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Arma 2

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Arma 2
Arma 2 cover
Developers
Bohemia Interactive
Publishers
505 Games
Got Game Entertainment
Russia Akella
Engines
Real Virtuality 3
Release dates
Windows June 17, 2009
Reception
Metacritic 77
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, FPS, Shooter, Tactical shooter
Art styles Realistic
Themes Contemporary
Series Arma
Arma 2 on HowLongToBeat
Arma 2 on IGDB
Arma 2 on MobyGames
Arma 2 on Wikipedia
Arma
Arma: Cold War Assault 2001
Arma: Armed Assault 2006
Arma 2 2009
Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead 2010
Arma Tactics 2013
Arma 3 2013
Arma Reforger 2022

Warnings

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

Arma 2 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action, FPS, shooter and tactical shooter game in the Arma series.

General information

Official forum
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
SecuROM DRM.[1]
Custom DRM code known as FADE may sabotage the game in several ways.
Both removed in patch v1.05.[2]
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
Arma 2.[3]
Windows
Steam
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
Operation Arrowhead (standalone expansion).[4]
Windows
Developer website (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GOG.com (unavailable)
DRM-free
Combined Operations.
Windows
Combined Operations includes both Arma 2 and Operation Arrowhead; some mods (e.g. DayZ) require both games.
Product keys for Arma 2, Operation Arrowhead and digital versions of Combined Operations optionally activate on Steam.[5]

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
British Armed Forces Requires Operation Arrowhead
Windows
Private Military Company Requires Operation Arrowhead
Windows
Army of the Czech Republic Requires both Arma 2 and Operation Arrowhead.
Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest official patches for retail versions of the game are:

Skip intro videos

Use the -nosplash and -skipIntro command line arguments[6]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\ARMA 2\ArmA2.cfg
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\ARMA 2\ArmA2OA.cfg
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/33900/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\ARMA 2\*.ArmA2Profile
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\ARMA 2\*.ArmA2OAProfile
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\ArmA 2\Saved\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/33900/pfx/[Note 1]

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

Video settings.
Video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Use ArmA FOV Changer.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
The game has a selection of pre and post process AA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
See Run the game at screen refresh rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.
Range finding by using certain scopes like the PSO scope might not be accurate anymore when playing on a non-default FOV.

Input

Input settings.
Input settings.

Audio

Audio settings.
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
Russian
Local retail only. Download this for digital versions.
Spanish
Fan translation, download.

Network

Multiplayer servers can optionally use BattlEye anti-cheat protection.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
128
Online play
128 The official GameSpy service has been shut down; use the official replacement.
The Steam version of Operation Arrowhead automatically points to this new master server.

Connection types

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
UDP 2302-2305
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.
Devices
Tobii Eye Tracking
Use Tobii Game Hub. Supports head tracking.
TrackIR
Supports: Yaw, Pitch, X, Y, Z.

Issues fixed

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Changing refresh rate[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\ARMA 2\.
  2. Open arma2.cfg in Notepad.
  3. Change refresh=60; to the desired refresh rate.

Audio crackling

Set default audio and communication devices to same device[citation needed]
  1. Open Sound in Control Panel
  2. Set Default Communication Device and Default Device to the same device.

Manifest Unavailable on Steam

delete appmanifest_33910.acf in steam apps folder
  1. Verify game files
  2. Relaunch

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
Shader Model support 3.0
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Multiplayer GameSpy
Anti-cheat BattlEye [7]

Command line arguments

See list of available command line entries for Arma 2

Graphical tweaks[citation needed]

  • Set the 3D resolution and the interface resolution to exactly the same value. Ideally, both values would be set at 100.
  • Set Video Memory to "Default". By default (confusing, but keep reading), Arma II will cap the VRAM at an unspecified value. This value is actually lower than the "Default" option in the settings, but will still be named "Default".
  • Texture Quality is dependent on the amount of RAM in the system, but due to the tweak above, it is safe to set the option to higher values.
  • For a higher frame rate and reduced input latency, turn off advanced options like smoothing and head bobbing. To turn off motion blur, either download this mod or set post-processing settings to "Very Low". This does speed up camera movement. Nvidia Control Panel can also be used to increase.
  • For faster rendering, turn on PPAA instead of the normal anti-aliasing.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, Intel Core 2.0 GHz, AMD Athlon 3200+
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 10 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 7800
ATI Radeon 1800
256 MB of VRAM
Shader model 3.0 support


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/33900/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (33900) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References