The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Cover image missing, please upload it | |
Developers | |
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CD Projekt Red | |
Publishers | |
CD Projekt | |
Engines | |
Past | REDengine|REDengine|REDengine |
Enhanced Edition | REDengine 2|REDengine|REDengine 2 |
Release dates | |
Windows | May 17, 2011 |
macOS (OS X) | October 18, 2012[1] |
Linux | May 22, 2014[2] |
Key points
- Has official modding tools.
- Owning any version, including retail, entitles you to a DRM-free copy on GOG.com; see Witcher Backup.
- Incompatible with Windows' built-in color calibration feature. Calibrated screens will have ill in-game colors.
General information
- Official Website
- Official Forums
- Official Witcher Wiki
- GOG.com Community Discussions
- GOG.com Support Page
- A comprehensive list of known issues and potential fixes.
- The Witcher 2 for PC Technical FAQ.
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
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Retail | DRM: SecuROM. Removed in patches and later retail releases. | |||
GamersGate | ||||
Incorrect store name. See here for available options. | ||||
GOG.com | Offers various bonus goodies including the complete soundtrack in MP3 and FLAC formats. | |||
Humble Store | ||||
Mac App Store | ||||
Origin | ||||
Steam | ||||
Incorrect store name. See here for available options. |
- All versions can be registered on GOG.com even if a product key was not included; see Witcher Backup for details.
Essential improvements
Patches
- Install the latest patches to fix bugs and remove DRM.
Modifications
No Intro Videos
The No Intro Videos Mod skips all intro videos except the logo by CDProjekt.
Market Price Mod
Market Price Mod makes buying and selling prices within markets more fair to the player. It reduces the 24:1 ratio between buy to sell prices and reduces it to 5:1 as seen in the original game.
Text size
For people having problems with the size of text on large resolutions or on small displays, getting any variation of the Comfy Font, and placing the .dzip in the CookedPC folder will make it bigger and more visible.
Semi-Official Combat Mod By CDP developers
Full Combat Rebalance is a mod created by the developers of the game. A lot of changes as an 80% increase in responsiveness per Geralt's animations and decreased time for returning to exploration after combat is two of the many changes. Registration on the site is required to download the mod. The file is 1.5 GB in a compressed format.
Utilities
- The Witcher 2 Savegame manager allows for the easy backup, management, and removal of The Witcher 1 and 2 save files. Can tremendously improve the clutter of savegame files.
- The Witcher 2 Tweaker allows for greater customization of graphics options to further tailor your game for the PC. Also has helpful tips for improving performance on some computers as well.
Game data
Configuration files location
- This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.
Save game data location
System | Location |
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Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
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GOG Galaxy | ||
Origin | ||
Steam Cloud | Steam version uses Steam save game location when cloud is activated |
Video settings
- Video and input options can't be changed in-game.[3]
Sharpening filter
The Witcher 2 makes use of a sharpening filter that increases the sharpness of the game's visuals. While this setting has a negligible performance impact it does cause increased aliasing and adds an unnatural sheen to many objects, if those bother you it can be disabled with an INI tweak.
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HBAO+(NVIDIA GPUs Only)
Users that are using 16:9 resolutions are able to use HBAO+ in the game via NVIDIA Inspector. [1]
Instructions |
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GPU/CPU Intensive Settings
Enabling the following options will result in a significant reduction in in-game frame rate:
- Cinematic Depth of Field: Of the three depth of field options available, cinematic depth of field results in the biggest performance decrease. Enabling it applies a stylised depth of field effect to cutscenes and dialog sections. It is important to note that enabling it essentially enables depth of field anyway, so this option should be used in conjunction with 'Depth of Field - Cutscenes'. Again, it's performance impact is significant.
- Light Shafts: This option adds realistic light glares as sunlight filters through trees, etc. However, in graphically busy areas such as forests it can result in a major performance hit, and as such disabling it is recommended on lower end systems.
- LOD [Level of Detail] Distance: This decides how far away detailed objects (such as some shrubbery, objects, etc.) are rendered. The higher you set this value, the further away such objects will be rendered, and the larger the impact on FPS. As the difference between the 'Near' and 'Far' options is visually negligible in almost all instances, 'Near' is recommended for most systems. For systems which only just meet the system requirements, consider using the 'Minimal' option.
- Motion Blur: Enabling this option will result in a stylistic blur effect rotating the camera, which also results in an overall performance decrease.
- SSAO [Screen Space Ambient Occlusion]: This option improves the overall quality of shadows in-game by increasing their definition and contrast. Enabling it will also largely impact performance.
- UberSampling: This option essentially requires your system render everything on-screen multiple times before displaying, resulting in a drastic increase in overall visual detail, maximising object detail and smoothness, with the expense of a huge performance hit. It is only recommended to enable this option if you have a very high-end system.
- Wet Surfaces Rain Effect: This option is only active when it is raining in-game, and adds a semi-transparent filter to many objects to make the rainfall impact appear more realistic. It can result in a sizeable performance hit during rain sequences, however, so disabling it is a good idea for performance increases.
Note all other graphics options can be enabled/disabled with little or no FPS impact. Note that whilst 'Texture Downscaling' has a significant visual impact on the 'High' setting, reducing downscaling to 'Low' or disabling it entirely can drastically improve the look of the game with very little performance impact.
Input settings
Mouse acceleration
Instructions |
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Audio settings
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
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English | ||||
Traditional Chinese | ||||
Czech | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Hungarian | ||||
Italian | ||||
Japanese | ||||
Polish | ||||
Brazilian Portuguese | Only available for PC version | |||
Russian | ||||
Spanish | ||||
Turkish |
VR support
3D modes | State | GG3D | Notes | |
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Nvidia 3D Vision | ||||
TriDef 3D |
Issues fixed
- TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game.
Continued Stuttering During Gameplay
There are two possible causes for this issue:
- Incorrect texture settings. Launch the game and navigate to the 'Options' menu on the launcher. Locate the option for 'Texture Memory Size (MB)'. This is how much of your graphics card RAM is allocated to texture storage. For a 512 MB card, it is recommended set this to 'Small', whereas for a 1 GB card set this to 'Large'. Allocating insufficient memory for texture storage can result in delayed texture rendering and constant stuttering during gameplay.
- Rendering too many frames in advance. To fix this use your GPU configuration panel to manually set the value of "Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames" (Nvidia) or "Flip Queue" (ATI) to 1. You may also need to limit frame rate and/or enable Vsync.
First Time Setup Lock
The game attempts to reinstall the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 every time the game is launched.
Option 1: Registry Change (recommended)
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Option 2: Folder rename
Instructions |
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Crash on startup with error 0xc0000142
Instructions |
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Patch 2.1
Instructions |
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Black Screen During the Cut-scene after the First Chapter (Enhanced Edition)
Instructions |
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Random Crashes while Saving Game, Loading a Save Game or AutoSaving
Instructions |
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Instructions |
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AMD GPU users double input
If you have AMD Gaming Evolved installed, make sure the program is not running while playing.
Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
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Direct3D | 9 | Windows only. |
OpenGL | 2.1, 3.3 | OS X and Linux only. |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
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Windows | |||
macOS (OS X) | |||
Linux |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
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Physics | Havok Physics | |
Audio | FMOD Ex | |
Interface | Scaleform GFx | Scaleform is also used for video playback. |
Linux port
The Linux port is not native, and is packaged in a Wine-like compatibility layer called eON. eON is used for some other titles (such as Stronghold 3). It is not based on Wine, but has a similar reimplementation of the relevant Windows APIs.
System requirements
Windows | ||
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Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | XP | Vista, 7 |
Processor (CPU) | Intel/AMD Dual core 2.2 Ghz | Intel/AMD Quadcore |
System memory (RAM) | 1.5 GB (XP) - 2 GB (Vista, 7) | 3 GB ( XP) - 4 GB (Vista, 7) |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 16 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | ATI 3850 Nvidia 8800GT 512 MB of VRAM | ATI HD 4850 Nvidia GTX 260 1 GB of VRAM |
macOS (OS X) | ||
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Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 10.7.5, 10.8.0 | |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Core 2 Duo | Quad Core Intel |
System memory (RAM) | 4 GB | 8 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 25 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | GeForce GT 650M 512 MB (on 1440x900, low) Radeon HD 5770 1 GB (on 1440x900, low) 512 MB of VRAM | GeForce GTX 675MX (on 1920x1080, medium) Radeon HD 6970M (on 1920x1080, medium) 1 GB of VRAM |
- OS X version has no support for Intel integrated GPUs.
Linux | ||
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Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, SteamOS | |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Core 2 Duo | Quad Core Intel |
System memory (RAM) | 4 GB | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 25 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | GeForce 9800 GT (1280x720, low) 512 MB of VRAM | GeForce GT 640 (1440x900, medium) 1 GB of VRAM |
- Linux version has no support for Intel integrated GPUs.
References
- Pages needing cover images
- Windows
- OS X
- Linux
- Invalid template usage (Infobox game)
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