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Serious Sam 2

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Serious Sam 2
Serious Sam 2 cover
Developers
Croteam
Maintenance Alligator Pit
Publishers
2K Games
Devolver Digital
Engines
Serious Engine 2
Release dates
Windows October 11, 2005
Taxonomy
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person, Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, Shooter
Vehicles Flight, Helicopter, Hovercraft
Art styles Stylized
Themes Comedy, Sci-fi, Space
Series Serious Sam
Serious Sam 2 on MobyGames
Serious Sam 2 on Wikipedia
Serious Sam: The First Encounter 2001
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter 2002
Serious Sam 2 2005
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter 2009
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter 2010
Serious Sam Double D 2011
Serious Sam: The Random Encounter 2011
Serious Sam 3: BFE 2011
Serious Sam: The Greek Encounter 2012
Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! 2012
Serious Sam VR (series)
Serious Sam Fusion 2017 EA
Serious Sam's Bogus Detour 2017
Serious Sam Classics: Revolution 2019
Serious Sam 4 2020
Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem 2022
Serious Sam: Tormental 2022

Warnings

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

Key points

Steam version has been continually updated to fix bugs, add features for modern systems such as built-in widescreen and controller support, and also change the online multiplayer servers to Steamworks.[1][2]

General information

Bug Tracker
Serious Sam Wiki
Seriously! Forums
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SecuROM 7 DRM disc check
Windows
Amazon.com
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Windows
GamersGate
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Windows
Humble Store
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Windows
Steam
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Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

Serious Sam II Patch 2.070. Do not install this if you have the German version as it can cause various problems due to the game's copy protection.[3] The Steam version also doesn't need this patch as it's already updated past this.

Unofficial Linux installer

flibitijibibo has made an unofficial installer that simplifies installation of the game on Linux. If you own the game, download the installer at http://www.flibitijibibo.com/fedora/installers/flibitSam2_2070b.tar.gz.

Running the game in Linux

To run the game, just run serioussam2 in the installation folder. You may have to chmod +x it first.

Serious Editor

To run the editor, just run serioussam2-editor in the installation folder. You may have to chmod +x it first.

Getting audio to work

To get audio working, move to the root of the Serious Sam 2 installation and make a symlink to your 32-bit libopenal.so. For Fedora, it looks like

ln -s /usr/lib/libopenal.so.1 libopenal.so.0

Game data

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Content\SeriousSam2\Sam2.ini[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/204340/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Content\SeriousSam2\PlayerProfiles\[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/204340/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game general video settings.
In-game general video settings.
In-game advanced video settings (1/2).
In-game advanced video settings (1/2).
In-game advanced video settings (2/2).
In-game advanced video settings (2/2).

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Steam version has fixed aspect ratio support.[4] Non-standard resolutions still need to be edited manually and can't be selected in-game, but aspect ratio or FOV do not need to be adjusted for Hor+ ultrawide gameplay.
Fix widescreen support (Retail)[5]
  1. Edit <path-to-game>\Content\SeriousSam2\Sam2.ini.
  2. Locate the lines gfx_pixResWidth and gfx_pixResHeight.
  3. Set the values to the desired resolution width and height, respectively.
  4. Locate the line gfx_fAspectRatio.
  5. Set the value to the desired aspect ratio. Use 1.6 for 16:10, 1.777 for 16:9, 2.333 for 21:9.
  6. Save the file. Make sure "Wide Screen" option is enabled in-game.

Field of view (FOV)

Steam version has fixed widescreen FOV (and weapon FOV).[4]
Set custom FOV[5]
  1. Edit <path-to-game>\Content\SeriousSam2\Sam2.ini.
  2. Locate the line [Sam2Game].
  3. Add this line underneath it: plr_fFOVOverride = X;
  4. Replace X with the desired FOV. Default is 80 and maximum is 135. Use 90.4 for 16:10 or 96.4 for 16:9.
  5. Save the file and set it to read only to prevent the game from changing it back.

Input settings

In-game general control settings.
In-game general control settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game gamepad settings.
In-game gamepad settings.

Template:Input settings

Mouse smoothing

Fix mouse smoothing[6]
Fixes mouse stuttering
  1. Edit <path-to-game>\Content\SeriousSam2\Sam2.ini.
  2. Locate the line inp_bMouseSmoothing = 1;.
  3. Replace with inp_bMouseSmoothing = 0;.

Audio settings

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Italian
Only available in the retail release.
Russian
Retail version, download.
Spanish
Fan translation, download.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
4 Co-op, Versus
Use Nucleus Coop & Unofficial mod.
LAN play
16 Co-op, Versus
6 players max for Co-op.
Online play
16 Co-op, Versus
6 players max for Co-op. To play online with non-Steam versions apply the Master Server Patch.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP
Listed as "Specify server".

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 25600-25616
UDP 25600-25616
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Graphics problems or crashes

Set OpenGL renderer[5]
  1. Edit <path-to-game>\Content\SeriousSam2\Sam2.ini.
  2. Locate the line gfx_iAPI = 2;.
  3. Replace with gfx_iAPI = 1;.

Very low FPS when activating vsync in the game

Use IndirectSound[7]
  1. Download IndirectSound.
  2. Extract the contents to the /Bin carpert in the installation folder.

Physics and scripts that break preventing the game from continuing

  1. Active vsync and set monitor on 60hz

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
OpenGL 2.1
Shader Model support 1.1, 2
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio DirectSound, OpenAL
Multiplayer GameSpy, Steamworks

Console commands

Open the console (~ by default)
  • sam_iEnableCheats=1 - Enable Cheats
    • Press Esc and F1 to open the cheats window
  • hud_bShowPing = 1
  • hud_iShowBandwidth = 1
  • hud_bShowCrosshair = 1
  • sam_ctMaxDebris = 20
  • sam_bEnableRagdollDeaths = 0
  • prf_bShowFPS = 1
  • net_strConnectPassword = "password" - used to access password protected multiplayer games

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP or 2000
Processor (CPU) AMD Athlon XP 1.5 GHz
Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 3 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 3
ATI Radeon 8500
S3 DeltaChrome or XGI Volari
DirectX 8.0 compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectSound compatible

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 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).
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/204340/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (204340) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References