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Gears of War

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the original release. For the updated version, see Gears of War: Ultimate Edition.

Gears of War
Gears of War cover
Developers
Epic Games
Windows People Can Fly
Publishers
Microsoft Game Studios
Engines
Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows November 6, 2007
Reception
Metacritic 87
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Shooter
Art styles Realistic
Themes Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Series Gears of War
Gears of War on HowLongToBeat
Gears of War on IGDB
Gears of War guide on StrategyWiki
Gears of War on MobyGames
Gears of War on Wikipedia
Gears of War
Gears of War 2007
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition 2016
Gears of War 4 2016
Gears POP! 2019
Gears 5 2019
Gears Tactics 2020

Warnings

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

Key points

Install Title Update 3 to fix an issue with expired digital signatures.[1]
Comes with exclusive content (5 new campaign chapters, 3 extra multiplayer maps and a map editor).

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
Icon overlay.png
SafeDisc 4.81(4.85 on Title Update 3) DRM[Note 1]
Windows
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
[4]
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
All versions require Games for Windows - LIVE DRM.[Note 2]
No longer available digitally.

Essential improvements

Patches

Download here
Title Update 3 fixes an expired digital signatures issue that prevents all earlier versions of the game from launching.[1] This is a required update.

Update Games for Windows - LIVE

Download and install the latest version
Games for Windows Live has been retired by Microsoft. See more info here.

Remove Games for Windows - LIVE

Install XLiveless
  1. Download XLiveless
  2. Extract the two xlive files into <path-to-game>\Binaries folder
When the game is opened, it should show "GAMER PROFILE: PLAYER I" near the bottom of the main menu. You will be able to save the game and advance through the campaign as if you were logged in. You will not get achievements.

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename video files[5]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\WarGame\Movies
  2. Delete or rename:
EpicLogo.bik
ESRB.bik
ESRB_chi.bik
ESRB_kor.bik
MGSLogo.bik

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Gears of War for Windows\WarGame\Config\

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Gears of War for Windows\WarGame\SaveData\

Video

Display settings
Display settings

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
See the WSGF entry.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
80° horizontal by default. See Field of view (FOV)
Open console (~) and enter set WarfareGame.WarCameraMode FOVAngle 100
Windowed
Via options or toggle with Alt+ Enter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Always enabled (x16).
Anti-aliasing (AA)
In-game setting requires DirectX 10 rendering enabled. However it can be forced for DX9 through the Nvidia Control Panel/AMD Control Center.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
In-game Vsync sometimes fails to engage. Pressing Alt+Tab in the main menu should fix the problem.
60 FPS
120+ FPS
Capped at 62 FPS by default. Attempting to disable the cap might result in the game crashing on launch. See Frame rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Anti-aliasing is activated in the game with the "DirectX 10/antialiasing" to "On/antilaliasing". By default, it uses 4x multisampling and can't be adjusted or overwritten by graphics card's driver in D3D10 mode.

Field of view (FOV)

Increase field of view[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\WarGame\Config
  2. Edit WarCamera.ini
  3. Find [WarfareGame.WarCameraMode_Default]
  4. Edit FOVAngle=<#>, replace # to desired value.
  5. Save the changes
Temporary alternative:
Open console (~) and enter set WarfareGame.WarCameraMode FOVAngle <#>
The FOV for zooming can be changed in the WarWeapon.ini file. and denotes the WarWeapon[Casual/Hardcore/Insane].ini, Each gun must be changed individually.

Motion blur

Disable motion blur[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open WarEngineUserSettings.ini.
  3. Change MotionBlur=True to MotionBlur=False
  4. Save the changes.

Frame rate

Does not work with Direct3D 10 mode.
Edit configuration files
  1. Go to configuration file(s) location
  2. Open WarEngine.ini with text editor and navigate to the section [Engine.GameEngine].
  3. Change bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE to bSmoothFrameRate=FALSE.
  4. Set the game to run in DirectX 9 mode (turn DirectX 10 off in in-game graphics settings) and restart.

Input

Controller support.
Controller support.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Delete cannot be bound to commands as it is used to delete bindings.
Mouse acceleration
Smoothing enabled by default; see Mouse acceleration.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
XInput controllers only.
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Presets only.
Controller sensitivity
Low, Medium, High options.
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Generic/other controllers
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Mouse acceleration

Disable mouse smoothing[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open WarInput.ini.
  3. Go to the [Engine.PlayerInput] section.
  4. Change bEnableMouseSmoothing=true to bEnableMouseSmoothing=false.
  5. Save the changes.

Toggle aim down sights

Edit configuration file[6]
  1. Launch the game at least once and configure the controls.
  2. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  3. Open WarInput.ini.
  4. Go to the [WarfareGame.WarPlayerInput] section.
  5. Locate the line
    Bindings=(Name="Game_Target",Command="ButtonPress L2 | OnRelease ButtonRelease L2",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)
  6. Replace it with
    Bindings=(Name="Game_Target",Command="ButtonPress L2 | SetBind RightMouseButton Game_TargetOff",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)
  7. Beneath that line, insert the following line
    Bindings=(Name="Game_TargetOff",Command="ButtonRelease L2 | SetBind RightMouseButton Game_Target",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)
  8. Save the file.
If intending to use a different button, replace RightMouseButton with an alternative keybind.

Audio

Audio settings
Audio settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, SFX, dialogue
Surround sound
Up to 7.1 output[7]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
Use OpenAL Soft for binaural HRTF mixing.[8]
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Languages can be switched by editing file <path-to-game>\Binaries\lang.txt[9]
Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Czech
Retail only. link #1
French
German
Hungarian
Local retail only.
Italian
Polish
Local retail only.
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation; Gamevício.
Russian
Ported from Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. Available here.
Russian
Fan translation by ««Spirit Team», «SyS-team», «ENPY Studio»
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Only available on retail Launch. Download here.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
Xbox 360 version only.
LAN play
Versus, Co-op
Online play
8 Versus, Co-op
2 players for co-op.

Connection types

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
UDP 80, 3074
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Cannot run the game with modified executable code

Full error message: "You cannot run the game with modified executable code. Please reinstall the game."
Install Title Update 3 to fix an issue with digital signatures.

EULA prompt shows no text

Proton/Wine Gecko does not display the prompt correctly, preventing game from booting up.
Delete content in CurrentSite folder and set it to read only[10]
  1. Locate the Wine/Proton prefix used to install and launch the game.
  2. Navigate to %USERPROFILE%\%APPDATA%\Microsoft Games\Gears Of War
  3. Delete all contents in CurrentSite and set the folder's permission to read-only.
The Windows' %USERPROFILE% in the Wine prefix are based on Linux usernames.
Proton use steamuser as default Windows username regardless of your native usernames.
Methods to set folder permission with may differs with running desktop environment. If you do wish to use CLI to override permission, open terminal in the Gears Of War folder and use this command: chmod 555 CurrentSite[Note 3].

Cannot Save Campaign Progress

The campaign requires you to log into Games for Windows - LIVE to save your progress. Without logging in, you must restart the campaign every time.
Remove the Games for Windows Live requirement by installing XLiveless.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c, 10
Shader Model support 3, 4
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics PhysX Ships with 2.7.3.5.
Audio OpenAL 2.0.3
Cutscenes Bink Video 1.8x. Only for logos, Demo, and 3 cutscenes.
Multiplayer Games for Windows - LIVE

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista
Processor (CPU) Intel 2.4 GHz
AMD 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 12 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 6600
ATI Radeon X700
DirectX 9.0c compatible


Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[2] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[3]
  2. Games for Windows - LIVE DRM features: Legacy activation, supports local profiles.
  3. This set the folder's permission to be only read or execute (opened) by current user, current group assigned to the folder and other users and groups.

References