PopEnhance is an application written in C# in July 2011, by TedTycoon. The program allows users to enhance Populous with patches. Patches can be fixes, enhancements or cheats. The program provides a number of interfaces to make the creation of further patches straightforward. Although the program is mainly for single player use, it can be used in multiplayer games providing that all players use the same patches to ensure fair play.

 

 

In single player, the player should select the patches that they want to activate by clicking Patches->List... They can then press the Run button to start the game with the patches automatically applied. If the game is already running then the game can be minimized and applied the same way. Patches can also be deactivated while the game is running.

 

Each patch has a property called 'Affects Multiplayer'. If this is true then all players must apply the patch equally to their running instance of the game. If not applied to all players, it is probable that the game will detect it and try and resynchronise. PopEnhance alerts everyone in the game by posting a public message when a multiplayer affecting patch is applied. This ensures that it cannot be used to cheat. It also displays a hash code of all the patches applied and all the multiplayer affecting patches applied in brackets. This helps to confirm that all players are running the configuration.

The standard procedure will be for each player to launch PopEnhance before the game starts and select an agreed configuration. They then check the Auto Open Process box so that it automatically attaches to Populous when the game is started normally. When the game starts the hash code will be automatically displayed for all players. If the codes are all the same then the configuration is the same and the game can commence.

 

 

Display:

- Resolution - Allows you to select a custom screen resolution. If the resolution doesn't change then it may be because it can not apply the selected ratio. The standard ratio is 4:3.

- Texture Fix : This will fix the drawing anomalies when drawing sprites. Only required for the hardware accelerated version of the game.

 

Cheats:

- Charge Rate : Sets the charge rate for all available spells to the specified value.

- Reincarnation : Sets how long shamans remain dead before they reincarnate. This can be set to a custom duration in game turns.

- Infinite Shots : Spells can be cast indefinitely, and don't require charging.

 

Enhancements:

- Play Tribe : Swaps the tribe you play with another one. For example, you can play the single-player levels as Matak tribe.

- Test Level : Changes the tutorial menu item to play a custom level that can be specified.

- Level Select : Changes the tutorial menu item into a level select menu item. Level select gives access to all 25 single player levels without having to complete the previous levels.