chris4874
this is not my work it is copied but it all works[on a decent pc its all the stuff you need if you have not got a "new beut pc"
after a sh!7 load of research (basically most are the same as in the Q3 engine) and typing this. This is what I have found that works so far. These are really dumbed down graphical. I will explain the Network setting later once I look more into it.
Then I will build a network script that you can use on the fly to change settings. the Hit detection in this game is pretty impressive BUT if you have a low ping and the other guy has a high ping in some cases that guy has an advantage. BUT setting packetdup and max packets can bring it to an equal playing field.
seta ai_corpseCount "5" Set to 0 Corpses that are left on the ground after killed set to 0 no need to see their dead carcusses.
seta cg_drawFPS "Off" Set to "simple" Draws FPS on screen in simple format.
seta cg_drawLagometer "0" 0 or 1 0 is off 1 is on. Draws a meter to show you ping and latency to the server.
seta cg_fov "65" Set to 80 Increases Field of view and distance DO NOT SET OVER 80!
seta cg_laserLight "0" 0 or 1 Shows laser light leave at 0
seta cg_marks "0" 0 or 1 Show bullet holes when set to 1
seta cl_maxpackets "60" 30-60 Packets sent to server. I will explain more about network setting in detail later.
seta cl_maxPing "800" Settings 100-800 Network setting, will explain later.
seta cl_packetdup "1" Settings 0-3 Network setting.I haven't confirmed the range legal for use. Leave at default for now.
seta cl_mouseAccel "0" Settings 0-5 Careful with this. It can make your mouse cazy fast. It can be changed in incremnts of .5 and is handy.
seta cl_pitchspeed "140" 50-200 Another mouse setting. I will get into details on this also.
seta com_hunkMegs "512" Depends on how much system memory youhave. If you have 1gb leave it. If you have 2gb use 1024 If you have 4gb use 2048
seta com_maxfps "85" Settings 0-300 BEWARE setting to 300 or more can get you kicked from most servers. I will explain this later.
seta fx_marks_ents "1" Set to 0 Shows marks on buidlings. Just eye candy.
seta fx_marks_smodels "1" Set to 0 Eye candy. Marks to vehicles.
seta fx_sort "1" Settings 0-1 Not sure yet.
seta m_pitch "0.022" Adjust to your needs These 2 are mouse settings. I use 0.019 on both.
seta m_yaw "0.022" Same as above
seta m_forward "0.25" Settings ? I believe this is the same as head bobbing in Q3
seta m_side "0.25" Same as above
seta pb_sleep "500" Yes add this! Helps slow down PB's constant needing to check PB updates. Helps latency.
seta r_aaAlpha "dither (fast)" off Anti Aliasing
seta r_aaSamples "4" Set to 1. Anti Aliasing Smaple Textures
seta r_displayRefresh "100 Hz" Do not set above or beyond what your monitor is capable of rendering!
seta r_distortion "1" Set to 0. Removes haze from fires and explosions. Eye candy.
seta r_dlightLimit "4" Set to 0. Number of Dynamic lights rendered. Eye candy.
seta r_dof_enable "1" Set to 0. Helps see longer distance removes haze.seta r_drawDecals "1" Decals We need no stinking decals!
seta r_drawSun "1" Set to 0 . Does away with Specualr Sun Lighting. Eye candy.
seta r_drawWater "1" Set to 0. Eye candy. Good if you wanna stare at youre reflection in the water or toss pebbles in to the pond while your getting you ass blasted.
seta r_fastsky "1" Leave at 1. Renders the sky box faster.
seta r_picmip "0" Set to 3 recommended. Texture Quality.This one is tricky some pubservers kick for anything above 1.
seta r_picmip_bump "0" 3 recommended. Map Quality. Same as above.
seta r_picmip_manual "0" Set to 1. Lighting Quality.Can be set 0-3. Stay at 1 some servers kick for anything higher.
seta r_picmip_spec "0" Set to 3. Unsure as of yet what it is for. I used 3 with no issues works good.
seta r_picmip_water "0" Set to 0 or 1 This is Water Quality. Renders water normally when set to 1. Didn't notice difference.
seta r_rendererInUse "Shader model 3.0" SET TO seta r_rendererInUse "Shader model 2.0" Reverts back to Direct X 9 Shaders
seta r_rendererPreference "Default" "Shader model 2.0" Same as above.
seta r_specular "1" Set to 0. Shuts off Specular textures.
seta r_texFilterAnisoMax "4" Set to 1. Another Anti Aliasing setting.
seta r_texFilterAnisoMin "3" Set to 1. Use 1-3 small FPS gain.
seta sm_enable "1" Set to 0 Not sure yet. Change at own risk. No issues here set at 0.
seta sm_maxLights "4" Set to 1. Number of lighting sources.
You can read all of this technical jargon if you want. You should! Learn the process that brings your games to screen. Understanding the principle of how your network settings can be your best friend in battle. I have read all this crap before. I spent countless hours tweaking Counter Stike and Urban Terror configs. I will explain this in simple terms so every one can follow. I am not trying to say that it is stuff you will not understand cause you can read the link I posted below to draw you own conclusions. I was a total noob 10 years ago. My mentor and friends Midgetkiller and D|I|GI|I|T|A|L explained the concept to me almost as I am now. Cause this sh!7 at the time was really way over my head.
This link is really good to look up CVAR and config settings. http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Here we go. Ok first lets look at these 2 scenerios. One is setting for a LAN party and the other is settings for over the net using ADSL/Cable.
LAN
seta com_maxfps "125"
seta cl_maxpackets "125"
seta cl_packetdup "0"
seta snaps "40"
seta rate "25000"
Cable/ADSL
seta com_maxfps "100"
seta cl_maxpackets "100"
seta cl_packetdup "1"
seta snaps "40"
seta rate "25000"
On a LAN you don't have to worry about latency as you would via over the net because all of the cmoputers are on the same network. Now taking into considerations this LAN is a Sponsered LAN and the peeps running it have killer routers, server boxes, and switches. Theoretically you should have zero ping. Well maybe 10-15 sometimes less. Note the differences of the two. Lets look at the cvars mentioned above and solve why.
seta com_maxfps
This CVAR does not set your Monitor Refresh. THis CVAR takes the calculation of how many Frame Per Second you are putting out. The game engine uses this in hit detection. It helps decipher the difference of your PC's lag both connection and graphics. This is where tweaking your graphics comes in hand. Alot of people say well my graphics are good. Yes they may look good BUT is your FPS consistent? I mean does it pretty much stay at 60FPS or does it sometimes flucuate when you are in different areas or surrounded by other players. You need to set you graphic CVARS on your PC until you can maintain a constant FPS level no matter where you are in the map. WHat does this have to do with anythign you might ask. FIres, explosions, cluster of team mates around you. Anything on the screen the Video card has to render. If you graphics are tuned, you will not feel the effects. The best all around FPS setting is 125. It is like a magical number in the Q3 based engine. If you can tweak your video to maintain 125 at all times then you are golden.
TO find this setting enable the FPS in your game by changing this in your config or typing this in your console
seta cg_drawFPS "simple"
Also right now also turn on your lagometer
seta cg_drawLagometer "1"
Please if you are using vertical synch shut this off cause it will give you just 60FPS. You need to know what your cideo card is capable of tunning and maintaining. Now run your game. Notice the small group of numbers with FPS behind it. NOTE your FPS. If it is flucuating then you need to set your graphics down some until you can get a nice and steady. Hopefully above 125FPS. Run arounf the map looking in every direction and sometimes swirl your mouse around and try to overload the video card to look for drops. take the most educated guess at what you think your average FPS is. Hopefully it is stable enough to not have to guess. Take the highest number you get and the lowest and pick a number right in between. Now that you have this number go to and put it in your seta com_maxfps "# here" in quotes.
seta cl_maxpackets
Now back in teh Quake 1 and 2 days. If your PC could handle it. You could set this really high like 600 or even higher in broadband if you were so lucky. ISDN days. Anyway After Q3 they capped this to 100, then with a release they upped it to 125. I can not find the limits yet of COD4. I would imagine 125. BUT alot of even current games this can be set as high as 300. Now what does this CVAR do? Well this is you connection of packets to the server. All the data of your movements and input along with other data is in the packets. Notice it is matched to the seta com_maxfps. Because the data is synched. On a LAN this is good. Not always the case while over the net game play. I will get to that. Technically the more packets you can send the better advantage you have. True, but the higher your seta com_maxfps the larger these packets are. If your ping is high you could saturate your upsteram connection and do more harm than good. In all case try to match your seta com_maxfps and seta cl_maxpackets. If you are still getting lag spikes in the LagOmeter divide your FPS by 2 say you have it set at seta com_maxfps "60" then set your seta cl_maxpackets "30". Now you asking won't this increase my packet size and fllod my upstream? Well we will get to that next.
cl_packetdup
This setting determines if duplicate commands are sent, range is 1 to 5 and is 1 as default. if a packet gets lost then a 'backup' command may still be received. Set to 1 as default which is recommended if you have packet loss. If you have an excellent connection with very little or no packetloss at all then this could be set to 0 and cl_maxpackets possibly raised. However, as with all settings experiment to see which is best suited for your connection. This will be better explained as well farther down. If you did what I said above and set cl_maxpackets to 30 then try bumping this to packetdup to 2.
NOTE this can kinda be used as a hack. By setting your packetdup to say 3-5 on a low ping server. You are actually making yourself unhittable. Yet at the same time it makes it harder for you to hit as well. Some people get use to it learning to aim behind or lead ahead while shooting. That slippery lil sh!7 that kills you everytime and you unloaded on him and missed everytime. Well you can put a stop to that real quick just bump you packetdup up a notch and maxpackets up by say 5.
EDIT: Since I wasn't aware at the time that All Seeing Eye stopped updating their browser since Yahoo bought them out. You can check server settings info in XFire. Just click on the server and click Display Server Info. This should show you the server setting s for snaps, max ping, and Rate. I have notice some servers display this info while others do not.
seta snaps
Now I haven't found how high this can be set yet. I am still looking. Most servers are set to default of 40. What is snaps? Snaps is the calculation of how many packets you recieve from the server. In old Quake based games this was a useable number beteen 10 and 30. You should always have this set matched to the server you are playing on. How can you find this out? If you use All Seeing Eye a gaming browser. When you click on the server on the right hand side it will show you the server cvar settings. Just set it to that number. From what I have seen almost 99% of COD4 servers are using 40.
seta rate "25000"
There is no reason to change this. All server run 25000. If you go beyond this number you could risk being kicked by PB. Plus really it is locked by what ever the server config is set to anyway and it will do you no good to increase this anyway. You do not want to go below this number. This controls the packets in the downstream. If you set this lower it will saturate your connection causing very high latency on your end. Some servers use sv_lanForceRate "25000" so even if you change it it is locked to that number.
Understanding and interpreting your Lag O Meter
cg_lagometer
The first line is related to your graphics card updating displayed frames in time with received gameworld updates from the server. It will be blue if frames are being rendered in time with the world updates. If it has a lot of yellow then gameworld updates are not being displayed and are being dropped. In this case reduce your snaps or tweak your visual settings to raise your average framerate so it is always above your snaps setting. Another option is to increase cl_timenudge by a very small value, note that if you are using a negative value for packetdup the first line of the graph may be mostly yellow.
The second line is similar to the Quake2 netgraph in that green means packets are being received okay, yellow that capping is causing your client to reject packets and red that the packet was lost. In the case of yellow increase your rate or try lowering your snaps. If you have a lot of red then change ISP or server. If you have to play on the server or use the ISP then make sure that your cl_packetdup is set to 1 and try adjusting snaps and cl_maxpackets to compensate for the lost packets.
Next update I will try to help you understand how to apply this data to server situations. I am trying to write a script that will enable you to change these settings in game on the fly with out having to tyoe them into your console while in game of opening your config everytime you need to make a change.
EDIT: cl_timenudge is not used in COD4. So my assumption in the lagometer is wrong as stated here "Another option is to increase cl_timenudge by a very small value, note that if you are using a negative value for packetdup the first line of the graph may be mostly yellow."
I will find the answer but for the most part just tweaking the snaps and maxpackets works very effectively. Sorry for the misinformation. I was going by the CVARS of past COD and previous Quake engine games in my explanation.
In addition, here is a site that has a lot of configs that were created/used by others:
http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=10&id=38&Itemid=74
Starfire:
A side note.....make changes with care. Punkbuster doesn't like some of those settings changed, and depending on the server pb settings, longterm kicks or temp bans are possible.
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Holy Hell.........what a collection. Thanks for taking the time to put it up there.
