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Call of Duty: Black Ops III

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Call of Duty: Black Ops III cover
Developers
Treyarch
macOS (OS X) Aspyr Media[1]
Publishers
Activision
Engines
IW engine
Release dates
Windows November 6, 2015
macOS (OS X) April 4, 2019[1]
Reception
Metacritic 73
OpenCritic 79
IGDB 77
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, DLC
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, FPS, Shooter
Vehicles Flight
Art styles Realistic
Themes Sci-fi
Series Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops III on HowLongToBeat
Call of Duty: Black Ops III on IGDB
Call of Duty: Black Ops III guide on StrategyWiki
Call of Duty: Black Ops III on MobyGames
Call of Duty: Black Ops III on Wikipedia
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Subseries of Call of Duty
Call of Duty: World at War 2008
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2010
Call of Duty: Black Ops II 2012
Call of Duty: Black Ops III 2015
Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII 2018
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War 2020

Key points

Features split-screen with multi-monitor support (one monitor per player).
Official modding tools and unranked dedicated servers available.[2][3]
By default, some settings are restricted depending on graphics card, but a fix is available here.
There may be some performance issues, but a fix is available here.

General information

CallofDutyMaps - A detailed Website for all included multiplayer maps.
GeForce Graphics Guide
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Icon overlay.png
Contains 6 DVDs.
Windows
Amazon.com
Icon overlay.png
Digital Deluxe Edition.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
All versions require Steam and Arxan Anti-Tamper DRM.

Version differences

Multiplayer Starter Pack: Starter edition, contains Multiplayer, no campaign and Zombies. Can be upgraded to Zombies Chronicles Edition or Zombies Deluxe.
Zombies Chronicles Edition: Basic edition, contains the base game and Zombies Chronicles.
Zombies Deluxe: Deluxe edition, contains the base game, the Season Pass, Zombies Chronicles and 3 personalization packs.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Season Pass
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Awakening Included in the Season Pass.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Descent Included in the Season Pass.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Eclipse Included in the Season Pass.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
The Giant Zombies Map Included in the Season Pass.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
NUK3TOWN Bonus Map Originally a pre-order bonus, later made free.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Salvation Included in the Season Pass.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Zombies Chronicles
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Essential improvements

All of the following tweaks are applicable also for Black Ops 4, and they may have similar names. This is due to the fact that in both games, a relatively identical engine is used and it has been modified further for this game.

Skip intro videos

Delete BO3_Global_Logo_LogoSequence.mkv found in <path-to-game>\video\[4]
Other videos can also be deleted to reduce the waiting time between level changes.

Increased loading speed levels

Edit config.ini[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file location.
  2. Open config.ini.
  3. Find the line MaxFPS and set the value to 0.
  4. Save the changes.

Notes

Changing this option disables FPS limiting altogether, which increases the loading speed of the levels and also allows the game to get a little more FPS than it was even at 1000.

Make all settings available

Many graphics cards are able to handle high graphical settings, but by default the game hides/restricts some settings.
Edit config.ini[5]
  1. Go to the configuration file location.
  2. Open config.ini.
  3. Find the line RestrictGraphicsOptions and edit the value from 1 to 0.
  4. Save the changes.

Notes

If the game is installed in the default folder, the chosen file editor might need to be run as administrator.

Enable offline multiplayer with bots

By default it's not possible to start multiplayer matches with bots in offline mode.
Start the game in mod mode
  • Add +set fs_game offlinemp to the game's start parameters.
"offlinemp" here is just chosen as an example, any name will work. The game thereby creates a new mod directory under \players\mods\ with separate configuration files.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\players\[Note 1]
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/311210/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\players\[Note 1]
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/311210/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Some settings only.

Video

Video settings.
Video settings.
Advanced video settings.
Advanced video settings.
Gameplay video settings.
Gameplay video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
HUD and menu is stretched.
Ultra-widescreen
HUD and menu is stretched. Attempting to change resolutions during gameplay will result in stretching/compression. Hub sections are stretched, but missions work fine.
4K Ultra HD
[6]
Field of view (FOV)
65-120° with 80º as default value.[7]
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Named as Texture Filtering in the options (Low = 2x, Medium = Per Material, and High = 16x).
Anti-aliasing (AA)
FXAA, SMAA (1x and Temporal 2x), Filmic SMAA (1x and Temporal 2x), and SSAA through Render Resolution option. SMAA T2X and Filmic SMAA options are disabled for SLI/Crossfire systems.
High-fidelity upscaling
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Double buffering. See here for triple buffering.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Multiplayer is capped at 60 FPS because VSync is enabled by default. Disabling VSync allows the FPS cap to go up to 240 FPS in Multiplayer using in-game menu. Cap can be unlimited by changing com_maxfps value to 0 in the config file or with in-game console while using any mod. Unlimited in Zombies and Single Player.[8]
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode

Triple buffering

Edit config.ini[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file location.
  2. Open config.ini.
  3. Find the line BackbufferCount and edit the value from 2 to 3.
  4. Save the changes.

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Only presets.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
PlayStation controllers
Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Button prompts
Natively supports both the Xbox One and the DualShock 4 (V1 only) controller without any 3rd party tools required.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Aiming down sights using both causes camera to zoom in and out[9].

Audio

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

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Master, Voice, Music, SFX Volume.
Surround sound
5.1
Subtitles
Subtitles option is available only when using English audio.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Users can't change the language to others.
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
See Latin American Spanish audio mods.

Latin American Spanish audio mods

Full Game: File replacement
  • Replace the Castilian Spanish audio files with the Latin American Spanish audio files of the PlayStation 4 version following this guide.

Notes

All game modes available.
Has some minor sound bugs.
Zombies Maps: Workshop mods
  • Download the collection of audio mods in Latin American Spanish of all Zombies maps here.

Notes

It also includes subtitles in Latin American Spanish.

Network

Network settings.
Network settings.
Voice Chat settings.
Voice Chat settings.
Text Chat settings.
Text Chat settings.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
2 Co-op, Versus
[6]
LAN play
Must have an active internet connection regardless for DRM purposes.
Online play
18 Co-op, Versus
Co-op is limited to 4 players.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
For Ranked matches[6][10].
Self-hosting
Unranked only[3].
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 27014-27050
UDP 3478, 4379-4380, 27000-27031, 27036
This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
Z3D
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues fixed

Stuttering

Remove outdated file library
Delete d3dcompiler_46.dll[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>.
  2. Remove d3dcompiler_46.dll.

Notes

Deleting this file does not affect the stability of the launch of the game. However, it is clearly outdated and does not allow the game to gain access to a newer version of the library from the Windows system, and blocks access to it, since it is located next to the game execution file.

Game does not take advantage of the entire VRAM amount available

Edit config.ini[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file location.
  2. Open config.ini.
  3. Find the line VideoMemory and edit the value from 0.75 or 0.90 to 1.
  4. Also check the parameter StreamMinResident and change its value if required from 1 to 0.
  5. Save the changes.

Notes

This setting helps to reduce the frequency of accessing the main RAM and allows the game to use all the video memory. It also reduces the frame time and increases the smoothness of the gameplay with a decrease in control response time.
On some configurations, these options can have a negative effect on performance, and in this case it's worthwhile to specify these values in the reverse order. This is due to the fact that these parameters also affect the drawing distance.

Frame rate isn't smooth

Edit config.ini[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file location.
  2. Open config.ini.
  3. Find the line SmoothFramerate and set the value to 0 from 1.
  4. Save the changes.

Notes

This setting helps to prevent a strong drop in frame rates at certain points and also increases the smoothness of the gameplay.
May increase input lag and possibly performance degradation.

Game isn't responsive enough

Edit config.ini[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file location.
  2. Open config.ini.
  3. Find the line MaxFrameLatency and set the value to 4 or 0.
  4. Save the changes.
  5. Also use D3DOverrider to force triple buffering on.

Notes

This greatly increases the smoothness and also greatly prevents a drop in the frame rate.
Usually the use of triple buffering only works with vertical sync enabled. But instead of using vertical synchronization, FastSync can be used in the settings of the Nvidia video card driver, as well as turning off vertical synchronization in the settings of the game itself. A similar option for AMD owners is called Enhanced Sync. This mode will not limit the FPS, but also allows the user to activate triple buffering.
The use of a larger number of prepared frames and the use of a triple buffer may increase input lags.

CPU usage sometimes goes too high on some configurations

Edit config.ini[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file location.
  2. Open config.ini.
  3. Find the line SerializeRender and edit the value from 0 to 2.
  4. Save the changes.

Notes

This might cause a slight decrease in FPS, but will make it stable and reduce the frametime, as well as improving the responsiveness in general.

FPS drops

This is for copies on the Steam version of the game.
Launching the game in offline mode
  1. Open Steam and select the Steam menu in the top left.
  2. Select "Go Offline...".
  3. Select "ENTER OFFLINE MODE".
  4. Launch the game.

Notes

As the title suggests, online services will be unavailable such as multiplayer.

Game changes microphone gain at launch

Modify microphone gain ingame[11]
  1. Start up the game and open the menu, select OPTIONS and after select CHAT that has a headset icon.
  2. Change Voice Chat Record Level to the preferred microphone gain.

Game crashes on startup

Antivrus software like AVG or Avast! are known to cause the game to crash.
Add anti-virus exclusion[12]
  1. Add the entire installation folder to the exclusion list on either antivirus.
For better results, uninstall the antivirus and disable the built-in Windows Defender.
If either Actual Window Minimizer or Actual Window Manager are installed, they will cause the game to crash.
Add exception for Actual Window Minimizer or Actual Window Manager
  • Add the main executable file to the exclusion list on either of the programs to fix.

The game causes the entire system to hang and the computer itself completely before rebooting

Move the paging file[citation needed]
  1. Right click Computer → Choose Properties.
  2. Click Advanced System Settings.
  3. Click Performance Tab → Click Settings.
  4. Click "Advanced Settings Tab → Virtual Memory".
  5. Click "Change".
  6. Uncheck "Automaticaly manage page file".
  7. Clicking on disk will allow the paging file to be set on any disk, except system.
  8. Set "System managed size".
  9. Save the changes and reboot Windows.

Notes

In fact, this problem is mainly related to the use of a cheap and low-quality SSD disk based on the type of TLC memory or hard disk with errors.

Scoreboard and Pause Menu not working using controller

Reset controls to default
  1. Click on the on-screen Menu button.
  2. Select OPTIONS Tab and after it, select CONTROLS.
  3. Select Reset to Default.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11
Metal support
[1]
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
[1]

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i3-530 2.93 GHz
AMD Phenom II X4 810 2.60 GHz
System memory (RAM) 6 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 100 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GTX 470
AMD Radeon HD 6970
1 GB of VRAM
DirectX 11 compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectX Compatible
A 64-bit operating system is required.
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.13.6
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i5 2.3 GHz Quad-Core
System memory (RAM) 8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 150 GB
Video card (GPU) AMD Radeon R9 M295X
2 GB of VRAM
A 64-bit operating system is required.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  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>/311210/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (311210) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References