We've been conducting CPU benchmarks on Star Wars Battlefront over the past few days and, thanks to DRM install limitations, it's taken a lot longer than normally. The testing has finally progressed to low-end CPUs, including the A10-7870K ($128) and popular Intel Pentium G3258 ($50) dual-core processor. The 7870K posed no issues with Battlefront – performance is nothing phenomenal, but it works – but the G3258 didn't work at all.
This limitation was a result of Battlefront's forced CPU requirements. The game demands a quad-core CPU, and the Pentium G3258 will produce a black screen issue when launching Battlefront. Interestingly, the beta seemed to work on the G3258 just fine – again, not the best FPS, but it worked – and that has ceased with the full launch. We're seeing a black screen with max FPS (200, capped) that allows console input, but doesn't actually output video. This threw a flag that the game should work with the G3258, even if poorly, and we decided to do some research.
We ended up using a solution posted on the StarWarsBattlefront sub-reddit, found here. Following the steps created by user “MitchyCola” and his peers, we were able to get the G3258 functioning for benchmarking purposes.
Note that we have successfully gotten the G3258 working with the below steps, but we have not done any malware validation or inspection on the required DLL files. Use these at your own risk. We have not seen any problems, but that doesn't preclude them from happening. We are unsure if Punk Buster or other anti-hacking software detects and bans for use of DLL injections.
- Download dualcore.dll, EasyHook64.dll, and Extreme Injector.exe. We have rehosted the required files here for permanence. The .rar password is gamersnexus. Use at your own risk.
- Navigate to the install location of Star Wars Battlefront.
- Place the dualcore.dll, EasyHook64.dll, and Extreme Injector into the Battlefront folder.
- Launch Extreme Injector. Type “starwarsbattlefront.exe” into the Process Name box. Click “Add DLL” and locate dualcore.dll, then change the injection method to “Manual Map” under the “Settings” box.
- Launch Battlefront and, as soon as the “Inject” button appears, hit it. You want to click “Inject” before Battlefront exhibits the black screen failure.
- Battlefront should now work.
Performance isn't great -- we're seeing roughly half the FPS of an i3-4130, when coupled with a 980 Ti, but it's still playable. We'll publish those findings soon.
Best of luck!
- Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke.