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Battlefield 4

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Battlefield 4
Battlefield 4 cover
Developers
DICE
DLC DICE Los Angeles[1]
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Engines
Frostbite 3
Release dates
Windows October 29, 2013
Reception
Metacritic 81
OpenCritic 79
IGDB 80
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, DLC, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions Loot box
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Shooter
Vehicles Automobile, Flight, Helicopter, Naval/watercraft, Tank, Transport, Truck
Art styles Realistic
Themes Contemporary
Series Battlefield
Battlefield 4 on HowLongToBeat
Battlefield 4 on IGDB
Battlefield 4 guide on StrategyWiki
Battlefield 4 on MobyGames
Battlefield 4 on Wikipedia
Battlefield 1942 2002
Battlefield Vietnam 2004
Battlefield 2 2005
Battlefield 2142 2006
Battlefield Heroes 2009
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 2010
Battlefield Online 2010
Battlefield Play4Free 2011
Battlefield 3 2011
Battlefield 4 2013
Battlefield Hardline 2015
Battlefield 1 2016
Battlefield V 2018
Battlefield 2042 2021

Warnings

Mantle graphics API option requires an AMD video card with a driver version earlier than Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.5.1.[2]

General information

Official Battlelog Forums
Official BF4 Tech Support Forums
Secret tips and tricks

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Origin
Windows
Amazon.co.uk
Origin
Windows
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Origin
Premium Edition. Included exclusively with Xbox Game Pass for PC as part of its version of EA Play.
Windows
Origin
Origin
Digital Deluxe Edition and Premium Edition also available.
Premium Edition included with EA Play.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Origin
Premium Edition. Included with EA Play (Steam).
Windows
Amazon.com (unavailable)
Origin
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg (unavailable)
Origin
Premium Edition also available.
Windows
Green Man Gaming (unavailable)
Origin
Premium Edition also available.
Windows
Humble Store (unavailable)
Origin
Windows
Trial version available on Origin.
All versions require Origin DRM.

Version differences

Pre-orders contained early access to the China Rising DLC; pre-ordering the Digital Deluxe Edition granted access to the beta.

Monetization

Type Notes
DLC Additional content.
One-time game purchase The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service Available via EA Play.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Air Vehicle Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Assault Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Dragon's Teeth Included with EA Play.
Windows
Carbine Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
China Rising Included with EA Play.
Windows
Community Operations Free
Windows
DMR Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Engineer Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Final Stand Included with EA Play.
Windows
Grenade Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Ground & Sea Vehicle Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Handgun Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Legacy Operations Free
Windows
Naval Strike Included with EA Play.
Windows
Night Operations Free
Windows
Recon Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Second Assault Included with EA Play.
Windows
Shotgun Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Soldier Shortcut Bundle Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Support Shortcut Kit Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Ultimate Shortcut Bundle Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Vehicle Shortcut Bundle Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
Weapon Shortcut Bundle Can be obtained by ingame leveling
Windows
All expansion packs are available with Premium.

Essential improvements

Use Battlescreen on secondary monitor

If you are using a multi-monitor resolution in-game the secondary monitor can't be part of the spanned resolution.
Move Battlescreen browser window[3]
  1. Move the server browser window onto your secondary monitor.
  2. Join a multiplayer session.
  3. Once the session starts, click the Battlescreen button that appears on the blue bar in the server browser.
  4. Optionally, switch the web browser to fullscreen mode (F11) to hide other interface elements.
  5. The game will now work normally with the Battlescreen showing map information in real time during the match.

Notes

Running the game borderless makes it quicker to switch between the two but might reduce performance.

Game data

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 4\settings\PROFSAVE_profile
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1238860/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 4\settings\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1238860/pfx/[Note 1]
meta.xml, PROFSAVE, PROFSAVE_header and PROFSAVE_profile are the save files.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Origin
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Allows HUD scaling
Field of view (FOV)
60-120° in multiplayer; for single-player use Flawless Widescreen.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Low to High Post AA, up to 4x MSAA, and resolution scale for SSAA. MSAA can be enhanced with TrSSAA on Nvidia systems; requires setting Antialiasing - Behavior Flags to none with Nvidia Profile Inspector and value must equal MSAA value (thus 8x is not available).
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Up to 200 FPS.
200 FPS cap can be removed with console command GameTime.MaxVariableFPS 0.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode
Set in Options, Video; alters HUD colors and text/icon borders.

Input

In-game general control settings.
In-game general control settings.
In-game advanced control settings.
In-game advanced control settings.
In-game key/button map settings.
In-game key/button map settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Enable Raw Mouse Input to disable acceleration.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
In-game prompts always refer to keyboard keys.
Full controller support
Changing weapons/classes at supply crates (commonly found in the SP campaign or via the commander ability in MP) requires mouse input.
Controller remapping
Supports full controller remapping on XInput controllers.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
PlayStation controllers
Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Button prompts
Only in menus. Keyboard keys during gameplay.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Only Master and VOIP can be changed, no separate music/SFX volume options.
Surround sound
Up to 5.1[4]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
Czech
French
German
Hungarian
Fan translation, download (mirror).
Italian
Steam version displays an infinite loading screen at startup when set to Italian. Follow this guide to fix.
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish

Network

Servers use PunkBuster and Fairfight anti-cheat protection.[5][6]

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
Online play
64 Up to 64 players, 2 commanders, and 2 spectators

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Server browser also available
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Servers must be rented from approved providers (archive.org).
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 80, 443, 9988, 17502, 20000-20100, 22990, 42127
UDP 3659, 14000-14016, 22990-23006, 25200-25300
This game does not support Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision
See Helix Mod: Battlefield 4.
TriDef 3D
iZ3D
vorpX
G3D
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.
Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest

Issues unresolved

Can't pass swimming part in the South China Sea mission

Pause the menu for every 5 seconds, which helps you getting through the part[7]
Limit the game to 30fps[8]

Tactical Visor doesn't work in Campaign

Changing the Aiming to Toggle unable to use the visor properly.
Switch back to HOLD to use visor in the game setting

Issues fixed

Use Mantle with newer AMD Catalyst drivers

Mantle support was dropped after 19.4.3 causing launch errors if the user was trying to launch the game with newer Catalyst drivers. A workaround involves placing 19.4.3's Mantle DDLs into Battlefield 4's install directory.

Download and insert Mantle DDL files[9]
  1. Download the BF4 Mantle DLLs from 19.4.3.7z file.
  2. Extract the contents of the download.
  3. Move all .dll files to <path-to-game> (where bf4.exe is located) and overwrite where prompted.

Stuck on Loading Screen / Game Closes with No Error Message / PunkBuster Initialization Failure

PunkBuster issues may cause the game to become stuck on the black loading screen with the flashing indicator at the top-right, or cause you to be kicked mid-game by the server with or without the following error messages:

  • Game disconnected: you were kicked by PunkBuster. Stated reason: PunkBuster kicked player '(player name)' (for 0 minutes) ... RESTRICTION: Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrA.exe.
Ensure PunkBuster is installed correctly[10]
  1. On Origin, right click on the game and select Repair.
  2. Go to <path-to-game>\__Installer\punkbuster\redist\ and open pbsvc.exe.
  3. Select Install/Re-install PunkBuster Service and reboot once it is finished.
  4. Open the file again and chose Test Services to verify it is working correctly.
Update PunkBuster manually[11]
  1. Download PBSetup and follow the instructions provided on the website.

(Nvidia) Stuttering on loading screen, losing connection to servers

Clear shader cache folder[12]
  1. Go to %PROGRAMDATA%\NVIDIA Corporation\NV_Cache.
  2. Delete all the files (except for the ones that Windows does not allow you to delete). Tip: you could use iobit unlocker or similar software to unlock the remaining files for deletion.
  3. Restart computer.

Notes

If you cannot find the NV_Cache folder in a forementioned location, then it might be present in the following location (replace UserName accordingly): C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp
Since the newest versions of the Nvidia drivers (511.79+) the NV_Cache folder exists no longer. Instead, shader caches for DirectX and OpenGL to be located here: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\NVIDIA

with two respective folders, DXCache and GLCache.source

The shader cache feature can be turned off/lowered in the Nvidia profile inspector 2.4.6.2, in a "battlefield 4" profile for the game: section 5-common, shadercache-off/shadercache maximum size-min
on some systems, shader cache cannot be turned off in the Nvidia control panel profile for battlefield 4 (such string is missing).

Game Won't Start: Invalid license: Missing DLL Error

Full error text is: "We're sorry, an error has occurred Invalid license. Reason code = Missing DLL: [MSVCP110.dll] Error: 0x7E."
Install Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 4[13]
  1. Download files vcredist_x64.exe and vcredist_x86.exe found here.
  2. Install both of them following the prompts. Run as administrator if needed.
  3. If already installed click Repair.
  4. If the issue persists after clicking Repair for both, this could be because a newer version of each is installed. Run each .exe file again but instead of Repair, click Uninstall and then reinstall each one exactly like in step 2.

FOV slider doesn't work in singleplayer campaign

The Field of View slider "only affects multiplayer," as the tooltip says. To adjust FOV for singleplayer, a 3rd-party application can be used.

Install and use Flawless Widescreen[14]
  1. Download, install and run Flawless Widescreen.
  2. Configure it for Battlefield 4 and leave it running.
  3. Run the game with bf4.exe or rename bf4_offline.exe to bf4.exe and run that, since Flawless Widescreen looks for a bf4.exe process in memory.
  4. Adjust the FOV with Num+ and Num- or by alt-tabbing to Flawless Widescreen and moving its slider.
Flawless Widescreen works with only the 64-bit executables of the game.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11 Can be run on DX10 hardware with limited features. For Windows Vista - the DX11 update (KB971512) must be installed
Mantle support
See Use Mantle with newer AMD Catalyst drivers.
Shader Model support 4.1, 5
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Audio Opus, OGG Vorbis
Interface Qt
Anti-cheat PunkBuster [15][16]
Uses the Enlighten middleware for Global Illumination.

Performance monitoring tools

Performance monitoring tools[10]
  1. Open the console (~).
  2. Input perfoverlay.drawfps 1 to display frame rate.
  3. Input PerfOverlay.DrawGraph 1 to display hardware usage.
  4. Input NetworkPerfOverlay.DrawGraph 1 to show network debug.

Notes

You can create user.cfg in the installation folder through Notepad, paste these commands and save, so they will be permanently enabled.

Console commands

Launch console with ~.
You can have these commands run automatically, whenever you start the game, by entering them in user.cfg in the Battlefield 4 installation folder (the file won't exist by default, you can create it through a Notepad and save as a .cfg file).
Command Description
PerfOverlay.DrawFPS 1 Show FPS counter
PerfOverlay.DrawGraph 1 Show performance graph
GameTime.MaxVariableFPS # Limit frame rate (where # is a positive number) / '0' unlocks framerate beyond 200FPS
RenderDevice.TripleBufferingEnable 1 Enable Triple-Buffering (only recommended if Vsync is on)
RenderDevice.ForceRenderAheadLimit 1 Force rendering only 1 frame ahead (can remove stutter, default value is 3)
NetworkPerfOverlay.DrawGraph 1 In depth network debugging information
Screenshot.Render Take a screenshot (into %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 4\Screenshots\)

Disable HUD

  1. Open the console (~).
  2. Type ui.drawenable 0. You can auto-complete the command by pressing Tab after ui.
  3. To restore the HUD, open the console once again, repeat the same command (quick access by Arrow Up), but this time use 1 instead of 0.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Vista SP2 32-bit with KB971512 update
Processor (CPU) AMD Athlon X2 2.8 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 30 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon HD 3870
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
512 MB of VRAM
DirectX 10.1 compatible
Other Broadband Internet connection

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 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>/1238860/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1238860) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. DICE LA to handle remaining Battlefield 4 DLC - Polygon - last accessed on 2017-11-16
  2. AMD - Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.5.1 Highlights - last accessed on 2019-05-15
    "Support for AMD Mantle API Technology has been discontinued starting with Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.5.1. Users who wish to continue to use AMD Mantle API Technology may do so with prior supported Radeon Software releases."
  3. I too, am enjoying BF4's Battlescreen : pcgaming - last accessed on May 2023
  4. PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023
  5. Battlefield 4 PunkBuster Online Countermeasures - last accessed on May 2023
  6. Faq | FairFight Server Side Anti Cheat & Middleware
  7. Solved: can't pass swimming part - last accessed on May 2023
  8. Solved: can't pass swimming part - last accessed on May 2023
  9. Is Mantle in 2020 on BF4 possible? - last accessed on May 2023
  10. 10.0 10.1 Verified by User:Waschbär on 2017-09-03
  11. ea.com - PunkBuster technical guide - last accessed on 2017-09-03
  12. Solved: BF4 Visual/Audio Lag in Loading Screen & Occasional Disconnect - Answer HQ - last accessed on 2021-03-20
  13. Solved: BF4 Invalid License. Reason code = Missing DLL: [MSVCP110.dll Error: 0x7E - Answers HQ] - last accessed on 2021-08-12
  14. FlawlessWidescreen FOV fix tool - last accessed on 2022-08-30
  15. Even Balance, Inc. - PunkBuster Online Countermeasures - last accessed on May 2023
  16. Even Balance, Inc. - PunkBuster Online Countermeasures - last accessed on 2018-09-04
    "Tue Aug 27 2013 12:00
    Electronic Arts Inc. has contracted with Even Balance, Inc. to integrate PunkBuster™ Anti-Cheat software into Battlefield 4™. We will soon be opening a section on our website to support PunkBuster™ for Battlefield 4.
    "