TRON 2.0 Unofficial FAQ v1.0 - Released Game Patches

9.2 Released Game Patches

The following is a list of all the patches released for the PC and Mac versions of

, to date.

In case you're wondering which version of

you currently have on the PC, note that the version number can be seen on the main menu on the bottom right, or the top right side of the screen under the title.

Remember to always back up your computer, before you start messing around with uninstalling and installing drivers and programs!

PC Version 1.042 Patch

tron-update_v1x042c.exe	-	Windows 98/Me/2000/XP Official Cumulative version, 52 MB, released 02/05/04
tron-update_v1x042c.exe	-	Windows 98/Me/2000/XP Official Cumulative version File Mirror
tron-update_v1x042i.exe	-	Windows 98/Me/2000/XP Official Iterative version, 30 MB, released 02/05/04

UPDATE: BVG has released new versions of the v1.042 patch that no longer require Windows XP.

tron-update_v1x042ceng.exe	-	Windows 98/Me/2000/XP Unofficial Cumulative version in English, 46 MB, released 12/28/03 by Riley_Pizt
tron-update_v1x042ceng.exe	-	Windows 98/Me/2000/XP Unofficial Cumulative version File Mirror
gamep6.rez	-	Replacement gamep6.rez file for Unofficial patch, to change language to German
tron-update_v1x042cxp.exe	-	Windows XP Cumulative version, 52 MB, released 12/23/03
tron-update_v1x042cxp.exe	-	Windows XP Cumulative version File Mirror
tron-update_v1x042ixp.exe	-	Windows XP Iterative version, 30 MB, released 12/23/03
tron-update_v1x042ixp.exe	-	Windows XP Iterative version File Mirror

All the above patches includes the following bug fixes:

An upper body rendering error has been fixed (where the upper body on opponents would get skewed to a point in the middle of the screen or to a lower corner of the screen).
The score field for Derez, Team Derez, and Light Cycles has been fixed.
Memory leaks occurring during level loads have been fixed.
A new error message has been added if the player tries to join a server but doesn't have the map that the server is running.
Dedicated server UI contains games types for Derez and Team Derez.
The player will now receive 10 build points each for completion of the level objectives in the Transport Station and Primary Digitizing levels.

Although not mentioned, the FAQ author has noticed the following additional bug fixes:
Health and Energy are not always reset to their full amounts when entering a new level, like they were before.
This patch tried to address the copy protection problem that many players experienced, but it seems it did not eliminate the issue completely.

Riley_Pizt's Unofficial patch has the following additional improvements:

It installs modified versions of the following files from the Official v1.042 update:

Tron.exe
TronSrv.exe
gamep5.rez
gamep6.rez
v1042C-readme.txt
The installer removes the obsolete references to, and/or files: game1.rez, gamep.rez, gamep2.rez, gamedll.rez, gamep3.rez, and gamep4.rez. Files contained within the gamep5.rez file, are a consolidation of the ones found in both the official gamep4.rez and gamep5.rez files. By removing the gamep4.rez file and modifying the TRON.exe and TRONSrv.exe executables — to eliminate the loading of obsolete .rez files — it allows the use of additional .rez files (up to 13), such as ones which contain a user-created map or mod.
The cres.dll file inside of gamep6.rez was modified to correct the following mistakes in the game text:

The email address of Lora Bradley was corrected to be LoraBradley@en.com since she worked for Encom, not fCon.
E-mails addressed to "AllPersonal" were corrected to be "AllPersonnel".
The email address "GibbsJr@en.net" was corrected to "GibbsJr@en.com", since Encom's domain name is en.com.
The message "Correct advice given to Regular about who will the next race" was corrected to "Correct advice given to Regular about who will win the next race", since the word "win" was missing.
Modifications were done to the v1042C-readme.txt file, to correct some spelling mistakes and other minor inaccuracies, and clarify the operating system requirements of the update.

  The tron-update_v1x042i.exe Iterative version of the patch requires that you already used the v1.030 patch (aka v1.2) before installing!

  The tron-update_v1x042c.exe Cumulative version of the patch will work on any version of the game. If you want the Official patch, then download this one, for future's sake . . . in case you uninstall and then later re-install the game. So you won't have to download the v1.030 patch, too.

  Riley_Pizt's tron-update_v1x042ceng.exe works on any version of the game and any version of Windows. It is specifically meant for 98/Me/2000 users, though XP users can still benefit. In the case of XP, I recommend that you download this version anyway, because of the added improvements over the official patch.

  When you run the Official Windows XP patch, make sure you select the proper language, that matches the version of the game you bought! As it turns out, the official description is incorrect. The XP patch actually does have support for different language versions of the game.

  BVG and Monolith have redeemed themselves somewhat with this patch. It's still XP only for the time being (they will release their own Official non-XP patch eventually) . . . but it fixes a lot of bugs, and it's apparent they did listen to our feedback even if they didn't really acknowledge it much (would have been another nice thing to do). The v1.042 patch appears to have corrected most of the remaining bugs, and also seems to run a lot more stable. They also stopped their confusing file naming convention, where they named the patch file with a number one lower than the actual patch version number. (e.g. v1.040 had a file name of tron-update_v1x3.exe. Which makes you think it's v1.030.)

  What happened to v1.041, you ask? Well, there was one. It was an internal development build, that apparently got scrapped and they started over again. That's the only explanation.

I don't know why they didn't just name the released version v1.050, because it's a quantum leap over some of the other patches, in terms of bug fixes and for other reasons. It's more like a major revision.

Though it needs to be confirmed for certain with more extensive testing by the community, it looks like the majority of the bugs plaguing Derez (Deathmatch) are gone. Light Cycles and Disc matches also generally appear to be more stable, and the game's netcode may have been improved a bit. Players have been reporting better response times in their online games. However, some new bugs have been introduced.

A descriptive error message has finally been added when you get kicked off a Multiplayer online server, to let you know that you didn't have a map the server had when you tried to join it. Which is much better than being kicked unceremoniously, with no real explanation as to why. This still doesn't apply to mods, though. You'll get a blank server list, if you enable a mod that no one else is using.

Also worth noting, is the fact that memory leaks have finally been acknowledged and fixed. This should help with the slowdown problem that some people were having after loading saved games too many times.

After the author of this FAQ has been saying as much for months, on the Official

message boards and Tron-Sector, the game's Producer finally acknowledges that a score of v10.0.0 was never possible with the released version of the game! That's despite said Producer previously claiming otherwise. But in an interesting turn of events, not being able to reach a build version of v10.0.0 is not due to mission objectives being removed from an earlier Beta version of the game. No, it turns out to be a bug!

Supposedly, the new top score that can now be achieved is v10.0.3! When I complete the Full Game Walkthroughs, I will make the necessary changes to take this into account. But for now, I will continue on until I finish the Walkthrough with the previous maximum score of v9.8.3.

  The most interesting aspect of this newest update, is that there are sample .lta models for the Multiplayer characters hidden in one of the .rez files! Potential model makers should rejoice, there is now the possibility of making custom Multiplayer models, at least.

  The "Holster Disc = Leave Me Alone" feature that has been asked for countless times, still wasn't added to this patch. Which is a shame, especially since the game's Producer was made aware of the requests. Disc combat in the lobby can be extremely annoying when you just want to watch a match, but the sever operator has turned spectator combat on.

  Visit the 9.3 Crashes, Slowdowns, and Other Problems section, for important information about using your old saved games with the newly patched game!

  You can temporarily disable the Official v1.042 patch and go back to v1.030, by using my REZ Handler program! Go to the 10.1 Editing Tools section to find out more. However, in the case of Riley_Pizt's patch, there is no way to go back to v1.030.

PC Version 1.040 Patch (aka v1.3)

tron-update_v1x3.exe	-	Windows XP version, 19 MB, released 11/10/03
tron-update_v1x3-noxp.exe	-	Windows 98/Me/2000 version in English, 19 MB, released 11/11/03 by Riley_Pizt
gamep6.rez	-	Replacement gamep6.rez file for v1.040 to change language to German

Here is the official description provided:

  Both the XP and 98/Me/2000 patches require that you already used the v1.030 patch (aka v1.2) before installing!

  When you run the Official Windows XP patch, make sure you select the proper language, that matches the version of the game you bought! As it turns out, the official description is incorrect. The XP patch actually does have support for different language versions of the game.

  This update apparently has no new bug fixes to the original game. It's just there to add new Deathmatch and Team Deatmatch support to

. The 98/Me/2000 version of the patch, is actually something that was created because fans of the game discovered that the officially released patch file would only work on XP. (But if you are having trouble with the Official patch on XP for whatever reason, Riley's patch can be used for XP as well).

Up until 11/10/03 the reason for the Official patch being XP only wasn't known. It had been released to places like Fileplanet on 11/07/03, but it was not available on the

site. Without any proper explanation from BVG, most of us thought that the XP only requirement was a mistake. Then the real reason became clear . . .

BVG made a deal with Microsoft to have the new Deathmatch patch intentionally work on XP only, as part of Microsoft's new "Windows XP Extras" program. More about this sham can be read at GameSpy's Press Release and Microsoft's Windows XP site. This is a despicable turn of events, denying everyone except Windows XP users the ability to play the new Deathmatch feature! Fortunately, Riley_Pizt made a 98/Me/2000 version of the patch!

Now to make matters even worse, when BVG finally released the Official patch on the

site, it turned out to be a slightly newer version of the v1.040 patch than what was released on Fileplanet and other sites. That's right, there are two versions of the v1.040 patch out there! The newer one that could be called "v1.040b", on the

site, and the older "v1.040a" everywhere else. It will make you happy to know, that Riley_Pizt has updated his 98/Me/2000 version of the patch, based on this newer release. If you continue to use the older v1.040a, then you will have problems connecting to servers if they are using the newer version! So do yourself a favor, and update again ASAP! (Thankfully, it seems that the various sites carrying the patch, have all pretty much updated to v1.040b by this point.)

Note that for a while, BVG was running both versions of the update on their servers . . . I guess they were testing both to see how they fared, and for the benefit of anyone who still hadn't downloaded the newer version of the patch. If the server had a name like BVG 1a it meant they were running the older v1.040a, and BVG 1b was running the newer v1.040b. So if you were kicked from their servers back then, now you know why.

BVG and Monolith, you should be ashamed for what you've done! The

community doesn't need this kind of crap. You are confusing the hell out of everyone, and separating us simply based by our choice of which version of Windows we run. And for what? Some money from Microsoft, and a little extra publicity? This is a truly reprehensible act.

  As you have probably experienced for yourself, there are some serious bugs in v1.040 when you play Derez online. Most notable of which, is that you can't access the menu to abort or exit, after joining a game. If you experience this bug, hit Alt-F4 and you will exit the game immediately, going back to the Windows desktop. Not the greatest solution, but better than hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del and ending the Lithtech.exe task. See the 9.8 Bugs and Wish List section for a full list of bugs in both versions of v1.040.

  Visit the 9.3 Crashes, Slowdowns, and Other Problems section, for important information about using your old saved games with the newly patched game!

  You can temporarily disable the v1.040 patch, by using my new REZ Handler program! Go to the 10.1 Editing Tools section to find out more.

PC Version 1.030 Patch (aka v1.2)

tron-update_v1x2_complete.exe - 31 MB, released 10/08/03

The patch includes the following bug fixes:

Skipping the light cycle single player maps will no longer result in problems with energy transfer or sub-routine use.
The multiplayer exploit allowing players to access weapons other than the disc in Disc Arena and Disc Tournament is no longer possible.
The blue disc is no longer substantially faster than the others in multiplayer.

It contains the following additions:

Intel 865G integrated graphics chipsets are now accepted as a valid chipset by the game.
Disc Arena 2 contains some additional blockers preventing face-to-face combat in all arenas.

This patch contains all the bug fixes and additions of the previous patch, and can be used to update v1.009/v1.010, or v1.020.

Before installing the patch, you may need to copy it to the directory where you installed

. In the author's case, this wasn't necessary, the patch found the game even though it was run from a different directory. When you run the patch, make sure you select the proper language, that matches the version of the game you bought!

Hopefully this will fix not only the majority of the bugs in the game, but also the bugs caused by the previous patch. However, no specific mention is made of fixes for: the disc disappearing in Thorne's Chamber Core, the power block being broken, the weapon switching poblem, the copy protection problem, the many Multiplayer bugs, or the sound problem. Go to the 9.8 Bugs and Wish List section, to find out more about these bugs.

Visit the 9.3 Crashes, Slowdowns, and Other Problems section, for important information about using your old saved games with the newly patched game!

PC Version 1.020 Patch (aka v1.1)

TRON-Update_1x1.exe - 22 MB, released 08/29/03

The patch includes the following bug fixes:

ATI 7000 and 8000 class Radeon users should see a dramatic increase in performance as well as correctly panning textures. Please keep in mind that while performance has improved greatly, these cards may be overly taxed when using higher detail settings. In addition to installing the update, users of these cards should get the latest drivers for their cards from ATI.
All different language retail versions of the game should now be compatible for Internet play.
Save files containing the pipe (|) character no longer generate unreadable save files.
Numerous networking performance optimizations have been implemented.
Player health will no longer be refilled after each stage of the battle with the fCon Monster.
Counters in Light Cycle matches should now stay synchronized correctly through subsequent races.
Pressing F9 during single player Light Cycle play should no longer result in unexpected behavior.
Custom Bandwidth settings are now correctly saved.
Power-up availability in Light Cycle custom play should more accurately reflect the configuration settings.

It contains the following additions:

Multiplayer games can now be hosted using the new dedicated server.
Selecting No on the Retry? menu during Single Player Light Cycle matches will now allow players to skip the Light Cycle match. This feature was added because we received some feedback that the Light Cycle matches were too difficult. In addition to the new skip option, the difficulty can also be changed at any point during the game. Please note that the new skipping feature only applies to regular Single Player play and not Light Cycle Custom play.

Before installing the patch, copy it to the directory where you installed

. When you run it, make sure you select the proper language, that matches the version of the game you bought! For example, if you have the UK English version of the game, don't select US English! Otherwise, the patch will not install properly.

There have still been reports though, that the patch looks at your language settings in Windows and goes by that, even if you select the correct language. So if you have a German version of Windows, but got a US English version of the game, the patch will ignore the fact that you chose US English and install for German instead. Hopefully, this will not happen to you!

The author does not recommend you install this patch, unless you absolutely need to!

In addition to fixing some old bugs, the patch introduced new bugs. Several nasty new bugs. Go to the 9.8 Bugs and Wish List section, to find out more! Unless you absolutely need one of the bug fixes in the v1.020 patch to make the game playable . . . do yourself a favor, and skip this update. It causes more problems, than it solves.

Mac Version OSX Tiger 10.4 Patch

TRON_10.4_Installer.zip - 259 KB, released 05/10/05

This patch solves the following problems:

The game will not install on OSX 10.4 (Tiger).
The installer asks for your registration code, but then unexpectedly quits after entering it.

MacPlay quietly released this patch in May of 2005, at first only informing customers of its existence if they contacted MacPlay directly, for support. It wasn't until a couple of months later that this patch was added to the support page on their web site. Why? I have no idea . . .

For more information about this patch (they simply call it an installer), visit this page on their site.