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Alan Wake II

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Alan Wake II
Alan Wake II cover
Developers
Remedy Entertainment
Publishers
Epic Games Publishing
Engines
Northlight
Release dates
Windows October 27, 2023
Reception
Metacritic 89
OpenCritic 89
IGDB 88
Taxonomy
Monetization DLC, One-time game purchase
Microtransactions Cosmetic
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Survival horror
Art styles Realistic
Themes Detective/mystery, Horror
Series Alan Wake
Alan Wake II on HowLongToBeat
Alan Wake II on IGDB
Alan Wake II on MobyGames
Alan Wake II on Wikipedia
Alan Wake
Alan Wake 2012
Alan Wake's American Nightmare 2012
Alan Wake Remastered 2021
Alan Wake II 2023

Alan Wake II is a singleplayer third-person survival horror game in the Alan Wake series.

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Epic Games Store
DRM-free after installation through Epic Games Launcher (notes may include more details)
Deluxe Edition also available. DRM-free when launched using the -EpicPortal command line argument.[Note 1]
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Epic Games Launcher
Deluxe Edition also available.
Windows
Humble Store
Epic Games Launcher
Deluxe Edition also available.
Windows

Version differences

Epic Games Store versions purchased before October 27, 2023 includes the Alan Wake Outfit & "Alan's Messenger Bag" Backbling for Fortnite.
The Deluxe Edition includes the base game, the Expansion Pass, containing the Night Springs and Lake House Expansions, as well as the Nordic Shotgun Skin for Saga; the Crimson Windbreak and Lantern Charm for Saga, and the Celebrity Suit and Parliament Shotgun Skin for Alan.

Monetization

Type Notes
DLC Several cosmetic add-ons, as well as an Expansion Pass containing additional story content is available for purchase.
One-time game purchase Alan Wake II requires an upfront purchase to access.

Microtransactions

Type Notes
Cosmetic Additional cosmetic costumes, weapon skins and charms can be purchased.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Deluxe Upgrade Includes all additional content available in the "Deluxe Edition" for owners of the Standard Edition.
Windows
Expansion Pass Contains two major story expansions, as well as a Nordic Shotgun Skin for Saga.
Included in the "Deluxe Edition".
Windows
Crimson Windbreaker Contains an additional outfit for Saga.
Included in the "Deluxe Edition".
Windows
Celebrity Suit Contains an additional outfit for Alan.
Included in the "Deluxe Edition".
Windows
Parliament Shotgun Skin Contains an alternate shotgun skin for Alan.
Included in the "Deluxe Edition".
Windows
Lantern Charm Contains a cosmetic charm for Saga, as well as an additional battery for Saga's flashlight.
Included in the "Deluxe Edition".
Windows


Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\Remedy\AlanWake2\renderer.ini

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\Remedy\AlanWake2\<user-id>\
The save path will use \Default-Epic-User\ instead of \<user-id>\ if using -EpicPortal to launch the game.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Epic Games Launcher

Video

Graphics settings
Graphics settings

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
4:3 is also supported.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
Cutscenes and FMVs are pillarboxed 16:9. See Ultra-widescreen.
4K Ultra HD
Rendering resolutions up to 8K are supported.
Field of view (FOV)
See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Exclusive fullscreen also available.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Referred to as "Texture Filtering" with a Low, Medium, and High setting.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
DLAA and FSR 2 Native. See Anti-aliasing (AA) to disable anti-aliasing.
High-fidelity upscaling
DLSS 3.5, FSR 2.0
DLSS Frame Generation and DLSS Ray Reconstruction available.[3]
Vertical sync (Vsync)
As a toggle.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)
The game uses the Windows 11 HDR calibration data.
Ray tracing (RT)
Features both software and hardware ray and path tracing.[4]. Path tracing includes 1-3 ray bounces and RTAO on the last hit.[5]

Ultra-widescreen

Set ultrawide cutscene restraints[6]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open renderer.ini with a text editor.
  3. Change "m_bUnlockAspectRatio": false, to "m_bUnlockAspectRatio": true
  4. Save the file and close it

Field of view (FOV)

Set custom FOV[7]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open renderer.ini with a text editor.
  3. Change "m_fFieldOfViewMultiplier": 1.0 to the desired value.
  4. Save the file and close it
  5. Go into graphics option menu then exit out of it to take effect.

Notes

The FOV will go back to default value whenever you load a save game or travel using the car.
The game is designed around its original FOV.
FOV scaling might apply to some non gameplay camera.
Set custom FOV using Flawless Widescreen[8]
  1. Download and run Flawless Widescreen(FWS).
  2. Check for Alan Wake 2 in the Avaliable FWS Plugins submenu - Installing it by clicking on the entry.
  3. Make sure the "Fix Enabled" and "FOV fix" checkboxes are enabled.
  4. Change the "FOV - Fine adjust" to the desired value.
  5. Run the game.
  6. Alt-tab to FWS to make further changes.

Notes

FWS will display the FOV values (In/Out) after the game has been detected in the Status Window
The FOV should stay permanent throughout the game.
The game is designed around its original FOV.

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Edit the configuration file to disable TAA[9]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open renderer.ini with a text editor.
  3. Edit the following line as follows: "m_eSSAAMethod": 0
  4. To disable the leftover sharpening filter, edit the following line as follows: "m_fSSAASharpening": 0.0
  5. Save the file and close it

High dynamic range (HDR)

Set custom HDR nit peak[9]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open renderer.ini in a text editor.
  3. Edit "m_fHDRMaxOutputNitsOverride": -1.0 to the desired value.
  4. Save the file and close it.
Enable 16-bit HDR swapchain for increased quality
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open renderer.ini with a text editor.
  3. Edit "m_bPreferScRGBHdr": false to "m_bPreferScRGBHdr": true for 16-bit output.
  4. Save the file and close it.

Post-processing effects

Edit the configuration file to disable effects
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open renderer.ini with a text editor.
  3. To disable depth of field, edit the following line as follows: "m_bDepthOfField": false.
  4. To disable lens distortion, edit the following line as follows: "m_bLensDistortion": false.
  5. To disable vignette, edit the following line as follows: "m_bVignette": false.
  6. Save the changes.

Internal rendering resolution

The game offers only a handful of internal resolutions.
Set custom internal resolution[10]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open renderer.ini with a text editor.
  3. Change the numeric value in field: "m_iRenderResolutionX": for resolution width eg. 1600.
  4. Change the numeric value in field: "m_iRenderResolutionY": for resolution height eg. 900.
  5. Save the changes.

Notes

Make sure to maintain your preferred aspect ratio.

Input

Gameplay settings
Gameplay settings

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
As a slider from 0 to 100. Has separate options for general/horizontal/vertical sensitivity.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
As a slider from 0 to 100. Has separate options for general/horizontal/vertical sensitivity.
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
DualShock 4 controllers
Haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are supported when connected wired.
DualShock button prompts
Light bar support
Connection modes Wired, Bluetooth, V2, DualSense, DualSense Edge
Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio settings
Audio settings
Interface settings
Interface settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Master, Music, Sound Effects, Dialogue volume sliders. Options for Bass Reduction, Mono Audio and Hyperacusis Filters are also available.
Surround sound
Supports Dolby Atmos and DTSX.
Subtitles
Accessibility options for Speaker Name in Subtitles, Subtitles Background, Small/Normal/Large Subtitle Sizes, and Signage Subtitles are available.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
All music tracks are DMCA-free.[11]

Localizations

Subtitles in pre-rendered cutscenes for all languages ​​are out of sync
Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Ukrainian

Issues fixed

Error on first startup

Close overlay software before starting[12]
  1. Disable overlay software such as MSI Afterburner, Special K or similar.
  2. Open the game and login into the Epic Game Store Account and link it.
  3. Use the overlay software as usual.

Notes

Only required once. Afterwards the overlay software can be used even on startup.

Game does not start on Linux (Wine/Proton)

Install dependencies with Winetricks[13]
  1. Using Winetricks, select the default wineprefix and then install a Windows DLL or component.
  2. Install vcrun2022, d3dcompiler_43, and d3dcompiler_47.

Notes

Using a client like the Heroic Games Launcher, you can access Winetricks via the settings page for the game.

Missing textures on Linux (Wine/Proton)

(AMD) Use a newer version of Mesa[14]

Notes

Update to a newer version of Mesa past 23.2.1 containing merge request patch 25659. This may require either building from source or using a package like mesa-git.

Stuttering every few seconds on Linux (Wine/Proton)

(AMD) Set environment variable to zero out video memory[15]

Notes

Add the environment variable RADV_ZERO_VRAM=false, either in Heroic Games Launcher under the Settings menu and Advanced tab, or as a launch option on Steam as RADV_ZERO_VRAM=false %command%.
Lower in-game render resolution[16]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 12 Requires DX12 FL 12_0 / Shader Model 6.5 to start. Mesh Shaders required for best performance.
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
Currently, a compatible AVX2 CPU like Intel Haswell or Ryzen 1000 is required to start. Maybe it could be compatible with older CPUs after an update like Uncharted and other Sony games, which have two executables according to the target CPU. This can be verified using the Intel Software Development Emulator (Intel SDE) to emulate a CPU from the Haswell architecture on a CPU such as Intel Core 3000 or AMD FX or earlier.

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Physx 3.4 PhysX3_x64.dll in install directory
Audio Wwise Wwise logo shown in startup screens
Interface Coherent Gameface Startup screen for Coherent, and dll files in install directory

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 10
Processor (CPU) Intel i5-7600K
AMD equivalent
System memory (RAM) 16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 90 GB SSD
Video card (GPU) Radeon RX 6600
GeForce RTX 2060
6 GB of VRAM
DirectX 12.2 compatible
Other Only GPUs with DirectX Ultimate level 12_2 are supported[17]
A 64-bit operating system is required.


Notes

  1. Using this argument will prevent controllers and skipping cutscenes from working, and will use a \Default-Epic-User\ save folder instead.[1][2]

References

  1. Verified by User:Future-proof on 2023-10-30
  2. Verified by User:Aemony on 2023-10-30
    Verified using a first run of the game.
  3. NVIDIA DLSS 3.5: Enhancing Ray Tracing With AI; Coming This Fall To Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Portal with RTX & More - last accessed on 2023-08-29
  4. Alan Wake 2 4K NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 World Premiere - last accessed on 2023-08-29
  5. Alan Wake 2 - Technical Insight on RT implementation - last accessed on 2023-10-24
  6. Alan Wake 2 - Ultrawide Cutscenes Fix - last accessed on 2023-10-28
  7. Verified by User:Rogerl777 on 2023-10-28
  8. Verified by User:Martan on 2023-10-29
  9. 9.0 9.1 Verified by User:Fayaine on 2023-10-28
  10. Verified by User:Lyxenmodz on 2023-10-29
  11. The Alan Wake 2 Soundtrack Was Custom-Made To Expand The Lore - last accessed on 2023-10-28
  12. Verified by User:Fayaine on 2023-10-28
    Tested myself as i am using MSI Afterburner.
  13. r/linux_gaming - NothingProof's comment on Gaming on Linux EP#117: Alan Wake 2 - Linux vs Windows - 3700X 6600XT - last accessed on 2023-11-12
  14. GitHub - vkd3d-proton - Alan Wake II - Textures are missing - last accessed on 2023-11-12
  15. r/linux_gaming - Cryio comments on Does anybody know why Alan Wake 2 stutters every few seconds? - last accessed on 2023-11-12
  16. r/linux_gaming - DariusLMoore comments on Does anybody know why Alan Wake 2 stutters every few seconds? - last accessed on 2023-11-12
  17. Tweet by the developer regarding supported GPUs - last accessed on 2023-10-23