Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

Developers
	Shaba Games
	Treyarch
Windows	Aspyr Media
Publishers
	Activision
Engines
	Treyarch NGL
Release dates
Windows	October 21, 2008
Reception
Metacritic	52
IGDB	70
Taxonomy
Series	Spider-Man

Warnings

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows was developed by Shaba Games and Treyarch, and ported to PC by Aspyr Media. The PC version was released on October 21, 2008 and is based on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. As such, it does not include the alternate suits found in the Nintendo Wii version.

On release the PC version was missing several graphical effects from its console counterparts (bloom, motion blur, character outlines while using Spider-Sense, and some particle effects), and suffered from a reduced draw distance and level of detail (LOD). A v1.1 patch was released to address some of these issues.

Despite the game being designed to run at 30 FPS, the official 1.1 patch removed the frame rate cap. As a result, some mechanics and scripted sequences that are tied to the frame rate may not function as intended.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v4.90.010 DRM.

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Essential improvements

Patches

The 1.1 patch updates the game to the latest version.

The patch removes the 30 FPS cap, fixes some graphical issues, adds the option to enable/disable shadows, particle effects, and special effects to the launcher, and substantially improves the draw distance and level of detail (LOD).

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Activision\Spider-Man Web of Shadows\Config.xml

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Activision\Spider-Man Web of Shadows\

Video

300px

Launcher video options

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor		A multi-monitor hack exists, but objects and textures disappear outside the central 16:9 area.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Use DxWnd
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Use DxWnd
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Forcing in GPU control panel can cause graphical glitches.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Disabling this option can lead to stuttering and inconsistent frame pacing.
60 FPS		30 FPS lock on 1.0 version. Install the official 1.1 update to unlock the frame rate. Note that frame rates higher than 30 FPS can break some mechanics.
120+ FPS		The game has a 60 Hz refresh rate cap which can't be overwritten with GPU control panel. Use DxWnd to overwrite the refresh rate by running the game in windowed or borderless mode while a higher refresh rate is selected; However, double buffered v-sync will be forced and can lead to stuttering if the target frame rate is not always achieved. Due to the game not being able to use multi-core CPUs correctly, high frame rates are difficult to achieve on modern systems.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Negative mouse acceleration.
Mouse sensitivity		Mouse sensitivity varies at framerates higher than 30 FPS. See High framerate issues.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Launcher requires mouse input.
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

Generic/other controllers

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

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles		Some character dialogues are displayed in dialogue boxes.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Russian				Fan translation by «NeoGame»
Spanish

US versions only contain English and French language options.

Issues fixed

High framerate issues

The removal of the 30 FPS cap introduces a number of issues relating to mechanics that tie their function to the framerate. Some examples include:

• The health meter during the gas station defense mission draining much faster than intended, making the mission harder to complete. This bug also affects similar meter-based mechanics, such as Rhino's rage meter later in the game.
• The timing of Web Strikes requiring much more precision due to a shortened window of opportunity.
• Mouse sensitivity and camera control reacting to the variable framerate, leading to inconsistent responses to player input.
• Some 2D elements animating faster than intended while other effects remain locked at 30 FPS.

Cap the framerate to 30 FPS using a compatible third-party tool.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
Linux			The game performs correctly under Wine 8.0, requiring vcrun2005 (fixing the main menu crash) and dotnet35 (for the launcher only) components

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP	Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 6600 ATI Radeon X1300 128 MB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce 7900 ATI Radeon X1950 512 MB of VRAM