How to play NOLF Online

  Posted by |eGo|L.Icepick - June 2017

Introduction:
Since NOLF came out in the year 2000 it is a quite quirky to make it start & play it online. Below you find a summary of my internet research to start NOLF.

Diese Anleitung auch auf Deutsch lesen!


Step 1) Download the game
In order to play online you need to have the game. On Our page you can download the game in German & English. Those ones are portable versions, no iso files, you don't need to install the game and you can run it from a USB-Stick.
Only proceed to download, if you already bought the CD's ones before. We do not support piracy, since it's unclear who the current copyrightholder is, we leave it up to you if you want to download the game. (The copyright issue is the reason why there is no Nolf3, Night Dive Studios tried to get the necessary copyrights in 2015 but failed, read on kontaku.com why). You need "WinRar" to extract the folder, if you don't have it you can google-download it. Password to open the rar files "egonolf" or "ego-clan.com".
 

Download English Version Download German Version


Step 2) See all servers
In 2014 Gamespay pulled the plug of their Master Server. The Master Server is needed to show all Nolf-Servers in the menu, without it your game tells you that there aren't any servers. Which is wrong, there are still servers online.

Our new master server is not GameSpy, it is QTracker. But to "tell" Nolf that the master server changed you need replace the "hosts" file on your computer. You can download the "hosts" file from QTracker or here from our page (important: do right click and click on "save under").
This file needs to go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc Windows will complain that you are going to overwrite an already existing file. Click "yes". (But you can still backup the old file). Maybe you need to restart your computer.
There are alternatives, if you don't want to change a file on your computer - scroll down on this page!
(Key words for google "Help! I cant see any servers in NOLF" & "No servers, games in Nolf Multiplayer" & "Are all Nolf Servers offline?" and "Where to download No One Lives Forever" )


Step 3) Starting the game / Compatibilty Mode
On Windows XP & Windows 7 you don't do this step. On Windows 8 and Windows 10 this step can be necessary. On some Windows 10 computers you can start the game with no problems, on others you will encounter some problems. Do right click on "Nolf.exe" AND "Lithttech.exe" and click on the Compatibility tab onto "Windows XP SP3", "Run as Admin", "Disable high DPI scaling".

- I read on other forums that sometimes the "v-sync" option in your graphic card can cause an MFC-Client Error Crash, if you can swich it off.
- Sometimes I cannot start the game either: I do a fresh restart of my computer, and start directly the game. Don't start anything else
- Try to turn off the touchscreen (in case you have a Windows with touchscreen)
- Try several times, after the 10th time I can run it. (Happens rarely, mostly it works immediatly)
 

 

 

 


Step 4) Remove Frame Limiter
Only if you have Windows 8. (Unfortunatly Microsoft placed this frame limiter into Windows 10 too, but there is no option to kill it). URA from UnityHQ.net wrote a programm to disable the Frame Limiter. You can find the programm here. (In the install wizard, which is an regular exe file, you have the possiblity to install the "Mouse Stuttering")

Alternative to the limiter: put your screenresolution down, I mean really down!
 

Step 5a) Apply Widescreen Patch
Works for Windows 8 & 10. Warning: Do not apply the Widescreen Patch on Windows XP, the game will not start! In the very same programm from URA from Unity.net you can also select to install the WideScreen Patch. Afterwords you need to add the widescreenpatch.rez in the advanced options (see Step6)

Step 5b) Manually Change Screen Resolution
Works for Windows XP, 7, 8, 10. Find in your main Nolf folder the file "autoexec.cfg" open it with your texteditor or wordpad. Look inside the file for the words "screenheight" and "screenwidth", behind you find numbers. Those numbers are the pixels of your screenresolution. You can only apply the native screenresolution, all others will be ignored.
Can't find the file "autoexec.cfg"? Start the game first then then you can find that file.

Replace 960 with your own screen resolution.


Step 6) Updating the game to 1.004 & How to add multiplayer maps ("How to add .rez files")
No need to download, unless you want some extra maps. Click on Nolf.exe and then on Advanced then on "Customize" and then add the following REZ files:
nolf003cres.rez
NOLFCRES003.REZ
nolfu003.rez
nolfu003cres.REZ
NOLFGOTY.REZ

If you have the compatibilty mode on you may need to follow this step each time when you start nolf, the solution would be to not use the portable edition and install the game from the original CD, the original CD's can be found at http://www.unityhq.net & http://www.nolfrevival.tk.

How to add multiplayer maps: Download the maps from various internetpages and move the .rez files in to the customs folder inside your Nolf main folder. In the portable versions from above you can already see some Ego maps. You add them to game just how you added the "Nolfgoty.rez".


Step 7) A Bug: Underwater + Nightscope is black
You can skip this for windows XP & 7. For Windows 8 & 10 it can be neccessary. For an unkown reason underwater divings and the use of nightscope for the Geldmacher Weapon stay black. Your screen turns black, you can only see the icons, health and armor on your screen.
There is a fix to this, "Project Voodoo - http://dege.freeweb.hu/" (maybe from the old Voodo Graphic cards when Nolf came out?) has an alternative 3D render. You will only need two files from thos package
D3DImm.dll
DDraw.dll
D3D8.dll

Move those three files to the Nolf main folder. You can also download those three files from our webpage.

Downsides:
- You see all the time in the right bottom corner a "DgVoodo2" watermark, in the full package on Project Voodoo's website there is an extra program to disable it, and change a lot of other functions like antialiasing and use different renders. I tried several options, they all ended that I delete Nolf and start again, maybe someone with more knowlegde can help me out?
- This decreases the framerate a lot. The Anti-Frame-Limiter from URA will be temporaly disabled.


2b) See all Servers - Alternative #1
Rookie Vee from oneoakway.com wrote a tutorial how to enter a Nolf Server - directly from his webpage. You can read the tutorial here http://oneoakway.com/nolf/howto/
I tested his tutorial, it works perfectly!

 

2c) See all Servers - Alternative #2
QTracker do have their own programm to show and join a server directly. You can download it here: http://www.qtracker.com/download-sections.php?section=0,2

Unfortunatly this one doesn't work for me, but I still use this programm because here I can see in real-time when people are online. I can also set the programm to make a sound when a person gets online. So I can surf on the internet without constantly looking on the server list.



Greetz
Icepick