Hard Light Productions Forums
Site Management => Site Support / Feedback => Topic started by: Meatball on September 05, 2017, 02:22:22 pm
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This has probably been asked before but this website is HUGE and i'm not a modder and just want to enjoy the creations here, and Command-Line Reference page doesn't explain in, what would you call it... Dumbed down English.
Even reading about the online documentation for the flags, I don't understand it because I'm not a modder, game designer or have ever had any experience in these fields.
I'm just that dumb gamer who wants to set the graphics to ULTRA or MAXIMUM. Can we have a dumbed down page for the launcher settings for dumb people like me to easily understand and choose what settings I want without having to spend hours trying to understand what each setting do.
Something simple would be, editing the Command-line Reference page for each setting and just adding (ON for eye-candy, OFF for performance) or (ON for extra feature, OFF for performance/no feature) Maybe also add a picture that shows the difference would be great. You guys can probably find more specific simple explanations. Or maybe a new page with a very simplified explanation for the people like myself who just want to join all the wonderful mods and not have to battle with the settings to get the settings I want.
The Lightning Presets, it's nice to have those presets because it simplifies the setting for a dumb person like myself.
Maybe I am asking to much, but I am very grateful if I can get help with this :) BASICALLY, I just want to MAX OUT the graphics as much as possible with all the awesome features and eye-candy as much as possible. But it would be nice to have a page for future reference when it gets updated.
Thank all you modders in advance for your awesome work =)
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Fact of the matter is, very few of the commandline options make a radical visual difference these days. We've set the engine up to go for maximum quality by default; you have to use options like -noglow or -nonormal to specifically disable features if they turn out to use too many ressources on your system.
If you do want maximum visual quality, make sure the following flags are enabled:
-3dshockwave
-post_process
-soft_particles
-fxaa
-ship_choice_3d
-weapon_choice_3d
-3dwarp
-warp_flash
Also, crank up all the detail settings in the in-game options menu.
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-3dshockwave
-ship_choice_3d
-weapon_choice_3d
It's worth noting that all of these are "debateable"; some people prefer ship/weapon icons and 2D shockwaves. Since if either the icon or the model (for primary weapons, can't be missing for ships or missiles) is missing the engine automatically uses the other, they're never required for a mod to work properly, so it really just comes down to personal preference.
Also, The_E missed a couple options that are not enabled by default but also constitute graphical improvements:
-fb_explosions
-fb_thrusters
-enable_shadows
and then a little minor feature that most people like having on:
-missile_lighting
It's very much worth noting that enabling shadows is probably the single-largest performance hit you can get from a single command-line option (lots of systems will get a solid 60 FPS without shadows, even with mods with lots of complex models and textures, and drop down to 30 FPS with them on).