Realmware's BF3 Tools: BF3 Settings Editor, BF3 Borderless, and Battlelog Standalone.

[tehfusion]

(Last updated: 21st of January, 2012)

Greetings.

You likely know about Battlefield 3, an FPS game which was recently released. A friend and I have been developing several free utilities for this game, and I would like to share them with you all today. These have been produced by Insanecrimsontid and myself entirely in our spare time.

We have three different tools here, and perhaps the biggest of them is our BF3 Settings Editor. We are aware that Mindweaver has a similar tool here called BF3 Config Utility. We certainly do not mean to steal his thunder — the more tools the better, we are simply providing our alternative that we've been working on for a long time, as well as our other tools. Thanks to W1zzard and Tatty_One for confirming to me that this is okay.

We would very much appreciate it if the techPowerUp! community could spare some time to take a look at our tools, and report any bugs that you find or suggest improvements (for example, changes to the user interface). We also hope you like the tools and use them to improve your experience with Battlefield 3!

I'll include some basic information about each tool in this thread. However, please check our website for the full overviews, features, screenshots, downloads, updates, and version history.


Realmware BF3 Settings Editor 2.3

Realmware BF3 Settings Editor, as you may guess from the name, allows you to customise your Battlefield 3 settings without having to launch the game. This can save you a lot of time, not only because the game can take a long time to load, but also because you need to log into both Origin and Battlelog before you can start it!

Our BF3 Settings Editor also has the advantage of allowing you to tweak hidden settings and go beyond certain limits. For example, the settings menu in Battlefield 3 limits your field of view to a number between 60 and 90; this can be a problem especially for multi-monitor users, who may benefit from a lower field of view. Our editor, on the other hand, allows you to set a field of view from anywhere between 1 and 175. You are also able to adjust settings such as car radio and dialogue volume. Many of these hidden settings are experimental, and we do not fully know their effects in-game.

A built-in profile manager allows you to backup and restore different settings on demand. For example, you might create a profile for all low settings, and another profile for ultra settings. When you first run BF3 Settings Editor, a backup of your settings will be automatically created and listed in the profile manager.

Newly added since version 2.3 of our program is support for themes and translations. If you would like to contribute by translating BF3 Settings Editor into another language, then please contact us! In particular, we would like a German translation.

We are still working on this program and will be continuing to release updates for it. Planned features for future versions of our BF3 Settings Editor include the ability to modify your vehicle sensitivities and the ability to customise your kit loadouts.

Some screenshots of this program are included below. If you would like to see more, then check out the screenshots page on our website.

BF3 Settings Editor - Screenshots

Realmware BF3 Borderless 1.2

Realmware BF3 Borderless is a simple program which gives you control over the window that Battlefield 3 runs in. The main purpose of this is to run Battlefield 3 in a borderless "fullscreen" window. This has the advantages of both worlds: you can make full use of your screen space, and can also easily switch to other programs. If you have played games such as Left 4 Dead, then you may already be familiar with this and can appreciate the benefits it brings.

Additionally, some people have reported specific issues and bugs with Battlefield 3 that only occur while running in fullscreen mode. With this tool, those players can enjoy the game in a fullscreen window instead.

BF3 Borderless will automatically detect Battlefield 3 when it runs, at which point it will force it into a borderless window. You may disable this feature if you wish. You can also enter a custom size for the game window, and can choose to have it automatically centred on your screen.

A screenshot of this program is included below. If you would like to see more, then check out the screenshots page on our website.

BF3 Borderless - Screenshot

Since the main purpose of this tool is to play the game in a fullscreen borderless window, a screenshot of the game like this would just be identical to any normal game screenshot. However, for clarification of what this tool does, here is a screenshot of the game running in a smaller window without a border:

BF3 Borderless - Example

Realmware Battlelog Standalone 1.0

Realmware Battlelog Standalone is a simple program which provides access to the Battlelog website through a kind of simplified web browser. Its aim is to simplify the process of accessing Battlelog, and save system resources while playing Battlefield 3. The more tabs you have open, and the more extensions you have installed in your web browser, the more system resources you will save by switching to this tool.

Battlelog Standalone supports the Battlelog browser plugin, and also fully supports VoIP and connecting to games. Many people have complained about the requirement to use Battlelog, and have stated that they use other web browsers as dedicated "Battlelog viewers". Our program is especially aimed at these people, and we hope it will make using Battlelog a more convenient and enjoyable affair.

A screenshot of this program is included below. If you would like to see more, then check out the screenshots page on our website.

Battlelog Standalone - Screenshot

System Requirements

Our Battlefield 3 tools only really have two system requirements.

Operating system: For the greatest user experience, you should be running either Windows Vista, or Windows 7. However, you can still use this with Windows XP, as long as you have at least Service Pack 2 installed.

.NET Framework: As this program is written for the .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile, you will need that installed. It's a small download, far smaller than the full .NET Framework 4.0. If you are using the setup exe (which is recommended), you don't have to worry about it; it'll all be taken care of for you. If you are using the zip archive, you can download the .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile here.


Download

We hope that you will find these tools of ours to be useful, and we also hope to receive useful feedback from you to help us improve them! If you would like to download them and try them out, just head over to the downloads page for BF3 Settings Editor, BF3 Borderless, or Battlelog Standalone on our website. We recommend that you choose the setup exe option, but you can also download the program files as a zip archive if you prefer. I have also attached the .zip version of each tool to this post for your convenience; unfortunately, the installers are just over the file-size limit for attaching here.

All three of these tools include automatic update checkers, so you will be notified within the program whenever there is a new update available. This means that you can stay up-to-date with the latest features and fixes.


Feedback

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or bug reports, then please do give us your feedback. We'll be monitoring this thread and looking forward to your responses.

[chinmi]

thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you

downloading and testing now...

[Wyverex]

As much as I appreciate all the work into making all this, I would never trust a 3rd party app that asks me for my login information if that app is not open-sourced.

I'll try the settings editor and borderless aplications and provide feedback at some point in time

Thanks for everything

[gottistar]

you my friend are a good person..awesome addons

[GoldenTiger]

Originally Posted by Wyverex

As much as I appreciate all the work into making all this, I would never trust a 3rd party app that asks me for my login information if that app is not open-sourced.

I'll try the settings editor and borderless aplications and provide feedback at some point in time

Thanks for everything

Same here but I wouldn't trust it period, unless I took the time to personally inspect the source which I wouldn't likely be bothering with. I am using the settings editor though and it is indeed nice , thank you!

[spacemanspliff]

Borderless does not seem to detect my game, ever. Any ideas?

[Insanecrimsontid]

Originally Posted by spacemanspliff

Borderless does not seem to detect my game, ever. Any ideas?

This could occur if Battlefield 3 is running with administrator elevation, which may happen if Origin is running as administrator (for example, if it was started by an elevated setup application).
In this case, Borderless will need to be run with administrator elevation too.

If this is not the case, can you check the following registry key and make sure its InstallDir value matches the location of the game -
On 32-bit Windows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EA Games\Battlefield 3
On 64-bit Windows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\EA Games\Battlefield 3

I hope that helps.

[spacemanspliff]

Gotcha ty.

[Flak]

Just a heads up folks. All three of these apps try to connect to and send information to 173.236.219.217.
I've tested it against firewalls I use, all report the same thing. As well as my Untangle box.

[tehfusion]

Originally Posted by Flak

Just a heads up folks. All three of these apps try to connect to and send information to 173.236.219.217.
I've tested it against firewalls I use, all report the same thing. As well as my Untangle box.

As already stated in the original post, all three of our programs include an automatic update checker. When you run one of the programs, they will simply check if a new version is available. This is done by temporarily downloading a small XML file. No information is sent from your computer. You can see the XML files that are downloaded for yourself:

http://bf3.realmware.co.uk/settings-editor/update.xml
http://bf3.realmware.co.uk/borderless/update.xml
http://bf3.realmware.co.uk/battlelog...one/update.xml

You can also take a look at these virus scan reports from Jotti.org:

Results

BF3 Settings Editor.exe - Jotti's malware scan


BF3 Borderless.exe - Jotti's malware scan


Battlelog Standalone.exe - Jotti's malware scan

As you can clearly see, there is nothing malicious in our software. The next version, coming soon, will include a way to disable the update check.

Originally Posted by MT Alex

We also have a homegrown version, by the illustrious Mindweaver:

I am unsure why you felt the need to post that in our thread. We already stated in the original post that we are aware of Mindweaver's utility. Do you plan to post the link to our tools in his thread, as well?

[tehfusion]

I apologise if you thought I was being rude — that certainly wasn't my intention. We're happy that people are trying out our tools, and we want as much feedback as possible. I was actually asking an honest question. Do you plan to post the link to our tools in his thread? Because you posted his in ours, so why not the other way round?

[tehfusion]

Realmware BF3 Settings Editor 2.0

I am pleased to announce that we are now releasing version 2.0 of our BF3 Settings Editor!

This is a big update, and the two most important changes are as follows:

1. Keyboard, mouse, and joystick bindings can now all be viewed and configured from within the program.
2. We identified and fixed a bug where users of non-English operating systems would have locked sliders and other controls.

Here is the full list of changes for this version:

Features:

• Added support for keyboard, mouse, and joystick bindings.
• Added help and explanations via tooltips.
• Added a horizontal field of view setting.
• Added an option to disable automatic update checking.
• Added a right-click context menu to the profile manager.
• Added support for the Delete keyboard key in the profile manager.

Fixes:

• Fixed unchangeable FoV and slider values on non-English systems.
• Fixed crash when settings file couldn't be loaded.
• Fixed minimum values for screen HUD width and height sliders.

Improvements:

• Disabled some settings which DICE confirmed to have no effect.
• Improved display with the Classic and Windows XP themes.
• Improved the look and feel of the user interface.
• Improved the installer display with non-standard DPI settings.

Below is a screenshot showing off one of the new key binding tabs. As always, check our website for more screenshots.

Screenshot

You can download version 2.0 from our downloads page. I will also attach it to the original post in this thread. Please keep in mind that supporting controls is a large and complex feature, and with the huge range of input devices available, it is possible that you will encounter some problems that we haven't noticed. Please report any bugs that you find to us, and we'll do our best to fix it quickly.

BF3 Settings Editor and our other tools have been developed by Insanecrimsontid and myself entirely in our spare time, and we have invested a great many hours into them. If you like them, we'd appreciate a small donation; just check the sidebar on our website if you're interested.

Thanks, and enjoy!

Originally Posted by Flak

Just a heads up folks. All three of these apps try to connect to and send information to 173.236.219.217.
I've tested it against firewalls I use, all report the same thing. As well as my Untangle box.

BF3 Settings Editor 2.0 provides an option to disable the update check.

[Insanecrimsontid]

Just to add to tehfusion's post, the following known issues exist in BF3 Settings Editor 2.0:

• The Print Screen key will not be recognised when setting key bindings.
• The controls for the MAV and the vehicle gunner position must be set separately. The game normally syncs infantry controls with MAV controls, and vehicle controls with gunner controls. The next version will include a way to switch to "basic mode", which hides the "Gunner" and "MAV" tabs and behaves in the same way as the game.

We will try to have these fixed for the next version.

Additionally, our program will recognise the Pause / Break key and the Num Lock key as the same button. This is intentional behaviour. Unfortunately, Battlefield 3 recognises them both as the same key; if we manually specify the two different correct key numbers in the settings file, Battlefield 3 will not recognise the key presses at all. We have therefore decided to keep this consistent with how Battlefield 3 works.

We hope you will enjoy this new release and try out the key bindings

[tehfusion]

Realmware BF3 Settings Editor 2.1

It's only been a couple of days, but we are now releasing version 2.1 of our BF3 Settings Editor! This release does not contain big feature changes like the previous version, but it does include some important bug fixes and enhancements.

Here is the full list of changes for this version:

Features:

• Added an option for asking whether to save changes on exit.

Fixes:

• Fixed the handling of joystick controls for axes that aren't self-centering.
• Fixed binding forward and backward controls for vehicles.

Improvements:

• When binding mouse or joystick axes, the axis direction is now taken into account.
• When binding the mouse scroll wheel, a message is shown explaining that it doesn't work in BF3.
• Improved the behaviour when attempting to bind a control while already holding Escape.
• Improved the method used to create a settings backup on the first run.
• A message is now shown if the settings backup could not be created.
• The BF3 Settings Editor options are now kept after upgrading to a new version.
• The "Save on exit" option now defaults to false. Instead, the program will by default ask the user whether to save any changes.

You can download version 2.1 from our downloads page. I will also attach it to the original post in this thread. Please try it out and give us your feedback. We'll continue to support this program with updates, along with our other tools. Please report any bugs that you find to us, and we'll do our best to fix them quickly.

BF3 Settings Editor and our other tools have been developed by Insanecrimsontid and myself entirely in our spare time, and we have invested a great many hours into them. If you like them, we'd appreciate a small donation; just check the sidebar on our website if you're interested.

Thanks, and enjoy!

[tehfusion]

Realmware BF3 Borderless 1.1

I am pleased to announce that we are now releasing version 1.1 of our BF3 Borderless tool! We have been focusing on our BF3 Settings Editor, so I do apologise for the delay; especially for those of you who have been waiting for fixes to be able to use it at all.

Here is the full list of changes for this version.

Features:

• Added a system tray icon with a convenient right-click menu.
• The main window can now be minimised, either to the task bar or system tray.
• Added an option to disable automatic update checking.
• The position of the window is now saved upon exiting and used on the next run.

Fixes:

• Fixed crash when the game installation path could not be detected.

Improvements:

• Improved the time taken for the program to load.
• Improved display with the Classic and Windows XP themes.
• Improved the look and feel of the user interface.
• Improved the installer display with non-standard DPI settings.
• The program options are now kept after upgrading to a new version.

You can download version 1.1 from our downloads page. I'll also attach it to the original post. Please try it out and give us your feedback. We'll continue to support this program with updates, along with our other tools. Please report any bugs that you find to us, and we'll do our best to fix them quickly.

BF3 Borderless and our other tools have been developed by Insanecrimsontid and myself entirely in our spare time, and we have invested a great many hours into them. If you like them, we'd appreciate a small donation; just check the sidebar on our website if you're interested.

Thanks, and enjoy!


As for our other tools: we will be releasing more big updates very soon! BF3 Settings Editor will be getting support for some of the things included in the recent Battlefield 3 patch, and Battlelog Standalone will be getting a big makeover with many fixes.

[sdOne]

Any way to force Display 2 on loading Borderless?
Currently I have to manually set game borderless after it loads.

Run game;
Run borderless;
Wait till game fully loads (deploy screen);
Enable borderless.

If I enable borderless while the game is still loading, it pops back to Display 1.

[hlxbravo]

Gave the settings editor a go, solely for the suppose of joystick/gamepad bindings, because for some reason it doesn't want to bind my pad analogue sticks correctly, it calls stick up, POV something or other and it calls down, ROT something. As for the right hand analogue stick, it flatly refuses to bind two out of four directions. I hoped this would fix it for me but it doesn't, so the only likely explanation is that is something else Dice didn't get right.


PS. Thanks for this all the same.

[tehfusion]

Realmware BF3 Settings Editor 2.2

I am pleased to announce that we are now releasing version 2.2 of our BF3 Settings Editor! This release contains many bug fixes, improvements, and new features.

The two biggest new features are as follows:

1. Console commands are now supported. This means that you can, for example, disable the user interface without having to enter the "UI.DrawEnable 0" console command every time.
2. The Spot/Communications (Commo Rose) control can now be reassigned without it staying assigned to the Q key! This means that you can now completely reassign it and use the Q key for something else.

Here is the full list of changes for this version:

Features:

• The Commo Rose can now be properly rebound without staying assigned to Q; something the game itself can't do.
• The position and size of the window are now saved upon exiting and used on the next run.
• The main window can now be minimised to the system tray.
• The main window can now be maximised or resized further.
• Added buttons to easily clear multiple key bindings at once.
• Added support for the new settings that came with the R2 patch:
  • Joystick deadzone.
• Added support for the new settings that came with the R3 patch:
  • Vehicle mouse sensitivity.
  • Colour-blind support.
  • Select previous weapon (key binding).
  • Select next weapon (key binding).
  • Toggle chat (key binding).
• Added support for the following console settings:
  • Draw user interface.
  • Draw FPS.
  • Draw screen information.
  • Draw performance overlay.
  • Triple buffering.
  • Maximum FPS.
  • Screenshot format.

Fixes:

• Fixed the refresh rate and v-sync settings (the R2 patch broke them by renaming them).
• Fixed handling of navigation keys with certain keyboards.
• Fixed handling of setting files that contain trailing spaces.
• Fixed the maximum value of the stereoscopic 3D depth slider.
• Fixed program failing to exit after a DirectInput error occurred.
• Fixed error where profile names could include invalid characters.

Improvements:

• Renamed "soldier look sensitivity" to "joystick sensitivity".
• Renamed "stereo 3D convergence" to "stereo 3D depth".
• Improved the input handling for the refresh rate GUI control.
• Deleting a profile will now select the next profile.
• Improved the internal code for greater flexibility.

You can download version 2.2 from our downloads page. I'll also attach it to the original post. Please try it out and give us your feedback. We'll continue to support this program with updates, along with our other tools. Please report any bugs that you find to us, and we'll do our best to fix them quickly.

BF3 Settings Editor and our other tools have been developed by Insanecrimsontid and myself entirely in our spare time, and we have invested a great many hours into them. If you like them, we'd appreciate a small donation; just check the sidebar on our website if you're interested.

Thanks, and enjoy!

Originally Posted by sdOne

Any way to force Display 2 on loading Borderless?
Currently I have to manually set game borderless after it loads.

There is currently no way to do this, but it's on our to-do list for a future version. Sorry for the trouble!

Originally Posted by hlxbravo

for some reason it doesn't want to bind my pad analogue sticks correctly, it calls stick up, POV something or other and it calls down, ROT something.

The control names don't really matter. DICE simply chose the names from whatever controller they used, and we opted to use the same names for consistency. We might include an option in a future version to display different control names depending on your input device.

Originally Posted by hlxbravo

As for the right hand analogue stick, it flatly refuses to bind two out of four directions. I hoped this would fix it for me but it doesn't, so the only likely explanation is that is something else Dice didn't get right.

I'm sorry to hear that your analogue stick doesn't bind properly. Could you tell us the name and make of the controller?

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

I guess the standalone is not working?

Spoiler

[tehfusion]

Are you referring to the "Your web browser is not fully supported, soldier!" message? If so, here is the explanation.

The current version of Battlelog Standalone uses the Trident core from Internet Explorer; it is essentially a stripped-down version of that browser, without the "bloat" that comes with it. It is currently configured to run in IE9 Standards Mode. This means that if you do not have Internet Explorer 9 installed, you will see that message displayed, even though you can still join games. For now, you can either ignore and close the message, or install Internet Explorer 9.

The next version of Battlelog Standalone will solve this issue. Thanks for trying it out and giving us your feedback. We appreciate it.

[hlxbravo]

I can confirm that since the latest patch from EA/Dice all gamepad controls are now functioning....thanks for your time on this.

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

Originally Posted by tehfusion

Are you referring to the "Your web browser is not fully supported, soldier!" message? If so, here is the explanation.

The current version of Battlelog Standalone uses the Trident core from Internet Explorer; it is essentially a stripped-down version of that browser, without the "bloat" that comes with it. It is currently configured to run in IE9 Standards Mode. This means that if you do not have Internet Explorer 9 installed, you will see that message displayed, even though you can still join games. For now, you can either ignore and close the message, or install Internet Explorer 9.

The next version of Battlelog Standalone will solve this issue. Thanks for trying it out and giving us your feedback. We appreciate it.

Thanks. I'll wait for the next update.

[travva]

thank you for this tool. it is really an awesome program (referring to the config utility). made it much easier to config my joystick!!!

[tehfusion]

Originally Posted by hlxbravo

I can confirm that since the latest patch from EA/Dice all gamepad controls are now functioning....thanks for your time on this.

That's good to hear!

Originally Posted by TRIPTEX_CAN

Thanks. I'll wait for the next update.

Okay, we'll try to hurry up with it.

Originally Posted by travva

thank you for this tool. it is really an awesome program (referring to the config utility). made it much easier to config my joystick!!!

Thanks a lot! I'm glad to hear it's useful for you.

[Heilandzack]

Tried out all of the tools and they all work great! Thank you!

Would it be possible to add an option to borderless to start it minimized?
Additionally is there a possibility to start borderless when origin starts?

This way it wouldn't slow down windows startup (when in autostart)
and i wouldn't have to think of starting borderless myself.