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Batman: Arkham City

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham City cover
Developers
Rocksteady Studios
macOS (OS X) Feral Interactive
Publishers
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
OS X Feral Interactive
Engines
Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows November 22, 2011
macOS (OS X) December 13, 2012
Reception
Metacritic 91
IGDB 91
Taxonomy
Series Batman: Arkham
Batman: Arkham City on HowLongToBeat
Batman: Arkham City on IGDB
Batman: Arkham City guide on StrategyWiki
Batman: Arkham City on MobyGames
Batman: Arkham City on Wikipedia
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.

Key points

Games for Windows - LIVE and SecuROM have been removed from the Steam version.[1]

General information

Developer minisite
Arkham Wiki
Batman Wiki
Steam Community Discussions
Technical Issues section of the official forum.

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
Requires online activation
Icon overlay.png
SecuROM 8 and SecuROM PA DRM. The standard edition has 2 DVD's while the Game of the Year edition has 3 DVD's.
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Developer website
Icon overlay.png
Game of the Year Edition.
macOS (OS X)
Epic Games Store
DRM-free after installation through Epic Games Launcher (notes may include more details)
Game of the Year Edition.
DRM-free when launched directly from executable.[2]
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Game of the Year Edition.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Game of the Year Edition.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Game of the Year Edition.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Game of the Year Edition.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Mac App Store
Icon overlay.png
Requires online activation
Game of the Year Edition.
macOS (OS X)
Origin
Origin
Game of the Year Edition.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Game of the Year Edition.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
The retail version activates on Steam.[1]
The non-Steam OS X version uses Feral Interactive's DRM which requires online activation on their website.
The non-GOTY version upgrades to GOTY when activated on Steam.[1]

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

SWF Method
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\BmGame\Movies\
  2. Delete or rename StartupNV.swf and Startup.swf
INI Method
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\BmGame\Config\
  2. Open bmengine.ini
  3. Find bForceNoMovies=false and change to bForceNoMovies=true

Warning!
In some cases using .ini method causes total loss of gameplay sound (Like fighting or ambient sounds)
in this case it is recommended to use the above swf method.

Game data

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.
A well-written post on the Steam Users' Forums about the way the game handles save data. Note that this forum post is only relevant to the deprecated GFWL version.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\WB Games\Batman Arkham City GOTY\BmGame\Config\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/200260/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Steam <Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\200260\
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\WB Games\Batman Arkham City GOTY\SaveData\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/200260/pfx/[Note 1]

Convert GFWL savegames to Steamworks

Use GFWL-stripper

Transfer/Migrate/Convert Xbox360 save games to Epic Store version

Note: this is bit more involved and manual than the removing GFWL above, but still easy. "0x" refers to hexadecimal values e.g. 0x10 means "the hexadecimal value 10 (decimal 16) NOT decimal 10".

  1. 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
  2. Insert a USB flashdrive into your Xbox360
  3. Use your Xbox360 Settings menu to copy your Arkham City savegames to the drive
  4. 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
  5. Open the save file you want to transfer in your hex editor
  6. 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.
  7. Delete everything before position 0xD000
  8. You should end up with a file starting with 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x03
  9. Insert 4 bytes of 00 80 04 00 at the start.
  10. Your file will now begin 00 80 04 00 00 00 00 03...
  11. Save your changes.
  12. Copy your edited save into the correct folder as documented above, or in Youtube - TUTORIAL Batman Arkham How To Install SaveGames

Transfer/Migrate/Convert Steam save games to Epic Store version

  1. Open your save file in your hex editor.
  2. It will start with 00 00 00 03.
  3. Insert the 4 bytes 00 80 04 00 at the start of the file, so it now starts 00 80 04 00 00 00 00 03
  4. Save the file and transfer to the save folder as documented above.

Transfer Epic save games to Steam

  1. Copy and paste your save file.
  2. Open your copied save file in your hex editor.
  3. Select and delete the first 4 bytes 00 80 04 00.
  4. Save the file and rename to desired save slot.
  5. transfer renamed file to save folder for steam.

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

External video settings.
External video settings.

Field of view (FOV)

Change FOV[4]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open BmInput.ini.
  3. To bind a FoV value of 100 to F10, add this line at the end of [Engine.PlayerInput]: Bindings=(Name="F10",Command="fov 100").

The result:

Notes

The game might revert this change when graphic or control settings are altered, especially when using the separate configuration tool. In case of multiple edits to an .ini file, it is useful to make a copy of the customized file and copy it over the reverted one when necessary, in order to avoid repeated manual editing.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Anisotropic filtering (AF)[5][citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open UserEngine.ini.
  3. Under the [SystemSettings] section, add line MaxAnisotropy=16.

High frame rate

Run the game's benchmark.[citation needed]
You will need to do this every time you start the game.
Raise frame rate smoothing[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open BMEngine.ini.
  3. Search MaxSmoothedFrameRate. Best value should be your monitor refresh rate +2 so e.g. with 144hz monitor value should be 146. Change configs value to this. There may be multiple instances so change them all.
  4. Save file and make it "read only".
For more information, see the Unreal Engine 3 page.


A second fix for the GOTY Edition:

  1. If the method above does not work, try this one:
  2. Go to <path-to-game>\BmGame\Config\.
  3. Open DefaultEngine.ini.
  4. Search MaxSmoothedFrameRate. Best value should be your monitor refresh rate +2 so e.g. with 144hz monitor value should be 146. Change configs value to this. There may be multiple instances so change them all.
  5. Search for bSmoothFrameRate and change it to FALSE
  6. Save file and make it "read only".
For more information, see the Unreal Engine 3 page.

Input

External key map settings.
External key map settings.
The gamepad layout for Batman: Arkham City
The gamepad layout for Batman: Arkham City

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
See Disable mouse smoothing.
Mouse sensitivity
See Mouse sensitivity.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Separate inversion of look, rotation, flight controls and Batarang flight controls.
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
PlayStation controllers
Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Button prompts
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Disable Mouse Smoothing

Disable Mouse Smoothing[6]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open BmInput.ini.
  3. Under the [Engine.PlayerInput] section, change the value of bEnableMouseSmoothing to false

Mouse sensitivity

Change Mouse sensitivity[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open BmInput.ini.
  3. Under the [Engine.PlayerInput] section, change the value of MouseSensitivity=X to your desired mouse sensitivity.

Audio

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

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
SFX, Music and Dialogue.
Surround sound
Auto configures up to 5.1 output[7]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Brazilian Portuguese
Czech
Fan translation.
French
German
Hungarian
Fan translation.
Italian
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Depends on Windows Language preferences, for Spain must be on any configuration of Spanish.
Latin American Spanish
Depends on Windows Language preferences, for Latin America, Windows language must be on Español (México), For configure through UserEngine.ini, change ESN to ESM.
Turkish
Fan translation.
Japanese
PC version not released in Japan.

Change language

By default the Windows system language takes over other preferences.
Change game language[8]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open UserEngine.ini.
  3. Change the language to the code of your desired language

Notes

Menu texts preference can be simply overridden with -LANGUAGEFORCOOK=XXX parameter
Dialogues preference can be simply overridden with -LANGUAGE=XXX parameter
Language codes (XXX) and available localizations can be checked in the <path-to-game>\BmGame\Localization\ folder
Change launcher language[citation needed]
Every time you start the launcher, the game takes over the launcher's language settings, so you should consider changing this, too.
  1. Open <path-to-game>\BmGame\Config\Launcher.ini
  2. Search for '[Launcher.CultureMap]'.
  3. Put a semi-colon in front of each line except 'default=Int' and your desired language.

VR support

3D modes State GG3D Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision
TriDef 3D
DirectX 9 only.
iZ3D
vorpX
G3D
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues unresolved

When using a controller, entering menus (such as the map) un-hides the mouse cursor and positions it in the center of the screen.

Issues fixed

Fatal error "QA_APPROVED_BUILD_JANUARY_2011"

  1. Go into the Binaries\win32 folder
  2. Right-click on BatmanAC.exe and go to Properties
  3. Go to the Compatibility tab and check "Run this program as administrator"
  4. Click Ok
  5. Right-click on BMLauncher.exe
  6. Go to the Compatibility tab and check "Run this program as administrator"
  7. Click Ok

Stuttering

Delete configuration files[9]
Game constantly stutters, while GPU usage is low.
  1. Go into %USERPROFILE%\Documents\WB Games\Batman Arkham City GOTY\BmGame\Config\
  2. Delete following files: bmengine.ini, bmgame.ini and userengine.ini
  3. Launch configuration tool from game launcher, choose your settings
  4. Launch the game

Low FPS

Turn off PhysX and DX11, as both of these features are resource-intensive.
Ensure you have the latest DirectX End-User Runtimes.

Game crashes

Force 2-core affinity[citation needed]

Gray screen after fight with Joker

Gray screen after fight with Joker[citation needed]
After beating Joker in the Steel Mill, you may encounter a gray screen that looks to be a cutscene that refuses to load. It tells you you can skip it by clicking the left-mouse button, but doing so will have no effect.
If you encounter this problem and you have the game on Steam, try validating your cache.
  1. Right click on Batman: Arkham City in your Steam library
  2. Select Properties
  3. Select Local Files
  4. Select "Check integrity of game cache files".

Notes

The process might complete too fast (less than three seconds for a game of several gigabytes). If that's the case, launch the game and load up the menu. Press Alt+F4 and GfWL will helpfully inform you that you might lose unsaved progress. Click Yes to continue. Try validating your game's cache again.
If validating your cache did not work or you do not have a version of the game on Steam, delete the game's local files (Steam -> Batman: Arkham City -> Remove local files), reinstall the game and try again. Luckily your saves are stored in the Steam Cloud.

No sound or weak sound

No sound or weak sound[citation needed]
  1. Update your sound card drivers.
  2. If problems persist, ensure sure you have volume set to max for Batman Arkham City in the volume mixer (click on the little speaker icon in the bottom-right of your screen in the system tray).
  3. If you're in-game, just Alt+Tab out of the game and check if Batman Arkham City is set to max in the volume mixer.
  4. In some cases using the .ini tweak (Command: bForceNoMovies=true) to skip intro videos causes loss of gameplay sounds (Like fighting or ambient sounds) In this case it is recommended not to use this solution. Instead you can use the sfw method for skipping the intro videos.

Notes

Another tip you could try is to go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound > Communications Tab then select the "Do Nothing" radio button to permanently fix this issue.

Game crashes right after launch

Game crashes right after launch[citation needed]

The Windows 7 event log may show entries like this:

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH

Application Name: BatmanAC.exe

Application Version: 1.0.0.0

Application Timestamp: 00000000

Fault Module Name: BatmanAC.exe

Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.0

Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000

Exception Code: c000001d

Exception Offset: 0348d7d2

OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1

Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information 1: b1da

Additional Information 2: b1dad02de602a574f3e3edfa7bc260e4

Additional Information 3: 3984

Additional Information 4: 3984b60a0d265364fe265f881509cbd0

If you are using EMET and set SEHOP to opt-out, Batman Arkham City needs to be added to the opt-out list. To do this:

1) Create an empty text file

2) Add theses lines:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\BatmanAC.exe]

"DisableExceptionChainValidation"=dword:00000001

3) Save it as batman.reg (name doesn't matter, just the .reg extension is important)

4) Double click it

5) Run Arkham City

If that doesn't work, you may have to try disabling SEHOP globally:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel]

"DisableExceptionChainValidation"=dword:00000001

Game crashes during introductory cutscene

Install PhysX or disable it[citation needed]

Fix for missing Catwoman controls

While able to do the "quickfire disarm" for Catwoman while using a gamepad, this move is unusable with a keyboard, as it has no button associated with it.
Edit UserInput.ini[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open UserInput.ini.
  3. Find the line IniVersion=6.9
  4. Under this line add Bindings=(Name="KEY1",Command="HoldToZoom | QuickGadgetY", Shift=false, Control=false, Alt=false, bIgnoreShift=false, bIgnoreCtrl=false, bIgnoreAlt=false):META:COM_QUICK_GADGET1,1,-1,-1,"",false,true,CI_QuickWhip
  5. Replace KEY1 with the desired key for batclaw/whipdisarm, - note that if a key is already used for another function it can't be associated with this action
  6. Under this line add Bindings=(Name="KEY2",Command="HoldToZoom | QuickGadgetB", Shift=false, Control=false, Alt=false, bIgnoreShift=false, bIgnoreCtrl=false, bIgnoreAlt=false):META:COM_QUICK_GADGET3,1,-1,-1,"",false,true,CI_QuickCaktrops
  7. Replace KEY2 with the desired key for pulse/caltrops - note that if a key is already used for another function it can't be associated with this action
  8. Find the line .Bindings=(Name="KEY3",Command="PCQuickGadget 1", Shift=false, Control=false, Alt=false, bIgnoreShift=false, bIgnoreCtrl=false, bIgnoreAlt=false):META:COM_QUICK_GADGET1,1,-1,-1,"",false,true,CI_QuickBatClaw,CI_QuickCaltrops (KEY3 is your set batclaw/whipdisarm binding)
  9. Find the line .Bindings=(Name="KEY4",Command="PCQuickGadget 3", Shift=false, Control=false, Alt=false, bIgnoreShift=false, bIgnoreCtrl=false, bIgnoreAlt=false):META:COM_QUICK_GADGET3,1,-1,-1,"",false,true,CI_QuickMagBlast (KEY4 is your set pulse/caltrops binding)
  10. Replace both KEY3 and KEY4 with "Unbound"
  11. Save the file

Missing Penguin Statues

Sometimes Penguin statues may become invisible, and cannot be destroyed, but can be locked on with a batarang.
Missing Penguin Statues[citation needed]
  1. Verify the game cache or reinstall the game.

MSI Afterburner OSD does not show

MSI Afterburner OSD does not show[citation needed]

Open RivaTuner (the tool that comes together with MSI Afterburner), add the game file BatmanAC.exe, and activate or deactivate Custom Direct3D support depending on the global setting.

Microsoft .NET Framework - Unhandled exception has occured in your application.

Access to path is denied[10]
  1. Run the game as administrator.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9, 11
Metal support
macOS >= 10.14 only
Shader Model support 3, 5
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
macOS only.[11]

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics PhysX
Audio Wwise
Cutscenes Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP
Processor (CPU) AMD Athlon X2 4800+
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 17 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon HD 3850
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
512 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 10.14
Processor (CPU) Intel 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 16 GB
Video card (GPU) 512 MB of VRAM
Users with macOS versions prior to 10.14 can select the branch mac_retail_11 - macOS 10.13.6 or older only from the Beta tab on Steam. This enables the game to run with the legacy OpenGL backend on macOS >= 10.9.5.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 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>/200260/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (200260) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References