Total War: Shogun 2


⤏ Go to series page
Shogun: Total War	2000
Medieval: Total War	2002
Rome: Total War	2004
Medieval II: Total War	2006
Empire: Total War	2009
Napoleon: Total War	2010
Total War: Shogun 2	2011
Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai	2012
Total War Battles: Shogun	2012
Total War: Rome II	2013
Total War: Attila	2015
Total War Battles: Kingdom	2015
Total War: Warhammer (series)
Total War: Arena	Cancelled
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia	2018
Total War: Three Kingdoms	2019
A Total War Saga: Troy	2020
Total War: Rome Remastered	2021

Key points

Multiplayer is not cross-platform.^[1]

General information

Official site for the series

Official forum

Official support page

Total War Center - A large fan site for the series with an active modding community

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Developer website		Collection bundle including all the DLC.
Mac App Store
Steam

All Windows and Linux versions require Steam DRM.

Version differences

The Mac App Store version is a complete edition with all DLC but does not include multiplayer.^[2]

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Otomo Clan Pack
Saints and Heroes Unit Pack
Dragon War Battle Pack
The Ikko Ikki Clan Pack
Sengoku Jidai Unit Pack
Rise of the Samurai Campaign
The Hattori Clan Pack
Blood Pack

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Remove intro videos^{[citation needed]}

Download the Package File Manager and extract it anywhere.
Open PackFileManager.exe and select Cancel on the Please point to location of TWH, ATW and R2TW prompts.
On the Please point to location of STW prompt select the game's main installation folder. Select Cancel for NTW and ETW.
Select Yes on the First Start window which says Looking for updated schema files for decoding DB files.
Under Game, check if STW is selected.
Under Options, select CA Packs Are Read Only, then choose I'm not afraid, coward!
Under File, Open CA pack, select movies.pack
Double Click on movies.pack and movies in order to expand the list.
Click on a file to select it, then push Delete once to erase it. Delete the following files.

intel_logo_english.bik
intro.bik
sega_logo_sting_hd.bik

4. Push Ctrl+S in order to save, then wait for the Package File Manager to unfreeze.

Remove splash screen^{[citation needed]}

Download the Package File Manager and extract it anywhere.
Open PackFileManager.exe and select Cancel on the Please point to location of TWH, ATW and R2TW prompts.
On the Please point to location of STW prompt select the game's main installation folder. Select Cancel for NTW and ETW.
Select Yes on the First Start window which says Looking for updated schema files for decoding DB files.
Under Game, check if STW is selected.
Under Options, select CA Packs Are Read Only, then choose I'm not afraid, coward!
Under File, Open CA pack, select boot.pack
Double Click on boot.pack and navigate to ui\frontend ui\loadingscreen
Select legal.dds, then push Delete once to erase it.
Push Ctrl+S in order to save, then wait for the Package File Manager to unfreeze.

Reset the Pack File Manager settings if something isn't working correctly^{[citation needed]}
Push `⊞ Win`+`R` and type `%LOCALAPPDATA%` then push OK. Find the PackFileManager folder and delete it. Delete the older Pack File Manager folder that was last downloaded and extracted anywhere. Download the latest version of the Pack File Manager and extract it anywhere.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\The Creative Assembly\Shogun2\scripts\*.txt
macOS (OS X)	~/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Total War SHOGUN 2/AppData/scripts/
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/feral-interactive/Total War SHOGUN 2/

It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\The Creative Assembly\Shogun2\
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/feral-interactive/SaveData

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

Set the Shader Model setting to Shader Model 5 and check the Soft Shadows setting while in the DX11 mode to use high quality shadows.

Switch to the DX9 mode if loading takes too long. If the shadows are blocky uncheck the Soft Shadows setting. Shadows on this mode are worse than in the DX11 setting.

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		UI does not scale with resolution and is extremely small in 4K.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		No apparent framerate cap.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Setting Up^{[citation needed]}

Go to the configuration file(s) location.
Open preferences.script.txt.
Find the following lines, and set them to these values.

gfx_fullscreen false;
fix_res false; 
fix_window_pos false;

3. Launch the game and wait for the main menu to load, then Alt+Tab ↹ to the Desktop.
4. Use the Fullscreen Toggle Script.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Dolby Surround, SRS Circle Surround, 4.0, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, 8.1 are supported. 8.1 Discrete lower the volume considerably, unknown if it was intentional or a bug.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech
French
German
Italian
Japanese				Japanese release.
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer modes are not cross-platform.^[1]

The Mac App Store version does not include multiplayer.^[2]

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play	2	Versus, Co-op
Online play	2	Versus, Co-op

VR support

3D modes	Native	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			See Helix Mod: Totalwar Shogun 2 [DX9] or Helix Mod: Totalwar Shogun 2 [DX11].
TriDef 3D
iZ3D

Issues fixed

Random Stop Working Error

No proper fix known yet.

Verify Your Game Cache^{[citation needed]}

Find Total War: Shogun 2 in your Steam Library
Right-click the game name
Select Properties
Go to the Local Files tab
Select Verify Integrity of Game Cache...
This may take a while, just wait for it to finish
Once it's done press OK
Launch the game

Notes

If this doesn't fix the problem, you may need to re-install the game

Shogun 2 not starting

If the game doesn't start, try deleting preferences.script.txt:

Delete preferences.script.txt^{[citation needed]}
Go to `%APPDATA%\The Creative Assembly\Shogun2\scripts` Delete `preferences.script.txt` Run the game again.

Mouse Cursor Unrestricted

The game does not restrict the mouse cursor, meaning that on multi-monitor configurations instead of moving the camera, the mouse will go onto the other screen, effectively crippling the ability to effectively move the camera in that direction.

"Cursor Lock" fix^{[citation needed]}

Download Cursor Lock
Open Cursor Lock Setup.
Select "Open Program" and then find the path to the Steam executable (usually %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\Steam\Steam.exe)
Select "Open Program Args" and put in -applaunch 34330.
Select "Lock Program" and then find the path to the game's main executable in the installation folder.
Click the "Create Shortcut" button to create a permanent shortcut to the game with Cursor Lock.

Extreme Loading Time

Shogun 2 suffers from rather ridiculous loading times (the first loading splash screen can take over 5 minutes to load. However, these can be partly shortened by switching from DirectX 11 to DirectX 9.

This will restrict the game to use Shader Model 3 and MLAA among other things.

Freezing on 32-bit systems (Windows)

The game freezes because Windows cannot allocate enough memory on x86 systems.

Prepare the OS to be able to use beyond 2GB address space with a userva of 2.5GB^{[citation needed]}

Open Start Menu
Type: cmd or Command Prompt
Right click on the Command Prompt program and select Run as Administrator
In the Command Prompt screen, enter bcdedit /set increaseuserva 2500
Wait for the confirmation message.
Reboot the computer.
Launch the game.

Notes

To undo this change, follow the same instructions but use the bcdedit /deletevalue increaseuserva command

Incorrect VRAM size detection for modern video cards (Windows)

The game is limited by its 32-bit nature and will fail to correctly detect the available VRAM size on cards with more than 4 GB of memory.

Override available video memory size^{[citation needed]}

Go to %APPDATA%\The Creative Assembly\Shogun2\scripts
Open preferences.script.txt
Modify gfx_video_memory setting and set it to -1.
Launch the game and confirm the changes: in Settings, at the bottom, it should indicate Video Memory (MB): 4095

Notes

This will effectively set the available VRAM size to 4GB - 1 byte.

To undo this change, follow the same instructions but use the value 0 for auto-detection.

Campaign camera no longer controllable

Mouse and keyboard camera controls no longer function.

EditSF CAMPAIGN_CAMERA_MANAGER^[3]
Download EditSF Open affected savegame Go to COMPRESSED_DATA > CAMPAIGN ENV > CAMPAIGN_CAMERA_MANAGER Change `System.UInt32` from `0` to `1` Save and reload the savegame from Shotgun 2.

Reload unaffected earlier save game^[3]

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c, 11	MSAA is only supported in DX11 mode
Metal support		Added in the 64-bit update.^[4]
Shader Model support	3, 4, 4.1, 5	SM 4+ is only available in DX11 mode. SM 3 is present in both Low and High modes.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)			^[4]
Linux

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP	Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	2 GHz Dual Core or 2.6 GHz Single Core	Intel Core i5-2xxx series AMD Phenom II X4 series
System memory (RAM)	1 GB (XP) 2 GB (Vista, 7)	2 GB (XP) 4 GB (Vista, 7)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	20 GB
Video card (GPU)	256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3.0 support	Nvidia GeForce GT 240 ATI Radeon HD 5000 series DirectX 11 compatible
Other	1024 x 768 screen resolution	1280 x 1024 screen resolution

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.9.5	10.10.3
Processor (CPU)	1.8 GHz	2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	22 GB
Video card (GPU)	256 MB of VRAM	2 GB of VRAM

Not supported: ATI Radeon X1000 series, ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, Intel GMA series, Intel HD 3000, Nvidia GeForce 7000/8000 series, Nvidia GeForce 9400 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 300 series.

Intel HD 4000 requires 8 GB of system memory.

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	SteamOS or Ubuntu 16.04
Processor (CPU)	2 GHz	3 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	26 GB
Video card (GPU)	Intel Iris Pro Nvidia GeForce GTX 600 series AMD Radeon HD 6000 series 1 GB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 700 series AMD Radeon R7 series 2 GB of VRAM

Nvidia cards require driver version 375.26 or better. AMD and Intel cards require MESA version 17.0.4

References

[multiplayer-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Total War: Shogun 2 - Features | Feral Interactive

[OS_X-2] 2.0 ^2.1 Yours for the taking - Total War: SHOGUN 2 for Mac is out now | Feral News

[steamcommunity.com-3] 3.0 ^3.1 https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/13314/campaign-camera-problem

[macOS_64-bit-4] 4.0 ^4.1 A brave new Japan — Total War: SHOGUN 2 and A Total War Saga: FALL OF THE SAMURAI updated to 64-bit on macOS | Feral News

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Developers

	Creative Assembly
macOS (OS X)	Feral Interactive
Linux	Feral Interactive
Publishers
	Sega
Engines
	Warscape
Release dates
Windows	March 15, 2011
macOS (OS X)	July 31, 2014
Linux	May 23, 2017
Reception
Metacritic	90
IGDB	88
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time, Turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Free-roaming camera
Controls	Menu-based, Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS, TBS
Themes	Japan, Historical
Series	Total War