Pariah

How to Play

The game with patch v1.03 has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8 and Windows 10, it works fine. You may experience some small troubles when you play the game on modern systems, check our Guide and Notes for details

Install & play guide:

• Mount the disc image. You will need the utility for mounting disc image files, like WinCDEmu, UltraISO, Alcohol 52%/Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools Lite
• Install the game. It is recommended to install the game not in default path but in some other, non-system folder, like C:/Games/Pariah, so you won't have troubles with NoCD or fixes
• For CD release: when the installation process will ask for the next discs - mount the disc images of CD2 and CD3. All discs must be mounted in the same drive as CD1, so first un-mount the disc image of previous disc and only then mount the next disc image
• After you installed the game - install the patch v1.03. If the patch installer shows error - first install the previous patches and then install patch v1.03
• Then install NoCD, copy all files from the archive and put them into Pariah/System directory, agree to replace the original files
• Open Pariah/System directory and find Pariah.exe. Right-click on Pariah.exe -> Properties -> Compatibility - Set "Run this app in compatibility mode with Windows 2000" and "Run as administrator"
• Launch the game and play. If the game doesn't work in compatibility mode with Windows 2000 - try to launch it in compatibility mode with other version of Windows (Windows 95, 98, XP, etc.)

Notes:

• If the installation doesn't start - try to launch Setup.exe in compatibility mode with old version of Windows (98, 2000 or XP)
• It is recommended to install all versions of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable and NET Framework for the correct work of the game. Also it is recommended to install K-Lite Codec Pack for the correct work of in-game videos
• The game works on DirectX 8, so if you're using Windows 8, 8.1, 10 or 11 - you need to enable DirectPlay: Go to Control Panel, and select 'Programs'. Select 'Turn Windows features on and off', click on 'Legacy Components' and check the box 'DirectPlay'. Select OK, once the installation is done, restart your computer
• About the patches: if the installer for international patch v1.03 show error - first install the previous patches and then install the patch v1.03. International patches were created for Multi-5 releases, that patches are not compatible with Russian release; Russian release has the game v1.078 and not compatible with international patches
• NoCD is required for the launch because the game was protected with SafeDisc 4 DRM that doesn't work on modern systems. NoCD "breaks" DRM protection and allows to play the game without the disc. If you see the error that there's not enough space on the hard drive when you copy NoCD files - re-install the game in non-system folder, like D:/Games/Pariah, Windows Protection may block copying of files to system folders (like C:/Program Files or C:/Windows). Be careful, Russian version was protected with infamous StarForce DRM that can break your system, make sure to use NoCD before the first launch of the game! Drivers of StarForce DRM can break your system, especially if you use 32-bit variant of Windows OS! Do not run the game after the installation, first use NoCD and replace the executable in game folder
• For Windows 10 users: on some revisions of Windows 10 the game may crash on the launch or during the random moments. If you installed the game on Windows 10 and have random crashes - use Windows 10 fix, copy all files from the archive and put them in Pariah/System directory, agree to replace the original files. That fix should prevent the random crashes of the game on Windows 10 and probably on Windows 11 too. That fix also works as NoCD
• If the game crashes with "LockRect failed: D3DERR_DEVICELOST" error - go to Parian/System folder, open Pariah.ini in Notepad and change ReduceMouseLag=True to ReduceMouseLag=False. Save the changes, after that the game should run good
• The game doesn't support widescreen. The easiest way play the game on high screen resolutions is to run it with dgVoodoo 2. To install dgVoodoo 2 copy the dll-files from the MS/x86 folder, dgVoodooCpl.exe and dgVoodoo.conf to the Pariah/System directory, then run dgVoodoo Control Panel (dgVoodooCpl.exe) as administrator and in DirectX tab change Resolution setting. After that click "Apply", close dgVoodoo 2 and run the game as usual from Pariah.exe. Also, you can enable Texture filtering, Anti-aliasing or other graphics settings in dgVoodoo 2 to get the better graphics, you can change that settings in the same dgVoodoo Control Panel. The game v1.03 with dgVoodoo 2 has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 10 and Windows 11, it works fine
• Another method to run the game in widescreen is to edit Pariah.ini config-file in Pariah/System folder, and change the screen resolution as in this or this guides (check WSGF page for example screenshots). But some of HUD elements will be strected in widescreen resolutions, you can scale HUD elements by following this guide, also it is recommended to change FOV. Please note that changing any of settings in the game will revert the changes
• If you have the black screen at launch, or random graphical glitches - disable post render effects, go to Settings -> Performance -> Turn "Disable Post Render FX" to Yes. If you cannot do that in the game - go to Parian/System folder, open Pariah.ini in Notepad and edit it: in section [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] change DisablePostFX=False to DisablePostFX=True, in section [WinDrv.WindowsClient] change EnablePostFX=True to EnablePostFX=False. Save the changes and try to run the game again, now post render effects will be disabled and the game should work fine
• If you have visual glitches during explosions, like flashing screen or broken colors: go to Parian/System folder, open Pariah.ini in Notepad and in the section [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] add the line HasNVidiaTexM32Tex=1, or change it to 1, if that line already exists. That bug happens when Visual Effects are set to maximum value and whenever something explodes in-game
• If you have any graphical glitches, try to run the game with one of display wrappers. We recommend to run the game with dgVoodoo 2, the game with dgVoodoo 2 has been tested on Windows 10, it works fine. It seems that running the game with display wrapper should fix all the issues above, including the black screen at launch and random graphical glitches, including the broken explosion effects
• Vertical Sync (Vsync) in the game doesn't work on Windows 10 or newer. If you want to enable Vsync in the game, use one of the display wrappers. For example, if you play with dgVoodoo 2, you can force Vsync in dgVoodoo Control Panel (dgVoodooCpl.exe)
• Even though that there's no option to change Anisotropic filtering or Anti-aliasing settings in the game, you can do it by editing the config-files. If you want to change Anisotropic filtering level, go to Parian/System folder, open Pariah.ini in Notepad and in the section [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] edit the line LevelOfAnisotropy=1, change the number of anisotropic samples. If you want to change Anti-aliasing level, open the same Pariah.ini file and in the section [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] change the values of TextureToViewportShift=1.000000 and bUseTextureToViewportShift=True lines (if there's no such lines, add them manually). Also, you can force Anti-aliasing through control panel of your video card or with display wrapper; if you play with dgVoodoo 2, you can force Texture filtering and Anti-aliasing in dgVoodoo Control Panel (dgVoodooCpl.exe)
• If you want to change Field of View (FOV) in the game, you can do it through in-game console: start the game, load the map, press ~ to open the in-game console and enter FOV X, where X is the horizontal FOV value (e.g. FOV 110)
• The game was using EAX sound system, so there might be some sound issues on modern systems. If you have any sound issues - disable "Use Native OpenAL" in Settings, if you still have sound troubles - also disable "3D Sound" in Settings
• But better solution is to enable EAX with DSOAL utility: install OpenAL and then install DSOAL, following this guide. That will make DirectSound (and EAX as well) to work through OpenAL sound system. Here's also the guide with pictures how to install DSOAL (it's in Russian, use the translation machine)
• If your sound card supports EAX, you can enable it with EAX fix or Creative ALchemy tool. Simply add the game to the Creative ALchemy tool as normal (install ALchemy into the system sub folder in the games directory) and then choose “On + EAX AdvancedHD”
• By default the game has the framerate cap at 60 FPS, but it is possible to run the game on more than 60 FPS: go to Parian/System folder, open Pariah.ini in Notepad, find DesiredRefreshRate line and change it to your monitor's refresh rate
• If you want to play the game on old Windows (like retro-machine) - for Windows 98/ME and Windows 2000 make sure to install the patch v1.03, otherwise the game won't work
• If you plan to play Russian version of the game - make sure to use NoCD by KRBDZSKL, because Russian version has a game breaking bug when you cannot continue playing after the oil depot level, the game just crashes. NoCD by KRBDZSKL fixes that issue
• Don't forget to check PCGamingWiki page if you have troubles, it is very useful! Also, you can check this old guide by PlayOldPCGames