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BioShock Infinite

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 12:19, 1 April 2018 by Kenji Kusanagi (talk | contribs) (Additional notes added from Linux version)
Template:Infobox game/row/osxporterTemplate:Infobox game/row/linporter
BioShock Infinite
BioShock Infinite cover
Developers
Irrational Games
2K Australia
Iron Galaxy Studios
Publishers
2K Games
OS X Aspyr Media
Engines
Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows March 26, 2013
macOS (OS X) August 29, 2013
Linux March 17, 2015
BioShock Infinite on Wikipedia

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.
BioShock
BioShock 2007
BioShock 2 2010
BioShock Infinite 2013
BioShock Remastered 2016
BioShock 2 Remastered 2016

Key points

Quality PC port, including graphics and control options.[1][2]
The game has a built-in benchmark mode which can be accessed through launcher in Advanced menu. On Linux however, you must add DefaultPCBenchmarkMap.xcmap -unattended into the Launch Options to access it.
Aim assist is on by default even when not using a controller, but can be fixed.

General information

Port Report: BioShock Infinite.
Official game site
2K Games Forums
Steam Community Discussions
BioShock Wiki - A huge wiki for all the BioShock games

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
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Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Developer website
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Amazon.com
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Amazon.co.uk
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Published by 2K.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Published by Aspyr.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Incorrect store name. See here for available options.
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Mac App Store
Icon overlay.png
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
All Windows and Linux versions require Steam DRM.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Season Pass
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Early Bird Special Pack Exclusive to the Season Pass
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Columbia's Finest
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Clash in the Clouds Part of the Season Pass
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Burial At Sea: Episode One Part of the Season Pass
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Burial At Sea: Episode Two Part of the Season Pass
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Replace files[citation needed]
  1. Download this archive.
  2. Extract to the installation folder and replace all files.
Edit Configuration File[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XEngine.ini.
  3. Locate section [FullScreenMovie] and comment out these lines by putting a semicolon (;) at the beginning of each:
StartupMovies=2KLogoSweep720p2997
StartupMovies=IrrationalLogoTest
StartupMovies=UE3AnimatedLogo_ProRes
StartupMovies=AMDLogo720p
Save the file as read-only to prevent the tweak from randomly reverting.
Do not touch this line or you won't be able to reach the main menu:
StartupMovies=LoopingMovieUntilStartupFinishes

Turn Off Texture Streaming

Edit Configuration File[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XEngine.ini.
  3. Change these lines and save as read-only:
UseBackgroundLevelStreaming=False
MipFadeInSpeed0=0
MipFadeOutSpeed0=0
MipFadeInSpeed1=0
MipFadeOutSpeed1=0
OnlyStreamInTextures=True
PoolSize=0
LoadMapTimeLimit=999
LightmapStreamingFactor=0 
ShadowmapStreamingFactor=0
bAllowSwitchingStreamingSystem=False 
UseDynamicStreaming=False
May cause game to enter an infinite loading loop. If it does, turn texture streaming back on, leave that area of the game, and turn it off again once you leave the area.

Game data

Exiting to desktop or main menu reveals the local date of the last checkpoint.
Exiting to desktop or main menu reveals the local date of the last checkpoint.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\BioShock Infinite\XGame\Config\
macOS (OS X)
Linux $XDG_DATA_HOME/irrationalgames/bioshockinfinite/GameDocuments/My Games/BioShock Infinite/
This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.
Key mappings are encrypted which prevents sharing key bind files or creating custom commands.[3]

Save game data location

System Location
macOS (OS X)
Steam <Steam-folder>/userdata/<user-id>/8870/
Game creates an automatic permanent save at the beginning of each chapter. These saves are automatically overwritten if replaying from a previous chapter.
Only one save game is able to played at any one time.[4]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game graphics settings.
In-game graphics settings.

Template:Video settings

Multi-monitor

The HUD may not be centred automatically for multi-monitor setups.[citation needed]
Centering HUD on multi-monitor setups[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XGame.ini.
  3. Change bUseDefaultSafeRect=true to bUseDefaultSafeRect=False.
  4. Change SafeRectX0 and SafeRectX1 to area you want to HUD to be within.
  5. Change SafeRectY1 to the height of your monitors.
  6. For example, on a 5760x1080 resolution it would be as SafeRectX0=1920, SafeRectX1=3840, SafeRectY0=0, SafeRectY1=1080

Field of view (FOV)

There is a FOV slider in the game options, however it only increases/decreases FOV by 15% from the default value of 70º (59.5º - 80.5º).
FOV slider expansion[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XUserOptions.ini.
  3. Locate line MaxUserFOVOffsetPercent=15.000000 and change its value to 100 for maximum variability. This value is in percent and not degrees. See table below for precise field of view values.
  4. Start the game and set your field of view via slider in menu.
Maximum FoV by slider MaxUserFOVOffsetPercent value
85 21.43
90 28.57
95 35.71
100 42.86
105 50.00
110 57.14
120 60.00

Disable post-processing effects

Some of the post-processing effects can only be disabled in the game's XEngine.ini file. These effects include depth of field, light bloom, and color correction.
Disabling post-processing[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XEngine.ini.
  3. Change DepthOfField=True to DepthOfField=False.

Disable lens flare and dirt effect

Both effects are controlled by a single setting
Disable lens flare and dirt effect[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XEngine.ini.
  3. Change LensFlares=True to LensFlares=False.

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Mouse speed slider tweak

Slider for mouse speed is set to very wide range, which can be unsuitable for high precision mice.
Mouse slider tweak[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XUserOptions.ini.
  3. Locate lines MinMouseLookSensitivity=0.010000 and MaxMouseLookSensitivity=1.500000 and change values to your taste. Values 0.05 for MinMouse and 0.5 for MaxMouse works OK
  4. Start the game and set your desired sensitivity via slider.

Notes

This fix will modify the in-game slider and give better control.

Audio settings

Audio settings
Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish

VR support

Issues unresolved

Windows

Freezing and crashing

There have been reports of crashing and freezing, possibly related to i7 processors.[5][6] 2K is aware of this issue and there should be patch soon.[citation needed]
Possible fixes[citation needed]
  • If the game crashes on start-up, disable any on-screen display applications like MSI Afterburner.
  • Disable overclocking or underclock your graphics card.
  • Disable Killer e2200 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller or any other virtual/VPN network adapters like Hamachi.[7]

Issues fixed

Texture streaming quality problems

When the game can't detect or detects wrong video memory size, it automatically enables only Very Low and Low options for texture quality.
There is also an issue on some systems that selection Very High or Ultra for texture quality will cause to textures never load properly and game tries to load them over and over.[8]
Low texture quality and streaming fix[9]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XEngine.ini.
  3. Locate section [TextureStreaming] and change appropriate lines as shown:
[TextureStreaming]
UseTextureFileCache=False
TexturePoolSizeReductionMB=1500
PoolSize=3000
LowPCTexturePoolSizeMB=3000

FPS dropping

Nvidia cards experience FPS drops in certain areas when Dynamic Shadows is set to Very High or Ultra.
Vsync bug fix[10][11]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XEngine.ini.
  3. Locate section [SystemSettings] and change:
VsyncTo60WhenUnder30=False

to

VsyncTo60WhenUnder30=True

Make the Game Hor+

Edit Configuration File[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XEngine.ini.
  3. add this line:
AspectRatioAxisConstraint=AspectRatio_MaintainYFOV

Disable aim assist

Aim assist is on by default even when using keyboard and mouse.[12]
There are some auto aim variables in the .ini files but these variables are reverted to True every time you start the game.[13] There is no permanent fix yet.
Permanent Partial Solution[14]
This fix affects user options configurations, if you need to make a config in game do it before try this.
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XUserOptions.ini.
  3. Change bAimAssist and DefaultbAimAssist to false
  4. Save your changes and make XUserOptions.ini read only.
Temporary auto aim fix[15]
This fix needs to be applied every time the game is started.
  1. Start the game with a controller plugged in.
  2. Go to controller options and turn off Aim Assist.
  3. Unplug controller and play the game.

GUI scaling on high resolution displays

GUI elements are not scaling with resolution which makes these elements rather small on high resolution displays.
GUI scaling tweak[16]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open XUI.ini.
  3. Locate lines MaxResolutionUpScale=0.0 and change value to something between 0.0 and 1.0. See screenshots for examples.

Windows

Crash on start for some Windows 7 and 8 users

Force start in Windowed Mode[citation needed]
  1. Run the game with the -windowed command line argument.
  2. Open the graphics options and set the game to run full screen.
  3. Close the game, remove the launch option, then restart the game.
Run Steam as an administrator and the game itself NOT as an administrator[citation needed]
Change the "Documents" folder back to default if it has been moved[citation needed]

Cannot restore game after Alt-Tab

Exit TeamViewer[17]

Change from toggle to hold aim down sights

AutoHotkey script for hold to aim[citation needed]
  1. Download and install AutoHotkey.
  2. Let application create sample script. This script file should open after installation.
  3. Delete everything and insert the lines below.
  4. Open AutoHotkey window (green H icon in tray area), navigate to File and hit Reload Script.
#IfWinActive BioShock Infinite
$mbutton::
  Send {mbutton}
  KeyWait, mbutton
Return
mbutton Up::Send {mbutton}

Notes

This is script for default bindings where aiming is bind to middle mouse button. For aiming by right mouse button replace MButton for RButton.
For bindings to other keys, see Hotkeys and KeyList sections of AutoHotkey documentation for button syntaxes.
If your zoom gets stuck, you can reset with the run key.

Stuttering during gameplay

Enable fullscreen mode[citation needed]
Run game in compatibility mode[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32\.
  2. Right-click on BioShockInfinite.exe, go to the compatibility tab, tick the box and select Windows Vista Service Pack 2.
Texture Pool Size Fix[18][19]
  1. Set the PoolSize variable in XEngine.ini to about 400 less than the total number of Megabytes RAM your video card has (e.g if you have 2048 MB of video RAM set this to 1600).
  2. Add this launch option in Steam: -ReadTexturePoolFromIni.

Xbox controls even with no controller attached

Bioshock Infinite auto-detects any controllers/joysticks attached to the system including virtual ones. This could make the game uncontrollable, cause the camera to spin, and label the menu with Xbox prompts.
Remove all controllers[citation needed]
  • Remove all physical controllers and joysticks.
  • Disable all virtual controllers
    • These can be included in software for gaming mice and keyboards
    • Disable Unified Remote.
    • Disable virtual adapter for 3DConnexion devices.
  • To disable controller support, edit %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\BioShock Infinite\XGame\Config\XEngine.ini and change AllowJoystickInput=1 to AllowJoystickInput=0. Save your changes.

Microstuttering

Adaptive and dynamic V-Sync[citation needed]
  • These forms of V-Sync significantly reduce micro-stuttering.[20][21]
  • For Nvidia cards, Adaptive V-Sync can be enabled through the driver control panel. Set Vertical sync to Adaptive.
  • For AMD cards, Dynamic V-Sync can be enabled using the third-party program RadeonPro. Click the Add new profile icon and find the BioShock Infinite executable (BioShockInfinite.exe in <path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32\BioShockInfinite.exe). Click the newly created profile and click the Tweaks tab. Set VSync Control to Always on. Enable Dynamic Framerate Control and set Keep up to to 60.
Mice with high polling rates can sometimes cause microstuttering.
Fix for Razer mice[22]
  1. Open Razer Synapse.
  2. Click on the "Performance" tab.
  3. Change the "Polling Rate" to 125 Hz.

Audio crackling

Update GPU drivers[23][citation needed]
Run the game in compatibility mode[24]

Audio stutter may also be fixed by enabling compatibility mode for Windows Vista SP2

  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32\
  2. Right-click on BioShockInfinite.exe, go to the compatibility tab, tick the box and select Windows Vista Service Pack 2.

Linux

Game starts on the wrong screen

Start with a a command line option[citation needed]
  • Launch the game with --eon_force_display=#, replacing # with the index of the monitor you want the game to launch on.

Game starts on the wrong screen, wrong aspect ratio

In a multi-monitor configuration where 1 monitor is portrait and 1 monitor landscape and where game starts on portrait monitor and is forced to run on the landscape monitor using --eon_force_display, game does not recognize landscape monitor's aspect ratio and will only allow portrait aspect ratios/resolutions.
No real fix is available at this time.
Pending fix[citation needed]
  • De-rotating the portrait screen will allow selection of landscape aspect ratios, but it is not persistent. The portrait monitor must be de-rotated before playing as a workaround.
  • In XUserOptions.ini setting ResolutionX=<DesiredWidth>, ResolutionY=<DesiredHeight>, and DisplayMode=0 (fullscreen) will allow the game to run in widescreen, but you are restricted to fullscreen play.

Game uses system mouse acceleration

The game uses mouse acceleration, even if mouse acceleration is turned off in-game.
Disable mouse acceleration in the system before game launches[citation needed]
  1. Open the terminal and type xinput list to look up your mouse name (the Virtual core pointer section)
  2. In Steam, go to the Bioshock Infinite launch options (Properties -> SET LAUNCH OPTIONS...)
  3. Copy the following into the text-field (replace 'MOUSENAME' with the name you got in step 1, include the quotation marks): xinput --set-prop 'MOUSENAME' 'Device Accel Profile' -1 ; %command% ; xinput --set-prop 'MOUSENAME' 'Device Accel Profile' 0

Notes

This will disable mouse acceleration in your system before launching the game and enable it again when the game closes (which might take a couple of seconds).
Graphical user interfaces for mouse settings (e.g. mate-mouse-properties) might not be aware of the changes. It's best not to touch them while the game is running.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 10, 11
OpenGL 3.3, 4.1, 4.2 3.3 on OS X, 4.1/4.2 on Linux.
Shader Model support 4, 5
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics PhysX
Audio Wwise, OpenAL OpenAL is used in Linux
Interface Autodesk Gameware, SDL SDL is used in Linux
Input SDL Linux only, for gamepads.
Cutscenes Bink

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Vista SP2
Processor (CPU) 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2.7 GHz AMD Athlon X2
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 20 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon 3870
Intel HD 3000
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
512 MB of VRAM
DirectX 10 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.8.4
Processor (CPU) 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 30 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon HD 3870
Nvidia GeForce 640M
512 MB of VRAM
Linux
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 14.10, Mint 17.1
Processor (CPU) 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2.7 GHz AMD Athlon X2
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 20 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia/AMD
OpenGL 4.1 compatible

References

  1. Port Report: BioShock Infinite - The Port Report
  2. PC Specifications for BioShock Infinite Announced! - Irrational Games Blog
  3. Although configuration files are in plain text, there is a base-64 encoded section for user key mappings which prevents custom command creation. When decoded, the section contains a number of strings corresponding to command names from the .ini files, and approximately 300 or so bytes of binary data of unknown purpose - Comment from Port Report: BioShock Infinite - The Port Report
  4. Bioshock Infinite: Multiple Savegames Workaround Guide | gamefront.com
  5. Bluescreen and freez/crash - Steam Community Discussions for BioShock Infinite
  6. game freezes every 5-10 min! please help! - Irrational Games Forums
  7. Game crashing after 5-10 minutes - Steam Community Discussions
  8. Bioshock Infinite texture streaming problem - YouTube
  9. Verified by User:LDK on 28 March 2013
  10. "Vsync Bug Fixed :D" posted by shankly1985 - OverClocker
  11. Verified by User:DoctorPacman on 17 November 2013
  12. "BioShock Infinite - Auto Aim on PC Version" - ThreePi on YouTube
  13. How to remove auto-aim - Steam Community Discussions for BioShock Infinite
  14. BioShock Infinite - Auto Aim on PC - Fix | Gameguru Mania
  15. KB+M Player and don't like Aim Assist? Try this. - Steam Community Discussions for BioShock Infinite
  16. BioShock Infinite PC Performance Thread - NeoGAF.com
  17. Bioshock Infinite Alternate Tabbing Issues - 2K Forums
  18. BioShock Infinite: Fixing Lag / VSYNC - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)
  19. Verified by User:TGrreny on 7 April 2013
  20. Micro-Stuttering: Adaptive VSync (Nvidia) - Tom's Hardware
  21. Micro-Stuttering: Dynamic V-Sync (AMD) - Tom's Hardware
  22. [1]
  23. Audio Crackling - Irrational Games Forums
  24. [2]