Fallout 2 Community Engine

Fallout 2 Community Engine is a fully working re-implementation of the Fallout 2 engine, optimized for a hassle-free experience on multiple platforms. It provides high resolution support, quality-of-life improvements, and dozens of bug fixes.

This is a fork of the original Fallout2: CE project, which is no longer getting regular updates.

Popular Fallout 2 total conversion mods are partially supported. Original versions of Nevada and Sonora (that do not rely on extended features provided by Sfall) work. Fallout 2 Restoration Project is supported (in Beta). Fallout Et Tu and Olympus 2207 are not yet supported. Other mods (particularly Resurrection and Yesterday) are not tested.

Fallout2: CE has broad (though not total) compatibility with Sfall scripting extensions. Many traditional Fallout mods work out of the box.

There is also Fallout 1 Community Edition (not affiliated with this fork).

Installation

You must own the game to play. Purchase your copy on GOG, Epic Games or Steam. Download latest release or build from source.

Windows

Download and unzip into your Fallout2 folder. Launch the game using fallout2-ce.exe.

Linux

• Use Windows installation as a base - it contains data assets needed to play. Copy Fallout2 folder somewhere, for example /home/john/Desktop/Fallout2.

• Alternatively you can extract the needed files from the GoG installer:

$ sudo apt install innoextract
$ innoextract ~/Downloads/setup_fallout_2_1.02_gog_v1_\(77792\).exe -d Fallout2

• Download the Linux release archive, extract fallout2-ce and ce.dat, and copy them into this folder.

• Run ./fallout2-ce.

macOS

NOTE: macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) or higher is required. Runs natively on Intel-based Macs and Apple Silicon.

• Use Windows installation as a base - it contains data assets needed to play. Copy Fallout2 folder somewhere, for example /Applications/Fallout2.

• Alternatively you can use Fallout 2 from Macplay/The Omni Group as a base - you need to extract game assets from the original bundle. Mount CD/DMG, right click Fallout 2 -> Show Package Contents, navigate to Contents/Resources. Copy GameData folder somewhere, for example /Applications/Fallout2.

• Or if you're a Terminal user and have Homebrew installed you can extract the needed files from the GoG installer. Note: You must use "Offline backup game installer", not the main game installer.

$ brew install innoextract
$ innoextract ~/Downloads/setup_fallout_2_1.02_gog_v1_\(77792\).exe -d fallout2
$ mv fallout2 /Applications/Fallout2

• Download and copy Fallout II Community Edition.app to this folder.

• Run Fallout II Community Edition.app.

Android

NOTE: Fallout 2 was designed with mouse in mind. There are many controls that require precise cursor positioning, which is not possible with fingers. Current control scheme resembles trackpad usage:

• One finger moves mouse cursor around.
• Tap one finger for left mouse click.
• Tap two fingers for right mouse click (switches mouse cursor mode).
• Move two fingers to scroll current view (map view, worldmap view, inventory scrollers).

NOTE: From Android standpoint release and debug builds are different apps. Both apps require their own copy of game assets and have their own savegames. This is intentional. As a gamer just stick with release version and check for updates.

• Download the Android release, which contains an .apk file and ce.dat.

• Use Windows installation as a base - it contains data assets needed to play. Copy Fallout2 folder to your device, for example to Downloads. You need master.dat, critter.dat, patch000.dat, and data folder. Watch for file names - keep (or make) them lowercased (see Configuration). Copy ce.dat into this folder.

• Copy fallout2-ce.apk from the release to your device. Open it with file explorer, follow instructions (install from unknown source).

• When you run the game for the first time it will immediately present file picker. Select the folder from the first step. Wait until this data is copied. A loading dialog will appear, just wait for about 30 seconds. If you're installing total conversion mod or localized version with a large number of unpacked resources in data folder it can take up to 20 minutes. Once copied, the game will start automatically.

iOS

NOTE: See Android note on controls.

• Download fallout2-ce.ipa. Use sideloading applications (AltStore or Sideloadly) to install it to your device. Alternatively you can always build from source with your own signing certificate.

• Run the game once. You'll see error message saying "Couldn't find/load text fonts". This step is needed for iOS to expose the game via File Sharing feature.

• Use Finder (macOS Catalina and later) or iTunes (Windows and macOS Mojave or earlier) to copy master.dat, critter.dat, patch000.dat, ce.dat, and data folder to "Fallout 2" app (how-to). Watch for file names - keep (or make) them lowercased (see Configuration).

Controls on iPad:

• One-finger tap → left click; hold → left button held.
• Two-finger tap → right click (cycles cursor mode between walk and attack).
• One-finger drag → scroll map / windows.
• Two-finger drag → mouse wheel.
• Three-finger swipe down → ESC (opens options / main menu).
• Four-finger long press → F6 (quicksave). Hold four fingers on the screen for about half a second.
• Three-finger long press → hold Shift (highlights interactable objects — containers, doors, items — while held).
• Taps on the HUD (interface bar / end-turn / end-combat buttons) act as direct touches so small buttons are easy to hit without aiming.
• A Bluetooth keyboard works for everything else (numbered dialog choices, load game, etc.).

Browser

NOTE: WebAssembly build with emscripten

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/src emscripten/emsdk:3.1.74 sh -c 'git config --global --add safe.directory "*" && mkdir -p build && cd build && emcmake cmake ../ -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../cmake/toolchain/Emscripten.cmake && emmake make'

• Demo available at https://github.com/ololoken/fallout2-ce-ems.git

Configuration

The main configuration file is fallout2.cfg. There are several important settings you might need to adjust for your installation. Depending on your Fallout distribution main game assets master.dat, critter.dat, patch000.dat, and data folder might be either all lowercased, or all uppercased. You can either update master_dat, critter_dat, master_patches and critter_patches settings to match your file names, or rename files to match entries in your fallout2.cfg.

The sound folder (with music folder inside) might be located either in data folder, or be in the Fallout folder. Update music_path1 setting to match your hierarchy, usually it's data/sound/music/ or sound/music/. Make sure it matches your path exactly (so it might be SOUND/MUSIC/ if you've installed Fallout from CD). Music files themselves (with ACM extension) should be all uppercased, regardless of sound and music folders.

Additional settings for screen resolution, UI customization, and map options are now integrated into the main fallout2.cfg file (previously part of f2_res.ini from Mash's HRP). When Fallout 2 CE starts, if it detects an existing f2_res.ini file, it automatically migrates these settings into fallout2.cfg. After migration, fallout2.cfg becomes the single source of truth for this configuration.

Here are some important settings in fallout2.cfg under the [screen] and [ui] sections. See the example config for a full list of settings.

[screen]
resolution_x=1600 ; actual game window size (screen resolution), in pixels
resolution_y=1080
windowed=1 ; 0 = fullscreen
scale=2 ; 1 = original scale, 2 = 2x scale, etc. (e.g. at scale 2 and screen resolution 1920x1080, in-game resolution will be 960x540, thus every pixel is twice as wide and tall)

[ui]
;Set to 1 to expand the barter/trade window vertically, adding a 4th item slot per side (requires ce.dat)
expand_barter_window=1
;Maximum number of columns shown in the main inventory and loot/steal windows (valid range: 1..2)
inventory_columns=2
splash_screen_size=1 ; Splash screen scaling (0=original size, 1=fit preserving aspect, 2=stretch to fill)
quick_toolbar_visible=0 ; Skills quick access toolbar visibility (iOS only) (0=hidden, 1=visible)

Recommendations:

• Desktops: Use any size you see fit.
• Tablets: Set these values to logical resolution of your device, for example iPad Pro 11 is 1668x2388 (pixels), but it's logical resolution is 834x1194 (points).
• Mobile phones: Set height to 480, calculate width according to your device screen (aspect) ratio, for example Samsung S21 is 20:9 device, so the width should be 480 * 20 / 9 = 1067.

In time this stuff will receive in-game interface, right now you have to do it manually. To see all currently working fallout2.cfg settings, just run the game once and quit. It will be automatically updated with defaults for every supported setting. Note: Use of the IFACE_BAR settings requires the f2_res.dat file, which contains graphical assets. Various versions are available, but one compatible with the above settings can be found here: f2_res.dat

Quality of life benefits over vanilla Fallout

• High resolution support
• Expanded 2-column inventory
• Expanded 4-row barter screen
• Expanded AP bar
• Party members can loot and barter in place of PC
• Increased pathfinding nodes 5x for more accurate pathfinding, and use accurate path length for walk vs run
• Ctrl-click to quickly move items when bartering, looting, or stealing
• a to select "all" when selecting item quantity, and for Take All when looting
• When bartering, caps default to the right amount to balance the trade
• Music continues playing between maps
• Auto open doors
• Integrated "HELP" menu
• 44.1 kHz stereo sound/music supported, in .ogg and .wav format as well as legacy .acm
• Last used save slot is remembered
• Item/Corpse/Container/Critter highlighting (configure using mods/sfall-mods.ini)

Contributing

For build instructions and contributor notes, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Integrating Sfall goodies is the top priority. Quality of life updates are OK too. In any case open up an issue with your suggestion or to notify other people that something is being worked on.

For current sfall compatibility status and the remaining work needed to close gaps, see SFALL_COMPATIBILITY.md.

For modders

• Robust (though not 100%) Sfall opcode and hook support
• .ogg/.wav support for map music
• .png support for static assets (must be 8bit indexed)
• .zip support for .dat archives
• Working BIS mapper

License

The source code is this repository is available under the Sustainable Use License.