Homeworld 2

This page is for the original release. For the remastered version, see Homeworld 2 Remastered Edition.

Homeworld
Homeworld	1999
Homeworld: Cataclysm	2000
Homeworld 2	2003
Homeworld Remastered Edition	2015
Homeworld 2 Remastered Edition	2015
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak	2016
Homeworld: Vast Reaches	2024
Homeworld 3	2024

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Homeworld 2 is a singleplayer and multiplayer free-roaming camera RTS game in the Homeworld series.

General information

Homeworld Shipyards - A fairly old but big Homeworld fan site

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 5 DRM.
GOG.com		Homeworld Remastered Collection
Steam		Homeworld Remastered Collection
Mac App Store (unavailable)		Homeworld Remastered Collection. Updated for compatibility with modern systems. Currently no online multiplayer or mod support.

The Homeworld Remastered Collection contains Homeworld, Homeworld 2, Homeworld Remastered Edition and Homeworld 2 Remastered Edition. Non-remastered versions have multiplayer disabled.

Demo

A free demo version is available from GameFront.

Essential improvements

Patches

Official

Patch 1.1 - The latest official patch

Fan-made

Patch 1.2 - This unofficial patch adds some added bug fixes and enhancements to the game. Note that it is largely incompatible with mods.

Game data

In-game gameplay settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/244160/pfx/^{[Note 1]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Bin\Profiles\^{[Note 2]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/244160/pfx/^{[Note 1]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game graphics settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See the WSGF entry.
Multi-monitor		See the WSGF entry.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed	Run the game with the `-windowed -w ### -h ###` command line arguments, with inserted custom width and height values.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	Run the game with the `-windowed -w ### -h ### -noborder` command line arguments, with inserted custom width and height values.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Input

In-game key map settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

In-game audio settings.

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

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese				Only available in retail release in Mainland China. (Standalone Chinese languange pack installation CD)
Czech				Retail only.
Czech				Fan translation; download
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Polish				Local retail only.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		6	Versus Not available in the Homeworld Remastered Collection version.^[1] Can be restored with this Workshop mod.
Online play		6	Versus GameSpy services have been shut down;^[2] see GameSpy for workarounds.

Issues fixed

Windows Vista/7 compatibility fix

Disable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) in Windows, or use a German No-CD patch.^[3]

Choppy/laggy camera movement on Windows 7 fix

Enable Vsync via editing the `PLAYERCFG.LUA` file found in `<path-to-game>\Bin\Profiles\Profile1` in a text editor.

This will force the game to enable Vsync if the game crashes when selecting Vsync in the Options menu ingame.

Obsolete video card driver error message fix for modern Nvidia cards

Instructions
Go to `<path-to-game>\bin` Edit `driverConfig.lua` and replace some content with this.

Black screen, then crash on startup for AMD cards

Replace the atioglxx.dll file
Download the updated atioglxx.dll file. Place it in `<path-to-game>\bin\release`. Launch the game.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
OpenGL

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	GameSpy

Command line arguments

A full list of command line arguments is found in this forum thread.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 833 MHz AMD Athlon 833 MHz	Intel Pentium 4 1.6 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1.6 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon 7500 32 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0b compatible	Nvidia GeForce 3 series ATI Radeon 8500 64 MB of VRAM

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.9.5
Processor (CPU)	Intel 2.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	20 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GT 640M ATI Radeon HD 3870 Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1
Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/244160/.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (244160) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
↑ 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

↑ Gearbox Software Forums - Where is lan in the classic homeworld? - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Pricing | GameSpy Technology
↑ Homeworld 2 on Windows 7 - last accessed on May 2023

[Proton_path_note-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/244160/.
Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
The app ID (244160) may differ in some cases.
Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[2] File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.

[3] Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/244160/.

[4] Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.

[5] The app ID (244160) may differ in some cases.

[6] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

[7] See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[gamedir-2] 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).

[3] Gearbox Software Forums - Where is lan in the classic homeworld? - last accessed on May 2023

[4] Pricing | GameSpy Technology

[5] Homeworld 2 on Windows 7 - last accessed on May 2023

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[1]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	Relic Entertainment
macOS (OS X)	Beenox Shift
Publishers
Original	Sierra Entertainment
Current	Gearbox Software
OS X	Aspyr Media
Release dates
Windows	September 16, 2003
macOS (OS X)	September 21, 2004
Reception
Metacritic	83
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Free-roaming camera
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS
Themes	Sci-fi, Space
Series	Homeworld