x10

I think this should upgrade Alice to a B-.

Hopefully with this info someone can figure out a launcher applet, patcher or something.

Btw, while I was working on this I also created a pak3.pk3 replacement file that disables the opening splash videos.
I don't know what forum rules are on posting it, but I can guess.

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 08 May 2008, 00:51

Thanks for the info. But the grade is actually dropped - the grading system is harsher to games with a high-maintenance solution than to games that are simply vert -. Also, this DR is now mostly outdated - every aspect of the game needs to be re-tested with the new solution. The grade is now D-, potentially D+, with a CCE of 96.5%.

BlueMak · Post by **BlueMak** » 08 May 2008, 02:05

I don't have the game, but always wanted to try it. I think the solution of DoctorM, if it works as he/she says, is quite good, grade aside.
Now, anyone has a spare copy of the game?

Tanuki · Post by **Tanuki** » 08 May 2008, 02:16

That is a game from the big-box era. Good luck getting anyone to part with that. 8)

DoctorM · Post by **DoctorM** » 08 May 2008, 04:09

I'm going to take a peak under the hood when I get a chance.

Odds are slim that I'll be able to do anything, but it's quite obviously setting the FOV back to 90 after every load.
A patch shouldn't be impossible, though it's likely outside my ability.
Someone familiar with doing Quake3 mods would have a better time with it.

I toyed with re-encoding and pillar boxing the 2 FMV's (the opening and final movies), but there is a resolution limit to the engine that degrades quality once you add black bars. You end up with a blocky low res clip. (ROQ is pretty obnoxious to work with too.)

BlueMak: Yup the game is way OOP. There is rumor that if it ever makes it to the big screen that EA will update, retool and re-release it... in the mean time, the dark side of the net may be your only hope.

jd-smith77 · Post by **jd-smith77** » 09 May 2008, 15:24

I still can't figure out why I have no cfg file! It totally makes no sense. Chcecked hidden files and everything. Can someone maybe send me a cfg file?

DoctorM · Post by **DoctorM** » 09 May 2008, 18:14

Post a screenshot of your ..American McGee's AliceBase folder.

You pretty much can't make the game run w/o a config.cfg... PLBCAK

jd-smith77 · Post by **jd-smith77** » 09 May 2008, 23:59

I got one now.. I guess I had to start a new game and save. I don't think I was saving before because it was not showing up.

Simplex · Post by **Simplex** » 21 May 2008, 19:09

This game is classified Vert- but when you look on the games list it says Vert+

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 22 May 2008, 00:17

It *used* to be classified vert -, but now it's classified hor +, and is listed so accordingly.

Simplex · Post by **Simplex** » 23 May 2008, 21:14

It is *still* classified as vert- here: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/American_McGee%27s_Alice

Post by **skipclarke** » 28 May 2008, 17:23

Fixed, and posted on the new home page.

jd-smith77 · Post by **jd-smith77** » 27 Jan 2009, 18:28

Anyone have a weird issue where sometimes when I load the game it won't load in widescreen after a while? It worked the first few times I did it and now it just loads 4:3 everytime I launch the game. I've checked my ini and the WS resolution is still there..

((( EDIT )))

Seems the set rmode line got reset somehow, changing it back to -1 fixed it.

DoctorM · Post by **DoctorM** » 27 Jan 2009, 19:50

Anyone have a weird issue where sometimes when I load the game it won't load in widescreen after a while? It worked the first few times I did it and now it just loads 4:3 everytime I launch the game. I've checked my ini and the WS resolution is still there..

((( EDIT )))

Seems the set rmode line got reset somehow, changing it back to -1 fixed it.

IIRC if you go into the options it resets the rmode.
Make sure you have your options all set where you want them before setting it to -1.

It's pretty unfriendly.

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