Tachyon: On 'The Fringe' and in the 'Re'Shade
- DarkenedRoom
- Jul 8
- 8 min read
A guide to enhancing and running Tachyon: The Fringe in Windows 10 with dgVoodoo2 and ReShade. This guide uses the gog.com version but the steps should be similar for other digital releases or a cd retail release.
Tachyon: The Fringe is NovaLogic's foray into the space sim genre. Released in 2000, what sets it apart from the crowd and makes it fondly remembered today is the voice acting talent of Bruce Campbell, who plays the protagonist Jake Logan.
This guide will cover, installation, configuration and patching to optimise use with modern Windows and graphical enhancements for a modern GPU with dgVoodoo2 and ReShade.
Media
Tachyon was distributed on a single cd, but as usual a cd image will be used in preference to physical media, to save wear and tear on disc and drive. The physical cd can be ripped to the data only iso image format, as there are no cd audio tracks on the disc.
This guide will be based on gog.com release but should also be applicable to a Steam digital release or a cd retail release.
HOTAS config
Joystick, throttle and rudder pedals are supported. Configuring axes may not be required if your HOTAS has 4 axes or less. When using a combination of devices totaling more than 4 axes, a virtual controller can be configured (with vendor software or Joystick Gremlin), limited to 4 axes. The physical axes to Windows axes were configured as follows:
Physical axis | Windows axis |
Joystick x-axis | DX_X_AXIS |
Joystick y-axis | DX_Y_AXIS |
Throttle | DX_Z_AXIS |
Rudder | DX_ZROT_AXIS |
Installation
Digital releases should be installed with the relevant client, gog.com Galaxy or the Steam client. Retail cd releases seem to use a 32-bit installer app (setup.exe in the ttfsetup folder) which continues to run under Win10.
Patching
Despite the digital versions being pre-patched with the last official patch there are still some additional patches that are either useful for or required by digital releases.
Retail cd patch
The final official patch will update Tachyon to v01.00.00.36r. The official patch is cumulative with earlier fixes also included. This patch is unnecessary for gog.com and Steam digital versions which are already patched.
A list of fixes and a link to the patch can be found on the Novalogic support page for Tachyon: The Fringe (now hosted on the Internet Archive, courtesy of the WayBack Machine).
In addition, a copy of the NovaLogic FTP site from 2014 is also hosted at the Internet Archive. The entire FTP site is in a zip archive, 11GB in size, so view the contents of the zip archive and only download the patch (TTF/ttf_update_050500_xx.exe).
Alpha blending patch
The 3Dfx renderer uses an incorrect alpha blending mode for nebulae. A patch is available on the nGlide compatibility list. The tachyon_patch.zip file contains a replacement Hw_3dfx.dll file which should be extracted into the Tachyon installation folder, replacing the original file.
This patch is recommended for both cd retail and digital releases. It is not known if this patch has already been applied to digital releases, but applying it doesn't cause any issues.
Credit and thanks to Zeus (of nGlide fame) for hosting this patch.
Stack patch
Trying to run Tachyon with ReShade results in a crash. This is due to the insufficient stack size allocated to space.exe, for ReShade to start. Fortunately Dege (of dgVoodoo2 fame) was able to identify the issue and had already found the fix as posted in the VOGONS forum. Another big thank you to Dege for his investigation.
The copyrighted space.exe file can't be hosted for download, however an xdelta patch was created which can be used to patch an existing space.exe file:
Background
In order to create this patch the Visual Studio tools and x86/x64 build tools library were obtained and installed to get the Visual Studio developer console and editbin tool.
The editbin tool was run from within the developer console to increase the stack size of space.exe with the following command:
editbin.exe /stack:1048576 space.exe Credit and thanks to Dege, once again.
An xdelta patch was created with the xdelta UI tool comparing the original space.exe and amended space.exe.
Credit and thanks go to Josh McDonald for the xdelta tool and to KaioShin for the xdelta UI tool.
Applying the patch
Download the tachyon-stack.zip file above and extract tachyon_stack.xdelta into the Tachyon installation folder.
Download the xdelta UI tool from ROMhacking.net. Extract the contents of xdeltaUI.zip (xdelta.exe, xdeltaUI.exe and readme.txt) into the Tachyon installation folder.
Run xdeltaUI.exe and click the Apply Patch tab.
Select tachyon_stack.xdelta as the Patch. Select space.exe as the Source file and specify an Output file (e.g. space_stack.exe).
Click the Patch button to apply the patch, it should be successful.
Rename the original space.exe to a backup name (e.g. space_backup.exe).
Rename the output file (e.g. space_stack.exe) to space.exe.
This is the first xdelta patch to be hosted so it would be useful to get confirmation that this patch works for others.
Disabling nGlide
The recommended Glide wrapper is dgVoodoo2 as this allows for anti-aliasing and scaling with later DirectX libraries which are hooked into by ReShade. However the gog.com (and it is assumed other digital releases) may use nGlide.
The recommended method for disabling nGlide is to copy the following files from the Tachyon installation folder into a sub folder (e.g. nglide).
glide.dll
glide2x.dll
glide3x.dll
nglide_config.exe
nglide_readme.txt
nGlideEULA.txtIf there are issues using dgVoodoo2 then the dgVoodoo files can be removed and the nGlide files restored by copying them back into Tachyon installation folder.
dgVoodoo2
This guide assumes the latest version of dgVoodoo2, which is v2.86.1 (at time of writing), available from Dege's dgVoodoo2 GitHub repository, under Releases. Once again credit and thanks to Dege for the amazing dgVoodoo2 tool.
Installation
Tachyon uses Glide rendering, so only the Glide components of dgVoodoo2 are required. The following files should be extracted from the zip archive and copied to the Tachyon installation folder:
dgVoodoo.conf
dgVoodooCpl.exe
\3Dfx\x86\Glide.dll
\3Dfx\x86\Glide2x.dll
\3Dfx\x86\Glide3x.dllNote: only the files need to be copied into the installation folder, the \3Dfx\x86 path is not needed.
Configuration
The settings for dgVoodoo2 are shown in the screenshots below, the key settings being:
General
Output API: Direct3D 11 (feature level 10.0).
Appearance
Full Screen is selected.
Scaling mode: Stretched, keep Aspect Ratio.
Glide
3Dfx card:
Voodoo 2 (8MB/12MB, 2 TMUs) is selected.
Onboard RAM: 12MB.
Resolution:
Max QHD ISF is selected, or the highest setting applicable to your monitor. Integer Scaling Factor (ISF) is recommended to prevent scaling issues
Antialiasing (MSAA):
8x is selected, although this is a personal preference.
MIscellaneous:
3Dfx Watermark: Checked, to confirm dgVoodoo2 is being used. Once confirmed, it can be disabled.
ReShade
ReShade provides graphical enhancements to a wide variety of games using modern graphical libraries available to today's high performance GPUs. This guide assumes the latest version of ReShade, v6.5.1, available from the ReShade site.
Installation
Once downloaded the ReShade installer (ReShade_Setup_6.5.1.exe) should be extracted into the Tachyon installation folder.
Download the ReShade preset zip file and extract the presets (TachyonReShadePreset.ini) into the Hardwar installation folder.
Note: These are the shaders used in the testing video at the end of this guide. They are not definitive, you should feel free to try out different shaders to find a set you prefer.
Run the ReShade installer.
Select the Tachyon game executable (space.exe) from within the Tachyon installation folder.
Select the rendering API, as we are using dgVoodoo2, this will be DirectX 10/11/12.
Select the effects to install. An individual effect or collections of effects can be installed, however it is easier to use the ReShade preset file instead. Click the browse button at the bottom and select TachyonReShadePreset.ini from the Tachyon installation folder.
Note: Running the ReShade installer again will provide options to 'Update ReShade', 'Update Reshade and effects' or 'Uninstall ReShade'.
Selecting 'Update Reshade and effects' will allow additional or alternative shaders to be installed. This will allow you to try out different combinations to find a set of shaders you prefer.
Configuration
Nearly all of the configuration is contained within the Tachyon ReShade presets file. However there is a further recommended config change. To open ReShade and configure:
Start the game. If the game opens windowed, use <Alt> + <Enter> to switch to full screen.
When the ReShade banner appears, open reshade with the <Home> key.
Go to 'Settings' and in the 'General' section (see screenshot):
Change the Start-up preset to TachyonReShadePreset.ini.
Check the option 'Load only enabled effects', to reduce the memory overhead.
Game configuration
This last configuration section covers game configuration, setting EAX audio options (if applicable) and ensuring the game is configured to use 3D hardware acceleration in the tachyon.cfg file.
Audio
Tachyon has audio support for EAX, so was added to the Creative ALchemy app, using the settings shown below. It is recommended to use the game path setting rather than the registry path. The buffers, duration and maximum voice count were left as default.
Once Tachyon has been configured in ALchemy, legacy EAX options should now be supported. All that remains is to set the audio options in the Tachyon launcher app (tachyon.exe), as shown below.
Here we see in the audio options EAX can now be selected along with alternative 3D audio settings. Clicking on the Test button plays a witty quip from Bruce Campbell!
Game config file
The game config file (tachyon.cfg) is a plain text file. It should be opened in a text editor to check the settings are correct. The following is a fragment of the config file with the settings of interest:
[VIDEO]
USE_HARDWARE=1
RES=0
HW_TYPE=1
[AUDIO]
A3D_DEVICE=5To ensure Glide is being used USE_HARDWARE and HW_TYPE should be set to 1 as shown above.
RES is the in-game resolution, with 0 being the highest resolution (1024x768), 1 a lower resolution (800x600) and 2 the lowest (640x480). It should be set to the highest: 0.
The A3D_DEVICE option corresponds to the 3D Audio Device options in the Tachyon launcher (starting from 0). So selecting EAX (the 6th option) means this setting should be 5. You'll want to check the A3D_DEVICE matches your own selection.
In-game configuration
As would be expected the graphics can be pushed to maximums and all graphical effects enabled.
However, if a virtual controller is used you may find the control scheme defaults to mouse at the start of a new session. When starting a new gaming session go to the in-game options and ensure your virtual controller is already selected. Below is an example showing a Thrustmaster Virtual Game Controller with throttle and rudder pedals enabled.
Enable the intro video
In the gog.com digital release, the intro video isn't played when the game is started.
To enable the intro video, create a shortcut to Binkplay.exe in the Tachyon installation folder.
Change the target field in the shortcut properties to one of the the following:
To play the video in it's tiny original size:
"<Install folder>\Binkplay.exe" tachyon.bikWhere <Install folder> is the Tachyon install folder path. To play fullscreen:
"<Install folder>\Binkplay.exe" tachyon.bik /w-1 /h-1This may look overly stretched on widescreen monitors, so choose a suitably large 4:3 aspect ratio supported by your monitor, e.g.:
"<Install folder>\Binkplay.exe" tachyon.bik /w2048 /h1536Backups
Now that configuration is complete, it might be a good time to take a backup of your Tachyon installation folder. It's recommended to zip up the installation folder and store it elsewhere.
The game client used by digital releases may have a verification option. If the verification option is accidentally (or deliberately) run, the hard work to configure the game may be lost if the changed files are replaced with those originally installed by the client or the extra files added to the installation folder are removed.
Documentation & further information
Be sure to grab the docs which come bundled with digital releases to get the most out of the game.
Sadly there don't seem to be any fan sites left for this old classic, but the gog.com and Steam Tachyon forums may have some useful posts.
Finally...
This is a quick test video of Tachyon: The Fringe running with the dgVoodoo2 and ReShade settings discussed above:
Woah, that's a big gun. - Jake Logan
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