Battlefield 3

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Battlefield 3

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Developers
	DICE
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Frostbite 2
Release dates
Windows	October 25, 2011

Key points

PC version features 64 player multiplayer, high resolution textures, high quality shadows and more PC-specific features.

Most bugs have been resolved with patches, minor updates released many months after the official release.

Although some issues still exist, like long loading times for non-DLC maps.

General information

BF3 on Battlelog - PC section.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Amazon.com
Green Man Gaming
Origin

All versions require Origin activation to play.

Green Man Gaming frequently releases discount coupons up to 25% (which stack upon existing discounts unless otherwise mentioned).

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Aftermath
Air Vehicle Shortcut
Armored Kill
Assault Kit Shortcut
Back to Karkand
Close Quarters
Co-op Weapons Shortcut
End Game
Engineer Kit Shortcut
Ground Vehicle Shortcut
Kit Shortcut Bundle
Promotional Items
Recon Kit Shortcut
SPECACT Kit & Dog Tag Bundle
Support Kit Shortcut
The Ultimate Shortcut Bundle
Vehicle Shortcut Bundle

Essential improvements

TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game.

Performance boost

This command disables the engine's deferred compute shader lighting path. This may give a large FPS boost in open, outdoor areas, but possibly may reduce performance in heavily lit scenes. Most users report only the performance boost, including inside closed areas.

This command provides no graphical change.

Instructions

Console commands

Launch console with ~.

Command	Description
Render.DrawFps 1	Show FPS counter
Render.PerfOverlayVisible 1	Show performance graph
GameTime.MaxVariableFPS #	Limit frame rate (where # is a positive number)
RenderDevice.TripleBufferingEnable 1	Enable Triple-Buffering (only recommended if Vsync is on)
RenderDevice.RenderAheadLimit 1	Force rendering only 1 frame ahead (may remove stutter, default value is 3)
Screenshot.Render	Take a screenshot (into %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 3\Screenshots\)

You can have these commands run automatically, whenever you start the game, by entering them in user.cfg in the Battlefield 3 installation folder (the file won't exist by default, you can create it through a notepad and save as a .cfg file).

Optimal video settings

You may use any configuration with-which you are satisfied. The following tips serve to balance graphical fidelity, function and performance.

Setting textures to High may eliminate texture pop-in, if it is happening to you.

Setting effects to Low is recommended. Other levels show no particular improvement, it only adds a little bloom around fire sparkles.

Settings mesh to Ultra is recommended as it allows you to spot enemies at a greater distance.

Set anisotropic filtering to the maximum value your PC can handle. Better AF comes as a minimal (or none) performance cost and significantly improves graphical fidelity.

Running the game on a separate partition/drive

Instructions

Alternatively you could just copy the battlefield 3 folder to somewhere else, uninstall it, change the default installation path in origin, move the copied folder to this new location and install it with Origin.

Play the game without Origin

Instructions

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

Template:Game data/row

System	Location

Save game data location

Template:Game data/row

System	Location

meta.xml, PROF_SAVE_body, PROF_SAVE_header and PROF_SAVE_profile are the save files.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin

Video settings

300px

In-game settings.

Audio settings

Localizations

Some regions do not include all languages; see Change game language.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Network

Update PunkBuster using the PBSetup utility to fix most issues.

If you have the option in your router setup, put your IP in the DMZ. This fixes for example the issue where you cannot coop with a friend but otherwise the multiplayer works fine.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play
Online play		64

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking		May not be reliable.
Dedicated
Self-hosting		Servers must be rented from approved providers.
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	80, 443, 9988, 17502, 20000-20100, 22990, 42127
UDP	3659, 14000-14016, 22990-23006, 25200-25300

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision
TriDef 3D
iZ3D

Issues unresolved

Game uses most of the computers memory

Some users with AMD cards are reporting a memory leak that makes the game unplayable. Even after closing the game, Task manager still reports nearly full physical memory. Restarting the computer clears the memory. No real fix yet known.

Issues fixed

Character spins uncontrollably using an Acer or Packard Bell PC

Instructions

"Game disconnected: something went wrong" error

Instructions

Game launches with no window, bf3.exe shows in Task Manager

Instructions

"Battlefield 3 has stopped working" error

Instructions

Crash when launching the game

There are various potential fixes for this issue, they are listed below.

Instructions

Game crashes with a sound loop using an ASUS Xonar sound-card

Instructions

Crashes on 32-bit Windows

Instructions

Generic graphics issue fix

Instructions

NVIDIA GTX 500-series freezing or displaying bad graphics

Instructions

Game crashes while using an ASUS-brand GPU

Instructions

Black screen (AMD/ATI)

Instructions

Low GPU usage and FPS (AMD Crossfire)

Instructions

Origin error - "Could not activate"

Instructions

Origin error - "Problem with your setup, please reinstall"

Instructions

Game files installed, Origin claims that they are not

Instructions

Installation error: "Battlefield 3 (BF3) Install Fails, Cannot Install"

Instructions

Mouse lag when using the Origin overlay

Instructions

Weak performance on Intel i3/i5/i7 CPUs (especially Laptops)

Instructions

PunkBuster kicked player 'xxx' (for 0 minutes) ... No Packet Flow

Instructions

Change game language

Instructions

Circled keys

Language	GDFBinary	Locale
English	GDFBinary_en_US.dll	en_US
German	GDFBinary_de_DE.dll	de_DE
French	GDFBinary_fr_FR.dll	fr_FR
Italian	GDFBinary_it_IT.dll	it_IT
Spanish	GDFBinary_es_ES.dll	es_ES
Polish	GDFBinary_pl_PL.dll	pl_PL
Japanese	GDFBinary_ja_JP.dll	ja_JP
Czech	GDFBinary_cs_CZ.dll	cs_CZ

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Vista SP2 32-bit	7 64-bit
Processor (CPU)	AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz	Quad-core
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	20 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon 3870 NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 of VRAM DirectX 10.1 compatible	ATI Radeon 6950 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 1024 MB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectX Compatible