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Final Fantasy XIII

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII cover
Developers
Square Enix
Engines
Crystal Tools
Release dates
Windows October 9, 2014
Reception
Metacritic 65
IGDB 81
Taxonomy
Series Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy XIII on IGDB
Final Fantasy XIII guide on StrategyWiki
Final Fantasy XIII on MobyGames
Final Fantasy XIII on Wikipedia
Final Fantasy VII 1998
Final Fantasy VIII 2000
Final Fantasy XI 2003
Final Fantasy XIV Online 2010
Final Fantasy VII (2012) 2012
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn 2013
Final Fantasy VIII (2013) 2013
Final Fantasy III (3D Remake) 2014
Final Fantasy IV (3D Remake) 2014
Final Fantasy XIII 2014
Final Fantasy XIII-2 2014
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years 2015
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD‎ 2015
Final Fantasy V 2015
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII 2015
Final Fantasy VI 2015
Final Fantasy IX 2016
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster 2016
Mobius Final Fantasy 2017
World of Final Fantasy 2017
SaGa (series)
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age 2018
Mana (series)
Final Fantasy XV 2018
Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition 2018
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT 2019
Final Fantasy VIII Remastered 2019
Final Fantasy VII Windows Edition 2020
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster (series)
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade 2021
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin 2022
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion 2022
Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis 2023
Final Fantasy XVI TBA

Key points

Includes the "Easy" mode from Final Fantasy XIII Ultimate Hits International version of the game.
Ability to run at resolutions higher than 720p, and at 60fps.
English and Japanese audio voice overs are included in most of the steam region versions of the game except for the Asian steam region version.
Unfavorable to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions in areas such as:
  • Pre-rendered cutscenes are re-encoded a bit differently resulting in them having some compression-artifacts and washed-out colors compared to the PS3 version.[1][2][3]
  • Shadow rendering is a bit different compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, producing shadows that do not look good in most cases.
  • No Controller vibration.
Issues specific to the PC version:
  • Display-resolutions other than 1280×720 cause certain graphical glitches and a portion of the text on scanning an enemy to not render.
  • 60fps is inconsistent and the game regularly dips to the low 40s or locks itself to 30.
  • Constant stuttering in game.


General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
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XIII + XIII-2 double pack available in Europe
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Windows
Publisher website
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European store
Windows
Publisher website
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North American store
Windows
Amazon.com
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Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Green Man Gaming
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Windows
Humble Store
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Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
All versions require Steam DRM.

Essential improvements

FF13Fix

Mod that fixes low framerates on capable machines, and uncaps framerates. How this works:
  • Removes aggressive frame pacer (works like a proper triple buffer implementation).
  • Disables constant checks for input devices.
  • Uncaps framerate, also properly utilizes the display's refresh rate.
  • Fixes the slowdown when 2D elements are drawn in the HUD
  • Fixes missing text on enemy scans.
  • Enables vibration support.
  • Works around the screen glitches when using 2560x1440 resolution
This fix is NOT compatible with GeDoSaTo.


Remove unused cutscenes to free up space

Features dual audio English and Japanese for the ROW release. Removing the cutscene files for either language frees about 20 GB of space.[4]
Verification and updating by Steam will redownload the files.[5]
Remove English or Japanese cutscene files[4]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>/white_data/movie/
  2. Arrange list by file size making biggest files to show up first. Ignore the 1KB files.
    • To remove the Japanese cutscenes, delete the 18 files without the us prefix.
    • To remove the English cutscenes, delete the 18 files with the us prefix.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\setup.xml[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/292120/pfx/[Note 2]
All in-game configurations are stored directly in the saved game data. Changes made while in the title screen are not preserved after loading a saved game.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\SquareEnix\FinalFantasyXIII\save\
Steam <Steam-folder>/userdata/<user-id>/292120/remote/
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/292120/pfx/[Note 2]
The Steam folder is used when Steam Cloud is enabled; otherwise, the Windows folder is used.[6]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Up to 100 save files (29.3 MB) can be synced.

Video

Launcher options in ROW version.
Launcher options in ROW version.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix to force any screen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Pillarboxed 16:9.[7] Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix.
Ultra-widescreen
Pillarboxed 16:9.[7] Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix.
4K Ultra HD
Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix to force any screen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)
Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix.
Windowed
Set in launcher or see Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Always borderless. Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix to force fullscreen.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Use the GPU control panel or a tool like GeDoSaTo.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 8x MSAA. DSR or VSR can be forced through the GPU control panel.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Always on. See Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS
Frame rate is capped at 60 FPS.
120+ FPS
Uncapping the frame rate causes facial animation bugs during in-game cutscenes.[8]
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Windowed

Force windowed mode
  1. Install FF13Fix.
  2. Open FF13Fix.ini.
  3. Change ForceWindowedMode = false to ForceWindowedMode = true.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Force borderless mode
  1. Install FF13Fix.
  2. Open FF13Fix.ini.
  3. Change Borderless = false to Borderless = true.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Force Vsync off
  1. Install FF13Fix.
  2. Open FF13Fix.ini.
  3. Change PresentationInterval = 1 to PresentationInterval = -1.

Input

In-game options in ROW version.
In-game options in ROW version.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Movement and camera orientation keys are not remappable.[9]
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Can confirm with the left button and cancel with the right button, but it may require alt-tabbing first.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Launcher needs mouse or keyboard. Cannot exit the game normally using the controller.
Controller remapping
Confirmation and cancellation buttons can be swapped via the -decidebuttonreverse command line option of ffxiiiimg.exe. With it enabled (default for Asia) B becomes confirm and A cancel, disabling it does the reverse.[10]
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
X-axis inversion also available
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Only through DirectInput.
Xbox button prompts
Manual toggle in the settings: On-screen Button Explanations.
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
BT support through DS4Windows or Steam input.
PlayStation button prompts
See Controller button prompts.
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes
Generic/other controllers
No rebinding.
Button prompts
Additional information
Button prompts
The game comes by default with its own gray color Xbox styled prompts on PC.
Alternatively, the Xbox 360 version colored button icons can be used as well, see Console button prompts.

For DualShock button icons, see Console button prompts.
Controller hotplugging
Has to be disabled for Haptic feedback through FF13Fix
Haptic feedback
Can be modded back using FF13Fix.
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
Cursor detection

Console button prompts

The game comes only with gray Xbox button prompts, without differentiating colors. This mod restores PlayStation and colored Xbox prompts.

Unlock Confirm/Cancel button configuration

By default only Asian version of the game has this option available. By patching the launcher, it can be unlocked for all versions of the game.

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
See audio volume is low.
Surround sound
Up to 5.1. No in-game option.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Loses focus by minimizing in windowed mode.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Worldwide (audio not available in Asia)
English
Mod which restores English subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Traditional Chinese
Asia only
Traditional Chinese
Mod which restores Traditional Chinese subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
French
Not available in Asia
French
Mod which restores French subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
German
Not available in Asia
German
Mod which restores German subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Italian
Not available in Asia
Italian
Mod which restores Italian subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Japanese
Worldwide (UI and subtitles only available in Asia)
Japanese
Mod which restores Japanese subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Korean
Asia only
Korean
Mod which restores Korean subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Spanish
Not available in Asia
Spanish
Mod which restores Spanish subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Polish
Fan translation, download.
Russian
Fan translation by «FFRTT.ru»

Issues fixed

Missing effects and text at resolutions higher than 1280x720

Display resolutions other than 1280x720 can cause certain UI effects and the notes portion of the text after scanning an enemy to not render.
Use FF13Fix

Inconsistent 60 FPS

While there are several workarounds and fixes for inconsistent FPS (an issue not entirely unique to the PC port[11][12]), this may be due to issues within the game engine itself.[13][14]
As the game was originally designed for the PlayStation 3's Cell processor, this port incorrectly processes all game logic on a single thread, making single-core responsiveness imperative.
The engine's resource management could be broken, leaving the CPU and GPU either underutilized or utilized in an improper way.[15]
The game also uses a custom frame rate pacer that locks the frame rate to refresh rate intervals similarly to Vertical Sync, but much more aggressively.[16]
Use FF13Fix to immensely improve the frame rate
In the GPU control panel set the power management mode to prefer maximum performance. Also Set triple buffering to on as well. this is required if you are using or not using the FF13Fix


If not using the FF13Fix then do the following:
Turn off the mini-map in-game

The mini-map can drop the frame rate up to 10-20FPS depending on the area in game. You can toggle the mini-map off in-game to improve the performance.

Constant stuttering in game

This issue is the game's controller hot plugging function constantly searching if a controller is connected or not and timing out, thereby causing the stutters. It fires the event every one second.
Use FF13Fix


Follow this below if you are not using FF13Fix
Play the game with a controller instead of mouse/keyboard, or fake using one with vjoy[17]

Shadows appear pixelated, jagged and blocky

Example of pixelated and jagged shadows at lower shadow resolution.
Example of pixelated and jagged shadows at lower shadow resolution.
Shadow rendering is a bit different compared to the console versions, and they appear pixelated and jagged at lower shadow resolutions and blocky due to the lack of an soft shadow filter at higher shadow resolutions.[18]
Increase the shadow resolution in the game launcher

This helps in mitigating the issue to an extent but causes them to render quite blocky due to the lack of a soft shadow filter, at higher shadow resolutions. The optimal shadow resolution recommended is 4096x4096.

Macroblocking like artifacts on character hair

This is a bug that can occur on certain Nvidia cards where small macroblocking like artifacts will keep popping at some parts of the character's hair.
Use anti aliasing fix from Nvidia Profile inspector [19]
  1. Download Nvidia Profile inspector from here.
  2. Select Final Fantasy XIII from the Profiles drop down list.
  3. Set the Anti-aliasing fix option to on
  4. Hit apply on the top right corner and close the inspector.

Abnormal eyelashes and hair

When antialiasing is completely disabled through system drivers or external programs, features such as eyelashes and hair display abnormally.
When antialiasing is completely disabled through system drivers or external programs, features such as eyelashes and hair display abnormally.
MSAA is required for proper alpha-to-coverage on hair and eyelashes.[20]On certain PC's the option is disabled from the driver side, resulting in this bug.
Ensure Anti-aliasing mode is not disabled or set to Override in the graphic driver

For Nvidia Cards

  1. Open the Nvidia Control Panel.
  2. In the Program settings Tab, add the exe file of this game ffxiii.img.exe from the drop down list in the center.
  3. Set the Anti aliasing mode option to Application Controlled if it was previously set to Off or Override application setting from the set of drop down options below.
  4. Hit apply, and close the control panel.

For AMD Cards

  1. Open the AMD Radeon Settings
  2. Select the Global settings tab and here set the Anti-aliasing mode option to Use Application settings from the set of drop down options below.
  3. Close the Radeon settings panel

Game uses incorrect refresh rate

By default the game forces a 60 Hz refresh rate in full screen mode.
Use FF13Fix
You can edit FF13Fix.ini to specify a custom refresh rate.


Pixelated screen bug when using 2560x1440 resolution

2560x1440 resolution breaks the game, making it look more pixelated than it should.[21]
Use FF13Fix
The internal resolution is reduced to 2559x1440 to workaround the issue.


Audio volume is low

The game has a low volume level that is about half as loud as a typical game, and there are no in-game volume options. The only thing a player can do is crank up their speaker volume.


Controller vibration doesn't work

The game lacks the controller vibration support found in the console versions entirely.
Use FF13Fix[22]


Mouse cursor stays on screen

The mouse cursor may appear on program launch and will not disappear.[23]
Use FF13Fix
  1. Install FF13Fix.
  2. Open FF13Fix.ini.
  3. Change HideCursor = false to HideCursor = true.

Crash to desktop on Chapter 8: City of Dreams (Nautilus)

The game crashes on certain resolutions when it begins playing the first cutscene in Nautilus.
Here is a list of resolutions on which the crash occurs:
  • 1366x768
  • 1600x1050
  • 2103x1183
  • 2351x1323
  • 2715x1527
  • 3325x1871
Change the resolution temporarily to a lower supported one[24]
  1. Set the game to run at an different screen resolution that is not mentioned in the above list of resolutions from the game launcher.
  2. Play through the area where the crash occurs and watch the cutscene.
  3. Save and close the game. Change back to the resolution you were using before and continue playing.

Launcher doesn't launch

Use Final Fantasy XIII Combined Custom Launcher

Use it instead of the official launcher. It also provides more options (e.g. more windowed mode resolutions)

Bypass the launcher and run the program directly[25]

Run <path-to-game>\white_data\prog\win\bin\ffxiiiimg.exe with the desired command line arguments:[10]

  • -Width=1920 and -Height=1080 control the width and height of the display resolution.
  • -Shadow=512 controls the shadow resolution (512, 1024, 2048, 4096, or 8192).
  • -Msaa=4 controls the MSAA amount (2, 4, 8, or 16).
  • -FullScreenMode=Force runs in full screen mode. -Fullscreen=window-mode forces windowed mode.
  • -VoiceJPMode runs the game with Japanese audio. Without this the game has English audio.


Other Issues that can arise

Could not secure sufficient VRAM

This issue occurs when launching the game due to the inability to allocate the required VRAM.[26]
Check if you meet the system requirements through Steam. It can be done directly by entering steam://checksysreqs/292120 in a web browser. There are additional checks such as Can You RUN it available.[26]
Run "dxdiag.exe" and ensure at least 256 MB is shown under "Approx. Total Memory" under the "Display" tab.[26]
Close other applications and services using VRAM[citation needed]
Assign more RAM to the GPU[26]

This is a method for just one particular setup. Other setups may vary.

  1. Restart and enter the BIOS configuration when starting up, typically by pressing one of the F1-F12 or DEL keys.
  2. Under "Peripherals" then "GFX Configs" ensure the "Graphic Interface" is set to "Force".
  3. An option to assign RAM should appear. Select the a sufficient higher value from the list such as 2 GB.


Continuous cursor cycling in menus

Symptoms of this issue include continuous cursor cycling through menu entries as if the user was pressing a directional button.
Disable offending HIDs in Device Manager[27]

Go into Device Manager and start disabling your Human Interface Devices (HIDs) one by one until you find which one is causing the issue. It's been reported that redundant HID-compliant gaming controllers are usually the issue, often created by third party accessories such as DolphinBar.


Crashes when saving

The game can crash on certain configs when saving with Steam Cloud synchronization active. This can also result in corrupted save files.
Disable Steam Cloud synchronization for the game[citation needed]
  1. Right-click the game in your Steam library and select "Properties".
  2. Uncheck/deselect "Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for FINAL FANTASY XIII" under "Steam Cloud" in the "Updates" tab.
  3. You'll have to copy your saved data from Steam Cloud to %LOCALAPPDATA%\SquareEnix\FinalFantasyXIII\save\.


Xbox One Controller bug in menus

This issue seems to happen when using the controller in wireless mode.
Try using the controller plugged in via USB
Use Final Fantasy XIII Fixer[28]
Run the utility before and alongside the game each time you play. This may be incompatible with FF13Fix.


Pillarboxing on ultrawide monitors

Pillarboxing (black bars) will appear on ultrawide monitors.
Use the Ultra wide fix
  1. Download and install Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix.
  2. Unpack the archive and open Settings.ini file through a text editor like notepad.
  3. Change Fullscreen = 0 to Fullscreen = 1 and specify the width and height of your ultrawide screen's resolution.
  4. After specifying the values, save the file and copy the 2 files and the folder to the following two locations:
    "\FINAL FANTASY XIII\" and
    "\FINAL FANTASY XIII\white_data\prog\win\bin\"
  5. This should remove the black bars

Additional mods

FF XIII HD Full Motion Video

This mod aims to improve the visual quality of the pre rendered cutscenes through modern image upscaling techniques. More information about it can be found on the nexus page of the mods.
The mod has to be downloaded in parts from the pages
  1. If you are playing with English audio, then download it from here
  2. If playing with Japanese audio, then download from here
With this mod, the pre rendered videos will play properly when the resolution is 1080p or above. 720p and lower resolutions will cause weird color channel alignment issues when any of these pre rendered cutscenes from this mod plays in the game.

The FF XIII HD Project

This mod is a texture pack that improves the overall texture quality of the game.

Other information

API

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

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Cutscenes Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP SP2
Processor (CPU) 2 GHz dual core
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 60 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 8 Series
ATI Radeon HD 2000 series
256 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9.0c compatible
Other


Notes

  1. When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  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>/292120/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (292120) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. PC vs. PS3 cutscene comparison
  2. Bittercup on NeoGAF on modding the PC cutscenes with the PS3 versions
  3. Steam Forums :: Concerning The Quality OF FMV Cutscenes
  4. 4.0 4.1 How to cut down game size to 29GB
  5. Square_Jason on Steam forums on deleting cutscenes: "FYI/Note - if you verify your game at any stage it WILL redownload these files."
  6. Steam Forums - Lost Save Games or Saves from other sources
  7. 7.0 7.1 View topic - Final Fantasy XIII | WSGF
  8. rebtd7/FF13Fix: Performance and bug fixes for the PC versions of FF13 and FF13-2
  9. Game's manual on Steam
  10. 10.0 10.1 Some starting options for ffxiiiimg.exe
  11. Face-Off: Final Fantasy XIII | Eurogamer
  12. Tech Analysis: Final Fantasy XIII (PS3 vs 360) | IQGamer
  13. Durante Presents: FFXIII resolution unlocking (GeDoSaTo plugin) released - pre-alpha : Page 32 | NeoGAF
  14. NeoGAF Forums - Knurek on resource usage vs. FPS problems
  15. FFXIII Series Outside Developer POV
  16. Square Enix forums - Frame rate pacer pros/cons
  17. Stuttering / laggin cutcenes - FPS FIX
  18. In-game shadow issues highlight
  19. Guru3D Forums - Final Fantasy XIII anti-aliasing Guide
  20. Durante on MSAA for alpha-to-coverage
  21. 1440p glitch highlight (Image is 200% the original size so that the glitch is more noticeable)
  22. Release FF13Fix 1.4.0 · rebtd7/FF13Fix
  23. Steam Forums :: Is the mouse cursor suppose be on screen?
  24. Chapter 8 - Force close/bug
  25. Steam forums - Launcher has stopped working
  26. 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 Steam forums - Could not secure sufficient VRAM when booting the game
  27. Steam Forums - Game starts scrolling through all menu options randomly
  28. Fix: Xbox One controller in menus :: FINAL FANTASY XIII General Discussions
  29. Verified by User:MetalPlateMage on 7 August 2015
    System requirements recommend an XInput controller but this game does not use XInput drivers. See NeoGAF Forums - Knurek on FFXIII not using xinput.dll.