Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Subseries of Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War	2004
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade	2006
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm	2008
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II	2009
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising	2010
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution	2011
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III	2017

Key points

Dawn of War II shares game files with Chaos Rising. Despite Chaos Rising being a standalone release, it is classified as a DLC in the Games for Windows Live version.^[3]

General information

Lexicanum - A huge wiki for the Warhammer 40,000 series

Dawn of War Wiki

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Developer website

GOG.com		Grand Master Collection only; bundled with Dawn of War II, Retribution and most DLC for the latter.
Humble Store		Master Collection and Grand Master Collection also available.
Mac App Store
Steam
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)		^[4]

Games for Windows - LIVE DRM has been removed.^[5] See Downgrading to revert to the GFWL version.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Instructions^[6]

Go to <path-to-game>\GameAssets\Data\Movies.
Move, delete or rename the following files.

amd_intro.avi
dowii_intro_final.avi
gw_logo_720p_divx1.avi
sega_logo_new_720p_divx.avi
relicintro_720p_divx.avi

For the Games for Windows LIVE version, gfwl_logo.avi may also be removed or renamed.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Dawn of War 2\Settings\
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/feral-interactive/Dawn of War II/VFS/User/AppData/Roaming/My Games/Dawn of War 2/

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Dawn of War 2\Saved Games\
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/feral-interactive/Dawn of War II/VFS/User/AppData/Roaming/My Games/Dawn of War 2/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents* folder in OneDrive on all computers.*
Steam Cloud

Video

General settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Use `-window` command line argument.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Unknown method (On/Off).
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Turn Vsync on/off^[7]
Go to `%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Dawn of War 2\Settings\` Edit `configuration.lua` Find `setting = "vsync"` Change `value = 0` to `value = 1` Save your changes. To reverse the change, change back to `value = 0`.

Input

Controls settings menu.

Controls settings in game.

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

Custom keyboard binding

Custom keyboard binding^{[citation needed]}

Go to the configuration file(s) location.
Locate file _keydefaults.lua and open it in text editor (Notepad for example)
Locate actions, you'd like to change and assign new keys to it.
Save file as keydefaults.lua (without underscore).

Be sure to read notes in the file.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese				Available on Steam, despite not being stated in the store page.^[8]
Czech				Available on Steam, despite not being stated in the store page.^[8]
French
German
Italian
Polish				Available on Steam, despite not being stated in the store page.^[8]
Russian				Available on Steam, despite not being stated in the store page.^[8]
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		6	Removed in the Steamworks update.^[5]
Online play		6	Steam and Mac App Store players cannot play together.^[9]

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Removed in the Steamworks update.^[5]

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues fixed

Pagefile

Dawn of War II will not run unless you have a pagefile of at least 1.5 GB in size.

Restoring LAN multi-player, direct IP connection and GFWL

Downgrading^[10]

Download this archive and extract it.
Copy the extracted content to <path-to-game> and overwrite the existing files. If present, also delete xlive.dll from the game's folder.
Launch the game from Steam and enter your key when the game asks. After you activate the game, matchmaking (and all achievements associated with it) becomes available once again.^[11]

This does not bypass neither remove Steam DRM. Steam is still required to run the game in addition to GFWL.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Shader Model support	3.0

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

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Interface	Scaleform
Multiplayer	Games for Windows Live, Steamworks, Relic BattleServer

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP2	Vista SP1
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz Dual Core (any processor)	Intel Core 2 Duo series AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB (XP) 1.5 GB (Vista)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	6.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT ATI Radeon X1600 128 MB of VRAM Shader model 3.0 support	Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT ATI Radeon X1900 256 MB of VRAM

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.10.5	10.11.5
Processor (CPU)	Intel 1.8 GHz	Intel 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	18 GB
Video card (GPU)	512 MB of VRAM	1 GB of VRAM

Intel HD Graphics 4000/5000 cards require 8 GB of RAM.

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 16.04, SteamOS 2.0
Processor (CPU)	Intel 2.0 GHz	Intel 3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	16 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 600 series AMD Radeon HD 6000 series Intel Iris Pro Graphics series 512 MB of VRAM

Nvidia cards require driver version 367.35, AMD and Intel GPUs require MESA 11.2.

References

↑ Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Grand Master Collection | General Arcade - last accessed on 2023-07-15
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 Feral Interactive on Twitter - last accessed on 2016-09-23
"On September 29th, three grimdark games arrive on Mac and Linux — Warhammer® 40,000®: Dawn of War II®, Chaos Rising and Retribution."
↑ Verified by User:SargeCassidy on 2021-08-03
Tested with a Steam copy of both the base game and Chaos Rising with the GFWL downgrade applied. Launching either and going into the achievement section has a single entry - Dawn of War 2, though when Chaos Rising is launched, the entry will show 73 achievements available instead of the original Dawn of War II's 49.
↑ DoW II: Chaos Rising - Games for Windows - last accessed on 19 August 2022
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising Patch Notes/Updates :: Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II - Chaos Rising™ General Discussions
↑ Verified by User:SargeCassidy on 2023-03-13
↑ Verified by User:SargeCassidy on 2023-03-13
↑ ^8.0 ^8.1 ^8.2 ^8.3 Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising on SteamDB
↑ Calico - FAQs | Feral Interactive
↑ Verified by User:SargeCassidy on 2020-08-10
↑ Cosminiion's video on all online GFWL components - last accessed on 2020-08-10

[1] Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Grand Master Collection | General Arcade - last accessed on 2023-07-15

[feralporter-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 Feral Interactive on Twitter - last accessed on 2016-09-23
"On September 29th, three grimdark games arrive on Mac and Linux — Warhammer® 40,000®: Dawn of War II®, Chaos Rising and Retribution."

[3] Verified by User:SargeCassidy on 2021-08-03
Tested with a Steam copy of both the base game and Chaos Rising with the GFWL downgrade applied. Launching either and going into the achievement section has a single entry - Dawn of War 2, though when Chaos Rising is launched, the entry will show 73 achievements available instead of the original Dawn of War II's 49.

[4] DoW II: Chaos Rising - Games for Windows - last accessed on 19 August 2022

[Steamworks-5] 5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising Patch Notes/Updates :: Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II - Chaos Rising™ General Discussions

[6] Verified by User:SargeCassidy on 2023-03-13

[7] Verified by User:SargeCassidy on 2023-03-13

[SteamDB-8] 8.0 ^8.1 ^8.2 ^8.3 Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising on SteamDB

[9] Calico - FAQs | Feral Interactive

[10] Verified by User:SargeCassidy on 2020-08-10

[11] Cosminiion's video on all online GFWL components - last accessed on 2020-08-10

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Developers

	Relic Entertainment
GOG.com	General Arcade^[1]
macOS (OS X)	Feral Interactive^[2]
Linux	Feral Interactive^[2]
Publishers
2010-2013	THQ
2013-present	Sega
OS X, Linux	Feral Interactive
Engines
	Essence Engine 2.0
Release dates
Windows	March 11, 2010
macOS (OS X)	September 29, 2016^[2]
Linux	September 29, 2016^[2]
Reception
Metacritic	85
IGDB	85
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War