You need an original copy of Infestation. OpenInfestation ships no game data, executables, videos or music. It loads them from your own installation and checks them against the known retail checksums.

From your copy, the launcher needs:

• Infest.exe: the port reads the game's tables from it, but never runs it;
• PreLoad.dat and the Overlay/ folder;
• optionally Title.avi for the intro video and cdaudio/ with the disc's music tracks. Without Title.avi the game skips the intro; without the tracks it plays with no music, just like retail with no CD in the drive.

The release also carries Remastered.pak, the Vulkan renderer's new ambience, weather and crystal sounds. Copy it into your Infestation folder, beside PreLoad.dat. Without it you get retail's sound.

Windows

1. Download and extract the Windows zip.
2. Run OpenInfestation.exe. Place it beside the installed game, or press Change in the launcher and pick your installation; it is remembered.
3. Press Play.

Releases aren't code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may warn you the first time you run it.

Linux

Linux gets the same launcher, on X11 or Wayland. It has been tested on CachyOS under KDE Plasma (Wayland).

tar -xzf OpenInfestation-*-linux-x64.tar.gz && cd OpenInfestation-*-linux-x64
./openinfestation                                   # launcher
./openinfestation --data-root /path/to/Infestation  # or point at the game directly

SDL2 is built into the binary. On integrated graphics, OpenGL is the recommended renderer.

Software and OpenGL: the original

These play retail's game exactly, to the point that recorded runs replay the same way they do in the original. Widescreen shows more to each side, but objects out there stand still, because the original never simulated beyond its 4:3 view.

Vulkan: the remaster

With a ray-tracing GPU, Vulkan path traces the world in real time. On any Vulkan GPU it adds a modern sky with volumetric clouds, new water, rain with puddles and wet ground, and reflections on water and metal. It offers SMAA, FXAA, TAA and SSAA, plus NVIDIA DLSS (with Ray Reconstruction), Intel XeSS and AMD FSR 3.1. Only the upscalers your GPU can actually run are offered.

Fixes for the original's bugs

Where retail breaks, mostly at high frame rates, the port adds a fix, on by default. Each one is a switch in the launcher's Options; turn it off to get pure retail back.

Network play is not working yet. The menus and protocol are there, but a network game does not play correctly. The single-player campaign plays from start to finish.

• P7uen's look back at Infestation: a retrospective on the game, its roots as a V2000 sequel, its vehicles, worlds and multiplayer.
• The README, with every option, the bug-fix switches and how to build it yourself.
• DISCLOSURE.md: the third-party content in the release archives and the terms each comes under.
• Its predecessor, V2000, has a reimplementation too: OpenV2K.