BlackSite: Area 51

BlackSite: Area 51

Developers
	Midway Studios Austin
Publishers
	Midway Games
Engines
	Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows	November 12, 2007

Area 51

Area 51 (2005)	2005
BlackSite: Area 51	2007

Key points

Game was released as BlackSite outside the U.S.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM DRM

This game is not available digitally.

Essential improvements

Patches

Install the latest patch (v1.2).

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Midway\Blacksite\Config\

Screen.ini only contains screen resolution and option to start in window or fullscreen mode. Other settings are encrypted inside other files.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Midway\Blacksite\

Video settings

Video settings.

Post-processing enabled(up) and disabled(down).

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor			See the WSGF entry.
Ultra-widescreen			See the WSGF entry.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		See the WSGF entry.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Run in windowed mode and use Borderless Gaming.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16x.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Available in the options menu, but doesn't do anything. Force in the graphics card control panel.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Game can be played in windowed mode which enables double buffering in modern Windows and prevents screen tearing, but the framerate won't be capped.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		No frame rate or refresh rate cap.

Post-processing effects

Motion blur, light bloom and color correction can be disabled by deleting or renaming an external file.

Disabling post-processing Go to <path-to-game>\A52Game\CookedPC Delete or rename the file a52postfx.xxx

Input settings

Input settings and key mappings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Disabled by default.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

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

Audio settings

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, sound effects and dialogue
Surround sound		5.1
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Russian

VR support

3D modes	Native	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile. Requires important settings to work properly, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9
Shader Model support	3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Audio	FMOD
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	Quazal

Issues unresolved

Dynamic shadow rendering bug.

Dynamic shadows enabled(up) and disabled(down).

Dynamic shadow rendering bug

Dynamic shadows of certain characters and objects are rendered incorrectly.

Turning off dynamic shadows in video settings isn't an improvement, because it also turns off light in outdoor areas.

Game freezes when changing video settings

It can sometimes happen that the game freezes when changing dynamic light, anti-aliasing or filtering mode in the video settings menu.

Delete the settings file Go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Midway\Blacksite Delete the file settings.dat Next time the game is launched it will create a new file with default settings. Change the settings in the options menu.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 4000+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	15 GB
Video card (GPU)	256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible Shader model 3.0 support