Installation

Please note that this page is devoted mainly to the PC versions (Windows, Mac) of Oni, as the PS2 doesn't really require any instructions.

Available versions

Demo (Windows & Mac)

You can still get the Windows demo HERE, and both the Windows and Mac demos HERE (the demos will be backed up on oni2.net if other sources are discontinued).

Retail (Windows, Mac & PS2)

The Windows, Mac and PS2 versions are no longer available to purchase new, but are often for sale secondhand on eBay and Amazon.

There are documented beta versions of Oni for the Mac that have not been released publicly. You can read about them HERE.

Installation process

If Oni does not run properly (or at all), be sure to see the section below, "Upgrades and patches", for a possible solution, then check out the Troubleshooting page if problems persist.

Windows

When the Oni CD is inserted, the installation will automatically start with the following steps :

• Language selection: for example, if you happen to have the European TakeAdvantage edition of Oni, you can choose between English/German/French
• Installation process itself: usual stuff (software license agreement, installation folder selection...)
• Installation of DirectX/OpenGL: skip this, as the versions of DirectX or OpenGL provided with Oni are very old.

A shortcut is automatically generated and placed on your desktop.

Windows demo

The installation process does not start automatically, as there's no CD. The demo's installer extracts the engine and game content to a temporary folder and deletes everything when you exit the game. If you want a persistent demo, try THIS.

Mac OS X

The installer requires OS 9 to run. Modern Macs do not have the Classic environment needed to run this Installer, so simply open the CD and drag the "Oni ƒ" folder to the desired place on your hard drive. It's recommended that you then rename the folder to simply "Oni". See the section "Patches" below for the current version of the Oni application that you need to run the game. If Oni still does not run properly, see Troubleshooting.

Installation notes

All of Oni's files will be found in C:\Program Files\Oni on Windows, and wherever you dragged the folder to on the Mac. The name of the folder does not have to be "Oni" and the Oni application can be renamed, too, but it is not recommended (some community tools expect the app to be called by its original name). Look at this page for a listing of the files you should have and a description of what they do.

Windows

1. Oni does not create any important registry entries, so an installation of Oni is essentially a copy of the Oni folder; this makes it easy to back up Oni before experimenting with it (hint, hint!).
2. Retail versions of Oni sometimes check for the installation CD. You can get rid of the CD check using a different Oni.exe. Otherwise, you need to have an Oni CD in the drive in order to play (any CD will do as long as its volume name is "ONI").
3. If Oni.exe is opened by double-clicking it or its shortcut, it first looks for the GameDataFolder in the same directory as the EXE. If Oni.exe is launched from the command line, it first looks for the "GDF" in the directory of the command or .bat that called it. Wherever it starts looking, Oni will also look for a folder in that directory called "OniEngine" and look inside there too for a GameDataFolder. If neither location contains the GDF, Oni progressively checks the parent directories, all the way up to C:\ if necessary, looking for the GDF (or an OniEngine folder with the GDF inside) at each level.

Mac

1. The Mac app never checks for the Oni disc in the CD-ROM drive.
2. When opened, the app first looks for the GameDataFolder in the same directory as itself. If the "GDF" is not found there, it continues to look in each parent directory up to the root of the hard drive. Unlike in Windows, the app does not look for "OniEngine/".

Patches

Oni will not run on any modern computers without a patched game application. Please download the appropriate files for your platform below and if you still encounter problems, see the Troubleshooting page.

Windows

Oni for Windows has been patched by the community through the Daodan DLL, which gets installed alongside the original Oni application and patches Oni at runtime.

Mac

The most recent version of the Oni application that runs on today's Intel-based Macs is the Feral Interactive build here (04-2011). The support thread on our forum is here.

During the PPC era, OmniGroup produced an official port of the Oni application for Mac OS X from 2001-2003. It can be downloaded from one of these two sources. The latest community-patched version of this app is here. Its bug fixes and unlocked/new features are documented HERE. Keep in mind that this app does not run on modern, Intel-based Macs.

Customization

For information on setting the controls and making other changes to Oni, see Customizing.

Mods

The community has produced a number of mods, which can be browsed on the Mod Depot.

Be sure to check out the Anniversary Edition for an overall improvement of Oni. If you're new to Oni, you might want to beat the game once before installing the Edition.

The central introduction to making your own mods is found HERE.