Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Developers
	Rocksteady Studios
macOS (OS X)	Feral Interactive
Publishers
Current	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Prior to 2010	Eidos Interactive
Former	Square Enix
OS X	Feral Interactive
Retail (Russia)	Noviy Disk
Engines
	Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows	September 15, 2009
macOS (OS X)	November 19, 2011
Reception
Metacritic	91
IGDB	89
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Adventure, Metroidvania, Stealth
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary, North America
Series	Batman: Arkham

Batman: Arkham
Subseries of Batman
Batman: Arkham Asylum	2009
Batman: Arkham City	2011
Batman: Arkham Origins	2013
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate Deluxe Edition	2014
Batman: Arkham Knight	2015
Batman: Arkham VR	2017
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League	2024

Warnings

For Games for Windows - LIVE on Windows 8 or later, install the latest Games for Windows - LIVE software.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a singleplayer third-person action, adventure, metroidvania and stealth game in the Batman: Arkham series.

General information

macOS developer minisite

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 7 and Games for Windows - LIVE DRM. Custom DRM code may sabotage the game by disabling the glider cape, rendering several areas inaccessible.
Epic Games Store		Game of the Year Edition. DRM-free when launched directly from executable.
GamersGate		Game of the Year Edition.
		Game of the Year Edition.
GOG.com		Game of the Year Edition.
Green Man Gaming		Game of the Year Edition.
Humble Store		Game of the Year Edition.
Steam		Game of the Year Edition. Run ShippingPC-BmGame.exe with the -nosteam command line argument. Save data will now save to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Square Enix; Challenge maps may crash the game.
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)		SecuROM PA DRM.
Origin (unavailable)		Game of the Year Edition.

SecuROM PA and Games for Windows - LIVE DRM were removed from the Steam version in 2013.

The Mac OS X version is no longer sold digitally.

The non-GOTY version upgrades to GOTY when activated on Steam. If this is not possible, contact WB Games' support.

Demo

A demo is available on Steam.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete or rename video files
Go to <path-to-game>\BmGame\Movies\. Delete or rename baa_logo_run_v5_h264.bik, Legal.bik, Legalus.bik, nvidia.bik, and utlogo.bik.

Toggle Disable Intro Movies in the Batman: Arkham Asylum - Advanced Launcher[citation needed]

Batman: Arkham Asylum - Advanced Launcher

This custom launcher replaces the original one and includes all the features from the vanilla launcher along with common tweaks and bug fixes already covered on this page and more. Also supports more advanced tweaks to improve performance and visual fidelity beyond what the vanilla launcher allows.

Supports Steam GOTY, Epic Games Store GOTY and GOG GOTY releases.

A PCGamingWiki mirror of the launcher binary is available.

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Square Enix\Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY\BmGame\Config\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/35140/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Square Enix\Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY\SaveData\
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Batman Arkham City GOTY/Save Data/
Steam	<Steam-folder>/userdata/<user-id>/35140/remote/
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/35140/pfx/

The save subfolder is named with a long string of letters and numbers.

For non-GOTY version, path for both configuration files and save data start with %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Eidos\Batman Arkham Asylum\ instead.

For converting saves from one version to another, see Save game data migration.

Steam save files are non-compatible with the Epic Games store version of the game.

Steam saves are compatible with the GOG version, simply copy the save files from the Steam location to the GOG save data location.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
Origin		1 GB available.
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud		Approx. 954 MB available.

Convert Games for Windows - LIVE to Steam

Save before editing

Modified save

Prepare to replace saves[citation needed]
Start the game According to the name of your GFWL saves, make sure the corresponding slot is also occupied in-game Close game and Steam Delete <Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\35140\remotecache.vdf

Use GFWL-stripper[citation needed]

Remove old GFWL file header
Go to GFWL save game data location. Open your desired save#.sgd with a hex editor such as HxD. Search for the first hex 00 00 01 instance not located in the initial part of the file where all values start with 0 Delete everything before this. Save files over the corresponding ones in <Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\35140\remote\

Convert Xbox 360 to Epic Games Store

"0x" refers to hexadecimal values e.g. 0x10 means "the hexadecimal value 10 (decimal 16) NOT decimal 10".

Manual conversion with hex editor

Make a note of the save(s) you want to use on the PC version as above i.e. save 0, 1, 2, and/or 3 Insert a USB flashdrive into your Xbox360 Use your Xbox360 Settings menu to copy your Arkham Asylum savegames to the drive Complete transfer of files to your PC - there will be a "Content" folder on your USB drive, and your saves will be in it, search for the files save0.sgd, save1.sgd etc depending on which you want to convert Open the save file you want to transfer in your hex editor Go to offset 0xD000, or search for the first occurence of 0x9E2A83 - I have only seen this near position 0xD000 in my saves, but it may vary. Delete everything before position 0xD000 You should end up with a file starting with 0x00 0x00 0x01 Now scroll down the file until you hit a big block of 0x00s. How far you have to scroll depends on how much is in your savegame. It will be a big block, you can tell it's the right block because before it you'll see lots of game related words like Harpoon Gun, Objective, but afterwards just gibberish Look at the top of the of block of 00s and find the last 0x11 byte, this is the "end" of the real data. You may have 9 or so bytes of 0x00 before it Delete everything AFTER the 0x11 so that the 0x11 is now the last byte in the file Now make a note of the offset of the 0x11 - this is Value A. Go back to the start of the file. Insert 4 bytes of 00 00 00 00 at the start. Your file will now begin 00 00 00 00 00 00 01... You now will change the 3rd byte. If value A is less than 0x10000 - it will be 01 i.e. your file will start 00 00 01 00. If value A is more than 0x10000 - it will be 02 i.e. your file starts 00 00 02 00. And presumably onwards to bigger depending on save length e.g. if A > 0x20000 use 03 and so on... In actual fact, I've tested this up to 09 - it's just important that it's more than 1 (or rather, more than the number of 0x10000 blocks length that your savegame is) - it seems to be just an initialisation size for some sort of uncompression buffer so needs to be at least big enough. Save your changes. Copy your edited save into the correct folder as documented above, or in MrJAG's video on Youtube - TUTORIAL Batman Arkham How To Install SaveGames

Convert Steam to Epic Games Store

Manual conversion with hex editor

Open your save file in your hex editor. It will start with 00 00 01. Insert the 4 bytes 00 00 01 00 at the start of the file, so it now starts 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 Save the file and transfer to the save folder as documented above. Notes If your save file is longer than 65kB, you may want to try 0x02 etc as documented in the Xbox360 section above. Converting Epic to Steam is simply done by deleting the bytes added in step 3 and saving.

Video

External video settings.

Video settings can only be changed in the launcher.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor			Check here if you have broken cutscene
Ultra-widescreen			Some cutscenes are pillar-boxed.
4K Ultra HD			Subtitles are extremely small in resolutions higher than 1080p and nearly unreadable. The rest of the UI scales well.
Field of view (FOV)		Use Batman: Arkham Asylum - Advanced Launcher.
Windowed		In launcher, click settings. Doesn't properly capture mouse, may click background windows by accident.[citation needed]
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		4x by default. Change manually or by using Batman: Arkham Asylum - Advanced Launcher.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 16xQ MSAA. Nvidia users only. AMD users must use Batman: Arkham Asylum - Advanced Launcher for antialiasing. up to 4x MSAA, 8xQ crashes the game. Nvidia users can force SGSSAA in Nvidia Profile Inspector with the 0x080000C1 antialiasing compatibility flag.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Set via launcher. Triple buffering
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Capped at 62 FPS. Can be changed manually or by using Batman: Arkham Asylum - Advanced Launcher.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

Anisotropic Filtering (AF)

Use Batman: Arkham Asylum - Advanced Launcher[citation needed]

Adjust Anisotropic filtering manually[citation needed]
Open configuration file(s) location/bmengine.ini in a text editor. Change MaxAnisotropy= to 16. Save the file and set it to "Read Only".

Set custom frame rate

Use Batman: Arkham Asylum - Advanced Launcher[citation needed]

Edit config file[citation needed]
Open configuration file(s) location/bmengine.ini in a text editor. Change bSmoothFrameRate= to False. Change MaxSmoothedFrameRate= to the desired FPS value. Save the file and set it to "Read Only".

Depth of Field

Use Batman: Arkham Asylum - Advanced Launcher[citation needed]

Disable depth of field manually[citation needed]
This disables the DOF effect as well as color grading in all areas of the game, leading to a clearer and more colorful image. Open configuration file(s) location/bmengine.ini in a text editor. Change DepthOfField= to False under the [SystemSettings] section.

HD Texture Pack

Updates many low resolution textures to higher ones by replacing and installing them to the core game files.

Input

External movement commands key map settings.

External action commands key map settings.

The gamepad layout for Batman: Arkham Asylum

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Remappable in the launcher
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		See Mouse sensitivity.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		XInput supported, DirectInput has some mapping issues.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

Tracked motion controllers		Supports the Razer Hydra.[citation needed]
Button/gesture prompts

Generic/other controllers		DirectInput has some mapping issues.
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Mouse sensitivity

Change Mouse sensitivity[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open BmInput.ini. Change the value of MouseSensitivity to your desired value and save it (overwrite). Right click BmInput.ini go to Properties and set the file to Read-only. Notes The game will overwrite your sensitivity values when launched, unless the file is set to read-only.

Disable Mouse Smoothing

Disable Mouse Smoothing[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open BmInput.ini. Change the value of bEnableMouseSmoothing to false

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Dolby Digital 5.1[citation needed]; Analog 7.1
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
Czech				Fan translation, download.
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation, download.
Italian
Japanese				Retail version, download.
Polish				Retail version, download. If the installer doesn't work download here.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation, download.
Russian				Retail version, text only or text + sound.
Spanish
Turkish				Fan translation, download.

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision			Issues with glass effects; to fix use Helix Mod: Batman Arkham Asylum.
TriDef 3D
iZ3D
vorpX		G3D Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues fixed

Failed to initialise NVIDIA PhysX on launch

Users with AMD/ATI video cards will likely have this issue, as they typically won't have any NVIDIA drivers or software installed unless they encounter a game demanding PhysX support.

Install NVIDIA PhysX System Software
Install NVIDIA PhysX System Software Relaunch the game

Extreme lag in second Scarecrow level

Even on an otherwise capable machine this section can run at sub-20 FPS.

Turn PhysX to normal or off (the issue occurs on high)[citation needed]
Notes If you have previously edited BMEngine.ini for high frame rate, you will need to edit it manually. Set PhysXLevel=2 to 1 (normal) or 0 (off).

PhysX effects not displaying correctly

Effects such as cloth physics (other than Batman's cape), smoke, and small objects such as papers and leaves are not active despite PhysX being enabled, this could be caused by missing the NVIDIA PhysX driver or having an unsupported version of it.

Install NVIDIA PhysX Legacy System Software

Install latest PhysX System Software

Massive stuttering issues

Running the game from a conventional HDD causes extreme stuttering when traversing the map due to loading. Moving the game to an SSD may fix this issue.

Move or reinstall the game to an SSD

Issues unresolved

Second cutscene before Joker boss battle (Jack Ryder Show clip) is skipped

Right before the Joker boss battle at the end of the game, there are 2 cutscenes. The first one (Joker talking to Batman) will play, but the second one (a clip of the Jack Ryder Show) may be skipped.

Restart from Checkpoint[citation needed]
If the second cutscene does not appear normally, pause the game as soon as the game loads again. From the pause menu, select "Restart from Checkpoint" and confirm. The second cutscene should then play.

Game crashes when leaving the Morgue

Disable PhysX[citation needed]
Save and exit the game. Turn off PhysX in the launcher. Start the game. After the next checkpoint you can restore your previous settings.

Set lowest resolution[citation needed]
Set resolution to 640x480 in the launcher. Start the game. After the next checkpoint you can restore your previous settings.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
OpenGL	2.0	OS X only.
Shader Model support	3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)			[citation needed]

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX	2.8.1
Audio	FMOD
Interface	Scaleform
Cutscenes	Bink Video	1.9i

Mods

Add formerly PS3 exclusive DLCs

You need to acquire the DLC files from the OS X version of the game. The files are also available for download directly from PCGamingWiki.

Use Joker DLC Patcher
Steam GOTY & Epic Games GOTY versions supported. Works on Windows, Wine and Proton. Extract the DLC files into <path-to-game>. Download the patcher and open it. Click "Select and Patch" and find ShippingPC-BmGame.exe inside of <path-to-game>\Binaries.

Manually hex edit executable
Extract the DLC files into <path-to-game>. Open <path-to-game>\Binaries\ShippingPC-BmGame.exe with a hex editor such as HxD Search for 25 00 00 08 00 31 86 80 (offset 12153C0, or 011FF410) Replace it with 0D 00 00 08 00 89 86 80

Center Main Camera View

By default the game's main third-person camera view is off-center (i.e. the character stands at the left side of the screen). For those who prefer the character to be central to the screen, the camera position can be changed via an in-game console command.

Center Camera View

Go to <path-to-game>\Binaries. Create a new text file in that folder named center.txt with the following content: set R3rdPersonCamera WalkCamConfig (StateFreeCameraSitOffsetMin=(X=0.000000,Y=0.000000,Z=0.000000),StateFreeCameraSitOffsetMax=(X=0.000000,Y=0.000000,Z=0.000000),StateFreeCameraPullOffset=(X=0.000000,Y=0.000000,Z=0.000000),CameraPivotOffset=(X=0.000000,Y=0.000000,Z=65.000000),ZoomedOffset=(X=0.000000,Y=0.000000,Z=80.000000),maxPitch=14500.000000,MinPitch=-100000.000000,MinFreeCameraDistance=300.000000,MaxFreeCameraDistance=300.000000,ShortCamSpringConst=250.000000,LongCamSpringConst=250.000000,DefaultCameraPitch=-910.000000,CameraSitOffsetPower=1.500000,bUseSeparate43Settings=True,StateFreeCamera43SitOffsetMax=(X=0.000000,Y=25.000000,Z=60.000000),StateFreeCamera43SitOffsetMin=(X=-100.000000,Y=67.000000,Z=-20.000000),bDontModifySitOffsetWhenLookingUp=False) Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open BMInput.ini. Under the [Engine.PlayerInput] section, add a new key binding line like the following: Bindings=(Name="F8",Command="exec center.txt", Shift=false, Control=false, Alt=false, bIgnoreShift=false, bIgnoreCtrl=false, bIgnoreAlt=false) Launch the game and while playing press the key to center the camera. Notes You will need to press the key once each time you launch the game. To add the command to an existing keybind, precede it with a pipe (|) character. For example, to make the F8 key change the FOV and center the camera: Bindings=(Name="F8",Command="fov 110{{!}}exec center.txt", Shift=false, Control=false, Alt=false, bIgnoreShift=false, bIgnoreCtrl=false, bIgnoreAlt=false)

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB (XP) 2 GB (Vista/7)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	8 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X1300 Nvidia GeForce 6600 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible	ATI Radeon HD 3870 Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX 512 MB of VRAM

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.9.5	10.10.3
Processor (CPU)	2.0 GHz	2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	10 GB
Video card (GPU)	256 MB of VRAM	1 GB of VRAM