F.E.A.R.

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F.E.A.R.
FEAR.jpg
Developers
Publishers
Engines
Release dates
Windows
October 18, 2005
F.E.A.R. at Steam Charts
F.E.A.R. at SteamDB
 F.E.A.R. at Wikipedia
F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. 2005
F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
F.E.A.R. Combat 2006
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate 2007
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin 2009
F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn
F.E.A.R. 3 2011
F.E.A.R. Online 2014

Key points

Advantage Multiplayer is free to download and continues to be supported by the community.
Information Master servers for multiplayer were shut down on December 19, 2012. See Community patch for a solution.

General information

More information Unofficial Wiki for game series
More information F.E.A.R. Combat Community
More information Steam Community Discussions
More information Steam Users' Forums for game series

Availability[edit]

Source DRM Notes Keys
GamersGate Requires online activation DRM: SecuROM
Steam Availability Table Icons - Steam.svg
Retail DRM details are not known

Essential improvements[edit]

Patches[edit]

Latest version is 1.08.

Community patch[edit]

The FEAR multiplayer master server was shut down on December 19, 2012. The community has developed an unofficial patch for the game and is offering new FEAR Combat CD keys for free. The latest version of the community-supported FEAR Combat client and new CD keys can be obtained from the Fear Combat Community website.

Skip intro videos[edit]

Fix Skip intro videos

  1. Go to %PUBLIC%\Documents\Monolith Productions\FEAR
  2. Open settings.cfg and add a new line: "DisableMovies" "1"

Modding[edit]

Official SDK[edit]

Information Steam users have SDK already included with the game.[1] Make sure you read instructions

Game data[edit]

Game options

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

  Location 
Windows %PUBLIC%\Documents\Monolith Productions\FEAR\settings.cfg
Information Key bindings are stored in %PUBLIC%\Documents\Monolith Productions\FEAR\Profiles\Profile000.gdb

Save game data location[edit]

  Location 
Windows %PUBLIC%\Documents\Monolith Productions\FEAR\Save\Profile000\SinglePlayer

Save game cloud syncing[edit]

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud Impossible
GameSave Manager Native

Video settings[edit]

Video settings
Advanced computer options
Advanced video card options
Graphics option Option WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution Native WSGF WS Gold.svg Added in a patch 1.08.
Multi-monitor Native WSGF MM Silver.svg
Ultra-widescreen Native WSGF UW Gold.svg Requires patch 1.08.
Field of view (FOV) Hackable See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed Hackable Use +windowed 1 parameter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed Hackable Use Borderless Gaming.
Anisotropic filtering (AF) Native
Anti-aliasing (AA) Native FSAA up to 4x.
Vertical sync (Vsync) Native
High frame rate Native

Field of view (FOV)[edit]

Fix Change FOV[2]

  1. Go to %PUBLIC%\Documents\Monolith Productions\FEAR
  2. Open settings.cfg with a text editor.
  3. If using a widescreen resolution add this line: "FovYWidescreen" "XX.00" where XX is the vertical FOV value. If using a non-widescreen resolution use "FovY" "XX.00"
  4. Save your changes and set the file to read-only.

Input settings[edit]

Mouse options
Keyboard and mouse Native Notes
Remapping Native
Mouse acceleration Native A slider for mouse smoothing.
Mouse input in menus Native
Mouse Y-axis inversion Native
Controller
Controller support Native
Full controller support Unknown
Controller remapping Unknown
Controller Y-axis inversion Unknown

Audio settings[edit]

Audio settings
Audio options Native Notes
Separate volume controls Native Effects, speech, music
Surround sound Native Up to 7.0 output.[3] May require DirectSound 3D restoration software.
Subtitles Native
Closed captions Impossible
Mute on focus lost Unknown
EAX support Native EAX 4[4]

Network[edit]

Multiplayer types

Type Native Notes
LAN play Native
Online play Native

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking Unknown
Peer-to-peer Unknown
Dedicated Native
Self-hosting Native Dedicated server software available for Windows and Linux.
Direct IP Unknown

Issues fixed[edit]

Information TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game. It can be found here.

Small subtitles[edit]

Fix Small subtitles

Turning on large subtitles for non-4:3 resolutions has no effect. To fix this:

  1. Download this patch.
  2. Extract the relevant file (FEARL_1920.Arch00 for original F.E.A.R. or Extraction point, FEARL_XP2_1920.Arch00 for Perseus Mandate) into the installation folder.
  3. Open Default.archcfg in Notepad and add FEARL_1920.Arch00 or FEARL_XP2_1920.Arch00 at the end of the file as a new line.

Black screen on ATI/AMD video cards[edit]

Fix Black screen on ATI/AMD video cards

  • If 'Soft Shadows' and 'Pixel Doubling' are enabled this will result in black screen, on some ATI/AMD videocards. Disable said graphical options to fix the problem.

Can't hear any dialogue[edit]

Fix Enable/install Windows Media Player

  1. Windows XP or N/KN versions: install Windows Media Player.
  2. Relaunch the game. If problems persist, ensure Windows Media Player is enabled:
    • Vista and newer: open the Start screen/Start menu, type OptionalFeatures.exe and press ↵ Enter.
    • Windows XP: press ⊞ Win+R, type appwiz.cpl and press ↵ Enter, choose Add/Remove Windows Components.

No Torch Glitch[edit]

Fix No Torch Glitch

  • At the beginning of Interval 03 - Escalation - Infiltration, the player must wait until they have control of the character before changing maps with the maphole command otherwise the torch will not be carried through for the rest of the game.

Logitech/FPS fix[edit]

Fix Logitech/FPS fix

Certain wired/wireless Logitech keyboards/mice will cause major FPS drops at random times. To fix this:

  1. Open up the Start Menu.
  2. Right-click Computer, select Manage.
  3. Go to Device Manager
  4. Under Human Interface Devices, right-click and disable all HID-Compliant Devices.

Notes

Information You will need to re-enable them after playing the game or you won't be able to use some keyboard keys like: volume control, play/pause, etc.
Information To automate this process, you can use this script.

Game won't start/maps not loading[edit]

Fix Game won't start/maps not loading[5]

  • When hosting a LAN game as a Listen server the game may hang at the map loading screen with the progress bar stuck at 0%. This can be resolved by hosting the game as a dedicated server and then joining with the FEAR Combat client.

AA/Soft Shadows Bug[edit]

Fix AA/Soft Shadows Bug

Due to a Direct3D bug, enabling AA, in any manner (i.e. via game menu, configuration file, or video driver control panel) will disable Soft Shadows. To fix this:

  1. Disable AA or Soft Shadows

Notes

Information You essentially need to choose between having Anti-Aliasing or Soft Shadows when playing this game.
Information It is strongly recommended that you at least view each type; high Anti-Aliasing does look nice, but Soft Shadows also add a lot of atmosphere to the game.

Potential Fix for Nvidia Users

wp.xin.at - December 23, 2012

System requirements[edit]

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 2000, XP 2000, XP
Processor (CPU) Pentium 4 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 5 GB 5 GB
Video card (GPU) GeForce Ti 4200
Radeon 8500
64 MB of VRAM
Shader model 1.1 support 		GeForce 6600
Radeon 9800
256 MB of VRAM
Shader model 2.0 support

References

  1. ↑ FEAR SDK Problem With Steam Version? - Steam Users' Forums
  2. ↑ F.E.A.R. - Can FOV be changed? - Dead End Thrills
  3. ↑ PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up
  4. ↑ Gaming - SoundBlaster.com (retrieved)
  5. ↑ Topic: Game won't start/maps not loading | FEAR Combat Community