Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Not to be confused with Aliens: Dark Descent.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Developers
	Frictional Games
macOS (OS X)	Edward Rudd
Linux	Edward Rudd
Engines
	HPL Engine 2
Release dates
Windows	September 8, 2010
macOS (OS X)	September 8, 2010
Linux	September 8, 2010
Reception
Metacritic	85
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Adventure, Survival horror
Themes	Europe
Series	Amnesia

Amnesia
Amnesia: The Dark Descent	2010
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs	2013
Amnesia: Rebirth	2020
Amnesia: The Bunker	2023

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a first-person adventure and survival horror game in the Amnesia series.

Key points

Game is open source.

Various custom campaigns and mods are available.

Will not run on various Intel and AMD integrated cards. See System requirements.

General information

Official support page

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Epic Games Store		DRM-free when launched directly from executable.
GOG.com
Humble Store
Mac App Store
Microsoft Store		Bundled with Justine expansion in Amnesia: Collection
Steam		DRM-free when launched directly from executable. Amnesia Re-collection also available.
Discord (unavailable)

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Justine	Initially Steam exclusive but later released as freeware bundled with patch 1.2. A "softcore" (can save anywhere) version is also available here.
Remember	Short stories bundled with patch 1.2. Located at <path-to-game>\Remember - Short Story Collection.pdf.

Essential improvements

Patches

Digital versions are already patched.

• Windows patch 1.3.1 can be downloaded here with the patch 1.2 for the Polish version here and older patches available here.
• Mac version patch 1.2 can be downloaded here.
• Linux version 1.2 can be downloaded here.

Skip intro videos

Edit main_settings.cfg
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open main_settings.cfg with a text editor. Change ShowPreMenu="true" to ShowPreMenu="false". Save the changes.

Enable quick save

Edit user_settings.cfg
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Go into <user-id> and open user_settings.cfg with a text editor. Change AllowQuickSave="false" to AllowQuickSave="true". Save the changes. Notes Press F4 to save and F5 to load.

POM and Shadow Distorting

May result in FPS drops and crashes on some systems.

Enable Parallax Occlusion Mapping and Shadow Distorting with eye-vector clamping
Replace the default deferred_gbuffer_solid_frag.glsl with this one in <path-to-game>\core\shaders\. Go to the configuration file(s) location. Edit main_settings.cfg. Change ParallaxQuality="1" and GBufferType="1".

Game data

Launcher general settings.

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Amnesia\Main\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Frictional Games/Amnesia/
Linux	$HOME/.frictionalgames/Amnesia/Main/

This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Amnesia\Main\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Frictional Games/Amnesia/
Linux	$HOME/.frictionalgames/Amnesia/Main/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Discord
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Launcher general video settings.

Launcher advanced video settings.

In-game graphics settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD			For Steam copies see Ultra-widescreen. Options menu UI doesn't scale.
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16x.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Faked FSAA, labeled as Edge Smooth or Smoothing.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Not present in launcher. Can be enabled in-game.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		See High frame rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

Edit game.cfg
Go to <path-to-game>\config\. Open game.cfg in text editor. Locate line FOV = "70" in section Player_General and change its value to your desired field of view value. This value is for Vertical FOV

Ultra-widescreen

Edit EXE properties
Go to <path-to-game>\config\. Open main_settings.cfg in text editor. Set Screen Width and Height to your resolution. Save and exit. Right-click Amnesia.exe, select Properties. Check Disable Fullscreen Optimizations. Click Change high DPI settings, check Use this Setting and Override High DPI Scaling. Apply and launch via Steam.

SLI support

Use bits from Penumbra series in Nvidia Profile Inspector
Change the SLI compatibility bits to 0x02400001. Change the NVIDIA predefined SLI mode to SLI_PREDEFINED_MODE_FORCE_AFR2. Click on Apply changes.

High frame rate

All gameplay elements are locked to 60 FPS. This includes physics, puzzles, player movement, input and most animations. This limit can be removed, but will only affect particles and some animations.

Remove FPS cap
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open main_settings.cfg with a text editor. Change LimitFPS="true" to "false".

Input

In-game input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Mouse smoothing can be toggled.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		Xbox 360 style. Only shown when hints appear.
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

DualShock 4 Button Mod

Use SOMA DualShock 4 Button Mod[citation needed]

Download the DualShock 4 Button Mod You only need either the "ps4" or "x360" folder in the archive's graphics/general/input directory so either extract one from the archive or extract the whole archive to a folder, taking one and discarding the rest. Right off the bat your can also discard the files but_middle, dpad_base, dpad_down, dpad_left, dpad_right and dpad_up. Rename stick_l and stick_r to gamepad_ls and gamepad_rs, then add gamepad_ to the remaining dpad files (i.e. dpad_u becomes gamepad_dpad_u) and finnally replace the but_ prefix on the remaining files with a gamepad_ prefix. Navigate to <path-to-game>\gui\gamepad\ and drop the renamed files from the archive in this folder, replace all when asked.

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Only master volume slider.
Surround sound		DirectSound3D output by default. See below if running Vista or later. Up to 7.0.
Subtitles
Closed captions		Additional toggle button for effects.
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Restore hardware devices

Employ OpenAL Soft

Download OpenAL Soft (PCGamingWiki mirror). Extract archive, navigate to Win32 folder from this archive. Locate file soft_oal.dll and copy it to <path-to-game>. Launch game launcher and navigate to the Sound options tab. There should be new Unsupported device. Select it and launch the game. In case there is no Unsupported device: Launch game with soft_oal.dll file in the same folder as game's exe file. Quit game. Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open launcher.log. Locate section Initializing Sound Module. There are all available sound devices. Open main_settings.cfg from the same Main folder. Locate line <Sound Device= and change to corresponding value of sound device from launcher.log.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Basque				Fan translation. Available to download.
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese				Fan translation. Available to download.
Czech				Fan translation. Available to download. Fan dub is available to download from here.
Dutch				Fan translation for Justine only. Available to download.
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation. Available to download.
Italian
Japanese				Fan translation. Available to download.
Korean				Fan translation. Available to download. Localization for The Dark Descent and Justine.
Polish				1) Retail only. 2) Fan dub for the base game by BDiP. Both are available here.
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish				Official translation. Available an improved fan translation by Clan Dlan with Justine DLC, download, also made ones for several mods. Fan translation and fan dub, download.
Turkish				Fan translation. Available to download.
Ukrainian				Fan translation. Available to download. Only Justine is dubbed. To activate it run the launcher and there select language "Українська" and start the game.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		Use 3D Surround Gaming.
vorpX		G3D Official supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues fixed

Check the support page.

"Failed to load menu config file" error

Verify the integrity of game cache[citation needed]
Find Amnesia: The Dark Descent in your Steam Library Right-click the game name Select Properties Go to the Local Files tab Click Verify Integrity of Game Cache This will download missing files, it may take a while, depending on how many files are missing.

Disable Steam Community in-game[citation needed]
Find Amnesia: The Dark Descent in your Steam Library Right-click the game name Select Properties Uncheck Enable Steam Community In-Game Go to the Updates tab Change to Don't Update Press OK Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Amnesia (on Windows) and delete the folder named Main Reboot the game, this should fix the problem. The Main folder will be recreated once the game is rebooted

Adjusting in-game gamma does nothing

Disable gamma changing programs such as f.lux[citation needed]

Gamma changes persist after exiting the game

If the in-game gamma setting is increased, it can sometimes alter the desktop's gamma even after the game is closed.

Use f.lux to restore gamma[citation needed]
Download and install f.lux. Run it and the desktop gamma should return to normal.

Enable Nvidia's own color settings in the Nvidia Control Panel[citation needed]

Walking on the ceiling

Disable insanity[citation needed]
Go to the in-game Options >> Graphics >> Advanced Options. Disable insanity.

Update graphics drivers[citation needed]

Lamp lights through walls

Use a dedicated gpu[citation needed]
Go to the graphics software. Tell it to use the dedicated gpu-card.

Disable switchable graphics[citation needed]
Go to the BIOS. Disable switchable graphics.

Mouse cursor stuck in corner after Alt+Tab

Update file SDL.dll from version 1.2.14.0 to 1.2.15.0
Download the updated DLL file from here and copy and replace in the game's folder.

Disable fullscreen[citation needed]
Optionally, use a borderless windowed software.

Bring up the Steam Overlay before using Alt+Tab ↹

Skyboxes in custom stories are corrupted

Replace DevIL library with and older version
Download older DevIL DLL file from here and copy and replace in the game's folder.

Camera/Mouse keeps resetting to screen center on Linux

Disable unclutter[citation needed]
The 'unclutter' program may be running in the background. Terminate it through task-manager or the following command in a terminal: kill `pidof unclutter`

Screen zoomed in or is offset at high resolutions

Edit Compatibility
Right click the .exe. Go to "Properties" and then to "Compatibility" tab. Go to "Change high DPI settings". Make sure the "Override high DPI scaling behavior" box is checked and set to "Application". Save and exit.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
OpenGL	2.1

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows				[citation needed]
macOS (OS X)				Version prior to the Hard Mode update had 10.5 as the minimum OS requirement and were even universal binary for PowerPC support.
Linux

The 64-bit application for macOS is currently in development and will be released later in 2020.^{[citation needed]}

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Newton Game Dynamics
Audio	OpenAL	6.14.0357.24
Interface	Fast Light Tool Kit (FLTK)

Mods

Enhanced Shaders - Improves shaders, such as bloom and SSAO.

Improved lantern - Adds a more realistic and detailed lantern model. Also incorporates the Dynamic shadows from lantern mod.

The Darkest Descent - An overhaul mod which will add new modes to play the main story of the game.

New Insanity Ear Ring - Makes the tinnitus effect more realistic.

Virtual Surround Music - Ups the music to 2.1 Virtual Surround.

Amnesia The Dark Descent Remastered - Overhauls the graphics of the game.

Sclerosis, An Amnesia VR Remake - A VR remake of the game in the Unity Engine.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	2.0Ghz - Low budget CPUs such as Celeron or Duron needs to be at about twice the CPU speed
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X1000 Nvidia GeForce 6 series Integrated graphics and low budget cards might not work

Drivers should be from Nvidia/ATI to ensure proper functionality.

Graphics cards that do not support OpenGL 3.0 will not be able to run the game at all. Laptops that contain integrated graphics cards generally do not support OpenGL 3.0.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.7.5 - 10.15.0. This product is not compatiable with macOS 10.15 Catalina or later.
Processor (CPU)	2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X1000 Nvidia GeForce 6 series Integrated Intel Graphics not supported

Drivers should be from Nvidia/ATI to ensure proper functionality.

Graphics cards that do not support OpenGL 3.0 will not be able to run the game at all. Laptops that contain integrated graphics cards generally do not support OpenGL 3.0.

Linux
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Mint 13 LTS, Fedora 16
Processor (CPU)	2.0Ghz - Low budget CPUs such as Celeron or Duron needs to be at about twice the CPU speed
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X1000 Nvidia GeForce 6 series Integrated graphics and low budget cards might not work

Drivers should be from Nvidia/ATI to ensure proper functionality.

Graphics cards that do not support OpenGL 3.0 will not be able to run the game at all. Laptops that contain integrated graphics cards generally do not support OpenGL 3.0, trough some are able to run the game.