Battlefield Vietnam Tweak Guide

[Page 8] Neat Stuff & Conclusion



This section concludes the BF:V guide with some neat tweaks and tips. Give them a try as they should improve your gaming experience.


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Battlefield Vietnam Game Music


One of the main ways in which Battlefield Vietnam creates a late 60's/early 70's atmosphere for the game is through the use of period rock music. These tracks, which were popular back then and remain popular today, can be extracted so that you can listen to them outside of the game. There are two sets of music used in BF:V, and the extraction method for these differs:


  • Menu/Loading Screen Music: There are fifteen tracks which can be heard playing when the game menu is open, or when maps are loading up. These tracks reside in your Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield Vietnam\Mods\BfVietnam\Music folder as .bik files. To extract and convert them to a common format like .wav, you will need to download the free RAD Tools. Once downloaded and installed, launch the RAD Video Tools (radvideo.exe) and browse to the directory mentioned above. Highlight all the .bik files labelled Track1.bik through to Track15.bik, and then click the 'Convert a File' button. In the new box which opens, click the 'Output type' button, and select the format - I recommend .wav as it is universally supported.
  • In-Game Music: When you are in a vehicle during a game of BF:V, you can bang out some tunes by using the 0 button (that's zero, not 'O'), and selecting a track. These tracks sit in the music.rfa file in your Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield Vietnam\Mods\BfVietnam\Archives directory. You can extract and convert these files using RAT .Rfa Extractor. Download and run the Rat.exe program, browse to the above directory, and click on the music.rfa file. Within it Rat will show 16 tracks, which you can then highlight and click the 'Extract' option on the menu to extract.


    • If on the other hand, you are getting tired of these tracks and want to import your own music to play in Battlefield Vietnam, there is a simple way of doing so. Note however that the music you import and play during the game will not be heard by others in the game, even if they have the identical song loaded up in their BF:V. Only you can hear your own music, so if you're in the mood you can sing along with Celine Dion and noone else in the game will be any wiser about your secret shame.


    To import music into BF:V, simply place your favorite mp3 files in the Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield Vietnam\My Music folder. Note that for the best chance of success, make sure the mp3s are encoded in standard MP3 format at 128kbps.


    Disable Startup Movies


    Battlefield Vietnam has several introductory movies showing the EA and DICE logos and the long main movie sequence. These can add a not insignificant amount to the memory overhead of the game, and certainly add to loadup times. To skip these movies automatically each time you start BF:V, you can try one of the following methods:


  • Right-click on your Battlefield Vietnam game icon and select Properties. In the Target box you'll see something like: "C:\Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield Vietnam\bfvietnam.exe". Now simply put a space after the last " and add "+restart 1" (without quotes). Now whenever you launch BF:V from this icon, it will skip the startup movies.
  • A second method involves simply going to your BF:V Movies folder, typically under Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield Vietnam\ and backing up the existing .bik movie files, then replacing them with 0Kb text files renamed to Intro.bik, Legal.bik, Dice.bik and EA.bik. To save you time, you can download these blank .bik files from here (SkipIntroBFV.zip, 1Kb) and place them in your movies folder. This method may only work if you are using a No-CD patch however, so if it doesn't work use the first method.


    • Either way, I recommend disabling the startup movies as skipping them speeds up loading the game and reduces memory usage.


    Taking Screenshots


    To take a screenshot in Battlefield Vietnam you can press the PRINT SCREEN key and a screenshot will be placed into memory. You can change which key is assigned to the screenshot function in the BF:V Controls section (See In-Game Settings above). However this method is not very convenient as it only retains the last screenshot you took in memory. If you want to take more than a single screenshot during any one BF:V session, you can try these methods:


  • Use a free utility like Fraps. Fraps can take as many screenshots as you like during gameplay, and stores them in high-quality .bmp format in the directory of your choice.
  • Use a utility called Hypersnap DX, which will meet any and all of your screenshot needs for any game, but requires paid registration to enable full functionality.


    • I personally recommend and use Fraps as it does the job well.


    Conclusion


    Well we've arrived at the end of our tour of duty for the Battlefield Vietnam Tweak Guide. As I mentioned up front, there were no miraculous tweaks in this guide which doubled your frame rate. I apologize for that, but the BFV game engine is limited in what is possible in terms of tweaking and adjustment. More than anything, I wanted to fulfill reader requests for a BF:V Tweak Guide, and I still believe I've done that by bringing all the known tips and tweaks into a single place. I personally noticed a significant improvement from applying the recommended settings in this guide, so I believe that as long as your system meets the recommended requirements for the game, and you've followed this guide and my other linked guides you too should experience smooth performance in BF:V.


    If you want to let me know what you think of the guide, or any of my other guides, please Email Me, however please keep in mind I can't provide any tech support.


    Links and Credits


    I conducted a great deal of personal testing and research to sort out the BF:V myths from the truths. There are a lot of misleading or downright incorrect "tweak guides" out there for Battlefield Vietnam, so it wasn't as easy as it sounds. However there are also some great resources for this game which you should definitely refer to, as I did. These are listed below:



    Battlefield Vietnam Official Site

    EAGames BF:V Official Support Site

    Stratos Group BF:V Strategy Guide

    Battlefield Vietnam Files

    FileShack BF:V Section

    PlanetBattlefield BFV Forums



    Check back on this guide regularly as I will keep it up to date with all the known tweaks and performance tips, especially as thoughtful readers contribute to the guide.



    Take care people!