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Borderlands 3

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3 cover
Developers
Gearbox Software
Publishers
2K Games
Engines
Unreal Engine 4[Note 1]
Release dates
Windows September 13, 2019
macOS (OS X) October 30, 2019
Reception
Metacritic 81
OpenCritic 80
IGDB 82
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Microtransactions Cosmetic, Time-limited
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Shooter, RPG
Art styles Cel-shaded
Themes Sci-fi, Comedy
Series Borderlands
Borderlands 3 on HowLongToBeat
Borderlands 3 on IGDB
Borderlands 3 guide on StrategyWiki
Borderlands 3 on MobyGames
Borderlands 3 on Wikipedia
Borderlands
Borderlands 2009
Borderlands 2 2012
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel 2014
Tales from the Borderlands (series)
Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced 2019
Borderlands 3 2019
Borderlands 2 VR 2019
Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep:
A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure
2021
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands 2022

Borderlands 3 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person shooter and RPG game in the Borderlands series.

General information

Developer support page
Publisher support page
Official forums - PC-specific tech support category
Official Discord server for game series
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Epic Games Launcher
Limited to Standard Edition and only available in select countries.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Publisher website
Requires online activation
Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Choice between Epic Games Store and Steam versions.
Icon overlay.png
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Epic Games Store
Epic Games Launcher
Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
GamersGate
Epic Games Launcher
Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Epic Games Launcher
Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Green Man Gaming
Epic Games Launcher
Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Windows
Humble Store
Requires online activation
Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Choice between Epic Games Store activation and a Steam key.
Icon overlay.png
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Windows
Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM was removed on January 21, 2021.[2][3]

Version differences

Standard Edition contains the base game.
Super Deluxe Edition includes all Deluxe Edition content, the first Season Pass, and Multiverse Final Form cosmetic packs.
Ultimate Edition includes all Super Deluxe Edition content and Season Pass 2.
Pre-orders included Gold Weapon Skins Pack.
Epic Games Store versions purchased before December 31, 2020 included the Psycho Bundle Pack for Fortnite.
Deluxe Edition included Retro Cosmetic Pack, Neon Cosmetic Pack, Gearbox Cosmetic Pack, Toy Box Weapons Pack, equippable XP & loot drop boost mods.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Season Pass Includes four campaign DLC and the Butt Stallion pack consisting of a weapon skin, weapon trinket, and grenade mod.[4]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Season Pass 2 Includes Designer's Cut and Director's Cut add-ons, as well as the Multiverse cosmetic packs.[5]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Gold Weapon Skins Pack Pre-purchase bonus content consisting of a gold weapon trinket and gold weapon skins applicable to all guns in the game.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot Campaign add-on.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Guns, Love, and Tentacles Campaign add-on.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Bounty of Blood Campaign add-on.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck Campaign add-on.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Designer's Cut Additional skill tree for each Vault Hunter, and the Arms Race game mode.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Director's Cut Additional boss, locations, items, and bonus behind-the-scenes content.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Toy Box Weapons Pack Two toy guns, toy grenade mod, trinket.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Retro Cosmetic Pack Vault Hunter head and skin, Echo Device skin, weapon skin.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Neon Cosmetic Pack Vault Hunter head and skin, Echo Device skin, weapon skin.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Gearbox Cosmetic Pack Weapon skin and trinket.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Multiverse Final Form Amara Cosmetic Pack Vault Hunter head and skin.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Multiverse Final Form Moze Cosmetic Pack Vault Hunter head and skin.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Multiverse Final Form FL4K Cosmetic Pack Vault Hunter head and skin.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Multiverse Final Form Zane Cosmetic Pack Vault Hunter head and skin.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Multiverse Disciples of the Vault Amara Cosmetic Pack Vault Hunter head and skin.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Multiverse Disciples of the Vault Moze Cosmetic Pack Vault Hunter head and skin.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Multiverse Disciples of the Vault FL4K Cosmetic Pack Vault Hunter head and skin.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Multiverse Disciples of the Vault Zane Cosmetic Pack Vault Hunter head and skin.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Trinkets can be attached from the slot next to the desired equipped weapon in the inventory.

Microtransactions

Type Notes
Cosmetic Skins packs sold as DLC.
Time-limited Cosmetics, 12 golden keys and a weapon available exclusively to Twitch Prime subscribers.[6]

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos and splash screen

Use the -nostartupmovies -nosplash command line arguments to skip the intro videos and splash screen.[7]
Remove the intro video files[8]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\OakGame\Content\Movies\
  2. Delete or rename 2KLOGO.mp4, AMDLOGO.mp4 and GBXLOGO.mp4.
Optionally, the new game introduction by Marcus may be skipped by deleting or renaming MARCUS_INTRO.mp4
Remove the splash screen image file[8]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\OakGame\Content\Splash\
  2. Delete or rename Splash.bmp
A game update may restore the files.

Disable Bloom and Depth Of Field

Options to either disable Bloom, DOF or both.

Game data

Gameplay settings
Gameplay settings

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Borderlands 3\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/397540/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Borderlands 3\Saved\SaveGames\
macOS (OS X) $HOME/Library/Application Support/GearboxSoftware/OakGame/Saved/SaveGames/
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/397540/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Epic Games Launcher
See the related wiki section for more information.
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Reportedly nonfunctional.[9][10][11]

Video

Basic visuals settings
Basic visuals settings
Advanced visuals settings
Advanced visuals settings

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
HUD is always spanned, cutscenes are 16:9 pillarboxed.
Partial cropping of UI elements.
Ultra-widescreen
16:9 pillarboxed cutscenes. Partial cropping of UI elements.
4K Ultra HD
[12]
Field of view (FOV)
70-110° sliders in increments of 1 for player and vehicle FOV.[8]
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Trilinear, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x
Anti-aliasing (AA)
FXAA or TAA, and SSAA through Resolution Scale up to 200% in 25% increments.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
[8]
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Multiple presets, custom from 15 to 300, or unlimited.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Part of the Calibrate Display settings. HDR must be enabled in Windows.
Max brightness and UI brightness adjustment sliders are available.[13]
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode
Four color options for Friendly, Neutral and Hostile reticles.[8]
The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 4 page for more details.
Supports VRS on supported hardware.

Input

Basic controls settings
Basic controls settings
Advanced controller settings
Advanced controller settings

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Certain actions and keys are not remappable.[14][15] See this wiki page for workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Acceleration and Smoothing toggles.[16]
Mouse sensitivity
Sliders of 1-100 in increments of 1 for look, ADS and vehicle.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
[17]
Controller remapping
[18]
Controller sensitivity
Sliders of 1-10 in increments of 1 for look, ADS and vehicle. Adjustable deadzones for each stick.[18]
Controller Y-axis inversion
Vertical and horizontal inversion for look and map menu.[18]
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
[18]
Xbox button prompts
Automatic or manually selectable as Prompt Style 1.[18]
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
[citation needed]
PlayStation button prompts
Automatic or manually selectable as Prompt Style 2
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes Wired
Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
[18]
Haptic feedback
Vibration toggle.[18]
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
[18]

Audio

Sound settings
Sound settings
Accessibility settings
Accessibility settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Master, Sound Effects, Music, Dialogue, Incoming Chat Volume.
Surround sound
5.1 and Dolby Atmos supported.[19][20]
Subtitles
Adjustable size and background opacity.
Closed captions
Critical sound effects captioning.
Mute on focus lost
Play in Background option within the Sound settings.
EAX support
Spatial Sound HRTF.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Game language is defined by that of the OS but can be set manually with the noted command line arguments.[21]
Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
-culture=en
Simplified Chinese
-culture=zh-Hans-CN
Traditional Chinese
-culture=zh-Hant-TW
French
-culture=fr
Defaults to the AZERTY keyboard layout for key bindings.
German
-culture=de
Italian
-culture=it
Japanese
-culture=ja
Korean
-culture=ko
Brazilian Portuguese
-culture=pt-BR
Russian
-culture=ru
Spanish
-culture=es

Network

Network & Social settings
Network & Social settings

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
4 Co-op
Use Nucleus Co-op.[22]
LAN play
4 Co-op
LAN server browser is available.
Online play
4 Co-op
Optional cross-play between Epic Games Store, Steam, and Xbox console versions through a free SHiFT account.[23]

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Region choice between Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, or Automatic.
Dedicated
[24]
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)[25]
UDP 5795-5847, 7777, 14001
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
See Helix Mod: Borderlands 3.
vorpX
G3D, Z3D, DirectVR
Officially supported. See the vorpX game list.

Issues unresolved

Loading issues in DirectX 12 mode

The game may take longer to load or get stuck at the intro loading screen when the DirectX 12 mode is selected.[26][27][28]
Edit the config file to return to DirectX 11[8]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open GameUserSettings.ini in a text editor.
  3. Locate the PreferredGraphicsAPI=DX12 line.
  4. Change it to PreferredGraphicsAPI=DX11 and save the file.

Stuttering on high-end hardware

There have been multiple reports of the game stuttering on hardware exceeding the recommended system requirements.[29][30]
Switching to DirectX 12 may result in better performance and reduction of stuttering, as well as better utilization of the CPU in combat on high-end hardware.[31][32]
Disable Control Flow Guard[33]
  1. Search for "Exploit Protection" and run it
  2. Open Windows Security.
  3. Navigate to the App & browser control and click on Exploit protection settings.
  4. Click on the Program settings header, followed by Add program to customize.
  5. Add the program by its executable filename or by browsing to it.
  6. Scroll down to Control flow guard (CFG).
  7. Enable Override system settings and ensure the toggle is set to Off.
  8. Click on Apply to save the changes.
  9. Restart the system to allow the changes to take effect.
  10. Some people will need to additionally change the game to DX11 setting afterwards to see the improvement[34].
Block all network connections from the game to potentially reduce stuttering[35]
Disables multiplayer functionality.
  1. Go to the Control Panel, click on System and Security, then Windows Defender Firewall.
  2. On the sidebar, click on Advanced settings.
  3. On the sidebar, click on Outbound rules.
  4. Under Actions, click on New Rule...
  5. Select Program, click on Browse... and select <path-to-game>\OakGame\Binaries\Win64\Borderlands3.exe, then Block the connection. Check every box on the next page, enter a name for the rule, click on Finish.
Right-click the rule and select Disable Rule when it is no longer needed.
Use the -NOTEXTURESTREAMING command line argument to disable texture streaming.[36]
Can significantly increase loading times.

Game freezing in Mayhem Mode

Having the Mob Mentality modifier enabled may cause the game to freeze.
From the Mayhem menu, reroll until the Mob Mentality modifier is no longer listed.[37][38]

Menu cropping

The cropping issues affecting the menu screens at resolutions other than 16:9 have been addressed for the most part as of the latest game version.[39][40]
However, Catch-a-Ride menu screens are cropped at resolutions wider than 16:9.[41]
Use keyboard buttons to spawn a vehicle[41]

Press E to select, Q to deploy, and Tab to close the menu.

Some of the vehicle customization options are out of view at 32:9 and wider resolutions.
Temporarily switch to a 16:9 resolution through the Visuals menu within Options.[42]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11, 12
OpenGL
Only on macOS.[citation needed]
Metal support
Only on macOS.[citation needed]
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics PhysX
Audio Wwise
Interface Coherent UI, Scaleform

Black outlines thickness and removal

Adjust the thickness of the game objects' black outlines through a config file[43]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open GameUserSettings.ini in a text editor.
  3. Locate EdgeDetectionTexelOffset=-1.00000 and change the numerical value as desired between -1.0 and 1.99.
    Setting to 1.3 should result in barely visible outlines.
Remove black outlines from the game objects with a DLL injection[44]
  1. Download this archive.
  2. Unpack and copy the files from the archive to <path-to-game>\OakGame\Binaries\Win64\
Applies to the DirectX 11 mode only.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7, 10
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i5-3570
AMD FX-8350
System memory (RAM) 6 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 75 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GTX 680
AMD Radeon HD 7970
2 GB of VRAM
DirectX 11 compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectX compatible
A 64-bit operating system is required.
Independent benchmarks indicate that meeting the recommended system requirements is not enough for 60 FPS at 1080p at the High and Ultra graphics presets.[45]


Notes

  1. Unreal Engine 4 engine build: 4.20.3[1]
  2. 2.0 2.1 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>/397540/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (397540) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Verified by User:Aemony on 2021-09-17
  2. DSOGaming - Gearbox has removed Denuvo from Borderlands 3 - last accessed on 2021-01-22
  3. Displaying change M:5810392720910730831 - last accessed on 2021-01-22
  4. Borderlands.com - Borderlands 3 - Season Pass - last accessed on 2019-04-03
  5. Borderlands.com - Get Ready for Next-Level Mayhem with Borderlands 3 Season Pass 2 - last accessed on 2020-10-15
  6. Get Borderlands 3 loot with Twitch Prime [UPDATE] - last accessed on 2021-08-26
  7. Verified by User:Rose on 2021-01-22
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Verified by User:Rose on 2019-09-12
  9. Cloud Saves Not Working - last accessed on 2020-03-15
  10. syncing Saves - last accessed on 2020-03-15
  11. Cloud Saves Not syncing - last accessed on 2020-03-15
  12. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-09-13
    Tested at 3840x2160 custom resolution, reflected in much lower than normal FPS.
  13. Verified by User:Rose on 2020-07-06
    Tested on an HDR TV.
  14. Bugs and Glitches Mega Thread (SPOILERS) 2 - last accessed on 2019-09-13
  15. Bugs and Glitches Mega Thread (SPOILERS) 3 - last accessed on 2019-09-13
  16. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-09-13
    With smoothing enabled, the reticle always failed to reach the starting position when moving the mouse back quicker.
  17. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-09-13
    Right after game launch, each menu was navigated and the game was briefly played with an Xbox 360 Razer Onza controller.
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 18.7 Verified by User:Rose on 2019-09-13
    Tested with an Xbox 360 Razer Onza controller.
  19. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-09-13
    The rear speakers were used for positional audio on the 5.1 system.
  20. Borderlands 3 - Dolby - last accessed on 2021-02-24
  21. Borderlands 3 - Changing the Language on Epic - last accessed on 2019-09-13
  22. Gearbox producer Patrick Fenn on Twitter - last accessed on 2019-09-12
    "split screen shall be a console exclusive feature"
  23. Borderlands 3 Crossplay Update! - last accessed on 2021-06-25
  24. No dedicated servers mean this is practically a single player game. - last accessed on 2019-09-13
  25. General Network Troubleshooting - last accessed on 2020-10-10
  26. So i changed to dx12. And yeah i can't get the game to start - last accessed on 2019-09-13
  27. FPS Lag/Loading issues on DirectX11/DirectX12 (benchmark results), plus other bugs - last accessed on 2019-09-19
    "I’ve waited 30 minutes for loading on the claptrap screen on DirectX12, it didn’t work."
  28. Gearbox Official on DX12 - last accessed on 2019-09-13
  29. Bugs and Glitches Mega Thread (SPOILERS) 1 - last accessed on 2019-09-13
  30. Horrible FPS Drops/Stuttering - last accessed on 2019-09-13
  31. Borderlands 3 performance issues - last accessed on 2019-09-22
  32. Borderlands 3 performance issues - last accessed on 2019-09-22
  33. https://new.reddit.com/r/borderlands3/comments/odd9zb/comment/hqlkyh0/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
  34. https://www.reddit.com/r/borderlands3/comments/odd9zb/comment/hsqsdxf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
  35. Holy s**t i mightv'e found a fix for us having stuttering issues!! - last accessed on 2019-09-15
  36. LEGIT Stutter Fix For Those With Higher End PC's in BL3 - last accessed on 2020-01-08
  37. Game keeps freezing/crashing - last accessed on 2020-10-10
  38. PSA: Certain Mayhem mods might cause crashes/freezes - last accessed on 2020-10-10
  39. Borderlands 3 in 2560x1080 is AWESOME - last accessed on 2020-08-24
  40. Verified by User:Rose on 2021-08-05
  41. 41.0 41.1 Verified by User:Rose on 2020-09-23
    Tested at 2560x1080
  42. Borderlands 3 Map navigation howto for Stephen - last accessed on 2020-02-19
  43. Remove Cel Shading(PC) - last accessed on 2019-09-17
  44. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-11-05
    Screenshots taken and compared.
  45. Borderlands 3 system requirements, settings, benchmarks, and performance analysis - last accessed on 2019-09-12