Alan Wake II

Alan Wake II

Developers
	Remedy Entertainment
Publishers
	Epic Games Publishing
Engines
	Northlight
Release dates
Windows	October 27, 2023
Reception
Metacritic	89
OpenCritic	89
IGDB	88
Taxonomy
Monetization	DLC, One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	Cosmetic
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Survival horror
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Detective/mystery, Horror
Series	Alan Wake

Alan Wake
Alan Wake	2012
Alan Wake's American Nightmare	2012
Alan Wake Remastered	2021
Alan Wake II	2023

Alan Wake II is a singleplayer third-person survival horror game in the Alan Wake series.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Epic Games Store		Deluxe Edition also available. DRM-free when launched using the -EpicPortal command line argument.
Green Man Gaming		Deluxe Edition also available.
Humble Store		Deluxe Edition also available.

Version differences

Epic Games Store versions purchased before October 27, 2023 includes the Alan Wake Outfit & "Alan's Messenger Bag" Backbling for Fortnite.

The Deluxe Edition includes the base game, the Expansion Pass, containing the Night Springs and Lake House Expansions, as well as the Nordic Shotgun Skin for Saga; the Crimson Windbreak and Lantern Charm for Saga, and the Celebrity Suit and Parliament Shotgun Skin for Alan.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	Several cosmetic add-ons, as well as an Expansion Pass containing additional story content is available for purchase.
One-time game purchase	Alan Wake II requires an upfront purchase to access.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
Cosmetic	Additional cosmetic costumes, weapon skins and charms can be purchased.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Deluxe Upgrade	Includes all additional content available in the "Deluxe Edition" for owners of the Standard Edition.
Expansion Pass	Contains two major story expansions, as well as a Nordic Shotgun Skin for Saga. Included in the "Deluxe Edition".
Crimson Windbreaker	Contains an additional outfit for Saga. Included in the "Deluxe Edition".
Celebrity Suit	Contains an additional outfit for Alan. Included in the "Deluxe Edition".
Parliament Shotgun Skin	Contains an alternate shotgun skin for Alan. Included in the "Deluxe Edition".
Lantern Charm	Contains a cosmetic charm for Saga, as well as an additional battery for Saga's flashlight. Included in the "Deluxe Edition".

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Remedy\AlanWake2\renderer.ini

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Remedy\AlanWake2\<user-id>\

The save path will use \Default-Epic-User\ instead of \<user-id>\ if using -EpicPortal to launch the game.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher

Video

Graphics settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		4:3 is also supported.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Cutscenes and FMVs are pillarboxed 16:9. See Ultra-widescreen.
4K Ultra HD		Rendering resolutions up to 8K are supported.
Field of view (FOV)		There's a FOV multiplier in the settings.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Exclusive fullscreen also available.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Referred to as "Texture Filtering" with a Low, Medium, and High setting.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		DLAA and FSR 2 Native. See Anti-aliasing (AA) to disable anti-aliasing.
High-fidelity upscaling		DLSS 3.5, FSR 2.0 DLSS Frame Generation and DLSS Ray Reconstruction available.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		As a toggle.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Pre-rendered cinematics are rendered from a 30 fps source.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		The game uses the Windows 11 HDR calibration data.
Ray tracing (RT)		Features both software and hardware ray and path tracing.. Path tracing includes 1-3 ray bounces and RTAO on the last hit.

Ultra-widescreen

Set ultrawide cutscene restraints
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open renderer.ini with a text editor. Change "m_bUnlockAspectRatio": false, to "m_bUnlockAspectRatio": true Save the file and close it

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Edit the configuration file to disable TAA
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open renderer.ini with a text editor. Edit the following line as follows: "m_eSSAAMethod": 0 To disable the leftover sharpening filter, edit the following line as follows: "m_fSSAASharpening": 0.0 Save the file and close it

High dynamic range (HDR)

Set custom HDR nit peak
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open renderer.ini in a text editor. Edit "m_fHDRMaxOutputNitsOverride": -1.0 to the desired value. Save the file and close it.

Enable 16-bit HDR swapchain for increased quality
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open renderer.ini with a text editor. Edit "m_bPreferScRGBHdr": false to "m_bPreferScRGBHdr": true for 16-bit output. Save the file and close it.

Post-processing effects

Edit the configuration file to disable effects
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open renderer.ini with a text editor. To disable depth of field, edit the following line as follows: "m_bDepthOfField": false. To disable lens distortion, edit the following line as follows: "m_bLensDistortion": false. To disable vignette, edit the following line as follows: "m_bVignette": false. Save the changes.

Internal rendering resolution

The game offers only a handful of internal resolutions.

Set custom internal resolution
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open renderer.ini with a text editor. Change the numeric value in field: "m_iRenderResolutionX": for resolution width eg. 1600. Change the numeric value in field: "m_iRenderResolutionY": for resolution height eg. 900. Save the changes. Notes Make sure to maintain your preferred aspect ratio.

High frame rate

Modify with hex editor

Open AlanWake2.exe with a hex editor such as HxD. Find (CTRL+F) and replace 00 00 00 00 00 00 6E 40 (240 FPS) with one of the following, 00 00 00 00 00 00 3E 40 for 30 FPS. 00 00 00 00 00 00 4E 40 for 60 FPS. 00 00 00 00 00 00 5E 40 for 120 FPS. 00 00 00 00 00 80 76 40 for 360 FPS. 00 00 00 00 00 00 7E 40 for 480 FPS. 00 00 00 00 00 80 86 40 for 720 FPS. 00 00 00 00 00 00 8E 40 for 960 FPS. Save the changes. If using DLSS Frame Generation, this should be set to half the desired output frame rate.

Input

Gameplay settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		As a slider from 0 to 100. Has separate options for general/horizontal/vertical sensitivity.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity		As a slider from 0 to 100. Has separate options for general/horizontal/vertical sensitivity.
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		DualShock 4, DualSense, DualSense Edge
PlayStation button prompts
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support		Wired connection only.
DualSense haptic feedback support		Wired connection only.
Connection modes	Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth)

Generic/other controllers

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

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  Controls settings

Audio

Audio settings

Interface settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Master, Music, Sound Effects, Dialogue volume sliders. Options for Bass Reduction, Mono Audio and Hyperacusis Filters are also available.
Surround sound		Supports Dolby Atmos and DTSX.
Subtitles		Accessibility options for Speaker Name in Subtitles, Subtitles Background, Small/Normal/Large Subtitle Sizes, and Signage Subtitles are available.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio		All music tracks are DMCA-free.

Localizations

Subtitles in pre-rendered cutscenes for all languages ​​are out of sync

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Ukrainian

Issues fixed

Error on first startup

Close overlay software before starting
Disable overlay software such as MSI Afterburner, Special K or similar. Open the game and login into the Epic Game Store Account and link it. Use the overlay software as usual. Notes Only required once. Afterwards the overlay software can be used even on startup.

Game does not start on Linux (Wine/Proton)

Install dependencies with Winetricks
Using Winetricks, select the default wineprefix and then install a Windows DLL or component. Install vcrun2022, d3dcompiler_43, and d3dcompiler_47. Notes Using a client like the Heroic Games Launcher, you can access Winetricks via the settings page for the game.

Missing textures on Linux (Wine/Proton)

(AMD) Use a newer version of Mesa
Notes Update to a newer version of Mesa past 23.2.1 containing merge request patch 25659. This may require either building from source or using a package like mesa-git.

Stuttering every few seconds on Linux (Wine/Proton)

(AMD) Set environment variable to zero out video memory
Notes Add the environment variable RADV_ZERO_VRAM=false, either in Heroic Games Launcher under the Settings menu and Advanced tab, or as a launch option on Steam as RADV_ZERO_VRAM=false %command%.

Lower in-game render resolution

Game stuttering when DLSS Frame Generation is on

Turn off RivaTuner Statistics Server framerate limiter. If framerate limiting is needed, use Nvidia Control Panel global/program "max frame rate" settings instead.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	12	Requires DX12 FL 12_0 / Shader Model 6.5 to start. Mesh Shaders required for best performance.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows			Currently, a compatible AVX2 CPU like Intel Haswell or Ryzen 1000 is required to start. Maybe it could be compatible with older CPUs after an update like Uncharted and other Sony games, which have two executables according to the target CPU. This can be verified using the Intel Software Development Emulator (Intel SDE) to emulate a CPU from the Haswell architecture on a CPU such as Intel Core 3000 or AMD FX or earlier.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Physx 3.4	PhysX3_x64.dll in install directory
Audio	Wwise	Wwise logo shown in startup screens
Interface	Coherent Gameface	Startup screen for Coherent, and dll files in install directory

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10	11
Processor (CPU)	Intel i5-7600K AMD equivalent	Ryzen 7 3700X Intel equivalent
System memory (RAM)	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	90 GB SSD
Video card (GPU)	Radeon RX 6600 GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB of VRAM DirectX 12.2 compatible	Radeon RX 6700 XT GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB of VRAM
Other	Only GPUs with DirectX Ultimate level 12_2 are supported

A 64-bit operating system is required.

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  Official system requirement chart