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Diablo II

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Diablo II
Diablo II cover
Developers
Blizzard North
Publishers
Blizzard Entertainment
Release dates
Windows June 29, 2000
Mac OS (Classic) July 26, 2000
macOS (OS X) 2002[1]
Diablo II guide on StrategyWiki
Diablo II on Wikipedia

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.
Diablo
Diablo 1997
Diablo II 2000
Diablo III 2012
Diablo II: Resurrected 2021
Diablo Immortal 2022
Diablo IV 2023

Key points

Active community.
Ongoing support for compatibility and other issues. Patches for the game have been released as recently as April 2016.
Official support for Intel Macs was added in via the v1.14a patch.
Single player frame rate is capped at 25 FPS; see Mouse lag/low frame rate in single player.

General information

Diablo II Website
Diablo II Forum
Unofficial Diablo Wiki
Battle.net Support for game

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
SecuROM 3 DRM.
Lords of Destruction uses SecuROM 4 DRM.
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Mac OS
Battle.net
Icon overlay.png
Digital Download.
Windows

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Included with the Diablo Battle Chest. Can be bought from the Battle.net store.
Windows
Mac OS

Version differences

Diablo Battle Chest

The Battle Chest is a box set containing Diablo II and Lord of Destruction, as well as an official strategy guide for both games.

Older copies of the Battle Chest include Diablo.

Battle.net Digital Download

A downloadable version of the game. The main differences compared to the retail release is the removal of disc checking, along with native support for Intel Macs and modern Windows.

If a retail version is already owned, the serial key can be registered with a Battle.net account to get the digital release for free.

Note that Diablo II and Lord of Destruction are separate downloads.

Essential improvements

Patches

While the game updates automatically when connecting to Battle.net, it is still possible to download and apply patches manually. If the expansion Lord of Destruction is installed, only LODPatch_xxx.exe needs to be installed.

Older patch releases for Windows, OS X (PowerPC), and Mac OS can be found on the patches-scrolls.com.

Diablo 2 Patches

The latest versions are 1.14d for Windows and 1.13d for Mac OS.

Patching to version 1.12a is recommended for the use of the high resolution patch. When using 1.12a, official Battle.net play will not be available, as that requires the latest patch.

Lord of Destruction Patches

The latest version is 1.14d for Windows and 1.13d for Mac OS.

Patching to version 1.12a is recommended for the use of the high resolution patch. When using 1.12a, official Battle.net play will not be available, as that requires the latest patch.

Mods

Median XL: Ultimative

A total conversion mod for Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction that modifies the game by replacing character skills, improving items and monsters, and adding new uberquests (1.13c recommended).

PlugY

A mod that adds infinitive and shared storage along with other features.

Run game without CD

As of patch 1.12, the game officially supports running with no CD. Some newer copies of the game are set up to run with no CD by default.
If you register your CD keys on the Battle.net website, you can download disc-free installers, even if you have lost the discs themselves.
Although there is no limit to how many computers you can install the game to, only one computer can be logged in to Battle.net with a given CD key at a time.

For older copies of the game, you will need to do the following:

Reinstall and copy files[citation needed]
  1. Perform a "full" installation (not a minimal install) of Diablo II (and Lord of Destruction if applicable).
  2. Install patch 1.12 or later.
  3. Copy any .MPQ files from your Diablo II (and LoD, if applicable) discs to your Diablo II installation folder. Ignore any files that already exist. For most users, you will only need to copy D2Music.mpq from the Play disc (LoD owners should also copy D2xMusic.mpq from the LoD disc).

Notes

If you have a Mac, rename D2Music.mpq to Diablo II Music (If you have LoD, also rename D2xMusic.mpq to Diablo II Expansion Music. Note that the Mac OS version is not compatible with OS X 10.7 Lion or later.)

Skip intro videos

Skip intro videos[citation needed]
  1. Download Diablo 2 No Intro Mod.
  2. Extract data\ to the installation folder.
  3. Start the game with the -direct -txt command line arguments.

Game data

In-game automap settings.
In-game automap settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Diablo II\
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Save[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
For single player only. See Battle.net save files for details on the multiplayer save system

Battle.net save files

Battle.net Realm characters are stored in the cloud and are tied to your Battle.net account; however, they are only accessible on the realm (server) on which they were created (US-East, US-West, etc.). They are not playable in single-player, LAN, Open Battle.net, or direct-IP-connection online play. Realm characters expire after 90 days of inactivity; to reset the inactivity timer, you will need to perform basic activity, such as buying or selling an item or killing a monster. In addition, newly created Realm characters expire after 10 days unless they are played for at least 2 hours during those 10 days. "Open" (non-Realm) characters are used for single-player, LAN, Open Battle.net, and direct-IP-connection online play; they are not playable on the Battle.net Realms. They are stored locally in the "save" folder in your DII installation folder. Note that there is no hack protection for Open characters.

Video settings

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

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

640x480 is the highest available resolution for the vanilla version of Diablo II without Lord of Destruction expansion pack. 800x600 is the highest available resolution for the Lord of Destruction expansion pack.

You can stretch this using windowed mode with a fixed ratio (See the Command-line arguments section on how to disable it).

Use third-party utility[citation needed]
  1. Download the Glide Wrapper.
  2. Go to settings and check the Desktop Resolution box.
  3. Edit the shortcut you launch the game with and add -w -3dfx to it. Example: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Diablo II\Diablo II.exe" -w -3dfx
Use D2MultiRes[2]

This allows true (unstretched) high resolution, resulting in a bird's eye view and the ability to see more of the surrounding area.

  1. Patch the game to version 1.12a. Higher versions are incompatible with D2MultiRes.
  2. Install D2MultiRes.
  3. Set the game to use Direct3D or DirectDraw by running D2VidTst.exe (may require Windows Vista compatibility mode).
  4. Run D2MultiResGame.exe (may require Windows Vista compatibility mode).
  5. Go to menu->Options->Video Options->Resolution to choose a new resolution.

Notes

This is considered a hack on Battle.net.

Input settings

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

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

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

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
US and EU
French
German
Italian
Korean
Polish
Spanish
Traditional Chinese

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
8
Online play
8

Connection types

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 4000, 6112
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Graphical Glitches and/or slowdowns in full screen mode

Run the Video Test again[citation needed]

Run the Video Test in-game. If this doesn't work, select the DirectDraw rendered instead.

Download the Glide Wrapper[citation needed]

Download the Glide Wrapper here. For more information on the Glide Wrapper see the next section.

Better performance with Glide Wrapper

Diablo II supports three different rendering modes: DirectDraw, Direct3D and Glide. DirectDraw offers the worst performance, and does not support perspective effects. Direct3D offers better performance but causes color issues on many newer machines. Glide offers the best performance of them all, no color issues, and improved ground textures to boot, but is not natively compatible with non-3DFX graphics cards. However, there are many "Glide wrappers" that emulate Glide in OpenGL. The most popular of these is Sven's Glide Wrapper, which was specifically designed for this game; other general-purpose Glide wrappers that work with multiple games are also available.

How to Download the Sven Glide Wrapper[citation needed]
  1. Download the latest version of Sven's Glide Wrapper, and extract it to your Diablo II installation folder.
  2. Run glide-init.exe. Click the Deutsch-English button to switch the menu language to English.
  3. Click the Query OpenGL-infos button. A video test should run.
  4. Click Renderer, then set texture-memory to the recommended value.
  5. Click Test. A video test should run. Assuming it runs correctly, you can exit now.
  6. Run D2VidTst.exe. Several video tests should run; afterwards, it should prompt you to choose between the three graphics modes. Select Glide.
  7. Launch Diablo II. Note that the Glide Wrapper sets the gamma to maximum by default; you may wish to go into the options menu and set it to a more reasonable value.

Additional useful Sven's Glide Wrapper settings

Type Name/Code Info
Settings window-mode Be aware that when used in combination with static size window-scaling the mouse cursor will jump around the screen when opening your inventory via the keyboard. All window-mode-specific settings only work if you have this setting enabled.
Settings captured mouse If you're running in a window, or in fullscreen with a second monitor attached, this will lock the mouse cursor to the game screen. If you are running in fullscreen on your only monitor, this will have no effect.
Settings keep aspect ratio Turn this on if you have a widescreen monitor, and are running in a window or have Desktop Resolution on, to force the game to display in 4:3 letterbox rather than stretched.
Settings window extras Turning this on will allow you to resize the window in Windowed Mode.
Settings refreshrate If you are running in Fullscreen Mode and are having problems, try setting this to the refresh rate of your monitor.
Settings desktopresolution In Fullscreen Mode, this makes it so that, instead of changing the output resolution of your graphics card, the game is scaled up to that resolution. This can decrease performance, so it's recommended to turn this on if and only if your monitor has trouble displaying 640x480 and/or 800x600 resolutions (some TFT monitors have this problem), or if you want to use bilinear filtering.
Renderer 32 bit rendering Turn this on if and only if your graphics card has trouble rendering 16-bit color.
Renderer bilinear filtering If Settings - desktopresolution is enabled, this can increase image quality at the expense of performance.
Renderer supersampling If Extensions - WGL_ARB_render_texture is enabled, this can increase image quality at the expense of performance.
Renderer shader-gamma In Windowed Mode, this will make the gamma setting only affect the Diablo II window. Also, try this setting if you are trying to take screenshots, but they come out lighter or darker than what is displayed on screen. However, this reduces performance.
Renderer keep desktop composition Under Windows Vista/7, this will stop the game from disabling Aero effects. This can decrease performance.
Extensions Usually all of these should be enabled, except for the ones listed as unsupported. The main exception is WGL_ARB_render_texture, which increases the image quality if Desktop Resolution"is activated or if you are running in windowed mode and have changed the window size, at the expense of performance. If you are having problems, try disabling extensions.

Battle.net Verify Error

If you are unable to connect to Battle.net on Windows Vista or Windows 7, the problem is that the installation folder is a location which requires administrator access (i.e. the default install location, C:\Program Files\). To fix this, do one of two things:

Install the game to a non-protected folder[citation needed]

Install the game to a non-protected folder (e.g. C:\Games).

Run the game with administrator access[citation needed]

Right click on link, click on Run as administrator.

Unhandled Exception: Access Violation (c000005) Error

Newer video cards may no longer support Diablo 2.[citation needed]

Correcting (c000005) Error[citation needed]
  1. Install the game to a non-protected folder (e.g. C:\Games).
  2. Right click on Diablo II.exe, click "Compatibility" tab, check Run as administrator
  3. Also check Run this program in compatibility mode and select Windows XP (Service Pack 3) from the dropdown menu.
  4. Hit Apply and OK to close the tab and attempt to run Diablo 2.
  5. If these options fail to alleviate the issue then install Glide Wrapper

Colorization Problems Windows Vista and Windows 7

Update the game to patch 1.14b by connecting to Battle.net.

Mouse lag/low frame rate in single player

Diablo II caps the frame rate at 25 FPS in Singleplayer Mode; some users have reported that this causes mouse lag.
Multiplayer Mode does not have this cap.

A workaround is to create a password-protected "Other Multiplayer" game; "Other Multiplayer" characters are shared with single-player mode.

You need not be connected to the Internet or a LAN to do this, and nobody will be able to join your game unless you give them your IP address and password. However, unlike in single-player mode, the map will be randomly regenerated each time you play (though you can still transport between any waypoints you've visited).

Battle.net accounts

"Legacy" Battle.net accounts (for Diablo II, WarCraft II, WarCraft III and StarCraft) are not the same as Battle.net 2.0 accounts (for Diablo III, StarCraft II and World of WarCraft). Even if you have one of the latter, you will still need to create one of the former in order to play Diablo II on Battle.net. You can create the account in-game.

Up to eight characters can be created per account, but there is no limit on the number of accounts you can have. You do not have to buy a separate copy of the game for each account. However, if you installed Diablo II on multiple computers using the same CD key, only one of those computers can be connected to Battle.net at one time.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 6
DirectDraw 6.1
OpenGL
Mac OS and OS X only.
Glide 3.0
Software renderer
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Cutscenes Bink Video, Smacker
Multiplayer Battle.net

Command line

Command-line arguments

Command Description
-w Runs the game in windowed mode (also fixes slow start on Vista/7)
-ns No Sound
-skiptobnet Connects to closed Battle.net on start
-nofixaspect (windowed mode only) Disables the 4:3 ratio lock otherwise enforced when maximizing the game window.
-act5 New Single Player characters start in Act 5 with character level set to 33

In-game commands

Command Description
/fps Shows diagnostic information such as FPS, memory usage and latency
/nopickup Disables picking up of items unless ALT (show items) is held
/soundchaosdebug Fills out the available amount of sound channels with all sounds found in Diablo 2
/players X where X is 1 to 8, changes the "player count" (to increase difficulty and experience gain) to the set amount (single player and local network play only)

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 233 MHz
System memory (RAM) 32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 650 MB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 6.1 compatible
Mac OS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 8.1
Processor (CPU) G3 processor or equivalent
System memory (RAM) 64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 650 MB
Video card (GPU) SVGA video card

Notes

  1. When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References