66 replies to this topic

[Skylead]

Avlaen, on December 18 2012 - 07:51 AM, said:

My files are named Defaultsettings defaultengine instead of hawken so im uneasy about editing them.

Foxes are notoriously bad at using computers, you might need to get someone with thumbs to help

[Chezz]

I didn't make a text tutorial because text tutorials don't get me YT$$$$$$$ to pay for my yacht.

[Avlaen]

Skylead, on December 18 2012 - 08:00 AM, said:

Avlaen, on December 18 2012 - 07:51 AM, said:

My files are named Defaultsettings defaultengine instead of hawken so im uneasy about editing them.

Foxes are notoriously bad at using computers, you might need to get someone with thumbs to help

Im good at games but...... hopeless at everything else but i have managed to turn image grain off woo!

[Brakskit]

I actually used something legoquake/minecrafty as a config for Tribes Ascend, because it was so terribly optimized and had facepalm after facepalm of mapping errors stealing performance. I tried a few ways of transferring the settings over to this but it never worked well as Ascend ran on an ancient version of it.

If I see my fresh computer dip below 60 I guess I'll try carrying the stuff over again..

(and the maps in Hawken are really well-optimized compared to many Ascend maps, no random map details you hardly notice with hilariously high facecounts in this.)

Edited by Brakskit, December 20 2012 - 08:33 PM.

[Kinjeto]

Pursang, on December 17 2012 - 02:58 AM, said:

Kinjeto, on December 16 2012 - 09:10 AM, said:

-snip-

That is how an option menu is done, amirite_

You're comparing a fully released AAA+ game to an F2P game that's still in Open Beta_ What_

Standards. Doesn't matter if its a F2P game or an AAA+ game. The point is mutual. Its the Unreal 3 Engine, The Unreal 3 Engine is more documented than any other engine out there and the options which were there to begin with should be there now that we're in open beta. Why not leave them there. It is now December 23rd. We are very well into open beta (not alpha).

I'd say Meteor Entertainment working in the console development environment, would be very well aware of the optimization of hardware. The Unreal 3 engine also comes with pre-system configurations in the engine. So why ditch the options when it is very well known that the Unreal/3 Engine is very malliable and configurable.

Just look at titles like Tribes Ascend (maybe), Borderlands, Borderlands 2 (Randy Pitchford even made it up to PC gamers for the first Borderlands 1 game), Killing Floor (Unreal 2 Engine).

Even Unreal Tournament 3 (yes the reviews said it wasn't fantastic) but it had all the options avaliable. When you remove options from a game for a well known engine its like you're just showing your going back to your console developer side of things.

Edited by Kinjeto, December 23 2012 - 12:19 AM.

[Skylead]

Kinjeto, on December 22 2012 - 11:54 PM, said:

Pursang, on December 17 2012 - 02:58 AM, said:

Kinjeto, on December 16 2012 - 09:10 AM, said:

-snip-

That is how an option menu is done, amirite_

You're comparing a fully released AAA+ game to an F2P game that's still in Open Beta_ What_

Standards. Doesn't matter if its a F2P game or an AAA+ game. The point is mutual. Its the Unreal 3 Engine, The Unreal 3 Engine is more documented than any other engine out there and the options which were there to begin with should be there now that we're in open beta. Why not leave them there. It is now December 23rd. We are very well into open beta (not alpha).

I'd say Meteor Entertainment working in the console development environment, would be very well aware of the optimization of hardware. The Unreal 3 engine also comes with pre-system configurations in the engine. So why ditch the options when it is very well known that the Unreal/3 Engine is very malliable and configurable.

Just look at titles like Tribes Ascend (maybe), Borderlands, Borderlands 2 (Randy Pitchford even made it up to PC gamers for the first Borderlands 1 game), Killing Floor (Unreal 2 Engine).

Even Unreal Tournament 3 (yes the reviews said it wasn't fantastic) but it had all the options avaliable. When you remove options from a game for a well known engine its like you're just showing your going back to your console developer side of things.

They had tons of graphics options before, but when they overhauled the GUI for Open Beta it vanished. I'm guessing it didn't make it in because it's low priority and they have their hands full with stability issues.

Edited by Skylead, December 23 2012 - 01:15 AM.

[0Gungrave0]

FenixStryk, on December 15 2012 - 02:04 PM, said:

BuDeKai, on December 15 2012 - 01:54 PM, said:

we will also discuss these modifications and whether they should be allowed or locked in the next episode of THE COCKPIT! so tune in weds at 10:00pm est.

I'm okay with .ini modifications so long as it doesn't provide unintended gameplay advantages (hypothetical example: tweaking your graphics to cause the Infiltrator to be highly visible while cloaked). Most edits are usually harmless, though... things like cutting texture quality, turning off filters, etc.

Thanks for the video, although I prefer text for this kind of thing.

I have the graphics turned down all the way in my settings making holograms less textured to actual mechs and cloaked inf's are a little easier to spot.

I can play the game on mid to high graphics with no problem but the low graphics allows for more stable gameplay since Hawken tends to crash on me with some weird errors and it makes it easier to spot enemies.

Edited by 0Gungrave0, December 23 2012 - 01:22 AM.

[hynk]

DarkPulse, on December 16 2012 - 04:22 AM, said:

[ADH]TJ said:

Nice little tweaking tutorial! I don't see anything cheat-worthy in this (though I may lock the Y/X fov now, heh). I've tried to optimize LOW to be as fast as possible already so ideally you don't have to tweak, but you're always welcome to. If anyone finds anything that gives a really unfair advantage, report it and we'll probably lock it down in a future build.

I don't know if anyone's doing it yet, but it's possible to edit the INIs and set the resolution for Picmip texture settings extremely low - to the point that it basically removes textures.

Example using UT3:







Needless to say, I'd like to not see Hawken abused like this...

I'm actually trying to get excatly this result, but can't really get it to this quality.
My opinion is, that in Shooters you play competitively this is exactly what you would want, at least after you played a few hours in high quality, just to see what it's like.

A picmip setting like in Q3 is what i wanted for christmas, and i hope some day we will get this command in the config files.
Till then i just have to turn down all the textures to slush.

Btw, isn't it kinda disturbing to find all the config lines for iPhone/iPad/Android and all the other possibilities in the INIs_ This makes it really hard or at least cumbersome to find what you're looking for.

@Competitive HUD
DO WANT!

[HorseHeadProphet]

1. A video explaining text based tweaks is just silly. Seriously. Just list them, don't make me watch a video. Don't assume I have the time or inclination to watch something to glean information that could be presented in a much more accessible form.

2. Console commands in game. Unreal Engine games typically use the F10 key to open a console, in Hawken this only freezes the game however. We want unreal engine commands like stat net, stat fps, FOV, reconnect/disconnect, kick vote.

3. Can we try some keybinds, piped switches, etc_ For example in UT3 it was possible to bind keys in such a way that you could toggle two FOV's

[ShadowGTR]

[ADH]TJ, on December 16 2012 - 04:10 AM, said:

Nice little tweaking tutorial! I don't see anything cheat-worthy in this (though I may lock the Y/X fov now, heh). I've tried to optimize LOW to be as fast as possible already so ideally you don't have to tweak, but you're always welcome to. If anyone finds anything that gives a really unfair advantage, report it and we'll probably lock it down in a future build.

By keeping things open we give the community more flexibility, and we get quicker visibility into real issues, so I'm big in favor of config tweaking. I've done it myself since the Quake days, and I played that for money.

I had considered in the past modifying the .ini file to get rid of the film grain, as I preferred the clean look I was able to get in CB3. But I never got around to it. Then this happened... About a week ago, I was accused of cheating by two rookie players during a Siege match (I call them rookie because their "tactics" were quite sloppy, and only got worse the angrier they got). Since I knew I wasn't cheating, I wasn't concerned about their threats to "report" me. However, what if I had modified my .ini file... what could have happened_ I know no one is forcing me to modify it, and TJ appears to have given blessing to it. The possibility of an account ban due to an .ini tweak concerns me.

[fwip]

HorseHeadProphet, on January 22 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

1. A video explaining text based tweaks is just silly. Seriously. Just list them, don't make me watch a video. Don't assume I have the time or inclination to watch something to glean information that could be presented in a much more accessible form.

Agreed.

HorseHeadProphet, on January 22 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

2. Console commands in game. Unreal Engine games typically use the F10 key to open a console, in Hawken this only freezes the game however. We want unreal engine commands like stat net, stat fps, FOV, reconnect/disconnect, kick vote.

F5 opens the console.

F10, if memory serves, takes a very high-res screenshot that takes a long while, and the game freezes up while it's happening. If you wait long enough it'll resume normal operation.

Edited by fwip, January 22 2013 - 02:57 PM.

[Azrael39]

Lol, I watched the videos and then tried it out.  Game crashed after launch.  Whoops.  broke my game

Question when I try to save my DefaultSystemsSettings it says I have to have administrator privileges.  How do I convince my own computer I'm the Admin_

Well, got it working again.  Gameplay is smoother FPS without the grainy effect, and all the visual FX, Bloom, Lensflares, and Fog.

Edited by Azrael39, January 22 2013 - 05:54 PM.

[hynk]

ShadowGTR, on January 22 2013 - 02:50 PM, said:

[ADH]TJ, on December 16 2012 - 04:10 AM, said:

Nice little tweaking tutorial! I don't see anything cheat-worthy in this (though I may lock the Y/X fov now, heh). I've tried to optimize LOW to be as fast as possible already so ideally you don't have to tweak, but you're always welcome to. If anyone finds anything that gives a really unfair advantage, report it and we'll probably lock it down in a future build.

By keeping things open we give the community more flexibility, and we get quicker visibility into real issues, so I'm big in favor of config tweaking. I've done it myself since the Quake days, and I played that for money.

I had considered in the past modifying the .ini file to get rid of the film grain, as I preferred the clean look I was able to get in CB3. But I never got around to it. Then this happened... About a week ago, I was accused of cheating by two rookie players during a Siege match (I call them rookie because their "tactics" were quite sloppy, and only got worse the angrier they got). Since I knew I wasn't cheating, I wasn't concerned about their threats to "report" me. However, what if I had modified my .ini file... what could have happened_ I know no one is forcing me to modify it, and TJ appears to have given blessing to it. The possibility of an account ban due to an .ini tweak concerns me.

I wouldn't worry about that. In most competitive games you have clear server-sided restrictions that can overrule your config file.
if you use a setting that is not allowed it will simply not work.

@topic
i accidentally turned of all lights while fooling around in the config. that made for a fun match

oh and if anyone wants something similar to picmip:
the "TEXTUREGROUP_..." commands in HawkenSystemSettings.ini will do the trick.
just turn down the values as you like and your textures will get gooey as you like it, or not.
sadly i found no better option to do that. but i will try to take a closer look at the UE3 documentation.

[Rumblebottom]

Say it like this:  conFIG. not CONfig.   The emphasis is on fig.

[Goyo]

I never gave a thumbs up to this post and I should have.  The FOV trick in the ini files is woth the price of admission. Cheers and thanks much!

Other games have options where it is unnecessary to delve into the depths of the game files but as far as hawken  is concerned it is required upkeep before playing.

Thanks for the treasure trove of info!

[Keiichi81]

I'm not sure if it was mentioned in the video because I'm not going to sit and watch something for ~10 minutes that should've been a text document, but for anyone who like me is annoyed at Unreal Engine 3's texture fade-in, you can disable it by finding the following lines in your HawkenEngine.ini file:

MipFadeInSpeed0=0.3
MipFadeOutSpeed0=0.1
MipFadeInSpeed1=2.0
MipFadeOutSpeed1=1.0

Change them to this instead:

MipFadeInSpeed0=0
MipFadeOutSpeed0=0
MipFadeInSpeed1=0
MipFadeOutSpeed1=0

Hawken now loads the hi-res textures for me instantly rather than fading them in over 2 seconds. I'm not sure how drastically this will affect low-end computers, but I don't notice any perceivable drop in performance with my GTX 560Ti.

[Goyo]

Yes that is annoying... thanks.  I do not  need mechs magically appearing versus just drawing them.  I have only noticed this in the mech garage. Does it happen elsewhere_

Quote

Say it like this:  conFIG. not CONfig.   The emphasis is on fig.

how can you say config without .sys_

Edited by Goyo, January 23 2013 - 01:14 AM.

[Seclan]

Game won't start after that youtube tweak video.
Had to go back to original files..

[ShadowGTR]

Keiichi81, on January 22 2013 - 09:26 PM, said:

I'm not sure if it was mentioned in the video because I'm not going to sit and watch something for ~10 minutes that should've been a text document, but for anyone who like me is annoyed at Unreal Engine 3's texture fade-in, you can disable it by finding the following lines in your HawkenEngine.ini file:

MipFadeInSpeed0=0.3
MipFadeOutSpeed0=0.1
MipFadeInSpeed1=2.0
MipFadeOutSpeed1=1.0

Change them to this instead:

MipFadeInSpeed0=0
MipFadeOutSpeed0=0
MipFadeInSpeed1=0
MipFadeOutSpeed1=0

Hawken now loads the hi-res textures for me instantly rather than fading them in over 2 seconds. I'm not sure how drastically this will affect low-end computers, but I don't notice any perceivable drop in performance with my GTX 560Ti.

So the reason it does that slow textures fade in is due to a setting in Unreal Engine 3_! Unless there is a stylized reason behind it, or it somehow makes the game more stable (especially on lower end pcs), why would anyone want this_ Well, that does it. Guess there isn't any harm in trying this (after backup of course). I know what I'm doing after work!

[Wasabi_Wei]

Nice! Texture pop-in is barely noticeable on the menu now. I still have it for a fraction of a second, but it is much, much improved. Not that it was a big deal before, but the tweak does make the game feel a bit more polished.

Edited by Wasabi_Wei, January 23 2013 - 11:37 AM.