Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Warnings

SafeDisc retail DRM no longer functions properly on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).


⤏ Go to series page
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone	2001
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	2002
Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup	2003
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	2004
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	2005
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	2007
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	2009
Lego Harry Potter (series)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1	2010
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2	2011
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them VR Experience	2018
Hogwarts Legacy	2021

Availability[edit]

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v2 DRM^{[Note 1]}

SafeDisc retail DRM no longer functions properly on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

A demo is also available.

Game data[edit]

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Harry Potter II\
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location[edit]

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Harry Potter II\Save\
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)

Video settings[edit]

Launcher video settings.

In-game options menu.

Graphics feature	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)	See the WSGF entry.
Windowed	Use `-windowed` command line argument or edit the `StartupFullscreen` value under `[WinDrv.WindowsClient]` in `Game.ini`.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)	Enable by default.Edit the `UseVSync` value in Game.ini. As with the first game this is back to front, setting UseVSync=False enables vsync
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	> 60fps breaks cutscenes, they advance too quickly and cut off voice overs See Animations running to fast

Widescreen resolution[edit]

Forcing a widescreen resolution cuts off the lower part of in-game menus, but all options remain accessible.

The LegacyD3DResolutionHack or DGVoodoo2 is required to make popular resolutions higher than 2048x1536 work.

If using Windows scaling above 100%, part of the game will appear outside of the screen. To fix this reset scaling to 100%.

Set widescreen resolution manually^[3]

Go to the configuration file(s) location.
Open Game.ini.
Change the FullscreenViewportX= and FullscreenViewportY= values to the desired resolution.
Optionally, edit User.ini and set the DesiredFOV= value to compensate: 100 for the 16:10 aspect ratio, and 105 for 16:9.

Use the third-party Harry Potter Settings utlity.^{[citation needed]}

Input settings[edit]

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Launcher requires mouse input.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

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

Fix buttons and axises for Xbox gamepad.

Audio settings[edit]

Launcher audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Sound Effects
Surround sound
Subtitles		On by default.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Only available in Czech & Slovak retail release.
Danish				Only available in Danish retail release.
French
Italian
Korean				Only available in Korean retail release.
Polish				Only available in Polish retail release.
Portuguese
Russian				Only available in Russian retail release.
Spanish
Swedish				Only available in Swedish retail release.

Issues fixed[edit]

All bugs can be fixed with dgVoodoo2 (UsePrecache should still be set to False in Game.ini when using DGVoodoo2).

Certain transparent effects and textures are not rendered properly[edit]

trees
eyeglasses

Edit configuration file

Go to the configuration file(s) location.
Open Game.ini.
Change the UsePrecache= value under [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] to False.

(alternative) Install transparency fix

Extract this fix into the game's System folder.

Low frame rate on Windows 8[edit]

Download the DDRAW FPS Fix and put it in <path-to-game>/System^[4]

Low frame rate on Windows 10[edit]

In the pause menu of the game, open the video settings (represented by a yellow eye icon in the bottom right corner). Change the colour depth to 32 bit, this should solve the issue.^[5]

Animations/Cutscenes running too fast due to framerate above 120[edit]

Download Dxtory and enable "Limit Video FPS" under the advanced settings. Set the value to either 60 or 120 depending on your personal preference.

Set monitor on 60hz.

Camera spinning/Harry constantly walking backwards with Xbox 360 or Xbox One Controller[edit]

Go to the configuration file(s) location.
Open Game.ini.
Locate [WinDrv.WindowsClient] section and change DeadZoneRUV=False to DeadZoneRUV=True and DeadZoneXYZ=False to DeadZoneXYZ=True.

Other information[edit]

API[edit]

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	7, 11	Direct3D 11 support is hackable using Unreal DirectX11 Renderer.
Software renderer

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware[edit]

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	OpenAL

System requirements[edit]

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98, 2000, ME, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 300 MHz	Intel Pentium III 500 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB (95, 98) 128 MB (2000, XP)	128 MB (95, 98) 256 MB (2000, XP)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	600 MB
Video card (GPU)	4 MB (Software rendering) 8 MB (Hardware rendering) of VRAM DirectX 8.0a compatible	16 MB of VRAM

Supported chipsets: ATI Rage 128, ATI Radeon series, Nvidia RIVA TNT, Nvidia RIVA TNT2 (Ultra), Nvidia GeForce series, Matrox G400, Matrox G450, Matrox G550, Matrox Parhelia, Power VR Kyro I & II, SiS 315

Mac OS
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	9.1
Processor (CPU)	PowerPC G3
System memory (RAM)	128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)

Notes

↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[1] and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[2]

References

↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | WSGF
↑ Windows 8 strange things and 3d faster in window (retrieved)
↑ Getting Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to run properly on Windows 8

[3] SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[1] and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[2]

[1] Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16

[2] Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16

[4] Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | WSGF

[5] Windows 8 strange things and 3d faster in window (retrieved)

[6] Getting Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to run properly on Windows 8

[Note 1]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[1]

[2]

Developers

	KnowWonder
Mac OS (Classic)	Westlake Interactive
macOS (OS X)	Westlake Interactive
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Mac OS (Classic)	Aspyr Media
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Engines
	Unreal Engine 1
Release dates
Windows	November 5, 2002
Mac OS (Classic)	April 10, 2003
macOS (OS X)	August 15, 2005