Warnings
- This game requires a constant internet connection for all game modes.
Key points
- PC version features 64 player multiplayer, high resolution textures, high quality shadows and more PC-specific features.
General information
- Official website
- Battlefield 3 on Battlelog - PC section.
- Answer HQ for the Battlefield series at EA.com
- Battlefield Wiki
Availability
- All versions require EA app DRM.
DLC and expansion packs
| Name |
Notes |
|
| Aftermath |
|
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| Air Vehicle Shortcut |
|
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| Armored Kill |
|
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| Assault Kit Shortcut |
|
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| Back to Karkand |
|
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| Close Quarters |
|
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| Co-op Weapons Shortcut |
|
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| End Game |
|
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| Engineer Kit Shortcut |
|
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| Ground Vehicle Shortcut |
|
|
| Kit Shortcut Bundle |
|
|
| Promotional Items |
|
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| Recon Kit Shortcut |
|
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| SPECACT Kit & Dog Tag Bundle |
|
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| Support Kit Shortcut |
|
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| The Ultimate Shortcut Bundle |
|
|
| Vehicle Shortcut Bundle |
|
|
Essential improvements
- TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game.
Performance boost
- This command disables the engine's deferred compute shader lighting path. This may give a large FPS boost in open, outdoor areas, but possibly may reduce performance in heavily lit scenes. Most users report only the performance boost, including inside closed areas.
- This command provides no graphical change.
|
WorldRender.DxDeferredCsPathEnable false or DxDeferredCsPathEnable 0[citation needed]
|
- Open the console (~).
- Input either
WorldRender.DxDeferredCsPathEnable false or DxDeferredCsPathEnable 0
Notes
- You can create a text file called user.cfg in the installation folder containing this command, so that it's permanently enabled.
|
Optimal video settings
- You may use any configuration with-which you are satisfied. The following tips serve to balance graphical fidelity, function and performance.
- Setting textures to High may eliminate texture pop-in, if it is happening to you.
- Setting effects to Low is recommended. Other levels show no particular improvement, it only adds a little bloom around fire sparkles.[2]
- Settings mesh to Ultra is recommended as it allows you to spot enemies at a greater distance.
- Set anisotropic filtering to the maximum value your PC can handle. Better AF comes as a minimal (or none) performance cost and significantly improves graphical fidelity.
Play the game without Origin
- Warning: no official word from EA, proceed at your own risk.
|
Patch your parameter file[3]
|
- Look in the installation folder for a file with
.par extension
- Upload it to NoFaTe's Origin Requirement Remover
- Replace the original file with the one which will be you provided
|
Game data
In-game general settings.
Configuration file(s) location
| System |
Location |
| Windows |
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 3\settings\ |
Save game data location
| System |
Location |
| Windows |
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 3\settings\ |
-
meta.xml, PROF_SAVE_body, PROF_SAVE_header and PROF_SAVE_profile are the save files.
Video settings
Template:Video settings
Input settings
In-game control settings.
In-game key/button map settings.
Template:Input settings
Audio settings
Template:Audio settings
- IndirectSound copied to the game directory can be used to enhance audio quality and spatialization. Consider also enabling enhanced stereo mode in game options.
Localizations
- Some regions do not include all languages; see Change game language.
| Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
| English |
|
|
|
GDFBinary_en_US.dll, en_US |
| Traditional Chinese |
|
|
|
|
| Czech |
|
|
|
GDFBinary_cs_CZ.dll, cs_CZ |
| French |
|
|
|
GDFBinary_fr_FR.dll, fr_FR |
| German |
|
|
|
GDFBinary_de_DE.dll, de_DE |
| Italian |
|
|
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GDFBinary_it_IT.dll, it_IT |
| Japanese |
|
|
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GDFBinary_ja_JP.dll, ja_JP |
| Korean |
|
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|
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| Polish |
|
|
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GDFBinary_pl_PL.dll, pl_PL |
| Russian |
|
|
|
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| Spanish |
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|
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GDFBinary_es_ES.dll, es_ES |
Change game language
{{Fixbox|description=Instructions|ref=[citation needed]|fix=
- If you've purchased a foreign version of the game and would like to play it in English, you can either download a complete package:
- Download the complete package here.
- Or follow these steps:
- Download the BF3 Language Pack and extract the files to
<path-to-game>\Data\Win32\Loc\.
- Download the second BF3 Language Pack for the 5 March 2013 patch and extract the files to
<path-to-game>\.
- Download the December patch archive and extract only the "en.toc" file from
\Update\Patch\Data\Win32\Loc\ to <path-to-game>\Data\Win32\Loc\ (do only take the en.toc file from this archive!)
- Update this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\Battlefield 3
- Update this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Origin Games\DGR01609244
- Replace the circled keys (to the right on this page) with those provided above.
Network
- Update PunkBuster using the PBSetup utility to fix most issues.
Multiplayer types
Connection types
Ports
| Protocol |
Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
| TCP |
80, 443, 9988, 17502, 20000-20100, 22990, 42127 |
| UDP |
3659, 14000-14016, 22990-23006, 25200-25300 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
VR support
Issues fixed
"Game disconnected: something went wrong" error
|
Replay Mission[citation needed]
|
- From the main menu, select Replay Missions.
- Select the mission you would like to continue from.
Notes
- This will overwrite your latest checkpoint.
|
"Battlefield 3 has stopped working" error
|
Find PROF_SAVE_body[citation needed]
|
- Go to the save game data location.
- Find a file called
PROF_SAVE_body. If its size is 0KB, it is corrupted.
- Overwrite the file through re-installation or get a replacement from a verified source (friend, reputable website).
- If prompted by Origin, opt to use your local data instead of the version stored on the cloud.
|
Game crashes with a sound loop using an ASUS Xonar sound-card
|
Disable GX Mode[citation needed]
|
- Open the Xonar Audio Center.
- Disable GX Mode.
|
Crashes on 32-bit Windows
Nvidia GeForce GTX 500-series freezing or displaying bad graphics
|
Turn off various options, etc[citation needed]
|
- Turn off Antialiasing Deferred, Vertical Sync and Motion Blur in the options menu.
- Close overclocking and/or monitoring software such as RivaTuner.
- In the NVIDIA Control Panel, set Power management mode to Prefer maximum performance.
- Uninstall TeamViewer and any associated drivers and services.
- Uninstall or disable FFSplit.
|
Black screen (AMD/ATI)
|
Edit PROF_SAVE_profile[citation needed]
|
- Go to the save game data location.
- Edit the file
PROF_SAVE_profile using Notepad.
- Modify the entry
GstRender.FullscreenEnabled to 0
- Modify the entry
GstRender.FullscreenScreen to 1
- Save the file, then change its properties to Read only.
- Launch the game. Go to the Video menu in the options menu.
- Change the undefined monitor number to
1
- Modify the screen resolution option to a resolution lower than your normal/native resolution.
- Modify Fullscreen to ON. Apply the changes.
|
Origin error - "Could not activate"
|
Delete License files[5]
|
- Close Origin (right click tray symbol > Exit)
- Go to
%PROGRAMDATA%\Electronic Arts\EA Services\License
- Delete any files named
71067.dlf, 70619 or 70169.dlf
- Go to
%PROGRAMDATA%\Origin\DownloadCache
- Delete all of the files in this folder
- Restart your computer and launch Origin
- Log into your Origin account and launch Battlefield 3 to force a license update
|
Weak performance on Intel Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs (especially Laptops)
|
Deactivate Intel TurboBoost using this trick[citation needed]
|
- Open Control Panel-> Power Options -> Change Plan Settings (on current plan) -> Change advanced power settings
- On Processor power management change the maximum cpu usage to 99% instead of 100%. This will disable TurboBoost, which is the reason for weird performance issues in connection with Battlefield 3.
- ATTENTION: You might also have to turn down minimum CPU usage if it is set to 100% (eg Max performance mode often has this). Also your performance will get steadier with both minimum and maximum settings set to 99%, but at the cost of battery life.
|
PunkBuster kicked player 'xxx' (for 0 minutes) ... No Packet Flow
|
Dual WAN router - use one WAN for both BF3 and PunkBuster[citation needed]
|
- Find the user manual for your router
- Route all connections to/from your PC through one WAN connection
- You may need to restart your router/ your PC
|
Other information
API
| Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
| Direct3D |
11 |
|
| Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
| Windows |
|
|
|
Middleware
|
Middleware |
Notes |
| Multiplayer |
PunkBuster |
|
Console commands
- Launch console with ~.
- You can have these commands run automatically, whenever you start the game, by entering them in
user.cfg in the Battlefield 3 installation folder (the file won't exist by default, you can create it through Notepad and save as a .cfg file).
| Command |
Description |
| Render.DrawFps 1 |
Show FPS counter |
| Render.PerfOverlayVisible 1 |
Show performance graph |
| GameTime.MaxVariableFPS # |
Limit frame rate (where # is a positive number) |
| RenderDevice.TripleBufferingEnable 1 |
Enable Triple-Buffering (only recommended if Vsync is on) |
| RenderDevice.RenderAheadLimit 1 |
Force rendering only 1 frame ahead (may remove stutter, default value is 3) |
| Screenshot.Render |
Take a screenshot (into %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 3\Screenshots\) |
System requirements
| Windows |
|
Minimum | Recommended |
| Operating system (OS) |
Vista SP2 32-bit | 7 64-bit |
| Processor (CPU) |
AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz | Quad-core |
| System memory (RAM) |
2 GB | 4 GB |
| Storage drive (HDD/SSD) |
20 GB | |
| Video card (GPU) |
ATI Radeon 3870
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
512 of VRAM
DirectX 10.1 compatible | ATI Radeon 6950
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560
1024 MB of VRAM
DirectX 11 compatible |
| Sound (audio device) |
DirectX Compatible | |
References
