CONTROLS & SETTINGS
God of War 3 PC Port Keyboard and Controller Controls
Controller menu: R3 + L2 · Keyboard: Insert
Use WASD to move, the arrow keys for the camera, and Insert to open the port's settings menu. Change button bindings in the launcher's Game / Controls section; keyboard and controller input can work together.
Default keyboard bindings
| Key | PlayStation input / purpose |
|---|---|
| W / A / S / D | Left stick · W: up; A: left; S: down; D: right |
| Arrow keys | Right stick (camera) · UP: up; LEFT: left; DOWN: down; RIGHT: right |
| Space | Cross |
| Left Shift | Circle |
| E | Square |
| Q | Triangle |
| 1 | L1 |
| 3 | R1 |
| R | L2 |
| F | R2 |
| Z | L3 |
| C | R3 |
| Enter | Options |
| Tab | Touchpad left (photo mode) |
| Backspace | Touchpad right (pause menu) |
| I | D-pad up |
| K | D-pad down |
| J | D-pad left |
| L | D-pad right |
| Insert | Open or close the port menu |
Use the button column to match combat and menu prompts on screen. The table shows defaults for the release above; your saved bindings take priority.
Space matches Cross, E matches Square, Q matches Triangle, and Left Shift matches Circle. Tab opens photo mode; Backspace opens the pause menu. Keep the camera arrows separate from the I/K/J/L D-pad keys.
In the save list, use arrows or the D-pad to choose a slot, Enter or Cross to confirm, and Esc or Circle to cancel.
Controller and touchpad equivalents
DualSense, Xbox and other supported gamepads can be used alongside the keyboard. On a controller without a touchpad, View opens the pause menu and L1 + View opens photo mode. DualSense keeps the PS4 touchpad behavior; Share/Create works like View.
To change on-screen prompts, open Game / Controls / In-game button icons and choose Match my controller, Xbox or Nintendo. The original PlayStation icons are the default. Restart after connecting a new controller. The controller drawing in the pause menu stays a DualShock 4.
Adjust rumble with Game / Controls / Vibration, from 0% to 100%. Set it to 0% to turn vibration off.
Launcher settings reference
Graphics
| Setting | Options | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display mode | Windowed · Borderless · Fullscreen | Not listed | Choose how the game window occupies the screen. |
| VSync | On · Off | Not listed | Controls synchronization with the display. |
| Anisotropic filtering | Game default · 2x · 4x · 8x · 16x | Game default | Sharpens floors and walls seen at a steep angle; applies when the game starts. |
| Show performance overlay | On · Off | Not listed | Customize its items and style in the in-game Overlay tab. |
| Open screenshots folder | Open folder | Not listed | Open screenshots folder |
Performance
| Setting | Options | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frame rate limit | 30 · 60 · 120 · 240 · Unlimited | Not listed | Limits presentation; the engine frame rate is the ceiling. |
| Frames queued | 1 · 2 · Unlimited | Not listed | Sets how many frames may wait in the queue. |
| Engine frame rate | 60 (original) · 120 · 240 | 120 FPS | Chooses the game engine’s frame-rate ceiling. |
| Render resolution | Native (1080p) · 480p · 720p · 1440p · 1800p · 4K | Not listed | Sets the rendered size; a resolution patch replaces the texture fix. |
| Load shader cache in the background | On · Off | Not listed | Loads saved shaders while playing. |
| Compile new shaders in the background | On · Off | Not listed | New shaders compile while playing; effects may appear late and stutters can remain. |
| Graphics card | Automatic or a detected graphics card | Not listed | Select the GPU used by the game. |
| Stream buffer memory | System RAM (cached) · System RAM (uncached) · GPU memory | System RAM (cached) | System RAM can improve frame rates on NVIDIA laptops; the choice applies on the next launch. |
| Deferred GPU readbacks | On · Off | Not listed | Turn this back on if it was disabled for yellow/orange/white textures: the release fixes those textures with either setting, and the author reports about twice the speed in heavy scenes with it on. |
| Game multisampling | Automatic · Off · On | Not listed | Automatic disables multisampling on AMD/Intel Windows drivers and keeps it elsewhere; applies next launch. |
Game
| Setting | Options | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game folder | Folder | Not listed | Select your own folder containing eboot.bin, sce_module and sce_sys. |
| Update folder (optional) | Folder or empty | Not listed | Select a separately dumped update; leave empty if the game folder already includes it. |
| Saves folder | Folder or empty | Not listed | Empty uses the platform’s default data location. |
| In-game button icons | Original · Match my controller · Xbox · Nintendo | Original (PlayStation) | Opt-in replacement of game prompts; restart when changing controller. |
| Vibration | 0% to 100% | 100% | Sets gamepad vibration strength; zero turns it off. |
Advanced
| Setting | Options | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Show Discord Rich Presence | On · Off | Off | Optional: shows the game in Discord and keeps elapsed time when Discord reconnects; off by default. |
“Not listed” means this guide does not list a default value. Home also offers quick controls for display mode, frame rate limit, render resolution and engine frame rate.
Stream buffer memory, Game multisampling and Graphics / Anisotropic filtering take effect on the next launch. Anisotropic filtering sharpens floors and walls seen at an angle; choose Game default, 2x, 4x, 8x or 16x.
Re-enable Performance / GPU data / Deferred GPU readbacks if you used the old yellow/orange/white texture workaround. The current release fixes that corruption with either setting. For remaining visual faults, follow the symptom-specific checks.
Press F12 to save a PNG of the game without the port's overlay. Find it in the selected Saves folder at:
screenshots/
Open that folder through Graphics / Screenshots. The release’s in-game checks for the new filtering, vibration and screenshot options cover Windows; on Linux, check the option after changing it, and inspect the saved image when using HDR screenshots. To show the game and elapsed play time on Discord, enable Advanced / Launcher / Show Discord Rich Presence; it is off by default.
If input does not respond
- Close the port menu with Insert, then retry gameplay input.
- Check whether you are pressing a camera key, a D-pad key or a button binding. Check Game / Controls if you changed the defaults.
- After connecting a new controller, restart the game and test it again.
If the same input still fails, record your program version, system, controller model and the exact key or button. Include whether it fails in gameplay or a menu, then follow the failure-report checklist.