Dead Island

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Dead Island
Dead Island cover
Developers
Techland
macOS (OS X) Virtual Programming
Publishers
Deep Silver
Engines
Chrome Engine 5
Release dates
Windows September 6, 2011
OS X April 2, 2014
Linux October 24, 2014
 
Error: no local variable "coopgameid" was set./pc/Error: no local variable "coopurl" was set..html  
 
 
 
Dead Island
Dead Island 2011
Dead Island: Riptide 2013
Escape Dead Island 2014
Dead Island: Definitive Edition 2016
Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition 2016
Dead Island: Retro Revenge 2016
Dead Island 2 TBA

This page is for the original release. For the Definitive Edition, see Dead Island: Definitive Edition.

Key points

The Dead Island Helper utility can be used to fix many bugs and tweak advanced graphics settings.

General information

Dead Island Wiki
Steam Community Discussions
Steam Users' Forums

Availability[edit]

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
 
 
 
 
Amazon.com
 
 Game of the Year Edition
 
 
 
Mac App Store
 
 OS X only. Cannot play with Steam players.[1]
 
Origin
 
 Game of the Year Edition only.
 
 
 
All Windows and Linux versions require Steam DRM.
Following the release of Dead Island: Definitive Edition, the game has been pulled from most digital distribution platforms.

Version differences[edit]

Steam and Mac App Store players cannot play together.[1]
The Game of the Year edition contains all DLC.

Downloadable content (DLC) and expansions

Name Notes
Dead Island Upgrade Pack Contains all DLC. Available on Amazon.com.
 
 
 
Bloodbath Arena
 
 
 
Ryder White
 
 
 
Blueprint "The Ripper" Weapon
 
 
 

Essential improvements[edit]

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.

Dead Island Helper[edit]

Utility to apply fixes and tweaks to the game.
Not compatible with Dead Island: Definitive Edition.[2]

Skip intro videos[edit]

Use the -nologos command line argument[citation needed]

Game data[edit]

Configuration files location[edit]

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dead Island\out\Settings\
macOS (OS X)
Linux <path-to-game>/DI/out/Settings/
This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location[edit]

System Location
Steam <Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\91310\remote\out\

Save game cloud syncing[edit]

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Syncs save games and settings.

Video settings[edit]

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.
Graphics option Option WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
 
Multi-monitor
 
Ultra-widescreen
 
Field of view (FOV)
Use Widescreen Fixer or see Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Enable windowed mode with desktop's resolution.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Force in the graphics card control panel.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Nvidia users can use Inspector and the flag 0x000010C1 (With AA fix enabled) to use SGSSAA.[3]
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS
No frame rate or refresh rate cap.[4]

Field of view (FOV)[edit]

Edit default_levels.xml[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\DeadIsland\out\Data\Skills
  2. Open default_levels.xml
  3. Find CameraDefaultFOV and change it accordingly.

Notes

90-100 works well for 16:9, 85-95 works well for 16:10, 65-75 works well for 4:3 or 5:4 resolutions (lower values may induce motion sickness).

Input settings[edit]

In-game keyboard/mouse settings.
In-game keyboard/mouse settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game general gamepad settings.
In-game general gamepad settings.
In-game gamepad layout settings.
In-game gamepad layout settings.
Keyboard and mouse Native Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
XInput and DirectInput, designed for XInput controllers.
OS X controller support requires the Tattiebogle OS X driver.[1]
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Renders most DirectInput controllers unuseable, use XInput wrapper to bypass.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Additional information
Button prompts
Not available in some menus.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback

Audio settings[edit]

Audio options Native Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, SFX, Speech
Surround sound
Possibly up to 7.1.[5] See below if problems
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language UI Audio CC Notes
English
Czech
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Network[edit]

In-game network settings.
In-game network settings.
If you have installed mods or edited the .xml for characters, all clients need the same mods in order to play.
It should also be noted that challenges are global, so if you are close to killing for instance 1 million zombies with one characters, and you play co-op with another and hit one million total kills, this character will gain all the XP from completing the challenge
Steam and Mac App Store players cannot play together.[1]

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
4 Co-op
Online play
4 Co-op

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

VR support[edit]

3D modes Native GG3D Notes
Native 3D
 
Nvidia 3D Vision
 
 See Helix Mod: Dead Island for better support.
TriDef 3D
 
iZ3D
 
Devices Native Notes
Tracked motion controllers
Native Razer Hydra support.[6]

Issues fixed[edit]

You can find various fixes in the FAQ on the Steam Community Discussions page for Dead Island.
If you don't want to manually apply some of these tweaks check out tools section at end of the page.

Long Load Times[edit]

Some users are experiencing ridiculously long load times when doing things like loading the menu, game, etc. It can literally take over 5–10 minutes for some people. Oddly enough, this may relate to error logging that is done by the game.

Mark crash.log as a Read Only[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\deadisland\out\logs\
  2. Right click crash.log
  3. Click on Properties
  4. Mark the file as Read Only

Co-op Error Message: "The game you have tried to join is no longer available"[edit]

Hamachi[7]
  1. Download and install Hamachi which allows you to simulate a LAN over the internet.
  2. Power Hamachi on, start a new network, and invite your friends to it.
  3. Start a Dead Island game after setting the game to co-operative and LAN in the options menu.
  4. Your server will now show up for anyone on your Hamachi network.

Loud Distorted Audio[edit]

Dead Island has a compatibility problem with 7.1 output devices, this includes Logitech USB headsets (G35, G930) and 7.1 sound devices that use 3.5 mm analog connections. This issue is typically immediately recognizable when reaching the title screen and hearing a loud, frightening, distorted noise; this issue also carries over into the gameplay. This issue was present in Dead Island: Riptide, but was corrected by Techland. Techland has yet to correct the issue with the first Dead Island game. The definitive solution is to set your device to anything below 7.1 but other options exist that may help.

Change Windows Speaker Configuration[citation needed]
  1. Open the Start Screen/Start Menu, type mmsys.cpl and press ↵ Enter.
  2. In the Playback tab, right-click on the Default Device (marked with a tick True icon.svg) and choose "Configure Speakers" from the menu.
  3. Select 5.1 surround or lower.
  4. Click through the remaining steps and click the Finish button in the last screen.
This option may not be available for some USB headsets.
Remember to reconfigure your 7.1 device to 7.1 output after you are done playing Dead Island.
Edit Audio.scr[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\DeadIsland\out\Settings
  2. Look for the Audio.scr file and open it with a text editor.
  3. Look for the line: API("XAudio2") and change it to API("aOpenAL")

This will fix the game's sound partly, because static might still occur however most of the problem is over.

If this fix does not work, there is an alternative solution to static and crackling problems.

Empty Audio.scr[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\DeadIsland\out\Settings
  2. Look for the Audio.scr file and open it with a text editor.
  3. Select all of the file's contents and delete them, making the file empty, and then save the file.
  4. Right-click the file, select Properties, check the Read-only box, click Apply, and then click OK.

It is recommended that you backup the Audio.scr file before doing this, though if you don't you can always just delete the file and the game will create a new one.

Game Crashes With Message: Problem Event: BEX[edit]

Users whose player names have non-English characters experience game crashes with this error message:

Problem event name: BEX App Name: DeadIslandGame.exe App version: 1.0.0.0 App timestamp: 4f100716 Fault module name: MSVCR90.dll Fault module version: 9.0.30729.6161 Fault module timestamp: 4dace5b9 Exception offset: 00036d36 Exception code: c0000417 Exception data 00000000 OS version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3 Locale ID: 1033 Additional info 1: 364e Additional info 2:364ecf2f9e26d8075e002643326a0340 Additional info 3: 1f40 Additional info 4: 1f4001d1190a4d768106236129b38e30c.

Change your player name, such as your Steam name, to exclude non-English characters[citation needed]

Other information[edit]

API[edit]

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
OpenGL 2.x OS X and Linux only.
Shader Model support 3
64-bit executable

Middleware[edit]

Middleware Notes
Multiplayer Steamworks

System requirements[edit]

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66 GHz
AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.9 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
512 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible 		Nvidia GeForce 9600
ATI Radeon HD 3850
1 GB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
OS X
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.8
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i5 2.7 GHz
System memory (RAM) 8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GT 640M
512 MB of VRAM
Linux
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 12.04 Ubuntu 14.04
Processor (CPU) 2.8 GHz Dual Core Intel Core i7 3.5 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB 8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GT 430
ATI Radeon HD 5570
1 GB of VRAM 		Nvidia GeForce GTX 660
2 GB of VRAM

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Dead Island GOTY on the Mac App Store - last accessed on 2016-06-04
    ""Please note: Multiplayer between the Mac App Store version and the Steam version is not possible.""
  2. ↑ Playwrite: Regarding Dead Island Helper for Dead Island: Definitive Edition
  3. ↑ https://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=9766133&postcount=4225
  4. ↑ New 120Hz Games Report
  5. ↑ PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up
  6. ↑ Razer Hydra Control Profile - Dead Island
  7. ↑ "The game you have tried to join is no longer available" - can't connect to others! - Steam Users' Forums