BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite

Developers
	Irrational Games
	2K Australia
	Iron Galaxy Studios
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Linux	Virtual Programming
Publishers
	2K Games
OS X	Aspyr Media
Russia	1C-SoftClub
Engines
	Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows	March 26, 2013
macOS (OS X)	August 29, 2013
Linux	March 17, 2015
Reception
Metacritic	94
IGDB	93
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Shooter
Themes	Sci-fi, Steampunk
Series	BioShock

BioShock
BioShock	2007
BioShock 2	2010
BioShock Infinite	2013
BioShock Remastered	2016
BioShock 2 Remastered	2016

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.

BioShock Infinite is a singleplayer first-person shooter game in the BioShock series.

The PC version was noted as a quality port, including graphics and control options.

The game has a built-in benchmark mode which can be accessed through launcher in Advanced menu. On Linux, however, the command line argument DefaultPCBenchmarkMap.xcmap -unattended needs to be included to access it. Aim-assist is on by default even when not using a controller, but can be fixed.

General information

Port Report: BioShock Infinite

2K Games Forums

Official support knowledgebase

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		3 DVDs.
Developer website
Amazon.co.uk
Epic Games Store		Complete Edition. Requires 2K Launcher.
GamersGate
		Sold by 2K Games.
		Sold by Aspyr Media.
GOG.com		Complete Edition.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam		As of 31 August 2022, 2K Launcher is required.
Amazon.com (unavailable)
Mac App Store (unavailable)

Windows versions use Custom Executable Generation DRM on Steam.

All Linux versions require Steam DRM.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Season Pass
Early Bird Special Pack	Exclusive to the Season Pass.
Columbia's Finest
Clash in the Clouds	Part of the Season Pass.
Burial At Sea: Episode One	Part of the Season Pass.
Burial At Sea: Episode Two	Part of the Season Pass.

Essential improvements

Enable GUI scaling

By default, GUI elements do not scale with resolution, making these elements smaller the higher the resolution is.

GUI scaling tweak
Go to the configuration files location. Open XUI.ini. Locate lines MaxResolutionUpScale=0.0 and change value to something between 0.0 and 1.0. See screenshots for examples. Default value of 0.0 MaxResolutionUpScale=0.5 MaxResolutionUpScale=1.0 Default value of 0.0 MaxResolutionUpScale=0.5 MaxResolutionUpScale=1.0

Skip intro videos

Replace files[citation needed]
Download this archive. Extract to the installation folder and replace all files.

Edit Configuration File[citation needed]

Go to the configuration files location. Open XEngine.ini. Locate section [FullScreenMovie] and comment out these lines by putting a semicolon (;) at the beginning of each: StartupMovies=2KLogoSweep720p2997 StartupMovies=IrrationalLogoTest StartupMovies=UE3AnimatedLogo_ProRes StartupMovies=AMDLogo720p Save the file as read-only to prevent the tweak from randomly reverting. Do not touch this line or you won't be able to reach the main menu: StartupMovies=LoopingMovieUntilStartupFinishes

Skip launcher

Use the "BioShockInfinite" -run %command% command line argument on Steam.

Epic Games Store

Before editing, make a backup of the A1C5450F42F031DBDEB4E2854FC6C5A7.item file in case the modifications go wrong. Go to %PROGRAMDATA%\Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\Data\Manifests. Open A1C5450F42F031DBDEB4E2854FC6C5A7.item with Notepad or another text editor. Using the Find function (Ctrl+F), search for 2KLauncher/LauncherPatcher.exe. There will be exactly one entry. Replace the text with Binaries/Win32/ShippingPC-XGame.exe. Restart Epic Games Store.

Game data

Exiting to desktop or main menu reveals the local date of the last checkpoint.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\BioShock Infinite\XGame\Config\
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/irrationalgames/bioshockinfinite/GameDocuments/My Games/BioShock Infinite/

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Key mappings are encrypted which prevents sharing key bind files or creating custom commands.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\BioShock Infinite\XGame\SaveData
macOS (OS X)
Steam	<Steam-folder>/userdata/<user-id>/8870/

Game creates an automatic permanent save at the beginning of each chapter. These saves are automatically overwritten if replaying from a previous chapter.

Only one save game is able to be played at any one time.

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

In-game graphics settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor			Full 3xLandscape. HUD may not be centred by default; see Multi-monitor.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD			GUI may be too small; see Enable GUI scaling.
Field of view (FOV)		Limited FOV adjustment of 15°. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		On Windows, set fullscreen mode to "Fullscreen (Windowed)".
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA only.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Option is called "Lock Framerate".
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Multi-monitor

The HUD may not be centred automatically for multi-monitor setups.^{[citation needed]}

Centering HUD on multi-monitor setups[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open XGame.ini. Change bUseDefaultSafeRect=true to bUseDefaultSafeRect=False. Change SafeRectX0 and SafeRectX1 to the horizontal area you want the HUD to be within. Change SafeRectY1 to the height of your monitors. For example, on a 5760x1080 resolution it would be SafeRectX0=1920, SafeRectX1=3840, SafeRectY0=0, SafeRectY1=1080

Field of view (FOV)

There is an FOV slider in the game options, however it only increases/decreases FOV by 15% from the default value of 70° (59.5° - 80.5°).

FOV slider expansion[citation needed]

Go to the configuration files location. Open XUserOptions.ini. Locate line MaxUserFOVOffsetPercent=15.000000 and change its value to 100 for maximum variability. This value is in percent and not degrees. See table below for precise field of view values. Start the game and set your field of view via slider in menu. Default FOV. Default FOV slider to the max. Slider offset set to 100 and slider set to the max.

Maximum FoV by slider	MaxUserFOVOffsetPercent value
85	21.43
90	28.57
95	35.71
100	42.86
105	50.00
110	57.14
120	60.00

Increase light shaft quality

Makes light shafts higher resolution.

Edit configuration file
Set light shafts to on in the in-game settings. Exit the game, open the XEngine.ini file and set the following line accordingly: UseHighQualityLightShaftRendering=True Save the file and close it.

Increase shadow quality past maximum setting

Makes shadows retain high quality even when cast by small objects or viewed close by.

Edit configuration file
Set dynamic shadows to ultra in the in-game settings. Exit the game, open the XEngine.ini file and set the following lines accordingly: MinShadowResolution=4096 MinPreShadowResolution=4096 MaxShadowResolution=4096 MaxPerObjectShadowResolution=4096 Save the file and close it.

Disable depth of field

Does not provide any performance gains.

Edit configuration file
Set postprocessing to alternate in the in-game settings. Exit the game, open the XEngine.ini file and set the following line accordingly: SM5DiffusionNearBlurScale=0.000000 SM5DiffusionFarBlurScale=0.000000 Save the file and close it.

Disable lens flare and dirt effect

Both effects are controlled by a single setting.

Disable lens flare and dirt effect[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open XEngine.ini. Change LensFlares=True to LensFlares=False.

Disable all post-processing effects

Some of the post-processing effects can only be disabled in the game's XEngine.ini file. These effects include depth of field, light bloom, and color correction.

Disabling post-processing[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open XEngine.ini. Change DepthOfField=True to DepthOfField=False. DepthOfField=True. DepthOfField=False.

Turn off texture streaming

May cause game to enter an infinite loading loop. If it does, turn texture streaming back on, leave that area of the game, and turn it off again once you leave the area.

Edit Configuration File[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open XEngine.ini. Change these lines and save as read-only: MipFadeInSpeed0=0 MipFadeOutSpeed0=0 MipFadeInSpeed1=0 MipFadeOutSpeed1=0 OnlyStreamInTextures=True PoolSize=0 LoadMapTimeLimit=999 LightmapStreamingFactor=0 ShadowmapStreamingFactor=0 bAllowSwitchingStreamingSystem=False UseDynamicStreaming=False

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Some keys cannot be rebound in the Burial at Sea DLC. "F" is always "take all" when looting. ↵ Enter, ← Backspace, Tab ↹, and Esc are reserved for menu commands and cannot be bound.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Precise customization only available through INI edits.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Can choose between a handful of presets.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration		Use X1nput

PlayStation controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Generic/other controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Rapidly changes button prompts

Mouse speed slider tweak

Slider for mouse speed is set to very wide range, which can be unsuitable for high precision mice.

Mouse slider tweak[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open XUserOptions.ini. Locate lines MinMouseLookSensitivity=0.010000 and MaxMouseLookSensitivity=1.500000 and change values to your taste. Values 0.05 for MinMouse and 0.5 for MaxMouse works OK Start the game and set your desired sensitivity via slider.

Change aim down sights behaviour from toggle to hold

AutoHotkey script for hold to aim[citation needed]

Download and install AutoHotkey. Let application create sample script. This script file should open after installation. Delete everything and insert the lines below. Open AutoHotkey window (green H icon in tray area), navigate to File and hit Reload Script. #IfWinActive BioShock Infinite $mbutton:: Send {mbutton} KeyWait, mbutton Return mbutton Up::Send {mbutton} Notes This is script for default bindings where aiming is bind to middle mouse button. For aiming by right mouse button replace MButton for RButton. For bindings to other keys, see Hotkeys and KeyList sections of AutoHotkey documentation for button syntaxes. If your zoom gets stuck, you can reset with the run key.

Change aim down sights behaviour from toggle to hold - Version that solves getting stuck with reversed controls

AutoHotkey script for hold to aim[citation needed]

Download and install AutoHotkey. Create a new text file using any text editor you like and save it with the extension .ahk Paste the code below and save the file. Run the file as administrator by right clicking on the file and choosing "Run As Administrator" #NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases. #Warn ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors. SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir% ; Ensures a consistent starting directory. #IfWinActive BioShock Infinite ShiftKeyPressed := false RButton:: Send {RButton} ShiftKeyPressed := false While (GetKeyState("RButton", "P")) { if (GetKeyState("LShift", "D")) { ShiftKeyPressed := true break } } RButton Up:: if(ShiftKeyPressed) { return } else { Send {RButton} ShiftKeyPressed := false return } LShift:: Send {LShift} While (GetKeyState("LShift", "P")) { if (GetKeyState("RButton", "D")) { break } } LShift Up:: Send {LShift} Notes This version prevents your aim from getting stuck reversed and having to press shift to get out of it.

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Master, music, SFX and voice.
Surround sound		Auto configures up to 5.0 output.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		Linux only. In alsoft-config set HRTF Mode to Force On at the HRTF tab.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation.
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian				Official UI/subtitles localization by «1C-Softclub». Fan (audio) localization by CGInfo
Spanish
Turkish				Fan translation.

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			Use Helix Mod: Bioshock Infinite.
TriDef 3D
vorpX		G3D, DirectVR Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest

Issues unresolved

Windows

Freezing and crashing

There have been reports of crashing and freezing, possibly related to i7 processors. 2K is aware of this issue and there should be patch soon.^{[citation needed]}

Possible fixes[citation needed]

If the game crashes on start-up, disable any on-screen display applications like MSI Afterburner. Disable overclocking or underclock your graphics card. Disable Killer e2200 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller or any other virtual/VPN network adapters like Hamachi. Backup and move the Bioshock Infinite folder in your Documents folder/My Games/Bioshock Infinite/. Start up game to let it rebuild the folder itself to fix crashes during loading Disable the Nvidia Overlay

Issues fixed

Stuttering during gameplay

Texture Pool Size Fix
Set the PoolSize variable in XEngine.ini to about 400 less than the total number of Megabytes RAM your video card has (e.g if you have 2048 MB of video RAM set this to 1600). Add this launch option in Steam: -ReadTexturePoolFromIni. Alternatively, use the -DisableTexturePool launch option.

Texture streaming quality problems

When the game can't detect or detects wrong video memory size, it automatically enables only Very Low and Low options for texture quality.

There is also an issue on some systems that selecting Very High or Ultra for texture quality will cause to textures never load properly and game tries to load them over and over.

Low texture quality and streaming fix
Go to the configuration files location. Open XEngine.ini. Locate section [TextureStreaming] and change appropriate lines as shown: [TextureStreaming] UseTextureFileCache=False TexturePoolSizeReductionMB=1500 PoolSize=3000 LowPCTexturePoolSizeMB=3000

FPS dropping

Nvidia cards experience FPS drops in certain areas when Dynamic Shadows is set to Very High or Ultra.

Vsync bug fix
Go to the configuration files location. Open XEngine.ini. Locate section [SystemSettings] and change: VsyncTo60WhenUnder30=False to VsyncTo60WhenUnder30=True

Make the Game Hor+

Edit Configuration File[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open XEngine.ini. add this line: AspectRatioAxisConstraint=AspectRatio_MaintainYFOV

Disable aim-assist

Aim-assist is on by default even when using keyboard and mouse.

There are some auto aim variables in the .ini files but these variables are reverted to True every time you start the game. There is no permanent fix yet.

Permanent Partial Solution
This fix affects user options configurations, if you need to make a config in game do it before trying this. Go to the configuration files location. Open XUserOptions.ini. Change bAimAssist and DefaultbAimAssist to false Save the changes and make XUserOptions.ini read only.

Temporary auto aim fix
This fix needs to be applied every time the game is started. Start the game with a controller plugged in. Go to controller options and turn off Aim-Assist. Unplug controller and play the game.

Windows

Crash on start for some Windows 7 and 8 users

Force start in Windowed Mode[citation needed]
Run the game with the -windowed command line argument. Open the graphics options and set the game to run full screen. Close the game, remove the launch option, then restart the game.

Run Steam as an administrator and the game itself NOT as an administrator[citation needed]

Change the Documents folder back to default if it has been moved[citation needed]

Cannot restore game after Alt-Tab

Exit TeamViewer

Xbox controls even with no controller attached

Bioshock Infinite auto-detects any controllers/joysticks attached to the system including virtual ones. This could make the game uncontrollable, cause the camera to spin, and label the menu with Xbox prompts.

Remove all controllers[citation needed]

Remove all physical controllers and joysticks. Disable all virtual controllers These can be included in software for gaming mice and keyboards Disable Unified Remote. Disable virtual adapter for 3DConnexion devices. To disable controller support, edit %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\BioShock Infinite\XGame\Config\XEngine.ini and change AllowJoystickInput=1 to AllowJoystickInput=0. Save your changes.

Microstuttering

Adaptive and dynamic V-Sync[citation needed]

These forms of V-Sync significantly reduce micro-stuttering. For Nvidia cards, Adaptive V-Sync can be enabled through the driver control panel. Set Vertical sync to Adaptive. For AMD cards, Dynamic V-Sync can be enabled using the third-party program RadeonPro. Click the Add new profile icon and find the BioShock Infinite executable (<path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32\BioShockInfinite.exe). Click the newly created profile and click the Tweaks tab. Set VSync Control to Always on. Enable Dynamic Framerate Control and set Keep up to to 60.

Mice with high polling rates can sometimes cause microstuttering.

Fix for Razer mice
Open Razer Synapse. Click on the "Performance" tab. Change the "Polling Rate" to 125 Hz.

Audio crackling

Update GPU drivers[citation needed]

Run the game in compatibility mode
Audio stutter may also be fixed by enabling compatibility mode for Windows Vista SP2. Go to <path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32\. Right-click on BioShockInfinite.exe, go to the compatibility tab, tick the box and select Windows Vista Service Pack 2.

Linux

Game starts on the wrong screen

Start with a a command line option[citation needed]
Launch the game with --eon_force_display=#, replacing # with the index of the monitor you want the game to launch on.

Game starts on the wrong screen, wrong aspect ratio

In a multi-monitor configuration where 1 monitor is portrait and 1 monitor landscape and where game starts on portrait monitor and is forced to run on the landscape monitor using --eon_force_display, game does not recognize landscape monitor's aspect ratio and will only allow portrait aspect ratios/resolutions.

No real fix is available at this time.

Pending fix[citation needed]
De-rotating the portrait screen will allow selection of landscape aspect ratios, but it is not persistent. The portrait monitor must be de-rotated before playing as a workaround. In XUserOptions.ini setting ResolutionX=<DesiredWidth>, ResolutionY=<DesiredHeight>, and DisplayMode=0 (fullscreen) will allow the game to run in widescreen, but you are restricted to fullscreen play.

Wayland fix[citation needed]
On Wayland, an alternative solution is to use gamescope acting as a virtual single monitor, to avoid issues caused by a multi-monitor setup. Install or build gamecope and add the following to Bioshock: Infinites launch options in Steam: path/to/gamescope -e -w <DesiredWidth> -h <DesiredHeight> -W <DesiredWidth> -H <DesiredHeight> -f -- %command%

Game uses system mouse acceleration

The game uses mouse acceleration, even if mouse acceleration is turned off in-game.

Disable mouse acceleration in the system before game launches[citation needed]

Open the terminal and type xinput list to look up your mouse name (the Virtual core pointer section) In Steam, go to the Bioshock Infinite launch options (Properties -> SET LAUNCH OPTIONS...) Copy the following into the text-field (replace 'MOUSENAME' with the name you got in step 1, include the quotation marks): xinput --set-prop 'MOUSENAME' 'Device Accel Profile' -1 ; %command% ; xinput --set-prop 'MOUSENAME' 'Device Accel Profile' 0 Notes This will disable mouse acceleration in your system before launching the game and enable it again when the game closes (which might take a couple of seconds). Graphical user interfaces for mouse settings (e.g. mate-mouse-properties) might not be aware of the changes. It's best not to touch them while the game is running.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	10, 11
OpenGL	3.3, 4.1, 4.2	3.3 on OS X, 4.1/4.2 on Linux.
Shader Model support	4, 5

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)			32-bit only.
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX
Audio	Wwise, OpenAL	OpenAL is used in Linux
Interface	Autodesk Gameware, SDL	SDL is used in Linux
Input	SDL	Linux only, for gamepads.
Cutscenes	Bink Video

Gameplay overhaul mod

Works with Steam, EGS, and GOG game versions.

The mod implements FOV and sensitivity scaling, sprint normalization, hitmarker sounds, a better DOF calculation, health and salts regeneration and the option to remove the head bobbing effect.

Download the mod here, then extract its contents in <path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32\. Open ModernWarfare_Settings.ini. Change the options as desired and save. Options Custom Base Game FOV. Custom FOV scaling while aiming. Custom Sensitivity scaling while aiming. Custom FOV and Sensitivity scaling for the Sniper. Custom Hitmarker and Killfeed sounds. Custom Health Regeneration. Custom Salt Regeneration. FOV and Sensitivity Normalization while Sprinting. Better Depth of Field calculation for the weapons. Removal of Head Bobbing effect. Aim while Holding.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Vista SP2	7 SP1
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz	Quad Core
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	20 GB	30 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT ATI Radeon HD 3870 Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB of VRAM DirectX 10 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 AMD Radeon HD 6950 1 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectX compatible

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.12
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	30 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 640M ATI Radeon HD 3870 Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 775M ATI Radeon HD 5870

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 14.10, Mint 17.1
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz	Intel Core i5 3 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	20 GB	30 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia or AMD OpenGL 4.1 compatible	OpenGL 4.2 compatible