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User:Waschbär/UE4

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Waschbär/UE4
Waschbär/UE4 cover
Developers
DICE
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Engines
Refractor 2
Release dates
Windows June 21, 2005
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Waschbär/UE4 guide on StrategyWiki
Waschbär/UE4 on Wikipedia
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Battlefield
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 V 2018
Battlefield 2042 2021

Key points

The GameSpy online server browser has been shut down. See Online play support.
Official modding tools and a wide selection of mods available, often with bot support for co-op play.

General information

Battlefield Wiki
Planet Battlefield
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
 SafeDisc v3 DRM[Note 1].
Can be redeemed on Origin through the EA Support.
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Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

DLC and expansion packs

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

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.

Essential improvements

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

Includes a new map, fixes bugs and exploits.

Online play support

Download and install the BF2Hub client[3]

Skip intro videos

Use the +restart command line argument[3]

Game data

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

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 2\Profiles\%USERPROFILE%\

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Origin

Video settings

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Included in version 1.5 of Battlefield 2.
Use the +szx 1920 +szy 1080 +menu 1 +widescreen 1 command line arguments.[3]

Windowed

Use the +fullscreen 0 command line argument.[3]

High frame rate

Use console command[3]
  1. Press ~ and the in-game console will appear.
  2. Type Game.LockFps XX where XX is your desired frame rate (e.g. Game.LockFps 0).
  3. Press ↵ Enter to activate the console command and press ~ again to close the console.

Input settings

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

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

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

Template:Audio settings

Surround sound

Creative X-Fi cards support surround sound by selecting Creative X-Fi as audio renderer in the in-game audio settings.[3]
Replace OpenAL files[4]
  1. Launch the game and set the audio renderer to Hardware.
  2. Go to <path-to-game> and create a backup of the file BF2OpenAL.dll.
  3. Install OpenAL.
  4. Copy the file OpenAL32.dll from %WINDIR%\SysWOW64\ (when using a 64-bit OS) or %WINDIR%\System32\ (32-bit OS) to <path-to-game> and rename it to BF2OpenAL.dll.
  5. Download and extract OpenAL Soft to a temporary directory and copy the file soft_oal.dll from inside bin\Win32\ to <path-to-game>.

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 Versus, Co-op
Online play
64 Versus, Co-op
See Online play support.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Dedicated server software available for Windows and Linux.
Direct IP
In-game via Connect to IP or through the +joinServer parameter.

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 80,1024-1124,4711,27900,29900,29901
UDP 1024-1124,1500-4999,16567,27900,27901,28910,29900,55123-55125
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

In-game Novint Falcon settings.
In-game Novint Falcon settings.
3D modes State Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision
[5]
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 Patch 1.41 before 1.5.[6]

Can't find install folder

Patch 1.41 won't install ("Can't find install folder")[7]
  1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Battlefield 2\.
  2. Create a new string by right clicking in the folder and select New > String Value, label this string InstallDir.
  3. Right-Click, Modify the string, and in the Data Value field, input the installation folder (e.g. G:\Battlefield 2).

Game crashes often

Disable desktop composition
  1. Right-click bf2.exe.
  2. Click options > compatibility tab.
  3. Run the game with Disable Desktop Composition.
Set CPU affinity[8]
If you are using a multi-core CPU, try running the game on a single CPU core.
  1. Go into the process list in Task Manager.
  2. Find bf2.exe.
  3. 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"].

Getting kicked by PunkBuster

Update PunkBuster manually[citation needed]
  1. Download PBSetup.
  2. Run the program and add Battlefield 2. Click "check for updates" and let it run.
  3. 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

On Windows 7 x64 systems with a Creative X-Fi sound card, severe audio corruption or crashes may occur when running under X-Fi Audio Mode and Ultra sound quality.
Reduce sound quality to high or change it to hardware mode[9]

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. To manually resolve this issue, see this guide from EA.

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]
  1. Download a new "shaders_client.zip".
  2. After backing up the file, replace shaders_client.zip in <path-to-game>\mods.
  3. Delete the Battlefield 2 cache folder in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2. This will force Battlefield 2 to recompile the shaders.

Connecting to account server takes a long time

Delete server history[3]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open General.con with an editor like Notepad.
  3. Delete all lines starting with GeneralSettings.addServerHistory.

Other information

API

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

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio OpenAL, Speex
Cutscenes Bink Video, Swiff Player
Multiplayer GameSpy, PunkBuster

Ambient occlusion (HBAO)

The inspector tool.
The inspector tool.
Use Nvidia Inspector tool[10]
  1. Download the NVIDIA Inspector Tool.
  2. Extract the files to any new folder.
  3. Open nvidiaprofileinspector.exe.
  4. From the drop down list next to Profiles select Battlefield 2.
  5. Select the Ambient Occlusion compatibility line.
  6. 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

Use the Command line argument +playerName YourName +playerPassword YourPassword[11]

Notes

It might be necessary to log-in at least once.
The command and login data is case-sensitive.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP
Processor (CPU) AMD Athlon XP equivalent
Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz		 AMD Athlon XP equivalent
Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 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

  1. ↑ 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]

References