Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

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

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. 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).

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.

Patch 1.001 for Yuri's Revenge fixes bugs, crashes and a problem when multiple CD drives are plugged in.

By patch 1.001, Second mission of the Allied campaign, Operation: Hollywood and Vain's action hero parody voices replaced with standard GI ones.

LAN patch (fan made)

The LAN patch lets you play LAN on Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 (and their expansion packs) in Windows 2000 and later by changing IPX protocol to UDP.

CnCNet YR Client

Download link

Requires the Yuri's Revenge expansion version 1.001.

Includes a variety of custom graphics renderers, each fitting different configurations.

Settings changes apply to the main executables of Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge.

Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection Fixed Launchers (Origin)

An unofficial patch that provides a slight enhancement to the default launchers provided with the Origin release (fixes registry entries and allows command line arguments to function properly).

It can be downloaded from moddb.

FinalAlert (map editor)

• The latest version of FinalAlert 2 (YR 1.02) is available from CNCNZ, Project Perfect Mod, ModDB, CnCLabs. Despite the version name, it can work with and without the Yuri's Revenge expansion.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\*.ini

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\*.sav

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin

Video

In-game options screen.

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.
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; only for singleplayer games. 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
Go to <path-to-game> Open RA2.ini (base game) or RA2md.ini (Yuri's Revenge) with any text editor and type your resolution there: [Video] ScreenHeight=XXXX ScreenWidth=XXXX Where ScreenHeight and ScreenWidth are your desired resolution.

Modify the configuration file, method 2
Go to <path-to-game>. Open RA2.ini (base game) or RA2md.ini (Yuri's Revenge). Under the [Video] value, insert AllowHiResModes=yes. Save the file, then run the game. In the options screen, you can now change to any standardized resolution. This will let you change the resolution in the game menu to any supported by your computer.

Main menu "cheat code"
When in the game's main menu, simply type HIRES. In the options screen, you can now change to any standardized resolution.

Input

In-game key map settings.

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

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Korean
Ukrainian				Fan translation and full dubbing by TSF, download.

Network

In-game network settings.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		8	Uses IPX protocol. Requires LAN patch to be replaced with UDP.
Online play		8

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

"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
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Westwood\Red Alert 2 (base game) and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Westwood\Yuri's Revenge (expansion) Make a new string called Serial Enter a valid serial key as the string text (each player must have a unique entry). Incorrect values trigger the 30-second defeat DRM.

"***FATAL*** String Manager Failed to Initialize Properly" error

Setting up compatibility settings[citation needed]

Go to <path-to-game> Right click on the Ra2.exe (base game) or RA2MD.exe (Yuri's Revenge) file and select "Properties". Go to the "Compatibility" tab and enable Compatibility Mode (set it to "Windows 98/ME") and "Run this program as an administrator". The options in the normal Compatibility view cannot be selected. Click "Change settings for all users" to make the modifications. Apply the changes and launch the game.

Black screen with switchable graphics

This occurs when the game engine tries to render in VRAM.

Setting up modern renderer
Disable the compatibility mode of the game's RA2.exe and RA2MD.exe executables Copy the files from the .zip of cnc-ddraw custom renderer to your Red Alert 2 installation folder, replacing those present. If the problem persists only in Yuri's Revenge when exiting from playing to the menu, try to set renderer=opengl in ddraw.ini; auto or direct3d9 may be causing the problem.

Setting up legacy renderer
Download Aqrit's ddwrapper and extract the ddraw.dll and aqrit.cfg files into the RA2 folder, where ra2.ini lies. Next, ensure that only these settings are set to "1" in aqrit.cfg: 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 client or use the manual method from above.

Lag/low FPS

Modify the RA2.ini file[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game> Open RA2.ini for the base game and RA2MD.ini for Yuri's Revenge. Under the [Video] section, add VideoBackBuffer=No to a new line. Save the file and launch the game. Notes cnc-ddraw applies this fix

Use Command and Conquer Graphics Patcher

Game runs too fast

Before using this fix, 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.

Use the -SPEEDCONTROL command line argument
The launcher provided with the Ultimate Collection (Origin release) does not support custom launch options. Install the Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection Fixed Launchers before using. Apply the argument to a shortcut of the RA2Launcher.exe file.

Hero units in "Hollywood and Vain" mission lack their unique lines

Yuri's Revenge patch 1.001 cut the voice lines due to legal troubles

Use Hero voicelines restoration mod

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw	7

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	Westwood Online

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