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Dead Space 3

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Dead Space 3
Dead Space 3 cover
Developers
Visceral Games
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Release dates
Windows February 5, 2013
Reception
Metacritic 78
IGDB 74
Taxonomy
Monetization DLC
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
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 3 on HowLongToBeat
Dead Space 3 on IGDB
Dead Space 3 guide on StrategyWiki
Dead Space 3 on MobyGames
Dead Space 3 on Wikipedia
Dead Space
Dead Space 2008
Dead Space 2 2011
Dead Space 3 2013
Dead Space (2023) 2023

Key points

Features a wide variety of visual options.[1]
In-game Vsync option caps frame rate at 30 FPS; a higher frame rate Vsync lock can be forced externally instead.

General information

Official forums
Dead Space Wiki
Neoseeker Forums PC-specific
Aegis7 forums non PC-specific, less active
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Origin
2 DVD's
Windows
Amazon.com
Origin
Windows
Origin
Origin
Included with EA Play.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Origin
Included with EA Play (Steam).
Windows
All versions require Origin DRM.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Awakened
Windows

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\EA Games\Dead Space 3\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1238060/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\EA Games\Dead Space 3\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1238060/pfx/[Note 1]
5 player profiles available. Each player profile only has 1 save slot, but a chapter select feature is available.

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

Graphics options.
Graphics options.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Works with Nvidia Surround in 2D and 3D modes.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Fixable through config file. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Only post-process AA (FXAA, SMAA).
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Only 30 FPS lock. See Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
In-game Vsync has to be disabled; force externally if desired.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

There is deliberately no in-game option to modify the FOV.[citation needed]
Edit config file to change FOV[citation needed]
  1. Open %LOCALAPPDATA%\EA Games\Dead Space 3\system.txt
  2. Search for the line Window.FOVScale
  3. Change the value from 1.00000000 to a higher one (default FOV is around 75°).
  4. Save your changes.

Notes

In one cutscene if you change FoV there will be border in the middle of the screen. See screenshot for details.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Enabling 30FPS+ Vsync[citation needed]
  1. Disable Vsync in the game menu.
  2. Enable forced Vsync in Nvidia Control Panel (Only Nvidia VGA), RivaTuner or RadeonPro (Only AMD VGA).

Notes

Forcing Vsync with AMD's CC will not work. Playing in fullscreen windowed mode is one way to eliminate tearing/strong shadow flickering.

Input

Mouse smoothing

Dead Space 3 suffers from floaty mouse movement, which becomes more pronounced the higher the frame rate.
Turn off mouse smoothing[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open general.txt.
  3. Add the line control.MouseSmoothing = false.

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Up to 5.1 output.[2]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Hungarian
Fan translation.
Italian
Polish
Fan translation, download. Only base game is translated.
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
Online play
2 Co-op
Co-op campaign.[3]

VR support

3D modes State Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
See Helix Mod: Dead Space 3 - 3D Vision fix.
vorpX
G3D
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues unresolved

Cannot retrieve information from Origin error when accessing DLC store ingame

Several users affected by the issue have started posting tracerouting logs of their connection to the Origin servers to help EA identify the cause of the issue[4]
EA has responded to this issue with a workaround[5]
Many users are reporting that the workaround does not fix the issue[6][7]

Possible fixes:

  • Uninstall Origin and reinstall the latest version
  • Run Origin as administrator
  • Add Dead Space 3 and Origin to your firewall's exception list
  • Port forward the following ports:
TCP UDP
80 3659
443 14000-14016
9988 22990-23006
20000-20100 25200-25300
22990
17502
42127

Game crashes at start-up

Disable desktop composition[citation needed]
Disable problematic game controllers[citation needed]
  1. Go to Start Menu>Control Panel>System and Maintenance>System>[Left Panel]Device Manager>Human Interface Devices [HID]
  2. Disable the HID compliant game controller which could bug the game
Disable Origin overlay[citation needed]
  1. In 'MY GAMES' right-click on 'Dead space 3', open 'Game Properties' and then check the box 'Disable Origin in Game for this game'

Issues fixed

Could not initialize display hardware

Dead Space 3 tries launching with a video resolution unsupported by the video card/monitor.
Manually set resolution[citation needed]

Modify the configuration file (%LOCALAPPDATA%\EA Games\Dead Space 3\system.txt), and adjust to a resolution that works.

Origin In-Game not working

Origin In-Game is not working, preventing you to invite or accept invites from friends
Disable any OSD programs[citation needed]

Disable or exit any OSD programs (Although Fraps is usually the cause, MSI Afterburner and GF Experience could also cause problems)

Game too dark or (with higher brightness) colors are washed out

Dead Space 3 only lets you adjust brightness, not gamma level.
Game too dark or (with increased brightness) colors are washed out[citation needed]

Use an external tool such as SweetFX (function "Lift Gamma Gain") to increase the gamma level of the image.

Kinesis Door Audio Bug

Kinesis doors make constant hammering noise.[8][9]
Use Kinesis Door Audio Stutter FIX[citation needed]
  1. Download Fix on Mod DB
  2. Unpack .zip into Dead Space 3 installation folder.
  3. Start DS3Patcher.bat.
  4. Follow instructions.

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 [2]

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) XP (SP3), Vista (SP1), 7
Processor (CPU) 2.8 GHz or equivalent
System memory (RAM) 1 GB (XP), 2 GB (Vista, 7)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 10 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 6800 or better
ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or better
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Shader model 3.0 support
Nvidia GeForce 7300, 7600 GS, 8500 and Ati Radeon X1300, X1300 Pro, HD2400 are below minimum system requirements


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>/1238060/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1238060) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References