Game settings.tbl

This feature requires FreeSpace Open

Revision information.....

FSO Git Commit: Date: 2020-10-09 SHA: 465af93dc

Note: Please update the revision information when the page is updated. If your edit had nothing to do with new code entries then please do not edit the revision information

List of Tables and related code files
* Notes Modular Tables
** Notes tables which only use modular tables
Ai.tbl*	/ai/aicode.cpp
Ai_profiles.tbl*	/ai/ai_profiles.cpp
Animation.tbl**	/model/modelanimation.cpp
Armor.tbl*	/ship/ship.cpp
Asteroid.tbl*	/asteroid/asteroid.cpp
Autopilot.tbl*	/autopilot/autopilot.cpp
Cheats.tbl*	/cheats_table/cheats_table.cpp
Colors.tbl*	/globalincs/alphacolors.cpp
Curves.tbl*	/math/curves.cpp
Controlconfigdefaults.tbl	/controlconfig/controlsconfigcommon.cpp
Credits.tbl*	/menuui/credits.cpp
Cutscenes.tbl*	/cutscene/cutscenes.cpp
Decals.tbl**	/decals/decals.cpp
Fireball.tbl*	/fireball/fireballs.cpp
Fonts.tbl*	/graphics/font.cpp
Game_settings.tbl*	/mod_table/mod_table.cpp
Glowpoints.tbl*	/model/modelread.cpp
Help.tbl*	/gamehelp/contexthelp.cpp
Hud_gauges.tbl*	/hud/hudparse.cpp
Icons.tbl*	/mission/missionbriefcommon.cpp
Iff_defs.tbl*	/iff_defs/iff_defs.cpp
Keywords.tbl*	Not In Codebase
Lighting_Profiles.tbl*	/lighting/lighting_profiles.cpp
Lightning.tbl*	/nebula/neblightning.cpp
Mainhall.tbl*	/menuui/mainhallmenu.cpp
Medals.tbl*	/stats/medals.cpp
Messages.tbl*	/mission/missionmessage.cpp
Mflash.tbl*	/weapon/muzzleflash.cpp
Music.tbl*	/gamesnd/eventmusic.cpp
Nebula.tbl*	/nebula/neb.cpp
Objecttypes.tbl*	/ship/ship.cpp
Options.tbl*	Not In Codebase
Particle effects(-part.tbm)**	/particle/effects...
Post_processing.tbl	/graphics/gropenglpostprocessing.cpp
Rank.tbl*	/stats/scoring.cpp
Scpui.tbl*	Not In Codebase
Scripting.tbl*	/parse/scripting.cpp
Ships.tbl*	/ship/ship.cpp
Sexps.tbl**	/parse/sexp/sexp_lookup.cpp
Sounds.tbl*	/gamesnd/gamesnd.cpp
Species_defs.tbl*	/species_defs/species_defs.cpp
Species.tbl*	/menuui/techmenu.cpp
Ssm.tbl*	/hud/hudartillery.cpp
Stars.tbl*	/starfield/starfield.cpp
Strings.tbl*	/localization/localize.cpp
Tips.tbl*	/menuui/playermenu.cpp
Traitor.tbl*	/stats/scoring.cpp
Tstrings.tbl*	/localization/localize.cpp
Virtual_pofs.tbl*	/model/modelreplace.cpp
Weapon_expl.tbl*	/weapon/weapons.cpp
Weapons.tbl*	/weapon/weapons.cpp

The game_settings.tbl, also known as mod.tbl, defines options that can be changed globally. All settings are optional.

This table is one of the Modular Tables and can be extended with xxx-mod.tbm

#GAME SETTINGS

Contains settings that affect how the engine works.

$Target Version:

FS2 Open, 3.7.4:

Specifies the minimum version of FreeSpace Open that this mod supports. If the version specified here is greater than the version of the current build, an error message is displayed.

FS2 Open, 19.0:

The $Minimum version option has been renamed to $Target Version. The old name is kept with the same functionality for backwards-compatibility.

The target version specifies what version of the FSO engine this mod was created for. It will be used by the engine to enable or disable backwards-incompatible changes by default. The default value is 2.0 which specifies that the mod targets the retail engine version.

+Major:

FS2 Open, 3.7.4:

Required. Sets the major component of the target version.

• Syntax: Integer
• Example: 3 (for a minimum version of 3.7.3.20151121)

+Minor:

FS2 Open, 3.7.4:

Required. Sets the minor component of the target version.

• Syntax: Integer
• Example: 7 (for a minimum version of 3.7.3.20151121)

+Build:

FS2 Open, 3.7.4:

Required. Sets the build component of the target version.

• Syntax: Integer
• Example: 3 (for a minimum version of 3.7.3.20151121)

+Revision:

FS2 Open, 3.7.4:

Sets the revision component of the target version. If no revision is given then all builds of that release are supported (even nightly builds if there are any). For nightly builds this is the date in YYYYMMDD format.

• Syntax: Integer
• Example: 20151121 (for a minimum version of 3.7.3.20151121)

$Window title:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

Specifies the name of the FSO window when this mod is running. If blank or unspecified, the window will have the default title of "FreeSpace 2".

• Syntax: String

$Window icon:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

Specifies the icon filename of the FSO window when this mod is running. If blank or unspecified, the window will have the default icon.

• Syntax: String

$Unicode mode:

{{Table382| Enabled the Unicode text mode for this mod. In Unicode mode all text is assumed to be UTF-8 encoded Unicode and certain features are disabled if they do not have full Unicode support. Most notably, if this is enabled then the engine will no longer support the old bitmap fonts that were used by Retail FreeSpace. Only the newer TrueType fonts will be supported.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

#LOCALIZATION SETTINGS

Contains various settings related to localization and language support.

$Use tabled strings for the default language:

FS2 Open, 21.0:

Causes the game to use the text in strings.tbl and tstrings.tbl even when the current language is English. By default, the game will use the literal text in the source code and the data files (tables and missions) and will not look up the entry when the language is English. For other languages, the translation is always used, if it exists, regardless of this setting.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Don't pre-empt training message voice:

FS2 Open, 21.4:

Prevents training messages from being interrupted by other training messages. If a training message has a voice file associated with it, or simulated speech is active, the next message will not be played until the current message has finished.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

#CAMPAIGN SETTINGS

This group contains various Campaign related settings and overrides.

$Default Campaign File Name:

Defines which campaign will be selected by default for new pilots. A file extension is not needed and, if present, is removed by the code.

• Syntax: String

#Ignored Campaign File Names

Defines which campaigns, if present, will not appear in the Campaign Room. In the original implementation, only single-player campaigns could be ignored and file extensions were required, but see below.

FS2 Open, 3.7.2: As of 3.7.1, file extensions are not required and, if present, are removed by the code.

FS2 Open, 19.0: As of 3.8.2, file name comparisons are not case sensitive and multiplayer campaigns can be ignored.

$Campaign File Name:

File name of the campaign to ignore. Multiple entries may exist.

• Syntax: String

#Ignored Mission File Names

FS2 Open, 19.0: Defines which standalone missions, if present, will not appear in the Tech Room or Multiplayer Lobby. Both single-player and multiplayer missions can be ignored, but missions which appear in a campaign cannot. File extensions are not required and, if present, are removed by the code. File name comparisons are not case sensitive.

$Mission File Name:

File name of the mission to ignore. Multiple entries may exist.

• Syntax: String

$Red-alert applies to delayed ships:

FS2 Open, 3.7.2: Controls whether red-alert saved statistics (hitpoints, weapons, subsystem strengths) will be restored for ships that are not present at mission start.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

#HUD SETTINGS

This group contains various HUD behavior settings and overrides

$Directive Wait Time:

• Defines how long the game will wait before displaying a directive.
• Syntax: Integer
• Values: Greater than or equal to 0 ms

$Cutscene camera displays HUD:

Show the HUD when the cutscene camera is enabled.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

In earlier versions of the code, this option was controlled by $Cutscene camera disables HUD: and had a default of YES.

$Full color head animations:

Enables full-color head ANIs. Normal head ANIs will appear in gray.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

In earlier versions of the code, this option was controlled by $Color head animations with hud colors: and had a default of YES.

#SEXP SETTINGS

This group contains SEXP settings and overrides.

$Loop SEXPs Then Arguments:

Flips how when-argument settings loop. See: SEXP Argument changes via mod.tbl

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Use Alternate Chaining Behavior:

When set, this allows all events in a chain to repeat, instead of only the last one. It makes the event chaining behavior act as people expected it to be in Mantis #82.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

#GRAPHICS SETTINGS

This group contains settings related to graphics.

$Enable External Shaders:

Enables the use of external shader files. By default, the engine will use the built-in shaders.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Default Detail Level:

FS2 Open, 3.6.16:

Determines which graphics detail level preset (low, medium, high, very high) acts as the default for new pilots.

• Syntax: Integer (0-3)
• Default Value: 3 (very high)

$Briefing Window FOV:

FS2 Open, 3.7.2:

Determines the FOV in the briefing Icon window. Retail default for this is 0.29375, previous versions of FSO used a value of 0.5.

• Syntax: Float (0.0 to 1.0)
• Default Value: 0.29375

$Generic Pain Flash Factor:

FS2 Open, 3.7.4:

Determines the intensity of the pain red flash when the player is hit.

• Syntax: Float
• Default Value: 1.0

$Shield Pain Flash Factor:

FS2 Open, 3.7.4:

Determines the intensity of a pain flash when the player's shields are hit. Color will match the current ships shield color defined in ships.tbl. A value of 0 will give retail behavior (no shield effect). Positive values will cause the effect to start at full intensity at full shields and go to next to no intensity at zero shields. Negative values will cause no effect at full shields and full effect at no shields. Values should be kept between -1.0 and 1.0 for good pilot visibility.

• Syntax: Float
• Default Value: 0.0

$BMPMAN Slot Limit:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

Determines the maximum number of textures that can be loaded simultaneously. This includes every frame of an animation, unless that animation is streaming (e.g. command briefing animations, message talking heads, etc). Also includes dynamically-created textures (used internally for various functions).

• Syntax: Int
• Values: Greater than or equal to 3500
• Default Value: 4750

$EMP Arc Color:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

Allows custom RGB color values to be set for the EMP lightning arc effect.

• +Primary Color Option 1:
  • The RGB color of the first primary color for the EMP lightning arc effect.
  • The actual lightning arc color shown in-game is randomly selected between the first and second primary color.
  • Syntax: Color, (red, green, blue) respectively, integer value from 0 to 255
  • Default value: (64, 64, 5)
• +Primary Color Option 2:
  • The RGB color of the second primary color for the EMP lightning arc effect.
  • The actual lightning arc color shown in-game is randomly selected between the first and second primary color.
  • Syntax: Color, (red, green, blue) respectively, integer value from 0 to 255
  • Default value: (128, 128, 10)
• +Secondary Color Option 1:
  • The RGB color of the secondary color for the EMP lightning arc effect.
  • Syntax: Color, (red, green, blue) respectively, integer value from 0 to 255
  • Default value: (255, 255, 10)

$Damage Arc Color:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

Allows custom RGB color values to be set for the damage lightning arc effect.

• +Primary Color Option 1:
  • The RGB color of the first primary color for the damage lightning arc effect.
  • The actual lightning arc color shown in-game is randomly selected between the first and second primary color.
  • Syntax: Color, (red, green, blue) respectively, integer value from 0 to 255
  • Default value: (64, 64, 255)
• +Primary Color Option 2:
  • The RGB color of the second primary color for the damage lightning arc effect.
  • The actual lightning arc color shown in-game is randomly selected between the first and second primary color.
  • Syntax: Color, (red, green, blue) respectively, integer value from 0 to 255
  • Default value: (128, 128, 255)
• +Secondary Color Option 1:
  • The RGB color of the secondary color for the damage lightning arc effect.
  • Syntax: Color, (red, green, blue) respectively, integer value from 0 to 255
  • Default value: (64, 64, 5)

$Render player muzzle flashes in cockpit:

FS2 Open, 21.2:

Determines whether muzzle flashes will be shown within the cockpit view.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: False

$Beams affected by nebula visibility:

FS2 Open, 21.2:

Determines whether beam weapons will be faded by nebula fog.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: False

$Weapons affected by nebula visibility:

FS2 Open, 21.2:

Determines whether lasers, missiles, countermeasures, etc will be faded by nebula fog.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: False

$Particles affected by nebula visibility:

FS2 Open, 21.2:

Determines whether particle effects, including impact effects will be faded by nebula fog.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: False

$Fireballs affected by nebula visibility:

FS2 Open, 21.2:

Determines whether fireballs from ship explosions will be faded by nebula fog.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: False

$Shadow Cascade Distances:

FS2 Open, 21.4:

Sets the distances that the shadow map for the game scene uses. Float values must all be greater than 0 and successively larger than each consecutive value.

• Syntax: List of floats
• Default Value: (200.0, 600.0, 2500.0, 8000.0)

$Shadow Cascade Distances Cockpit:

FS2 Open, 21.4:

Sets the distances that the shadow map for the cockpit pass scene uses. Will only shadow the cockpit model, and does not interact with the external game scene shadow map. Float values must all be greater than 0 and successively larger than each consecutive value.

• Syntax: List of floats
• Default Value: (0.25, 0.75, 1.5, 3.0)

#NETWORK SETTINGS

This group contains network-related settings

$FS2NetD port:

• (description required)

#SOUND SETTINGS

This group contains sound-related settings

$Default Sound Volume:

FS2 Open, 3.7.2:

• Defines the default sound fx volume for new pilots.
• Syntax: Float, between 0.0 and 1.0
• Default Value: 1.0

$Default Music Volume:

FS2 Open, 3.7.2:

• Defines the default music volume for new pilots.
• Syntax: Float, between 0.0 and 1.0
• Default Value: 0.5

$Default Voice Volume:

FS2 Open, 3.7.2:

• Defines the default voice volume for new pilots.
• Syntax: Float, between 0.0 and 1.0
• Default Value: 0.7

#FRED SETTINGS

This group contains settings for FRED.

$Disable Hard Coded Message Head Ani Files:

FS2 Open, 3.7.2:

If set, FRED will not fill the head ani selection in the Event Editor with the retail head ani filenames.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Enable scripting in FRED:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

If set, scripting will be enabled in FRED. Use with extreme caution. The effects of scripts on FRED have not been fully tested. You can check if a script is running in FRED by using ba.inMissionEditor().

• Default Value: NO

#OTHER SETTINGS

This group contains miscellaneous settings.

$Fixed Turret Collisions:

Makes all hits to a turret's barrels count as hits to the turret subsystem. By default, this does not happen unless the point of impact falls inside the model radius of the turret's base.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Damage Impacted Subsystem First:

If set, a hit to a physical subsystem will always deal damage to that subsystem first, even if another subsystem is closer to the point of impact. By default, the closest subsystem will always receive damage first.

• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Default ship select effect:

FS2 Open, 3.6.16:

• This specifies which effect to use for ship select animations when no .ani can be found, or the -ship_choice_3d commandline flag is active. This will default to the FS2 effect.
• Possible options are "FS2", "FS1", and "off"

$Default weapon select effect:

FS2 Open, 3.6.16:

• This specifies which effect to use for weapon select animations when no .ani can be found, or the -weapon_choice_3d commandline flag is active. This will default to the FS2 effect.
• Possible options are "FS2", "FS1", and "off"

$Weapons inherit parent collision group:

FS2 Open, 3.6.16:

• When set to true, Weapons fired by a ship will inherit their parents' collision group setting.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Flight controls follow eyepoint orientation:

FS2 Open, 3.7.2:

• Specifies that if the player ship's eyepoint happens to rotate into a non-standard orientation, pitch and yaw axes should stay relative to the eyepoint orientation, not the ship. Note that this does not affect the pitch/yaw turning speed, which always remains relative to the ship.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Beams Use Damage Factors:

FS2 Open, 3.7.2:

• Specifies that beam weapons will use the tabled damage factors for Armour, Shields and Subsystems. Default is false (i.e. all factors are treated as 1.0)
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Default fiction viewer UI:

FS2 Open, 3.7.4:

• Specifies which fiction viewer layout to use in missions that don't specify one. Possible values are as follows:
  • "FS2": Standard layout. Requires (2_)fictionviewer and (2_)fictionviewer-m to be present in data\interface.
  • "WCS": Moves the "Accept" button to the lower-left corner of the screen. Requires (2_)fictionviewerb and (2_)fictionviewer-mb to be present in data\interface.
  • "auto": Selects "WCS" if the appropriate files are present; otherwise, selects "FS2". This is the default setting.

$Movie subtitle font:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

• Specifies which font should be used for displaying subtitles in the cutscene player. This should be the name given to this font in the fonts table. Since movie subtitles can contain Unicode text it is a good idea to enable Unicode mode when movie subtitles are used but this is not enforced by this option.
• Syntax: String

$Disable built-in translations:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

• Turns off hard-coded translations, e.g. Transport -> Transporter in German. All strings will either use their XSTR entry or else not be translated.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Weapon shockwave damage respects huge ship flags:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

• Controls whether weapon shockwaves will respect the huge/supercap ship flags. In retail they do not.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Enable external default scripts:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

• Enables the loading of external scripts with the same name as a built-in script. Otherwise, uses the version of the script included in the executable (currently, just cfile_require.lua).
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Player warpout speed:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

• Defines the speed the player must reach to warp out.
• Syntax: Float
• Default Value: 40.0

$Target warpout match percent:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

• Defines how close to the warpout speed the player needs to be to actually warp out.
• Syntax: Float, between 0.0 and 1.0
• Default Value: 0.05 (5%)

$Minimum player warpout time:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

• The default amount of time, in seconds, warping out will take before actually starting to check whether the player is the right speed.
• Syntax: Float
• Default Value: 3.0

$Enable in-game options:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

• Experimental mode whereby various settings can be modified by FSO while it's still running, rather than being set by the launcher before execution. Requires custom assets for the in-game options menu to actually be able to change the settings.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Dinky Shockwave Default Multiplier:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

• Amount of damage, as a multiple of normal shockwave damage, assigned to a weapon's dinky shockwave by default. To get the same behavior FSO had from 2005-2019, set this to 0.25.
• Syntax: Float
• Default Value: 1.0

$Shockwaves Always Damage Bombs:

FS2 Open, 21.0:

• Enables all bombs being damaged by shockwaves. Previously only those marked with flags could be damaged.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: False

$Shockwaves Damage All Object Types Once:

FS2 Open, 21.0:

• Keeps any object from being damaged more than once by a shockwave. The default behavior is for asteroids and flagged missiles to be damaged every frame by the shockwave.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: False

$Use Engine Wash Intensity:

FS2 Open, 19.0:

• Allows the game to use the Intensity value when calculating Engine Wash effects.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Swarmers Lead Targets:

FS2 Open, 21.0:

• Causes swarm missiles to lead their targets by default, and will make use of Target Lead Scaler if specified, like normal aspect seekers.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: NO

$Damage Threshold for Weapons Subsystems to Trigger Turret Inaccuracy:

FS2 Open, 21.0:

• Specifies the damage threshold for when turrets become less accurate due to weapon subsystem damage. In other words, how damaged do a ship's aggregated weapons systems have to be before the turrets become inaccurate? Value must be between 0.0-1.0 (includes 0.0 and 1.0).
• Syntax: Float
• Default Value: 0.7

$AI use framerate independent turning:

FS2 Open, 21.0:

• Without this flag, missiles turn rate is directly dependent on the current framerate. When enabled their turn rate will be consistent, with the "true" turning taken to be observed turning at 60fps. This flag also affects ships, but the instability is only apparent at extremely low framerates, and so the change will not be apparent.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: True

+AI respect tabled turn time and rotdamp:

FS2 Open, 21.0:

• Due to complicated physics issues caused by retail not using the above method, tabled turn times on ships and missiles are not representative of actual observed turn times. The above flag makes it consistent, but this flag will make it accurate to what is actually listed in the table.
• Additionally, rotdamp is now used properly by the AI in a similar manner to players. More rotdamp will result in slower rotational acceleration, and less results in faster acceleration.
• NOTE: BEWARE OF ADDING THIS FLAG TO AN EXISTING MODPACK. NEARLY EVERY SINGLE TURN TIME WILL NEED TO BE CHANGED.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: False

$Player starts in third person/chase view by default:

FS2 Open, 21.2:

• When this flag is set, a player will start the mission in the chase view, not in the cockpit view.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: False

$Custom briefing icons always override standard icons:

FS2 Open, 21.4:

• Custom ship briefing icons will always be shown when the briefing icon is a ship, but not when it is a non-ship icon such as a planet. Set this flag to use custom briefing icons in all cases.
• Syntax: Boolean
• Default Value: False

#END

Required. The last line of the table must be #END

Sample Entry

   #CAMPAIGN SETTINGS
   $Default Campaign File Name: NewCampaignFile
   
   #Ignored Campaign File Names
   $Campaign File Name: FreeSpace2.fc2
   
   #HUD SETTINGS
   $Directive Wait Time: 5000
   
   #SEXP SETTINGS
   $Loop SEXPs Then Arguments: True
   
   #OTHER SETTINGS
   $Fix Turret Collisions: True
   
   #END