Homeworld

This page is for the original release. For the remastered version, see Homeworld Remastered Edition.

Homeworld
Homeworld	1999
Homeworld: Cataclysm	2000
Homeworld 2	2003
Homeworld Remastered Edition	2015
Homeworld 2 Remastered Edition	2015
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak	2016
Homeworld: Vast Reaches	2024
Homeworld 3	2024

Homeworld is a singleplayer and multiplayer free-roaming camera RTS game in the Homeworld series.

On Windows 8 and later, the game requires a hardware acceleration fix to properly run.

General information

Official source code

Homeworld Shipyards - A fairly old but big Homeworld fan site

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		OverSized DRM (lead-out area shortened and used for data, to prevent most contemporary CD-RW drives from copying the method)
GOG.com		Homeworld Remastered Collection
Humble Store		Homeworld Remastered Collection
Steam		Homeworld Remastered Collection
Mac App Store (unavailable)		Homeworld Remastered Collection. Currently no online multiplayer or mod support.

An unofficial source port to modern systems of the original retail release is available here, which itself is the continuation of the defunct HomeworldSDL project.

The Homeworld Remastered Collection contains Homeworld, Homeworld 2, Homeworld Remastered Edition and Homeworld 2 Remastered Edition. Non-remastered versions have multiplayer disabled.

Demo

A free demo version can be downloaded from ModDB and GameFront.

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest official patch v1.05 is available here, at www.sierrahelp.com and at soggi.org.

A full list of all available patches can be found at www.sierrahelp.com.

Hardware acceleration fix for Windows 8 and above

For Windows 8.x, 10, and 11, use the Homeworld hardware acceleration fix

This solution force-enables compatibility mode for Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 5) which is not a selectable option in newer versions of Windows, but is still present in the backend.

Alternatively, this process can be completed manually.

Manual fix

Depending on whether the program is installed for one user or the whole machine, navigate to either:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

Double-click the Homeworld registry entry.
Type NT4SP5.
Save changes.

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Sierra On-Line\Homeworld^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/244160/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\SavedGames\^{[Note 3]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/244160/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game general graphics settings.

In-game advanced graphics settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See Widescreen resolution. HUD doesn't scale on higher resolutions.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)	Determined by the aspect ratio (see Widescreen resolution).
Windowed	See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)	Use the command line parameter `/triple`
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	No frame rate cap. Ships and other elements move and update at a locked frame rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Widescreen resolution

Modify the game registry keys^[1]

Navigate to the Configuration file(s) location using RegEdit.
Change the ScreenHeight and ScreenWidth registry keys to the desired width and height.

Notes

On 64-bit versions of Windows, the configuration files may be in a different location if the game is not run in Administrator Mode.

See the Game data article or the Configuration file(s) location tooltips and notes for more information.

Windowed

Use launch arguments

For windowed mode, Use the launch argument -window.
For borderless fullscreen windowed mode, use -window -noBorder.

Notes

For standard windowed mode, the game must be set to less than the screen resolution. Otherwise, the game will crash.

Alternatively, use the borderless command.

Input

In-game key map settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

In-game audio settings.

In-game speech settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		An in-game equalizer is also available.
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output with DirectSound3D restoration software.
Subtitles		On by default
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		DirectSound3D.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Fan translation; download.
French
German
Italian
Polish				Local retail only. Details
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		8	Versus Not available in the Homeworld Remastered Collection/Steam version.^[2]
Online play		8	Versus The official WON service has been shut down.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	15000-15300, 21000-21999, 30000-30999
UDP	15400-15401

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D, Z3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	6
OpenGL	1
Software renderer

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	World Opponent Network

Command line arguments

Argument	Description
/triple	Enables OpenGL triple buffering, improves graphical quality and removes flickering at higher resolutions. Use unless it causes problems.
/enable3DNow	Enables the 3DNow processor instruction set if available. Use unless it causes problems.
/enableSSE	Enables the SSE processor instruction set if available. Use unless it causes problems.
/disableAVI	Disables the intro movies when the game starts.
/nofastfe	Disables the fast graphical frontend. Use this only when having graphical problems like flickering
/noglddraw	Don't use DirectDraw to setup OpenGL renderers. Try this if you're having problems getting OpenGL to work.
/safeGL	Don't use possibly buggy optimized features of OpenGL for rendering. Try this if you're having problems getting OpenGL to work.
/pilotview	Enable pilot view. Focus on single ship and press `Q` to toggle.
/heap BYTES	Allows the game to use up to BYTES bytes RAM for the heap since by default the game isn't allowed to use much. 256 MB should suffice: `/heap 268435456` but if you have more, try raising it to 1 GB: `/heap 1073741824`

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95, NT 4.0	98
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 233 MHz	Intel Pentium II 350 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	64 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	80 MB	600 MB
Video card (GPU)	4 MB of VRAM DirectX 6.1 compatible	12 MB of VRAM

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.9.5
Processor (CPU)	Intel 2.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	20 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon HD 3870 Nvidia GeForce 640M Intel HD 4000 512 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ Applications writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE will be redirected to other locations based on various criterias, see the glossary page for more details.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1
Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/244160/.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (244160) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

↑ Reference
↑ Gearbox Software Forums - Where is lan in the classic homeworld? - last accessed on May 2023

[HKLM-1] Applications writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE will be redirected to other locations based on various criterias, see the glossary page for more details.

[Proton_path_note-2] 2.0 ^2.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/244160/.
Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
The app ID (244160) may differ in some cases.
Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[3] File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.

[4] Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/244160/.

[5] Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.

[6] The app ID (244160) may differ in some cases.

[7] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

[8] See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[gamedir-3] When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[4] Reference

[5] Gearbox Software Forums - Where is lan in the classic homeworld? - last accessed on May 2023

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

[1]

[2]

Developers

	Relic Entertainment
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Publishers
Original	Sierra Entertainment
Current	Gearbox Software
Retail re-release	Sold Out Software
OS X	Aspyr Media
Release dates
Windows	September 28, 1999
macOS (OS X)	August 6, 2015
Reception
Metacritic	93
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Free-roaming camera
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS
Themes	Sci-fi, Space
Series	Homeworld