Battlefield 2

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).


⤏ Go to series page
Battlefield 1942	2002
Battlefield Vietnam	2004
Battlefield 2	2005
Battlefield 2142	2006
Battlefield Heroes	2009
Battlefield: Bad Company 2	2010
Battlefield Online	2010
Battlefield Play4Free	2011
Battlefield 3	2011
Battlefield 4	2013
Battlefield Hardline	2015
Battlefield 1	2016
Battlefield 1943 (Mod)	2017
Battlefield V	2018
Battlefield 2042	2021
Battlefield 6	2025

Key points

No longer playable online after GameSpy and Project Revive shutdowns.^[1]

General information

Battlefield Wiki

Planet Battlefield

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v3 DRM^{[Note 1]}. Can be redeemed on Origin through the EA Support.

SafeDisc DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected releases).

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Armored Fury	Included in the latest patch and the Battlefield 2: Complete Collection.
Euro Force	Included in the latest patch and the Battlefield 2: Complete Collection.
Special Forces	Included in the Battlefield 2: Complete Collection.

Version differences

Battlefield 2: Complete Collection

Includes Battlefield 2 and the expansion pack Special Forces, along with two content add-ons, Armored Fury and Euro Forces, included for free in the latest patch. Only one CD key is available for all the expansions.

Serial Key

The disc based version requires a CD-key which has to be typed in when installing. Individual CD keys are required for each expansion.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use the `+restart` command line argument^{[citation needed]}

Patches

The Origin and Steam versions are already patched.

Patch 1.50

Version 1.41 has to be installed beforehand.

Removes the disc check DRM and adds widescreen support.

Includes the Armored Fury and Euro Forces expansions for free.

Patch 1.41

A very important patch.

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

Template:Game data/row

System	Location
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/24860/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

Template:Game data/row

System	Location
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/24860/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
EA app
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game video settings.

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Included on Version 1.5 of Battlefield 2.

Instructions^{[citation needed]}

See Command line arguments.
Use +szx YourWidth +szy YourHeight +menu 1 +widescreen 1

Notes

Change the bold text beginning with Your with the desired values.

Windowed

Instructions^{[citation needed]}
See Command line arguments. Use `+fullscreen 0`

High frame rate

Instructions^{[citation needed]}
Press `~` and the in-game console will appear. In console, type in `Game.LockFps XX` where XX is your desired Frame rate (e.g. `Game.LockFps 0`). Press `↵ Enter` to activate the console command and press `~` again to close the console.

Input settings

In-game general control settings.

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

In-game audio settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Traditional Chinese
Korean
Polish
Spanish
Swedish
Thai

Network

Servers can optionally use PunkBuster anti-cheat protection.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		64
Online play		64	No longer playable after GameSpy shutdown and EA's warning letter to community-run Project Revive.^[1]

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting		Dedicated server software available for Windows and Linux.
Direct IP		Enter in-game or use `bf2://` URL.

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	80,1024-1124,4711,29900,29901
UDP	1024-1124,1500-4999,16567,27900,28910,29900,55123-55125

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

In-game Novint Falcon settings.

3D modes	State	Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision
TriDef 3D
iZ3D

Devices
Novint Falcon		Requires Patch 1.50.

Issues fixed

TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game.

Newer version already installed

Download and install the 1.41 patch^{[citation needed]}

Can't find install folder

Patch 1.41 won't install ("Can't find install folder")^{[citation needed]}
Go to `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Battlefield 2` Create a 'New String' by right clicking in the folder and select New > String Value, label this string "InstallDir" Right-Click, 'Modify' the string, and in the Data Value field, input the installation folder.

Game crashes often

Option #1 - Running game with disable desktop composition^{[citation needed]}
Right-click `bf2.exe`. Click options > compatibility tab. Run the game with Disable Desktop Composition.

Option #2 - For multi-core CPUs^{[citation needed]}

If you are using a multi-core CPU, try running the game on a single CPU core.

Go into the process list in Task Manager.
Find bf2.exe.
Right click, select "set affinity," and choose one of the cores.

This shortcut will also do it for you.

[Target: %WINDIR%\System32\cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 C:\Program" "Files\EA" "GAMES\Battlefield" "2\BF2.exe +restart] [Start In: "C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2"].

Vsync doesn't work

Some combinations of cards/drivers seem to not apply Vsync.

Forcing VSync^{[citation needed]}
Force Vsync with a third-party program such as D3DOverrider. In D3DOverrider create a separate profile using Low detection level. If that doesn't work try High instead.

Getting kicked by PunkBuster

Update PunkBuster manually^{[citation needed]}

Download PBSetup.
Run the program and add Battlefield 2. Click "check for updates" and let it run.
If you still have errors, start the game by right clicking the shortcut and choosing "Run as Administrator".

You should only need to do this once but if it continues, you can set the shortcut to always run as administrator by right clicking the shortcut, select "Properties", choose the "Computability" tab, and select the "Run as Administrator" box.

X-Fi related sound issues

Reduce sound quality^{[citation needed]}

On Windows 7 x64 systems with a Creative X-Fi sound card, severe audio corruption may occur when running under X-Fi Audio Mode and Ultra sound quality.

Reducing the sound quality to "High" usually solves this issue.
You can also try out adding the game into Creative Alchemy software.

Invalid CDKey

Some people get kicked from every game with an "Invalid CDKey" message. This also happens with the Steam version, where your key is bound to be correct anyway.

There's a thread on the Steam forums containing some fixes for this.

Manual method^{[citation needed]}
Backing up the registry before doing this is heavily recommended. Follow these instructions from the EA help section.

Black terrain and/or models, objects, black spots on map, other visual graphics issues

With some player created modifications on some systems a shader bug may become activated. This can happen even with mods that should have their content entirely separate from the main BF2 install in a "mod" subfolder. It does not have anything to do with graphics driver issues or anti-aliasing settings. It is in fact caused by buggy shader ".fx" files in the BF2 "shaders_client.zip". These can be replaced by fixed ".fx" files.

Download updated shader ".fx" files^{[citation needed]}
Download a new "shaders_client.zip". After backing up the file, replace `shaders_client.zip` in `<path-to-game>\mods`. Delete the Battlefield 2 cache folder in `%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2`. This will force Battlefield 2 to recompile the shaders.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	OpenAL, Speex
Cutscenes	Bink Video, Swiff Player
Multiplayer	GameSpy, PunkBuster	Use BF2 Battlelog to replace the deprecated GameSpy master server.

Ambient occlusion (HBAO)

The inspector tool.

Instructions^{[citation needed]}

Download the NVIDIA Inspector Tool.
Extract the files to any new folder.
Open nvidiaprofileinspector.exe.
From the drop down list next to Profiles select Battlefield 2.
Select the Ambient Occlusion compatibility line.
Set SettingValue to 0x00000003 (Fallout 3) from the drop down menu.

Notes

This tweak might not work with the previous 1.4 patch.

Automatic login

Instructions^{[citation needed]}

See Command line arguments.
Use +playerName YourName +playerPassword YourPassword

Notes

It might be necessary to log-in at least once.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP
Processor (CPU)	AMD Athlon XP equivalent Intel Pentium IV 1.7 GHz	AMD Athlon XP equivalent Intel Pentium IV 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	2.3 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 ATI Radeon 9500 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0b compatible	Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 ATI Radeon 9500 256 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ This version of SafeDisc DRM does not work on Windows 10^[2] 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.^[3]
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1
Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (24860) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Old Battlefield games re-killed after EA’s legal warning || Rock Paper Shotgun
↑ 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

[4] This version of SafeDisc DRM does not work on Windows 10^[2] 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.^[3]

[Proton_path_note-5] 2.0 ^2.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
The app ID (24860) may differ in some cases.
Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[3] File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.

[4] Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.

[5] The app ID (24860) may differ in some cases.

[6] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

[7] See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[ProjectReviveShutdown-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Old Battlefield games re-killed after EA’s legal warning || Rock Paper Shotgun

[2] Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16

[3] Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16

[1]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	DICE
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Refractor 2
Release dates
Windows	June 21, 2005