The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut

The Bard's Tale
The Bard's Tale	1987
The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight	1988
The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate	1990
The Bard's Tale Construction Set	1991
The Bard's Tale (2005)	2005
The Mage's Tale	2017
The Bard's Tale Trilogy	2018
The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep	2018
The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut	2019
The Bard's Tale ARPG : Remastered and Resnarkled	2020

Key points

Updated version of The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep with more character customization options, new items, new enemies, revised UI, and a new expansion dungeon.^[2]

Provided for free to owners of The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep.^[3]

General information

Official wiki

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
GOG.com		Deluxe Edition also available.
Humble Store		Deluxe Edition also available.
Microsoft Store		Xbox Play Anywhere, Xbox Game Pass for PC
Steam		Deluxe Edition also available.

Version differences

Standard Edition

Standard Edition content.

Includes the base game, Fire Horn in-game item, manual, guidebook, and code wheel.

Deluxe Edition

Deluxe Edition content.

Includes all Standard Edition content, The Bard's Tale Trilogy, the Kael's Axe, Red Boots, Bardic Brian Skin, and Bardic Brian Booty in-game items, hi-res map, hi-res wallpapers, novellas, art book, songbook, and soundtrack.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete or rename movie files^[4]
Go to `<path-to-game>\BardsTale4\Content\Movies\`. Delete or rename `BardIV_FireLogo.mp4`, `BardIV_InxileLogo.mp4`, and `BardIV_LegalScreen.mp4`.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\BardsTale4DC\Saved\SaveGames\BT_Prefs.sav %LOCALAPPDATA%\BardsTale4DC\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$HOME/.config/Epic/BardsTale4DC/Saved/SaveGames/BT_Prefs.sav $HOME/.config/Epic/BardsTale4DC/Saved/Config/LinuxNoEditor

It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\BardsTale4DC\Saved\SaveGames\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$HOME/.config/Epic/BardsTale4DC/Saved/SaveGames/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor		Vert- scaling in gameplay and dialogues. HUD spans the screen. Cutscenes and menus are 16:9 pillarboxed.^[5] See Field of view (FOV) to compensate for scaling.
Ultra-widescreen		Gameplay is Vert-; cutscenes are 16:9 pillarboxed.^[6] Increase FOV to compensate for scaling.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		0 - 100% (60 - 120 Horizontal FOV). Does not apply to dialogues or character creation.^[7] See Field of view (FOV) for higher FoV settings.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA, Temporal AA, or None.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		See also details on limiting framerate
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.

Field of view (FOV)

The in-game options menu allows for FOV settings between 60 and 120, with 80 as the default.

Due to the use of Vert- scaling, the default FOV slider does not have comfortable options for multi-monitor setups.

Adjust the field of view (FOV) manually^[5]

Navigate to the Configuration file(s) location.
Open the file GameUserSettings.ini with a text editor, such as Notepad.
Find the line [/Game/Blueprints/BP_GameUserSettings.BP_GameUserSettings_C] and add the following line below: FieldOfView=136.67
Save the document and close the editor.

Notes

Changing the field of view in-game will reset the value to 120 or below. However, other settings can be changed without changing the field of view.

136.67 is the equivalent of the default FOV for three 16:9 monitors. Use the WSGF Field of View Calculator to find your preferred field of view and the appropriate number for the display. The default field of view in-game for 16:9 is 80.

Limiting framerate

The game doesn't expose framerate limiting in the graphics settings, but it's doable manually by adding a setting to GameUserSettings.ini under [/Game/Blueprints/BP_GameUserSettings.BP_GameUserSettings_C] section. For example to cap it at 179 fps:

[/Game/Blueprints/BP_GameUserSettings.BP_GameUserSettings_C]
...
FrameRateLimit=179

Input

In-game gameplay settings.

In-game keybinds.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Full controller support in-game, but a keyboard is required to fill in custom names for characters and save files.^[8]
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Generic/other controllers

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

In-game gamepad controls.

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Master, Sound Effects, Ambient Sound, User Interface, Music, Voice Over
Surround sound		Stereo, 5.1, 7.1
Subtitles		Subtitles, Combat Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Issues unresolved

General issues and bugs

See this list of known issues and bugs from inXile Entertainment.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX
Audio	Wwise

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7, 8, 8.1, 10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-2500K	Intel Core i5-4590
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	29 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 AMD Radeon HD 7970	Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 AMD Radeon R9 290

A 64-bit system is required.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.13
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5 3.7 GHz	Intel Core i7 3.8 GHz
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	60 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 AMD Radeon HD 7970	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 AMD Radeon Pro 580

A 64-bit system is required.

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 18.04
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-2500K	Intel Core i5-4590
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	43 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 AMD Radeon HD 7970

A 64-bit system is required.

Notes

↑ Unreal Engine 4 engine build: 4.20.1.0^[1]

References

↑ Verified by User:Mastan on 2022-09-25
↑ The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut - Standard Edition on GOG.com - last accessed on 2019-08-27
"The Director’s Cut brings more character customization options, new items, new enemies, revised UI, and a free expansion dungeon."
↑ The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep - Wikipedia - last accessed on 2019-08-27
"Existing owners of the Windows version can upgrade their game to the Director's Cut version for free."
↑ Verified by User:Baronsmoki on 2019-08-27
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 Verified by User:Cptmold on 2019-08-29
Tested with the GOG release at 5760x1080.
↑ Verified by User:Baronsmoki on 2019-08-28
Tested at 2560x1080 custom resolution.
↑ Verified by User:Cptmold on 2019-08-29
Verified using the GameUserSettings.ini file.
↑ Verified by User:Cptmold on 2019-08-29
Tested in GOG release with an Xbox One wired controller.

[2] Unreal Engine 4 engine build: 4.20.1.0^[1]

[engineversion-1] Verified by User:Mastan on 2022-09-25

[3] The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut - Standard Edition on GOG.com - last accessed on 2019-08-27
"The Director’s Cut brings more character customization options, new items, new enemies, revised UI, and a free expansion dungeon."

[4] The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep - Wikipedia - last accessed on 2019-08-27
"Existing owners of the Windows version can upgrade their game to the Director's Cut version for free."

[5] Verified by User:Baronsmoki on 2019-08-27

[Eyefinity_FOV_testing-6] 5.0 ^5.1 Verified by User:Cptmold on 2019-08-29
Tested with the GOG release at 5760x1080.

[7] Verified by User:Baronsmoki on 2019-08-28
Tested at 2560x1080 custom resolution.

[8] Verified by User:Cptmold on 2019-08-29
Verified using the GameUserSettings.ini file.

[9] Verified by User:Cptmold on 2019-08-29
Tested in GOG release with an Xbox One wired controller.

[Note 1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[1]

Developers

	inXile Entertainment
Engines
	Unreal Engine 4^{[Note 1]}
Release dates
Windows	August 27, 2019
macOS (OS X)	August 27, 2019
Linux	August 27, 2019
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Pacing	Turn-based
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RPG
Themes	Fantasy
Series	The Bard's Tale