Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

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Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

Developers
	Deck Nine
macOS (OS X)	Feral Interactive
Linux	Feral Interactive
Publishers
	Square Enix
Engines
	Unity 5
Release dates
Windows	August 31, 2017
macOS (OS X)	September 13, 2018
Linux	September 13, 2018

Life Is Strange
Life Is Strange	2015
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm	2017
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit	2018
Life Is Strange 2	2018
Life Is Strange: True Colors	2021
Life Is Strange Remastered	2022
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered	2022

General information

Official website

Known issues and workarounds

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Deluxe Edition, limited run.
Developer website		Deluxe Edition
Publisher website
Green Man Gaming		Deluxe Edition
Humble Store		Deluxe Edition
Mac App Store
Steam

All versions require Steam DRM.

Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM has been removed.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Deluxe Upgrade
Classic Chloe Outfit Pack

Essential improvements

Disable intro videos, chromatic aberration, and depth of field

Instructions
Use modded .dll file. The manual procedure may also work.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Square Enix\Life is Strange: Before the Storm\ %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Square Enix\Life is Strange_ Before the Storm\Saves\<user-id>\Preferences\PrefData.Save
macOS (OS X)
Linux

It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Config file is encrypted.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Square Enix\Life is Strange_ Before the Storm\Saves\<user-id>\SLOT_##\*.Save
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$HOME\.config\unity3d\Feral Interactive\Life is Strange Before the Storm\Saves\<user-id>\SLOT_##\*.Save

Save files are encrypted. See LiS-BtS-Savegame-viewer.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game video settings

Widescreen resolution

16:10 resolution without black bars
See Removing black bars from 16:10 screens.

Force resolution / Fix DSR and VSR

Run the Windows Registry Editor ('regedit') Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Square Enix\Life is Strange: Before the Storm\ Double-click Screenmanager Resolution Width_h182942802 >> Change 'Base' to "Decimal" >> Change 'Value Data' to ## (ex. "3840" for 4K) >> Click 'OK' Double-click Screenmanager Resolution Height_h2627697771 >> Change 'Base' to "Decimal" >> Change 'Value Data' to ## (ex. "2160" for 4K) >> Click 'OK' Close the Registry Editor window. Changes were saved as they were made. Open Steam >> Library tab Right-click 'Life is Strange: Before the Storm' >> Properties Click 'Set Launch Options' >> Add "-window-mode exclusive -screen-width ## -screen-height ##" (ex. "3840" and "2160" for 4K) >> OK Run the game. See important notes below. Notes Forces the game to run full-screen at the desired resolution. Fixes DSR/VSR (Dynamic Super Resolution / Virtual Super Resolution.) Before using a DSR/VSR resolution, ensure you have it enabled in your video card's control panel. Screen_tearing_fix. Screen tearing may need to be fixed when forcing resolution, even when the FPS counter shows a proper value. Game reverts to the maximum current desktop resolution if not forced per above steps. While higher resolutions are selectable in-game and appear to apply, the resolution will not change (note that overlays like FPS counters and the Steam overlay will remain the same size.) Re-visiting the in-game video settings will show the selected resolution reverted to the current desktop resolution.

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Use SMAA with Reshade

Install the ReShade post-processing injector: Download ReShade Run the downloaded file >> Click 'Select game...' >> Browse to <path-to-game> Select DirectX 10+ Agree to download standard effects. Ensure SMAA and any other desired plugins are selected. For sharpening at monitor resolution, "LumaSharpen" is recommended. For sharpening DSR/VSR resolutions, "AdaptiveSharpen" is recommended to survive downsampling. The "FXAA" plugin will likely not improve things when combined with SMAA and in-game anti-aliasing; however, it will allow more control. Enable SMAA: Run the game. Press the Home key to toggle the ReShade menu. Enable SMAA by clicking the chekbox. Click the Performance Mode checkbox to toggle the ability to modify plugin settings. Turn back on when done modifying settings to improve performance. Change in-game settings: Video Settings >> Set 'Anti-Aliasing' to Medium to complement SMAA. Higher settings will increase blur and reduce game performance. Lower settings will result in noticeable aliasing even with SMAA, but raise game performance. Notes VSR/DSR is recommended to address lack of temporal anti-aliasing. Jagged edges even using the in-game "Hella High" anti-aliasing setting. No temporal anti-aliasing. Higher in-game anti-aliasing settings contribute significant blur.

High frame rate

Higher frame rate / Screen tearing fix (V-Sync)

Change in-game Settings >> Video >> Frame Rate Limit option to OFF. (See Notes below.) Set V-Sync from your graphics card control panel for this game to ON. Run the game with -window-mode exclusive command line argument for locking FPS at monitor refresh rate. Notes Game may perform much smoother with both V-Sync ON and the in-game Settings >> Video >> Frame Rate Limit option set to 60. Recommended for those who want more FPS, but also V-Sync/G-Sync option to work. Fixes screen tearing that may appear when >60fps or when the in-game Frame Rate Limit is set to 60/30.

Chromatic aberration

Disable chromatic aberration
Use modded .dll file. The manual procedure may also work.

Depth of field

Disable depth of field
Use modded .dll file. The manual procedure may also work.

Input settings

In-game input settings

Audio settings

In-game audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese				Steam DLC available from Japan; Released on June 7, 2018.
Polish				Fan translation, download.
Brazilian Portuguese
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Russian				Fan translation by Tolma4 Team.
Korean				Fan translation by Teamhipsterkanarias ("Farewell").

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
vorpX		G3D, Z3D Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Devices
Tobii Eye Tracking

Issues unresolved

Stuttering

Enable 60 FPS cap from the video setting menu[citation needed]

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11
OpenGL		macOS/Linux only

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

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Criware
Cutscenes	Criware

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3-2100 3.1 GHz AMD Phenom X4 945 3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	3 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	14 GB
Video card (GPU)	AMD Radeon R7 250 Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 DirectX 11 compatible

A 64-bit operating system is required.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.13.5	10.13.6
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	28 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GT 650M AMD Radeon R9 M290 Intel Iris 5100 1 GB of VRAM

This game is not currently supported on volumes formatted as Case-sensitive.

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 18.04
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3-4130T 2.9 GHz	Intel Core i7-4770 3.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	28 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 AMD Radeon R9 270 2 GB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 AMD Radeon RX 470 4 GB of VRAM

AMD GPUs require Mesa driver 18.1.6, Nvidia cards require driver 396.54 or better.

Intel GPUs are not supported at time of release.

A 64-bit operating system is required.