Bulletstorm

This page is for the original release. For the remastered edition, see Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition.

Bulletstorm
Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm	2011
Bulletstorm	2011
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition	2017
Bulletstorm VR	2023

Warnings

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

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Origin (unavailable)
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)		^[1]
Steam (unavailable)

As of Nov 12, 2022, original owners were given the "Lite" edition.

All versions require Games for Windows - LIVE DRM.^{[Note 1]}

No longer sold digitally due to the release of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition.

Zero Day Protection software in place can have issues connecting on Windows 10, making the game impossible to launch. Go to the game install location, bulletstorm\bin\win32\ and delete the ZDP folder along with ShippingPC-StormGame.exe.zdp, ShippingPC-StormGame.exe.cat, and ShippingPC-StormGame.exe.cfg. Then install the patches to fix this lockout.^[2]

Demo

A free demo is still available on Steam: steam://install/99870.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	DLCs include new missions and maps.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Blood Symphony	Adds 2 new Echoes missions and 3 Anarchy maps.
Gun Sonata	Adds 2 new Echoes missions, 3 Anarchy maps, and 2 Leash colors.

DLC is no longer sold (could only be purchased through the Games for Windows Marketplace).

Essential improvements

Patches

You need to have GFWL client installed in order to apply Title Updates 2–3.

Download Title Updates 1-3 for Bulletstorm here.

Skip intro videos

Instructions^[3]
Go to `<path-to-game>\StormGame\Movies\`. Delete or rename `LoadingMovieStartup.bik`.

Play without Games for Windows - LIVE

Play without GFWL^[4]

Download the replacement xlive.dll.
Extract into <path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32.

Notes:

Only single-player can be played by using this fix.

Installing the patches beforehand is recommended.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config <path-to-game>\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config^{[Note 2]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/99810/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Configuration files are encrypted; edit with Bulletstorm INI Editor.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\BulletStorm\StormGame\SaveData\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/99810/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

In-game general settings.

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		4:3 and 16:10 are letterboxed; use Flawless Widescreen or Widescreen Fixer.
Multi-monitor		Use Flawless Widescreen or Widescreen Fixer.
Ultra-widescreen		Use Flawless Widescreen or Widescreen Fixer.
4K Ultra HD		Subtitles do not scale with resolution and are extremely small.
Field of view (FOV)	Default FOV is 85°. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed	Set in options or use `-windowed` parameter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)	Default is 4x. See Anisotropic filtering (AF).
Anti-aliasing (AA)	Up to 8x MSAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS	Capped at 62 FPS by default; see High frame rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

3rd party fixes^[3]
Use Flawless Widescreen or Widescreen Fixer.

Change FOV manually^[5]

Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config.
Open StormCamera.ini with Bulletstorm INI Editor.
Change these values to the desired world and aiming FOV, respectively.

[StormGame.BSPlayerCamera]
DefaultCameraFOV=85
TargetingFOV=45

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Force borderless^{[citation needed]}
Download and run GeDoSaTo. Edit the ShippingPC-StormGame profile. Add `forceBorderlessFullscreen true`. Launch the game in fullscreen mode.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Change AF samples^{[citation needed]}
Go to `%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config`. Open `StormEngine.ini` with Bulletstorm INI Editor. Change `MaxAnisotropy=4` to `MaxAnisotropy=16`.

High frame rate

High frame rate^[3]

Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config\StormEngine.ini with Bulletstorm INI Editor.
Change MaxSmoothedFrameRate to a higher cap; alternately, remove the frame rate cap entirely by setting bSmoothFrameRate to false.
Save the changes and close the editor.

Notes

There are two instances of these settings, one under [Engine.Engine] and again under [Engine.GameEngine].

Input

In-game key map settings.

In-game control settings.

In-game gamepad button layout settings.

In-game gamepad stick layout settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		`Delete` cannot be bound to commands.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		See Mouse sensitivity.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Only three presets are available.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers

Tracked motion controllers		Supports Razer Hydra.^{[citation needed]}
Button/gesture prompts

Generic/other controllers

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

Mouse smoothing

Disable mouse smoothing^[3]

Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config.
Open StormInput.ini with Bulletstorm INI Editor.
Change bEnableMouseSmoothing=true to bEnableMouseSmoothing=false.

Notes

This also disables the delayed movement of the player weapon model while looking around.

Mouse sensitivity

Change mouse sensitivity^{[citation needed]}

Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config.
Open StormInput.ini with Bulletstorm INI Editor.
Change MouseSensitivity=60 to the desired value.

Notes

Change applies to base sensitivity as well as ADS, however changing the value to ~10 makes both sensitivities feel similar.

Toggle aim down sights

Toggle ADS^{[citation needed]}

Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config.
Open StormInput.ini with Bulletstorm INI Editor.
Find the group [StormGame.BSPlayerInput].

Locate

Bindings=(Name="BSBA_Target",Command="ButtonPress L2 | OnRelease ButtonRelease L2",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False,bIgnoreCtrl=False,bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)

Replace it with the following:

Bindings=(Name="BSBA_Target",Command="setbind RightMouseButton ToggleAimOn",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False,bIgnoreCtrl=False,bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)

If you wish to use a different button, replace RightMouseButton with an alternative keybind.

Beneath that line, insert the following three lines:

Bindings=(Name="ToggleAimOn",Command="ButtonPress L2 | setbind RightMouseButton ToggleAimOff")
Bindings=(Name="ToggleAimOff",Command="ButtonRelease L2 | setbind RightMouseButton ToggleAimOn")
Bindings=(Name="RightMouseButton",Command="ToggleAimOn",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False,bIgnoreCtrl=False,bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)

Save the file.

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Auto configures up to 7.0 output^[6]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation.
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation, download.
Russian
Spanish

Network

Requires a Microsoft account.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play
Online play		4	Co-op Anarchy mode.

Connection types

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

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	53, 80, 3074
UDP	53, 80, 3074

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes	GG3D	Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision		Use Helix Mod: Bulletstorm to improve 3D support.
TriDef 3D
iZ3D
vorpX	G3D Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest
Novint Falcon		The official game-specific 3D Touch Add On is required.

Issues fixed

Turn off texture streaming

Edit configuration file^{[citation needed]}

Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config.
Open StormEngine.ini with Bulletstorm INI Editor.
Change these lines:

UseBackgroundLevelStreaming=False
MipFadeInSpeed0=0
MipFadeOutSpeed0=0
MipFadeInSpeed1=0
MipFadeOutSpeed1=0
OnlyStreamInTextures=True
PoolSize=0
LoadMapTimeLimit=999
LightmapStreamingFactor=0 
ShadowmapStreamingFactor=0
bAllowSwitchingStreamingSystem=False 
UseDynamicStreaming=False

Save the file as read-only.

Glitchy shadows and other graphical issues

Some GPUs are not supported by the default configuration files which causes strange graphical errors (black bar shadows, blocky shadows, low texture resolution on all settings, and 16-bit colors). This method is used to fix these errors.

Replace DefaultCompat.ini^{[citation needed]}
Download the modified DefaultCompat.ini. Make a backup of `DefaultCompat.ini` in `<path-to-game>\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config`. Replace `DefaultCompat.ini` with the modified file. Delete `%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Bulletstorm\StormGame\Config\StormCompat.ini`. Start Bulletstorm and change any graphical setting to apply the change.

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	PhysX
Audio	XAudio2
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	Games for Windows - LIVE

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3	Vista SP2, 7 SP1
Processor (CPU)	1.6 GHz Dual Core	2.0 GHz Quad Core
System memory (RAM)	1.5 GB	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	9 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible	ATI Radeon HD 4870 Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 512 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ Games for Windows - LIVE DRM features: SSA+ZDPP activation, requires a Microsoft account - local profiles are not supported.
↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 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>/99810/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (99810) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Games for Windows Marketplace y Xbox.com se fusionan - last accessed on 19 August 2022
↑ Bulletstorm GFWL Verify Release Date Fix :: Bulletstorm General Discussions
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 Verified by User:Antrad on October 26, 2017
↑ Steam Community :: Bizargh :: Review for Bulletstorm - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Bulletstorm - WSGF - last accessed on 2017-01-01
↑ PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023

[2] Games for Windows - LIVE DRM features: SSA+ZDPP activation, requires a Microsoft account - local profiles are not supported.

[gamedir-6] When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[Proton_path_note-7] 3.0 ^3.1 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>/99810/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (99810) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[1] Games for Windows Marketplace y Xbox.com se fusionan - last accessed on 19 August 2022

[Bulletstorm_GFWL_Verify_Release_Date_Fix-3] Bulletstorm GFWL Verify Release Date Fix :: Bulletstorm General Discussions

[refcheck_Antrad-4] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 Verified by User:Antrad on October 26, 2017

[5] Steam Community :: Bizargh :: Review for Bulletstorm - last accessed on May 2023

[8] Bulletstorm - WSGF - last accessed on 2017-01-01

[9] PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023

[1]

[Note 1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

[5]

[6]

Developers

	People Can Fly
	Epic Games
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows	February 22, 2011
Reception
Metacritic	82
IGDB	87
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Shooter
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Bulletstorm