Max Payne 3

Very good looking game, will put the highest end of computers to the test

Scales well in performance, can be played on Intel HD 4000 at low settings

Has an overabundance of issues, bugs and crashes

Template:Infobox Max Payne (series)

Availability

Rockstar has stated the following:

The Steam version of Max Payne 3 supports Steam achievements and buying DLC from in-game via Steam. Certain features normally associated with Steamworks—such as friends, cloud saves, stats, and matchmaking—are fully supported using Rockstar's own Social Club (not Steam or Games for Windows Live) as the platform for all versions. Retail key activation on Steam is not supported.

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

GameShield

All versions of Max Payne 3 utilise a form of DRM known as GameShield, also utilised in L.A. Noire. Rockstar have not disclosed on how many machine activations GameShield will permit, nor information about any other restrictions.

Retail

Does not activate in any online digital distribution stores.

Steam

Max Payne 3 bought through Steam uses Steam achievements.

All downloadable content is loaded through the Rockstar Games Social Club account.

Video Settings

Patch Notes

Patch will be automatically downloaded when starting your game with steam or the rockstar launcher.

v 1.0.0.29 Released June 29, 2012

• Fix for Unlimited Bullet Time cheat carrying over into other game modes
• Fix for inaccessible game modes showing up in the Multiplayer interface
• Various minor bug fixes

Past Patch Notes: 6/26/12

• Multiplayer tuning, including spawn point tweaking, improvements to stability/load times and weapon balancing.
• Reduction of Hardcore Playlist requirement from 5,000 to 1,000
• Fix for gold textures not unlocking on DLC weapons
• Fix for XP display not incrementing between Rank 49 and Rank 50
• Fix for issue where game could autosave immediately before a death screen
• Fix for Rank 50 trophy not unlocking
• Fix for Unlimited Bullet Time cheat not unlocking

PC-Specific Changes

• Improvements to game security
• Various bug/stability fixes
• MSAA white outline fix
• Various multihead improvements
• Text chat added to lobbies by default
• Mouse acceleration setting added to controls menu
• Aspect ratio setting added to the graphics menu

6/6/12

Compatibility Issues

• Fixed reported issues with needing service packs, compatibility with incorrect OS.

Various Crashes

• Fixed a range of issues which could have led to crashes on startup and in-game.

Audio Crash

• Fixed reported issues of audio dropouts when no audio device was plugged in, or when the headphones/speakers disconnected while in game.

Mouse Sensitivity

• Fixed reported issues of mouse being sluggish, especially in prone and Shootdodge™. Increased top end range of mouse sensitivity, but kept the slider from 1-10, allowing the user more range in their sensitivity setting.

Mouse Acceleration

• Fixed reported issues of mouse acceleration affecting aiming, included commandline option to disable mouse acceleration, -nomouseaccel (In a future update, this will be added as an option in the Mouse Controls menu).

Stretched Image / Wrong Aspect Ratio

• Fixed reported issues of game locked in incorrect aspect ratio, or alt-entering and having incorrect aspect ratio. Added commandline option for locked aspect ratio as commandline option -aspectratio width:height (i.e. -aspectratio 4:3 / -aspectratio 16:9) In a future update, this will be added as an option in the Graphics menu.

Video Memory Reporting as 0MB

• Fixed reported issues of the video card reporting having 0MB of video memory available. Users unable to adjust Graphics options because of this (Also helps fix stuttering on some video cards).

We are aware of a few outstanding issues including multiplayer cheaters and hackers. Rest assured this will be dealt with in a forthcoming patch.

Issues And Fixes

TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game. It can be found here.

Game Will Not Launch

The game will not launch for many users.

This can be fixed by going into safe mode, and changing the game to DirectX 9. Fix originally Posted by Kalashnikov222.

1. Install game.
2. Update GPU drivers/
3. Restart PC.
4. Right click game > properties > set launch options.
5. Type -safemode -windowed
6. Game settings > set to DirectX 9, with choice of screen resolution and fullscreen.
7. Exit game
8. Right click game > properties > set launch options - remove all options.

Negative Mouse Acceleration and Frame Dependent Mouse Sensitivity

Even after the patch which includes a mouse acceleration toggle, some players experience negative mouse acceleration as well as FPS dependent sensitivities. There are currently no true fixes for the negative mouse acceleration, however, turning off FXAA, MSAA, and V-Sync may help to make it more tolerable. Negative mouse acceleration will still be there, but turning off these settings will help the overall feel of the mouse movement. This issue is most likely caused by the developers using a software mouse to emulate a joystick, as opposed to raw hardware mouse input.

It is also recommended that you find the lowest average fps your card can handle. Once you find a framerate that is comfortable, use a program with frame capping functionality to cap the fps. This will keep the mouse sensitivity more consistent, as the mouse sensitivity can change based on the current framerate.

Game Goes to Pause Menu Randomly

This error is usually caused by having an XBOX360 wireless adapter plugged into USB.

Game Doesn't Launch

Before the more recent patches, there was an issue where the default directory names would prevent the game from starting. If the game is updated to the most recent patch and still fails to start, try reinstalling .net and DirectX.

Error Code 1641 on launch

This error is related to .Net 3.5. Restarting the computer should fix the error, but if not try reinstalling .Net 3.5 and restarting.

Game Crashes with StackHash_XXX Error

This error is caused by Data Execution Prevantion in Windows Vista/7. Running maxpayne3.exe as an administrator may solve the problem.

If not, attempt the following:

• Open your Start Menu > Control Panel
• Browse to “System Maintenance” > “System”
• In the left panel, select “Advanced System Settings”.
• You should now see the System Properties Window, which will have three sections. The top section is labeled “Performance” and has a “Settings” button. Click this button.
• Select the “Data Execution Prevention” tab.
• Select the option which reads “Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select”
• Use the “Browse” button to navigate to the maxpayne3 executable file and click Open.
• Click Apply or OK to commit your changes.

ERR_OS_VISTA

This error message can be caused on the Steam version of the game when Steam is forced by the OS into compatibility mode.

Follow these steps to stop Windows Vista/7 from forcing Steam into compatibility mode:

• Hit start->run->regedit
• Go to key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
• Look for an entry with your path to steam.exe
• Delete that entry
• If you don't find it there try HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

Graphics Settings Not Saving

The game may report that video memory is 0/0. This may be caused by older graphics drivers which need updating.

I fix is to edit the file:

• Windows 7: C:\Users\%Username%\Documents\Rockstar Games\Max Payne 3\graphics.xml

Steam Version Product Key Activation Errors

For the error message "no activations remaining for this activation key" or "cannot contact activation server" when trying to activate the game over socialclub, the issue can be remedied by moving your max payne 3 installation from ..\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common to ..\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\<your-username> and right clicking on maxpayne3.exe and running it as an administrator. Once this is done, the game will activate properly.

Requires Service Pack 1

The game may show the error message 'Requires Service Pack 1 or superior'.

This can be fixed by finding the maxpayne3.exe file, right clicking and setting the compatibility mode to "Windows XP (Service Pack 3)".

Running maxpayne3.exe as an administrator may also fix the problem.

Change Language

In the main folder, open the file commandline.txt using Notepad. If the file is not there, create it. Then add one of the following lines to change the language of Max Payne 3:

-language English
-language French
-language Italian
-language German
-language Spanish
-language Russian
-language Portuguese
-language polish

If this doesn't work, create a shortcut to the Launcher (PlayMaxPayne3.exe), right-click on the shortcut, select Properties and add one of the above lines to the target field. Your target field should look something like this afterwards:

"C:\%YourGameDirectory%\Max Payne 3\PlayMaxPayne3.exe" -language English 

Alternatively, if you have the Steam Version, you can rightclick on Max Payne 3 in your steam library, select Properties->set launch options and add one of the above mentioned command lines.

ASUS Cards - Game won't launch or crashes randomly

If you own an ASUS card (ATi or NV) and you installed the 'Smart Doctor' and/or 'ASUS Gamer' software then this could be what's causing crashes. All you need to do is uninstall Smart Doctor and ASUS Gamer, restart your computer and reinstall your video card drivers.

Other information

Command Line Paramaters

A list of Command Line parameters which can be applied to a shortcut of the game, as well as their effects, can be found here.

Downloadable Content

Information regarding DLC for Max Payne 3 can be found here.

Graphics & Tweaks

Max Payne 3 supports 3D on Nvidia cards.