Second Sight

Second Sight

Developers
	Free Radical Design
Publishers
Former	Codemasters
Current	THQ Nordic
Release dates
Windows	February 4, 2005
Reception
Metacritic	73
IGDB	73
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Stealth, TPS
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary, Europe, North America, Supernatural, Sci-fi

Second Sight is a singleplayer third-person action, stealth and TPS game.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		StarForce 3.4.62.00 DRM
Retail		5-languages re-release by Mindscape "Hits Collection" (2006 year)
Retail		Covermount by magazine "PC Jeux" (№ 122, 04/2008)
GamersGate
GOG.com
Humble Store
Green Man Gaming
Steam

StarForce DRM for this game does not work on modern versions of Windows (see above for affected releases).

Also was unprotected edition on some OEM discs for videocard by ASUS.

Essential improvements

Peixoto's patch

Forces the game to run at high resolutions without shrinking the HUD\Menus.

Fixes rendering artifacts when running the game at resolutions higher than 1080p.

Not compatible with custom overlay programs such as RTSS and Afterburner.

Installation instructions

Download the latest version of the Peixoto's patch. Extract the archive and run the Peixoto.bat file. In the window that opens, select Second Sight from the list on the left. Click on the Play button, and point to the secondsight executable in the installation directory. (Optional) Create a shortcut by clicking on the Create shortcut button. This will allow the game to be launched without having to launch Peixoto user interface.

Skip intro videos

Instructions
Go to <path-to-game>. Delete or rename trailers.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\secondsight.cfg
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/11550/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\profiles\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/11550/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD			Only GOG release supports 4K resolution via in-game video settings.
Field of view (FOV)		Use ThirteenAG's fix.
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.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Capped at 60 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Widescreen resolution

GOG release supports widescreen resolutions via in-game video settings.

Anything higher than 1080p may cause artifacts^{[citation needed]}.

Use ThirteenAG's fix}

Manually edit configuration file
Go to <path-to-game>. Open secondsight.cfg with a text editor. Modify the values scr_height and scr_width to the desired resolution.

Windowed

Edit manually "secondsight.cfg"
Go to <path-to-game>. Open secondsight.cfg with a text editor. Find the value scr_fullscreen and set it from T to F.

Force windowed mode
Install ThirteenAG's fix. Go to <path-to-game>. Create wndmode.ini. Notes Causes graphical issues. Does not work with the GOG release. See Game does not launch section.

Use DxWnd
Notes If some translucent effects (during Projection and Charm powers in main character, for example) look completely invisible, check Anti-aliasing (AA) settings. When forcing AA via the Nvidia Control panel, set the Antialiasing - Mode property to Enhance the application setting.

Input

Control settings.

Movement keybindings.

Combat keybindings.

Actions keybindings.

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
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

DirectInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Nintendo controllers

Other controller(s)

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Sound Effects, Voices.
Surround sound		5.1.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Fan translation; download.
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Russian

Issues unresolved

Decals are rendered incorrectly

Some decals - such as bloody footsteps - get offset when panning the camera.

The issue does not go away even after disabling Draw Decals property in the video settings menu.

Issues fixed

Low frame rate

The game may initially run at a low frame rate, such as 38 FPS.

Restart the computer
Restarting the computer fixes the low frame rate issue.

Black screen with some resolutions

Setting the resolution higher than 1024x768 using the in-game options may result in a black screen.

Does not affect the GOG release.

Use widescreen fix
Install ThirteenAG's fix.

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Although the in-game graphics option allows the selection of 85 Hz, the game will not run higher than 60 Hz.

Set refresh rate manually
Go to <path-to-game>. Open secondsight.cfg. Change scr_hz to the screen refresh rate.

Game does not launch

ThirteenAG's widescreen fix is not compatible with the GOG release.

GOG release features native widescreen support via in-game settings. No additional patches are needed.

Uninstall ThirteenAG's widescreen fix
Restore the original dinput8.dll in <path-to-game>. Use the in-game video settings to set a widescreen resolution.

Rendering artifacts and missing effects

Various graphics artifacts are present when running the game at resolutions higher than 1080p.

Install Peixoto's patch

Download the latest version of the Peixoto's patch. Extract the archive and run the Peixoto.bat file. In the window that opens, select Second Sight from the list on the left. Click on the Play button, and point to the secondsight executable in the installation directory. (Optional) Create a shortcut by clicking on the Create shortcut button. This will allow the game to be launched without having to launch Peixoto patch's user interface.

Game doesn't recognize dgVoodoo 2

Edit the registry and create a file in the game folder
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options. Create a new DWORD Value (32-bits) key. Name it as DevOverrideEnable. Double left-click on the newly created key and change the value from 0 to 1. Click OK to save it. Go to <path-to-game> and create a file named secondsight.exe.local.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz		Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+
System memory (RAM)	256 MB		512 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 3 Ti200 ATI Radeon 8500 DirectX 9.0c compatible		Nvidia GeForce FX 5000 series ATI Radeon 9000 series
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9 compatible

Supported graphics cards: ATi Radeon 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800, X600, X800; nVidia GeForce 3 Ti200/Ti500, GeForce 4 MX420/MX440, Ti4200/Ti4600, GeForce FX5200/FX5600/FX5700/FX5800/FX5900/FX5950, GeForce 6800 GT

Not compatible with Windows 98/ME

Not compatible with all integrated sound/graphics solutions (inc. Laptops)