World War II Combat: Road to Berlin

World War II Combat: Road to Berlin

Developers
	Direct Action Games
Publishers
	Groove Games
Poland	City Interactive
Russia	1C Company
Engines
	Unreal Engine 2
Release dates
Windows	January 24, 2006
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS, Shooter
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Europe, Historical, World War II
Series	World War II (Groove Games series), Battlestrike

World War II (Groove Games series)
World War II: Sniper - Call to Victory	2004
World War II Combat: Road to Berlin	2006
World War II Combat: Iwo Jima	2006

Warnings

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

World War II Combat: Road to Berlin is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action, FPS and shooter game in the World War II (Groove Games series) and Battlestrike series.

It was retrofitted by City Interactive as Battlestrike: Secret Weapons (in Europe) and Rajd na Berlin: Tajna Broń III Rzeszy (in Poland).

General information

Official site - retrieved with Wayback machine from July 17, 2006.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Simple disc check.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Instructions
Go to <path-to-game>/Movies/. Delete or rename attract.wmv, direct_action_games.wmv, ESRB_online.wmv, groove.wmv and Title.wmv.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\*.ini %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Profiles\<user-id>.ini

Berlin.ini contains general settings.

User.ini contains camera FOV, mouse, keyboard/controller bindings and other settings.

<user-id>.ini contains profile settings.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Profiles\<user-id>.ini

Video

Video Settings.

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)		85° by default. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Toggle with Alt+↵ Enter. See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See Anisotropic filtering (AF).
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Off by default. To turn it on, see Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		See Run the game at screen refresh rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Widescreen resolution

Custom resolutions can be set manually. Note that in the first two options, the image is Vert-, and FOV should be increased to compensate for it.

Set custom resolution in-game
While in game, open the console with ~. Enter setres XXXXxYYYY (for example setres 1920x1080).

Edit ini file
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Berlin.ini. Go to the [WinDrv.WindowsClient] section. Set FullscreenViewportX and FullscreenViewportY to the desired resolution. Notes Some menu elements become cropped.

Use the Widescreen Fix
Notes Weapon and camera FOV are fixed both during gameplay and in-engine cutscenes. Menu elements are no longer cropped. HUD and menus are stretched.

Field of view (FOV)

In both options, only the camera FOV is affected, not the weapon FOV.

Set default FOV in-game
While in game, open the console with ~. Type fov x, where x is the desired FOV.

Edit ini files
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Profiles\<user-id>.ini. Change the following lines to the desired values: DesiredFOV=85.000000 DefaultFOV=85.000000 Notes Game could start to randomly reset those values. If so, edit those values in <path-to-game>\System\DefUser.ini too.

Windowed

Edit ini file
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Berlin.ini. Find the section [WinDrv.WindowsClient]. In that section, find an entry WindowedViewportX= and set its value to your desired window width. In that section, find an entry WindowedViewportY= and set its value to your desired window height. Set StartupFullscreen= to False to start the game in windowed mode.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Use SRWE
Start the game in a window. Download and run SRWE. Attach the game process. Enable Remove borders. Enable Fake fullscreen.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Edit ini file
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Berlin.ini. Change the line LevelOfAnisotropy=1 to any value desired (between 1 and 16).

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Edit ini file
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Berlin.ini. Change the line UseVSync=False to UseVSync=True. Notes Vsync is broken on Windows versions above 7. See Game's Vsync doesn't work on Windows 8/8.1/10/11 for a fix.

Input

Control Settings (1)

Control Settings (2)

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Enabled by default, see Mouse acceleration to disable it.
Mouse sensitivity		Max of 10. For higher, see Mouse sensitivity.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Set UseJoystick=True in %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Berlin.ini under [WinDrv.WindowsClient].
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Edit in %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Profiles\<user-id>.ini.
Controller sensitivity		Edit in %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Profiles\<user-id>.ini.
Controller Y-axis inversion		Edit in %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Profiles\<user-id>.ini.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Mouse acceleration

Edit ini files
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Profiles\<user-id>.ini. Change the line MouseAccelThreshold= to 0. Notes [Engine.PlayerInput] entries are created upon inverting mouse y-axis or adjusting sensitivity.

Mouse sensitivity

[Engine.PlayerInput] entries are created upon inverting mouse y-axis or adjusting sensitivity.

Set custom sensitivity in-game
While in game, open the console with ~. Enter setsensitivity x (for example setsensitivity 5).

Edit ini files
Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Profiles\<user-id>.ini. Change the line MouseSensitivity= to the desired value.

Jerky/Uneven mouse movement

Edit ini files

Launch the game at least once then close it. Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Profiles\<user-id>.ini. Go to the following lines and change 6 to 0.1: MouseX=Count bXAxis | Axis aMouseX Speed=6 MouseY=Count bYAxis | Axis aMouseY Speed=6 Change the line MouseSmoothingMode= to 1 and MouseSamplingTime= to: 0.008 for 125 Hz polling rate 0.004 for 250 Hz polling rate 0.002 for 500 Hz polling rate 0.001 for 1000 Hz polling rate Change the line MouseSensitivity= to 50 (more or less, if needed to adjust). Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Berlin.ini. Go to the [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] section and change ReduceMouseLag= to False. Notes Opening the control settings in-game to adjust mouse sensitivity will reset the value to 10 or below, making aiming way too slow.

Audio

Audio Settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Effects.
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output with DirectSound3D restoration software or OpenAL. See Surround sound.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 3.
Royalty free audio

Surround sound

By default the game ouput to stereo on modern versions of Windows. This will force the game to use the system OpenAL device as ouput and restore surround sound.

Forcing the game to use system OpenAL device may lead to audio dropouts, missing and substituted audio samples.

Restore surround sound
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Berlin.ini. Set Use3DSound=True and UseDefaultDriver=False, and save.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play		16
Online play		16	GameSpy services have been shut down; see GameSpy for workarounds.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Game's Vsync doesn't work on Windows 8/8.1/10/11

Use dgVoodoo 2

Use crosire's d3d8to9 wrapper
Download d3d8.dll from here. Place it in <path-to-game>\System.

Poor performance on Windows 8/8.1/10/11

Use dgVoodoo 2

Use crosire's d3d8to9 wrapper
Download d3d8.dll from here. Place it in <path-to-game>\System.

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Maximum selectable refresh rate is 60 Hz. This does not limit FPS, but may set the monitor's refresh rate to 100 Hz, which may result in screen tearing on a 120 or 144 Hz monitor.

Edit ini file
Launch the game at least once then close it. Open %APPDATA%\Groove Games\Berlin\Berlin.ini. Find the line DesiredRefreshRate=60. Change the value to set the monitor's refresh rate. For example, 120 or 144. Notes Modifying any video options will undo the custom refresh rate.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8	Despite the official system requirements, the game uses Direct3D 8 for rendering.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	OpenAL
Multiplayer	GameSpy
Anti-cheat	PunkBuster

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, ME, 2000, XP	XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz	Intel Pentium III 1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1 GB	1 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 2 series AMD Radeon 7200 series 64 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible	Nvidia GeForce FX series AMD Radeon 9000 series 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible
Sound (audio device)	16-bit DirectX 9 compatible	16-bit DirectX 9 compatible
Other	Keyboard & Mouse 56 Kbps modem or faster for online play	Keyboard & Mouse Broadband connection for online play