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Fable III

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 23:05, 4 August 2022 by SargeCassidy (talk | contribs) (→‎Issues fixed: Added a different way of fixing the 60Hz lock.)
Fable III
Fable III cover
Developers
Lionhead Studios
Windows Inline Assembly[1]
Publishers
Microsoft Studios
Release dates
Windows May 17, 2011
Reception
Metacritic 75
IGDB 78
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres ARPG
Themes Fantasy
Series Fable
Fable III on HowLongToBeat
Fable III on IGDB
Fable III guide on StrategyWiki
Fable III on MobyGames
Fable III on Wikipedia
Fable
Fable: The Lost Chapters 2005
Fable III 2011
Fable Anniversary 2014
Fable Fortune 2018
Fable TBA

Warnings

For Games for Windows - LIVE on Windows 8 or later, install the latest Games for Windows - LIVE software.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
CD key
Requires online activation
Icon overlay.png
SecuROM PA DRM.
Windows
Amazon.com
CD key
Requires online activation
Icon overlay.png
Icon overlay.png
SecuROM PA DRM.
Windows
Steam (unavailable)
CD key
Requires online activation
Icon overlay.png
Icon overlay.png
SecuROM PA DRM.
Windows
All versions require SecuROM PA and Games for Windows - LIVE DRM.[Note 1]. Manual unlock page is also available.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Dog Breed Set
Windows
Dog Outfit
Windows
Dye Pack
Windows
Female Highlander Outfit Included with retail copies.
Windows
Five Star Dog Potion
Windows
Free Yule Hat
Windows
Free Weapons
Windows
Highlander Tattoo Set Included with retail copies.
Windows
Industrial Knight Outfit
Windows
Inquisitor Sword & Industrial Tattoo
Windows
Rebel's Weapon and Tatoo Pack
Windows
Male Highlander Outfit Included with retail copies.
Windows
Red Setter Dog Potion
Windows
Traitor's Keep Quest Pack
Windows
Understone Quest Pack
Windows
DLCs are no longer available for purchase despite being listed in-game.[2]
Steam DLCs did not provide downloadable content, only providing Games For Windows Live keys instead. With the Marketplace's purchase retrieval not working correctly, DLCs cannot be re-downloaded anymore.

Essential improvements

Patches

A title update is available. The game should automatically prompt for the update when using a LIVE profile; the update can also be downloaded manually (extract the contents and run setup.exe).[3]

Skip intro videos

Automatically patch levels.dat with blank BINK videos[4]
  1. Download the patcher from this page.
  2. Extract the contents of the downloaded archive to a temporary working folder with at least 4 GB of space available.
  3. Open the "<path-to-game>\Data" folder.
  4. Move "Levels.bnk" and "Levels.bnk.dat" from "Fable 3's Data" folder to the "Source" folder in the above temporary working folder.
  5. Double-click on the "Run Me.bat" file and wait for the patching to finish.
  6. Open the "Output" folder and move the contents into your "<path-to-game>\Data" folder and overwrite the existing files.
  7. Keep the contents of the "Source" folder somewhere safe just in case you want to revert the changes my patcher made.
Manually patch levels.dat with blank BINK videos[5]
  1. Make a backup of <path-to-game>\data\levels.bnk and <path-to-game>\data\levels.bnk.dat in case something goes wrong.
  2. Download the Fable 3 BNK Browser from this site.
  3. Download the blank BINK file from here.
  4. Create a temporary working folder on a storage device with at least 4GB of free space.
  5. Extract the contents of the two archives you downloaded earlier into your working folder.
  6. Create two copies of the blank BINK file and rename them to lionhead_logo.bik and microsoft_logo.bik.
  7. Create an empty folder in your working folder to hold the contents of one of the game's resource packs.
  8. Open BnkBrowser.exe then click on Open. Navigate to <path-to-game>\data\ and open levels.bnk.
  9. Click on Extract All then select the folder you created in Step 7. Exit BnkBrowser when the extraction is finished.
  10. Open the folder you created in Step 7 then navigate to art\videos\. Move the two blank BINK files created in Step 6 into this folder and overwrite the originals.
  11. Open BnkCreator.exe then click on Add folder(s). Select the folder you created in Step 7.
  12. Click on Create then navigate to <path-to-game>\data\. Select levels.bnk then click on Save.
  13. Run the game to test that it starts without issue. After that, you may delete the temporary working folder.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %APPDATA%\Lionhead Studios\Fable 3\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/105400/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Lionhead Studios\Fable 3\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/105400/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings
Video settings
Advanced video settings
Advanced video settings

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
See Multi-monitor.
Ultra-widescreen
See Multi-monitor.
Gameplay and in-game cutscenes are Hor+. FMV cutscenes are stretched. [6]
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Temporal anti-aliasing controlled by Effects Detail setting. No individual option.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Caps the frame rate at half the refresh rate. See Vertical sync (Vsync) to enable proper Vsync.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
See Run the game at screen refresh rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Multi-monitor

Multi-monitor and ultra-widescreen resolutions cannot be chosen in-game.
Changing any settings in-game may reset the resolution; repeat these steps if that happens.[7]
Edit VideoOptions.xml manually[8]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Open VideoOptions.xml with a text editor of your choice.
  3. Find the following line: <ScreenResolutionX type="int">1920</ScreenResolutionX><ScreenResolutionY type="int">1080</ScreenResolutionY> and change the highlighted values to your desired resolution.
  4. Save the changes.

Field of view (FOV)

Games for Windows - LIVE should be disabled if its anti-cheat protection is crashing the game.
Custom FOV with Cheat Engine[9]
  1. See Bypass Games for Windows - LIVE and apply the fix.
  2. Install Cheat Engine.
  3. Download the Fable III Cheat Table.
  4. Start the game and load a saved game.
  5. Double-click the Cheat Table and open with Cheat Engine.
  6. Open the game process from the File menu.
  7. Check the box beside "FOV [F2]".
  8. Switch to the game and then back to Cheat Engine.
  9. Check the box beside "FOV".
  10. Double-click in the FOV Value column and change the value.

Notes

Cutscenes are affected (toggle with F2 is recommended).

Input

Input settings
Input settings
Controller bindings
Controller bindings

Audio

Audio settings
Audio settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, Sound Effects and Voice.
Surround sound
Up to 7.1. FMVs are pre-mixed at 5.1.[11]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
[12]

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Czech (Czech Republic) and Czech (for Slovakian market) available
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Japanese release.
Korean
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish

Network

Online features require a Microsoft account (optional for offline play).

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
Xbox 360 version only.[13]
LAN play
Online play
2 Co-op

Connection types

VR support

3D modes State GG3D Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
Use Helix Mod to improve 3D support.
TriDef 3D
iZ3D
Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest

Issues unresolved

Some settings don't save

Game Settings - Controls / Audio / Misc won't save for some users.
Game Settings - Display are saved to %APPDATA%\Lionhead Studios\Fable 3\VideoOptions.xml, which could mean it's possible to create .xml files for the other settings.

Issues fixed

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Fullscreen mode defaults to 60 Hz, even if the screen refresh rate is set higher than that.
Set highest refresh rate in fullscreen[citation needed]
  1. Download and open Nvidia Profile Inspector.
  2. Open the Fable III profile from the list.
  3. Set Prefered Refreshrate to Highest available.
  4. Apply changes and close the program.

Notes

Using Alt+Tab may cause a delay when switching between the game and Windows.
Alternatively, playing the game in windowed mode will use the desktop's refresh rate.
Force a higher refresh rate with Special K[14]
  1. Install Special K for the game, either globally or locally.
  2. Using a delayed global injection, launch and close the game once to allow the Special K config file to be created.
    • Setting a delay in the config file afterwards is recommended. To do that, open the config file for the Fable3Launcher.exe once it gets generated and change the GlobalInjectDelay to a safe value (e.g. GlobalInjectDelay=5.0).
  3. Open the game-specific config file, see Special K's config file(s) location for details (for the Fable3.exe profile).
  4. Find and change the parameter RefreshRate to the desired refresh rate (e.g. RefreshRate=144).
  5. Save and close the file.
Users with VRR displays or those who wish to use true Vsync should also use the PresentationInterval=1 parameter.
It is strongly recommended to additionally change the Silent= and DontHookWndPro= parameters to true to avoid GFWL's protection crashing the game with Special K injected.

Other information

Bypass Games for Windows - LIVE

A fake version of xlive.dll can allow you to play the single-player without having GFWL installed.
Benefits include faster loading and saving times.
This makes the multiplayer mode unavailable, as it is reliant on GFWL.
Use Fable III fake xlive[15]
  1. Download Fable III GFWL remover.
  2. Extract xlive.dll to <path-to-game>.

Notes

Check readme.txt for useful information.

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Cutscenes Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP SP3, Vista
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
AMD Athlon X2 4000+
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 12 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro
DirectX 9.0c compatible


Notes

  1. Games for Windows - LIVE DRM features: SSA activation, supports local profiles.
  2. 2.0 2.1 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>/105400/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (105400) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Inline Assembly - Portfolio - last accessed on 2019-06-07
    "Fable 3 for Windows – Port of 360 game to PC, including stereoscopic support"
  2. Verified by User:SojerManLan on 2021-08-31
    Trying to download a free DLC gives an 80153003 error. All DLCs still have their price tags attached, as shown here.
  3. UPDATES & TITLE UPDATES Support Start Here Technical Support - Xbox.com Forums
  4. https://www.nexusmods.com/fableIII/mods/3?
  5. https://www.nexusmods.com/fableIII/mods/3?
  6. Verified by User:SojerManLan on 2022-02-06
    Tested using a custom resolution of 2560x1080.
  7. Verified by User:SojerManLan on 2022-03-23
    Changing the language of the game results in the change being reverted.
  8. Verified by User:SojerManLan on 2022-02-06
  9. Verified by User:Keith on 2019-11-29
  10. Verified by User:SojerManLan on 2021-09-20
    Tested with a wired Xbox One controller (model 1708). The game is playable using a keyboard and a controller at the same time.
  11. Verified by User:SojerManLan on 2022-07-30
    Tested using Razer Surround 7.1 virtualisation and confirmed using Special K.
  12. Verified by User:SojerManLan on 2021-09-03
    Tested in the main menu and in gameplay. Upon changing to another window, the game mutes all sounds.
  13. Fable 3, couch co-op? :: Fable III General Discussions
  14. Verified by User:SojerManLan on 2022-08-04
  15. Timeslip's utilities, mods and patches