Installing (OpenXcom)

OpenXcom requires a vanilla version of the original X-COM resources. This includes:

• DOS Version 1.4: You can check if you have the correct version if it contains a "SOUND\GM.CAT" file.
• Windows Version / Collector's Edition.
• Steam Version: You can find the game folder in "Steam\steamapps\common\xcom ufo defense\XCOM".

Make sure your copy has the latest patch. Do not use modded versions (eg. XcomUtil) as they may cause bugs and crashes.

Just copy the game subfolders (GEODATA, GEOGRAPH, MAPS, ROUTES, SOUND, TERRAIN, UFOGRAPH, UFOINTRO, UNITS) to OpenXcom's Data folder (usually the "data" subfolder).

Windows

The installer will automatically detect Steam installations and take care of the resource copying for you, just follow the instructions.

If installing manually, copy the resources to the data subfolder.

Mac OS X

Copy the resources to the application's data resource (right click the application > Show Package Contents > Contents > Resources > data).

Unix-like

OpenXcom requires the following libraries:

• SDL (libsdl1.2)
• SDL_mixer (libsdl-mixer1.2)
• SDL_gfx (libsdl-gfx1.2), version 2.0.22 or later
• SDL_image (libsdl-image1.2)
• TiMidity++ (timidity), if you need MIDI playback
• yaml-cpp (libyaml-cpp), version 0.5 or later

Check your distribution's package manager or the library website on how to install them.

If installing through a package manager, you should copy the resources to /usr/share/openxcom/data, otherwise the data subfolder is preferred.

Data Folder

In most cases the OpenXcom data is in the data subfolder, but it will also look in one of the following paths.

You can also specify your own path by passing the command-line argument "-data ". The X-COM and OpenXcom data can be in different folders.

• <game directory>\data

Windows

• C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\My Documents\OpenXcom\data
• C:\Users\<user>\Documents\OpenXcom\data

Mac OS X

• <application resources>\data
• ~/Library/Application Support/OpenXcom/data

Unix-like

• $XDG_DATA_HOME/openxcom/data (usually ~/.local/share/openxcom/data/)
• $XDG_DATA_DIRS/openxcom/data (usually /usr/share/openxcom/data/:/usr/local/share/openxcom/data/)

User Folder

OpenXcom automatically creates a User folder with all the screenshots, savegames and options in one of the following paths.

You can also specify your own path by passing the command-line argument "-user <user path>".

• <game directory>\user\

Windows

• C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\My Documents\OpenXcom
• C:\Users\<user>\Documents\OpenXcom

Mac OS X

• ~/Library/Application Support/OpenXcom

Unix-like

• $XDG_DATA_HOME/openxcom
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/openxcom

Log file

In case you experience any problems or errors during the initial game loading/startup, these will be shown and logged in openxcom.log in the User Folder. Make sure you installed everything correctly as instructed, and if you still experience problems, check the forums.

Portable Installations

To make a portable version of OpenXcom, just put all the files in the same folder, with a data subfolder for the resources and a user subfolder for your saves and settings.