Alan Wake

Alan Wake
Alan Wake	2012
Alan Wake's American Nightmare	2012

Key points

PC version features high resolution textures, texture filtering, high quality shadows and more PC-specific features.

General information

Official forums

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Steam Users' Forums for game series

Availability[edit]

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Amazon.com
GamersGate
Gamesplanet
GameStop
GOG.com
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store		Includes Alan Wake's American Nightmare.
Origin		Collector's Edition.
Steam

The only places where the soundtrack can be bought are Amazon.com, Origin and Steam.

The bonus content of the Collector's Edition can be found in the installation folder of the game.

Downloadable content (DLC) and expansions

Base game includes all DLC released for the Xbox 360 version.

Name	Notes
Alan Wake Collector's Edition Extras
Alan Wake Bonus Materials	Free

Essential improvements[edit]

Skip intro videos[edit]

Delete/rename video files^{[citation needed]}

Go to <path-to-game>\data\videos\
Delete or rename startup_mgs.bik and startup_remedy.bik

Game data[edit]

Configuration file(s) and save game data location[edit]

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Remedy\AlanWake
Steam	<Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\108710

resolution.xml controls screen resolution as well as debugging information.

Save game cloud syncing[edit]

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings[edit]

Graphics settings.

Advanced options for graphics.

Graphics option	Option	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Use Windowed Borderless Gaming.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Cannot be switched off as an option. 2x MSAA is the minimum.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS		No frame rate or refresh rate cap.^[1]

Field of view (FOV)[edit]

Suggested values by aspect ratio:

Aspect Ratio	FOV
16:9, 16:10, 15:9	FOV 11
21:9 (2560x1080)	FOV 13
15:4 (3840x1024)	FOV 15
48:10 (5040x1050)	FOV 19
48:9 (5760x1080)	FOV 20

Input settings[edit]

Controls settings.

Keyboard and mouse	Native	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		On by default. Enable Direct Aiming in the controls to disable it.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		XInput controllers only.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Two layouts only.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Additional information
Button prompts
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback

Binding Enter or Backspace to actions[edit]

Edit keybinds.xml^{[citation needed]}

Go to the configuration file(s) location.
Open keybinds.xml.
For the action you want to set to ↵ Enter use key="0x1c", or use key="0x0e" to set to ← Backspace.

Audio settings[edit]

Audio options	Native	Notes
Separate volume controls		Separate controls for music, effects, speech, and cinematic.
Surround sound		Auto configures up to 7.1 output^[2]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	CC	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Russian
Spanish				Includes localization for Spain and Latin American^[3] countries.
Turkish				Use Alan Wake - %100 Türkçe Yama.

Latin American Spanish localization[edit]

Features its own dubbing.

Configure the game in Latin American Spanish^{[citation needed]}

Connect to Steam and download the language pack.
Right-click on Alan Wake - Properties.
Click Set Launch Options on the General tab.
Enter this command: -locale=esm

VR support[edit]

3D modes	Native	GG3D	Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision			Use Helix Mod: Alan Wake for better 3D support.
TriDef 3D
iZ3D

Issues unresolved[edit]

Commentary audio volume too high[edit]

The volume for audio commentary cannot be changed and may be too high for some users. It was lowered slightly in 1.02 to be "more sensible".

Issues fixed[edit]

Low frame rate and stuttering[edit]

Disable forced anti-aliasing^{[citation needed]}

Open the control panel for your graphics card.
In the relevant section, disable forced anti-aliasing and instead adhere to the application settings.

"No World Loaded" error[edit]

This is caused by a corrupted download.

Fix corrupted files^{[citation needed]}

Use the Steam client's "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" option or redownload the game installer from GOG.com.

Everything is black and white on Intel graphics[edit]

This glitch causes all the graphics in the game to appear white, black and dark grey, while all the lighting and shadows seem to work.

This occurs on (even slightly) older Intel graphics drivers (confirmed with the one that ships with Apple's Boot Camp drivers for Windows 8).

Update graphics driver^{[citation needed]}

Download and install the appropriate driver for your graphics adapter and OS from Intel's Download Center.

Nvidia Control Panel forced anisotropic filtering disables "darkness effect"[edit]

On Nvidia cards, if anisotropic filtering is forced through Nvidia Control Panel, "darkness effect" post processing (swirls, blur) is missing. Issue is solved by changing AF in Nvidia Control Panel to application controlled and enabling 16x anisotropic filtering in the game options.

Other information[edit]

Disabling blur effects[edit]

Turn all blur effects off^{[citation needed]}

Start the game with the command line parameter -noblur.

Turn only motion blur off^{[citation needed]}

Download this archive and unpack it.
Copy VectorBlur.obj to folder shaders/build/pc/ found in the installation path of the game.

Command line parameters[edit]

Set these parameters to change certain hidden settings or force different options at start-up.^[4]

Command	Notes
`-hX`	Screen height (e.g. -h720).
`-wX`	Screen width (e.g. -w1280).
`-window`	Force windowed.
`-novsync`	Disables Vsync.
`-showfps`	Shows frame rate counter.
`-forcesurround`	Forces 5.1 speaker mode.
`-forcestereo`	Forces stereo speak mode.
`-nosound`	Disables sound.
`-cleancloud`	Deletes save games and settings for Alan Wake from the Steam Cloud.
`-noblur`	Disables the in-game vector blur.
`-locale=xx`	Forces a selected locale.
`-rigidcamera`	Modifies mouse aim behavior.
`-directaiming`	Removes all mouse acceleration, also enables -rigidcamera.
`-sensscale`	mouse sensitivity multiplier (e.g. -sensscale=0.123)
`-nativekeys`	Fixes Windows language bar or input language disappearance.
`-developermenu`	Unlocks all episodes and allows you to play at Nightmare difficulty without completing the game first on lower difficulties.
`-freecamera`	Pressing the right thumb stick enables/disables freecamera mode. There is no keyboard switch.

System requirements[edit]

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP2	7
Processor (CPU)	2 GHz Dual core	2.66 GHz Quad core
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	8 GB
Video card (GPU)	512 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible	AMD Radeon 4890 Nvidia GeForce GTX260 1 GB of VRAM

References

[1] New 120Hz Games Report

[2] PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up

[3] Latin American Spanish Language Pack is available - Remedy Community Forums

[4] Alan Wake PC Support FAQ and Known Issues FAQ - Steam Users' Forums

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Developers

	Remedy Entertainment
Windows	Nitro Games
Publishers
	Nordic Games
Engines
	MAX-FX
Release dates
Windows	February 16, 2012