This recent THQ first person shooter (FPS) was released recently on Steam. For this particular game, many of the same fixes used for an unrelated problem that you are not experiencing might fix the one that you happen to be experiencing. Most of the game problems exist only on the PC — not with the console versions (Xbox 360, Playstation 3 / PS3).

Try troubleshooting through the guide to help get rid of things like game freezing, blue screen of death (BSOD), etc. Good luck!

Common Directories

These two INI — GCEngine.ini and GCInput.ini — are referenced occasionally in this Homefront Bug Fixes Guide is located below. Be sure to alter the beginning that’s in bold to correspond with your operating system, hard drive, and username:

C:\\Documents\\My Games\\HOMEFRONT\\GCGame\\Config\\GCEngine.ini

The location of the game .exe file is generally the below. Just make sure to alter as necessary to point to the correct Steam folder:

C:\\Games\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\homefront\\Binaries

You may also need to edit the DefaultEngine.ini file:

C:\\Program Files\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\homefront\\GCGame\\Config\\DefaultEngine.ini

And…baseinput.ini:

C:\\Games\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\homefront\\engine\\config\\baseinput.ini

Fix Homefront Lagging / Stuttering

If your Homefront game has a lot of lag or the frames seem to be skipping, then try changing the launch parameters for it by:
— Right click your shortcut to the game -> properties — and add the launch parameter “-compatscale=4”
This will make use of hardware optimization. If your PC is terrible, then try lowering the 4 to 3 or lower.

No Game Music / Audio / Sound for Homefront

This can happen if you’re using a normal stereo headset or even just with normal speakers (including PC and Laptop speakers such as the Apple Macintosh / Mac Book Pro). Other users seem to be experiencing low volume level that’s near silent. There are a couple of things you can do to try to fix this for the game:
— Reboot the PC
— Reinstall the game (not the ideal game solution of course)
— Update your audio / sound card drivers
— Disable your HDMI / High End sound ports in the Master Volume Control Panel or via your soundcard driver software
— Download and Install the DirectX 9.0 Runtime

You can…
1) Go to Start -> Run — type in DXDIAG
2) Click the “Sound” tab and drag the “Hardware Sound Acceleration Level” slider to “No acceleration” for DirectSound

Or try…
1) Go to My Computer -> Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices
2) Under the “Volume” tab in the “Speaker settings” area, click “Advanced”, then go to the “Performance” tab
3) Slide “Hardware Acceleration” from “Full” to “None”
4) Slide “Sample rate conversion quality” from “Best” to “Good”, then hit “OK”

Another Homefront bug fix…
— Open DefaultEngine.ini with notepad, then make the following change:

MaxChannels=128 to 64

A newer game fix for Homefront sound not working is below.
Note that this example uses an AC’97 Onboard audio configuration and as such you will need to modify as needed to match your particular hardware settings.
1) Set your audio / speakers to use Stereo by loading the Volume Control Panel
2) Go to the “Playback Devices” area and for your device hit “configure” and use a “Stereo” setup
3) Load DefaultEngine.ini in Notepad and make the add the following line under [ALAudio.ALAudioDevice] (modify the “RealTek” part as needed)

NoHALSupport0=RealTek AC97

Alternatively, you can add:

NoHALSupport0=RealTek AC97
NoHALSupport1=SigmaTel Audio
NoHALSupport2=Realtek HD Audio output
NoHALSupport3=Sound Blaster Audigy
NoHALSupport4=SB Audigy

You might also use NoHALSupport0=IDT High Definition Audio CODEC

Homefront Game Does Not / Fails to Launch / Open, homefront.exe Crashes at Startup With No Error, Black Screen

This seems to be a very common game problem for Homefront. Your screen might flash or show a black screen, then the process / exe crashes as seen in Windows Task Manager. Hopefully a patch will provide a game fix for this Crash to Desktop (CTD) (C2D) game problem. Also, some people seem to be getting the Windows game error “Homefront has stopped working”. Keep in mind that this game requires PhysX. Anyway, try these game fixes for it:
— Try setting the game to Windows XP compatibility mode by right clicking the EXE -> Properties -> Compatibility — and setting Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3). This game fix will only help out Windows 7 / Vista users though.
— Make sure your GCEngine.ini exists, isn’t blank, and isn’t set to Read Only (right click the file -> properties — uncheck read-only)
— Get & Install the Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Runtime
— Try launching the game through its EXE instead of through Steam
— Some people suggest downloading the cracked version from links using RapidShare (RS), MegaShares (MS), MegaUpload (MU), MediaFire (MF), etc…but there’s no sense in doing that seeing as how you bought it and want to play multiplayer!

You can also try:
— Try changing your computer’s resolution to something more common
— Updating your video card / graphics card drivers, as they generally not only contain improvements that help with game lag or stuttering, but also graphics glitches such as pixilation, artifacts on the screen, or odd texture problems. They can fix game glitches too, as well as general incompatibility that can cause black screens on launch. Upgrade your drivers to the latest NVIDIA, ATI, etc. version.
— Try running your game with admin / administrative privileges or under an admin account (especially if on Vista)

Or the following Homefront Crash to Desktop fix…
— Locate your GCEngine.ini file and find the following two lines and change them like so:

AllowD3D10=True to AllowD3D10=False
CompatLevelGPU=0 to CompatLevelGPU=1

Another Homefront Crash to Desktop Fix / Black Screen On Launch Fix:
1) Set your Steam server to a different country, which should trigger Steam to download
2) Launch the newly downloaded EXE

Note that if this does not work, then try turning off Steam Cloud and using this method in conjunction with the below method (alter the INI before launch).

And yet Another Homefront game fix that has worked for some is to do the following:
1) Open GCEngine.ini and make the following changes:

Fullscreen=True to Fullscreen=False
AllowD3D10=True to AllowD3D10=False

2) Launch the game, pick your game resolution, enable full screen (if desired), and modify your gaming presets for your PC, then apply the changes
3) Quit Homefront and open the GCEngine.ini again to make the following change:

AllowD3D10=True to AllowD3D10=False

Courtesy of SteamPowered

Freezes During Decryption Process / Steam Game Cache Validation

Usually it will freeze / get stuck at 74% percent. I recommend:
— Simply waiting. Why? Because it may not really be frozen or stuck at all. It may just be taking a long time. Give it A LOT of time to perform this task and eventually it gets passed 74% in many cases.
— Delete the game entirely (including parts in your Steam folder) and then redownload it from Steam.

Multiple / Two Homefront Completing Installation Messages

If you keep getting this game installation message, then generally that means that Homefront did not preload well. The downloading or install portion must have had a problem. Try re-downloading the game after deleting it.

Game Settings Keep Reverting

If you find that after altering your settings they change back, then try:
— Making sure your INI files are NOT Read Only or that they even exist / have text in them
— Disabling Steam Cloud

Fix Mouse Movements or Controls / Disable Hardware Acceleration

If your mouse is acting weird or is too overly sensitive / slow, then try the following:
1) Open baseinput.ini with notepad, locate the line “[Engine.PlayerInput]” and under it add:

bViewAccelerationEnabled=False

2) Make the following edit to the file:

bEnableMouseSmoothing=true to bEnableMouseSmoothing=false

Source: SteamPowered

“Your Connection to the Host has been Lost” or Steam Keeps Disconnecting Game Error

This unfortunately seems to be Steam related. Note that things like firewalls and internet connection stability also affect this.

“The Steam servers are currently too busy to handle your request. Please try again in a few minutes.” Steam Error

Just wait patiently. This is generally a message that pops up when the Steam server is crowded. Try again later! Perhaps during off or weird hours.

Enable / Disable / Turn Off Movies

1) If you want to prevent the movies at the start of the game, then alter the following lines in the DefaultEngine.ini:

bShouldStopMovieAtEndOfLoadMap=true
;+StartupMovies=LegalScreen_PC
;+StartupMovies=THQ
;+StartupMovies=ThreeLogos
;+StartupMovies=DE_Logo
;+StartupMovies=NVidia
;+StartupMovies=HomeIsLogo

2) Now backup -> delete GCEngine.ini & GCInput.ini

Game Hardware Specification Requirements

Minimum Spec
Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7
Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 2.8GHz
2 GB RAM
Shader Model 3.0 graphics card with 256MB of memory
NVIDIA GeForce 7900GS or ATI Radeon 1900XT
10GB of free hard drive space

Recommended Spec
Windows Vista or Windows 7
Intel or AMD Quad Core 2 GHz+ CPU
2 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 260 or ATI Radeon 4850
10 GB of free hard drive space

NVIDIA 3D Vision Recommended Spec
3D Compatible NVIDIA GeForce 480/570 Series GPU
NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit
3D Vision-Ready Display
Intel Core i7 processor
2 GB RAM
Windows Vista or Windows 7
10GB of free hard drive space