How to start SoF speedrunning

Hello, fellow soldier of fortune!

So you've decided to run this game, good choice. This guide will tell you everything you need to know before you get into it.

RULES
------------------------------
There are no specific rules to running this game, everything goes as long as you don't abuse external aid tools and other cheats. John Mullins is watching you.

GAME VERSION
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For speedrunning we use SoF Community Edition 6.2 which is available to download FOR FREE on www.sof1.org (may require creating a free user account). The version is superior to the original game because it includes all patches, removes parental locking and offers modern system resolutions. It also includes a couple of new visual bits like modern HUD which can be easily removed by deleting the HUD ".pak" file in your "Base" folder in the main game folder.

CONFIG SCRIPT
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To help various issues with the game on modern systems we use an auto executable script file to execute some commands each time you start the game.

Create a file called "autoexec.cfg" in the "Base" folder which resides inside your main game folder.

Here are a few commands which we typically use:
gl_dynamic 0
set gl_swapinterval 1
set gl_ext_swapinterval 1
set cl_maxfps 60

The first line disables dynamic effects in the OpenGL renderer which helps cure your lag and longer load times issue. You can experiment with the "gl_dynamic" command by setting it to "0" or "1", whichever you prefer.

The last line sets your maximum framerate, to determine the perfect value read the framerate section below.
Sometimes the "maxfps" command will do nothing (you may have to set it in the settings menu of the game) or if your game locks to 143fps you will have to use an external tool (RivaTuner Statistic Server) to limit your FPS.

All you have to do is copy these lines (you can pick the ones you prefer), paste them into your "autoexec.cfg", save the file and you are set.

FRAMERATES
------------------------------
We do not enforce specific framerates, choose what you prefer because the framerate vastly affects player movement. The lowest acceptable framerate is 60fps, everything lower than that will make some jumps and skips impossible. I would recommend a framerate of 90-100 but wouldn't go higher than 120 which causes some physics glitches (sliding, getting stuck).

SPLITS
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We do not enforce a specific software to time your runs but we use LiveSplit and it is also the most optimal choice since the introduction of an autosplitter, which will split your times automatically each level and also pause while your levels are loading. 
Download the latest version of LiveSplit, download the split file available in the Resources section of this website and you are good to go. Make sure you set LiveSplit to timing "Game Time" by changing that setting in the "Compare Against" option when right clicking on your LiveSplit bar.

GAME DIFFICULTY SETTINGS
------------------------------
We speedrun on the easiest difficulty setting with one exception. You must select the custom difficulty level, set your number of saves to anything you want (would recommend Unlimited saves for practicing and backup), set the Enemy toughness to "Non-threatening" and then set Type of spawning to "Ridiculous". Setting the type of spawning to the maximum level increases player movement speed which allows us to pull off many jumps and strats which are not possible on any other difficulties or custom settings.

For more game settings watch the first speedrun tutorial video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3S7elZ4LEs

TUTORIALS
------------------------------
I have created a whole series on how to speedrun through all the levels and explaining all the skips, glitches and strats on my YouTube channel. Here is a link to a playlist with all the videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIrpz6s4n5mgLDpV980eNzJd8NS500KyG

That is all. If you have more questions, feel free to join our Discord server and join the madness, let's give this game the glory it deserves.
https://discord.gg/aNnQVTN

SOF1 AND WINDOWS 10
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We all know old games and Windows 10 usually don't play along well, same goes for good ole SoF.

But there is a solution!

Some users experience that the game does not launch after clicking on it but is present in your task manager. Apparently this is due to an entry in the Windows Compability base and is fixable in two ways:

1. Rename your sof.exe to anything, this will usually cure the issue but you will run into a problem where LiveSplit autosplitter won't detect the game running since the .exe is a different name.

2. Download this registry fix from the sof1.org forum - https://www.sof1.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4528&view=next
Just extract the registry file anywhere then click on it and let it do its thing!

SIB2 CRASH
------------------------------
If you managed to get this far with your speedrun, good for you! You will probably notice when you make too much noise in SIB2 it will crash. Luckily there is a workaround for that. 

Once you start up your game, open up your task manager (press ALT+TAB to get out of your game, then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to open Task Manager), now go to your "Processes" tab, find "sof.exe", right click on the process and select "Set Affinity...". Now all the choices will have a check mark next to them, make sure only "CPU 0" will have a check mark next to it. What this does is set the game to run on only one core of your CPU since modern computers have more than one CPU core. 

This game is pretty old so it does not play well with modern systems sometimes and it does not know how to handle CPU cores.

There is a couple of other tricks you could use, one of them is running the game in Windows XP SP3 compability mode. The other trick is to play the level as "quietly" as possible, making the least amount of noise since spawning more enemies seems to crash the game. Use the silenced UZI and proceed slowly through the level eliminating enemies as fast as possible.

IRQ3A CRASH
------------------------------
You succesfully avoided the SIB2 crash and now another crash is praying right around the corner. Most likely it will crash in the courtyard with the tank and the guy closing the gate, as soon as you go for the stairs the game will crash. Now we don't know the exact problem here but it seems there is a couple of things you can do to make this less common:

- When you get out in the courtyard kill the deagle guy, then go directly to the right and kill the guy closing the gate, make sure you get close to him, that seems to help the most for some reason
- After you kill these two guys run BACKWARDS towards and down the stairs, helped my crashing for some reason

Hop online, let's get started!

chargerbandit

Soldier Of Fortune

Kennert007

PTRK95

Dreamcast

A setup viable for runs?

We really need an in-game timer/load remover

Cubeface

twispy

Mr_Mary