Running Max Payne on Windows 10 [Nvidia Only]

Overview

Max Payne is a riveting film noir-themed third-person shooter which was developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Rockstar Studios. Unfortunately for this classic title, originally released in 2001, it no longer runs well natively with modern operating systems and hardware. This very simple guide, focusing on Windows 10 and modern hardware, will enable you to restore this game’s intended experience in only a few steps.

Installation

This guide is for clean installations of Max Payne only. If you’ve modified your game already, delete the game, clean the game folder of any installed mods, and reinstall. You will not lose your saved progress.

The default Steam installation folder is:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonMax Payne

Sound Fix

The sound in this game does not work properly in operating systems such as Windows Vista or newer. Download[drive.google.com] the unofficial sound patch and follow the instructions inside.

Frame Limiting

Unfortunely this game does not run well on Windows 10. Vertial sync does not function at all, so the game renders too many frames per second. This causes issues with mouse stuttering/jittering/skipping over lines of pixels, making it much more difficult to aim, and making the AI quite difficult to combat.

To fix the overpowered enemies and mouse stutter, you have to force the game to run at a steady frame rate.

Download[drive.google.com] nVidia Inspector. Extract and Run nvidiaProfileInspector.exe

Search Profiles: for ‘Max Payne’. Make sure the following settings are on. They may differ or require experimentation based on your computer specifications. Optional settings, which may effect performance and differ between hardware setups, are marked with an asterisk.

• Antialiasing Fix: On
• Frame Limiter: [~] 59.7 fps — This is the most crucial setting. If your monitor’s refresh rate is 59 or 60 Hz, use 59.7 fps. If your monitor is only 30 Hz use 29.5 fps. If it’s higher, use one that’s closest to your refresh rate.
• Vertical Sync: Force on
• Vertical Sync Tear Control: Adaptive

• *Antialiasing – Mode: Override any application setting
• *Antialiasing – Setting: Application-controlled / Off
• Toggle FXAA on or off: On — This is what fixed the visually pixelated wall textures for me.

　
Hit Apply Changes and launch the game. Next you can configure the game settings.

Settings vary as always, but the most important is changing Screen Buffers to Double. This helped me completeley eliminate mouse problems. Click OK and click Play.

　

Sound should work perfectly. Mouse stuttering/jittering/skipping should be completely gone. Leave NVIDIA Profile Inspector open every time you play the game.

For more insight about what each setting in NVIDIA Profile Inspector does, refer to this page[wiki.step-project.com].

Misinformation

There are a lot of discussions online which blame the wrong factors to be the cause of this game’s problems.

The fan-made sound patch is not the cause of the mouse-jittering issues. This issue is caused by the outdated programming of the engine, not the sound patch. Users of this patch probably noticed the mouse bug later in their playthrough and naturally blamed the sound patch instead of the game itself because it was the only thing they did to modify the game’s installation.

Disabling mouse acceleration/smoothing aka ‘enhanced pointer precision’ does not fix mouse stuttering. The issue lies in how the game engine draws frames onto the screen, not in your hardware input methods.

Running the game in compatibility mode, or forcing it to run as administrator does not automatically fix issues. In my experience, running Max Payne in compatibility mode for older operating systems on Windows 10 simply did not work. It will run silently and not open at all, forcing you to end the process in task manager. Some people in Steam forums are reporting completely opposite experiences.

Running as administrator is a compatibility option not intended to be used on things such as games that don’t need administrator privileges. This option has no effect on the performance of Max Payne. In fact I would argue that running any program with third-party modifications installed as an administrator is insecure and could result in harm to your machine.

Also, if any compatibility modes are enabled, the Steam overlay will not work.

CPU Afffinity/Limiting the amount of cores the game works with. Not exactly necessary, but you can feel free to test.

Other mods/additions to this game Not necessary. I’ve found the game runs and looks well without any Widescreen fixes or Reshade patches. Install third party mods at your own discretion, but I’d only recommend doing so after you’ve had a chance to fix mouse jittering and the abcense of sound.

Issues

For some reason the video brightness setting doesn’t change at all in-game. Screenshots are effected by such adjustment, but changes are not visual.

Afterword

This is a tentatively appropriate guide for running Max Payne on Windows 10 installs. Information provided here is subject to change and instructions should be followed at your own risk. If you have any information which could improve the content of this guide, please leave a comment. Add me as a friend if you’d like to improve this guide even quicker.