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Difference between revisions of "Left 4 Dead"

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Revision as of 21:45, 14 August 2018

Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead cover
Developers
Valve South[1]
Valve Corporation
Publishers
Valve Corporation
Engines
Source
Release dates
Windows November 17, 2008
macOS (OS X) October 27, 2010
Left 4 Dead guide on StrategyWiki
Left 4 Dead 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.
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2008
Left 4 Dead 2 2009

Key points

Left 4 Dead 2 includes all Left 4 Dead campaigns, Left 4 Dead 2 will likely be the preferable game to purchase.
A hack enabling split-screen co-op is available; see Local play.

General information

Official Left 4 Dead Blog
Unofficial Left 4 Dead Wiki
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Incorrect store name. See here for available options.
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
All versions require Steam DRM.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use the -novid command line argument[citation needed]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\left4dead\cfg\config.cfg[Note 1]
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/500/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Approx. 128 KB available
  1. Settings, except for graphics, will also be synchronized.

Video settings

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.

Template:Video settings

Field of view (FOV)

FoV when playing in splitscreen is easily customizable inside <path-to-game>\left4dead\splitscreen_config.txt
By default field of view cannot be changed. Only changeable option is viewmodel FOV.
Change viewmodel FOV[2]
  1. Download the FoV addon
  2. Extract the files in <path-to-game>\left4dead\addons\
  3. Bring up console
  4. Type in console/.cfg viewmodel_fov_override XX (where XX is the desired horizontal FoV)

Split-screen without bezels

L4D split-screen mode was meant to be played on a single 4:3 or 16:9 screen. If you have a different setup then, the image could not entirely fit the monitor(s).
Edit split-screen aspect-ratio[3]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>/left4dead/
  2. Open splitscreen_config.txt
  3. Look for the paragraph describing your actual split method ("nonwidescreen", "widescreen_horizontal_split", "widescreen_vertical_split")
  4. Change it accordingly to your effective aspect ratio multiplied or divided by 2 (just look if comment says it should be twice or half as wide)
  5. Save changes

Input settings

In-game control settings.
In-game control settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.

Template:Input settings

Mouse+Keyboard in split-screen

Bind controller to 2nd player[citation needed]
  1. Configure x360ce to force controller on the guest slot
  2. Copy x360ce.ini and xinput1_3.dll to the Left 4 Dead installation folder
  3. Go to <path-to-game>\bin\ and rename xinput1_3.dll to something else
  4. Follow standard procedure

Audio settings

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Hungarian
Czech
Romanian
Turkish

Network

In-game multiplayer settings.
In-game multiplayer settings.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
2 Co-op
See Local play.
LAN play
8 Co-op, Versus
See LAN play.
"Versus" mode. Up to 4v4 Survivors vs. Infected.
Online play
8 Co-op, Versus
Co-op (4 players) or "Versus" mode (up to 4v4 Survivors vs. Infected).

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP
Use connect [IP address here] in the console.
Server must have set sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 27014-27050
UDP 4380, 27000-27030
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

LAN play

You can play Left 4 Dead over a local area network (LAN) connection.
Start LAN game[citation needed]
  1. Open the developer console and type in: sv_lan 1.
  2. After that, type in: map %mapname%, %mapname% is the name of the map (for example, to play on "No Mercy", write "map l4d_hospital01_apartment")

Maplist:

  • No Mercy: l4d_hospital01_apartment
  • Crash Course: l4d_garage01_alleys
  • Death Toll: l4d_smalltown01_caves
  • Dead Air: l4d_airport01_greenhouse
  • Blood Harvest: l4d_farm01_hilltop
  • The Sacrifice: l4d_river01_docks

To clients to join a server, use: connect <ip>:<port> (for example, connect 192.168.1.1).

Notes

You can check your ip by writing net_start.

Local play

A list of useful commands for split-screen is available below
Playing with 2 controllers[4]
If you want to play with only a controller and a mouse+keyboard, check Mouse + Keyboard in split-screen
  1. Download custom split.cfg
  2. Extract it inside <path-to-game>\left4dead\cfg\
  3. Launch the game and join or create a match in the mode you prefer
  4. When in-game, open the console and type ss_connect
  5. Add second player to survivor team with cmd2 jointeam 2 command
  6. Load second player keys bindings by typing exec split (all previous bindings are reseted)
  7. Enjoy

Notes

If loading bar gets stuck quickly pause and unpause game
To play a private versus match, open console and use ss_map l4d_vs_#rest-of-map-name#
If you are going to play split-screen without a single 4:3 or 16:9 monitor look above

Issues fixed

Purple and black broken textures

A generic fix for this issue can be found on our Source engine page.

Can't unlock Lamb 2 Slaughter achievement

Enabling the console in Source games[5]
  1. Open console
  2. Type sv_cheats 1; achievement_reset L4D_ACHIEVEMENT_INCAP_AFTER_SAFEROOM; sv_cheats 0

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 6, 7, 8, 8.1, 9
OpenGL 2.1 OS X only.
Shader Model support 2, 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok Heavily modified variant.
Audio Miles Sound System
Cutscenes Bink Video
Multiplayer Steamworks

Console commands

Games running on the Source engine can utilize Source Engine Console Commands for various tasks.[6]
Enabling the console in Source games[citation needed]
  1. Launch the game
  2. From the main menu select Options
  3. Select the Keyboard tab
  4. Click the Advanced button
  5. Check the box next to Enable developer console (~)
  6. Click Apply

Notes

Press ~ to open the console.
Some commands may first require you enabling sv_cheats. You can do so with sv_cheats 1.
Many servers will not allow you to play with cheats enabled, or will disable them upon entering the server.
Users without a US keyboard could experience some problems.

Creating your own CFG (to run multiple console commands together)

A CFG is a file that contains a list of commands that when run will attempt to execute them all

Open a text editor such as Notepad and type in all the commands you want separating each with a ;

When done save the file as filename.cfg in <path-to-game>\left4dead\cfg. To run the cfg file, open the console during the game and type in exec filename.cfg If you want the CFG file to run automatically, name it autoexec.cfg.

Useful split-screen commands

Since Split-screen mode in Left 4 Dead isn't officially supported, there are multiple important key settings which aren't immediately available.

Command Description
connect_splitscreen localhost [ip-address] 2 Join a LAN or Internet server in splitscreen mode.
[cmd/cmd2] jointeam [2/3] Assign selected player (cmd) to either survivor or infected team
mp_gamemode [coop/survival/versus] Change gamemode. If adjusted while in-game it's advised to changelevel
ss_splitmode [0/1/2] Toggle horizontal and vertical screen split (0 is auto selection)
z_difficulty [Easy/Normal/Hard/Impossible] Change game difficulty
setinfo name Max Change player 1 name
name2 Tony Change player 2 name

Command line arguments

See command line arguments on how to use the following options.
Parameter Description
-w X -h Y Sets screen resolution (or window resolution if using -window). Example: -w 1920 -h 1080.
-refresh X Sets your screen refresh-rate (Hz). Example: -refresh 60.
-noborder -window Launches the game in a borderless fullscreen window (i.e. very alt-tab friendly). This may result in a minor performance loss. If you experience stuttering, disable Windows Aero.[citation needed]
-novid Skip intro videos
-autoconfig Restores video and performance settings to default for the current hardware detected. Ignores settings inside any .cfg files until this parameter is removed.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7.5 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon 9600
Nvidia GeForce 6600
128 MB of VRAM
Shader model 2.0 support
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.6.4
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7.5 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon HD 2400
Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT
Intel HD Graphics 3000
MacOS X 10.6.4 or higher (Snow Leopard Graphics Update required)

Notes

  1. When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  2. File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/500/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (500) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References