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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II cover
Developers
Relic Entertainment
GOG.com General Arcade[1]
macOS (OS X) Feral Interactive[2]
Linux Feral Interactive[2]
Publishers
2009-2013 THQ
2013-present Sega
OS X, Linux Feral Interactive
Engines
Essence Engine 2.0
Release dates
Windows February 19, 2009
macOS (OS X) September 29, 2016[2]
Linux September 29, 2016[2]
Reception
Metacritic 85
IGDB 81
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Bird's-eye view
Controls Multiple select, Point and select
Genres RTS
Themes Sci-fi
Series Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II on HowLongToBeat
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II on IGDB
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II guide on StrategyWiki
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II on MobyGames
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II on Wikipedia
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Subseries of Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2004
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade 2006
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm 2008
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II 2009
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising 2010
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution 2011
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III 2017

Warnings

For Games for Windows - LIVE on Windows 8 or later, install the latest Games for Windows - LIVE software.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view RTS game in the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series.

It shares game files with Chaos Rising, its first standalone expansion.

The game was migrated from Games for Windows - LIVE to Steamworks online services in first in a beta branch on June 27, 2014[3], and on the main branch on September 4, 2014.[4] The GOG.com version from July 7, 2023 is isolated from the Steam playerbase and can only be used to connect to GOG Galaxy users.

General information

Lexicanum - A huge wiki for the Warhammer 40,000 series
Dawn of War Wiki
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
1d4chan's Article - A highly informative compendium for most things related to Warhammer and its related franchises

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Icon overlay.png
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Developer website
Icon overlay.png
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Grand Master Collection only; bundled with Chaos Rising, Retribution and most DLC for the latter.
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Master Collection and Grand Master Collection also available.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Mac App Store
Icon overlay.png
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
[5]
Windows
Games for Windows - LIVE DRM has been removed.[4] See Downgrading to revert to the GFWL version.
All non-Steam versions require Games for Windows - LIVE DRM.[Note 1]

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Instructions[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\GameAssets\Data\Movies.
  2. Move, delete or rename the following files.
amd_intro.avi
dowii_intro_final.avi
gfwl_logo.avi
gw_logo_720p_divx1.avi
nvidia_logo.avi
relicintro_720p_divx.avi
sega_logo_new_720p_divx.avi

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Dawn of War 2\
macOS (OS X)
Linux $XDG_DATA_HOME/feral-interactive/Dawn of War II/VFS/User/AppData/Roaming/My Games/Dawn of War 2/
This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Dawn of War 2\
macOS (OS X)
Linux $XDG_DATA_HOME/feral-interactive/Dawn of War II/VFS/User/AppData/Roaming/My Games/Dawn of War 2/Saved Games/

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

Graphics settings.
Graphics settings.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Turn Vsync on/off[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Dawn of War 2\Settings
  2. Edit configuration.lua
  3. Find setting = "vsync"
  4. Change value = 0 to value = 1
  5. Save your changes. To reverse the change, change back to value = 0.

Input

Controls settings menu.
Controls settings menu.
Controls settings in game.
Controls settings in game.

Custom keyboard binding

Custom keyboard binding[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Dawn of War 2\Settings\
  2. Locate file _keydefaults.lua and open it in text editor (Notepad for example)
  3. Locate actions, you'd like to change and assign new keys to it.
  4. Save file as keydefaults.lua (without underscore).
Be sure to read notes in the file.

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
Traditional Chinese
Available on Steam, despite not being stated in the store page.[6]
Czech
Available on Steam, despite not being stated in the store page.[6]
French
German
Hungarian
Local store version only. Fan translation also available.
Italian
Polish
Available on Steam, despite not being stated in the store page.[6]
Russian
Available on Steam, despite not being stated in the store page.[6]
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
Removed in the Steamworks update.[4]
Online play
6 Co-op, Versus
2 players for Campaign Co-op, 3 players for the Last Stand gamemode. Steam and Mac App Store players cannot play together.[7]

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP
Removed in the Steamworks update.[4]

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
UDP 67, 68
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D
User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues fixed

Pagefile

Dawn of War II will not run unless you have a pagefile of at least 1.5 GB in size. If you have trouble with it use the -disablepagefilecheck command line argument, then it should run.

Restoring LAN multi-player, direct IP connection and GFWL

Downgrading[8]
  1. Download this archive and extract it.
  2. Copy the extracted content to <path-to-game> and overwrite the existing files. If present, also delete xlive.dll from the game's folder.
  3. Launch the game from Steam and enter your key when the game asks. After you activate the game, matchmaking (and all achievements associated with it) becomes available once again.[9]
This does not bypass neither remove Steam DRM. Steam is still required to run the game in addition to GFWL.

Game will not launch on system with more than 12 CPU cores

Install DOW2CoreFix

Download DOW2CoreFix Profiler.dll into the game's directory. This limit the game to only 12 CPU cores.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
OpenGL
Linux version
Shader Model support 3.0
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Interface Scaleform
Multiplayer Games for Windows Live, Steamworks, Relic BattleServer

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP SP2
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz
Dual Core (any processor)
System memory (RAM) 1 GB (XP)
1.5 GB (Vista)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 6.5 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT
ATI Radeon X1600
128 MB of VRAM
Shader model 3.0 support
macOS (OS X)
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 10.10.5
Processor (CPU) Intel 1.8 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 18 GB
Video card (GPU) 512 MB of VRAM
Intel HD Graphics 4000/5000 cards require 8 GB of RAM.
Linux
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 16.04, SteamOS 2.0
Processor (CPU) Intel 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 8 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 600 series
AMD Radeon HD 6000 series
Intel Iris Pro Graphics series
1 GB of VRAM
Intel HD Graphics 4000/5000 cards require 8 GB of RAM.
Nvidia cards require driver version 367.35, AMD and Intel GPUs require MESA 11.2.


Notes

  1. Games for Windows - LIVE DRM features: Legacy activation, supports local profiles.

References

  1. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Grand Master Collection | General Arcade - last accessed on 2023-07-15
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Feral Interactive on Twitter - last accessed on 2016-09-23
    "On September 29th, three grimdark games arrive on Mac and Linux — Warhammer® 40,000®: Dawn of War II®, Chaos Rising and Retribution."
  3. Steam :: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II :: Dawn of War II: Open Beta - last accessed on 2024-02-16
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Dawn of War II Patch Notes and Updates :: Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II General Discussions
  5. Microsoft Games for Windows Marketplace - last accessed on 19 August 2022
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II on SteamDB
  7. Calico - FAQs | Feral Interactive
  8. Verified by User:SargeCassidy on 2020-08-10
  9. Cosminiion's video on all online GFWL components - last accessed on 2020-08-10