Risen 2 – Dark Waters: Forcing Risen 2 to Run on Modern Computers [Text and Video]

Video format of this entire guide is available here!

First we need to learn how to access the folder our game is installed to. This will be dependent on where you choose to install your games. I will show a shortcut way to find this folder via steam and GoG Galaxy but if you do not use either of these the install path is typically something like;
(C:)-program files- (gamefolder)

Steam
Find the game in your library.
Right click on it and scroll down to “manage.”
Click “browse local files.”

GoG
Click the dropdown menu next to the play button.
Scroll down to “manage installation.”
Click “show folder.”

Now that we are in the folder containing all of the Risen 2 files we can click on the ‘redist’ folder and then the ‘PhysX’ folder. A executable file will be inside named PhysX_SystemSoftware. We can use this to reinstall and/or repair the PhysX software. This could potentially work because the most up to date and modern versions of PhysX don’t necessarily get along with older games but the install file located within the Risen 2 folders is an older version with the PhysX files Risen 2 had been built for. Alternatively of course you can also potentially try reinstalling the most up to date version of PhysX driver as available on the NVIDIA website. Sometimes software is funny like that.

After these reinstalls you are likely to need a full computer restart for the files to take hold.

Return to the main Risen 2 folder. From here we’ll follow to the system folder to find the ‘Risen2.exe’ application file. Right click on it and select the properties option. From here find the compatibility tab. Depending on your computers operating system there will show a box asking to run this program as an administrator. We want to put a check mark in there. As well as this we can choose to run the game in compatibility mode to trick it into thinking we are using an older operating system. This can be a trial and error process to figure out which selection works best, but I’ve had mine selected to Windows 7.

Return to the main Risen 2 folder. From here we’ll select the data folder and then the ini folder. Open the ConfigDefault.xml file in Notepad. Don’t forget to save this file after you are done editing it. As well as this be aware messing around in here too much can cause even more bugs and errors – I advise not using this document as a playground unless you know what all the values do.

-refresh rate
Click the CTRL and F key on your keyboard to use the find function. Find RefreshRate and change its value from 0 to 60.

-windowed mode
use CTRL + F once again for the Fullscreen option. It will be valued with a true or false. Go ahead and make it false to enable windowed mode.

-resolution
If you know what aspect ratio your computer moniter uses you’ll be able to manually edit the sizing to be a perfect fit here as well. There are pre-selected values for different ratios, you simply need to change the numbers to be proper.

Downloading the community created game patch will certainly help with lots of bugs and problems. It is available in a couple places under different names but I will go on record to say that I initially had downloaded it as part of the ‘Risen 2 Remaster’ on Nexus Mods HOWEVER the patch managed to completely break dodge rolling. The version available through ModDB called ‘Risen 2 Unofficial patch v0.5 file’ did not cause me any problems and it is the file I would advise over any others listed. It uses its own installer that should be self explanatory.

DIRECT LINK HERE;
https://www.moddb.com/games/risen-ii-dark-waters/downloads/risen-2-unofficial-patch-v05

This is a handy tool that I think might of been the biggest boon to my troubles getting Risen 2 to run correctly. I’m not a super tech-y person but if I understand correctly for some reason the game thinks it can only run 2gb of virtual memory and once it exceeds that limit it causes a crash. This tool simply tells it that it is allowed 4gb of virtual memory.

After downloading NTcore 4GB Patch open the zipped file and run the program. From here you’ll need to track down where your Risen 2 game is installed and then select the Risen2 application file in the system folder.

DIRECT LINK HERE;
https://ntcore.com/4gb-patch/

Lastly if errors persist we can try doing a full reinstall of the game and starting over. Besides a full reinstall we could try using Steams game repair function. Find the game in your Steam library and right click it. Select properties. From here go to the Installed Files tab. Click the button ‘Verify integrity of game files.’ This will scan all of the files before redownloading and installing any missing and/or broken.

Hopefully at least one of these presents itself as a fix that enables you to enjoy the world of Risen 2 – Dark Waters. If there are other fixes and/or errors please feel free to post them in the comments and try to help eachother out.