User:ProdigyLain/CallofDuty2

Call of Duty 2 Modding Guide

Created by Prodigy Lain

Forum Thread: For feedback and questions
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Introduction

This guide simply makes Call of Duty 2 look and play as good as possible. This guide is the definitive list of everything you can do to make the game look and play better.

The main things this guide will cover are:

• Setting up the game in a way to prevent a common crash
• Changing the ingame settings to the correct values for maximum graphical quality
• Modifying the dated control scheme to make the controls more like modern shooters
• Enabling the console to change settings higher than their default maximum values
• Finally installing ReShade which enables many shaders to be used with the game which improves the graphics

If you run into trouble with the game or crashes while following this guide, your best bet is to check out the PCGamingWiki article on the game.
If you have feedback or questions with the guide you can ask in my thread here.

Installation Setup

This guide assumes that the user is beginning with a clean Call of Duty 2 installation. If you already have the game installed back up any files or game saves you wish to keep then reinstall Call of Duty 2. It is recommended to install games to an SSD if available. Call of Duty 2 should be installed outside of "Program Files" or "Program Files (x86)" folders as Windows User Account Control can cause issues with games.

The first thing to be done is to create the player profile. Start the game for the first time and you will be prompted for your profile name. Enter your name then click [OK] and [OK]. Next make sure to quit the game.

Before we start changing the settings, we actually need to quit the game first because changing specific settings will cause your game to crash. To avoid this they need to changed outside of the game.

Config Editing

Navigate to the directory where you installed the game, then go to "\Call of Duty 2\main\players".

Inside the "players" folder open the folder with the name of the profile you created.

Open "config.cfg" with a text editor. Notepad has no line spacing so preferably use another text editor such as WordPad, Microsoft Word, or Notepad++.

Use Ctrl + F to find and change the lines below:

seta r_mode "800x600"
seta r_rendererPreference "none"

seta r_mode "1920x1080"
// Set to your monitor resolution
seta r_rendererPreference "dx9"
// Set to dx9

Save and exit the config file.

Graphics

Now we are able to change the ingame settings without causing the game to crash. There are a couple things to take note of here. Anti-aliasing needs to be off for ReShade to work, but ReShade comes with its own Anti-aliasing so you're not missing out. Sync Every Frame is a fancy way of saying VSync. The game has no FPS cap on by default so if you want VSync off, there will be nothing capping your FPS.

Start up the game again and click [Options] then [Graphics] and set your options to the following:

• Screen Refresh Rate: Set to your monitor's refresh rate.
• Texture Filter: Anisotropic
• Anti-aliasing: Off
• Sync Every Frame: Yes
• Optimize for SLI: Set to No unless you have dual Nvidia GPUs.
• Shadows: Yes
• Number of Dynamic Lights: High
• Soften Smoke Edges: Everything
• Number of Corpses: Insane

Click [Apply] and you will be taken back to the main menu.

Click on [Options] then [Graphics] then click [Texture Settings] near the bottom of the list. Set your options to the following:

• Texture Quality: Manual
• Texture Resolution: Extra
• Normal Map Resolution: Extra
• Specular Map Resolution: Extra

Click [Apply].

Sound and Game Options

Next are the Sound and Game Option settings. Note that technically the best option for "Sound Provider" is Creative Labs EAX 3, but that option doesn't work for me and I doubt it will for most people either. Also the crosshair setting is preference and since I am only playing the campaign I like to have the crosshair off to keep the HUD clear.

Sound

Click [Sound] and set your options to the following:

• Sound Quality: 44hkz High Quality
• Sound Provider: Miles Fast 2D Positional Audio

Click [Apply] and you will be taken back to the main menu.

Game Options

Click on [Options] then [Game Options] and set your options to the following:

• Enable Crosshair: No
• Enable Console: Yes

Click [Apply].

Controls

This section covers updating Call of Duty's dated control scheme to the standard that most modern shooter games use. This is how I prefer the controls and I highly recommend changing them.

Look

Click on [Look] and set your options to the following:

• Mouse Sensitivity: On the 5 setting the mouse sensitivity is extremely high for my mouse, so you'll probably need to lower it as well

Move

Click on [Move] and set your options to the following:

• Toggle Crouch: C
• Toggle Prone: Ctrl

Shoot

Click on [Shoot] and set your options to the following:

• Switch Weapon: Q
• Melee/Steady Sniper Rifle: Unbound (Backspace)
• Melee Attack: F or Mouse Button
• Steady Sniper Rifle: Shift

Interact

Click on [Interact] and set your options to the following:

• Use: E

Console Commands

The last thing we need to change ingame are two values using the console. The first lets us increase the anisotropic filtering above the default maximum value, and the second disables the startup logo videos from playing.

Press ~ to open the console and enter each line:

r_anisotropy 16
seta com_introplayed 1

Now exit the game.

yytssln's ReShade Mod

• Author: yytssln
• Download: Mega

ReShade is what really updates the graphics of the game. The mod enables many shaders to be used with the game, the most notable of which is ambient occlusion.

Navigate to the game's install directory. Unrar "COD2 yytssln's Reshade.rar" and copy all four files inside "新建文件夹" to your install directory.

Open d3d9.ini with any text editor and find the following:

EffectSearchPaths=I:\Activision\Call Of Duty 2\reshade-shaders\Shaders
TextureSearchPaths=I:\Activision\Call Of Duty 2\reshade-shaders\Textures
ScreenshotPath=I:\Activision\Call of Duty 2
PresetFiles=I:\Activision\Call of Duty 2\COD2 yytssln's Reshade.ini

Change the highlighted paths with the directory you installed Call of Duty 2 at. For example here is what I changed mine to:

EffectSearchPaths=C:\GAMES\Call of Duty 2\reshade-shaders\Shaders
TextureSearchPaths=C:\GAMES\Call of Duty 2\reshade-shaders\Textures
ScreenshotPath=C:\GAMES\Call of Duty 2
PresetFiles=C:\GAMES\Call of Duty 2\COD2 yytssln's Reshade.ini

Save and close d3d9.ini.

Navigate to "\Call of Duty 2\reshade-shaders\Shaders"

There are two ways to use this mod. You can either have all the new effects and shaders enabled or you can have only the improved lighting enabled while keeping the look of Call of Duty 2 exactly the same as the original. Personally I would recommended using all the effects but choose whichever you would like. To see what the game looks like with all the effects on watch the end of this video.

If you want all the effects like in my video then:
Delete Border.fx and DOF.fx

If you want the game to look exactly like vanilla Call of Duty 2 but with improved lighting and none of the other effects, then:
Delete EVERYTHING EXCEPT FXAA.fx, FXAA.fxh, MXAO.fx and ReShade.fxh

Conclusion

That's everything. Your game is now fully modded and ready to be played. Enjoy.

Credits:
STEP - For hosting this guide
STEP Guide Creators - I used wiki syntax from a few guides and based the structure of this guide around multiple existing guides (mostly TechAngel85's SSE Guide). So thanks TechAngel85 and many other guide creators.