Code Vein

Code Vein

Developers
	Shift
	Bandai Namco Studios
Publishers
	Bandai Namco Entertainment
Engines
	Unreal Engine 4
Release dates
Windows	September 27, 2019
Reception
Metacritic	72
OpenCritic	75
IGDB	73
Taxonomy
Monetization	DLC
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, JRPG
Art styles	Anime
Themes	Fantasy, Post-apocalyptic

Code Vein is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person action and JRPG game.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Publisher website
Amazon.com
		Deluxe Edition also available.
Green Man Gaming		Deluxe Edition also available.
Humble Store		Deluxe Edition also available.
Microsoft Store		Deluxe Edition also available.
Steam		Deluxe Edition also available.

Steam version requires Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Season Pass
Accessory: Gold Purifier Mask	Free DLC item from the Bandai Namco site.
Frozen Empress	Also available as part of the Season Pass.
Hellfire Knight	Also available as part of the Season Pass.
Lord of Thunder	Also available as part of the Season Pass.

Redeeming the Gold Purifier Mask requires membership in a loyalty program not available in North America, South America, or Asia.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CodeVein\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/678960/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CodeVein\Saved\SaveGames
Microsoft Store	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\NAMCOBANDAIGamesInc.CODEVEINPCBaseGame_gdy2aq6ez762w\SystemAppData\wgs\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/678960/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Graphics Settings

Brightness Settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor		Pillarboxed. See Ultra-widescreen.
Ultra-widescreen		Pillarboxed. See Ultra-widescreen.
4K Ultra HD		Use Borderless Fullscreen to run higher than 3840x2160.
Field of view (FOV)		See Ultra-widescreen or Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See Anisotropic filtering (AF).
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Two separate settings: basic Anti-Aliasing Quality setting governs the quality (with 0 being equal to off), advanced Anti-Aliasing Processing setting actually selects AA method with only Off and Temporal AA being available in game, although Unreal Engine 4 also supports FXAA which can be enabled via a mod. See Anti-aliasing (AA) for SSAA/downsampling.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Choice of 30, 60, 144, or 240 FPS cap. Causes issues with elevators not working and damage scaling.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the engine page to force native HDR output, or the glossary page for other alternatives.

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 4 page for more details.

Advanced video settings variables are stored within encrypted save file and are loaded from save file about 30–40 seconds after launch, making it impossible to override r.DefaultFeature.AntiAliasing, r.AmbientOcclusionRadiusScale, r.DefaultFeature.MotionBlur, r.Tonemapper.Quality, r.MaterialQualityLevel and r.DepthOfFieldQuality from .ini level.

Using Temporal AA severely reduces the intensity of bloom effects (or rather greatly increases brightness threshold at which given pixel "emits" bloom)

Widescreen resolution

Change render percentage/resolution scaling
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open GameUserSettings.ini. Below [ScalabilityGroups], change sg.ResolutionQuality=xx to the desired resolution percentage (minimum 33.333302). Notes This tweak allows for upscaling/upsampling from smaller resolutions while running UI elements at the native screen resolution, which might be helpful for lower-end configurations.

Anti Aliasing (AA)

Adjust r.ScreenPercentage for downsampling
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Engine.ini with a text editor. Add [SystemSettings] to the bottom of the file, if that section doesn't already exist. Inside that section, add r.ScreenPercentage=100 where 100 is the desired resolution percentage. Notes This is the only method besides TAA to fight shader aliasing caused by rim lighting effect.

Ultra-widescreen

21:9 screenshot with aforementioned fix.

48:9 Example with the aforementioned fix.

Centered HUD elements example.

Character Creator 48:9 Example.

Modify the game executable to fix pillarboxing and vert- scaling in the Steam version

Go to <path-to-game>\CodeVein\Binaries\Win64\ Make a backup copy of CodeVein-Win64-Shipping.exe. Open the original CodeVein-Win64-Shipping.exe in a hex editor, such as HxD. Search for F6 41 2C 01 4C, and replace with F6 41 2C 00 4C to remove pillarboxes. Search for 35 FA 0E 3C A4, and replace with 35 FA 3E 3C A4 for ultra-widescreen or EF D4 83 3C A4 for multi-monitor resolutions to change the FOV. When finding and replacing these hex values, make sure that the find/replace tools are using "Hex-values" mode, and search direction (if using HxD) is set to All (Forward and Backward). 32:9 Follow through steps 1-4 normally. Replace 35 FA 0E 3C A4 with EF D4 83 3C A4 for multi-monitor resolutions. Search for 39 8E E3 3F, and replace with 39 8E 63 40 to change the FOV for 32:9. Notes HUD elements are centered on-screen. The game uses Vert- FOV scaling. As a result, users with aspect ratios above 21:9 should use the multi-monitor Hex-value. It is recommended to check the Notes section in WSGF Common Hex Values for instructions on how to get the recommended FOV values for those aspect ratios. The FOV hex edit listed here is designed with Vert- in mind. It's not recommended to combine the FOV value mentioned here with the Hor+ FOV scaling tweak. At multi-monitor resolutions, Character Creator only moves to the edge of what would be a 16:9 area.

Use the related PCGW community tool for Microsoft Store versions of the game.
Automatically adjusts the field of view of every scene for vertical parity with 16:9.

Field of view (FOV)

Use Hor+ FOV scaling

Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Engine.ini. At the bottom of the file, add [/Script/Engine.LocalPlayer]. Below that line, add AspectRatioAxisConstraint=AspectRatio_MaintainYFOV. Notes This will cause the FOV to be wider (since the game is still using a Vert- FOV that hasn't been converted to Hor+) and may look distorted as a result. It is recommended to modify the FOV using the Hex-editing method in Ultra-widescreen and by checking the Notes section in WSGF Common Hex Values for instructions on how to get desired FOV values. Don't use in conjunction with the ultra-widescreen or multi-monitor fixes unless the FOV hex values get changed to something Hor+ compliant.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Custom AF
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Engine.ini with a text editor. Add [SystemSettings] to the bottom of the file, if that section doesn't already exist. Inside that section, add r.MaxAnisotropy=16 or the desired sample rate.

Chromatic aberration

Disable chromatic aberration
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Engine.ini with a text editor. Add [SystemSettings] to the bottom of the file, if that section doesn't already exist. Inside that section, add r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0. Save the file.

Ambient occlusion

In-game SSAO setting actually controls Distance Field Ambient Occlusion (DFAO). SSAO is always on unless Post-Processing is set to "Low."

Input

Input Settings

Game Settings

Camera Settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		In-Game HUD will prioritize prompts for mouse bindings over keyboard bindings when using Keyboard and Mouse. This can be solved by not using mouse inputs for certain actions.
Mouse acceleration		See Mouse Acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Horizontal and Vertical Sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Horizontal and Vertical Inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity		Horizontal and Vertical Sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		Horizontal and Vertical Inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers
DualShock button prompts		Requires SteamInput to be disabled. Use this mod to force DualShock 4 button prompts regardless of which controller or wrapper is being used.
Light bar support
Connection modes	Wired

Generic/other controllers		Only XInput and DualShock 4 controllers are supported.

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

Mouse Acceleration

Instructions
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Engine.ini. At the bottom of the file, add [/Script/Engine.InputSettings]. Below that line, add bEnableMouseSmoothing=xx, replacing the "xx" with "True" or "False".

Audio

Sound Settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		"Music", "Sound Effects", and "Voice"
Surround sound		Plays up to 7.1.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Language Settings

Localizations

Text Language settings can be changed via the Game's properties on Steam, or can be launched with a specific text language via one of the .bat files in <path-to-game>.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish

Network

Network Settings

Analytics Settings

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play		Co-op

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Code Vein.

Issues fixed

Re-enable developer console

The developer console can be re-enabled by following the steps on the Unreal Engine 4 page.

Elevator not moving or taking a long time to start moving

At frame rates above 60 FPS, certain elevators will not move even after the player has activated them.

Temporarily cap the frame rate to 30 or 60 FPS

Damage over time attacks not working as intended

At frame rates other than 60 FPS (assuming 60 FPS is the actual intended behavior), DOT attacks such as spells (Twilight, Sands of Depravity, etc) will do either less damage ticks if below 60 fps or more if above 60 fps. This behavior does not scale in any predictable way and varies between attacks. For example at 120 FPS Twilight spell will do one extra damage tick but at 30 FPS or less it will always do exactly one tick, however Sands of Depravity will do one tick less below 60 FPS but always do same amount of damage ticks at 60 FPS or more.

Cap the frame rate to 60 FPS for "intended" behavior or higher for potential advantage.

Issues unresolved

DPI Scaling Issues

Doesn't work properly with DPI Scaling in Windows.

• Adjusting the DPI Settings using Windows' compatibility settings doesn't seem to fix this issue, and will limit the in-game resolution when using Windowed or Borderless Windowed modes. Use Exclusive Fullscreen mode when using a DPI percentage higher than 100%.

Other information

Graphical Enhancement

Graphics can be improved beyond the games highest settings by editing UE4 console variables in the Engine.ini file.

The "Improved Graphics and Performance" mod includes a config file that tunes these variables to improve various things such as LoD distances, filtering, sharpness & more.

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11	DirectX 12 can be enabled using the -d3d12 command line argument. However, crashes can occur during FMV playback (including screen blood effects), and requires using Borderless Fullscreen mode to prevent the game running at 640x480. Deleting/renaming the CriWareData folder in <path-to-game>\CodeVein\Content can be used to circumvent crashing during FMV playback in DX12 mode, but will not play them as a result.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7 SP1, 10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-2300	Intel Core i5-7400 AMD Ryzen 3 2200G
System memory (RAM)	6 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	35 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 AMD Radeon HD 7850 2 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 AMD Radeon R9 380X 4 GB of VRAM DirectX 12 compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectX compatible

A 64-bit operating system is required.