Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3

Developers
	DICE
End Game	Visceral Games
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.

General information

Official website

Battlefield 3 on Battlelog - PC section.

Battlefield Wiki

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Incorrect store name. See here for available options.
Origin
Incorrect store name. See here for available options.
Incorrect store name. See here for available options.

All versions require Origin.

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

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.

Play the game without Origin

Warning: no official word from EA, proceed at your own risk.

Instructions

Game data

In-game general settings.

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

In-game video settings.

Input settings

In-game control settings.

In-game key/button map settings.

Audio settings

In-game audio settings.

Localizations

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

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				GDFBinary_en_US.dll, en_US
Traditional Chinese
Czech				GDFBinary_cs_CZ.dll, cs_CZ
French				GDFBinary_fr_FR.dll, fr_FR
German				GDFBinary_de_DE.dll, de_DE
Italian				GDFBinary_it_IT.dll, it_IT
Japanese				GDFBinary_ja_JP.dll, ja_JP
Korean
Polish				GDFBinary_pl_PL.dll, pl_PL
Russian
Spanish				GDFBinary_es_ES.dll, es_ES

Change game language

Instructions

Network

Update PunkBuster using the PBSetup utility to fix most issues.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play
Online play		64

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking		May not be reliable.
Peer-to-peer
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 fixed

"Game disconnected: something went wrong" error

Instructions

"Battlefield 3 has stopped working" error

Instructions

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

Instructions

Crashes on 32-bit Windows

Instructions

NVIDIA GTX 500-series freezing or displaying bad graphics

Instructions

Black screen (AMD/ATI)

Instructions

Origin error - "Could not activate"

Instructions

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

Instructions

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

Instructions

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11
Shader Model support	5

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	PunkBuster

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).

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