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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the original 2009 release. For the 2020 campaign remaster, see Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered. For the sequel to the 2019 reboot, see Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 cover
Developers
Infinity Ward
macOS (OS X) Aspyr Media
Publishers
Activision
OS X Aspyr Media
Japan Square Enix
Engines
IW 4.0
Release dates
Windows November 10, 2009
macOS (OS X) May 20, 2014
Reception
Metacritic 86
IGDB 94
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, FPS, Shooter
Art styles Realistic
Themes Europe, South America, Contemporary
Series Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on HowLongToBeat
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on IGDB
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 guide on StrategyWiki
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on MobyGames
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Wikipedia
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Subseries of Call of Duty
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2007
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 2009
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 2011
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered 2016
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered 2020
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II 2022
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III 2023

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.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action, FPS and shooter game in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series.

General information

Official Call of Duty series site
CallofDutyMaps - A detailed Website for all included multiplayer maps.
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Icon overlay.png
2 DVDs
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Amazon.com (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Gamesplanet logo.svg (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
All versions require Steam DRM.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Stimulus Package Adds five new maps with two maps from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Bailout - a multi-level apartment complex.

Storm - an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery.

Salvage - a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars.

Crash - a war-torn urban environment (CoD 4).

Overgrown - features a massive dry creek bed (CoD 4).
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Resurgence Pack Adds five new maps with two maps from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

"Carnival," a large abandoned theme park that offers lots of unique vantage points that work well for all game modes. The once vibrant rides now sit idle and neglected as perfect cover points in one of the most original multiplayer locations for Modern Warfare 2.

"Fuel," a massive oil refinery with extremely long sightlines great for medium- to long-range firefights. The spacious surroundings offer a great sniper advantage; offices, warehouses, and buildings house objectives and provide opportunity for close-range firefights.

"Trailer Park," a medium-sized mobile estate with a maze of tight flank routes and lots of cover. Junk covered yards, deserted trailers, and debris-riddled surroundings offer intense firefights with a wide variety of vantage points and routes available.

"Strike," a large urban desert town, excellent for medium-to-large team games. The large monument, connecting streets, and surrounding buildings offer great firefights in Team Deathmatch, and great vantage points for objective team games (CoD 4).

"Vacant," a deserted Russian office complex offering a great mixture of interior and exterior combat. Long hallways with minimal cover points offer a fast escape route for potential runners, but high accuracy and fast aiming is required when advancing through this large complex (CoD 4).
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Edit config file[1]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open config.cfg.
  3. Change seta intro "1" to seta intro "0".
  4. Save the file.

Delete/rename image file[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>.
  2. Delete or rename splash.bmp.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\players\[Note 1]
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/10180/pfx/[Note 2]
Singleplayer configuration settings are saved in <path-to-game>\players\config.cfg.
Multiplayer configuration settings are saved in <path-to-game>\players\config_mp.cfg.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\players\save\[Note 1]
<path-to-game>\players\settings_c.zip.iw4[Note 1]
<path-to-game>\players\settings_s.zip.iw4[Note 1]
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/10180/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Syncs only multiplayer progress.[2]

Video

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
See the WSGF entry or use Widescreen Fixer.
Ultra-widescreen
See the WSGF entry or use Widescreen Fixer.
4K Ultra HD
Does not work with in-game fullscreen enabled.
Field of view (FOV)
Default is 65° vertical. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Toggle using Alt+ Enter or change 'seta r_fullscreen "0"' to 'seta r_fullscreen "1"' in the configuration file.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See Anisotropic filtering (AF).
Anti-aliasing (AA)
High-fidelity upscaling
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS
Frame rate in multiplayer is capped at 91 FPS. Use MW2 FPS Unlocker or BetterCOD. For multiplayer after the 2023 update, use Market by PierroD AKA: LINDRA.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

Field of view (FOV)

For multiplayer after the 2023 update use Market by PierroD AKA: LINDRA. Infinity Ward does not treat FOV adjustment as cheating.[3]
For campaign and special ops use Call of Duty: SCZ FoV Changer, or the fix below.
Edit config.cfg[4]
  1. Open <path-to-game>\players\config.cfg with a text-editing tool.
  2. Find the line seta monkeytoy and change its value from "1" to "0".
  3. Add the following lines:
  4. seta thereisacow "1337"
    bind w "+forward;cg_fov 80;cg_fovScale 1.125"
  5. Save it. Once in game, press W (as it's already done to walk forward; just rebind it to another key if preferred) and the FOV will be changed.

Notes

cg_fov adjustst the base hipfire FOV, while cg_fovScale is a multiplier for all FOV levels (including hipfire FOV and the weapon-specific aim down sights FOV levels). You can adjust both to the desired values.
Starting a new level will reset the FOV to default but reaching a checkpoint will save the changed FOV, including if saving, quitting and resuming that same level.
Weapon models are affected by changes in FOV.
Warning: There has been several tweak suggestions online for adding sv_cheats "1" into the config file to enable the console menu. While this has been true for the previous game, Modern Warfare 2 had a stricter stance on cheating thereby adding sv_cheats may well crash the game on startup and even delete the config file afterwards. Make sure to backup the config file if risking to add the line. That said, the FOV tweak mentioned will work fine.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Edit config files[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\players\.
    • For singleplayer, edit config.cfg
    • For multiplayer, edit config_mp.cfg
  2. Find a line seta r_texFilterAnisoMin "1" and change the value to either "2", "8" or "16" (max).
  3. Find a line seta r_texFilterAnisoMax "4" and change the value to either "2", "8" or "16" (max).

Notes

To bypass the game automatically adjusting settings of anisotropic, set both r_texFilterAnisoMax and r_texFilterAnisoMin to the same value.

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Disabled by default. See Mouse acceleration.
Mouse sensitivity
Does not show how high the sensitivity is manually, must go into <path-to-game>\players\config_mp.cfg to directly change it.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Controller types

Mouse acceleration

Mouse acceleration is disabled by default. It can be manually enabled by editing a config file.
Edit config file[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\players\.
  2. Edit config.cfg (single player) or config_mp.cfg (multiplayer).
  3. Change seta cl_mouseAccel "0" to seta cl_mouseAccel "1" to enable mouse acceleration.

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Only 5.1.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Czech
Fan translation.
French
German
Hungarian
Fan translation, link #1, link #2.
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Slovak
Fan translation.
Turkish
Fan translation. Details missing—please edit this page and add it.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
18
Online play
18

Connection types

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 28960(MP), 28961 (Spec-Ops)
UDP 28960(MP), 28961 (Spec-Ops)
This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D, Z3D
User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.
Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest

Issues unresolved

Cannot install the game from retail DVDs

Use Phoenix extractor[5]
  1. Extract the game files from the DVDs using this tutorial.
  2. Start downloading the game in Steam (redeem the code from the back of the manual for a new copy).
  3. Place the extracted files in the game's Steamapps folder chosen during its installation.
  4. Verify integrity of game files in Properties>Local game files clicking RMB on the game.
  5. After verification, downloading of additional few gigabytes will start.

Issues fixed

Ambient Occlusion issues on Nvidia GPUs

Ambient Occlusion set to Performance.
Ambient Occlusion set to Performance.
Ambient Occlusion set to off.
Ambient Occlusion set to off.
iw4sp.exe is for Singleplayer, iw4mp.exe is for Multiplayer.
Disable Ambient Occlusion inside NVIDIA Control Panel
  1. Open the Nvidia Control Panel.
  2. Go to 3D Settings > Manage 3D settings > Program Settings.
  3. Click Add, Browse and select iw4sp.exe or iw4mp.exe inside <path-to-game>.
  4. Set Ambient Occlusion to Off.

Singleplayer hangs on launch with black screen and mouse cursor moving

Download DSOAL or other DirectSound wrapper, and put it into <path-to-game>

Multiplayer hangs on launch/startup with splash screen

Delete file mp_playlist_dlc2.ff
  • Navigate to C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2\zone\english\.

Notes

For some users, deleting mp_playlists_dlc1.ff or/and mp_playlists.ff might help as well.

Mouse stuttering/skipping

Uncap framerate
  • Disallow RTSS or other similar programs from capping the framerate and disabling Vsync will help reduce mouse stutter as well as a lower mouse polling rate.

Stuck in The Gulag level

Playing at high fps results in a stuck in The Gulag Level.
Enable Vsync in the options game and set monitor to 60 Hz[citation needed]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
32-bit only.[6]

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio Miles Sound System
Cutscenes Bink Video

Mods

High(er) Resolution Textures

Upscales the Textures to a minimum of 1024 pixels.

HD Blood decals

This replaces the game's default 128x128 blood decals with newer and higher resolution (2048x2048) ones.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 12 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.9.2
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i3 2.2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 13 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 640M
ATI Radeon HD 4850
Intel Iris
512 MB of VRAM
The following chipsets are unsupported by the OS X version: ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, ATI Radeon HD 6490M, 6630M, 3870, Nvidia GeForce 9000 series, Nvidia GeForce 320M, 330M, Intel HD 3000, 4000, 5000.
Hard drive volumes formatted as Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive) are not supported.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 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).
  2. 2.0 2.1 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>/10180/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (10180) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References