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Crysis Warhead

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 07:22, 17 May 2020 by Keith (talk | contribs)
Crysis Warhead
Crysis Warhead cover
Developers
Crytek Budapest
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Engines
CryEngine 2
Release dates
Windows September 17, 2008
Reception
Metacritic 84
IGDB 77
Taxonomy
Series Crysis
Crysis Warhead on HowLongToBeat
Crysis Warhead on IGDB
Crysis Warhead guide on StrategyWiki
Crysis Warhead on MobyGames
Crysis Warhead on Wikipedia
Crysis
Crysis 2007
Crysis Warhead 2008
Crysis 2 2011
Crysis 3 2013
Crysis Remastered 2020
Crysis 2 Remastered 2021
Crysis 3 Remastered 2021
Crysis 4 TBA

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Key points

Crysis: Warhead is the single player campaign while Crysis Wars is the multiplayer section of the game.
Very taxing, even on modern computers, due to limited threading capabilities.[1]

General information

Crysis Website
MyCrysis Forums
Crysis Wiki - A wiki for everything Crysis related
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
Requires online activation
Can only be used x times
SecuROM v7 and SecuROM PA DRM, 50 machine limit.[2]
A De-Authorization Tool is available.
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
Origin
Origin
Requires online activation
Can only be used x times
SecuROM PA DRM, unspecified machine limit.[3]
A De-Authorization Tool is available.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Requires online activation
Can only be used x times
SecuROM PA DRM, 50 machine limit.[4]
A De-Authorization Tool is available.
Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

Latest version for Warhead is 1.1. Latest versions for Wars is 1.5. Patch can be found here.

Crysis Wars Multiplayer Mod

This mod updates the game to use new multiplayer master servers, re-enabling online support lost by the GameSpy service shutdown.

Full details and download links can be found on the German Crysis Forums.

Skip intro videos

Skip company logos[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Game\Localized\Video\
  2. Delete or move these files:
CryTek.sfd
Trailer_Crytek.sfd
Trailer_CrytekC.sfd
Trailer_DemoLegal.sfd
Trailer_EA.sfd
Trailer_Intel.sfd
Trailer_NVidia.sfd
Trailer_PEGI.sfd
Trailer_Rating_Full.sfd
Trailer_Rating_Logo.sfd

Game data

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.
In-game general settings (Crysis Wars).
In-game general settings (Crysis Wars).

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Crysis_WARHEAD\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17330/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Crysis_WARHEAD\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17330/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Origin
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game general video settings.
In-game general video settings.
In-game advanced video settings.
In-game advanced video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Default is 60° vertical. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See Anisotropic filtering (AF).
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Edge AA (enabled by default at High+ Shaders) or MSAA. (enabling one automatically disables the other) Requires Shaders Quality to be at High or Very High. Only edge AA has an effect on foliage.[5]
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
No frame rate cap.[citation needed] See Game uses incorrect refresh rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

This game uses vertical FOV. See FOV Calculator for help.
Edit game.cfg[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Crysis_WARHEAD\
  2. Open game.cfg with a text editor.
  3. Enter the following line with the desired value:
    cl_fov=<value>
  4. Right-click game.cfg -> Properties -> Set the file's attribute to Read-only as this keeps the desired value from changing to its default value every time you exit the game.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Crysis: Warhead by default disables AF because the engine as-is does not support using AF with parallax occlusion mapping (POM). This mod allows the engine to use AF and POM at the same time.
Install the POM+AF mod to allow anisotropic filtering[citation needed]
  1. Download the POM+AF mod from here.
  2. Copy zz_GlobalAmbientLighting_pom_Af.pak to <path-to-game>\Game
  3. Force anisotropic filtering in your graphics card control panel.

Input

In-game keyboard/mouse settings.
In-game keyboard/mouse settings.
In-game gamepad settings.
In-game gamepad settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Firing the right-hand weapon while dual-wielding is hardcoded to the right mouse button and cannot be rebound.
Mouse acceleration
Disabled by default. See Mouse acceleration.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
XInput only.
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
PlayStation controllers
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Generic/other controllers
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Listed as force feedback.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Mouse acceleration

Mouse acceleration[citation needed]
  1. Open the console (~).
  2. Enter con_restricted=0 to enable all console commands.
  3. Enter i_mouse_accel X where X is 1 or 0. Default 0 disables acceleration.

Audio

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings (Crysis Wars).
In-game audio settings (Crysis Wars).

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Up to 7.1
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
DirectSound can be restored with Creative Alchemy and Game Mode - set XP SP2 compatibility mode and admin rights, then 3D positional audio can be restored by CMSS3D[6][citation needed]

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
Only on GOG version
Czech
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Only on GOG version
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
32
Online play
32 Use Crysis Wars Multiplayer Mod[citation needed] to replace the discontinued GameSpy services.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Dedicated server software is available for Windows and Linux.
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 80, 443, 6667, 28910, 29900-29901
UDP 27900-27901, 29910, 64087
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes State GG3D Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
TriDef 3D
iZ3D

Issues fixed

TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game. It can be found here.

Hangs on startup

Run the 64-bit version of the game[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Bin64.
  2. Launch the crysis64.exe file to play the 64-bit version of the game.
Stop your antivirus or add the game to its exceptions[7]

Remapping dual wielding secondary fire to other keys

By default, mouse2 (mouse right click) is permanently mapped to the dual wielding secondary fire command, regardless of what mouse2 is actually mapped to in-game. The only way to remap the command is to manually edit the profile key map file.

Remapping the dual wielding secondary fire command[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Crysis_WARHEAD\Profiles\<user-id>\
  2. Open actionmaps.xml with Notepad.
  3. Go to the lines with <action name="attack2" onPress="1" onRelease="1"> <key name="mouse2" />
  4. Set the key name variable to another key.
    Ex. <key name="mouse3" />
  5. Save the file and launch the game.

Game uses incorrect refresh rate

The game has a tendency to select the lowest supported refresh rate that is reported by a display, rather than the highest. So for example, if connected to a TV that accepts 24Hz, 25Hz, 50Hz, and 60Hz+ signals, the game will likely output at 24 Hz, limiting the effective framerate to 24 fps, whether or not vsync is enabled.
Set screen refresh rate[8]
  1. Install Special K by following the Unofficial Special K Guide. Manual local installation may work better.
  2. Start the game with the -dx9 command line argument once and close it to allow the configuration file of Special K to be created.
  3. Open <path-to-game>\Bin64\d3d9.ini or %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Mods\SpecialK\Profiles\Crysis.exe\SpecialK.ini depending on the installation method you used.
  4. Change RefreshRate=-1 to RefreshRate=0 under [Render.FrameRate].
  5. Play the game with the -dx9 command line argument.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9, 10 DX10 by default. Use -dx9 parameter to change API.
Shader Model support 3, 4
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
64-bit executable can be found under <path-to-game>\Bin64.

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio FMOD
Multiplayer GameSpy Use Crysis Wars Multiplayer Mod[citation needed] to replace the discontinued GameSpy services.
Anti-cheat PunkBuster

Console commands

The console can be opened with ~, but the available commands are limited. This limitation can be bypassed by the con_restricted=0 command or by adding -devmode to the game's shortcut. A thorough list of console commands can be found here.

Instead of re-entering console commands every time the game starts, the file <path-to-game>\system.cfg can be created to apply console commands automatically. The commands need to be formatted differently in the file, using an equal sign instead of a space. For example, to change the FOV to 80 you would use cl_fov=80 rather than "cl_fov 80" like in the console.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP SP2, Vista
Processor (CPU) 2.8 GHz (XP)
3.2 GHz (Vista)
System memory (RAM) 1.0 GB (XP)
1.5 GB (Vista)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 15 GB
Video card (GPU) 256 MB of VRAM
Supported Processors: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or faster.
Supported chipsets: Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported. Integrated chipsets are not supported. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.


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>/17330/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (17330) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. YouTube - DigitalFoundry - Crysis 10 Years On: Why It's Still Melting The Most Powerful Gaming PCs - last accessed on 2020-02-03
    "So while threading was added in development, and you can see three cores, or almost four, doing something during the game, most of the game logic and especially AI is all on one thread."
  2. MyCrysis Forums - Crysis 1 & Warhead activation limit increased! - last accessed on 2018-08-06
  3. EA - Crysis Warhead EULA - last accessed on 2018-02-15
    "CRYSIS WARHEAD uses access control and copy protection technology. An online connection is required to authenticate CRYSIS WARHEAD and verify your license. CRYSIS WARHEAD may install additional components required for proper functionality of the copyright protection. CRYTEK reserves the right to periodically validate Your License through subsequent online authentication. If Your License is not valid You may not be able to use CRYSIS WARHEAD. The first end user of this License can install and authenticate CRYSIS WARHEAD on a set number of machines."
  4. Steam - Crysis Warhead - last accessed on 2018-02-15
    "50 machine activation limit"
  5. https://tweakguides.pcgamingwiki.com/Crysis_6.html
  6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqhITpAAw5o
  7. Crysis Warhead & Crysis Wars Failure To Launch Issues - Page 3 - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)
  8. Verified by User:Keith on 2017-12-04