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Origin Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge with multiplayer and OBS

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Origin Red Alert 2 Yuris revenge with multiplayer

How to play Origin version of Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge with working multiplayer on Windows 10. This is updated version of Playing Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge on Windows 10. Even this article talks about Origin version of the games, this also works on CD version or with original untouched images of the game. If you have "borrowed" your game from your "cousin" from the internet then i cannot guarantee anything. I have also heard that there is some kind of Android port of the games, but i don't know anything about working with those.

In this tutorial we are going through:

  • Black screen fix, bad performance fix and green/pink pixelated graphics fix.
  • Alt+Tab fix.
  • How to play in windowed mode.
  • How to play multiplayer over internet and lan with CnCNet.
  • How to capture and stream Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge with OBS.

Files:

Youtube video

Installing Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge

1. Buy Red Alert 2 from Origin store by clicking this link: https://www.origin.com/gbr/en-us/store/command-and-conquer/command-and-conquer-the-ultimate-collection

2. Install Red Alert 2 from Origin. RA2 and Yuri's Revenge are in same package so you can't even install them separately.

Origin Red Alert 2 download button.

Installing CnCNet for Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge

CnCNet has all the latest fixes and working multiplayer solution for both games.

1. Download CnCNet setup for Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge from this link: https://cncnet.org/red-alert-2 . It's same installer for the both games.

Click CnCNet download link

2. Start CnCNet as administrator.

CnCNet installer

3. Setup is really straightforward. (Warning! CnCNet launcher will launch automatically after installation and it is really loud.)

Click accept the agreement and hit next.

4. When CnCNet tells that there is update, install it.

If there is update available, install it.

5. Go to Options and change the renderer to TS-DDRAW, CNC-DDraw, GDI or DxWnd.

CnCNet renderer options.

CnCNet Renderer options

  • Default (Do not use!)
    • Alt-Tab crashed whole game.
    • Pressing ESC crashes whole game.
    • Pressing menu button ingame crashes whole game.
  • TS-DDRAW (GL)
    • Alt+Tab works, ESC works.
    • OBS Display Capture works.
    • OBS Game Capture works.
    • With Windowed Mode enabled you can use OBS windows capture.
  • CNC-DDraw (d3d9)
    • Alt+Tab works, ESC works.
    • OBS Display Capture works.
    • OBS Game Capture works.
    • Windowed Mode doesn't work. You will get "This product requires a 16bit pixel depth!" -error message. So you cannot use OBS windows capture.
  • GDI
    • Alt+Tab works, ESC works.
    • OBS Display Capture works.
    • OBS Game Capture doesn't work.
    • With Windowed Mode enabled you can use OBS windows capture.
  • DxWnd
    • Alt+Tab works, ESC works.
    • OBS Display Capture works.
    • OBS Game Capture doesn't work.
    • With Windowed Mode enabled you can use OBS windows capture.
  • DDRAWCompat
    • Game does not work at all.

6. Next you have to set in-game resolution. The bigger resolution you are using, the smaller in game HUD you will have. You cannot change HUD size separately, and it always resizes with resolution. Bigger resolution > Smaller HUD. I wouldn't personally use bigger resolution than 1920x1080. If you have ultrawide monitor and you try to use ultrawide resolutions, it is possible that you will have problems.

7. Now you have to visit in-game. So just go to Skirmish and start any map and exit the game. The game will create the needed INI files when you have visited the game.

Click Skirmish in CnClauncher

8. Navigate to Red Alert 2 installation directory and you should see there RA2.ini and RA2MD.ini.

C&C Red Alert 2 folder content

9. Open RA2MD.ini and RA2.ini and you will see that the RA2MD.ini has more content. Copy all content to RA2.ini so that the files will match and save. (If Notepad says that you cannot save the file. You need to start Notepad as Administrator, so you need administrator rights to edit those files.)

Copy RA2MD.ini content to RA2.ini.

10. Start the game from Origin if you wan't to play single player campaign, or if you want to play multiplayer online or lan then start the Yuri's Revenge CnCNet from desktop.

Playing Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge on Windowed mode

1. Start Yuri's Revenge CnCNet from desktop.

CnCNet shortcut.

2. Go to Options and select Windowed Mode. After that hit Save and Exit Game.

Important!For some reason RA2 and YR isn't working in the same way with the renderers. So if you have problems with Yuris Revenge that you don't have with Red Alert 2, please try different renderer.

CnCNet options for windowed mode.

3. When you make changes in the Options, you have to always manually copy the content from RA2MD.ini to RA2.ini because it doesn't update it automatically for some reason.

Copy RA2MD.ini content to RA2.ini.

4. Open Ra2.lcf, ra2md.lcf and yuri.lcf in Notepad, and add -win after -speedcontrol parameter in every file and every RUN line.

Red Alert 2 installation folder
CnCNet lcf files

5. Start the game from Origin if you wan't to play single player campaign, or if you want to play multiplayer online or lan then start the Yuri's Revenge CnCNet from desktop.

Cannot start Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge because buttons doesn't work

It is common and "normal" behavior in windowed mode, and it depends on the resolution that you are using. So you might get this problem in some resolutions, but the good news is that you can still start the game. You have to try to click the different buttons and even from somewhere off the screen where there isn't any buttons.

Cannot start Red Alert 2 campaign

Red Alert 2 / Yuri's Revenge internal error

You will probably see "Red Alert 2 / Yuri's Revenge has encountered an internal error and is unable to continue normally" -error at some point. The most common way to summon this error is, if you hit Alt+Tab when the game is loading something. So if you are in cutscenes or if any video is playing and you hit Alt+Tab, you probably will get this error. If you are in any loading screen and you Alt+tab you probably will get this error.

Sometimes you might get this error when ever you are starting the game. The easiest fix i have found is to reboot Origin and if that doesn't help then the ultimate fix is to reboot your computer.

If the solutions above doesn't help and you are still getting this error, then you can try this rotation.

  • Start CnCNet launcher and go to options, and click Save.
  • Start Skirmish game and when the game has loaded > Exit the game completely.
  • Go to Red Alert 2 installation directory and copy all content from RA2MD.ini to RA2.ini so that the files are matching.
  • Try to start the games again.
Yuris Revenge internal error.

Capturing and streaming Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge with OBS

If you scroll up you can find "CnCNet Renderer options". You will see there all the different renderer options for Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge and how they work with OBS. Best overall option is TS-DDRAW (GL) because it allows you to use Game Capture, Window Capture and Display Capture.

11 Comments

biggiebear90 - June 16, 2024
i have the disk but can not install it as after i click on install nothing happens. do you know how to fix this?
ronkers - April 1, 2023
EA took over Origin and deleted it. Now patch does not work and cannot run Yuri2. any fix? Thanks
yaru - March 8, 2023
hi. Nice video and web page. I tryed to play YR cnCnet but it says that I could be cheatring and the maps doesnt load so they kicked me out everytime that I tryed to play. Someone knows what its hapening?
kjv1611 - March 17, 2021
I realize this has some age on it now, but will this setup work on greater than 3rd gen Intel i chips? Old versions of RA2 and Yuri's Revenge will not run on 4th gen and newer Intel "i" CPUs due to instruction changes.
Wiretuts - March 17, 2021
Where did you get this information? I have 8th gen Intel at it works well. Also i haven't had any problems with my previous computers.
Bandeth Chet - July 28, 2020
For some reason when i downloaded the game my RA2.exe just disappears so i cant play it. Ive tried downloading the .exe separately but it just disappears. Anyone know how to fix this. (btw it still disappears with virus protection off)
Alan Stables - April 19, 2020
Got it working using default render @ 1440p / fullscreen / single player <3
Tomáš TJ Jurik - January 24, 2020
Followed the instructions, however I am unable to start SP campaign. When I try to choose the campaign (Allied/Soviet), nothing happens. Any idea what am I doing wrong?
Skirmish works just fine.
Wiretuts - January 24, 2020
I am currently making Youtube tutorial for this and it should be out tomorrow. I tried multiplayer and SP for RA2 and Yuri and both worked. What kind of problem you have. What rendeder are you using, what resolution and are you playing in windowed. All those matters.
Tomáš TJ Jurik - January 27, 2020
I managed to resolve the issue by taking ts_ddraw.dll from CnCnet (Resources folder), copied it directly to RA2 installation folder and renamed to ddraw.dll (renamed the old one as backup). Afterwards the campaign did start normally.
Wiretuts - January 27, 2020
I would say that that is config error, if that helped. Because that would force the game use ts_ddraw as renderer, but you can also change it from CnCNet launcher config. So for some reason it didn't do that for you.