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Dead Space

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the original game. For the remake, see Dead Space (2023).

Dead Space
Dead Space cover
Developers
EA Redwood Shores
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Engines
Visceral Engine
Release dates
Windows October 20, 2008
Reception
Metacritic 86
IGDB 88
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Shooter, Survival horror
Art styles Realistic
Themes Horror, Sci-fi, Space
Series Dead Space
Dead Space on HowLongToBeat
Dead Space on IGDB
Dead Space guide on StrategyWiki
Dead Space on MobyGames
Dead Space on Wikipedia
Dead Space
Dead Space 2008
Dead Space 2 2011
Dead Space 3 2013
Dead Space (2023) 2023

Dead Space is a singleplayer third-person shooter and survival horror game in the Dead Space series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
Dead Space on TheGameEngine.org

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
Requires online activation
CD key
Can only be used x times
SecuROM v7.38.0007 DRM & SecuROM PA DRM. 4 machines limit. A De-Authorization Tool is available.
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Windows
Amazon.com
Origin
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Origin
Included exclusively with Xbox Game Pass for PC as part of its version of EA Play.
Windows
Origin
Origin
Included with EA Play.
Manual link for EA App purchase.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
CD key
Included with EA Play (Steam).
Key is located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Dead Space\ergc.
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg (unavailable)
Origin
Windows

Monetization

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

DLC and expansion packs

None of the DLCs were ever released for PC.[1]
Was a mix of cosmetic and stat-altering gear.

Essential Improvements

Use Borderless Gaming

Fixes multiple issues such as high brightness and jerky mouse movement.[2]
Instructions
  1. Download Borderless Gaming and install it.
  2. Navigate to the Borderless Gaming installation path and run BorderlessGaming.exe
  3. Run the game in Windowed mode, then Alt+Tab to the Desktop and open Borderless Gaming again.
  4. Select the game's executable from under the Applications field, then push the first Right Arrow button located at the top.
  5. Make sure Borderless Gaming runs in the background before playing the game again.

Use DXVK to run the game on Vulkan (possibly performing smoother on modern systems)

Locks the game at 60 FPS to prevent the bugs mentioned below.[3]


Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\Electronic Arts\Dead Space\settings.txt
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17470/pfx/[Note 1]
The file for key-bindings controls.rmp is in a binary format and requires hex editing.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Electronic Arts\Dead Space\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17470/pfx/[Note 1]
20 save slots available.

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

Graphics settings.
Graphics settings.
Advanced graphics settings.
Advanced graphics settings.
Brightness settings. In exclusive fullscreen mode, game is so much brighter that even lowest value looks relatively bright.
Brightness settings. In exclusive fullscreen mode, game is so much brighter that even lowest value looks relatively bright.
WSGF multi-monitor screenshot.[4]
WSGF multi-monitor screenshot.[4]

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Game's brightness is much higher in exclusive fullscreen mode.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
Only if your display supports a refresh rate of 60 Hz or more.[Note 2]
4K Ultra HD
Subtitles scales poorly with resolution larger than 1280 pixels wide, making them too small in very high resolution. Untested Cheat Engine table for subtitle scaling.
Field of view (FOV)
See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Ingame antialiasing is a simple blur shader. On/off toggle.
High-fidelity upscaling
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Double buffered in fullscreen mode, works as a 30 FPS cap otherwise. See the glossary page for proper Vsync.
60 FPS
120+ FPS
An uncapped frame rate can result in several issues mentioned below.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

Field of view (FOV)

Use Widescreen Fixer[5]
  1. Download and install Widescreen Fixer.
  2. Run the program
  3. Select the Main tab, and select Dead Space from the dropdown menu
  4. Click the settings cog next to the drop down bar
  5. In the window this opens, enter your FOV of choice (I'd recommend 0.3)
  6. Click Save Settings and then Close Window.
  7. Click the Settings tab, go to 'Hotkey' at the bottom, and input your hotkey of choice (e.g. Alt+F1)
  8. Leave the program running
  9. Launch 'Dead Space'
  10. When in game, press the hotkey you input in step 6.
  11. Your FoV of choice should now be visible in game
When you look at the Widescreen Fixer program, below the Select game dropdown menu is Status. Game Running, and Fix Enabled should both be Yes if it worked correctly. Please note that the program must be kept running alongside the game for the selected FOV to work.
Creates minor issues with menus and has to be toggled on every game start with the hotkey.

Input

Input settings.
Input settings.
Game uses controller HUD if controller is present. Simply unplug/disable controller when playing with keyboard and mouse.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Two keys per action.
In-game remapping is really limited; see Remapping.
Mouse acceleration
Use Dead Space Mouse Fix for raw mouse input.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Some menus need the mouse to accept changes or to default options.
Controller remapping
Renders most DirectInput controllers unusable.
Controller sensitivity
The command has to be manually added through the settings.txt file for the game (command unknown). Controller sensitivity is higher then what it should be at FPS higher then 30 but still playable (Xpadder could be used to lower it whilst at over 30 FPS ).
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
Generic/other controllers
Game tries its best to autoassign buttons in correct places, but often fails, leading controller to be unusable.
XInput wrapping highly recommended.
Button prompts
Keyboard buttons shown if DirectInput controller used.
Additional information
Button prompts
Controller given priority for displaying on-screen buttons.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
XInput only.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts

Remapping

Allow full remapping through felayga tool[citation needed]
Dead Space configuration tool by felayga allows to modify keyboard and mouse binds.
  1. Download dead space config.exe and run it.

Notes

Manual edits still required to bind wheel or unlock action for mouse binds and to bind hidden actions, such as map zoom.

Large deadzone

The game inserts large deadzones onto the analog sticks, making precise control very difficult, especially on gamepads like the Logitech Gamepad F310, which have their own deadzones.
Make deadzones smaller[6]
  1. Download Durazno XInput Wrapper.
  2. Extract the contents and run Durazno.exe.
  3. Set the AntiDeadzone option to 40%, close the program.
  4. Copy Durazno.ini and xinput1_3.dll to the installation folder.
  5. Open the game and disable Vsync. Force it through your driver control panel if you want Vsync.
Make deadzones smaller[citation needed]
  1. Start the game.
  2. Open Steam Overlay.
  3. Go to Controller Configuration.
  4. Choose Browse Configs.
  5. Go to Community tab.
  6. Choose any from ones at the top that say they fix deadzone problem.

Audio

Audio settings.
Audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Up to 5.0 output.[7]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Only when minimized.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Both English US and English GB are available
Simplified Chinese
Fan translation, donwload
Czech
GOG and Origin version.
French
German
Hungarian
GOG, Origin and Retail version.
Italian
Polish
GOG, Origin and Retail version. For Steam version download.
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation: download (GGames)
Russian
GOG, Origin and Retail version, download.
Spanish
Turkish
Fan translation available here

VR support

Issues fixed

High frame rate issues

An uncapped frame rate can result in several issues, including:
  • Problems with QTEs, physics (specifically ragdoll), and animations.
  • Can introduce desyncing issues with extremely high framerates (300+ FPS).[8]
  • Some of the UI speed is tied to FPS. If frame rate is too high, the game will slow down.
  • The first door after getting the Plasma Cutter may be impassable and the first Necromorph fails to spawn (in Chapter 1: New Arrivals)
  • Containers and crates may not be interactable.
  • Hair physics may "explode" and stretch unnaturally. This can be observed in the very first scene.
  • Doctor Challus Mercer doesn't appear (in Chapter 5: Lethal Devotion)
  • Crashes the game during elevator use (in Chapter 7: Into the Void)
  • There's a risk of player getting soft-locked in landing state during zero gravity sections, game resolves this lock-up by forcibly killing the player after 5–10 seconds.
  • Excessive tearing due to very frequent flickering lights
Use the Nvidia Control Panel and AMD Radeon Software to set Vsync and FPS limit for Dead Space. Disable Vsync in-game. Set your monitor refresh rate to <= 120Hz.
Due to engine limitations, game caps FPS at half of your refresh rate when using in-game Vsync and introduces severe input lag.

Fullscreen brightness levels are raised

The game might look brighter than it should when running in exclusive fullscreen mode on certain systems and the in-game brightness slider can't be set low enough to fix it.
Change brightness through config files[citation needed]
  1. Open settings.txt in the configuration file(s) location with a text editor.
  2. Change Window.Gamma value to a negative value, e.g. -0.50000000. The default value is 0.50000000. A value of -0.15000000 should be equivalent to the default value with proper brightness levels.
  3. Save the file.

Fixing the mouse

Use Dead Space Mouse Fix[9]
Notes
Disables mouse acceleration and uses similar sensitivity for look/aim
Breaks controller look/aim support
Sensitivity will wildly increase while walking on organic matter (normalizes when aiming)

Difficulty changes itself when multiple save files are present

Difficulty only changes itself when save at end of a chapter (save in the train).
Always select "load game" instead of "continue game" on main menu[10]
Use CheatEngine to change the game difficulty[11]
  1. Run Dead Space and load your save.
  2. Download & Open Cheat Engine
  3. Click Open Process and attach to your running Dead Space executable.
  4. Click Add Address Manually and enter "Dead Space.exe"+A8ADC0 (for Steam version) or "Dead Space.exe"+A88E30 (for GOG/Origin version), select Byte Type.
  5. Change the value to 0, 1, 2, or 3, depending on the difficulty you want:
  • 0 = Easy
  • 1 = Medium
  • 2 = Hard
  • 3 = Impossible
The next time you save the game, it will save an uncorrupted file with difficulty you selected.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
Shader Model support 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Audio RwAudioCore [7]

Unlock impossible difficulty without playthrough

Modify settings.txt[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open settings.txt.
  3. Change Game.Played = 0 to 1.

Save game editor

A tool by malkhal that allows players to modify their Dead Space game save data. Backing up the original save files is recommended before using this tool. Can be downloaded here.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP SP2
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7.5 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT
ATI Radeon X1600 Pro
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Shader model 3.0 support
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9.0c compatible


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>/17470/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (17470) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
  2. At 3440x1440 and a 50 refresh, max resolution is limited to 1920x1080

References