Red Faction FAQ

This page provides fixes to commonly encountered issues, and answers to frequently asked questions.

It would be impossible to list absolutely every issue and question that may come up on this page. If you're facing an issue or have a question that doesn't appear on this page, please feel welcome to join the Red Faction Community Discord and ask it. It's extremely likely that someone there knows the answer and would be happy to help you.

Join the Red Faction Community Discord

Common Issues when Launching Red Faction

Nothing happens when I try to launch the game, or it launches but immediately crashes

Cause:

If you're running an official Red Faction version, this issue is likely a compatibility issue with modern hardware or a modern operating system. If you're running Pure Faction, you may experience this issue as Pure Faction is not compatible with certain versions of Windows 10.

Solution:

Installing and switching to Dash Faction should resolve this issue for you.

Error "Please insert Red Faction CD 2"

Cause:

You're running Red Faction version 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2, and those versions require CD 2 be in your CD-ROM drive for the game to launch.

Solution:

Official version 1.21, as well as all commonly-used community versions of Red Faction resolve this issue and allow you to launch the game without CD 2 in your CD-ROM drive.

Error "Unable to initialize DirectX 8.0"

Cause:

This issue occurs when launching Red Faction (particularly in full screen mode) on some new hardware.

Solution:

All commonly-used community versions resolve this issue - we recommend using Dash Faction for maximum compatibility with new hardware and operating systems. You may need to launch the community version you choose in "windowed" or "stretched" mode as opposed to full screen mode to resolve this issue.

Error "At least 8 MB of available video memory is required"

Cause:

This error occurs when Red Faction 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2 is launched on a system with 2GiB or more available video memory. At a technical level, the issue is caused by a signed DWORD being read as less than the minimum of 5MiB, and is resolved with the replacement of a signed less than comparision with an unsigned less than comparison.

Solution:

Official version 1.21, as well as all commonly-used community versions of Red Faction resolve this issue and allow you to launch the game on systems with 2GiB or more available video memory.

Error "Unable to read project sound information. Is bluebeard.bty missing?"

Cause:

This error occurs when the stock file bluebeard.bty is missing from your Red Faction directory.

Solution:

The fix for this issue is very simple. You will need to download an original Red Faction bluebeard.bty file (available on FactionFiles.com) and drop it into your Red Faction directory.

• The default Red Faction directory for Steam copies of Red Faction is C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\red faction\
• The default Red Faction directory for non-Steam copies of Red Faction is C:\games\RedFaction\

Error "Unsupported game executable has been detected."

Cause:

If you get this error when attempting to launch Dash Faction, it means you've tried to hook an incompatible version of the game. Dash Faction was built as an add-on for Red Faction v1.20 (NA), and it requires that version to run.

Solution:

The easiest way to resolve this issue is to reinstall Dash Faction via the installer, which should patch your game as required so you have the right version. In very rare cases however, you may need to manually download the necessary version of rf.exe, place it in your Red Faction directory, and configure the Dash Faction "Game executable" (via the Options button in the Dash Faction Launcher) to the rf.exe you just downloaded. You can download an original, unmodified rf.exe from v1.20 (NA) from FactionFiles.com.

• The default Red Faction directory for Steam copies of Red Faction is C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\red faction\
• The default Red Faction directory for non-Steam copies of Red Faction is C:\games\RedFaction\