Tiberian Sun has a few known issues with newer operating systems. The issues usually revolve around the direct draw component of Tiberian Sun, and unpatched versions of the game. Common issues include heavy lag, frequent freezes and crashes and a host of menu related issues. In order to get Tiberian Sun on Windows 8 working follow these steps:
- Make sure you have the TFD freeware version installed. The freeware First Decade version of Tiberian Sun comes fully patched and includes both Tiberian Sun and Firestorm. It is also bundled with a few patch files that set you up for online play so there’s no reason you shouldn’t be using it at your main installation of the game. You can get the First Decade version from one of the links here.
- Download the Windows 8 fix. This fix provides patched version of direct draw libraries used by Tiberian Sun.
Download link 1 <– tore.cnc-comm.com
Download link 2 <– bitpatch.com (in ddrawfix\wined3d)
Download link 3 <– Local Mirror - Copy the patched libraries into your root Tiberian Sun directory. Copy the following files into your SUN directory, making sure to overwrite any existing files with the same names:
ddraw.dll
libwin.dll
wined3d.dll - Run in Windowed mode. While this is less than ideal it is necessary for a large majority of people running Tiberian Sun on Windows 8. For whatever reason, if you don’t run the game in windowed mode you’ll likely experience several menu related issues and crashes and/or heavy lag. To run Tiberian Sun in windowed mode follow the instructions here.
- Run as administrator with Windows 98 compatibility and reduced 16bit color mode. Right click on your Game.exe located in the SUN directory and select properties. Select the compatibility tab check off the following options:
- Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows 98 / Windows Me compatibility
- Reduced color mode: 16-bit (65536) color
- Run this program as administrator
If you’ve followed the above steps and are still having issues running Tiberian Sun on Windows 8, please post in the comments below. To increase your chances of a solution being found include as much detail as possible (which version of the game you’re running, what operating system you have, what video card you have and steps to reproduce the issue). Screenshots are also very useful!