Hi Christophe, it’s nice to be corresponding with you.

Hi Allen.

First and foremost, I’d like to know a little about you.

Well, my name is Christophe, I’m 34 years old, and I am a professional programmer who works at a little French corporation (I’m French). I like fishing for shark, watching TV, and having some bud (just joking!). Lately, however, my life has been derailed by some illness in my family; in particular I have had to take a leave of absence from work for more than 4 months. Other than that, there’s not really much else to know. I’m not really a hardcore gamer, but I do have some favorite games such as: Elite, Quake 3, Mirror’s Edge Time Trials, Urban Terror, Zelda, etc.

I’m sorry to hear about your family; I hope things get better for you soon, and maybe with this article some players in the UrT community will send you some get well soon cards and some free beer!

Thanks for your support.

Well to start off, how and why did you start working on iKALiZER?

I’ve been playing UrbanTerror since around 2002 or 2003 and I’ve been playing Quake3 Arena for a very long time (I have the box game). Since I started playing, I had always wanted to enable “A3D sound” in Quake 3 Arena, but I was never very successful (there were too many bugs). With the last release of Quake3, the “A3D sound” had been removed. I thought to myself: “Oh no! I was crying inside!” Anyway, in 2006, I began to play Urban Terror more and because of that my skill level grew. Even though I was getting better at the game, I was still very frustrated to be playing with such a bad sound environment. So, in early 2007, I made up my mind and decided to download the source code of ID Tech 3 and ioQuake 3 (which had become GPL during 2005). After having seen the source code, I decided to make some minor updates in the audio: like adding Dolby Pro Logic I/II encoding. I also added many more “minor” updates. With those updates, the project SAM was born! I decided to send (for testing) my updates of the modified ioQuake 3 to icculus forums [Editor’s note: icculus.org hosts the source code for ioquake3]. After disagreement with some forum members, however, I decided to stop the project. Even though I stopped the project (which was little more than a year old), the idea of improved sound was not dead and at the end of 2007 I decided to try again from a blank slate and brought SAM back to life as a new project “SAM/iKALiZER!”

So you’ve been working on iKALiZER since…

I’ll try to provide an estimate: The actual current release of iKALiZER (0.22.00b) has taken about 12-15 months (of full time work), or possibly more. The audio technology in iKALiZER, has taken me more than 5-7 months to implement, and several months more to polish (including optimization and debugging). Specifically, however, the kind of time one needs to understand and implement all the research involved in Psycho-acoustic, Hybrid HRTF, Holographic and Virtual Holographic Sound is approximately 5-10 years. I personally have been doing research in this area since 1992.  iKALiZER takes advantage of my experience in that “oh so special” domain.

Wow, sounds like a lot of work. How is it that you are able to provide it free for the Urban Terror Community?

Actually iKALiZER is not free to me, as it costs me lot of money to develop without any external help. For example, I pay for web hosting, domain names, software tools (like Microsoft MSDN), and test hardware. That said, iKALiZER will remain free of charge to users of open-source projects. I hope to develop a dual license program in the future for commercial applications such as in the video game industry.

That makes sense. Also related to all the work that you put into it, I’d hate to see iKALiZER not be usable with Urban Terror 4.2. Will it?

I have no direct relationship with the Fronzen Sand team. I originally hoped to finish the next iKALiZER before UrbanTerror 4.2, but I think this will be very difficult (if not near impossible) because I’ve had to delay the project too much this past year. But I’d like to emphasize that work is still continuing on the project. So, all I can say is, “wait and see”… LOL!

What are your future plans for iKALiZER, besides the Mac/Linux support you’ve written about on the Urban Terror Forums?

I’d like to implement some interesting things such as an update service that will keep users of iKALiZER “updated”, a system control center that will allow users to access all settings in a simple and intuitive interface, profile support, and server side processing. Server side processing would only be with a local server of course, and would be very useful during LAN parties and for low power client computers. Some other ideas I have are to provide a wrapper between OpenAL/DirectSound & iKALiZER, and an iKALiZER library that will work with OpenGL or DirectX.

The features you’re thinking about do sound very interesting if not revolutionary. Now to the question I’ve been anticipating: when can we expect Linux and Mac support?

The current iKALiZER build (0.22.00b) isn’t fast enough. I’ve decided to stop trying to fix it and focus on the next generation. So, for iKALiZER 0.22.00b, there won’t be any updates (such as a Mac build or a Linux build), or bug fixes. But before you get too disappointed, I want to tell you that the second generation of iKALiZER is a total redesign that will be natively cross-platform for Intel/AMD x86 processors. For development I use 2 virtual machines (which is very slow but it works): Kubuntu 8.04 and Windows XP SP3. So the next version will have Linux support, even if the current version does not. As for Mac support, I need more time and more money!

Can you elaborate on why you decided to redesign it?

Here are some of the drawbacks of the current version of iKALiZER and why I’m redesigning it: the implementation code in ioQuake3 / ioUrbanTerror is very complex and consumes a lot of processing time. For me, this means that the audio mixing is not fast enough and audio latency is too high. I also feel that the sound immersion is not good enough as there is no elevation support, nor a good realization of distance perception. I hope to address these problems in the next version, and the new implementation will be much cleaner, easier, and FASTER!

That’s good news. When is it coming out : – )?

I can’t exactly provide a date for the next release. During 2010? Summer 2010? Christmas 2010?

Do you still play Urban Terror? If you do, what is your pseudonym/handle, and do you belong to any clans?

I play less since 2008, but my previous pseudonym was “[FR]KaNDai”. From 2008 on my pseudo has been “[ikalizer]christophe”. I’ve never been in a clan, or you could say I’m a clan all by myself! .

Does iKALiZER support any other q3 based games (such as open arena)?

When the next version is completed, I’ll suggest to all those who use the ID Tech 3 open source engine to implement native calls to iKALiZER. So, I guess you could say it’s possible.

Any thoughts about Urban Terror?

Well, to all those cheaters out there I’d like to say: Stop cheating!!! Stop cheating!!! Stop cheating!!! I’d also like to convince myself to stop camping on Riyadh (though, Riyadh is very useful to test iKALiZER).

That’s good to know. Continuing, I noticed on the Urban Terror forums there was some concern about the project’s license. Do you care to elaborate on that?

About iKALiZER and Open Source / GPL licensing… iKALiZER is closed source like Microsoft’s DirectX or Intel/Matrox/ATI/nVidia OpenGL drivers. Applications (like ioQuake3 or ioUrbanTerror) can do a simple call to iKALiZER to achieve compatibility. When distributing, iKALiZER needs to be provided separately of the open source project package or of application packages that use GPL licensing. But, it’s not that difficult, as iKALiZER could be on the same server, just not in the same package or file. There’s no contradiction between iKALiZER and all GPL licences and open source projects.

You mean insofar of compatibility, kind of like how the new anti-cheat will supposedly be closed-source but also provided with the game.

Correct.

Is there anything else I may have forgotten to ask about with regard to iKALiZER that might be interesting?

Well, the name iKALiZER took a lot of work to settle upon. I started by writing a list of over one hundred potential names. I specifically wanted a name whose pronunciation is very close to the project’s aims. It had to be an available domain and not overused on the internet. I also tested this list of names on people around me, and iKALiZER was the winner

Also interesting is that I code using only 2 programming languages: C (sometimes C++) and x86/x64 assembler. I know other assemblers and languages like Basic, Pascal, PHP, Javascript, but I prefer C and x86/x64 ASM.

Unrelated to iKALiZER, what are your future plans?

My life is pretty stressful currently so I guess you could say I’d like to take some holidays off to be more efficient (upon the return!). I’d also like to watch all available episodes of the first Doctor Who Classic series (send me money for that LOL!). My time is currently shared between my family, my professional job and iKALiZER.

Anything else you’d like to give “props,” or tell to the internet?

I have a lot of favorite movies, TV shows and anime. Those include Doctor Who, Stargate SG1, Kare Kano, Lain, the Matrix, MacGyver, Rapyuta, Jacky Chan films, Ai Yori Aoshi (Only the first 4 episodes), Onegai Sensei, Shawshank Redemption, Ranma, Naushika, lots of french movies like Les bronzes font du ski, Les visiteurs, Leon, La cité de la peur, Les tontons flingueurs, Le père noël est une ordure, Papy fait de la résistance, and many, MANY others.

Hahaha! Wasn’t expecting it, but thanks for the list. Like I mentioned earlier, I hope things get better for your family and it was a pleasure interviewing you.

You’re welcome, and thanks for your support. I hope my English was not too bad and provides a good understanding to all non-specialists (I’ve tried to not be too technical).

You can contact Christophe Gossa, the developer of iKALiZER at:

I’m not talking about cheats or aimbots. I’m talking about built-in VoIP, enhanced multiprocessor support, anaglyph graphics (with 3D glasses), and support for full 5.1 surround sound. I told you that knowing the engine the game runs on would prove interesting, didn’t I? Today I’m going to introduce one of the most common recompiled builds out there: iKALiZER. Other special binaries (such as Mitsubishi’s Optimized Build) exist, but those are another article entirely. For starters, “iKALiZER” is an improved audio engine that is available for Urban Terror.

Why Use iKALiZER?

I hear all of you out there asking questions: “Is it fair? Will it improve my game? Why bother?” Well, here are a few reasons to consider using iKALiZER.

1. It might improve your game: Reading through the Urban Terror Forum thread on iKALiZER is very technical. But even if you don’t know what the terminology means (Holographic, HRTF, Cinema AGC, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious), here is the simple truth: the built-in audio that Urban Terror supports is rather abysmal. Go into the sound settings, and you will see what I mean; two options: Dopplar sound and quality. Using iKALiZER will help you improve sound quality, which may help you utilize sound to better help you figure out where enemies are, hear incoming grenades, and become a better player. It’s worth a shot, right? This is especially true for players in clans, because why not try a simple tweak that could improve your game instead of (or in addition to) spending hours on strategy and practice.
2. Take advantage of expensive audio equipment you (wish you) have: I use the cheapest headphones money can buy, some bargain bin headset that cost <15$ USD. I can already anticipate the furious criticism some readers will give me. Anyway, I have played with others who swear by their Sennheiser studio headphones that apparently (according to them) do sound as good as they cost. I have played with others who use full 5.1 surround sound with speakers mounted tactfully to “play the game” the way it was meant to be played. Using iKALiZER will allow players with thousand dollar stereo systems to get the most from the game.
3. Enable SMP support for sound processing: For those of you with a computer that is newer than 2 years old, it’s likely that you have a dual-core or even a quad-core. Urban Terror is notorious for being unable to utilize multi-core systems (see “fix graphics problems on Urban Terror with affinity”), but by using iKALiZER one can at least process some of the game on more than one core. This may improve frame rate and lead to smoother gameplay.
4. Because you can. I don’t know about you readers out there, but I like to tweak things to their fullest potential. From my mouse sensitivity to positioning my chair the correct distance from the screen, if it is customizable I will personalize it. I don’t know about European leagues, but iKALiZER has the “okay” for use in FTWGL. It’s not considered cheating, so try it out and see if you like it.

Should you use iKALIZER?

I feel there is no real cost to at least trying out iKALiZER, but to make it easier for you all, I’ve created a flow chart. Click on the graphic to make it larger if you can’t see it.

It is also my understanding that one can choose to use alternate sounds or not. I enjoy the original sounds, but some players may find the alternate sounds to be more authentic. I find the alternate sounds kind of metallic and grating to my ears, but others do enjoy them.

iKALiZER in Practice

Below are a few videos showcasing some play on a public server. Each video is the same, except that they have been exported from Urban Terror using different audio settings. First and foremost, I played this match using normal sound. Also, I know I suck, so please no “you’re a noob” comments. I’m not the best player out there, I’m admitting it so you don’t have to. It’s also likely that the terribleness of other players made me look better than I really am. For the record, this is not about “showing off” play, but rather about the audio. You may also notice that I’m not particularly good at aiming, and most of my kills come from flanking my enemies. I use sound heavily when playing the game.

The audio setting I used for all of the iKALiZER  videos on youtube is (0×24) Dolby Pro Logic II compatible material. I was able to play the clip/demo with 5.1 surround sound (0×61/0×60), but I could not get Urban Terror to export with working audio (I’m not sure it matters much as I believe youtube compresses the audio anyway).

Normal Sound:

iKALiZER Alternate Sound Effects, Dolby Pro Logic II:

iKALiZER with Normal Sound Effects, Dolby Pro Logic II:

Click on one of the videos and view other videos by me to see an iKALiZER video with +20dB. I’ve removed it because videos filled the page and disrupted this post too much.

Like what you heard? Install it!

From what I understand, there are two versions of iKALiZER: one that enables alternate audio (such as different weapon sounds), and one that does not (and only adds the extra sound features).

1. First, head on over to the Urban Terror thread and download yourself up some iKALiZER. The files should also be available on here: http://www.ikalizer.com/. If the links aren’t up you may find it here, or here.
2. Extract the files to your Urban Terror folder. I would suggest making a backup copy of ioUrbanTerror.exe and autoexec.cfg prior to overwriting it with iKALiZER.
3. Start up Urban Terror. Enter these commands in the console:
   1. /s_useIkalizer 1
   2. seta ikalizer_LimiterLevel 0 (a volume limiter)
   3. seta ikalizer_ChannelMode 0×60 (This sets iKALiZER to 5.0 surround sound. Other options can be found here)
   4. seta ikalizer_EnableSMP 1 (This will give you benefits if you have a multi-core processor).
4. Restart Urban Terror. Check if the settings took by typing /s_useIkalizer. If it comes back as “1” the settings were saved.
5. Play some Urban Terror and tweak to your liking.

Final Thoughts

iKalizer is one of the best alternate builds out there for Urban Terror as it is an interesting concept and a real treat for audiophiles. I think that the biggest drawback is that there is no support for Mac or Linux. This lack of support might lead to it getting banned in league play, since it gives some players an advantage that others cannot use. There is an argument on both sides, however, as players with faster computers and better connections also have an advantage.

I did notice some fps slowdown on certain audio settings, even though I have a quad-core. It was nothing major but it needs to be mentioned. Finally, the install method is not very elegant and can leave a player without working sound if instructions are not followed carefully. I would suggest reading the install advice on the Urban Terror forum thread before “jumping in.” Overall, I would highly recommend players take it for a test drive, but in the end, I would hope that players use what they like best.

1. Use only necessary binds

Use only the fundamental binds. Do not confuse your teammates with unuseful binds. To make sure you have the proper binds at the right moment, consider making two or more configurations depending on the gametype you are going to play (eg. one config for Team Survivor and another for CTF). For example in TS things like “Enemy Spotted” and “Enemy Heard” are fundamental, consider things like “Flank ‘em” and “I’m Flanking,” but pass on binds like “Stick with me.” In CTF binds like “Flag Exiting…” is very useful but “Enemy Spotted” isn’t.

2. Don’t write unnecessary things

Don’t write things that are not necessary within your radio calls. The voice is already telling the command (like I need a medic) and most of the time knowing how much you are hurt isn’t necessary. Also I couldn’t care less about how many rounds are left in your magazine or where the hell you are. Less is more.
For example, never use $location in your binds. Your current location is already sent in every radio message in white. Or again if you have to use “Enemy Spotted” just bind $crosshair, so the voice will say “Enemy Spotted” and your teammates will see on video just their location. Don’t be redundant.

3. Unbind the funny stuff

Don’t waste keys to bind “Nice One” or “Good Job Team.” You can just write “n1″ in the team chat. This will also feel more personal and boost the morale in the team. Also in Clan Wars don’t waste time with “Thanks” or “Sorry about that” or “No problem” or whatever… mistakes can happen and healing somebody is just ordinary business.

4. Have them at your hands

Some binds should as near as possible to WASD so you can use them without thinking. I’ve binded my radio calls from 1 to 0 (since I bound the weapons elsewhere).

5. Use colours

Use colours to increase readability. Remember: the less time you take to decrypt a message, the faster you will come back to thinking about shooting. Don’t make a rainbow. Only a few colours. (Example my “Enemy Spotted” has the $crosshair in red).

6. Agree to binds with your clan

Take your time to open up a topic in your forums and to make a lists of binds that are absolutely necessary to everybody and to explain what to do if somebody is giving an order using the radio. For example agree with your clanmates that “Incoming” means: “Everybody get here asap.”

Got more suggestions? Share them in the comments!
Do you use the radio or you prefere Mumble or Teamspeak? Tell us why!

The Fix

Fix the random crashes by running this command in a terminal: “sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio”. This will also fix similar problems with other SDL games. Here is a link to the Urban Terror Forums fix.

Help Us Out

If any reader out there knows how to fix the mouse issue, please submit the fix in the comments or on the Urban Terror Forum’s thread about the issue. Until a fix is found readers may want to wait to upgrade their Ubuntu install.

Overcome Software Limitations

I play with perhaps the worst configuration possible: an Apple Mighty Mouse (which is NOT for gaming) and Mac OS X. Why is the worst configuration possible? Because playing with a Mighty Mouse feels like playing the mouse of my old Amiga 500 and Mac OS X applies some adjustments to the pointer movements that you cannot change, unless using appropriate software.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X messes around with the accelleration of your mouse, in order to make more comfortable its use for everyday tasks. When it comes to gaming, accelleration is just an uncontrolled variable. Basically what accelleration does is making easier to do wide movements by calculating your movements and adjusting the cursor speed accordingly. It’s mathematic stuff. What actually means in a gaming prospective is that equal movements of your hand will not always result in the equal movements of your pointer. It’s just too random to rely on. To disable the built in accelleration in Mac OS X you have to use certain software like SteerMouse that will hugely expand your mouse options.

Windows

It’s more easy when it comes to disable the mouse accelleration under Windows. Go to the Control Panel, Mouse and disable “Enhance Pointer Precision”. This will disable MOST of the accelleration. Windows still leaves some accelleration like Mac OS X does. To overcome this problem there’s a registry fix.

Mouse Drivers

If your mouse comes with drivers, install them. Most of the time it will come also with a dedicated control panel where you can change a lot of settings, change the Dots per Inch and so on.

Warning!

Disabling the mouse accelleration is perhaps the most drastical change you could make. It might require some time to get used to the new settings. I suggest to do so only if you are kind of serious about Urban Terror. If you’re just a casual player or you share your computer with others, consider leaving mouse accelleration where it is.

Let’s get it started

We are going to set up some crucial variables for aim settings. To do so you can edit your autoexec.cfg file (which is located in your UrT directory) or edit these value directly via the console. The choice is yours.

The variables are the following.

• \sensitivity – Which is pretty much self explanatory. It’s the value that you can edit also from the controls menu. The default value is set to 5. In my post about how to improve your accuracy I said that the lower, the better. I suggest finding your ideal value which depends on a lot of factors including screen resolution. Mine is actually 11.5 (but again I’m under Mac OS X so yours might be much lower).
• \cl_mouseaccel – The accelleration value inside Urban Terror. This is not dependent to your system configuration. If you shut off the accelleration under Windows but you still have this variable to any positive value, you will still suffer from accelleration randomness. This is a long debated topic.
  A lot of player will suggest you to turn it off completely by setting it to 0. Other players say that having some accelleration is less stressfull for your hand. If you choose to use this value keep it very low. Anything between 0.05 and 0.5 is acceptable.
• \m_pitch – This controls the sensitivity of the mouse movements in the Y-Axis. Urban Terror lets you to keep different values for the X and the Y axis. It might be helpful to lower this value in order to increase your accuracy if you are trying to aim at a specific spot (like searching for headshots). Default value is 0.022 , mine is 0.018.
• \m_yaw – This controls the sensitivity of the mouse movements in the X-Axis. I found this value to be fine at its default value which is 0.022.

There are two other values “m_forward” and “m_side” but I found them to be very hard to set up and I haven’t seen any improvement on changing them so, leave them there unless you know what are you doing.

To change this variables in the console all you have to do is type the variable and the new value. Typing only the variable will return it’s current value and the default value.

Example:
\sensitivity – Will return the current value plus the default value
\sensitivity 10 – Will set the sensitivity to 10

To edit this value in the autoexec.cfg, add the following inside the file.

Example:
setA sensitivity “7″ – Will set the sensitivity to 7
setA cl_mouseaccell “1″ – Will set the accelleration of the mouse to 1

Like I said, these are “basic” stuff. There’s a lot stuff to talk about like USB port overclocking and more and we might cover up some of these in further posts.
Also we are planning Mouse and Mouse Pad reviews so stay tuned.
But remember: this is very subjective stuff. My configuration will not work for you because I don’t have your same mouse, screen resolution, mouse pad, hand size and so on. There’s no perfect configuration. I gave you some advices so perhaps you can change some values and find the perfect one for you.
As a general advice: don’t expect quick results. Don’t expect to open Urban Terror, set the Accelleration to .25 and start killing everybody. Some changes needs time to get used to and only time can really tell if a change is worth or not.
What are your opinion on aim settings? Which do you use? Which would you suggest? Tell us in the comments!

Windows:

1. Open your Urban Terror directory and start the game.
2. Alt-Tab out back to Windows, and right click on the taskbar, choose “Task Manager.” Or just Ctrl-Alt-Del.
3. Right click on the Urban Terror process, choose set Affinity.
   

   Set affinity in Windows

4. Uncheck all but one processor core.
   

   Leave 1 Checked

5. Bask in better fps glory and own some noobs in UrT.

Ubuntu: There is a great amount of arguing among Linux enthusiasts over whether manually setting affinity should be required. I don’t care which side of the fence you’re on but to me results (and what “does happen”) matters more than what “should happen.” Setting affinity manually makes so much of a difference for me that I will never again play Urban Terror competitively without setting it manually.

1. Open a terminal. This can be done by navigating to the Applications menu. Choose “Accessories” –> “Terminal.”
2. Type “sudo apt-get install schedtool” without the quotes. You’ll be prompted for your password. You are now installing the scheduling tools for Linux.
   

   Installing Schedtools on Ubuntu

3. Start Urban Terror. For me, this means double-clicking on “ioUrbanTerror.x86_64”.
4. In the terminal you used to install schedtools, type “top” and hit enter. This gives you a list of processes and how much CPU/RAM they are using.
   

   Running the "top" command in ubuntu

5. Open a new terminal. A shortcut to do this (if you are still focused on Terminal) is “shift-ctrl-n”. Type in “schedtool –a (CPU #, starting with 0) PID (from top)”. So, “schedtool –a 0 6297” would make process 6297 (Urban Terror in my screenshot) have an affinity for CPU0.
   

   Setting schedtools in Ubuntu via Terminal

6. Enjoy smoother gameplay! Tip: In Urban Terror, I get better FPS on Linux versus Windows.

Or

1. For an automated solution, create a gnome launcher or script that contains something similar to this: “schedtool –a 0 –e /pathtoUrT/ioUrbanTerror.x86_64”. Replace “pathtoUrT” with the path to Urban Terror, and the script will launch Urban Terror with an affinity for CPU0.
2. So for me, the command looks like this: “schedtool -a 0 -e /media/Shorty/UrbanTerror/ioUrbanTerror.x86_64″

That’s all! Now go out there and enjoy some improved performance! Best, PreviousN

Two critical binds

The two most important radio binds are “Enemy Spotted” and “Enemy Heard”, wich means that you have seen an enemy or heard some noises from probably an enemy.
I binded “Enemy Spotted” on the key number 3, right over WASD, so I can quickly inform my teamates of where I am and where are the enemies.
In fact thanks to a little keyword, it communicates the position of both you (since is a team message) and your crosshair.
I binded “Enemy Heard” on the tilde key, right over TAB, so if I hear something i just look at the minimap and if there are no teamates near, it means that it must be an enemy.

The obvius bind

The obvius radio bind is calling for a medic. I binded “I need a medic” on number 5 right over R so I can easily call for help if I’m badly wounded.

How to bind a radio call

To bind a radio call open up the console (with tilde key on Windows, with SHIFT+ESC on Mac) and write the following:

\bind [KEY] ut_radio X X

Where X X are the numbers you would enter to say it normally via the radio dialog box (Default key: U). Example:

\bind 5 ut_radio 3 3

Will result in “I Need a Medic!”.

You can add text to customize your message further. For example:

\bind 5 ut_radio 3 3 PLZ Bring me some MED cuz I’m $health !!!11!!1!

Will result in “PLZ Bring me some MED cuz I’m Badly Hurt!!!11!!1!”.

$health is just one of the many variables you can use to customize your messages. They will print several things on the screen like:

$health – Your current health status (string value).
$crosshair – The position of your crosshair (string value).
$location – Your current position (string value).
$weapon – Your current weapon (string value)
$clips – The number of clips remaning (numeric value).
$bullets – The number of bullets remaning in the clip (numeric value).

The other binds

Here are my other radio binds.
˜: Enemy Heard
1: Affermative (Used to respond to orders)
2: Negative (Used to respond to orders)
3: Enemy Spotted
4: I’m on it! (Used to respond to requests for support or medic)
5: I need a medic
6: Nice One
7: Good Job Team
8: What the f**k, over? (Used when I don’t find the last opponent or when one of my teamates shoots at me)
9: Thanks (When someone heals me or supports me in a difficoult situation)
B: Area Secured (When I previously called an Enemy Spotted and I succesfully kill the enemy)
N: Sorry about that.
K: Double Time, Let’s Move! (After healing)

Introduction

I will be examining how various graphical configurations affect framerate on my old computer which was purchased in November 2003. I replaced it over a year and a half ago, but I still keep it around precisely for stuff like this. Pretty much any computer built for $500-700 USD in the past 2-3 years will outperform it with ease. However, prebuilt machines from large manufacturers like Dell or HP often will have proprietary components or just plain wacky configurations which cause them to perform much poorer than their price suggests. If you’re in the old PC or lowend prebuilt boat, this guide should help you improve your gaming experience. I will provide a list of cvars which have an effect on framerate, as well as an already completed graphics config file which you can load from the console.

I may as well spoil it right now, and tell you that there is practically no difference between a high quality configuration and a quickly done low quality configuration. The only noticeable difference (and it’s significant) can be obtained by turning down/off a lot of hidden options through cvars. You can skip the whole article and go straight to the bottom if you just want the config file. The next three sections may be boring/too technical/both.

Urban Terror Graphics

Urban Terror, especially at low resolutions (1024×768 and under), is an example of a CPU bound game. That is, on your average system, in the average in game situation, the CPU will be the limiting factor in getting a higher framerate. The CPU is unable to render its portion of the work any faster, while the GPU (graphics processing unit; found on your video card) can perform all its tasks as fast as the CPU, and then some. In other words, the GPU is waiting for the CPU. This is because Urban Terror’s graphics are quite easy to render in comparison to the physics, player positions, sound, network data, etc. However, this may not always be the case. Many computers, mostly lowend prebuilts, have very weak graphics cards as they are intended for office work. Look at any big box store and you will find quad core CPUs alongside onboard graphics. What is being rendered at a particular moment is, however, the decisive element in determining what component is being “bottlenecked.” A high number of player models on screen, a wide open area on a detailed map, smoke grenades, and a large number of objects (shells, boxes, dropped guns, flags, etc.) on screen, all have a very significant impact on the graphics cards’ ability to render the scene quickly. Conversely, sitting in an enclosed area with few props and no other players on screen will result in the graphics card barely breaking a sweat, while the CPU is still working hard to calculate unseen players’ positions, crunch network data, render sound, etc.

Urban Terror has a hard cap of 125 fps, though the cap can be set lower. Your framerate will not exceed 125 fps. This is due to how the Quake III Engine’s netcode works – it is tied directly to client framerate. The goal of any player should be to get their framerate as STEADY as possible. Reaching 125 fps is all well and good, but it is detrimental to gameplay if as soon as an enemy comes on screen, the framerate plummets to 60. Although a constant framerate of 60 fps might be very playable, the DROP from 125 to 60 fps is extremely noticeable and will make it hard to play, as changes in framerate affect how smoothly the game is seen, aiming, movement (there will be a noticeable delay in input response time if you have FPS drops), and even ping. You have to therefore consider not just maximum frame rate, but minimum frame rate as well. This is what you want to bring up. The difference in an intense firefight between 20 fps and 45 fps is huge, especially if that means a drop of only 15 fps (60 capped dropping to 45) as opposed to 60 fps (uncapped, but running at 80, dropping to 20).

Benchmarks – Hardware Discussion

I will benchmark various configurations and record the results in a chart. The test system will be an Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton core) @ 1.83 ghz (stock speed), 1024 MB DDR333, and an ATI 9600XT 256MB graphics card. For a second set of benchmark runs, the FSB will be underclocked from 166 mhz to 100mhz, resulting in an effective 1.1 ghz for the CPU, and the RAM running at DDR200 rates. A 1.1 ghz Athlon XP would be roughly equivalent to a “1200+” performance rating, when considering the Barton’s 512 kb of L2 cache. A final, third run will be done at 2.2 ghz, equivalent to a 3200+ performance rating. A 3200+ Athlon XP performs on par with a 2.8 ghz Pentium 4.

Benchmarks – Methodology

I am testing 5 graphics configurations.

800×600 stock is simply the default configuration generated by Urban Terror if no configuration file is present. 800×600 is the default resolution.
1024×768 stock is the same configuration, except with the resolution bumped up to 1024×768.
800×600 low is the stock config, but with all the applicable options in the “graphics” tab under the Setup button at the main menu set to their lowest quality setting.
1024×768 high uses Nexu’s movie config file, which is tuned for optimal visual quality.
640×480 very low is a config file I made and turned every visual option to its lowest quality (best performance) setting (generally this means disabled:P). In addition, sound options were set to low quality. On a system with a dedicated sound card, sound quality level will not impact framerate. However, most people have onboard sound, which means the CPU does most of the sound processing work.

I tested each configuration using /timedemo 1 and then replaying a demo of a 6v6 match on Algiers CTF. The demo is approximately 35 minutes long. It contains many firefights, as that is the nature of Algiers, especially against a strong opponent. Smoke grenades are used for approximately one minute. Timedemo records the average framerate of a demo that is played back. Unfortunately minimum FPS is not displayed, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make educated guesses.:) I reloaded Urban Terror between each run. I also deleted all the configuration files in the q3ut4 directory, to allow Urban Terror to regenerate them each run. When a premade config was used, I named it autoexec.cfg, which forces Urban Terror to load cvars from it first, before relying on automatically generated values from q3config.cfg (which are used if a cvar is not present in the autoexec file). A clean install of XP SP3 was installed before testing began.

Benchmarks – Results

FPS testing @ 1830 mhz

Not much difference between the 1024×768 high quality config, and 800×600 with all graphics menu options turned down. In fact it’s a difference of only 7 fps. That’s only 10% worse FPS running with high quality textures and mipmapping (mipmapping determines when a low quality distance texture is swapped for a high quality up close texture; a low quality mipmap setting swaps the textures more abruptly and at closer distances). The difference between 1024×768 stock and 800×600 stock (besides 306,432 pixels less being rendered each frame) is 0.4 fps. However, my special ultra-low quality configuration yielded an astonishing 91.6 fps. That’s almost 20 more fps than the stock configuration! This difference will be seen the most in graphically intense situations, as it is obvious from the other 4 tests that Urban Terror on an Athlon XP 2500+ and 9600XT is CPU bound most of the time. By dropping the graphics quality to extremely low levels, those situations where the graphics card is the bottleneck, become fewer and less intense. It’s better to have a CPU bound game, as in Urban Terror, the CPU’s work load is nearly constant.

FPS testing @ 1100 mhz

The same results are present with only 1100 mhz. Although even the ultra low quality config can’t squeeze an average of 60 fps out of the system, 56.4 fps is better than the 45 fps achieved by the bottom 3 configurations (the high quality config pulling in ~10% less at 40.6 fps). 11 fps may not seem like much, but like I said at the beginning, getting those minimum FPS values up is what we’re after. Most certainly firefights where the FPS was dropping to less than 20 fps, were running at 30-40 fps with the low quality config.

FPS testing @ 2200 mhz

Well, we almost hit 125 fps. The low quality config managed 114.6 FPS average, which means that in many situations, it was running at 125 fps. Intense scenes likely ran around 70-80 FPS. I shelved the 800×600 “low” run, as it was pointless. Instead I did a 1280×1024 run with stock settings…and got the same FPS as 1024×768 stock. That’s great news, as UrT can be run at a 19” LCD’s native resolution at the same speed as 1024×768. Of course to almost completely eliminate the GPU as a bottleneck, you still need to run at super low settings. This 3^rd run is conclusive evidence that UrT is mostly CPU bound, at least on this system. The difference between 1100 mhz and 2200 mhz is literally 100%. And when the CPU is overclocked by ~20%, the results go up around 20%.

CVAR Listening and Breakdown

I’ll list every cvar I changed for my “ultra low” config, write a brief bit of text about it, and give it a rating with regard to how important it is to gameplay (0-5). I am leaving out commands which are by default set to the lowest quality setting and can’t be changed via the menu, since it’s pretty much impossible to change them during routine tweaking. If someone asks me to, though, I’ll make a list of every graphical command that can be changed and try to explain them. I’m also leaving out cvars which are locked by the engine (such as r_vertexlighting). Let’s start with the r_ (renderer) cvars.

r_picmip
Range: 0-2
Default: 1
Recommended: 2

This IS the texture quality cvar. Higher values render blurrier textures. 0 corresponds to High in the menu, 1 to Normal, and 2 to Low. There is a “very low” (3) option in the menu, but this does not work in game, and will be set to the default of 1 if you use it.

Importance: 0 – in fact, many good players will set this to a low value because blurrier textures enhance player model visibility.

r_texturemode
Accepted values: GL_NEAREST, GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST, GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST, GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR, GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR
Default: GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST
Recommended: Maximum FPS, gl_nearest. Otherwise stick to default.

If you’re scratching your head over the values, you’re not alone. gl_linear_mipmap_linear is the best quality, if your video card supports trilinear filtering (it does). gl_nearest is extremely bad quality (so bad in fact the textures are always pixilated and blocky regardless of how close you are) and creates noticeable shimmering and flickering as you get closer to a texture, but I think it’s one of the biggest FPS boosters in my low quality config. gl_nearest_mipmap_nearest is slightly better looking than gl_nearest, but not enough to improve the flickering. So if you want maximum FPS, go for gl_nearest.

Importance: 4 – the low quality ones are headache inducing. I am one of those people who make their graphics ugly in order to increase visibility, but this is just too far. I would only use this if you are in dire need of more frames per second.

r_ext_max_anisotropy
Accepted values: 0-16?
Default: 2
Recommended: 0

To be honest, I’m not sure if this actually matters, as r_ext_texture_filter_anisotropic would logically need to be set to 1 for anisotropy to be active, and it’s by default 0. Most people force anisotropy on via their graphics card’s control panel anyway, if they want to use anisotropic filtering (anisotropic filtering works in conjunction with mipmapping, and causes high quality textures to be used out to an even farther distance). Regardless, there’s no point having this at 2, just in case. Anisotropic filtering is a huge performance hog, especially on low end/older graphics cards.

Importance: 0 – there’s almost no visual difference between even 16x AF and AF disabled, so why take a possible performance hit?

r_ext_multitexture
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 1
Recommended: 0

Multitexturing makes textures look better at a performance hit for old cards, so why on earth would we leave it on?!

Importance: 0

com_blood
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 1
Recommended: 1

Although blood can hurt your FPS, especially in a big firefight, blood trails are just too much of a tactical advantage. Well, not if you’re playing TDM. If you play mostly TS and CTF, leave blood on. Otherwise you can turn it off and you probably won’t play any worse.

Importance: 5 – for TS and CTF.
1 – for TDM and FFA

r_stencilbits
Accepted values: 0/8/16
Default: 8
Recommended: 0

This controls the hardware stencil buffer. A stencil buffer can be used to make higher quality shadows and reflections. Shadows already look terrible in Urban Terror, so obviously this doesn’t do a whole lot. Some old video cards don’t even have a stencil buffer, necessitating this be set to “0” in some cases.

Importance: 0

r_roundImagesDown
Accepted values: 0-???
Default: 1
Recommended: 2

I’m not completely sure this even does anything, but you can change the value, and the value will stick (unlike some other commands where the cvar isn’t locked, but the value you set won’t stick). I notice no visual difference between 1 and 4. May as well be safe, I guess.

Importance: 0 – I don’t believe this actually works, so play it safe and set it to 2.

r_detailtextures
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 1
Recommended: 0

No visual quality difference, again. May as well set it to 0, just in case.

Importance: 0

r_ext_compressed_textures
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 0
Recommended: 1

Compresses textures, which alleviates bus congestion between the motherboard and the graphics card. In reality, no card will saturate its bus, as the video card industry moved to PCI-e 16x before cards could overwhelm the AGP 8x bus. It may have other effects, though, so set it to 1. There is no visual quality loss.

Importance: 0

r_texturebits
Accepted values: 0/16/32
Default: 32
Recommended: 16

Setting this to 0 will use your desktop’s color depth setting, which is most likely at 32 bit. I believe a 24 bit desktop setting will be interpreted as a 16 bit setting, as Quake III does not support 24 bit color. Don’t leave it up to chance, though – set this to 16.

Importance: 0

r_colorbits
Accepted values: 0/16/32
Default: 32
Recommended: 16

Same as above.

r_mode
Accepted values: 3-9, -1
Default: 4
Recommended: depends

This is the resolution. 3 is 640×480, 4 is 800×600, 5 and 6 are 1024×768, and 8 is 1280×1024. There are more preset resolutions, but those are the most common. -1 allows for a custom resolution using r_customheight and r_customwidth. If you are running a CRT (tube) monitor, you can use any resolution the monitor supports. LCD monitors, however, only look best at their maximum (native) resolution. Lower resolutions on an LCD will be interpolated, and look blurry and boxy. If you are going to use an LCD at a non-native resolution, at least make sure you keep the resolution in proportion to the native resolution. For example, a 19” non-widescreen monitor has a native resolution of 1280×1024. An acceptable non-native resolution, quality-wise, might be 800×640, as both are 62.5% of the native width and height, respectively. Another solution is to use windowed mode (r_fullscreen 0), which allows lower resolutions to be run on an LCD without interpolation. The tradeoff is that the image will not will the screen, and will instead be confined to a small window. This is mostly important for those with weak graphics cards, as my tests revealed resolution has practically no effect on frame rate with the 9600XT.

Importance: 3 – A blocky, interpolated resolution can make it hard to see the action. It’s not too bad, but it’s still worse than the native resolution. If you have a CRT, it doesn’t matter at all as long as you use a 4:3 resolution (take the first number and divide it by the second; if you get 1.3333… you have a 4:3 resolution) for a standard CRT, and a 16:9 resolution for a widescreen CRT (they’re very rare). Lower resolutions on a CRT also allow for a higher refresh rate to be run, reducing eye strain.

r_displayrefresh
Accepted values: 60-85
Default: 60
Recommended: 70-75

This setting is ONLY for CRT users. Refresh rate does not apply to LCD or plasma displays. Everything that proceeds in this paragraph is irrelevant for LCD/plasma displays. The refresh rate for a CRT is how many times per second the screen is redrawn. This is independent on the framerate of the game, as the video card’s RAMDAC is designed to take any framerate and output it at the refresh rate the monitor/software is asking for. However, you can “see” more frames per second with a higher refresh rate. It’s debatable whether you can actually tell the difference between 60 hz and 75 hz (or “fps”) on a monitor, as human eyes don’t work in FPS. The goal of FPS tweaking is to make the game run smoother with regards to enemies not warping around, and having control inputs respond consistently. Anyway, the refresh rate should be around 70-75 hz, as that’s when the flicker disappears for most lighting environments and for most people. In a dark room, you can get away with a lower refresh rate and not see flicker. Most people will see very minimal flicker at 75 hz, and few people can see flicker at 85 hz looking straight on at the monitor. Your peripheral vision has a higher flicker threshold, so if you look at your monitor from the corner of your eye, it might flicker even though it doesn’t when you look straight at it. Higher refresh rates (85hz+) degrade image quality slightly, and besides, many monitors can only run fast refresh rates (75 hz+) at lower resolutions. Few monitors can do over 60 hz at their maximum resolution; that’s the difference between premium monitors like the Sony Trinitrons, and regular CRTs. Make sure the value you set here is supported by your monitor at the resolution you are using!

Importance: 0 – higher refresh rate reduces headache, but won’t really help your game play (besides making it easier to focus on the screen). But it won’t hurt your gameplay in the least. LCD users will not benefit from this setting at all.

cg_sfxMuzzleFlash
Accepted values: 1
Default: 1
Recommended: 1

This is the muzzle flash from guns. The big bright flash when you shoot. It’s really annoying, but there’s a reason many people leave it on – muzzle flashes from other players’ guns are useful. I really don’t think this has any noticeable impact on FPS since most cards handle one or two extra static lights just fine.

Importance: 4 – useful in many situations where you can’t see any enemy but you’ll see the flash of light when they shoot. It’s also very useful when shooting at people through smoke without night vision, as you can still see muzzle flashes.

cg_brassTime / cg_sfxbrasstime
Accepted values: 0-20000
Default: 5000
Recommended: 0

Time in ms for shell casing to stay on the ground. Utterly worthless for gameplay as you can’t even see them at a distance, but they’ll be rendered anyway. Not sure which cvar is active, so set ‘em both to 0.

Importance: 0 – nobody has ever made a kill based off shell casings giving away a position.

g_removeBodyTime
Accepted values: 0-???
Default: 300
Recommended: 300

Just thought I’d put this in here. This does NOTHING, as bodies stay as long as someone is dead, and disappear when they respawn. Unfortunate, as all those corpses have the same number of polygons as a living player. But they’ll be gone quickly anyway.

cg_gunsize
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 0
Recommended: 1

Smaller gun = less polygons to render. Plus the big gun blocks a ton of screen.

Importance: 0 – in fact it should be -5, as having the big gun is a disadvantage both FPS and gameplay-wise.

cg_drawHands
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 1
Recommended: 1, unless your FPS is really bad

This controls whether the gun is drawn or not. Obviously no gun means a lot less polygons being rendered, meaning more FPS! However, many players find it difficult to play without the gun being drawn. If you’re one of those players, there’s no point making the game less laggy if you can’t play when you’re all through!

Important: 4 – if you play better with the gun drawn, leave this at 1. Otherwise you can gain a bit of FPS by disabling it.

cg_sfxSurfaceImpacts
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 1
Recommended: 0

Draws smoke on bullet impacts. This also controls the rendering of sparks when hitting a helmet, as well as the majority of the blood spray from a bullet impact on exposed flesh. If you rely on these effects to know when you hit someone, I recommend leaving this value at 1. If, however, you rely on another method of feedback, you should disable this cvar as it it quite a graphically-intensive process to render smoke.

Importance: 3 – but it depends if you even notice the blood spray and sparks when you hit another player.

cg_sfxParticles
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 1
Recommended: 0

Draws sparks in addition to smoke on bullet impacts. Again, useless.

Importance: 0

cg_sfxShowDamage
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 1
Recommended: 0

When players get shot, their skin changes to reflect the damage they received. No point loading even more textures! I personally never pay attention to the damage skins (as they’re called), as it takes too long to look at someone and decide how many times I need to shoot them. Just shoot until it’s dead.

Importance: 0

cg_visiblebleeding
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 1
Recommended: 0

Even more useless than the above. Makes people visibly bleed when they’re shot. This has even less use than damage skins, if possible. This does not affect blood trails. Blood is one of the biggest hits to FPS, and it’s even worse in a big firefight.

Importance: 0

s_loadas8bit
Accepted values: 0/1
Default: 0
Recommended: 1

If you have onboard sound, 8 bit sound files can give a bit of FPS boost as the CPU has an easier time rendering lower bitrate files. It might sound noticeably worse, but sound in UrT isn’t very good to begin with.

Importance: 2 – only applies with onboard sound, and even then some might rather the default 16 bit sound files.

s_khz
Accepted values: 11/22
Default: 22
Recommended: 11

Lower quality sound as less of the spectrum is processed. Again, only applies for onboard sound, as a sound card is more than capable of running with all of Urban Terror’s sound quality options maxed.

Importance: 2

Finally:
If you change a /r_ setting and it says the setting will not be applied until you restart, do /vid_restart. You can enter a bunch of commands and then do one vid_restart to save time.
If you change a /s_ setting and it says the same thing, do /snd_restart.
It is, however, much easier to edit your configuration file directly. Go to your Urban Terror directory. Go to q3ut4 folder. Copy and paste “q3config.” Rename it to autoexec (autoexec.cfg if extensions are visible). Open it with Wordpad and search for the variables you want to edit. Save when you’re done. Next time you load Urban Terror, the settings will automatically be applied!

Conclusion

Another long article! I hope this will help you tweak your Urban Terror for maximum efficiency. UrT scales extremely well with CPU speed according to my results. I expect if I could overclock further, I’d see even better performance. Unfortunately Athlon XPs don’t overclock very well; once you have to start adding vCORE, they’re running out of steam, and I had to increase core voltage by 0.1 volts. And I don’t really have a good way to cool the CPU either, though I accidentally did all the stock and underclocked runs with the fan unplugged, and never had stability issues. Anyway, it becomes less and less of an issue as Urban Terror becomes older and older. Systems that can run the game smoothly with maximum detail can be had for less than $700 USD. I don’t want to offer upgrade advice, as this article is already way too long, but you can find out which part is slowing your frame rates down with a simple test. Record a demo on a decently crowded server (12-18 people). Run it with /timedemo 1. On the first run set your graphics to low quality settings (low resolution, low detail, etc.). On the second run, set everything as high as you can. If the frame rate does not drop much on the second run, your CPU is the bottleneck. But as I demonstrated in this guy, you can gain as much as 25 FPS over a “low quality” configuration by going beyond the graphics menu.

Here is the completed configuration file.

http://www.getlegitanddip.com/dailynade/lowgfx.cfg

Instructions are inside; open with Notepad or a similar text editor.

Here is a graphics card hierarchy which shows which cards are roughly equal in performance to each other:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2362-6.html

Newer isn’t always faster. The 9600XT is near the bottom middle, though it IS 6 years old!

Summary

• The Minimap
• The Team Overlay
• The Top Right
• Gun and Crosshair Stuff
• Chat Settings
• Miscellaneus Stuff

The Minimap

Your minimap is extremely important in team games, as it lets you know the position of your teammates, as well as the map objectives (flags and bomb sites). Furthermore, it gives you a perfect overhead view of the map, which aids in navigation. Therefore, tweaking your minimap is vital to playing well.

cg_mappos
Range: 0-11 (0 disables display of the map)
Default: 1

This cvar controls the position of the map on your screen. There are 11 positions (0 disables the map) to choose from. The following link shows you an image of the 11 positions highlighted.

Map Position

Some of these will overlap with other objects on the HUD. Position 3 overlaps with chat. Position 1 overlaps with hit and kill messages. Position 6 overlaps with the team overlay. Position 11 overlaps with the crosshair and your central view.

I do not recommend position 11, as it obscures your view, and there is no need to have the map so visible. Position 5 is good, as it obscures nothing useful, and in fact blocks less of your view than the other 10 positions. Keep in mind that the minimap will appear behind all text elements on the HUD. Therefore, in position 1, 3, and 6, the hit messages, chat messages, and team overlay, respectively, appear on top of the map. However, it does impair the readability of those elements, and thus may be distracting. The map will also be harder to interpret with text on top of it. Regardless, I also recommend position 1, as it has served me well. The map is not usually set large enough to interfere with the hit messages (the important bits of those messages are at the end). If you want to use the team overlay (which will be discussed soon), position 7 and 8 may be good, as all the team information will be on the right of the screen. You can use any position you want; these are merely my recommendations. Use what allows you to easily read the map with minimal impairment of your in game view.

cg_mapsize
Range: 0-512 (0 disables display of the map)
Default: 150

This cvar scales the size of the map. Practical range is about 70-200. A small map takes up less screen space, but it becomes harder to tell where a teammate is, as the arrow size becomes disproportionate. It is possible to change the arrow size, but there is a practical limit to how small you can get the arrows. I recommend using the default value. I personally use 125, which is a bit smaller than the default of 150. There’s no particular reason for this, it’s just something I’ve used for a long time.

cg_mapalpha
Range: 0-1 (incremental values)
Default: 0.7

This cvar controls the transparency of the map. 1 is opaque, 0 is transparent. 0 will remove the map completely, but leave arrows and flags visible. I recommend the default value, as it is a good mix between being able to see the details of the map, while also not making the map difficult to see through. If you have your map in a position where visibility is either a concern or not an issue (such as position 5), you may want to adjust transparency accordingly. A higher map size may be accompanied by a lower alpha value. See the following link for a comparison between 0, 0.7, and 1.

Map Alpha

cg_arrowscale
Range: 0.1-???
Default: 3

This cvar controls how large the arrows are in relation to the map. The arrow size will scale with the map, and remain in proportion. However, with a larger map, the arrows may seem too large. There does not seem to be a limit on this value, and indeed you can have the arrows fill the entire screen. Practical range is about 1-3. I’ve always used 2, because I find 3 is too big. Your own arrow will be larger than your teammates’ arrows, which is where this complaint stems from. At arrowscale 3, your arrow can obscure teammates’ arrows. However, it’s all preference, and if you want to find your position quickly on the map, a larger arrow size can be helpful. The flags and the medic icons do not change when you alter arrowscale, so even if you have very small arrows, you can still see medics and flags easily. On some maps, such as Eagle, the map scale is extremely distorted, and arrows will be much, much smaller than on normal maps. Some maps have the opposite problem. Therefore, you may find yourself change your arrowscale value occasionally.

cg_maptoggle
Range: 0/1
Default: 1

Simply enables or disables the map. As stated above, disabling the map can be accomplished with other cvars, but this is the official way. Advanced players can incorporate this value into scripts or binds to create a “hold to view” map, similar to the Battlefield series of games. However, I strongly recommend always having the map on, as it is one of your best tools for team games.

The Team Overlay

The team overlay displays team mates, enemies, scores, armband colors, and numbers alive. It is essentially the score tab condensed into an ever-present widget in the bottom right corner of your screen. As with the minimap, what it displays is controlled with several cvars. Unsurprisingly, the team overlay doesn’t function in FFA.:)

cg_drawteamoverlay
Range: 0-3
Default: 1

0 is off.
1 displays the full rosters of each time.
2 displays only your team’s roster and a simple counter for how many enemies are alive.
3 displays a player counter for BOTH teams, and only your name is shown for your team’s roster.

If you want to use the overlay, I recommend using either 2 or 3. 3 is the best, as it is the smallest and easiest to read (especially for large pubs). 2, however, can be useful in matches as you may want to know which of your teammates are alive. Personally I do not use the overlay, and prefer to take a glance at the score page whenever I am curious as to how many enemies and teammates are alive. I find the overlay distracting and not overly beneficial to my style of play. However, many other players DO find the team overlay useful, one of the reasons being it removes the need for a key bound to displaying the score page.

cg_drawteamoverlayscores
Range: 0/1
Default: 1

This toggles the display of scores next to names in the team overlay. I advise turning this off as knowing scores is useless in game. Furthermore, some players may find seeing their score constantly is detrimental to their gameplay, as they focus on their score too much. Finally, having scores off shrinks the size of the overlay a tiny bit. Put simply, there is no gameplay-related reason to have scores displayed on the overlay.

The Top Right

The top right of the screen is home to several items: FPS/ping, team scores, the timer, and the wave respawn delay.

cg_drawteamscores
Range: 0/1
Default: 1

Controls the display of the team scores. Quite honestly, there’s no reason to turn this off. It’s always important to know the score of the teams, as tactics will alter depending on how many rounds there are to “play” with, and how many rounds are left to be played. In CTF, the bars flash when a team’s flag is not safe in its base.

cg_drawfps
Range: 0-2
Default: 1

This setting toggles the display of the FPS and ping meter. 0 will disable both the FPS display and the ping display. Setting this to 1 causes the framerate counter to be updated once every second or so. Setting it to 2 will update the counter much more quickly. The ping display updates at the same rate regardless of the setting. I recommend setting this to 1. I like knowing what ping I’m getting in a server, and if it’s steady or not. This influences my decision on whether to stay in the server or not. I also like to know my FPS, because if I’m getting lower than normal FPS, I know to reboot my machine. However, in some situations, it may be detrimental to your gameplay to have this item enabled. For example, in a match, if you’re getting a lousy ping or are playing on a map which is difficult for your system to render in a timely manner, there’s nothing you can do about that! Focusing on the bad stats displayed here will only hurt your ability to play.

cg_drawtimer
Range: 0/1
Default: 1

This toggles the display of the in game clock. As with the team scores, there’s no reason to have this off. It’s always good to know how much time is left in the game, as well as in the round (if you’re playing a round-based gametype). This cvar also controls the display of wave respawn delays. Most European CTF servers run with wave respawn on, while North American servers tend to not use wave respawns. But it’s not like this matters, since you’re leaving the timer on…right?!

cg_lagometer
Range: 0/1
Default: 1

The lagometer, or net graph, is a complex subject which would take pages to explain. Suffice to say, it is a graphical representation of your connection quality. It can be useful for diagnostic purposes, but as with the ping/FPS display, it can play a negative effect on your psychological game. Furthermore, it’s just plain distracting! Unless you are troubleshooting your connection, keep this off.

Gun and Crosshair Stuff

Of course there are going to be plenty of cvars dealing with your gun and crosshair!

cg_drawhands
Range: 0/1
Default: 1

Despite its name, this cvar controls the display of your gun. The obvious advantage to not drawing your gun on screen is that you gain a lot of your field of view back. The disadvantage, however, is you don’t know what gun you have without paying close attention to cycling your weapons or reading the text in the bottom right. Many players, including myself, also feel weird playing without the gun. I feel the advantage of not drawing the gun is too minor, as most maps are designed so that as long as you keep your gun pointed at head level, you won’t be obscuring any area an enemy could potentially be hiding. Furthermore, it’s not like an enemy will just pop into a blindspot; you will have sufficient warning to adjust your aim accordingly to see your target. There are two more advantages, however! The first is no muzzle flash. The muzzle flash can be potentially crippling in close combat, as your view of the enemy will be obscured by large flashes of light. These situations are quite rare, and can be solved by a silencer, but it is one of the primary reasons cited by players for choosing to not draw the gun. The other advantage is a very small boost in framerate on older hardware, as the gun is fairly complex to render. Again, though, I think there are better ways around this problem than disabling the gun from being displayed. Dropping the resolution down a notch or lowering the detail level will have a much bigger affect on FPS than the gun. For most players, I recommend keeping this cvar at the default value of 1, though I do suggest everyone try playing without the gun for a few maps just to see if it improves/worsens gameplay.

cg_gunsize
Range: 0/1
Default: 0

Despite what I said above, I think the default gun size is much too large. Luckily there’s a cvar to change that! Setting cg_gunsize to 1 will make the gun smaller by a noticeable amount, which gives back some of the visual field. There’s really no reason to use 0, unless you really like the gun models!

cg_hudweaponinfo
Range: 0-2
Default: 0

This cvar controls the ammo information in the bottom right. 0 displays the bullets left in your current magazine, an icon of a magazine, and how many magazines you have left. 1 displays your weapon’s name but removes the icon. 2 adds the icon back and keeps the weapon name. I recommend using 0, as it’s not really important to know what your gun’s name is (you’ll learn them by sight quickly!), unless you are playing without the gun displayed. In that case I recommend using 2, as the removal of the magazine icon just looks weird.:P

cg_drawcrosshair
Range: 0-13
Default: 11

What crosshair do you want to use? First off, 0 disables the display of your crosshair. I’m not going to go over every single crosshair and list its pros and cons, since that is beyond the scope of this guide. I will, however, recommend a few.

7 is the one I use. It’s a cross shape with a dot in the middle. The arms of the cross move outward when firing the gun to indicate spread. Its size makes it easy to find compared to the oft-recommended dots, but the dot in the middle still allows for pinpoint shooting. The spread indicator, meanwhile, keeps your spamming in check.

11 is a large cross with a dot in the middle. The arms are much longer than with 7. It’s perhaps a good beginner’s crosshair as it shows spread and is easy to see. 10 is identical except it has no dot. 9 is identical to 10 except its reaction to spread is much smaller in magnitude. 12 is identical to 11 but has no top arm.

13 is the recommended dot crosshair. It does not show spread and is 2×2 pixels in size regardless of the value of cg_crosshairsize. Very small but this is claimed by many to make aiming easier. I don’t recommend it for a newcomer, as you should learn about spread first. For advanced players, however, it may be beneficial. I personally tried the dot for several weeks and initially thought it helped my aim, but upon switching back to 7, I found out this was probably just a random effect I observed the first day I tried it. I believe most other players in top clans use the dot, however.

cg_crosshairsize
Range: 10 – ???
Default: 20

Controls the size of your crosshair. Does not apply to crosshair 13. I like the default of 20. The scalar (meaning they have only one size at which they are displayed without inter/extrapolation) crosshairs will scale in both dimensions, which results in some pretty messed up looking crosshairs at higher values. Vector crosshairs (which can be reproduced at any size without distortion and inter/extrapolation) are limited in how big they can get, but will only expand in the intended dimensions. Crosshair 10, for example, is a vector crosshair and only the arms change in length. 7 is a scalar crosshair, and the arms and dot will expand vertically and horizontally. This isn’t really important, because you really shouldn’t use a bigger crosshair size. If you want a big crosshair, use 10 or 11. If you want a small crosshair, use the dot. If you want a medium crosshair, use 7. If you’re on a really big monitor you might want to increase the value slightly, but otherwise, I don’t see any benefit to changing this value.

cg_drawcrosshairnames
Range: 0/1
Default: 1

Draws your teammate’s name and health next to the crosshair when you aim at them. Very useful! Do not turn off!

cg_crosshairnamestype
Range: 0-3
Default: 3

This cvar controls where the above information appears relative to the crosshair or player model. 0 disables the display of said information. 1 draws it above the player’s head in a fixed location. 2 draws it below the crosshair in a fixed location. 3 draws it above the crosshair in a fixed location. 4 draws it in the bottom left of the screen, in small text, in a fixed location. The health bar is replaced with text.

cg_crosshairnamessize
Range: 0-1
Default: 0.3

This controls the size of the teammate information. 0 is off, 0.1 is very small, 0.3 is default, and above that it starts to get very large. I like the default value of 0.3 and see no reason to change it. This does not affect the size of the text with cg_crosshairnamestype 4.

cg_crosshairrgb
Range: <0-1> <0-1> <0-1> <0-1>
Default: “1 1 1 1”

This controls the color of the crosshair. There are 4 values. The first 3 are RGB (red green blue), and the last is the transparency. There are 16777216 possible colors. This is known as 8 bit color. We will ignore transparenc, since it’s not important for the crosshair (you want a solid crosshair). So keep the 4^th value at 1. Remember to use quotes, as we are dealing with spaces in the value!

“ 1 1 1 1” is white. “1 0 0 1” is red. “0 1 0 1” is green. “1 0 1 1” is purple. See how it works yet? 0 is no color, and 1 is full color. “0 0 0 1” is black, and “1 1 1 1” is white. You are mixing 3 colors to produce one final color. It gets a bit trickier when you want to go beyond 1’s and 0’s. There are 256 increments for each value, so we’re going to be dealing with decimals. If you have an 8 bit color number (for example 124 189 72, which is an olive-y color), you have to change it into a decimal value. What you do is divide each number by 256. That’s it! Now you’ve got your color for the crosshair. Our example color would become 0.48 0.74 0.28 if we round it to 2 decimal places. Enter cg_crosshairrgb “0.48 0.74 0.28 1” and you get an olivey color crosshair.

Here is a color chart if you’re like me and learned about colors by mixing paint. Red + green = yellow wtf? Well red and green LIGHT make yellow, and that’s what game programmers consider.

http://www.web-source.net/216_color_chart.htm

cg_crosshairfriendrgb
Range: <0-1> <0-1> <0-1> <0-1>
Default: “1 0 0 1”

Same as above, except it controls the crosshair color when you aim at teammates.

cg_scopergb
Range: <0-1> <0-1> <0-1> <0-1>
Default: “0 0 0 1”

Same rules as above, again. Scope color when not aimed at teammates.

Cg_scopefriendrgb
Range: <0-1> <0-1> <0-1> <0-1>
Default: “1 0 0 1”

Same as above. Scope color when you aim at teammates.

cg_scopering
Range: 0/1
Default: 1

Draws a ring around the center of your scope which indicates how much movement penalty you have with the SR8. When you are not perfectly still, your shots will be inaccurate. Quite inaccurate if you’re moving a lot or jumping. When you’re jumping, there is a double ring to indicate your shot will be way off. I don’t see much use for this, since I know not to move a lot when I’m sniping. It’s not a difficult concept to train yourself in. There’s no advantage to knowing how inaccurate your shot will be, because it will be quite inaccurate if you’re moving for more than a few milliseconds, and extremely inaccurate if you’re jumping. However, a beginning sniper might want this so they can see instantly how inaccurate their shot will be.

cg_scopesr8
Range: 0-3
Default: 0

Similar to cg_drawcrosshair, except for your SR8. 0 is a small colored cross in the middle, with the arms being solid black. 1 is the same as 0, except the arms are slightly shorter but also colored. 2 is like 1 without a top arm, and the remaining 3 arms do not meet in the center. The center of the crosshair is blank. 3 is a simple colored dot. I use 1, but 3 is also good. 2 is quite difficult to use in my opinion, but is similar to many other games’ sniper scopes. 0 and 1 are essentially interchangeable, as the only difference is purely cosmetic.

cg_scopeg36
Range: 0-3
Default: 0

Same as above, but for G36.

cg_scopepsg
Range: 0-3
Default: 0

Same as above, but for PSG1.

Chat Settings

Distraction or entertainment? Whatever it is, there are enough bloody settings!

cg_chatheight
Range: 0-28
Default: 4

Controls how many lines of chat will be displayed at once. I believe it’s based on resolution, but 28 seems to be the maximum for the few resolutions I tried. Practical range is about 2-7 anyway. Higher values cause the top of the chat area to be raised, because chat is not allowed to run into the health meter. It will, however, overlap with the weapon messages if you have the value too high. 0 disables the display of messages, but not the message beep. I like the default value of 4.

cg_chattime
Range: 0-???
Default: 4000

How long, in milliseconds, each message remains in the chat area. 0 disables the display of messages, but not the beep. I recommend keeping this at the default value, because you can always read old messages in the console.

cg_msgheight
Range: 0-8
Default: 4

Same as the chat height, but this is for the hit/kill/death messages in the top left. Setting this to 0 disables the display of messages. For some reason setting this to 0 and then to another value, leaves the messages disabled (so don’t experiment around with this!) until you reload the map. Not sure why. Not that you should set this to 0, because it’s very important! I like the default value once again.

cg_msgtime
Range: 0-???
Default: 4000

Same as the chat time, but for the hit/kill/death messages. Suffers from the same bug as cg_msgheight, so don’t set it to 0. 4000 is a good value for this.

cg_teamchatsonly
Range: 0/1
Default: 0

Disables “mm1” (or global chat), and only allows “mm2” (team chat) to be displayed. This also affects the console, so you will not see ANY global chat. This is useful for pubs where there are a bunch of people spamming retarded crap. Also good in matches if you can’t control yourself from responding to the other team’s trash talking. Does not prevent the sending of global chat, however. If you want to disable chat while also disabling the chat beep, set this to 1 and then set cg_chatheight to 0.

cg_novoicechats
Range: 0/1
Default: 0

Controls whether or not you hear the sounds when someone uses a radio message. Setting it to 1 is good if there are radio spammers on your team and you’re sick of hearing “GET OUR FLAG BACK.” For some reason “cg_novoicetext” is non-functional.

cg_standardchat
Range: 0/1
Default: 0

Standard chat is what Quake III Arena uses. Chat messages are combined with the kill/death/hit messages in the top left. Everything is printed in white and in a different font. It’s a style choice, but this is pretty ugly, not to mention clustered. Although you gain a bit of visual field back by combining the two message areas into one, chat messages become lost very easily in the sea of hit messages. O f course the chat is not exactly useful in a pub (stupid spam) or a match (VOIP is used instead), but then you could just turn off the chat area with cg_chatheight 0. So this really comes down to whether you prefer the bland styling of cg_standardchat 1 over the colorful cg_standardchat 0. Obviously I don’t.;)

cg_showbullethits
Range: 0-2
Default: 2

Controls the display of hits in the top left message area. 0 disables hits being shown (you only see kill and death messages). 1 displays hits. 2 displays hits and how much damage each hit caused. I can spout off how much each weapon does to each body part, but I still play with this set to 2. If you use the SPAS, you definitely need this at 2, because that way you can laugh at how random the damage is. 4%…68%…4%… Setting this to 0 isn’t necessarily bad, since it doesn’t really matter where you hit someone; you have to shoot them again if they’re not dead! Getting feedback on where you’re shooting at is a good way of improving your aim, though.

Miscellaneous Stuff

This stuff doesn’t really belong to a specific category.

cg_speedo
Range: 0/1
Default: 0

Shows your speed in the bottom right corner. The speed is measured in Quake Units per second. A player model is 72 Quake Units high. The default “running” speed is 220 qu/s. Sprinting is 340 qu/s. 700-1000 qu/s is a reasonable speed when circle jumping. There are 4 numbers on the speedometer: instantaneous XY, XY max, instantaneous XYZ, XYZ max. XY is your on the horizontal plane, with XYZ also includes the vertical plane (jumping/falling). The number on the left is your instantaneous speed (current speed), while the number in parentheses is your maximum attained speed during the session. The session is reset when the map changes or when you toggle the speedometer off and then on again. The session begins when you enable the speedometer. The speedo is important in jump maps, because some jumps are only possible with a minimum XY speed. I don’t use the speedo in regular games or matches, but if I happened to be working on my jumping technique, I certainly would.;)

cg_fov
Range: 90-110
Default: 90

Perhaps the most controversial cvar discussed here. You’ll hear many differing opinions on this, but here’s how I see it. 90 is best for seeing targets easily. 110 is best for increasing your visual field. Values above 90 will “pack” more of the game onto your screen. Higher values make everything besides your static HUD elements smaller, including your gun. The crosshair doesn’t change size. Player models, map models, buildings, structures, etc. become smaller with the tradeoff being you can see more at once. 110 gives you the best visual field, but again, things are quite a bit smaller. You are trading aiming ability for visual awareness. I personally use 100, because I don’t feel I play as well as 110. 90 is just too big for me and limits my visual field too much for my taste. I recommend playing around with this value until you find a value that allows you to aim well but also gives you good vision. There’s nothing wrong with dropping to 90 when you’re playing a limited position (such as defending the pillars on Turnpike) in order to benefit from easier to aim at players. There’s no right or wrong value, but I don’t recommend sticking it on 110 without ever trying a lower value like105 or 100. For the record, 100 doesn’t feel like it’s limiting my ability to spot enemies.

For reference purposes, here is my HUD in game:

Don Hud

(Obviously I just jumped in the server for a second; I certainly would not allow a 1:24 score!)

Breakout

Wanna play some breakout? First thing you need to do is binding your keys.
The commands available for breakout are the following:

breakout_left
breakout_right
breakout_pause
breakout_play
breakout_reset

All you have to do is open up the console (~ key) and bind each command. Something like that:

\bind j breakout_play

And then hitting the J key will bring out the Breakout minigame. Hitting J again will hide it again.

A good setup might be somethink like this:

/bind n breakout_left
/bind m breakout_right
/bind h breakout_pause
/bind j breakout_play
/bind k breakout_reset

So N and M will control your bar. Use H to pause the game when the round ends and K to reset the game.

Breakout

Isn’t that cool?

But there is more!

Snake

Wanna play the classic Snake? First thing you need to do is binding your keys.
The commands available for snake are the following:

snake_up
snake_down
snake_left
snake_right
snake_pause
snake_play
snake_reset

By binding as explained above you will be playing Snake in no time!
Also same commands applies for bringing out the game, pause it and reset it.

Snake!

Try to play some Breakout and Snake next time you are bored in a Team Survivor!
Thanks to Fleet for sharing with us this two easter eggs included in Urban Terror.