Config Variables
These are the quake 2 variables you can set to change the look and feel of the game. They follow the general format of:
set variable "value"
An explanation of R1Q2 settings can be found here.
An explanation of Q2PRO settings can be found here.
toggle means 0 or 1.
Visit the Autoexec Files page to see these variables as different players use them.
Graphics Settings
Variable | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
cl_blend | toggle | appears to do the same as gl_polyblend?? Maybe this only applies to software mode. |
cl_particles | toggle | 0=no particles from rockets, grenades etc |
cl_lights | toggle | appears to do the same as gl_dynamic?? Maybe this only applies to software mode. |
intensity | float | Higher=more intense textures |
gl_coloredlightmaps | float | 0=almost black and white, 1=full color |
gl_dynamic | toggle | 0=no dynamic lighting: light effect that illuminates rockets, explosions etc |
gl_ext_multitexture | toggle | 1=use multiple texture processors. |
gl_ext_swapinterval | toggle | 0=do not use swap interval between frames. |
gl_flashblend | toggle | 0=no blending of lights onto the environment. |
gl_mode | toggle | 4=800x600, 3=640x480, 6=1024x768 |
gl_modulate | integer | The brightness of a texture while it is being affected by dynamic lights. Note: If the value is less than 1 then the texture which on which the dynamic light is displayed will be darker than it's normal color. If the value is more than 1 then the texture will be brighter. This variable is mostly used to brighten up the lighting in the game without changing any gamma information. |
gl_picmip | integer | 0=highest quality/sharp textures, higher=washed out/smoother texture effect. |
gl_playermip | integer | 0=highest quality/sharp player textures, higher=washed out/smoother player texture effect. |
gl_polyblend | toggle | Toggle pallet blending. Note: The pallet blending effect is used while being injured, using a powerup, or under water. It might be beneficial to disable this effect to see clearly in water, but then its not as easy to notice when someone is shooting you. |
gl_shadows | toggle | 0=no shadows. |
gl_swapinterval | toggle | 0=like having vsync off: max fps with timerefresh/timedemo. 1=like having vsync on: locked fps to cl_maxfps with timerefresh/timedemo. |
gl_texturemode | string | Determines mode for hardware rendering. GL_LINEAR blends pixels. GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST is the default, interpolating the nearest pixels, and using mipmapping for bilinear hardware. GL_NEAREST is the closest to software mode. GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR = highest quality: Linear interpolation with mipmapping for trilinear hardware. |
gl_triplebuffer | toggle | 1=use triple buffering for OpenGL cards. |
vid_gamma | float | Higher=darker, lower=brighter |
viewsize | integer | The size of the game screen. 100=fit full screen |
vid_fullscreen | toggle | 1=full screen, 0=windowed mode |
vid_ref | string | r1gl or opengl |
R1GL Variable | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
gl_ext_texture_filter_anisotropic | toggle | Enable anisotropic filtering. This makes textures that are viewed at a distance much clearer. Hardware support required. |
gl_ext_max_anisotropy | integer | The level of anisotropic filtering applied if enabled. Must be a power of 2 (ie, 2, 4, 8, 16). Maximum value on most cards is 16, the higher the amount of filtering, the slower rendering will be. |
gl_ext_multisample | toggle | Enable multisampling (FSAA). This makes jagged edges of models appear much smoother but makes quite a performance hit on some older video cards. Hardware support required. |
gl_ext_samples | integer | Number of samples per pixel to take for multisampling. Higher values give more smoothing at the expense of performance. Maximum value on most cards is 16. |
gl_ext_nv_multisample_filter_hint | string | Select which multisampling kernel to use on NVIDIA cards. Nicest gives the best looking anti-aliasing at the expense of performance. (nicest or fastest) |
gl_ext_texture_non_power_of_two | toggle | Enable uploading of textures that are not a power of two. This is supported by most new cards, however it is disabled by default since some ATi drivers behave poorly with it enabled. Enabling this may speed up loading times. |
gl_ext_occlusion_query | integer | Enable support for occlusion queries to avoid rendering entities that are not visible. At this time, most cards that support this do not provide a significant performance boost to make it worthwhile. The 'no wait' setting ignores the occlusion query if it isn't ready by the time entities are ready to be drawn, 'wait' waits for the query to complete so hidden entities are never drawn. Hardware support required. 0 (Disabled), 1 (Enabled (no wait)), 2 (Enabled (wait)) |
gl_zfar | integer | Control how far you are able to see in the world. Default Quake II GL renderer uses 4096 units, which results in some parts of maps not being visible at long distances. 8192 should be fine for almost all maps. |
gl_hudscale | float | Multiply the size of the HUD elements (including chat text) by this value. Useful if you run at a high resolution and the HUD elements are too small. You may also want to enable gl_noscrap if using this. |
gl_noscrap | toggle | Avoid using the scrap, a texture built up of smaller textures. If you see textures 'leaking' into other textures, especially if using HUD scaling, enable this. |
gl_doublelight_entities | toggle | Apply modulate twice to entities. This follows the standard Quake II renderer behaviour, but causes models to be unrealistically shaded in places. |
gl_overbrights | toggle | Enable overbright rendering. Overbrights causes textures to be drawn multiplied by themselves which gives a much more vivid appearance. Due to the brightness of some Quake II textures however, overbrights may look a little weird in places. |
gl_coloredlightmaps | float | Amount of coloring from the lightmap that is used. Setting this to 0 disables all colors and lighting is greyscale. May be set anywhere between 0 and 1. |
gl_texture_formats | string (png jpg tga) | A list of image formats that are attempted for map textures before reverting to the original .wal. |
gl_pic_formats | string (png jpg tga) | A list of image formats that are attempted for images (console, HUD, etc) before reverting to the original .pcx. |
gl_dlight_falloff | toggle | Enable smooth dynamic light falloff. This makes the edges of dynamic lights smoother but may make them appear less intense. |
gl_defertext | toggle | Defer drawing of text until the end of the frame. This avoids extra texture swapping and can give a noticeable FPS improvement. Unfortunately this is not compatible with mods that require specific ordering of text and images such as OSP tourney. |
vid_topmost | toggle | Force the OpenGL window to always be on top of all other windows. Usually this will happen anyway by default. |
vid_forcedrefresh | integer | Force a specific refresh rate to be used in fullscreen mode. Zero disables forced refresh rates. WARNING: Be sure your hardware supports the selected refresh rate in the resolution you run at before using this! |
vid_optimalrefresh | toggle | Use the highest available refresh rate when running in fullscreen mode. |
vid_flip_on_switch | toggle | Restore original desktop display settings when task switching out of Quake II. |
vid_nowgl | toggle | Avoid using the Windows GL functions. This may be required with some very old or non-compliant OpenGL drivers. Disabling WGL prevents multisampling and some other features from working. |
vid_forcewidth | integer | Force the renderer to output the frames in this width |
vid_forceheight | integer | Force the renderer to output the frames in this height |
r_mode | integer | Set this to -1 if you are using the vid_force* settings, otherwise will be selected from the onscreen menu |
Network Settings
Variable | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
allow_download | toggle | 1=allow automatic downloading of game files from server as required. |
allow_download_models | toggle | 0=do not allow automatic downloading of models from server. |
allow_download_players | toggle | 0=do not allow automatic downloading of player (skins/sounds/models etc) files from server. |
allow_download_sounds | toggle | 0=do not allow automatic downloading of sounds from server. |
allow_download_maps | toggle | 1=allow automatic downloading of maps from server as required. |
rate | integer | The maximum number of bytes that the server should send to the client.Some servers cap at 8000. Use 25000 for LAN. |
cl_maxfps | integer | The maximum number of packets-per-second the server should send to the client to cap the frames-per-second rate. |
cl_nodelta | integer | Toggle the use of delta network packet compression |
cl_predict | toggle | 1=enable prediction of entities between network packets. |
R1Q2 Variable | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
cl_async | toggle | Enable asynchronous FPS. This will allow you to use high rendering frame rates without flooding the network, as traditionally Quake II sends one packet per frame. Note that when enabled, some physics might feel slightly different. If this is enabled, the cl_maxfps cvar controls the network packet rate and the r_maxfps cvar controls the rendering frame rate. If disabled, cl_maxfps and r_maxfps become the same thing. Note, if you use a joystick / joypad or similar, you must have cl_async set to 0. |
cl_maxfps | integer | If cl_async is enabled, cl_maxfps controls the number of packets per second to send to the server. If cl_async is disabled, this controls both the network and rendering FPS. |
r_maxfps | integer | If cl_async is enabled, r_maxfps controls the maximum number of frames rendered per second. If cl_async is disabled, this is ignored. |
cl_drawfps | toggle | Draw the current frames per second on the screen. |
net_maxmsglen | integer | Maximum network message size that your client wants to receive. If connected to an R1Q2 server, larger messages can be used if the 1390 byte limit is too small, however a number of consumer routers and modems are unable to handle large UDP packets properly. Set this to 0 and it will use the best available message length as provided by the server, but if you notice you are unable to enter servers, your router is probably causing problems and you should reset it to the default. It's only worth changing this if you play mods that have extremely heavy activity. |
Q2PRO Variable | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
cl_protocol | integer | Specifies preferred network protocol version to use when connecting to servers. If the server doesn’t support the specified protocol, client will fall back to the previous supported version. Default value is 0. 0 — automatically select the highest protocol version supported. 34 — use default Quake 2 protocol. 35 — use enhanced R1Q2 protocol. 36 — use enhanced Q2PRO protocol. |
cl_maxpackets | integer | Number of packets client sends per second. 0 means no particular limit. Unless connected using Q2PRO protocol, this variable is ignored and packets are sent in sync with client physics frame rate, controlled with ‘cl_maxfps’ variable. Default value is 30. |
cl_fuzzhack | toggle | Enables ‘cl_maxpackets’ limit even if Q2PRO protocol is not in use by dropping packets. This is not a generally recommended thing to do, but can be enabled if nothing else helps to reduce ping. Default value is 0 (disabled). |
cl_packetdup | toggle | Number of backup movement commands client includes in each new packet, directly impacts upload rate. Unless connected using Q2PRO protocol, hardcoded value of 2 backups per packet is used. Default value is 1. |
cl_instantpacket | toggle | Specifies if important events such as pressing ‘+attack’ or ‘+use’ are sent to the server immediately, ignoring any rate limits. Default value is 1 (enabled). |
cl_updaterate | integer | Specifies the perferred update rate requested from Q2PRO servers. Only used when server is running in variable FPS mode, otherwise default rate of 10 packets per second is used. Specified rate should evenly divide native server frame rate. Default value is 0, which means to use the highest update rate available (that is, native server frame rate). |
net_chantype | toggle | Specifies if enhanced Q2PRO network channel implementation is enabled when connecting to Q2PRO servers. Q2PRO netchan supports application-level fragmentation of datagrams that results is better gamestate compression ratio and faster map load times. Default value is 1 (enabled). |
Gameplay Settings
Variable | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
name | string | player name |
cl_run | toggle | 1=always run |
crosshair | integer | crosshair number |
fov | integer | The size of the player's peripheral vision. Default 90 |
gender | string | This variable is necessary in order to display the proper death messages which might be gender related: male/female/none. |
hand | toggle | Toggle the handedness of the player: 0 - right, 1 = left, 2 = center+nogun. |
m_filter | toggle | Toggle the filtering of mouse input. Feels smoother with this on when moving mouse and movement keys at same time. |
sensitivity | float | The mouse sensitivity. |
s_khz | integer | The sampling rate in KHz of the sound samples (default: 11). |
s_volume | float | The volume for the playback of sound samples. |
skin | string | The texture skin that the player is wearing |
bob_pitch | float | The amount of movment that the player's screen moves up and down while in motion |
bob_up | float | The amount of time before the player's screen starts moving |
bob_roll | float | The amount of movment that the player's screen moves left and right while in motion. |
run_pitch | float | The amount that the player should tilt up and down while running. |
run_roll | float | The amount that the player should tilt left and right while running. |
cl_anglespeedkey | float | The multiplier value for the yaw and roll axes |
cl_entities | toggle | 1=display entities. |
cl_footsteps | toggle | 1=enable foot step sounds (both you and opponents) |
cl_gun | toggle | 0=hide the gun and hand |
cl_noskins | toggle | 0=enable custom skins on other players |
cl_vwep | toggle | Toggle the use of Visual Weapons on players |
m_pitch | float | The sensitivity for looking up and down with the mouse. (negative value means inverted mouse) |
m_side | float | The sensitivity for moving left and right with the mouse. |
m_yaw | float | The sensitivity for looking left and right with the mouse. |
msg | toggle | Toggle the display of messages: 0 (all) to 4 (none). |
win_noalttab | toggle | 0=allow pressing alt-tab to switch to windows from fullscreen. |
R1Q2 Variable | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
m_directinput | 0 (Disabled), 1 (Enabled (buffered)), 2 (Enabled (immediate)) | Enable DirectInput for mouse movement. DirectInput provides smoother mouse response and removes any mouse acceleration. If enabled, buffered mode ensures every single mouse event is reported to R1Q2. Immediate mode takes a 'snapshot' at the moment input is required and thus may miss very quick button clicks or other fast actions, but may be more responsive on slower PCs. |
m_fixaccel | toggle | Enable a 'fix' for the mouse acceleration changes that Microsoft made on Windows 2000 and higher. By default, mouse acceleration is enabled on Windows 2000 or higher which is the opposite of what happens on earlier OSes. Enabling this fix attempts to remove the acceleration. The default value is enabled if the OS is detected to be Windows 2000 or higher, disabled otherwise. Use of DirectInput is recommended over this setting. |
in_dinputkeyboard | toggle | Enable DirectInput for keyboard control. Not usually required, although if you find buttons seem to continue to act as if they are pressed for a few seconds after you release them, you can enable this to try and fix it. |
cl_smoothsteps | 0 (Disabled), 1 (Normal), 2 (Aggressive), 3 (Detect) | Control how walking up steps is smoothed. When using cl_async 1, the original stair smoothing code does not work so well, so you can use this cvar to control it. Aggressive smoothing may attempt to smooth things that are not stairs. Detect smoothing attempts to detect stairs by their height and only smooths those. |
cl_defermodels | toggle | Defer loading of models until you are in game. This provides a faster connection process but may cause a small amount of jitter when first entering a map. |
cl_autorecord | toggle | Automatically begin demo recording at the start of the map. |
page revision: 12, last edited: 22 Jan 2014 17:17