Tomb Raider (2013)

Tomb Raider

Developer(s)	Crystal Dynamics PC Nixxes Software
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Engine	Crystal Engine
First release date	Windows March 5, 2013

Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider	1996
Tomb Raider II	1997
Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft	1998
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation	1999
Tomb Raider Chronicles	2000
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness	2003
Tomb Raider: Legend	2006
Tomb Raider: Anniversary	2007
Tomb Raider: Underworld	2008
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light	2010
Tomb Raider (2013)	2013

Key points

PC port features high resolution textures, tessellation, high quality shadows and more PC specific features.

Forcing DirectX 9 mode results in an approximately 25% performance boost at a small loss of visual fidelity.

Large performance issues with Nvidia graphics cards.

Many quick time events (QTEs) do not display the key required to complete them. See QTE streamlining for guide.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Steam Users' Forums for Tomb Raider series.

Tomb Raider Forums - not PC-specific.

Eidos Forums - not PC-specific.

Availability

Source(s)	Store unlock	Notes
Retail
Steam
Amazon
GreenManGaming
GameFly
GamersGate
Origin

All versions require Steam, including both retail and digital distribution.

Improvements

Skip game launcher

Skip game launcher • Link Right click on game in Steam Library. Select Properties. Click Set Launch Options and add -nolauncher.

Game data

	Location
Registry path	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Tomb Raider
Local Steam Cloud repository	C:\Program Files\Steam\userdata\<unique Steam ID>\203160\

Settings are saved in registry instead of configuration files.

Steam Cloud is supported for game saves.

Most of graphics settings in registry corresponds with .ini options for benchmark.

Video settings

Setup utility.

Basic graphics settings.

Advanced graphics settings.

Graphics option	Native	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor			All HUD elements are correctly drawn on the center screen. Some in-game cutscenes display odd animations or missing models in areas that aren't visible in 16:9.
Field of view (FOV)		Possible using custom resolutions. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		For borderless uncheck "exclusive fullscreen".
Borderless fullscreen windowed		For borderless uncheck "exclusive fullscreen".
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA, SSAA x2, and SSAA x4.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Double and tripled buffered.

Field of view (FOV)

FoV is calculated from aspect ratio, therefore running the game at a custom resolution will result in a custom FoV.

Nvidia information is hypothetical at this point.

Notes about this fix

This way of altering the field of view will allow the player to regain some sense of peripheral vision, without altering the ratio between character height and image height. This preserves to some extent the original intention underlying the frame composition.

There is no distortion of the picture.

The image will effectively be cropped (Vert-). Black bars will appear at the top and bottom of the screen.

Having to change the desktop resolution each time is not convenient.

How-to

Set custom resolution (AMD/ATI) • Link CCC image scaling settings. Download and run Radeon Custom Resolution Manager. Click the plus by "Other" and enter your chosen resolution and click OK. Click Save to save your custom resolution. Set the desktop to this new resolution (some distortion will occur if the game and desktop resolutions differ). Open the AMD Vision Engine Control Center or Catalyst Control Center. From the main view choose My Digital Flat Panels. Choose Properties (Digital Flat-Panel). Under Image Scaling, select Use centered timings this setting will only be available if the display is not running at its native resolution. It supersedes and disables GPU scaling altogether. Click Apply to save your changes. Run the game's launcher and set the resolution to match the desktop's custom resolution.

Set custom resolution (NVIDIA) • Link NVIDIA users can specify a custom resolution through the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Result

• 

  Default resolution (1920×1200).

• 

  Custom resolution (1920×817).

Force DirectX 9 renderer on DirectX 11 systems

Forcing DirectX 9 will result in better performance. However DirectX 11 specific features (tessellation, TressFX) will be disabled.

Custom aspect ratio • Link Launch the Registry Editor (open the Start Screen/Start Menu, type regedit, hit Enter). Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Tomb Raider\Graphics Modify RenderAPI value to 9. Note: Revert to 0 for DX11, anything else will result in DX11 renderer with some DX11 features disabled.

Performance difference between DirectX 9 and 11 renderer

Based on ingame benchmark with DirectX 11 features (tessellation, TressFX) disabled for both renderers.

	DirectX 9	DirectX 11	Difference [%]
Minimum FPS	42.06	35.88	17.22%
Maximum FPS	66.04	52.68	25.36%
Average FPS	56.68	44.74	26.69%

Tested on Intel i7 with HD6870 GPU, average of five measurements for each renderer.

Input settings

Input Settings	Native	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Mouse smoothing can be switched off
Controller support

Issues unresolved

Persistent crashing on Nvidia graphics cards

Nvidia graphics cards appear to be causing constant crashing

Errors occur such as: "Failed to Initialize Direct3D with current settings"

User-made fix • Link Download Nvidia Inspector Open nvidia inspector and click the icon next to "Driver Version" Search for and delete the Tomb raider 2013 profile at the top Find the Hitman Absolution profile Add and link tombraider.exe to this profile Press apply button This is how it should look when you're done

Other possible fixes:

There is no universal fix yet, but these are confirmed to work for some users:

• Turn off vertical synchronization (vsync).
• Disable tesselation - recommended.
• Disable exclusive fullscreen.
• Revert drivers to version 310.90
• Update to the 314.21 beta drivers

Fix for "Failed to Initialize Direct3D with current settings":

• Manually set the aspect ratio to that of your monitors (ex: 1920x1080=16:9, 1920x1200=16:10)

Crash with "Fatal error - out of memory" error

There seems to be memory leak within the game. After few hours of playing game can't allocate more memory due to the game executable is only 32 bit and crashes.

Separate vertical and horizontal sensitivity with mouse

Vertical and horizontal sensitivity do not match, with vertical being much lower, making it hard to aim with a mouse and keyboard.

Issues resolved

Low framerate

Low framerate fix • Link There are several performance demanding options that can be disabled. Get significant FPS boost by: Updating to driver version 314.22 or greater on nvidia cards. Disable high precision option. Disable TressFX technology - set hair to normal. Lower or turn off Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO). Run game in DirectX 9 mode. Lower or disable anti-aliasing. FXAA is least demanding form of AA.

Missing effects in fullscreen mode

Fixed in first patch. If you are still experiencing this issue install path or follow instructions below.

Some camera effects are missing when game is run in fullscreen mode. Effects like lens flares, water drops and blood overlay.

Temporary fix • Link This fix will run game in windowed borderless mode different from ingame mode. There is a little performance impact with this fix. Download Windowed Borderless Gaming utility and start it. Start the game and hit Alt+Enter to activate windowed mode. Press F3. In Settings make sure your Aspect Ratio is on Auto and Window Size "Maximized" Minimize the game and right click the toolbar icon for the borderless utility. Select "Open Game Settings" and the at the bottom enter your native monitor resolution and save.

Flickering and crashing with SLI or CrossFire

Flickering fix • Link Set Vsync option to Off on Advanced settings of the Launcher. Disable tessellation.

Crashing to desktop and issues with minimizing game

Crashing to desktop fix • Link Disable Exclusive Fullscreen option. Disable any "RAM optimizer" or "Game Booster" programs you may have (generally get rid of the bloatware running).

Graphical artifacts and FPS drop on Nvidia GPUs

Graphical artifacts fix • Link nVidia and Nixxes are aware of this issue and is working on driver update. Disable tesselation.

Static noise from music and ambient sound in the game

Sound issues fix • Link Update drivers to your sound card. Disable hardware acceleration on sound card: Open Control panel in Windows Navigate to Sound & Audio -> Audio Tab -> Advanced -> Performance Set slider to None

Other information

QTE streamlining

Tomb Raider is heavy on quick time events (QTEs), which can be sometimes annoying.

QTEs in Tomb Raider does not display key names but rather icon associated with specific binding or QTE, which can be confusing and problematic to solve.

List of QTEs and possible solutions:

QTE Icon	Solution
Hand in red circle	Repeatedly press interact key (default E) as fast as possible.
Exclamation mark in red diamond.	Press melee key (default F).
White circle getting smaller	Tap repeatedly melee key (default F). This QTE is bugged - circle animation is out of sync with trigger behind QTE and therefore it is difficult win this QTE normally. Luckily there is no penalization for missing said trigger with key press so pressing melee key for whole duration of QTE works perfectly.
Left and right arrow	Alternately press left and right movement keys (default A and D).
Hand in red circle when Lara is hanging from ledge	Press interact key (default E).

Bypass mashing keys • Link You can replace key mashing QTE for just one key press, however you need gaming mouse or keyboard software with ability to create macros. This guide contains only general directions. Actual process may vary as there are several versions of gaming software. 1. Open you macro/gaming software and create new macro. 2. Record single key press and make sure there are delays between action at least 20ms. It should look something like this for E key: Key E down 20ms delay Key E up 20ms delay 3. Set this macro to your desired key and set option to "repeat macro as long as pressed". If your macro is not working properly, try increasing delay as some systems won't recognize key presses if they are too fast.

Benchmark mode

Benchmark mode generates a file named: benchmarkresults yyyy-mm-dd hh-mm-ss.txt

Benchmark from menu • Link Benchmark in game options.

Benchmark from Steam • Link Right click on game in Library. Select Properties. Click Set Launch Options and add parameter (see command line parameters).

Benchmark via shortcut • Link Create shortcut to TombRaider.exe Right click shortcut and select Properties. At Target line add parameter at the end of the string (see command line parameters).

Command line parameters

Command line parameter	Type of benchmark
-benchmark	Run the benchmark on startup and quit the game when finished.
-benchmarkini “filename.ini”	Run the benchmark on startup and quit the game when finished. The ini file contains overrides for quality settings.
-loop	Loop the benchmark instead of quitting after it completes. This is a demo mode, so statistics are disabled.
-dxdiag	Include dxdiag information in the benchmarkresults file.

When running from the command line, exclusive fullscreen is automatically switched on and vsync is switched off.

When running as a looping demo, a result file is not generated.

.ini file options

Option	Restrictions	Effect
QualityLevel	0 to 4	Sets all settings to a quality level. 0 for Low, 4 for Ultimate.
Fullscreen	0 or 1	Enables or disables fullscreen.
ExclusiveFullscreen	0 or 1	Enable this when fullscreen is enabled for better performance but worse multitasking.
AspectRatio	Width / height x 10000 or 0	Sets aspect ratio. 16000 for 16:10 for example.
VSyncMode	0 - 2	Options for vertical synchronization. 0 for Off, 1 for Double Buffer and 2 for Tripple Buffer.
FullscreenWidth	number	Width of resolution in pixels.
FullscreenHeight	number	Height of resolution in pixels.
FullscreenRefreshRate	number	Screen refresh rate in Hz.
StereoEnabled	0 or 1	Enables or disables stereoscopic support.
TextureQuality	1 to 4	Texture quality from Low to Ultra.
BestTextureFilter	0 to 18	Texture filtering - 0 for No Filtering, 1 for Bilinear, 2 for Trilinear, or 2 + the Anisotropic level.
HairQuality	0 or 1	Enables TressFX enhanced hair quality. 0 for Normal or 1 for TressFX.
AntiAliasingMode	0 to 3	Sets anti-aliasing level. 0 for none, 1 for FXAA, 2 for 2xSSAA and 3 for 4xSSAA.
ShadowMode	0 or 1	Enables or disables shadows.
ShadowResolution	0 to 2	Sets shadow resolution. 1 for Off, 2 for Normal and 3 for Ultra.
SSAOMode	0 to 2	Sets ambient occlusion quality. 1 for Off, 2 for Normal and 3 for Ultra.
DOFQuality	0 to 3	Sets depth of field quality. 1 for Off, 2 for Normal and 3 for Ultra.
ReflectionQuality	0 to 2	Sets quality of reflections. 1 for Off, 2 for Normal and 3 for High.
LODBias	0 to 4	Sets level of detail bias from Low to Ultra.
EnablePostProcess	0 or 1	Enables or disables post-processing effects.
EnableHighPrecisionRT	0 or 1	-
EnableTessellation	0 or 1	Enables or disables tessellation.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista,7,8 (32bit/64bit)	Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
Processor (CPU)	Dual core CPU, AMD Athlon64 X2 2.1 Ghz (4050+), Intel Core2 Duo 1.86 Ghz (E6300)	Quad core CPU, AMD Phenom II X2 565, Intel Core i5-750
System memory (RAM)	1GB (2GB on Vista)	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 9 graphics card with 512Mb Video RAM, AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT, nVidia 8600	DirectX 11 graphics card with 1GB Video RAM, AMD Radeon HD 4870, nVidia GTX 480
Hard disk drive (HDD)	10 GB	10 GB