How to fix the small subtitles font size for high-resolution screens

The title says it all. If you want to play F.E.A.R. with subtitles on a modern hardware - this guide will help.

Get to the point...

Those who tried to play F.E.A.R. on a modern high-resolution hardware, faces the fact that the subtitles are almost unreadable because of a very small font size. Surprisingly there is still no bug fix for this (nobody cares?). So I've decided to do it myself.

This mod works for F.E.A.R. and both its expansions. It was tested on Windows 7/10 x64 with 1920x1080 and 3440x1440 resolutions (should work with other resolutions too).

Installation instructions:

1. Download an archive from h__ps://bit. ly/fearsubs1920 (sorry, for some reason Steam doesn't allow shortened links, remove spaces and type https instead of h__ps).
   
2. Unpack it somewhere on your HDD.
   
3. Copy files according to the table:
   

   Game	File	Target folder
   F.E.A.R.	FEARL_1920.Arch00	<path to FEAR>
   Extraction Point	FEARL_1920.Arch00	<path to FEAR> \FEARXP
   Perseus Mandate	FEARL_XP2_1920.Arch00	<path to FEAR> \FEARXP2

   
   

   Note:

   The <path to FEAR> is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FEAR Ultimate Shooter Edition" for Win 7 x64. You can also find it by right-clicking on the game in Steam library, Properties, Local Files tab, Browse Local Files. It could be different if you have a non-Steam version of F.E.A.R.
   
   
4. Open file Default.archcfg (in same folders) in Notepad and add this to the end:
   

   FEARL_1920.Arch00

   (or this for Perseus Mandate)
   

   FEARL_XP2_1920.Arch00

5. Play game.

Due to numerous requests a version for smaller resolutions was made. You can download it here: h__ps://bit. ly/fearsubs1440 (remove spaces and type https instead of h__ps).

For happy owners of 4K monitors there's version for them (courtesy of {R.S.F} Deus): h__ps://t. ly/ViDq (remove spaces and type https instead of h__ps)

Manual override

So you want to be a modder?

If the pre-built solutions didn’t suit to your needs then you can make your own version of the mod. Let the wall of text begin....

1. Install the FEAR Public Tools according to the section 3 of http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=198976008
   
2. Download the modified source files for the 1920x1080 resolution as an example from here
   h__ps://t. ly/VP4x (remove spaces and type https instead of h__ps) and unpack it somewhere on your computer.
   
3. Go to the folder with extracted files. The main files are located in databaselocalized\1920\Interface\Credits\LineLayout and databaselocalized\1920\Interface\HUD
   folders (ignore the folders xp1 and xp2 for now).
   
4. This example not only amends subtitles but also scale some HUD elements and credits. If you’re interested only in subtitles then you can change only the databaselocalized\1920\Interface\HUD\HUDSubtitle.record file (this is a plain text file so you can edit it with Notepad or any other plain-text editor).
   Most important values are:
   

   Section/Value	Description
   [Attrib.BasePos] Value.0000	Position of the upper left (or in case of a centered alignment – upper center) point of the subtitles' rectangle. The game uses 640x480 as a base resolution and then scale all coordinates (but not the font size, unfortunately) proportionally to a real resolution. For example, if you specify the point coordinates as 320, 400 it scales into 960, 900 for the 1920x1080 resolution or 720,750 for 1440x900.
   [Attrib.TextSize] Value.0000	Size of the subtitles font (8-64)
   [Attrib.TextAlignment] Value.0000	Alignment for the subtitles text. Can be Left, Right or Center.
   [Attrib.AdditionalInt] Value.0000 Value.0001	The subtitles rectangle width (the default value seems enough for every case) Number of the subtitles text lines visible at one time.

   
   NB. There is a bug(?) with the centered alignment when subtitles don’t fit into the specified number of lines: normally the text starts to scroll, but in case of this alignment it's also cut out in the middle.
   
   So be careful with long texts.
   
   
5. In the other .record files the most necessary change is the font size:
   

   [Attrib.TextSize]
   Value.0000

6. After you’ve made the changes you should launch build.cmd to create new .Arch00 files. If everything has gone well, you’ll get FEARL_1920.Arch00 and FEARL_XP2_1920.Arch00 files (the latter is not ready yet, so you can ignore it for now) near the build.cmd. Place FEARL_1920.Arch00 into the game’s folder according to the instructions in the first section of this guide. Start the game and check if everything is fine. It would be wise to have some saves in some key places of the game to make the testing easier.

Only real jedis are allowed beyond this point

1. OK, now you have the mod for the original F.E.A.R. But it’s not valid for the expansions. Unfortuantely there is no source files for them available and you can’t use the same approach here. You’ll need a good old hex editor for this part (feel free to google one if you haven’t yet). Also you’ll need any calculator/converter which can convert a float and integer numbers into hex (like this one https://www.binaryconvert.com ).
   
2. Go to the folder xp1. Here you’ll see the FEARXPL_1920.Gamdb00p and FEARXPL_org.Gamdb00p files. The FEARXPL_org.Gamdb00p is the original file extracted from the expansion’s resource file and the FEARXPL_1920.Gamdb00p is its modified copy. You should make changes to the FEARXPL_1920.Gamdb00p file since the build script depends on it.
   NB. Since a process of searching of correct values inside of a binary file is rather difficult, only the subtitles position and size will be considered in this tutorial.
   
   
3. So you’ve opened the FEARXPL_1920.Gamdb00p file in the hex editor. The main idea is to go to a right location (often called as an offset or an address) in the file and write there right values.
   Here’s an example: to change the subs X position open a float-to-hex converter and enter your number (the same numbers you used for the original F.E.A.R. mod), i. e. 320, you’ll get 0x43a00000 as a result. Now you should take the 4 digits after the x (43a0) and swap the digit pairs (a043). This value should be typed in the hex editor at the D5A offset. Similar procedure can be done for integer numbers except of using a different calculator/converter and you should use the last 4 digits.
   Here is a table with the offsets for values
   

   Offset	Value type	Description
   D5A	Float	The subtitles position X
   D5E	Float	The subtitles position Y
   7E48	Integer	A number of subtitle lines visible at one time
   7F74	Constant	An alignment for subtitles. 5400 - center, 7C03 - left
   7FB0	Integer	The font size

   
   
4. The same procedure should be done for the xp2 folder (with slightly different offsets)
   

   Offset	Value type	Description
   DBE	Float	The subtitles position X
   DC2	Float	The subtitles position Y
   85E4	Integer	A number of subtitles lines visible at one time
   8710	Constant	An alignment for subtitles. 5400 - center, 7C03 - left
   874C	Integer	The font size

5. After these changes you can build the .Arch00 files again. This time they will be complete for both original F.E.A.R. and its expansions. Install them accordingly to the first section of this guide.

[montonero]

@Bumbum de Guerra
run notepad as administrator

[Deus_nsf]

I use visual studio code for editing, but notepad and variants should be able to do the trick too.

[Bumbum de Guerra]

Hi, unfortunately I'm unable to edit Default.archcfg, I tried to change security settings of the file, but still I can't modificate it. Do someone know how to proceed? (sorry for my english)

[poopfart]

major league guide, big up chief

[montonero]

Thanks for noticing! The link fixed.

[IronMaw31]

Please fix the first link

[Deus_nsf]

@Telcontyr hehe I love to see it, spent quite some time back then to do it, never thought 4K would become so popular so fast, at least the option is there for the base game :)

[永遠]

i think im not retard but don't work the subs for ants -.-

[Telcontyr]

That 4K HUD fix for the base game is a lovely bonus I never knew about. Shame it doesn't work for the expansions, but honestly I have dealt with far worse UI scaling at 4K than FEAR, I can still just about see my ammo and etc. haha

[Obsidius Prime]

Nope I didn't I'm an idiot, I completely somehow missed the huge banner that says public tools my bad.