Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead	2008
Left 4 Dead 2	2009

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Key points

Left 4 Dead 2 includes all Left 4 Dead campaigns, Left 4 Dead 2 will likely be the preferable game to purchase.

A hack enabling split-screen co-op is available; see Local play.

General information

Unofficial Left 4 Dead Wiki

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Steam		Left 4 Dead Bundle also available.

All versions require Steam DRM.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use the `-novid` command line argument^{[citation needed]}

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\left4dead\cfg\config.cfg^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/500/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud		Approx. 128 KB available. Settings, except for graphics, will also be synchronized.

Video

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		MSAA. SSAA forced through drivers (AMD) works too.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Caps at 300 FPS.^[2]
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode		Set in Settings, Multiplayer; affects crosshair, HUD and survivor outlines.

Field of view (FOV)

FoV when playing in splitscreen is easily customizable inside <path-to-game>\left4dead\splitscreen_config.txt

By default field of view cannot be changed. Only changeable option is viewmodel FOV.

Change game and viewmodel FOV^[3]
Download the FoV addon Extract the files in `<path-to-game>\left4dead\addons\` Bring up console Type in console/.cfg `fov_override XX` to change game FOV and `viewmodel_fov_override XX` to change viewmodel FOV (where XX is the desired horizontal FoV)

Split-screen without bezels

L4D split-screen mode was meant to be played on a single 4:3 or 16:9 screen. If you have a different setup then, the image could not entirely fit the monitor(s).

Edit split-screen aspect-ratio^[4]
Go to `<path-to-game>/left4dead/` Open `splitscreen_config.txt` Look for the paragraph describing your actual split method ("nonwidescreen", "widescreen_horizontal_split", "widescreen_vertical_split") Change it accordingly to your effective aspect ratio multiplied or divided by 2 (just look if comment says it should be twice or half as wide) Save changes

Input

In-game control settings.

In-game key map settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Some in game Main Menu options cannot be accessed without first hovering a mouse cursor over them (such as the Single Player Settings Menu)
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Button prompts
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Steam Input
Steam Input API support		Only available in a sequel.
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts
Cursor detection

Mouse+Keyboard in split-screen

Bind controller to 2nd player^{[citation needed]}
Configure x360ce to force controller on the guest slot Copy `x360ce.ini` and `xinput1_3.dll` to the Left 4 Dead installation folder Go to `<path-to-game>\bin\` and rename `xinput1_3.dll` to something else Follow standard procedure

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Over-all game volume and separate music slider.
Surround sound		7.1, 5.1 surround sound, 4 speaker surround.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		No option to disable it.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish

Network

In-game multiplayer settings.

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play	2	Co-op See Local play.
LAN play	8	Co-op, Versus See LAN play. "Versus" mode. Up to 4v4 Survivors vs. Infected.
Online play	8	Co-op, Versus Co-op (4 players) or "Versus" mode (up to 4v4 Survivors vs. Infected).

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Use `connect [IP address here]` in the console. Server must have set `sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0`

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	27014-27050
UDP	4380, 27000-27030

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

LAN play

You can play Left 4 Dead over a local area network (LAN) connection.

Start LAN game^{[citation needed]}

Open the developer console and type in: sv_lan 1.
After that, type in: map %mapname%, %mapname% is the name of the map (for example, to play on "No Mercy", write "map l4d_hospital01_apartment")

Maplist:

No Mercy: l4d_hospital01_apartment
Crash Course: l4d_garage01_alleys
Death Toll: l4d_smalltown01_caves
Dead Air: l4d_airport01_greenhouse
Blood Harvest: l4d_farm01_hilltop
The Sacrifice: l4d_river01_docks

To clients to join a server, use: connect <ip>:<port> (for example, connect 192.168.1.1).

Notes

You can check your ip by writing net_start.

Local play

A list of useful commands for split-screen is available below

Playing with 2 controllers^[5]

If you want to play with only a controller and a mouse+keyboard, check Mouse + Keyboard in split-screen

Download custom split.cfg
Extract it inside <path-to-game>\left4dead\cfg\
Launch the game and join or create a match in the mode you prefer
When in-game, open the console and type ss_connect
Add second player to survivor team with cmd2 jointeam 2 command
Load second player keys bindings by typing exec split (all previous bindings are reseted)
Enjoy

Notes

If loading bar gets stuck quickly pause and unpause game

To play a private versus match, open console and use ss_map l4d_vs_#rest-of-map-name#

If you are going to play split-screen without a single 4:3 or 16:9 monitor look above

Issues fixed

Purple and black broken textures

A generic fix for this issue can be found on our Source engine page.

Can't unlock Lamb 2 Slaughter achievement

Enabling the console in Source games^[6]
Open console Type `sv_cheats 1; achievement_reset L4D_ACHIEVEMENT_INCAP_AFTER_SAFEROOM; sv_cheats 0`

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	6, 7, 8, 8.1, 9
OpenGL	2.1	OS X only.
Shader Model support	2, 3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok	Heavily modified variant.
Audio	Miles Sound System
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	Steamworks
Anti-cheat	Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC)

Console commands

Games running on the Source engine can utilize Source Engine Console Commands for various tasks.^[7]

Enabling the console in Source games^{[citation needed]}

Launch the game
From the main menu select Options
Select the Keyboard tab
Click the Advanced button
Check the box next to Enable developer console (~)
Click Apply

Notes

Press ~ to open the console.

Some commands may first require you enabling sv_cheats. You can do so with sv_cheats 1.

Many servers will not allow you to play with cheats enabled, or will disable them upon entering the server.

Users without a US keyboard could experience some problems.

Creating your own CFG (to run multiple console commands together)

A CFG is a file that contains a list of commands that when run will attempt to execute them all

Open a text editor such as Notepad and type in all the commands you want separating each with a ;

When done save the file as filename.cfg in <path-to-game>\left4dead\cfg. To run the cfg file, open the console during the game and type in exec filename.cfg If you want the CFG file to run automatically, name it autoexec.cfg.

Useful split-screen commands

Since Split-screen mode in Left 4 Dead isn't officially supported, there are multiple important key settings which aren't immediately available.

Command	Description
connect_splitscreen localhost [ip-address] 2	Join a LAN or Internet server in splitscreen mode.
[cmd/cmd2] jointeam [2/3]	Assign selected player (cmd) to either survivor or infected team
mp_gamemode [coop/survival/versus]	Change gamemode. If adjusted while in-game it's advised to `changelevel`
ss_splitmode [0/1/2]	Toggle horizontal and vertical screen split (0 is auto selection)
z_difficulty [Easy/Normal/Hard/Impossible]	Change game difficulty
setinfo name Max	Change player 1 name
name2 Tony	Change player 2 name

Command line arguments

See command line arguments on how to use the following options.

Parameter	Description
-w X -h Y	Sets screen resolution (or window resolution if using -window). Example: `-w 1920 -h 1080`.
-refresh X	Sets your screen refresh-rate (Hz). Example: `-refresh 60`.
-noborder -window	Launches the game in a borderless fullscreen window (i.e. very `Alt`+`Tab ↹` friendly). This may result in a minor performance loss. If you experience stuttering, disable Windows Aero.^{[citation needed]}
-novid	Skip intro videos
-autoconfig	Restores video and performance settings to default for the current hardware detected. Ignores settings inside any .cfg files until this parameter is removed.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7, 8.1, 10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	7.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon 9600 Nvidia GeForce 6600 128 MB of VRAM Shader model 2.0 support	ATI Radeon X1600 Nvidia GeForce 7600 Shader model 3.0 support
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Windows XP and Vista were previously supported, but as future updates for this game and Steam occurred; the support was dropped, even with retail copies

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.6.4
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	7.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon HD 2400 Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT Intel HD Graphics 3000

MacOS X 10.6.4 or higher (Snow Leopard Graphics Update required)

Notes

↑ 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).
↑ 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>/500/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (500) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Gamasutra - E3: Valve's Lombardi On What Happened To Turtle Rock - last accessed on 2018-07-26
↑ New 120Hz Games Report
↑ How to Change Field of view (FOV) - Steam Community Guides
↑ Widescreen gaming blog post about playing with more than a monitor
↑ Steam thread about local split-screen co-op (retrieved)
↑ Lamb 2 Slaughter working fix right here - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)
↑ Left 4 Dead Wikia - Console commands

[gamedir-2] 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).

[Proton_path_note-3] 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>/500/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (500) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[1] Gamasutra - E3: Valve's Lombardi On What Happened To Turtle Rock - last accessed on 2018-07-26

[4] New 120Hz Games Report

[5] How to Change Field of view (FOV) - Steam Community Guides

[6] Widescreen gaming blog post about playing with more than a monitor

[7] Steam thread about local split-screen co-op (retrieved)

[8] Lamb 2 Slaughter working fix right here - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)

[9] Left 4 Dead Wikia - Console commands

[1]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

Developers

	Valve South^[1]
	Valve Corporation
Publishers
	Valve Corporation
Engines
	Source
Release dates
Windows	November 17, 2008
macOS (OS X)	October 27, 2010
Reception
Metacritic	85
IGDB	82
Taxonomy
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Shooter
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Horror, Post-apocalyptic, Zombies
Series	Left 4 Dead