Freedom Force

Freedom Force

31 ratings
Few useful notes
By JAM1E
This little guide contains:
  • Mouse cursor and high FPS fix;
  • NVIDIA Control Panel graphic improvement;
  • Note about in-game difficulty bug.
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Greetings!
Not so long ago I've finished my yet another walkthrough of this wonderful game and I thought that I should share with you some useful information.

So, let's start with the:
Mouse cursor fix and capping FPS
There's a good chance that you'll have troubles with mouse control (e.g. character moves in other direction rather than on mouse pointer, pointer always looks like fist, etc.), to manage this problem use fix from this forum topic.

Also, there is no in-game option for turning on V-Sync or limit FPS cap, so, when game runs on more than 100+ FPS you'll run into some problems like crazed mouse sensitivity and sluggish in-game camera movement.
I tried using the files from that forum thread that i've mentioned above, but it didn't help, switching V-Sync and using "Max Frame Rate" option in NVIDIA Control Panel didn't work too.

So I've decided to use RivaTuner Statistics Server which allows me to lock FPS and it works like a charm! Just launch it, set frametime limit in accordance with your monitor refresh rate (mine has 75 Hz), or lock it on 60 FPS, and don't close it while you're playing Freedom Force.
Graphic improvement using NVIDIA Control Panel
The game was released in 2002, so it's visuals looks outdated but still quite good.

For further graphic enhancement I enabled Anisotropic filtering and Antialiasing.
In order to set up settings for the game, you should open the NVIDIA Control Panel.
In left taskbar, choose "Manage 3D settings", then switch to the "Program Settings" tab on the right side and find "fforce.exe" in the drop-down list. Otherwise, if you can't find "fforce.exe" in that list, add it manually using the "Add" button.

My settings for Freedom Force app in NVIDIA Control Panel:
  • Anisotropic filtering: 16x
  • Antialiasing - Mode: Override
  • Antialiasing - Setting: 8x
  • Antialiasing - Transparency: 8x

Screenshots for comparison:
Broken "Impossible!" difficulty
"Impossible!" difficulty is broken and, in fact, it is an "Easy".
For comparison, take a look at HP of the first enemy:
Enabling EAX support
IMO, Creative Labs EAX 2 provides the best sound ambience and 3D positioning, so if you want to use it you should install Creative ALchemy Universal[community.pcgamingwiki.com] and then manually add Freedom Force to Creative ALchemy, then you'll be able to choose EAX as sound provider.
Conclusion
If you've found this guide helpful at least for a bit - I'll be happy to know!
13 Comments
TheDrake 29 Aug, 2024 @ 8:45pm 
Thank you SO MUCH! I was experiencing camera issues and the game wasn't pausing correctly. Thanks to you I can experience one of my favorite games from childhood again and it looks and runs better than I ever imagined!
JAM1E  [author] 7 Jul, 2024 @ 12:01pm 
Minor updates + EAX enabling section added. :summersun:
AxlPWN 30 Jun, 2023 @ 11:50pm 
What about Screenshot in game issue? I cannot take them
drmatt 6 Apr, 2023 @ 6:48pm 
Same problem as GameNgineer112, just had to restart the tutorial and things were fine. It was a result of leaving/crashing out of the tutorial after it finished but before it resolved...
GameNgineer112 7 Apr, 2022 @ 11:47am 
I'd like to bring up something: I recently started a campaign, but immediately after completing the tutorial mission I can't get the next mission briefing, so I'm basically stuck on that menu and unable to progress. Did I do something wrong that may have caused it?
JAM1E  [author] 6 Feb, 2021 @ 1:22am 
RaffScallion , you should go to the NVIDIA Control Panel, not the NVIDIA Expirience. I've added couple of tips to the guide.
RaffScallion 5 Feb, 2021 @ 8:26am 
Thanks for this! Where can I set those Graphics options in Geforce Experience? Freedom Force doesn't appear there
ShobuSR7 6 May, 2020 @ 3:41pm 
JAM1E, thanks for it. It worked
JAM1E  [author] 6 May, 2020 @ 8:13am 
ShobuSR, it's a common problem of this game when it's running on modern PCs, try to apply fix from my answer below :140Down:
ShobuSR7 5 May, 2020 @ 2:30pm 
Is there any issue with the mouse ? I cannot use the left click at all in game and the drop down from the right click takes the character somewhere else. There's also problem interacting with the characters. I don't remember facing these problems years ago when I played the demo version of this game as a kid