Black & White 2

Black & White
Black & White	2001
Black & White 2	2005

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Black & White 2 is a singleplayer bird's-eye view building, strategy and RPG game in the Black & White series.

General information

Black & White Community - A forum and downloads site for the series

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc DRM^{[Note 1]} and CD key for installation.
Mac App Store (unavailable)
Origin (unavailable)

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

A demo for Windows is available here.

The Windows version of this game is not available digitally.

Version differences

The Collector's Edition includes the exclusive tiger creature, later included in the expansion pack, as well as a making-of DVD.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Expansion pack	The expansion pack includes the turtle creature, new units, islands and spells.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Battle of the Gods

Essential improvements

Patches

v1.2 Patch

Patch v1.1 needs to be installed first.

The most notable change is the ability of skipping the tutorial lands, along with more bug and crash fixes.

Unofficial patches

v1.42 Unofficial Fan Patch

Patch 1.2 is required.

Removes SafeDisc DRM, enabling the game to run on Windows Vista and later.

General fixes on modern systems to do with hardware detection limiting graphical options.

Battle of the Gods Fan Patch 1.1 - only for the expansion

Removes SafeDisc DRM, enabling the game to run on Windows Vista and later.

General fixes on modern systems to do with hardware detection limiting graphical options.

Utilities

Tiger Unlocker

Unlocks the creature exclusive to the Collector's Edition to be available after creating a new game.

For the base game only - the Battle of the Gods expansion already does this.

Skip intro videos

Move, delete or rename files^{[citation needed]}

Move, delete or rename the following files from <path-to-game>\Data\Splash:

Splash.tga
splash_intel.tga

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Black & White 2\Settings.ini
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Black & White 2\Profiles\
macOS (OS X)

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents* folder in OneDrive on all computers.*

Video

In-game general video settings.

In-game advanced video settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		HUD is stretched
Multi-monitor		HUD is stretched
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		UI elements does not scale with resolution and are ultra small in 4K. Also possible side effects are the HUD getting even more stretched.
Field of view (FOV)	Editor FOV only.
Windowed	See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)	Checkbox only.
Vertical sync (Vsync)	Use the Graphics Card Control Panel to Turn On V-Sync on the Program, This will be normal FPS Speed for B&W 2 including BOTG
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	Main menu capped 33fps
High dynamic range display (HDR)	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Windowed

After doing this use any borderless applications to play with no borders on fullscreen from here.

D3DWindower^{[citation needed]}

See D3DWindower for further instructions.
Find <path-to-game>\white.exe.
Go to Options, Common and check Use Background Resize.
Run it with D3DWindower by pushing the fifth button.

Notes

Bloom has to be disabled in order for this to properly work.

Activating the emulation is not needed. Running the game directly through the launcher will work.

Run any borderless applications before running D3Dwindower or else the game will crash.

Input

In-game input settings.

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

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		^[5]
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Polish				Local retail version only.
Spanish

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Black & White 2.
vorpX		G3D, Z3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues fixed

Mouse lag

The mouse doesn't respond to slower movements and some tasks, such as building roads, become overly difficult.

Logitech fix^{[citation needed]}

This will only work on newer Logitech mice and requires Logitech Gaming Software.

Open Logitech Gaming Software.
Click on the mouse at the bottom.
Click on Customize pointer settings.
Set the Report Rate to 125

Razer fix^{[citation needed]}

This will only work on newer Razer mice and requires Razer Synapse Software.

Open Razer Synapse Software.
Click on the mouse at the bottom.
Click on Performance settings.
Set the Polling Rate to 125

SteelSeries Fix^{[citation needed]}

This fix requires Steel Series Engine 3 Software.

Open the Steel Series Engine 3 Software.
Click on your mouse in the list.
Find the Polling Rate section in the lower right of the window.
Use the slider to set the Polling Rate to 125

Redragon Mouse Fix^{[citation needed]}

This fix requires Redragon Gaming Mouse Software.

Open the Redragon Gaming Mouse Software.
Select the "Main" Category on the left side.
Find the USB Polling Rate slider in the middle of the screen.
Use the slider to set the Polling Rate to 125

Graphical glitches

On modern hardware parts of the terrain may disappear.

Might cause in-game audio to lag or stutter briefly when keys are pressed on the keyboard.

Game data location may change to: %PUBLIC%\Documents\Black & White 2.

Run `white.exe` in compatibility mode for Windows 98/Me.^{[citation needed]}

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Shader Model support	1.1

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)			This 32-bit-only macOS game does not work* on macOS Catalina (10.15) or later.*

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000	XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 1.6 GHz	Intel Pentium 4 2.2 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	64 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 1.1 support	128 MB of VRAM Shader model 2.0 support

Supported chipsets: ATI Radeon 8500/9100/9200/9250/9500/9550/9600/9700/9800/X300/X600/X700/X800/X850, nVidia GeForce 6200/6600/6800/FX5200/FX5500/FX5600/FX5700/FX5800/FX5900/FX5950/PCX5300/PCX5900/Ti4200/Ti4600/Ti4800

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.4.8
Processor (CPU)	1.8 GHz Intel
System memory (RAM)	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	5.1 GB
Video card (GPU)	3D accelerator 128 MB of VRAM

Intel GMA graphics cards are unsupported.

Notes

↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[3] 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.^[4]

References

↑ Feral Support - Black & White 2 - last accessed on 2023-07-21
↑ Black & White 2 support page (Mac) - Feral Interactive
↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
↑ Sound Blaster Gaming: Black & White 2 (retrieved) - last accessed on May 2023

[5] SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[3] 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.^[4]

[1] Feral Support - Black & White 2 - last accessed on 2023-07-21

[Mac_release-2] Black & White 2 support page (Mac) - Feral Interactive

[3] Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16

[4] Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16

[6] Sound Blaster Gaming: Black & White 2 (retrieved) - last accessed on May 2023

[1]

[2]

[Note 1]

[5]

[3]

[4]

Developers

	Lionhead Studios
macOS (OS X)	Robosoft Technologies^[1]
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
OS X	Feral Interactive
Release dates
Windows	October 7, 2005
macOS (OS X)	January 6, 2009^[2]
Reception
Metacritic	75
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Point and select
Genres	Building, Strategy, RPG
Art styles	Cartoon
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Black & White