melonhead
06-23-2003, 07:47 AM
Ok, I've been threatening to do this for a week or so, finally stopped playing long enough to do so. These variables will have a direct impact on your gameplay/display, mostly to your graphics and framerate (fps). if you have an older video card, they will help you regain some fps and make the game smoother. I'll give a brief explanation of what they do, but if you have any questions, let me know. Variables that are in parenthesis are default. In almost all cases, the value is either 0 (off), or 1 (on)
SETUP MENU/GAME OPTIONS
simple items: on/off. On makes all weapons and items in 2d, easier for your vid card to draw, and boost fps.
marks on walls: on/off. On for visuals, off for fps.
ejecting brass: on/off. visuals/fps
dynamic lights: on/off. visuals/fps.
identify target: on/off. Shows the name of the person in your sights. off helps fps.
high quality sky: on/off. Makes sky pretty, and enables you to see through teleportals.
ice chips and weather: on/off. Not really a burden, but off is better for fps.
SYSTEM/GRAPHICS
video mode: If your video card is struggling, the lower your resolution the better. Use the fps command to test this. (more on that in a bit) Usually 640x480 and 800x600 are fine, higher is fine if you have the hardware.
color depth and texture quality: 32 bit/16 bit. 32 visuals/ 16 fps
lighting: lightmap/vertex. This has a big impact on fps. lightmap visuals/ vertex fps. Vertex removes shadows and flashing lights, also makes models stand out more. I got a fast machine, but I still use vertex. For instance, start the game in single player skirmish mode with no bots, and find a map preferably wide open where you can look across a big area. Using the drawfps command (below), record your fps. Then, without moving your model, switch into vertex. If you have a weaker video card, your fps will probably gain 10-20 fps. Just make sure you stay still during this test.
Geometric and texture detail: higher for visuals/lower fps.
CONSOLE COMMANDS/VARIABLES
Drop the console in-game to use these. If you know how, you can go into your q3config file in the ufreeze folder (using wordpad) and edit them manually. It is somewhat quicker.
/com_maxfps(90) 125. Quake physics are built around a few values, 125, 142, and another one, something crazy like 26. Just use 125, trust me. It won't harm your monitor or anything. Your video card will only draw as much as it can anyway. Your goal is to have a steady 125 (minor fluctuation is normal).
/cg_drawfps(0) 1. On will show you your fps in upper right corner of your screen. Very helpful when testing the effect of variables.
/cg_drawgun(1) 0. Toggles the display of your gun on your display. Drawing the gun limits visibility, especially looking down, so I turn it off.
/cg_fov(90) 100-120. fov= Field of View. If you have a good video card, you can go as high as you want, untill you get crosseyed. Beware, though, it will hurt your fps. On a Radeon 7000 32MB, I found 105 to be about the highest I could go before fps loss.
/cg_gibs(1) 0. When you shoot someone with low health, they can blow into pieces. Looks cool, but can hurt your fps. What's worse in my book is the fact that it obsures your view for a moment. Nothing like losing sight of an opponent because there's so much guts flying around in a crowded room.
/cg_draw3dIcons(1) 0. This draws the pretty 3d images for your armor and model on your hud. Not really necessary.
/cg_drawAmmoWarning(1) 0. Draws the "low ammo" warning on your screen. Kind gets in the way, but doesn't hurt fps too bad.
/cg_drawAttacker(1) 0. Draws the portrait of who's shooting at you in the corner of your screen. Not needed.
/cg_drawRewards(1) 0. Draws messages like "gauntlet", "excellent", "impressive". Up to you.
/cg_drawIcons(1) 0. If you disabled draw3dicons, you'll notice your armor and portrait are in 2d now. Setting this to off will make them dissappear. Off helps fps.
/cg_scorePlums(1) 0. When you frag someone, the little "1" goes floating into the air. doesn't hurt either way.
/cg_smoothClients(0) 1. If you notice others "warping", making them hard to track, set this to 1. This should smooth them out.
/cg_noProjectileTrail(0) 1. This one is neat. If you've ever lost someone in the smoke from your rockets, you can set this to "0" and turn the smoke off.
/cg_trueLightning(0) 0-1. This helps keep your lightning gun stream on your crosshairs. You can use increments from 0 to 1( a friend of mine uses .5), but I find 1 to be the best.
/cg_lagometer(1) 0. Toggle the lagometer on/off. (You guys refer to this as a netgraph)
So, here you are; enjoy. These are by no means all the variables you can adjust with this game, only the ones that make a noticeable difference. At no time are you to use these tweaks against me. I reserve the right to insist you restore these variables to default settings if you start thrashing me. Cheers. :drink:
SETUP MENU/GAME OPTIONS
simple items: on/off. On makes all weapons and items in 2d, easier for your vid card to draw, and boost fps.
marks on walls: on/off. On for visuals, off for fps.
ejecting brass: on/off. visuals/fps
dynamic lights: on/off. visuals/fps.
identify target: on/off. Shows the name of the person in your sights. off helps fps.
high quality sky: on/off. Makes sky pretty, and enables you to see through teleportals.
ice chips and weather: on/off. Not really a burden, but off is better for fps.
SYSTEM/GRAPHICS
video mode: If your video card is struggling, the lower your resolution the better. Use the fps command to test this. (more on that in a bit) Usually 640x480 and 800x600 are fine, higher is fine if you have the hardware.
color depth and texture quality: 32 bit/16 bit. 32 visuals/ 16 fps
lighting: lightmap/vertex. This has a big impact on fps. lightmap visuals/ vertex fps. Vertex removes shadows and flashing lights, also makes models stand out more. I got a fast machine, but I still use vertex. For instance, start the game in single player skirmish mode with no bots, and find a map preferably wide open where you can look across a big area. Using the drawfps command (below), record your fps. Then, without moving your model, switch into vertex. If you have a weaker video card, your fps will probably gain 10-20 fps. Just make sure you stay still during this test.
Geometric and texture detail: higher for visuals/lower fps.
CONSOLE COMMANDS/VARIABLES
Drop the console in-game to use these. If you know how, you can go into your q3config file in the ufreeze folder (using wordpad) and edit them manually. It is somewhat quicker.
/com_maxfps(90) 125. Quake physics are built around a few values, 125, 142, and another one, something crazy like 26. Just use 125, trust me. It won't harm your monitor or anything. Your video card will only draw as much as it can anyway. Your goal is to have a steady 125 (minor fluctuation is normal).
/cg_drawfps(0) 1. On will show you your fps in upper right corner of your screen. Very helpful when testing the effect of variables.
/cg_drawgun(1) 0. Toggles the display of your gun on your display. Drawing the gun limits visibility, especially looking down, so I turn it off.
/cg_fov(90) 100-120. fov= Field of View. If you have a good video card, you can go as high as you want, untill you get crosseyed. Beware, though, it will hurt your fps. On a Radeon 7000 32MB, I found 105 to be about the highest I could go before fps loss.
/cg_gibs(1) 0. When you shoot someone with low health, they can blow into pieces. Looks cool, but can hurt your fps. What's worse in my book is the fact that it obsures your view for a moment. Nothing like losing sight of an opponent because there's so much guts flying around in a crowded room.
/cg_draw3dIcons(1) 0. This draws the pretty 3d images for your armor and model on your hud. Not really necessary.
/cg_drawAmmoWarning(1) 0. Draws the "low ammo" warning on your screen. Kind gets in the way, but doesn't hurt fps too bad.
/cg_drawAttacker(1) 0. Draws the portrait of who's shooting at you in the corner of your screen. Not needed.
/cg_drawRewards(1) 0. Draws messages like "gauntlet", "excellent", "impressive". Up to you.
/cg_drawIcons(1) 0. If you disabled draw3dicons, you'll notice your armor and portrait are in 2d now. Setting this to off will make them dissappear. Off helps fps.
/cg_scorePlums(1) 0. When you frag someone, the little "1" goes floating into the air. doesn't hurt either way.
/cg_smoothClients(0) 1. If you notice others "warping", making them hard to track, set this to 1. This should smooth them out.
/cg_noProjectileTrail(0) 1. This one is neat. If you've ever lost someone in the smoke from your rockets, you can set this to "0" and turn the smoke off.
/cg_trueLightning(0) 0-1. This helps keep your lightning gun stream on your crosshairs. You can use increments from 0 to 1( a friend of mine uses .5), but I find 1 to be the best.
/cg_lagometer(1) 0. Toggle the lagometer on/off. (You guys refer to this as a netgraph)
So, here you are; enjoy. These are by no means all the variables you can adjust with this game, only the ones that make a noticeable difference. At no time are you to use these tweaks against me. I reserve the right to insist you restore these variables to default settings if you start thrashing me. Cheers. :drink: