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Natural Selection 2

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Natural Selection 2
Natural Selection 2 cover
Developers
Unknown Worlds Entertainment
Engines
Spark
Release dates
Windows October 30, 2012
Linux Cancelled[1]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Multiplayer
Series Natural Selection
Natural Selection 2 on MobyGames
Natural Selection 2 on Wikipedia
Natural Selection
Natural Selection 2002
Natural Selection 2 2012
NS2: Combat 2014

Key points

Active community
Development stopped[2]

General information

Official Forums
Official Wiki
Natural Selection Subreddit
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
All versions require Steam DRM.

Essential improvements

Modifications

Installed mods must be activated through the main menu.
Natural Selection 2 supports Steam Workshop, allowing for easy installation, updating and sharing of modifications.
Be aware of reports that certain menu and UI mods may cause problems with the game. If encountering issues, the most likely culprit will be conflicts with installed mods.

Game data

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %APPDATA%\Natural Selection 2\system_options.xml
%APPDATA%\Natural Selection 2\*.json
Linux
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/4920/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Steam <Steam-folder>/userdata/<user-id>/4920/
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/4920/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.
Multi-monitor setup with multi-monitor HUD mod.
Multi-monitor setup with multi-monitor HUD mod.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Multi-monitor HUD mod can be used to centre the HUD.
Ultra-widescreen
[3]
4K Ultra HD
UI elements will be too small. There is an experimental setting for UI scaling.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
On/off toggle. The level of anisotropic filtering is unknown. It seems to be 4x.[4]
Anti-aliasing (AA)
FXAA or TAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Custom FPS slider from 30 to 1000 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Multi-monitor

NS2 Multi-monitor HUD[citation needed]
  1. Download the mod files.
  2. Unzip to <path-to-game>\ns2\lua\.

Input

In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Find row <sensitivity> in <Steam-folder>/userdata/<user-id>/4920/remote/options.xml to customise with greater precision
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Support may be added in a future update.[5]
Controller types

Audio

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Sound, music, voice.
Surround sound
Supports 5.1 and 7.1
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Official translation.
Czech
Finnish
French
German
Polish
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Swedish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
24 Requires an internet connection for Steam authentication.[6]
Online play
24
All official maps are designed for at most 24 players. However, dedicated servers can be set externally to have the max player limit increased beyond the recommended amount

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
[7]
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
A full guide on running a dedicated server can be found on the Community Wiki.
Self-hosting
For dedicated, install Dedicated Server under Tools in the Steam client.
Direct IP
Open the console (~) and use connect followed by the IP and port.

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 27015-27016 (Server only), 27014-27050
UDP 27015-27016 (Server only), 3478, 4379-4380, 27000-27030
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Random latency spikes while moving around maps

Downscale your graphical settings[citation needed]
  1. If you are playing the game on high graphical settings with certain hardware setups, the game might stutter as it loads a new texture for the first time in a given match. Because of how the game is coded, this will appear as random high latency spikes in the ingame match ping overview (in spite of being related to graphical settings and not to latency). These spikes can typically be rectified by turning down the graphics via the options menu in the game.
  2. Setting the texture quality to Medium or below will typically resolve the issue. If not, try to toggle the multicore settings.

"Client and Server Differ" error message

Verify the game cache in Steam[8]
  1. Navigate to your library in Steam.
  2. Right-click Natural Selection 2.
  3. Click "Properties". Go to the "Local Files" tab.
  4. Click the "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" button.

Cannot get past the Main Menu

There are two possible fixes for this issue.
Delete Local Game Content[citation needed]
  1. On Steam, Right click Natural Selection 2 and select "Delete Local Game Content".
  2. This will delete the game, and afterwards you need to redownload and install the game. Note this will delete any mods you may currently have.
Remove all files related to Natural Selection 2[citation needed]
  1. Uninstall Natural Selection 2 from Steam.
  2. Delete the configuration folder.
  3. Delete the installation folder.
  4. Reinstall Natural Selection 2.

Favorite servers do not get saved

Create FavoriteServers.json[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Create an empty file called FavoriteServers.json.

Windows

Textures are pitch black/transparent on AMD cards

Use application settings[citation needed]
  1. In the Catalyst Control Center, go to the AA Tab under 3D settings.
  2. If "Use Application settings" is unchecked, this will cause the textures in the game to appear pitch black. Checking this field again will resolve the issue.

Game crashes immediately on Gigabyte graphics cards

Close the Gigabyte OC Guru overlay[citation needed]
  1. In the taskbar, right click on the Gigabyte OC Guru and click Close.
  2. You may need to click show hidden icons to see the icon.
  3. Other overlays such as mumble or Fraps may apparently cause the same issue, so try disabling those as well.

Game crashes when marines fire

Disable Steam in-game overlay from Steam's right click menu on NS2[citation needed]

Other information

Console commands

Command Notes
fps Toggles the FPS counter on the HUD.
i_rawinput true Sets raw mouse input to true.
setsensitivity x Set mouse sensitivity, substitute x with a desired value.
maxfps 60 Limits FPS to chosen parameter.
r_bloom false Disables bloom effect.
r_atmospherics false Disables atmospheric lighting.
r_shadows false Disables shadow rendering.
r_flash false Disables flash GUI.
r_aa true Enables FXAA (Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing).
r_stats Displays render scene data/stats/FPS.
net_stats Displays network data.
server_sound false Turns off server sounds.
retry Connects to previously-played server if disconnected.
kill Commit suicide.
j1 Join Marines (Ready Room only).
j2 Join Aliens (Ready Room only).
A full list of console commands is available at the official NS2 wiki.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9 11 is WIP[10]
OpenGL 3.1 [11]
Shader Model support 3 [12]
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
[9]

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics PhysX
Audio FMOD

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Vista
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 12 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon X800
Nvidia GeForce 8600
1 GB of VRAM
DirectX 9 compatible
A 64-bit operating system is required.


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>/4920/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (4920) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Natural Selection 2 - A Note to Our Linux Users - last accessed on 2022-12-10
    "With the upcoming release of patch 329, we will officially be ending our support for the Linux client of Natural Selection 2."
  2. Unknown Worlds Entertainment Ceases Active Development of Natural Selection 2 - last accessed on May 2023
  3. Steam Community :: Group :: /r/ultrawidemasterrace Group - last accessed on May 2023
  4. forums.unknownworlds.com - last accessed on May 2023
  5. Natural Selection 2 Forum - Xbox 360 Controller Compatibility - last accessed on May 2023
  6. Local Server!? (LAN) :: Natural Selection 2 General Discussions - last accessed on May 2023
  7. Update 337 Matched Play - last accessed on May 2023
  8. Steam Community Discussions - Client and Server Do not match - last accessed on May 2023
  9. unknownworlds.com - last accessed on May 2023
  10. trello.com - last accessed on May 2023
  11. wiki.unknownworlds.com - last accessed on May 2023
  12. wiki.unknownworlds.com - last accessed on May 2023