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Dota 2

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
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Although this product has been released, it remains under active development - information may change frequently and could be outdated or irrelevant.
Dota 2
Dota 2 cover
Developers
Valve Corporation
Engines
Former Source
Source 2
Release dates
Windows July 9, 2013
macOS (OS X) July 18, 2013
Linux July 18, 2013
Reception
Metacritic 90
OpenCritic 91
IGDB 91
Taxonomy
Monetization Free-to-play, Subscription
Microtransactions Cosmetic, Infinite spend, Loot box, Player trading, Time-limited, Free-to-grind[1]
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Bird's-eye view
Controls Point and select
Genres Strategy
Art styles Stylized
Themes Fantasy
Series Dota
Dota 2 on IGDB
Dota 2 guide on StrategyWiki
Dota 2 on MobyGames
Dota 2 on Wikipedia
Dota
Dota 2 2013
The Lab: Secret Shop 2016
Artifact 2018
Dota Underlords 2020

Warnings

This game requires a constant internet connection for all game modes.

Dota 2 is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view strategy game in the Dota series.

General information

Steam Community Discussions
GitHub Issue Tracker for general issues, for OS X and Linux, and for the Vulkan version
Dota 2 subreddit
Unofficial Dota 2 wiki

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Global version.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Publisher website
Icon overlay.png
Always online (requires a constant internet connection to play)
China version.
Windows
All versions require Steam Valve Anti-Cheat and File Integrity Check DRM[2].
China version requires a Perfect World account and a constant internet connection for all game modes.

Monetization

Type Notes
Free-to-play The entire game is free to download and play, only requiring a free Steam account.
Subscription Dota Plus is a premium monthly paid service that offers real-time progression and strategy suggestions, additional ways to earn cosmetic items, and detailed player statistics along with other out-of-game bonuses.[3]

Microtransactions

Type Notes
Cosmetic Many items from the heroes to the map itself can be customized with skins that can be earned through gameplay, or pourched with real-world money from the Steam Market or directly in the game itself.
Free-to-grind Some cosmetic items are dropped periodically when playing the game.[4]
Infinite spend New cosmetic items are constantly added to the game on a periodic basis.
Loot box Treasure chests can be opened that contain a varying degree of chance to obtain cosmetic items of varying rarity and chance.
Player trading Players can trade items obtained from the game to each other using Steam's trading feature.
Time-limited Some cosmetic items can only be obtained between a specific time period. One example is Declarations of the Divine which is only accessible to The International 2020 Battle Pass owners and "will never be tradeable or purchasable on the marketplace".[5]

Essential improvements

Performance tweaks

Lowering graphics settings[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration files location.
  2. Edit autoexec.cfg (make the file if it does not exist).
  3. Add the following code:
    dota_cheap_water "1"
    dota_embers "0"
    cl_globallight_shadow_mode "0"
    r_deferred_height_fog "0"
    r_deferred_simple_light "1"
    r_screenspace_aa "0"
  4. Save the file.

Skip intro Introduction Video

Use the -novid command line argument[6]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Steam <path-to-game>/dota/cfg/
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Approx. 2 GB available.

Video

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
HUD is stretched, affecting gameplay.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
FOV is adjustable in console with convar 'dota_camera_legacy'. Values can be 0 or 1, with 0 being default and 1 slightly lower.[7]
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Available in Video Options or through Launch options.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
FXAA available in-game.
High-fidelity upscaling
FSR 1.0
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Frame rate cap set to 120 by default. Use to command 'fps_max' to set your custom value in the console.[8]
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode
Limited native support; use the Dota 2 Colorblind Mode mod for best experience.

Input

Keyboard and camera settings.
Keyboard and camera settings.

Mouse acceleration

Disable mouse acceleration[10]
  1. Open the game's launch options.
  2. Input the following code: -noforcemaccel -noforcemspd -useforcedmparms
  3. Press OK and close the properties window.

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Up to proper 7.1 surround verified.[11]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Can be changed in Audio Options.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Bulgarian
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Not all characters are voiced.
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Not all characters are voiced.
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
10 Versus
Added in 4 June 2013 update.[12]
LAN play
10 Added in 23 September 2013 update.
Supported but game requires Steam authentication.[13]
Online play
10 Up to 5 players in Bot match mode.
10 players in Normal and Ranked matches modes.
Custom games support 24 players.
For Source 1 version use this to play online again.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Developer-hosted
Self-hosting
Direct IP
Open the console (~) and use connect followed by the IP and port.

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
UDP 27015-28999
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes State GG3D Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
See also Helix Mod: DOTA 2.
Headsets
SteamVR
Oculus VR (LibOVR)
This game might be playable with the SteamVR.
Windows Mixed Reality
This game might be playable with the Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR.
Devices
Tracked motion controllers
See Input for details.
Traditional controller
See Input for details.
Keyboard/Mouse
Play area
Seated
Standing
Room-scale

Issues fixed

Blurry graphics

Set render quality to highest[14]

Missing health and mana bar

Console command: hud_sf_reload dota_sf_hud_actionpanel[15]

2D sprites and effects displaying over geometry [AMD 7000 series)

Do not override catalyst control center, turning it off or overriding it with programs like "Radeon Pro" will cause graphical issues in Dota due to poor AMD GPU support, re enabling it should fix this issue[citation needed]

Pixelated shadows

Instructions[citation needed]
  1. To make shadows smoother, go to <path-to-game>\dota\cfg\video.txt
  2. change "setting.cpu_level" "0" to "setting.cpu_level" "2".

Game changes microphone gain at launch

Modify configuration file[16]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open config.cfg.
  3. Find the line voice_mixer_volume, it should be near the bottom of the file. If the line doesn't exist you may create it.
  4. Set the value to whatever you prefer your mic volume to be, I set mine to .5 which translates to 50% gain.

Notes

Removing the line does not work.
This will set a fixed value, and might not be a solution for people who are using dynamic gain which Windows (or other applications) automatically adjusts.
Disable exclusive control of microphone (Windows)[17]
  1. Right click on the speaker icon located at the tray bar.
  2. Select Recording devices.
  3. Double click on your microphone in the newly opened window.
  4. Go to Advanced and untick Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device.

Notes

Most applications ignores this, and many users are reporting that it isn't working.

Rebind number keys to quick cast items

How to rebind your number keys if suddenly they don't work in Dota 2 anymore
  1. Open game console with ` or any key you used to open console.
  2. Write into console bind "1" "dota_item_quick_cast 0" to bind keyboard key 1 to quick cast item 1.

Notes

Item 1 is bound to dota_item_quick_cast 0, item 2 is dota_item_quick_cast 1, and so on.
A full list of console commands can be found here

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11 Previous support for DirectX 9 and OpenGL has been removed.[20]
Vulkan 1.0 Use -vulkan launch option after installing the Vulkan DLC[21] or select Vulkan in the in-game settings.[22]
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
64-bit since Source 2.[18] Previous support for 32-bit has been removed.[19]
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok / Rubikon (Source 2)
Audio Miles Sound System, Steam Audio
Interface Qt
Input SDL
Cutscenes Bink
Multiplayer Steamworks Beta version uses a other master server. Final version uses Steamworks master server.
Players have the option to launch the game with parameter -override_vpk to play with custom mods, but matchmaking will be disabled.

Command line arguments / Launch Options

To access the game's launch options: right click Dota 2 in Steam's library window > Properties > Set launch options...
If you use multiple launch options, separate them with a space (e.g., -high -console).
Command Notes
-console Enables the in-game console.
-noforcemaccel -noforcemspd -useforcedmparms Disables mouse acceleration.
-high Assigns a high CPU priority to the game's client.
-heapsize # Changes the game's RAM/memory allowance (e.g., -heapsize 2048)
-windowed -w # -h $ -noborder Starts the game in a borderless window with the specified resolution (e.g., -windowed -w 1920 -h 1080 -noborder).
-override_vpk Overrides the game's content files with content found in <path-to-game>\*\ (Disables Public Matchmaking)
-enable_addons Overrides the game's content files with content found in <path-to-game>
-vulkan Launches the game using the Vulkan renderer if the Vulkan DLC is installed.
-novid Skips the intro cinematic

General tweaks

To use these tweaks you need to create a file called autoexec.cfg in the configuration file(s) location.[23][24]
Each tweak must be in a separate line, and contain a string and a value (e.g., dota_screen_shake "0").
Creating autoexec.cfg[citation needed]
  1. Open Notepad.
  2. From the File menu, choose Save As...
  3. In the Save as type: field, choose All Files (*.*).
  4. In the File name: field, input autoexec.cfg
  5. Save it in the configuration file(s) location.

Notes

After editing the file with tweaks, simply use File > Save to apply.
Tweak Notes Default Value
dota_force_right_click_attack "1" Deny creeps using right-click. Disables the ability to follow allies with right-click. 0
dota_disable_range_finder "0" Shows range-finder when using targeted spells. 1
dota_camera_accelerate "49" Controls camera acceleration (49 = camera behaves most accurately). 10
dota_ability_quick_cast "1" Self-casts an ability when double-tapping the keyboard shortcut. 0
dota_screen_shake "0" Disables the screen shake effect that triggers when certain spells are cast. 1
dota_player_multipler_orders "1" Allows ctrl-clicking to order all controlled units. 0
dota_player_add_summoned_to_selection "#" Summoned units are automatically added to the specified control group. 0
dota_minimap_hero_size "700" Controls the size of hero symbols on the minimap (higher values = bigger symbols). 600
dota_unit_fly_bonus_height "10" Controls elevation of flying units (higher values = farther from the ground). 150
dota_sf_game_end_delay "0" Controls the end-game delay before the scoreboard appears (0 = appears immediately). 5
dota_gamescon_althack "1" Allows using Alt+Q/W/E/A/S/D to use inventory items. 0
dota_minimap_misclick_time "#" Controls the delay before minimap clicks are registered (# = seconds, 0 = no delay). 1
dota_minimap_ping_duration "#" Controls the delay before minimap pings disappear (# = seconds). 3
dota_minimap_ping_tag_duration "#" Controls the delay before attack/defend pings disappear (# = seconds). 10
dota_unit_use_player_color "2" Colours players by team instead of assigning individual colours. 0
dota_minimap_simple_colors "1" Changes minimap colour scheme to resemble the original DotA. 0
dota_shop_force_hotkeys "1" Enables shop hotkeys (q/w/e/r/t/y selects a tab, 1,2,3... selects an item). 0
dota_hud_healthbars "1" Removes the vertical lines on health bars (0 = health bars disabled). 3
dota_health_per_vertical_marker "#" Defines the amount of health between vertical lines. 250
dota_always_show_player_names "1" Shows player names above heroes. 0
bind "key" "command" Allows a custom keybinding (e.g., bind "p" "say_team Missing top!")
dota_sf_old_heropedia "1" Switches the Learn interface to the old layout instead of the web-based version. 0
con_enable "1" Enables the in-game console. 0
chat_join "name" Automatically joins a chat channel upon launch.
tv_nochat "1" Disables spectator chat by default. 0

Network tweaks

The following values tweak network usage. They may be beneficial in reducing lag.
Changing these settings may affect lag for the worse. Do not tweak these if you are unsure about what you're doing.
Tweak Notes Value for slow connections
rate "100000" Total bandwidth Dota 2 can use. 40000
cl_updaterate "60" Updates received from server per second. 20
cl_cmdrate "100" Updates sent to server per second. 20
cl_interp "0"
cl_interp_ratio "0"
cl_smoothtime "0"

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 7, 8.1, 10
Processor (CPU) Intel Dual core 2.8 GHz
AMD Dual core 2.8 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 15 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI/AMD Radeon HD 2600/3600
Nvidia GeForce 8600/9600GT
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectX Compatible
Tom's Hardware benchmarked Dota 2's performance and concluded that integrated Intel or AMD graphics should be enough for 30fps at 1920x1080 on low settings.
Windows Vista was previously supported, but as future updates for this game and Steam occurred; the support was dropped.
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.9
Processor (CPU) Intel Dual core
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 15 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 320M
ATI Radeon HD 2400
Intel graphics HD 3000
A 64-bit operating system is required.
Linux
Minimum
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 12.04
Processor (CPU) Intel Dual core 2.8 GHz
AMD Dual core 2.8 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 15 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI/AMD Radeon HD 2600/3600
Nvidia GeForce 8600/9600GT
Intel graphics HD 3000
OpenGL 2.1 compatible
Sound (audio device) OpenAL Compatible Sound Card
Other (Graphic Drivers: Nvidia Driver v331, AMD Driver mesa 10.5.9 or Catalyst 15.7, Intel Driver mesa 10.6)
A 64-bit operating system is required.


References

  1. Dota 2 Store - last accessed on 2020-05-09
  2. Dota 2 update for 14 January 2022 - last accessed on August 2023
    "Valve Anti Cheat (VAC)

    Locally modified game files detected.
    Play is disabled.
    "
  3. Dota 2: Dota Plus - last accessed on 2020-12-25
  4. Steam Support: Dota 2 Item Drops - last accessed on 2020-12-25
  5. Dota 2 Gamepedia Wiki: Declaration of the Divine Shadow Dire Towers - last accessed on 2020-12-25
  6. Command Line Options - Valve Developer Community
  7. twitter.com - last accessed on May 2023
  8. New 120Hz Games Report - last accessed on May 2023
  9. Dota Controller FAQ - last accessed on 25 September 2022
  10. Mouse Acceleration, Speed and Smoothing - Dota2 Dev - last accessed on May 2023
  11. PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023
  12. Today's update also adds native offline support for Dota 2 - last accessed on August 2023
  13. Steam Community :: Guide :: Guide to Local Play (LAN) in Dota 2 - last accessed on May 2023
  14. blurred graphics - Dota2 Dev - last accessed on May 2023
  15. Bug - No health or mana bar on HUD - Steam community discussions - last accessed on May 2023
  16. CSGO changing your windows mic boost level? here's a fix: GlobalOffensive - last accessed on May 2023
  17. kyoukidotexe commented on Why does CS:GO automatically change my mic volume when I start the game?: GlobalOffensive - last accessed on May 2023
  18. Dota 2 - Reborn (Part 3)
  19. Steam Community - last accessed on May 2023
  20. Steam Community - last accessed on May 2023
  21. News - Dota 2 Update - May 23rd 2016 - last accessed on May 2023
  22. linuxconfig.org - last accessed on May 2023
  23. Customising Dota 2 - Team Liquid - last accessed on May 2023
  24. List of useful console commands for DotA 2 - Reddit - last accessed on May 2023