Fable III

Fable III

Developers
	Lionhead Studios
Windows	Inline Assembly
Publishers
	Microsoft Studios
Release dates
Windows	May 17, 2011
Reception
Metacritic	75
IGDB	78
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	ARPG
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Fable

Fable
Fable: The Lost Chapters	2005
Fable III	2011
Fable Anniversary	2014
Fable Fortune	2018
Fable	2025

Warnings

For Games for Windows - LIVE on Windows 8 or later, install the latest Games for Windows - LIVE software.

Fable III is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person ARPG game in the Fable series.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM PA DRM.
Amazon.com (unavailable)		SecuROM PA DRM.
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)
Steam (unavailable)		SecuROM PA DRM.

All versions require SecuROM PA and Games for Windows - LIVE DRM. Manual unlock page is also available.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Dog Breed Set
Dog Outfit
Dye Pack
Female Highlander Outfit	Included with retail copies.
Five Star Dog Potion
Free Yule Hat
Free Weapons
Highlander Tattoo Set	Included with retail copies.
Industrial Knight Outfit
Inquisitor Sword & Industrial Tattoo
Rebel's Weapon and Tatoo Pack
Male Highlander Outfit	Included with retail copies.
Red Setter Dog Potion
Traitor's Keep Quest Pack
Understone Quest Pack

Steam DLCs did not provide downloadable content, only providing Games For Windows Live keys instead. With the Marketplace's purchase retrieval not working correctly, DLCs cannot be re-downloaded anymore.

Essential improvements

Patches

A title update is available. The game should automatically prompt for the update when using a LIVE profile; the update can also be downloaded manually (extract the contents and run setup.exe).

Decrypted ZDPP files are required for the update to successfully launch and install certain copies.

Skip intro videos

Automatically patch levels.dat with blank BINK videos

Download the patcher from this page. Extract the contents of the downloaded archive to a temporary working folder with at least 4 GB of space available. Open the "<path-to-game>\Data" folder. Move "Levels.bnk" and "Levels.bnk.dat" from "Fable 3's Data" folder to the "Source" folder in the above temporary working folder. Double-click on the "Run Me.bat" file and wait for the patching to finish. Open the "Output" folder and move the contents into your "<path-to-game>\Data" folder and overwrite the existing files. Keep the contents of the "Source" folder somewhere safe just in case you want to revert the changes my patcher made.

Manually patch levels.dat with blank BINK videos

Make a backup of <path-to-game>\data\levels.bnk and <path-to-game>\data\levels.bnk.dat in case something goes wrong. Download the Fable 3 BNK Browser from this site. Download the blank BINK file from here. Create a temporary working folder on a storage device with at least 4GB of free space. Extract the contents of the two archives you downloaded earlier into your working folder. Create two copies of the blank BINK file and rename them to lionhead_logo.bik and microsoft_logo.bik. Create an empty folder in your working folder to hold the contents of one of the game's resource packs. Open BnkBrowser.exe then click on Open. Navigate to <path-to-game>\data\ and open levels.bnk. Click on Extract All then select the folder you created in Step 7. Exit BnkBrowser when the extraction is finished. Open the folder you created in Step 7 then navigate to art\videos\. Move the two blank BINK files created in Step 6 into this folder and overwrite the originals. Open BnkCreator.exe then click on Add folder(s). Select the folder you created in Step 7. Click on Create then navigate to <path-to-game>\data\. Select levels.bnk then click on Save. Run the game to test that it starts without issue. After that, you may delete the temporary working folder.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\Lionhead Studios\Fable 3\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/105400/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Lionhead Studios\Fable 3\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/105400/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings

Advanced video settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor			See Multi-monitor.
Ultra-widescreen			See Multi-monitor. Gameplay and in-game cutscenes are Hor+. FMV cutscenes are stretched.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Temporal anti-aliasing controlled by Effects Detail setting. No individual option.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Caps the frame rate at half the refresh rate. See Vertical sync (Vsync) to enable proper Vsync.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		See Run the game at screen refresh rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Multi-monitor

Multi-monitor and ultra-widescreen resolutions cannot be chosen in-game.

Changing any settings in-game may reset the resolution; repeat these steps if that happens.

Edit VideoOptions.xml manually
Go to the configuration files location. Open VideoOptions.xml with a text editor of your choice. Find the following line: <ScreenResolutionX type="int">1920</ScreenResolutionX><ScreenResolutionY type="int">1080</ScreenResolutionY> and change the highlighted values to your desired resolution. Save the changes.

Field of view (FOV)

Games for Windows - LIVE should be disabled if its anti-cheat protection is crashing the game.

Custom FOV with Cheat Engine

See Bypass Games for Windows - LIVE and apply the fix. Install Cheat Engine. Download the Fable III Cheat Table. Start the game and load a saved game. Double-click the Cheat Table and open with Cheat Engine. Open the game process from the File menu. Check the box beside "FOV [F2]". Switch to the game and then back to Cheat Engine. Check the box beside "FOV". Double-click in the FOV Value column and change the value. Notes Cutscenes are affected (toggle with F2 is recommended).

Input

Input settings

Controller bindings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Mouse wheel and some special keys can't be remapped.
Mouse acceleration		Labeled Mouse Smoothing
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Must edit user-unfriendly file at %APPDATA%\Lionhead Studios\Fable 3\Controls\<user-id>\Controls.xml
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

• 

  Keyboard and mouse bindings

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Sound Effects and Voice.
Surround sound		Up to 7.1. FMVs are pre-mixed at 5.1.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
Czech				Retail only. link #1
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese				Japanese release.
Korean
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish

Network

Online features require a Microsoft account (optional for offline play).

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		Xbox 360 version only.
LAN play
Online play		2	Co-op

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			Use Helix Mod to improve 3D support.
TriDef 3D
iZ3D

Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest

Issues unresolved

Some settings don't save

Game Settings - Controls / Audio / Misc won't save for some users.

Game Settings - Display are saved to %APPDATA%\Lionhead Studios\Fable 3\VideoOptions.xml, which could mean it's possible to create .xml files for the other settings.

Issues fixed

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Fullscreen mode defaults to 60 Hz, even if the screen refresh rate is set higher than that.

Set highest refresh rate in fullscreen[citation needed]
Download and open Nvidia Profile Inspector. Open the Fable III profile from the list. Set Prefered Refreshrate to Highest available. Apply changes and close the program. Notes Using Alt+Tab ↹ may cause a delay when switching between the game and Windows. Alternatively, playing the game in windowed mode will use the desktop's refresh rate.

Force a higher refresh rate with Special K

Install Special K for the game, either globally or locally. Using a delayed global injection, launch and close the game once to allow the Special K config file to be created. Setting a delay in the config file afterwards is recommended. To do that, open the config file for the Fable3Launcher.exe once it gets generated and change the GlobalInjectDelay to a safe value (e.g. GlobalInjectDelay=5.0). Open the game-specific config file, see Special K's config file(s) location for details (for the Fable3.exe profile). Find and change the parameter RefreshRate to the desired refresh rate (e.g. RefreshRate=144). Save and close the file. Users with VRR displays or those who wish to use true Vsync should also use the PresentationInterval=1 parameter. It is strongly recommended to additionally change the Silent= and DontHookWndPro= parameters to true to avoid GFWL's protection crashing the game with Special K injected.

Other information

Bypass Games for Windows - LIVE

A fake version of xlive.dll can allow you to play the single-player without having GFWL installed.

Benefits include faster loading and saving times.

This makes the multiplayer mode unavailable, as it is reliant on GFWL.

Use Fable III fake xlive
Download Fable III GFWL remover. Extract xlive.dll to <path-to-game>. Notes Check readme.txt for useful information.

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Cutscenes	Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3, Vista	7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon X2 4000+	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.9 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	12 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro DirectX 9.0c compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 ATI Radeon HD 5770 896 MB (Nvidia), 1 GB (ATI) of VRAM