Fangs & Ferns

In-game overlay.

A movable minimap, your Prime progress and vitals, and proximity voice with push-to-talk — all on top of The Isle. The website can’t see your keys while the game has the focus; the overlay can.

Download for Windows

Windows 10 or 11. Run the installer once: it puts a Fangs & Ferns Overlay shortcut on your Desktop and in the Start Menu, and keeps itself updated from then on. Launch it any time from the shortcut — you can delete the installer afterwards.

Download for Windows

Already running the older overlay? It keeps working — it will not update to this one on its own, so install this once and you can remove the old one from your tray.

Windows SmartScreen may warn about a new app the first time — choose “More info”, then “Run anyway”. Press Alt+F8 any time to show or hide the overlay without closing it.

Antivirus blocked the download? Read this.

Some antivirus programs — Avast and AVG especially — flag the overlay as “IDP.Generic”. That is a false alarm, not an infection: it is the generic warning they raise for a small, brand-new app that is not yet code-signed and that listens for global hotkeys — exactly what push-to-talk needs so F8 still works while the game has the focus. The overlay is built by the Fangs & Ferns team, is only ever downloaded from this site, and never records or sends anything you type — it only watches for the hotkeys you bind.

To get it through: open your antivirus, restore the file from the quarantine (Avast calls it the Virus Chest), and add an exception. In Avast or AVG: Menu → Settings → General → Exceptions → Add exception, then paste https://fangsandferns.com/downloads/. Then download again.

Streaming with OBS? Put voice on its own audio track.

The overlay plays proximity voice through your normal speakers or headset, like any voice app — so OBS’s built-in Desktop Audio source already contains it, mixed into everything else. If you then add the overlay as its own audio source on top, your stream hears every voice twice. The fix is to capture each app separately instead of capturing the whole desktop:

1. In OBS: Sources → add an Application Audio Capture → pick Fangs & Ferns Overlay (keep the overlay running). This source carries proximity voice and nothing else.
2. Add a second Application Audio Capture → pick The Isle (TheIsleClient-Win64-Shipping.exe). This one is pure game sound — footsteps, ambience, your own calls — with no voices in it.
3. Mute or remove Desktop Audio in the mixer (or Settings → Audio → set Desktop Audio to Disabled). Leave it on and voice doubles again, because your speakers still carry it.

Good to know: the voice track can still pick up loud in‑game sounds from other players — a nearby dino call sometimes rides another player’s microphone into the voice channel, exactly as it would on Discord. That comes from their mic, not from your setup. And if you would rather keep a Desktop Audio source, open the overlay’s Voice tab and switch Output to a playback device OBS is not capturing — the overlay audio source keeps capturing voice either way.

Download for Linux

For playing through Proton. Download the AppImage, mark it executable and run it — there is nothing to install and no root needed, and it keeps itself updated from then on.

Download for Linux

Then either right‑click it → Properties → allow executing, or run chmod +x FangsAndFerns-Overlay-2.1.0.AppImage and launch it.

Prefer a plain archive? Download the .tar.gz instead — the same app, but it does not update itself, so you would come back here for new versions.

Push to talk on Linux — read this once.

The overlay reads your push‑to‑talk key through X11, which is the only way any app can see a key while The Isle has the focus. That needs two things.

1. An X11 or Xwayland session. On a Wayland desktop the compositor does not let any application read keys meant for another window — that is deliberate, and no app can work around it. Log in to an X11 session and push to talk works normally. Everything else in the overlay — map, vitals, Prime, inventory, voice itself — works either way.

2. A few system libraries, which some desktops do not install by default:
Debian / Ubuntu: sudo apt install libxt6 libxtst6 libsm6 libice6
Fedora: sudo dnf install libXt libXtst libSM libICE
Arch: sudo pacman -S libxt libxtst libsm libice

You do not have to guess which one is wrong: if the key cannot work, the overlay says so on screen and names exactly what to install.

One other difference: the combat lock is Windows‑only, because it reads the mouse cursor through a Windows call. On Linux the overlay starts click‑through instead, so your clicks pass straight to the game and the overlay only takes the mouse while you are actually pointing at one of its controls. You can turn that off in Settings.

What you get

Live map — follows your dinosaur, with nearby creatures, sanctuaries, water, migration and patrol zones. Keep it as a tab inside the overlay, or pop it out into its own window and drag it anywhere — both work, at whatever size suits you.
Dashboard — growth and vitals, your mutations, and Prime conditions with patrol & migration progress, with the live map docked underneath so you never lose sight of your health to check where you are. Resize it, or hide it, whenever you like.
Inventory — your stored dinosaurs in 3D, with park, redeem and slay.
Voice — proximity chat with push-to-talk that works while you’re in the game.
Combat lock — while the game owns your cursor the overlay ignores the mouse, so a stray click can never steal control mid-fight. (Windows only — on Linux the overlay starts click‑through instead, which keeps stray clicks out of your way the same way.)

Hotkeys

F8 Hold to talk
Alt + F8 Show / hide the overlay
1 2 3 Dashboard / Inventory / Voice

Push to talk is rebindable in Settings, including mouse side buttons. Prefer the browser? The voice page and map still work with the window focused.