147 replies to this topic

[Utilyan]

If I had a freshly built computer.......nice vid card....sound card....ect.......nice mouse, I have mouse that has a short and shuts off randomly .

The buttkicking would be phenomonal. I think universal law nerfed me for being OP.

[Taemien]

To those that believe modifying the .cfg file is cheating, remember that calling people out for it on the forums is considered Naming and Shaming and against the TOS.

Your only recourse is to report players you suspect of cheating to Support which can be found here: http://mwomercs.com/support

[lsp]

The only thing I've done is increase my FOV to 100, I have no issue with visibility on any maps. And I have a gaming mouse and keyboard, so I don't need to edit for sensitivity and I don't need third party software to use macros.

[valkyrie]

Yep. Took off grain a long time ago and opened my FOV to 85 so I can see the unfinished textures in my Hunch's cockpit.

Also, just FYI, a lot of gaming mice these days have adjustable DPI buttons. My G500 has a pair of buttons to increase/decrease it on the fly, and I think Corsair makes on that has a "sniper mode" button that drops your DPI significantly as long as it's held down.

[Asseri]

I do use some tweaks.

cl_fov=78
i_mouse_accel=0
i_mouse_accel_max=0
i_mouse_smooth=0

There. Mostly because mouse accelration is invention of ****** and too little FOV makes me nauseated.

[Hades Trooper]

Taemien, on 23 February 2013 - 05:45 PM, said:

To those that believe modifying the .cfg file is cheating, remember that calling people out for it on the forums is considered Naming and Shaming and against the TOS.

Your only recourse is to report players you suspect of cheating to Support which can be found here: http://mwomercs.com/support

No one called it cheating, it's been called having an unfair advantage that many people don't know about so rather than try and sweep it under the rug, how about full disclosure as it would with that comment imply you use this modifying to your advanatge but don't want o accept it as such.

no one was named, no one was shamed, as i said already this was my opinion and how many others felt this way, thus this is a valid thread

[PhDGreg]

For anyone who is still here and doesn't know what we're talking about...

cfg files:
user.cfg is a text file in your MWO install folder. You can place the names of game settings and associated values into this text file to change those settings. Some of the settings are not otherwise available. The file is originally empty, and it is intended to allow the user to make changes to settings.

system.cfg is a similar file with similar content, which will be full of the settings you've chosen (and other implicit settings based on those choices) for your game's video and audio settings. Feel free to open it in Notepad (no fancy software needed) or any other text editor if you want to look at it.



FoV:
FoV is not a hack. It is a setting in every 3D engine which is made available to the user (either directly within the game or from config files) in every FPS game I can think of. It gives you more peripheral vision, but at the cost of reduced size of things in front of you (since they appear to be "further away"). It makes it harder to hit targets that are in front of you, particularly at distance. At higher levels, the fisheye distortion this causes negates the benefit of the peripheral vision (particularly in a game where part of your peripheral vision is that of a cockpit wall).

It's a setting based on personal preference, nothing more.
To change it, simply add the line "cl_fov = xx" (where xx is a number to change it to. 80 is a good starting value) to user.cfg.



Clearing up Night and Thermal Vision:
This is also achieved by modifying user.cfg. The most noticeable options changed are those which control the brightness and the blending noise in those views - i.e. the fuzzy edges when moving. This makes night and thermal vision clearer, which does give some degree of an advantage - but nothing particularly major, really.

It has no effect on the draw distance (how far away mechs are before they stop appearing) in those views.

See this thread for details on how to make the changes.




Film Grain removal:
Normally removed by substituting a texture file so that the mostly transparent "noise" image is replaced by a fully transparent image. It simply makes the game look a little bit cleaner / less gritty in general play. The effect is almost entirely aesthetic - It does not give you any advantage other than making the game a bit easier on the eyes.

If you want to do this, follow the instructions here. It simply involves downloading a zip file containing the appropriate folder structure and texture file, and extracting it into the game directory.



Other Changes:
There is potential for numerous other changes that could give people an advantage, but to my knowledge this is not widely done or known about. The film grain removal technique is the basis of how this tends to work:
The game folder contains ".pak" files, which are just archives (like .zip files) containing the game's assets - textures, models, data files, etc - all arranged into folders. By default, the game uses those files.
If you replicate a file name present in the pak files (and its location within the folders), the game will use that file instead of the one in the pak file.
This is not inherently an "exploit", but simply the way the engine is designed. It has been used to great effect in games like Skyrim - allowing people to replace textures and other files to make the game look a lot better, amongst other things.
In a single player game, this isn't a big deal - how you choose to make the game look/perform on your PC is your own business and effects nobody else.
In a multiplayer game, certain changes may give you an advantage over others and hence drama ensues.



Draw Distance & Depth of Field:
Draw distance determines how far away things (most importantly mechs, but also things like buildings) will be rendered at. e.g. you can see mechs (rendered in high detail) that are close to you, but when they are further away, they are rendered at lower detail, and further away still they are not rendered at all.

The game does this for the sole reason of performance. It takes more computer resources (primarily RAM, CPU and GPU) to keep lots of things on screen and in high detail, hence the further away they are the less detail they are rendered at and once they get far away enough they are not rendered at all.

The in game settings for object details (options > advanced options) influence this, but the main determining factor is how good your computer is. People with powerful computers will be able to crank this value and have things appear when they are futher away. This could be seen as giving them an advantage, but... well, suck it up. People buy expensive computers so they can play games with the settings maxed. They may also have a bigger monitor than you, surround sound and a more accurate mouse - all of these give them an advantage.

user.cfg settings to change/tweak draw distance are discussed here. I'm not sure if this allows you to set values that exceed what the game sets at high specs, but if you're on lower specs and find that mechs only appear when closer than you'd like, you could try playing with those settings. It won't magically make your PC more powerful though, so you may need to turn down some other options to accommodate for it.

Depth of field blurs things in the distance, which some people don't like. It can be disabled either by turning down the "Post Processing" slider in the game options (which I believe may also turn off some other effects such as HDR) or adding "r_DepthOfField = 0" to user.cfg.

[Hades Trooper]

HTTP Error 400, on 23 February 2013 - 03:52 PM, said:

Why do people think they have a God-given right be told how to make life easier? How do you think the people that edit their configs learnt to do it? Oh, they looked something up online and spent effort doing this THE SAME WAY SOMEONE WHO RESEARCHES THEIR MECH BUILDS HAS AN ADVANTAGE OVER SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T. Cry less, play more...

Sorry to rain on your parade but i'm not asking for a god given right. i asking for a fair crack of the whip or maybe not being aussie you don't understand most australians want to win fair and square than use any advantage not within the ways the organiser or developers intent.

now if the intent is that we can adjust these preferences is widely known then i'd surely find out what i need to do to do such as you say. I've spent time making builds testing them to get the best out of my mech, that part of the GAME. Understanding how config files work and that there even something that can be modified is what i would call in my line of work an industry secret, but this a game, we play for fun, some take it more serious than others but it's still a game. In my industry we help fellow workers in our trade like i'm sure others do also, So since where all mechwarrior pilots don't you want us all to have the same knowledge so it comes down to matter of skill, piloting and reaction and teamwork that wins?

Or do you fall into the catergory of pilots who want o be able to fire at extreme ranges where all before i change the fov file was the ppc blast coming in and hitting me and unless on alpine map not even being able to see if or where the enemy was? without fear of being able to be shot back? in real life i could see where this would be reasonable, but this is a GAME and surely the devs want a level playing field, even if you don't.

Thats your opinion, your allowed one, though i'd say you fall into the very small minority on this matter i'm sorry

[PhDGreg]

Hades Trooper, on 23 February 2013 - 06:59 PM, said:

Sorry to rain on your parade but i'm not asking for a god given right. i asking for a fair crack of the whip or maybe not being aussie you don't understand most australians want to win fair and square than use any advantage not within the ways the organiser or developers intent.

All you've done since your first post is lose credibility with various rants, and this last one is more of the same. I'm an Aussie too, and I don't begrudge enthusiasts from doing some work and research to better their experience. I could do a TAFE course about boilermaking and then whine about how unfair it is that you're better than me at it because you've been doing it for years and have better equipment. Get over yourself and go take a concrete pill.

Also, FoV doesn't change draw distance (see previous post). The playing field will never be entirely level unless everybody has the same PC hardware (down to the model of mouse, keyboard and speakers) and the same ping (Internet speed). Being shot at by people you can't see is largely going to be based on draw distance, which depends on your computer's specs more than anything.

The only thing close to "cheating" or an "unfair advantage" in this thread so far has been the removal of the noise from night/thermal vision - it gives a slight advantage. Enough to win or lose a match or make or break a kill? Not overly likely. Is everyone but you doing it? Nope. Can you do it yourself? Sure, if you want to - I've linked to the instructions.

[Hades Trooper]

Please note, i've already sent a message to the 2 parties in question who where wording things is a manner that might imply name calling who support this thread.

I'm after people's opinions and from the responses if everyone would care to read all 5 pages the majority of people agree we all should have a level playing field. this adjustments should hopefully be included once the game goes full release via sliders in the options for the game, though at the moment they are not easily known or understood.

Once these sliders are in place everyone will have the same ability to pick and choice there set ups.

I gratefully thank all those who had weighed in with an opinion

Plus i'm in a debt of gratitude to those who have taken the time to give a link to the cleaning up thermal imaging from a past thread. Also information provided by forthright players who have also provided information/data and the step by step instructions on how to modify these values so people can get the setting that suit them the best. Also really love the
User.cfg: The Common Knowledge Thread


i think thats yet another example of a person who wants to know he's not only helping the community but making the game better enjoyment for all invloved and i hope to see soon i'm being shot by everyone on the opposing teams from miles away and i can return the favour

Finally the Guass Rifle will be seen as a sniping weapon not a brawler weapon. Thus the low hps on it and the explosion it brings when it gets destroyed are balanced than being a brawlers weapon for no heat.

to the trolls and haters who want to keep this all secret and hush hush to keep yourself 2 steps ahead of the pack, well now your just gonna have to rely on skill and planning and teamwork than a fairly unknown by the vast majority advantage.

If people want to add further to the discussion please do so from both sides without the trolling and flaming that the thread could have and was potential becoming, myself included. If i've offened anyone, please accept i thought i was using words that are not considered abusive and that i'm just colourful with my expressing myself. though i have been told at times i can in the written word come across a little forceful, so if thats the case i appologise in advance.

[Hades Trooper]

PhDGreg, on 23 February 2013 - 07:16 PM, said:

Also, FoV doesn't change draw distance (see previous post). The playing field will never be entirely level unless everybody has the same PC hardware (down to the model of mouse, keyboard and speakers) and the same ping (Internet speed). Being shot at by people you can't see is largely going to be based on draw distance, which depends on your computer's specs more than anything.

...the removal of the noise from night/thermal vision - it gives a slight advantage. Enough to win or lose a match or make or break a kill....

well you can have your opinion, if i word things poorly that's my mistake. I'm not trying rant, i have issues with making concise to the point statements, your entitled to disagree.

From ym experience that you mustn't have read, when i did change the config file it did change a lot, it's was much easier to see at long ranges, i use a 27" monitor and I and those who told me about this also agree that it make a huge difference to the ability to snipe, lead targets at long range.

If you don't think that's an advantage, your allowed to think that way, though from the responses majority of replies, i would think your view is in a very small minority.

Here's to a bright future for MWO and that these adjustment to settings and such will be either completely locked or freely adjustable to all in the basic options menu in the game, rather than having to have some kinda knowledge about programming and such as i fear most of the players are not here to learn computing but to play a GAME

If you need anything welded and i'm in the area let me know, i'm sure i can do it for you or maybe even show you how to do that for yourself for future knowledge. if i known about config file changes and also how and what values to change i'd freely let people know as well, as i'm a pure fun gamer at heart cheers

oh P.S. when i learnt boilermaking i owe a debt of experience to a Polish and Czech welders, who with there tough accents found it hard to make friends, but they showed me things i never learnt at tafe or from other workers. I passed those skills and experience down to the apprentices under my care also. Don't you think it's a good thing for same minded people to share knowledge? I known also from painting figures form my GW days, that by telling our tips and advice to fellow painters the hobby grew and the standard of skill and ability raised to the point where i won a national 2nd place trophy for 2 different entries, but in today's standards i'm not even considered a good painter anymore, just average. Yet i take pride in knowing i helped people and built up the hobby through sharing knowledge and ways of doing things to people who knew how to paint and convert but never thought about it in certain ways. As far as equipment and keyboards and all that you mention well at least having these configs freely open and hopefully in the option menu as slider will take a big as step as possible to creating that equal playing field.

Maybe one day we'll see a Asia Pacific server!

i really wish my english skills where better so i could make shorter comments, sorry

p.s. editted for spelling been up now for over 24 hours

Edited by Hades Trooper, 23 February 2013 - 07:49 PM.

[PhDGreg]

Well, this thread is going around in circles now so I'll bow out after this post. The information is public and out there for anyone to use - none of the common changes have overly dramatic impacts, and none of them have been labelled as cheating or inappropriate by the devs. If you have a problem with them, don't use them. If you have a problem with other people using them, tough luck - they're no replacement for skill, they won't win or lose a match, and the people who use them are not cheating (but hey, as you say - you're entitled to your own opinion).

You must be doing some quite selective reading if you think that the people who are ok with adjusting things like FoV are a "very small majority" (minority?).

If you consider using Google and editing a text file to be learning programming or computing, then I'm glad you've chosen boilermaking

[Lorcan Lladd]

Fair competition is a myth in online gaming.
Everyone plays in unique conditions which may work in their favor or against them and it is beyond the scope of any game developer to change these circumstances.

Tons of MWO players have 150-300ms pings in-game; they'll never be able to fire and react as accurately or quickly as those with 30-100ms pings but short of moving to someplace closer to the servers or with better internet support there's nothing they can do to change that.
Adjustable mouse sensitivity, high screen resolution and even the increased render distances mentioned here are just other aspects of inequality and superiority within a gaming community - even gaming hardware is usually advertised to capitalize on a gamer's desire to possess some advantage or competitive edge over his opponents.
Intimately, all players understand and accept this.

We can complain about how unfair things are, we can point accusatory fingers at those whom we consider cheaters and exploiters... And we can, of course, rage.... But at the end of the day we'll accomplish nothing - our time is better spent playing.

[Hades Trooper]

tried programming when micro bees where the standard pc. Was annoyed with the lack of ability to do things and how frustrating Dos was way back then. Like 27 years ago. So i studied economics and then went to uni for accountancy, but after a few years working i didn't like the work environment so i took up an offer to learn a trade and since then i've taken to it like a duck does to water.

Also being bi-polar doesn't help

Edited by Hades Trooper, 23 February 2013 - 08:00 PM.

[Fooooo]

Not everyone likes the same settings for things.

Most devs never provide in-game options to adjust the tons of things most dedicated players or comp players WILL want to adjust to their liking.

Its like the cg_drawgun = 0 argument in ET or Quake (Quake3 and Q3live etc has an option ingame)

Some people prefer to not have the gun drawn. Some prefer it to be there.

Others just take offence that someone isn't playing the game how it came, and then cry foul that it is the reason they are dieing. Even if it offers no real advantage at all....just personal preference.

Likewise, FOV is a personal preference, some will want it high, some low, some even will have multiple settings that they switch between with a binding.

Its not a cfg running players fault the devs don't add this stuff into the game so "everyone" can use it much easier. Even then, everyone does have access to the same things.

If you are not a serious enough player to be able to do a simple cfg, then you are not serious enough to even benefit from any changes you would have made anyway imo....... (unless they left something silly unlocked which shouldn't be..)


Also, they can stop people accessing the pak files as well if they really want to. Which may happen upon proper release.

Edited by Fooooo, 23 February 2013 - 09:47 PM.

[Deamhan]

I'll say it again. IT IS CHEATING until a Dev comes on here and explicitly states that "it is for the user to make whatever changes they see fit". Until that time, if it was meant to be adjusted, it would be in the game options. If the devs plan to implament it later, then it become available at that time, not sooner.

At that time, I will be officially done with the game. Console commands and modifying files is a game killing meta game. It absolutely ruined DoD it will do the same here. The only people that have the patiance to bother playing this meta game are those that will eventually get bored and move on to the next new shiny FPS.

Oh and let the forum moderators do the forum moderating.

[Zapmunk]

Deamhan, on 23 February 2013 - 10:07 PM, said:

At that time, I will be officially done with the game. Console commands and modifying files is a game killing meta game. It absolutely ruined DoD it will do the same here. The only people that have the patiance to bother playing this meta game are those that will eventually get bored and move on to the next new shiny FPS.

Well, one us us is going to leave at some point. If PGI starts disabling necessary things such as fov, not only will the game become too physically painful to play at default settings, I'm not going to support something with that variety of orwellian control.

[Infrasound]

Hades Trooper, on 23 February 2013 - 02:50 PM, said:

as my windows 7 version only had wordpad and it didn't seem to have anything but an empty page, so i used notepad as people said would open it and now this happens.

testing it out to see how much this fov improves things to spread the word.

and now this happens, Fudge me friggin sideways!

Notepad.exe is built into all legit versions of windows, if you are running w7, press windows key and type notepad, it will find it for you, by default its in the windows\system32 directory.

If you want a non dodgy good txt editor use notepad++ its free and doesn't add formatting in like wordpad will

[Hades Trooper]

@Fooooo there slider bars for mouse setting in all complete games this is BETA still. having preference so you can shot me while i'm not even away how these people are firing from beyond even my sight range and no one explains it is just needing a leg up. Should i send you a crutch now instead thats it's being more known how to get the same ability your using? Needing to be a serious player to know these configs, well your deluded, i play many games where i'm quite a good/top player can i do that within the menu setting of the games rather than need to mod config files.

@Infrasound downloading notepad++ was how i got the ad ware virus as it was. when i get told something i don't know i look into it and find what i think is the best thing, like being able to fire at things now at 1500 metres and see clearly it will help my game play.

@Deamhan, i'm not playing mod, i email you twice asking politely and please to stop saying it's cheating, can't you find better no flaming way to express yourself? you got some good points to add and passion but saying cheating over and over now 3 times seems to be like your trolling to me. you get deleted comments by mods that your fault, The thread gets pulled up as a name and shame thread cuase YOU a contributor can't think or remeber the TOS, and my thread gets locked, then your only hurting players who have yet to find out this information. Now if you are really wanting an lvl playing field then respect there opinions you don't have to agree with them but put it in a way so not to just start a flame war, using some of that obvious intelligence to further the thread not close it down.

[Deamhan]

You're not understanding. I have been down this road, I know this road, I know exactly where it ends. And I know that's not where you want to be.. It's ugly, very ugly. It turned a great game into an anorexic shadow if it's former self. If it wasn't for the fact that Day of Defeat servers were player run and paid for, it wouldn't be possible to play it right now. There's no one but the die hard fans left there.

It starts with Fov but where does it stop?
Getting rid of the screen shake caused by weapons?
Getting rid of smoke and fire?
Getting rid of trees?
Get rid of weather effects?

Some of these games put hard caps on draw distances and they do it for good reason. Not everyones machine can handle it so to keep it fair, the draw distance is usually set for everyone to a default and can not be adjusted in the game's options for good reason. To keep it fair for those who's computer is not top of the line.

Honestly the FOV is usually adjusted to a resolusion for the game in comparison to your monitor. It's typically set so that the image is not distorted and that looking at the image on you monitor is very much like looking through a window into another world. It is default to be natural. I noticed this when I tested out the command. Anything outside whatever it is at when there is no command even there just distorts the image so it doesn't look natural. It is either fish eyed or inverted fish eyed. Ever think that the problem isn't the FOV, that maybe it is your eyes and you should get them checked? Do you normally wear glasses or contacts? If so, you should wear them when playing too. The screen may be close and your prescription may be meant for seeing far, but what you are doing when looking at the screen is looking at things that are far.

Little bit of a Matrix parody at the start there. Oh, the things I do when I'm tired.