Difference between revisions of "Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2"
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Revision as of 15:16, 22 November 2022
Developers | |
---|---|
Westwood Pacific | |
Publishers | |
Electronic Arts | |
Release dates | |
Windows | October 25, 2000 |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 84 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | One-time game purchase, Expansion pack |
Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
Pacing | Real-time |
Perspectives | Bird's-eye view, Isometric |
Controls | Multiple select, Point and select |
Genres | RTS |
Themes | Europe, North America, Africa, Oceania, Antarctica, Sci-fi, Space |
Series | Command & Conquer |
⤏ Go to series page | |
Command & Conquer | 1995 |
Command & Conquer: Red Alert | 1996 |
Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor | 1997 |
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun | 1999 |
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 | 2000 |
Command & Conquer: Renegade | 2002 |
Command & Conquer: Generals | 2003 |
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars | 2007 |
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 | 2008 |
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising | 2009 |
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight | 2010 |
OpenRA (unofficial) | 2010 |
Command & Conquer (2013) | Cancelled |
Command & Conquer Remastered Collection | 2020 |
Renegade X (unofficial) | EA |
Key points
- Small but dedicated community.
General information
- Command & Conquer Wiki - A wiki for everything Command & Conquer-related
- Project Perfect Mod - The most expansive RA2 mod site.
- CnCNet (multiplayer replacement; Yuri's Revenge expansion required)
- XWIS (legacy multiplayer replacement, default server lookup leads to this service)
- Red Alert 2 section on CNC.community
- Red Alert 2 section on C&C Communications Center
- Red Alert 2 section on CNCNZ.com
- Yuri's Revenge section on CNCNZ.com
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | SafeDisc 2 DRM[Note 1]. The installer for the base game is also DRM-protected, but not the one for Yuri's Revenge. | |||
Origin | Bundled with other games in the franchise up to Tiberian Twilight. Included with EA Play. |
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
- All versions include custom DRM code which can sabotage the game by destroying all units and structures owned by the player after 30 seconds, triggering an automatic defeat. It can occur on legitimate copies under certain circumstances - see Auto-defeat after 30 seconds for instructions to fix this.
Monetization
Type | Notes |
---|---|
Expansion pack | The expansion pack includes a new faction, new campaigns, maps, and units. |
One-time game purchase | The game requires an upfront purchase to access. |
DLC and expansion packs
Name | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Yuri's Revenge | Explicitly requires the base game to be patched to v1.006. Bundled with the The First Decade and Ultimate Collection compilations. |
Essential improvements
Patches
- Patch 1.006 for Red Alert 2 fixes general bugs, network and exploit issues - available from CNCNZ.com, C&C Labs, Patches-Scrolls and GameFront.
- Patch 1.001 for Yuri's Revenge fixes bugs, crashes and a problem when multiple CD drives are plugged in - available from CNCNZ.com, C&C Labs, Patches-Scrolls and GameFront.
- Both patches are already included in The First Decade and The Ultimate Collection releases.
CnCNet YR Client
- Download link
- Requires the Yuri's Revenge expansion patched to version 1.001.
- Includes a variety of custom graphics renderers, each fitting different configurations: cnc-ddraw, ts-ddraw, DDrawCompat and DxWnd.
- Settings changes apply to the main executables of Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | <path-to-game>\ra2.ini[Note 2] <path-to-game>\ra2md.ini[Note 2] |
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | <path-to-game>\*.sav[Note 2] |
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Origin |
Video
Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | See Widescreen resolution. | ||
Multi-monitor | See Widescreen resolution. | ||
Ultra-widescreen | See Widescreen resolution. | ||
4K Ultra HD | See Widescreen resolution. | ||
Field of view (FOV) | Isometric. | ||
Windowed | Add -win to the shortcut target. Requires to be run in 16-bit colour mode unless a custom graphics renderer is used. |
||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | Using the CnC-DDraw renderer. | ||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | |||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | |||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
60 FPS | Videos 15 FPS only. Multiplayer game speed 60 FPS max. Framerate tied to gameplay speed. | ||
120+ FPS | Depends on system, can go as high as 1777 FPS or more at Game Speed 6; only for singleplayer games and missions (see -SPEEDCONTROL). Framerate tied to gameplay speed. | ||
High dynamic range display (HDR) |
Widescreen resolution
- Regardless of the settings applied, the Yuri's Revenge main menu is hardcoded to 800x600. These changes apply to the in-game resolutions of the base game and expansion, as well as the base game main menu.
Modify the configuration file, method 1 |
---|
[Video] ScreenHeight=XXXX ScreenWidth=XXXX Where |
Modify the configuration file, method 2 |
---|
This will let you change the resolution in the game menu to any supported by your computer. |
Main menu "cheat code" |
---|
|
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | Mouse controls can't be changed. LMB is for selection/orders, RMB is deselection/viewport panning. | |
Mouse acceleration | Can only change scroll speed | |
Mouse sensitivity | For scroll speed. | |
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Touchscreen optimised | Only if touch input doubles as mouse input (tapping = LMB, holding = RMB, etc.). No special touch-screen controls or touch-screen control-overlay | |
Controller | ||
Controller support |
Controller types |
---|
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | ||
Surround sound | ||
Subtitles | The Traditional Chinese versions have forced subtitles enabled in-game due to the presence of subtitle.ini (RA2) and subtitlemd.ini (YR) which other versions do not have. |
|
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | ||
Royalty free audio |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
Traditional Chinese | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Korean | ||||
Ukrainian | Fan translation and full dubbing by TSF, download. |
Network
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
LAN play | 8 | Versus, Co-op Uses IPX protocol. Requires a LAN patch to be replaced with UDP (ModDB, CNCNZ.com). Alternatively, the CnCNet YR client includes its own workaround. |
||
Online play | 8 | Versus, Co-op Lobbies point to XWIS by default since 2005 as part of an agreement with EA. CnCNet is a more popular alternative. |
Connection types
Type | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Matchmaking | ||
Peer-to-peer | ||
Dedicated | ||
Self-hosting | ||
Direct IP |
Ports
Protocol | Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
---|---|
TCP | 3840, 4005, 4808, 4810, 4995, 7000-7002 |
UDP | 1234-1237 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
Issues fixed
String manager failed to initialize properly
- This issue manifests as an error window reading "***FATAL*** String Manager Failed to Initialize Properly".
Setting up compatibility settings[3] |
---|
|
"Player already has the same serial" error
- This issue most often occurs when using the Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection version from Origin.
Add missing registry value |
---|
|
Auto-defeat after 30 seconds
- Is triggered by DRM, even on legitimate installations.
Check game's serial key registry entries[4] |
---|
Clean reinstall of the game as administrator[5] |
---|
|
Black screen with switchable graphics
This occurs when the game engine tries to render in VRAM.
Setting up cnc-ddraw renderer |
---|
If the problem persists only in Yuri's Revenge when exiting from playing to the menu, try to set renderer=opengl in |
Setting up ddwrapper renderer |
---|
Download Aqrit's ddwrapper and extract the FakeVsync = 1 NoVideoMemory = 1 Alternatively, simply download and extract the contents of this preconfigured fix into the RA2 folder. Also, consider using the performance fix as well. |
Game is purple/green colored and displays only on the other half of the screen
This happens sometimes on newer versions of Windows (7 and above). Use any of the renderers that come with the CnCNet client or use the manual method from above.
Some Windows elements flicker from behind the game
This happens if you have downloaded Aqrit's ddwrapper and extracted the ddraw.dll
and aqrit.cfg
files into the RA2 folder and have set the ForceDirectDrawEmulation
to "1". To fix this, set ForceDirectDrawEmulation
to "0":
ForceDirectDrawEmulation = 0
Alternatively, use any of the renderers that come with the CnCNet YR client or use the manual method from above.
Lag/low FPS
Modify the RA2(MD).ini file[6] |
---|
Notes
|
Use Command and Conquer Graphics Patcher[7] |
---|
Game runs too fast
- This will allow players to manually re-set game speed in missions like in the previous title.
- Make sure the in-game "Game Speed" slider is adjusted properly.
- "Normal" game speed is "Fast" 30 FPS. "Real" speed is "Slow" 15 FPS; 1 second in-game equals 1 second in real-life at 15 FPS. 60 FPS is Game Speed 5 "Faster".
Use the -SPEEDCONTROL command line argument[8]
|
---|
|
Restore command-line argument support (The Ultimate Collection version)
- The Ultimate Collection on Origin was released with no support for mods or command line arguments.
Use Medstar's fixed launchers (The Ultimate Collection)[9] |
---|
|
Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
DirectDraw | 7.0a |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Windows |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Cutscenes | Bink Video | |
Multiplayer | Westwood Online |
Command line arguments
- For these to work in The Ultimate Collection release, see Restore command-line argument support (The Ultimate Collection version).
Command[10] | Description |
---|---|
-WIN | Runs the game in windowed mode (requires 16-bit color mode) |
-16 | Forces 16-bit color mode |
-480 | Forces screen resolution to 480px height |
-[width]x[height] | Sets custom resolution |
-SPEEDCONTROL | Enables the game speed slider in campaign mode |
-noaudio | Disables game audio |
-nostr (or -jabber) | Disables reading the string file (.csf ); base game only
|
-record | Saves a match replay in <path-to-game>\SESSION.IPB ; faulty function, does not track other players' correct movements in multiplayer
|
-play [filename] | Plays a replay file |
-CD [path] | Redirects the disc check to a set path, which needs to contain YR1.dsk with at least 3 bytes of content; unknown how it relates to DRM
|
-STEALTH | Hides player names in multiplayer |
-DESTNET | Specifies destination network IP address |
-SOCKET | Specifies network socket number (0-16383) |
-DROP=[int] | Enables Packet Loss Simulation mode |
-MESSAGES | Allows incoming messages from outside the game (Westwood Online only) |
-DLINK | Enables additional logic for D-Link LAN configurations |
-NETGEAR | Enables additional logic for NetGear LAN configurations |
-MPDEBUG | Enables multiplayer debug mode |
FinalAlert (map editor)
- The latest version of FinalAlert 2 (YR 1.02) is available from CNCNZ, Project Perfect Mod, ModDB, CnCLabs, and GameFront. Despite the version name, it can work with and without the Yuri's Revenge expansion.
Hero units in "Hollywood and Vain" mission lack their unique lines
- Yuri's Revenge patch 1.001 replaced the voice lines of movie star characters in Allied mission 2 with those of regular GIs for unknown reasons.
Use Hero voicelines restoration mod[11] |
---|
System requirements
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 95, 98, NT 4.0, ME | 2000 |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Pentium II 266 MHz | Intel Pentium II 450 MHz |
System memory (RAM) | 64 MB | 128 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 350 MB additional 350 MB for expansion | |
Video card (GPU) | 2 MB of VRAM DirectX 7.0a compatible |
Notes
- ↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%
,%PROGRAMDATA%
, or%WINDIR%
might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
on Windows Vista and later (more details).
References
- ↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
- ↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
- ↑ Verified by User:Plok on 2022-08-10
- Common method used in the 2000s.
- ↑ Verified by User:Plok on 2022-08-10
- ↑ Verified by User:Plok on 2022-08-10
- ↑ Verified by User:Plok on 2022-08-10
- Common method used in the 2000s.
- ↑ http://www.stuffhost.de/files/cnc/CnCPatcher.html
- ↑ http://cnc-comm.com/community/index.php?topic=2132.0
- ↑ Verified by User:Plok on 2021-10-14
- ↑ Red Alert 2 on ModEnc, the Command 6 Conquer Modding Encyclopedia
- ↑ Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge - Hollywood and Vain Action Hero Voice Restore Mod - last accessed on 2020-01-25