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Difference between revisions of "Dead Space"

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
m (updated template usage)
Line 561: Line 561:
 
# Run Dead Space and load your save.
 
# Run Dead Space and load your save.
 
# Click <code>Open Process</code> and attach to your running Dead Space executable.
 
# Click <code>Open Process</code> and attach to your running Dead Space executable.
# Click <code>Add Address Manually</code> and enter <code>"Dead Space.exe"+A8ADC0</code>{{note|note=Only for steam version}}, select <code>Byte</code> Type.
+
# Click <code>Add Address Manually</code> and enter <code>"Dead Space.exe"+A8ADC0</code> (for Steam version) or <code>"Dead Space.exe"+A88E30</code> (for GOG version), select <code>Byte</code> Type.
 
# Change the value to 0, 1, 2, or 3, depending on the difficulty you want:  
 
# Change the value to 0, 1, 2, or 3, depending on the difficulty you want:  
 
:* 0 = Easy
 
:* 0 = Easy

Revision as of 09:32, 15 January 2022

Dead Space
Dead Space cover
Developers
EA Redwood Shores
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Engines
Visceral Engine
Release dates
Windows October 20, 2008
Reception
Metacritic 86
IGDB 88
Taxonomy
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Shooter, Survival horror
Art styles Realistic
Themes Horror, Sci-fi, Space
Series Dead Space
Dead Space on HowLongToBeat
Dead Space on IGDB
Dead Space guide on StrategyWiki
Dead Space on MobyGames
Dead Space on Wikipedia
Dead Space
Dead Space 2008
Dead Space 2 2011
Dead Space 3 2013
Dead Space (2023) 2023

Key points

In-game Vsync limits frame rate to half the monitor's refresh rate.[1] Disable it and force Vsync externally.
A glitch in the game causes the difficulty to change itself when multiple save files are present. See Issues fixed.
Very poor mouse input due to aggressive acceleration and lowered speed when running above 60 FPS. Use Dead Space Mouse Fix.

General information

Dead Space Wiki
GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
Dead Space on TheGameEngine.org

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
Requires online activation
CD key
Can only be used x times
SecuROM v7.38.0007 DRM & SecuROM PA DRM. 4 machines limit. A De-Authorization Tool is available.
Windows
Amazon.com (unavailable)
DRM details are not known
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
Origin
Origin
Included with EA Play.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Included with EA Play (Steam).
Key is located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Dead Space\ergc.
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg (unavailable)
Origin
Windows

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\Electronic Arts\Dead Space\
Steam Play (Linux) <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17470/pfx/[Note 1]
The file for key-bindings controls.rmp is in a binary format and requires hex editing.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Electronic Arts\Dead Space\
Steam Play (Linux) <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17470/pfx/[Note 1]
20 save slots available.

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

Graphics settings.
Graphics settings.
Advanced graphics settings.
Advanced graphics settings.
Brightness settings. With exclusive fullscreen, game is so much brighter that even lowest value looks relatively bright.
Brightness settings. With exclusive fullscreen, game is so much brighter that even lowest value looks relatively bright.
WSGF multi-monitor screenshot.[2]
WSGF multi-monitor screenshot.[2]

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Game's brightness is much higher in exclusive fullscreen mode.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
Only if your display supports a refresh rate of 60 Hz or more.[Note 2]
4K Ultra HD
Subtitles do not scale.
Field of view (FOV)
See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Ingame antialiasing is a simple blur shader. On/off toggle.
Nvidia users can force SGSSAA, see Anti-aliasing (AA).
Vertical sync (Vsync)
In-game option limits frame rate to half the monitor's refresh rate (when in full screen mode, otherwise it acts as a 30FPS limit). See the glossary page for proper Vsync.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Very high frame-rate(+30 FPS) potentially causes problems with QTEs, physics (specifically ragdoll), and animations
There are a few minor problems.
Mouse input has issues when running over 60 FPS. Use Dead Space Mouse Fix.
Can introduce desyncing issues with extremely high framerates (300FPS+).[3]
Some of the UI speed is tied to the fps. If frame rate is too high, the game will slow down.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

Use Widescreen Fixer[4]
  1. Download and install Widescreen Fixer.
  2. Run the program
  3. Select the 'Main' tab, and select 'Dead Space' from the dropdown menu
  4. Click the settings cog next to the drop down bar
  5. In the window this opens, enter your FOV of choice (I'd recommend 0.3)
  6. Click the 'Settings' tab, go to 'Hotkey' at the bottom, and input your hotkey of choice (e.g. Alt+F1)
  7. Click 'save settings' and then 'close window'. Leave the program running
  8. Launch 'Dead Space'
  9. When in game, press the hotkey you input in step 6.
  10. Your FoV of choice should now be visible in game
When you look at the Widescreen Fixer program, below the 'Select game' dropdown menu is 'Status'. 'Game Running', and Fix Enabled should both be Yes if it worked correctly. Please note that the program must be kept running alongside the game for the selected FOV to work.

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Force SGSSAA (Nvidia only)[5]
  1. Download and run Nvidia Profile Inspector.
  2. Select the Dead Space profile.
  3. Change Antialiasing compatibility to 0x004010C0.
  4. Change Antialiasing - Behavior Flags to None.
  5. Change Antialiasing - Mode to Override any application setting.
  6. Change Antialiasing - Setting to 8xQ [8x Multisampling] or your desired setting.
  7. Change Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling to 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling.
  8. Click Apply changes.

Notes

Might blur the image to some extent and heavily impact frame rate.
Use 'FPS Counter And Post Processing Effects'

Download and use https://www.nexusmods.com/deadspace/mods/1?tab=description

Ambient-occlusion (AO)

Force HBAO (Nvidia only)[6]
  1. Download and run Nvidia Profile Inspector.
  2. Select the Dead Space profile.
  3. Change Ambient Occlusion setting to High Quality.
  4. Change Ambient Occlusion usage to Enabled.

For a stronger HBAO effect Follow the steps below. (Optional)

  1. Go to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_9ca352e6f4fd8c11 and locate the file nvd3dum.dll OR search for the file in your Windows folder if you can't find it.
  2. Copy nvd3dum.dll to your game folder where the executable is.
  3. Download and run HxD hex editor.
  4. Import the nvd3dum.dll into HxD then go to Search, Replace, then switch to Hex-values tab.
  5. Copy DA 90 80 18 00 00 96 18 B5 A0 68 08 00 00 00 00 and replace with DA 90 80 18 00 00 96 18 B5 A0 68 0E 00 00 00 00 and press Replace all.
  6. Save the file and start the game.

Notes

Nvidia HBAO will not bleed through smoke and other screen effects, unlike the post-process AO effects by Reshade.
Might introduce a slight shaded stripe pattern on some floor surfaces.
To revert back to normal AO values, just delete the file from the game folder.

Input

Input settings.
Input settings.
Game uses controller HUD if controller is present. Simply unplug/disable controller when playing with keyboard and mouse.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Two keys per action.
In-game remapping is really limited; see Remapping.
Mouse acceleration
Use Dead Space Mouse Fix for raw mouse input.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Renders most DirectInput controllers unuseable.
Controller sensitivity
The command has to be manually added through the settings.exe file for the game.
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
Game tries its best to autoassign buttons in correct places, but often fails, leading controller to be unuseable.
XInput wrapping highly recommended.
Button prompts
Keyboard buttons shown if DirectInput controller used.
Additional information
Button prompts
Controller given priority for displaying on-screen buttons.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
XInput only.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts

Remapping

Hex editing example
Hex editing example
Hex edit controls.rmp[7]
  1. Before proceeding change at least one of the default game key bindings in order to generate the required file
  2. Go to the configuration files location.
  3. Open controls.rmp with a hex editor such as HxD.
  4. To simplify things, adjust the program so that you have 20 bytes per row (14 in hex)
  5. Each keyboard or alternate key is stored in the 0C and 0D column
  6. By comparing the codes in the default file with those here you can understand what every lines control
  7. You'll be able to arrange the controls with a little patience and the codes below

Notes

Codes for every keyboard key can be found in one of these website:
  • 1 - "Make" scan code
  • 2 - In the "Keyboard Scan Code" section, the "Make" code of the set 1 column

Audio

Audio settings.
Audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Up to 5.0 output.[8]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Only when minimized

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Both English US and English GB are available
Czech
GOG and Origin version.
French
German
Hungarian
GOG, Origin and Retail version, the language files are available here.
Italian
Polish
GOG, Origin and Retail version.
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation: download (GGames)
Russian
GOG, Origin and Retail version, download.
Spanish
Turkish
Fan translation available here

VR support

Issues fixed

Screen tearing

Sometimes the game has screen tearing problems.
Play the game in windowed mode
  • You can then put the game in full screen using these.

Mouse acceleration, lag, and random sensitivity

Mouse view becomes messier the more the framerate exceeds 60 FPS.
Use raw mouse input fix[9]

Notes

Sensitivity will wildly increase when walking on organic matter (normalizes when aiming).
This fix will cause the right stick on a controller to be unresponsive.

Invisible door

With a high frame rate, the first door after getting the Plasma Cutter may be impassable.
Limit frame rate to 120 FPS or lower[citation needed]

Unbreakable containers and unopenable crates

With a high frame rate, containers and crates may not be interactable.
Limit frame rate to 120 FPS or lower[citation needed]

Stretched geometry

With a high frame rate, hair physics may "explode" and stretch unnaturally. This can be observed in the very first scene.
Limit frame rate to 120 FPS or lower

Doctor Challus Mercer doesn't appear in Chapter 5: Lethal Devotion

Momentarily enable Vsync[10]
  • Enter Cryo Chamber with the in-game Vsync enabled.

Deadly lock-up during landing in zero gravity

At high framerates there's a risk of player getting soft-locked in landing state during zero gravity sections, game resolves this lock-up by forcibly killing the player after 5–10 seconds. This can be "fixed" by capping framerates to 60 or 30 FPS. Severity of the issue can potentially scale up with the framerate, being very common at 300+ FPS.

Large deadzone

The game inserts large deadzones onto the analog sticks, making precise control very difficult, especially on gamepads like the Logitech Gamepad F310, which have their own deadzones.
Make deadzones smaller[11]
  1. Download Durazno XInput Wrapper.
  2. Extract the contents and run Durazno.exe.
  3. Set the AntiDeadzone option to 40%, close the program.
  4. Copy Durazno.ini and xinput1_3.dll to the installation folder.
  5. Open the game and disable vsync. Force it through your driver control panel if you want vsync.
For Steam users.
Make deadzones smaller
  1. Start the game.
  2. Open Steam Overlay.
  3. Go to Controller Configuration.
  4. Choose Browse Configs.
  5. Go to Community tab.
  6. Choose any from ones at the top that say they fix deadzone problem.

Game crashes at launch

Fix settings.txt[12]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open settings.txt (if it isn't present create it manually).
  3. Eventually change both Window.Fullscreen and Window.VSync to false.
Try unplugging or disabling controllers[13]
  1. Open Device Manager.
  2. Disable all HID compliant game controller under Human Interface Devices [HID].
Run the game on a single core
  1. Open Command Prompt.
  2. Type cd "<path-to-game>" and press enter.
  3. Type start "" /Affinity 1 "Dead Space.exe" and press enter, which will tell Windows to run the game on only one core.
If the game is not installed on your C: drive, after step 2 you will need to type the drive letter followed by : and then press enter. For example, if the game is installed on the E drive, you would type E: and then press enter before step 3.
You will likely need to do this every time you want to play the game if this fix works.

Audio stutter

This must be done every time you launch the game.
Make Dead Space a high priority task in Task Manager[14]
  1. Launch Dead Space.
  2. Press Alt+Tab to return to the Desktop.
  3. Click the Processes tab.
  4. Right click Dead Space and click "Go to details."
  5. This selects Dead Space in the Details tab. Right click it, and change priority to "High".

Windows mouse cursor visible

If this cursor is visible, it may cause problems on multi-monitor systems.[citation needed]
See Disable Origin in game or Toggle the Steam overlay per game[15]

Spinning camera

These will also fix the camera/reticule being pulled to the top left during turret sequences, like the tentacle grab or asteroid defense sequences.
Create an empty joypad profile[16]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Electronic Arts\Dead Space\.
  2. Create an empty text file called joypad.txt.
Unplug any extra input device except mouse and keyboard[citation needed]
Disable Logitech G13 Joystick[citation needed]
  1. Open Device Manager.
  2. Under Human Interface Devices [HID] disable the Logitech G13 Joystick.

Notes

This will only disable the Joystick meaning the G13 can still be used to play the game.

Difficulty changes itself when multiple save files are present

Always select "load game" instead of "continue game" on main menu[17]
Alternatively, delete all save files except the one you are using.
Use CheatEngine to change the game difficulty[18]
  1. Run Dead Space and load your save.
  2. Click Open Process and attach to your running Dead Space executable.
  3. Click Add Address Manually and enter "Dead Space.exe"+A8ADC0 (for Steam version) or "Dead Space.exe"+A88E30 (for GOG version), select Byte Type.
  4. Change the value to 0, 1, 2, or 3, depending on the difficulty you want:
  • 0 = Easy
  • 1 = Medium
  • 2 = Hard
  • 3 = Impossible
The next time you save the game, it will save an uncorrupted file with difficulty you selected.

Game randomly cuts to a black screen and pauses, as if it was Alt-Tabbed

Use the Borderless Gaming program[19]
  1. Download, install, and run the program
  2. Launch Dead Space
  3. Ensure that the game is not set to fullscreen in the video settings, and your native resolution/refresh rate is applied
  4. Left click 'Dead Space' in the 'Applications' box on the Borderless Gaming program
  5. Right click, and select 'Make borderless'
This will result in the loss of some minor visual fidelity, but the bug will no longer occur. Please note that this must be reapplyed when the game is launched.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
Shader Model support 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Audio RwAudioCore [8]

Unlock impossible difficulty without playthrough

Modify settings.txt[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open settings.txt.
  3. Change Game.Played = 0 to 1.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP SP2
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7.5 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT
ATI Radeon X1600 Pro
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Shader model 3.0 support
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9.0c compatible
Nvidia GeForce 7300, 7600 GS, 8500 and ATI Radeon X1300, X1300 Pro, HD2400 are below minimum system requirements.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
  2. At 3440x1440 and a 50 refresh, max resolution is limited to 1920x1080

References