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Battle Realms

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
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Although this product has been released, it remains under active development - information may change frequently and could be outdated or irrelevant.
Battle Realms
Battle Realms cover
Developers
Liquid Entertainment
Crave Entertainment
Publishers
Ubisoft
Release dates
Windows November 7, 2001
Reception
Metacritic 82
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Bird's-eye view
Controls Multiple select, Point and select
Genres RTS
Themes Fantasy
Battle Realms on HowLongToBeat
Battle Realms on IGDB
Battle Realms on MobyGames
Battle Realms on Wikipedia

Warnings

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

Battle Realms is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view RTS game.

The game received the expansion Winter of the Wolf in November 2002.

The game debuted on GOG.com on September 12, 2012 with unchanged builds of the base game and expansion. As of December 9, 2019, Ed Del Castillo (one of the original developers) published the game on Steam with additional changes and fixes with feedback from the community, dubbing it the Zen Edition.

General information

Battle Realms Wiki
Battle Realms Revival Project
The oldest forums dedicated to Battle Realms
Battle Realms Reddit
GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc v2 DRM[Note 1]
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Includes 'Winter of the Wolf' expansion.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Zen Edition
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Version differences

The Steam-exclusive Zen Edition (which includes the base game and expansion) is the only one still being officially updated with new features and balance changes. It has Steamworks-based multiplayer, with LAN and direct IP functionality removed as of patch 1.58.[3]

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Winter of the Wolf
Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest version of the original game is also the expansion - Winter Of The Wolf (1.50q). The latest non-expansion version, for some reason, is also 1.50q.
Patches for the non-expansion game are available.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

The only working parameters are Width and Height.
System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Battle_Realms.ini[Note 2]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1025600/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Saved Games[Note 2]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1025600/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Game settings
Game settings

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Native to the Zen Edition. For other versions, see Windowed.
Multi-monitor
See Windowed.
Ultra-widescreen
See Windowed.
4K Ultra HD
See Windowed.
Field of view (FOV)
See Windowed.
Windowed
See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Windowed

Use the Resolution & FoV Patch
Not to be used for Zen Edition (Steam version).
Causes minor FoV glitches.
Allows playing online.
Supports all resolutions & allows customizing FoV.
Fixes minimap issues.
  1. Download the latest version
  2. Follow the instructions.
  3. Use the monitor's native resolution.
Use DxWnd[citation needed]
  1. Download DxWnd.
  2. Extract it and launch it.
  3. Click Edit from a bar and choose Add.
  4. Type in a name for the game.
  5. Click ... right of the Path input box.
  6. Go to the installation folder and choose Battle_Realms_F.exe.
  7. Set or verify the following fields:
    • Main tab:
      • Run in Window (optional)
      • Window position and size: W 1024 H 768 (adjusting to match resolution)
    • Video Tab:
      • Hide multi-monitor config.
    • Mouse tab:
      • Cursor visibility: Hide
      • Correct mouse position
      • Keep cursor within window (optional)
    • DirectX tab:
      • Flip emulation: Partial or Full
    • GDI tab:
      • Remap client Rect
  8. Click OK, minimize DXWnd and run the game.

Notes:

  • The preset import found in DXWnd has a few options mismatched

Input

Input settings
Input settings

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Available via the in-game custom profile menu (not settings).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Scroll speed is responsible for the screen navigation sensivity.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Master, Sound Effects, Music, Dialogue
Surround sound
Subtitles
Only in cutscenes.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
Winter of the Wolf does not have localized audio. Retail and GOG.com only.
German
Winter of the Wolf does not have localized audio. Retail and GOG.com only.
Spanish
Winter of the Wolf is not localized. Retail only.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Notes
LAN play
Versus
Not available in the Steam version as of version 1.58.[3]
Online play
Versus
The official GameSpy service has been shut down; the Zen Edition uses Steamworks.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP
Not available in the Steam version as of version 1.58.[3]

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 7174,7175,7177
UDP 7174,7175,7177
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

The game gets stuck at 75% loading (Multiplayer)

Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3, as administrator and in 8-bit color mode[citation needed]

Could not find supported display mode / Could not rasterize API

Use the Resolution & FoV Patch
Use dgVoodoo 2[4]
Allows capturing Battle Realms with OBS.
Eliminates most of the issues.
  1. Download the latest version of dgVoodoo 2.
  2. Extract dgVoodooCpl.exe and the contents of the MS\x86 subfolder to <path-to-game>.
  3. Run dgVoodooCpl.exe.
  4. Under Full Screen Output, choose which monitor the game will be displayed on from the dropdown list.
  5. Click the Apply button, then click OK.
Run the game in windowed mode[citation needed]
Disable other monitors[citation needed]
The original game has known problems when multiple monitors are in use.
  1. When on desktop, press Win+P.
  2. Choose single monitor.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DirectDraw 7
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Multiplayer GameSpy, Steamworks The Zen Edition uses Steamworks.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium II 400 MHz
System memory (RAM) 64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 500 MB
Video card (GPU) 16 MB of VRAM
DirectX 8 compatible


Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
  2. 2.0 2.1 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. 3.0 3.1 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>/1025600/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1025600) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
  2. Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Battle Realms: Zen Edition - Update 1.58 - The New Era Begins! - Steam News - last accessed on 2023-01-08
    "LAN and Direct IP Multiplayer modes have been removed from the game. Now, by clicking 'Multiplayer', the player will be taken directly to the Steam Lobbies. There are 3 reasons for this:
    • Piracy concerns.
    • Ed Del Castillo's goal of centralizing the community.
    • Security issues that currently can't be resolved due to the game's age and Steam network not really properly supporting LAN."
  4. Verified by User:Expack3 on 11 June 2015