Mod:Fallout 2 Community Edition

Fallout 2 Community Edition is a fully working re-implementation of Fallout 2, with the same original gameplay, engine bugfixes, and some quality of life improvements, that works (mostly) hassle-free on multiple platforms, such as Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS and Android.

Features
Fallout 2 Community Edition is based on code from the Fallout 2 Reference Edition project, which is a complete reverse-engineering and decompilation of the original game's executable back into functioning C code. The Community Edition offers identical gameplay to the original, as well as engine bugfixes and quality of life improvements. It supports various operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS.

Install

 * The original game must be owned in order to play, which can be obtained from platforms such as GOG or Steam.
 * Download latest release or build from source, optionally check the latest debug build intended for testers.

Windows

 * Download and copy to the  folder. It serves as a drop-in replacement for.

Linux

 * Use Windows installation as a base - it contains data assets needed to play. Copy folder somewhere, for example.
 * Download and copy to this folder.
 * Install SDL2:
 * Run ./fallout2-ce.

macOS

 * Use Windows installation as a base - it contains data assets needed to play. Copy Fallout2 folder somewhere, for example.
 * Alternatively, 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 ->, navigate to . Copy  folder somewhere, for example.
 * Download and copy to this folder.
 * Run.

Android

 * Use Windows installation as a base - it contains data assets needed to play. Copy folder to the device, for example to . The, , , and  folders are required. Watch for file names - keep (or make) them lowercased (see Configuration).
 * Download and copy it to the device. Open it with file explorer, follow instructions (install from unknown source).
 * Running 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 installing a total conversion mod or localized version with a large number of unpacked resources in folder, it can take up to 20 minutes. Once copied, the game will start automatically.

iOS

 * Download . Use sideloading applications (AltStore or Sideloadly) to install it to the device. Alternatively, it is always possible to build from source with an own signing certificate.
 * Run the game once and see the error message "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, , , and folder to "Fallout 2" app (how-to). Watch for file names - keep (or make) them lowercased (see Configuration).

Configuration
The main configuration file is. There are several important settings that might be needed to adjust for your installation. Depending on the Fallout distribution, main game assets, , , and folder might be either all lowercased, or all uppercased. Either update, , and  settings to match the file names, or rename files to match entries in the.

The folder (with  folder inside) might be located either in  folder, or be in the Fallout folder. Update setting to match the hierarchy, usually it is  or. Make sure it matches the path exactly (so it might be if Fallout was installed from CD). Music files themselves (with extension) should be all uppercased, regardless of  and  folders.

The second configuration file is. Use it to change game window size and enable/disable fullscreen mode.

Recommendations:

In time this stuff will receive an in-game interface, right now it needs to be done manually.
 * Desktops: Use any size.
 * Tablets: Set these values to logical resolution of the device, for example iPad Pro 11 is 1668x2388 (pixels), but its logical resolution is 834x1194 (points).
 * Mobile phones: Set height to 480, calculate width according to the device's screen (aspect) ratio, for example Samsung S21 is a 20:9 device, so the width should be 480 * 20 / 9 = 1067.

The third configuration file is (part of Sfall). There are dozens of options that adjust or override engine behavior and gameplay mechanics. This file is intended for modders and advanced users. Currently, only a small subset of these settings are actually implemented.

Attribution
This article uses content under fair use. It uses material from the Github readme page for Fallout 2 Community Edition.