House of Ashes

The Dark Pictures Anthology
Man of Medan	2019
Little Hope	2020
House of Ashes	2021
The Devil in Me	2022

House of Ashes is a survival horror game developed by Supermassive Games and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.
It is a sequel to Little Hope released in 2020 as part of the The Dark Pictures Anthology. The game shares most of its settings and technical aspects with the earlier titles, and it is the first in the series to offer a DirectX 12 launch option.

The game released on October 22, 2021 via Steam.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability[edit]

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
GamersGate

Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam

All versions require Steam DRM.

Monetization[edit]

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Curator's Cut	Available through pre-order only and set to become free for all users with a later update.

Essential improvements[edit]

Skip intro videos[edit]

Delete or rename video file^[1]
Go to `<path-to-game>\SMG025\Content\Movies\SkullVideo\` Remove or rename `DPSkullIntro.bk2`

Game data[edit]

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\HouseOfAshes\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1281590/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location[edit]

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\HouseOfAshes\Saved\SaveGames\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1281590/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing[edit]

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video[edit]

Graphics settings

Display settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Letterboxed to 21:9. See also Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor		Pillarboxed to 21:9.^[2] See Widescreen resolution for a workaround.
Ultra-widescreen		^[3]
4K Ultra HD		Letterboxed to 21:9.^[4] See also Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Fullscreen also available.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Scales with Texture Quality. Low (0x), Medium (2x), High (4x), Ultra (8x).^[5]
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Four options: Off, Medium, High, Ultra.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Includes a toggle to limit to 30 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Ray tracing		Reflections and ambient occlusion

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

Widescreen resolution[edit]

Use a Flawless Widescreen plugin to remove letterboxing or pillarboxing^[6]

Download and install Flawless Widescreen.
Download the Man of Medan multimonitor script.
Extract the archive contents to a new folder.
Go to \PluginCache\WSGF_Plugins\Modules\TheDarkPicturesAnthologyManofMedan\Dependencies\Scripts.
Open TheDarkPicturesAnthologyManofMedan.lua in any text editor.
Find and change Process_WindowName = "Man of Medan " to Process_WindowName = "House of Ashes " and save the file.
Copy the PluginCache and Plugins folders into the Flawless Widescreen install directory.
Run Flawless Widescreen.
Launch House of Ashes.
In Flawless Widescreen, select The Dark Pictures Anthology Man of Medan under Installed Plugins -> WSGF Plugins.
Click on Fix Enabled and return to House of Ashes.

Use Supermassive Games Border Remover

Input[edit]

Controls settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		No acceleration option.
Mouse sensitivity		From 0 to 100.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Separate options for camera, aiming, exploration and inspecting.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Some buttons cannot be remapped, and quick time event buttons can only be swapped.^{[Note 3]}
Controller sensitivity		From 0 to 100. Referred to as "Camera Sensitivity".
Controller Y-axis inversion		Separate options for camera, aiming, exploration and inspecting.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		Includes an option to choose between Xbox and DualShock prompts.
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers
DualShock button prompts		Includes an option to choose between Xbox and DualShock prompts.
Light bar support
Connection modes	Wired, Bluetooth

Generic/other controllers

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

Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts

Keybind settings

Audio[edit]

Audio and Language settings

Accessibility settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		^[7]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

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

Issues unresolved[edit]

Endless loading screen during co-op[edit]

The game may end up at an infinite loading screen when playing co-op.^[8]^[9]

Game crashes randomly[edit]

The game may crash during startup or in random locations during gameplay.^[10]^[11]^[12]

Network[edit]

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play	5	Co-op, Hot seat Playable through the "Movie Night" game mode with 2-5 players.
LAN play
Online play	2	Co-op

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Peer-to-peer

Other information[edit]

API[edit]

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11, 12

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware[edit]

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX
Audio	OGG Vorbis
Cutscenes	Bink Video

System requirements[edit]

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-4690K AMD FX-8350	Intel Core i5-8400 AMD Ryzen 5 1600
System memory (RAM)	8 GB	12 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	65 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 AMD Radeon R9 380 4 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 6 GB (Nvidia), 8 GB (AMD) of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Notes

↑ Unreal Engine 4 engine build: 4.26.2.0
↑ ^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>/1281590/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1281590) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
↑ Control sticks, LB (Xbox) and L1 (DualShock) cannot be rebound. QTE buttons can be swapped but not set to anything other than ABXY (Xbox).

References

↑ Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Renamed both video files manually to test intro skipping.
↑ Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Tested using a custom resolution of 5760x1080.
↑ Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Tested using a custom resolution of 2560x1080.
↑ Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Tested using a custom resolution of 3840x2160.
↑ Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
based off sg.TextureQuality=4 setting in GameUserSettings.ini and the official UE4 documentation.
↑ Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Tested by using the given instructions. Importance of two spaces after the new "House of Ashes" value tested for importance. Tweak had no effect without it.
↑ Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Tested in 7.1 using SpecialK in conjunction with Razer Surround.
↑ Infinite Loading Screen - last accessed on 2021-10-25
↑ Game Bug in co-op cannot continue - last accessed on 2021-10-25
↑ Fatal crash on "spoiler" scene - last accessed on 2021-10-25
↑ Error Fatal - The SMG025 game has crashed - last accessed on 2021-10-25
↑ the SMG025 game has crashed.. - last accessed on 2021-10-25

[1] Unreal Engine 4 engine build: 4.26.2.0

[Proton_path_note-3] 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>/1281590/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1281590) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[Note-9] Control sticks, LB (Xbox) and L1 (DualShock) cannot be rebound. QTE buttons can be swapped but not set to anything other than ABXY (Xbox).

[2] Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Renamed both video files manually to test intro skipping.

[4] Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Tested using a custom resolution of 5760x1080.

[5] Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Tested using a custom resolution of 2560x1080.

[6] Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Tested using a custom resolution of 3840x2160.

[7] Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
based off sg.TextureQuality=4 setting in GameUserSettings.ini and the official UE4 documentation.

[8] Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Tested by using the given instructions. Importance of two spaces after the new "House of Ashes" value tested for importance. Tweak had no effect without it.

[10] Verified by User:Fayaine on 2021-10-23
Tested in 7.1 using SpecialK in conjunction with Razer Surround.

[11] Infinite Loading Screen - last accessed on 2021-10-25

[12] Game Bug in co-op cannot continue - last accessed on 2021-10-25

[13] Fatal crash on "spoiler" scene - last accessed on 2021-10-25

[14] Error Fatal - The SMG025 game has crashed - last accessed on 2021-10-25

[15] the SMG025 game has crashed.. - last accessed on 2021-10-25

[Note 1]

[1]

[Note 2]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[Note 3]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

Developers

	Supermassive Games
Publishers
	Bandai Namco Entertainment
Engines
	Unreal Engine 4^{[Note 1]}
Release dates
Windows	October 22, 2021
Reception
Metacritic	69
OpenCritic	74
IGDB	78
Taxonomy
Monetization	DLC
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Survival horror, Quick time events
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Horror, Supernatural
Series	The Dark Pictures Anthology