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Tweak visual settings, controls and performance with Dead Island: Riptide Helper

UPDATE #16 1/06/2016: For information regarding a helper tool for Dead Island: Definitive edition, please read this post.

Back by popular demand, Dead Island Helper has returned in a new incarnation for Riptide, the sequel to the first game.

Like Dead Island Helper, DI:RH allows you to tweak a variety of normally inaccessible game settings to disable certain visual effects, modify key binds and much more.

Here are the major differences between DIH and DI:RH — other than compatibility with Riptide:

  • The drop-down menus now expand to the left. This prevents menus from appearing on the second monitor on multi-monitor setups.
  • Added an option to us OpenAL instead of XAudio2.

Also, some of the settings that worked in DI no longer appear to have an effect in DI:R. For example, the “overcast weather” option is identical between games, but setting it in DI:R doesn’t seem to change the sky.

IMPORTANT: This program should be considered beta and is undergoing continual tweaking and improvement. The developer cannot be held responsible for any issues or problems this program may cause with your system or with Dead Island: Riptide. By downloading Dead Island: Riptide Helper, you consent to using the program at your own risk!

The tool is not supported with cracked versions of the game.

Requires the .NET 2.0 Framework, which anyone running Windows XP SP3 and above should have.


Changelog – 1.4

  • Added: Disable sun shadows. Can significantly improve performance, but at the expense of removing almost all shadows.
  • Added: Boost NPC volume. Increases speech volume from 0.5 to 0.95.
  • Added: Rebind Charge key. By default this is “R”; using this option allows it to be rebound to any alphanumeric key.

Changelog – 1.31

  • Fixed: An issue with weapon refraction.

Changelog – 1.3

  • Added: Disable distant blur. Removes the blurring effect applied to distance objects and terrain.
  • Added: Disable dust clouds option.
  • Fixed: A bug with disabling weapon refraction that could cause a black screen when indoors.
  • Fixed: A few issues with the disable bloom option.

Changelog – 1.21

  • Added: Kill “Berkelium” background process. This is started automatically with Dead Island: Riptide; enabling this option terminates it as soon as it starts. This process can cause performance issues and terminating it seems to have no effect on the game.

Changelog – 1.2

  • Added: Disable event logging. Prevents writes to Dead Island: Riptide’s log folder, which can improve loading times.
  • Added: Rebind throw special. Operates the same way as other rebind options.
  • Added: Enable SMAA (Sub-pixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing). Requires administrative rights / elevated privileges if the game is installed in the Program Files directory or other protected system folder. Functionality is courtesy of Andrej Dudenhefner’s injectSMAA.

Changelog – 1.1

  • Fixed: An issue with the DWM black screen fix.
  • Added: Unbind mousewheel from weapon selection.
  • Added: Rebind firearm melee. Operates the same way as the rebind Use key option.

Download the Dead Island: Riptide Helper:
http://downloads.zafehouse.com/deadislandriptidehelper/dirh_latest.zip.

Simply extract it anywhere convenient (it doesn’t have to be your Dead Island: Riptide folder), and run the program.

~ by Logan on April 23, 2013.

96 Responses to “Tweak visual settings, controls and performance with Dead Island: Riptide Helper”

  1. After i set the settings path to
    Settings directory: C:\Users\Chris\Documents\Riptide\out
    instead of
    Settings directory: D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\diriptide\DI\Out
    The rebind firearm hardcoded key now works.
    I said it again it is a legal version, and the failure was the settings path.
    Found it out by myself ,thank you for “try” to help me ;)

  2. Hey, I can’t get your helper to work for me, every time I select my “out” folder, I get this error message:
    Error code: Could not find a part of the path ‘C:\Program Files(x86)\Dead Island Riptide\DI\Out\Data\Skills\default_levels.xml

  3. Hello good sir, my friend is experiencing crash issues with the helper tool. I’ve tried having him do everything, including admin rights, rebooting, creating a new out folder, and now uninstalling the game when trying to run the utility, but still crashing before it launchers. Any ideas?

  4. is there going to be a new patch(for the program) with more perfomance options? s: Awesome work btw

  5. is there any fix yet for the extremely long loading screens?

  6. I think the “Berkelium.exe” process has something to do with the Facebook linking feature in Dead Island? I’m no expert, and I’m definitely not stating that this is it, but that’s what I think.
    I don’t link my Dead Island games to my Facebook account, so I can’t tell you whether killing Berkelium affects the Facebook posting or anything like that.

  7. What’s the chance you are able to fix the damage output for Zombies that can Throw? It’s often enough to kill even when you have full health.

  8. hello, nice proggie u got there. Seems the charge Key (R) is hardcoded aswell and cant be rebound, could you make the same as with other hard coded key ?

  9. @Krovven

    That’s pretty easy to do I would imagine since many mods have changed pretty much every facet of the game including damage values.

    I’ve been 1-shotted a few times and it’s extremely difficult to even notice a zombie has a small weapon in their hand from a distance.

    So while I agree that the throwing damage from zombies is ridiculous, changing something like this seems outside the scope of what this tool is for.

    I looked around in the DATA0.PAK file, saw some things pertaining to zombie_weapon_throw and stuff like that but nothing that talked about the damage (I think it was a value for the probability that they throw it).

  10. @Fuzzy

    Did you turn on the “Disable Event Logging” option under “Performance Tweaks”?

    I believe this was an issue in the original Dead Island as well, that the game would try to write to a log file and it was increasing load times way too much.

    I could be wrong, hopefully that is your issue.

  11. @Krovven, @Glowyrm: Hit the nail on the head. I don’t want to add gameplay tweaks to the tool — it’s designed to address performance / aesthetics only.

  12. Hi guys! Great tool! Was awesome for DI and now it rocks for Riptide, if only for the FOV fix itself…

    Will there be an option to rebind the hardcoded “e” key for defending your boat?

    I bind my mouse buttons (button 5 does not bind at all however) for kicking and usually reloading or quick inventory. Though it does not seem to be bindable. Is it possible for the “e” to be recoded to the “kick” button?
    And also to be able to bind extra mouse buttons? I played through without using the charge attack once :(

    Awesome work again.

  13. Hi! I just wanted to say a big “Thank you!” for this great tool. When i first started Riptide i wondered why the game is so different from it’s origin… then i realized it: i had tweaked Dead Island with your little tool to look and feel MUCH better and wasn’t used to play it without those improvements. Now, with the use of your tool, i have the same fun with Riptide as i had it with the first game. Thank you! :)

  14. Hello, could you please add an 75Hz option under max refresh rate?

    Thanks for your hard work!

  15. yeah, its weird that mouse button 4 can be bound, but button 5 cannot. Would love to bind button 5 to my fury ability.

  16. Is there ever gonna be a way to make it so we can hotkey drinking alcohol for logan? Its really hard to drink in combat. Thank you I love this program.

  17. @Tank: Having looked at the available actions the game provides, there’s no way to create such a key bind. Unfortunately, it’s one of those things the actual developer will have to provide.

  18. THANK YOU SO MUCH ! Now the game runs with ~100FPS on my Asus Ultrabook UX31A with i7 and just a HD4000

  19. I was testing out this program and used the graphics tweaks to increase my framerate. However, I noticed that fires (from molotovs, barrels, etc) wouldn’t appear. I could still hear the flames and I could get damaged but they were completely invisible. I’m not sure which graphics tweak caused this.

    Other than that, Riptide Helper works great. Thank you very much!

  20. @frott3r: That sounds like the “Disable dust clouds” tweak. I had similar issues, but I had a lot of requests for this tweak so I added it in anyway.

  21. Really great work my friend, couldn’t have played DI or DIR without it. Seriously, great work.

    Any chance of getting an option for view models fov?
    having my hands and weapons directly under my chin is another bane in my PC gaming life.

    Really hope you can sort it.

    Thanks again.

  22. Would it be possible to fix the crosshair problem with higher FoV’s? Currently higher FoV than 70 will make shotgun crosshair vanish, and higher than 80 or 85 makes harpoon and pistol crosshair vanish. This also makes harpoon gun shoot in random places, like directly behind you, even while aiming down the sights.

  23. When I try to select the correct folder (/DI/out) for the tweak settings, it shows me this:

    Error code: Could not find a part of the path ‘C:\Program Files(x86)\Dead Island Riptide\DI\Out\Data\Skills\default_levels.xml

    I do not know what do to here, can someone clarify me?

  24. Is there an option to remove headbobbing? It gives me a damn headache.

  25. Any news on a new version?

  26. Im getting a error on startup EXIT: FATAL ERROR Cannot initialize renderer. has anyone else had this problem, ive intalled my latest drivers but still no luck.

  27. when i try to start the helper i get an application error message with this code (0cx000007b)am i the only one getting this? please i really need help my computer runs the game slowly i keep getting killed i can’t play so any help would be appreciated

  28. Hey man glad to see this has been re-done for Riptide, but 2 questions,

    when i Enable Overcast Weather, it seems to do nothing, i am also using SweetFX 1.4 but from what i’ve gathered it should be compatible so not sure whats going on there or if anyone else has had the same issue.

    Second question is would you be able to add some kind of Direct Resolution tweak? because i know u can change it in Video.scr or in the steam launch properties, but it doesnt seem to read it properly, in the first game it worked fine but for some reason in riptide it keeps overwriting it with 1280×1020 n i’m trying to get a custom resolution of 1824×1026 soo big difference lol, sorry for the essay,

    cheers for bringing this back.

  29. Shit ma bad just read through the description again n spotted the Overcast weather thing, no worries then on that note then lol xD

  30. I used to have an issue in DI where weapon mod effects like fire or lightning would become invisible, and I distinctly remember one of the Helper options caused that. once I disabled that particular one, I’d see the fire or electricity on the weapon.

    now I’ve got this Liquid Fire metal baton, and for some reason it gives off a fiery glow but I don’t see any actual elemental effects coming from it.

    is there something wrong? I’ve tried starting Riptide without the Helper as well, but same thing happens.

  31. forgot to say that I can’t remember which particular option caused that glitch in DI. I’ve googled it a few times but I can’t find that page that told me how to fix the problem anymore.

    using disabled weapon refraction, disabled bloom, disabled motion/distant blur, disabled dust effects, disabled desaturation effect

  32. Yeah, ever since the game patched a few weeks ago, the Helper no longer works. Best to just uninstall it; Logan doesn’t seem to be working on it anymore.

  33. @sailorpfat: I haven’t had any other reports of the tool not working after the most recent patch, and looking at the data files updated, I don’t see anything that would cause issues.

    I’ve stated before that I can’t support the tool with any cracked versions of the game.

  34. Whats up, my name is Greg. I’ve been playing Dead Island Ripitide for PC since its release. I got the game on sale on a CD key website. I am running the game on Windows 8. I have reached Chapter 6 of the game and now before I launch it, a message pops up and says “cannot write to game folder, you don’t have write permission. I’ve tried running the game in admin mode, I verified my game cache. and I also uninstalled the game and installed it again. I’ve been looking all around for a fix. I had one of my buddies, who is a PC tech, tell me that both Metro Last Light and Dead Island Riptide are both awaiting a patch. Wow I added Deep Silver to Facebook and haven’t heard from them. Why can’t they speed up the process of making the patch. I don’t see how others are still able to play , but my games turned to shit. I hope someone responds with a logical answer and will try to help me out.

  35. I don’t have a cracked version of the game. It’s off Steam and since the last patch, the game crashes if I use your tool. Looking at these posts there seem to be a quite a few people with crash issues.

  36. Any chance you could make a setting to unbind `/~ so it won’t open the largely useless game script console? I like to use that key for vent, and it drives me nuts when it’s locked into something in games.

  37. I just bought the game off Steam, and I can’t help but notice that certain models in the game seem to have a strange grid-like pattern over their textures. It’s noticeable on the enemies, on things such as valves and fire hydrants, etc. It doesn’t really affect performance but it’s EXTREMELY annoying to look at. I want to know if anyone else has this issue and if there’s a potential way to fix it with the tool?

  38. I have a legal copy of Dead Island on Steam, and mine crashes on startup as well. I only just installed it today, noticed the horrible FoV, and looked for ways to change it. But your utility doesn’t work now.

    Please stop assuming everyone is just trying to tweak a cracked game. Legitimate users are having problems.

    It looks like Dead Island uses the steam cloud now. I don’t know if that’s always been there, or recently added, but it seems like the settings and saved games have been split into two different locations now.

  39. Thanks for a great utility. I tried it last night for the keybinding fixes, but I noticed that it doesn’t quite work properly for the number pad. Specifically, I was rebinding Firearms Melee to NUMPAD9 (I’m a lefty, so I use the numpad instead of WASD). It bound it to 9 instead, and the game doesn’t see this as the same thing. I had to edit the inputs.scr file and replace E__9 with E__NUMPAD9 to make it work. Just a heads up.

  40. This worked great at first but when i tried to turn my computer on the next day it wouldn’t start properly. When windows was done fixing the issue it removed DIRH from my computer, so I guess DIRH was what was causing the problem. I know it’s still in beta but I just thought you should know.

  41. I wish this program had video options for full screen and resolution too. I can’t change to full screen in game (I put it to windowed mode to test something) and now the game freezes every time I try to set it full screen mode in game.

    Other than that, this program is perfect.

  42. Is it possible to get rid of the donate window when you start the helper, let’s say by donating? I really want it to go to the helper without further ado.

  43. Having just started playing this game again, I thought I’d note that the helper works fine. Any time I have had an issue with this game, deleting the config files and reinitialising them before using geforce experience and then the helper has worked a treat.

    I thought it worth posting this now as it’s been over 6 months since the last post and the helper app is still a requirement for making DIR an enjoyable experience. I really wish there was some way to have both helper apps included in steam so I don’t have to store them for future use. Great game but sloppy porting.

    Love this tool, wish there was an option to remove the donate screen though.

  44. Hello just started playing DI and DIR and am using an xbox controller on my laptop instead of Keyboard/mouse and it seems like my character is not moving smoothly and attacking slowly is that something that your helper can fix I have both helpers and everything else seems to be running smoother since downloading and tweaking but in fights with infected they seem to move much more smoothly and it feels sluggish any help would be greatly appreciated I am new to pc gaming have been a console gamer for years. thanks in advance

  45. […] Tweak visual settings, controls and performance with Dead … – Back by popular demand, Dead Island Helper has returned in a new incarnation for Riptide, the sequel to the first game. Like Dead Island Helper, DI:RH allows you to …… […]

  46. Any chance we’ll see a Definitive Edition Helper?