I too experienced random crashes in Bioshock 2 Remastered, especially when gathering ADAM and a lot of enemies enter the scene. I found a way to get rid of this without tinkering with the game itself.
I used a special piece of software to change the hardware configuration when Bioshock 2 runs. It will reduce the number of used CPU cores to 2, and assign as much as hardware resources as possible. Beware, this program is *v*e*r*y* complex, but if you follow this guide you will manage to set it up properly.
Install with all the default settings.
Configuration
Ok, if you installed Project Lasso and start it, you will see a ‘Task Manager’ on steroids. Lets configure Bioshock 2 Remastered!
All different options you need are highlighed in the following picture. Configure them one by one.
Performance Mode
Select the following menu:
Click on the 3 dot button and look for your Bioshock exe file. Normally this is located somewhere in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps, but mine is at
G:\Steam\steamapps\common\BioShock 2 Remastered\Build\Final\Bioshock2HD.exe
Click the add button:
Finally click the ok button
Process Priority
Select menu ‘Options’ -> ‘Configure Default CPU Priorities’. Add the Bioshock name in the box and select ‘High’:
Click the ‘Add to List’ button to add it to the list:
Bioshock is now in the list with high prio. Click ‘Ok’:
CPU Affinity
Select menu ‘Options’ -> ‘Configure Default CPU Sffinities’. Add the Bioshock name in the box and select 2 CPU cores you want to use exclusively. I have a 6 core AMD Ryzen 5 1600X processor, each physical core acts as 2 virtual CPUs (hyperthreading). I
assume that each ‘pair’ of CPUs is located on the same physical core, so
- core 1 -> CPU 0 and CPU 1
- core 2 -> CPU 2 and CPU 3
- etc
That’s why I selected 2 CPUs that are on different physical cores.
If my assumption about the hyperthreading is wrong, please let me know
Click the ‘Add to List’ button :
Finally click ‘Ok’:
IO Priority
Configure this the same way as the Process Priority:
Lasso in action
This is what Lasso shows when actually playing Bioshock.
The Bioshock 2 process appears in the Process window, with the properties we configured!
Pay special attention to the ‘CPU Group 0’ graph, only the 2 CPUs that are configured should contain a green bar (which means 100% load on that CPU)
Let me know in the comments if it works for you or not
Change Startup
If you are like me and don’t want Lasso to start with windows, configure it to start manually like this
Don’t forget to start Lasso manually before playing Bioshock 🙂
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