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Dead Island

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

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

Dead Island
Dead Island cover
Developers
Techland
macOS (OS X) Virtual Programming
Publishers
Deep Silver
Russia Akella
Engines
Chrome Engine 5
Release dates
Windows September 6, 2011
macOS (OS X) April 2, 2014
Linux October 24, 2014
Reception
Metacritic 80
IGDB 70
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Multiplayer
Genres Survival horror
Series Dead Island
Dead Island on HowLongToBeat
Dead Island on IGDB
Dead Island guide on StrategyWiki
Dead Island on MobyGames
Dead Island on Wikipedia
Dead Island
Dead Island 2011
Dead Island: Riptide 2013
Escape Dead Island 2014
Dead Island: Epidemic 2016
Dead Island: Definitive Edition 2016
Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition 2016
Dead Island: Retro Revenge 2016
Dead Island 2 2023

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.

Dead Island is a multiplayer survival horror game in the Dead Island series.

Key points

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

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Mac App Store
Icon overlay.png
OS X only. Cannot play with Steam players.[1]
macOS (OS X)
Origin (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Game of the Year Edition only.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Steam (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
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

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

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Dead Island Upgrade Pack Contains all DLC. Available on Amazon.com.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Bloodbath Arena
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Ryder White
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Blueprint "The Ripper" Weapon
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Essential improvements

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

Dead Island Helper

Utility to apply fixes and tweaks to the game, including increased FOV and shadow map size.

Dead Island Save Editor

Allows you to reset your skill points.
PS3/Xbox 360 save files can be converted to PC.

Skip intro videos

Use the -nologos command line argument[2]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\DeadIsland\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

System Location
Steam <Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\91310\remote\out\
The game uses different paths for Windows (remote\out\save\) and Linux (remote/out/save/out/save/).[3]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Syncs save games and settings.

Video

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

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
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)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Nvidia users can force SGSSAA using Nvidia Profile Inspector with the flag 0x000010C1 and the AA fix.[4]
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
Loading Screens are capped 30fps
120+ FPS
Disabling in-game Vsync caps the frame rate at 60 FPS. See Run the game at screen refresh rate.High Frame rates will cause broken animations scripts.[5]
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

Changing your Field of View may cause issues when hip firing guns.
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

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 State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Completely broken
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
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Not available in some menus.
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
Tracked motion controllers
Native Razer Hydra support.[6]
Button/gesture prompts
Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Enable Analog fight type on keyboard/mouse

Use the Dead Island Save Editor
  1. Download and run the Dead Island Save Editor.
  2. Open the Profile named default.pro.
  3. Click the Advanced tab, then locate the field named FightType.
  4. Change the value of FightType to 0 and save.

Notes

Changing any input options afterwards will cause the fight type to revert to Digital.

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, SFX, Speech
Surround sound
Possibly up to 7.1.[7] See below if problems
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Czech
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation, Tribo Gamer

Network

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
Local play
4 Co-op
Use Nucleus Co-op.
LAN play
4 Co-op
Online play
4 Co-op

Connection types

VR support

3D modes State GG3D Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
See Helix Mod: Dead Island for better support.
vorpX
G3D
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues fixed

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.

Game won't launch on older open source Mesa radeonsi AMD drivers on Linux

This fix should no longer be needed with newer drivers.
Use a specific library for Mesa and override the OpenGL Mesa version at launch
  1. Download and unpack the library file into the main game folder
  2. In Set Launch Options... on Steam add this code at the beginning
MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5 MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=450 %command%

Launch the game.

High frame rate issues

High Frame rates will cause broken animations scripts.
Limit frame rate to 60FPS.[8]
Enable Vsync and set refresh rate on 60hz

Long loading times

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"

Hamachi[9]
  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.

Poor performance

Change your CPU affinity[10]
  1. Open Task Manager, and right-click the game's process. Click "Go to details".
  2. Right-click at the Dead Island process under details and click Set Affinity.
  3. Untick all CPUs except CPU 0.

Notes

You have to repeat this whenever you start the game.

Loud distorted audio

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 the configuration file(s) location.
  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")

Notes

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 below.
Empty Audio.scr[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. 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.
  3. Look for the Audio.scr file and open it with a text editor.
  4. Select all of the file's contents and delete them, making the file empty, and then save the file.
  5. Right-click the file, select Properties, check the Read-only box, click Apply, and then click OK.

Game crashes with message: "Problem Event: BEX"

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]

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Fullscreen mode only offers the option to use a refresh rate of 100 Hz or less, even if the screen refresh rate is set higher than that.
Set screen refresh rate[11]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open Video.scr with a text editor.
  3. Set MaxRefresh to the screen refresh rate (e.g. MaxRefresh(120)).

Black screen on startup or freezes on intro logo (Windows 8)

Run the game in compatibility mode[12]
  1. Open DeadIslandGame.exe compatibility settings.
  2. Enable Windows 7 compatibility mode.
Run the game in windowed mode[12]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open Video.scr with a text editor.
  3. Change Fullscreen() to Fullscreen(0) (or add it if it doesn't exist).

Vsync setting not applied

The Vsync option doesn't take effect until I exit the game and open it again.

Disable aim assist

Aim assist is enabled even when using keyboard and mouse.[13]
Aim assist cannot be disabled for throwing weapons.
Use the Dead Island Save Editor
  1. Download and run the Dead Island Save Editor.
  2. Open the Profile named default.pro.
  3. Click the Advanced tab, then locate the field named I_AutoAim.
  4. Change the value of I_AutoAim to 0 and save.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
OpenGL 2 OS X and Linux only.
Shader Model support 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
This 32-bit-only macOS game does not work on macOS Catalina (10.15) or later.
Linux

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Multiplayer Steamworks
Anti-cheat Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC)

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66 GHz
AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.9 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 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
macOS (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
Processor (CPU) 2.8 GHz Dual Core
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GT 430
ATI Radeon HD 5570
1 GB of VRAM


References