Unreal Tournament 3 Tweak Guide

[Page 9] Advanced Tweaking (Pt.3)



UTGame.ini


[Engine.GameInfo]


Update: As of the 1.3 Patch, the following options have been added to this section of UTGame.ini - they are specifically designed for use by players running listen servers:


TotalNetBandwidth=32000


This setting determines the total upstream bandwidth to be apportioned.


MaxDynamicBandwidth=7000

MinDynamicBandwidth=4000


These values set the minimum and maximum bandwidth that can be given to each client.



[Engine.HUD]


bMessageBeep=true


This setting controls whether the game beeps whenever a new chat message appears on screen. Setting this to False disables the beeps.


HudCanvasScale=0.95


This setting controls the area in which text is displayed - the lower the value, the closer to the center of the screen text messages will appear.


ConsoleMessageCount=4


This setting controls the total number of lines of message text which can be shown at any one time on screen.


MessageFontOffset=0


This setting controls the size of the text font used on HUD and for game messages (excluding chat) - the higher the value, the larger the font will be.


bShowHud=true


If set to False, this option completely removes the HUD, including all text messages, graphical elements and warnings. Note that you can use the Showhud console command to toggle the HUD on or off at any time.



[Engine.PlayerController]


DynamicPingThreshold=400.000000


This setting controls the Ping threshold at which the Dynamic Netspeed option kicks in (if enabled) and alters your Netspeed value. The lower this setting, the more likely Dynamic Netspeed will continually alter your Netspeed to maintain your ping below this value. If you want to alter it you should only try to set it to something which is realistically achievable on the servers on which you play, otherwise the constant changing of your Netspeed by the Dynamic Netspeed option could see you experience more rather than less lag.



[Engine.WorldInfo]


DefaultPostProcessSettings=


The values for this setting appear to control the level of Bloom and Depth of Field (DOF) effects when Post Processing is at Default, however in my experimentation changing these appear to have no impact.



[Engine.DecalManager]


DecalLifeSpan=30.0


This setting controls how many seconds a dynamic decal lasts before it fades away. Lowering this can improve performance especially in heavy combat, and can be a better alternative to disabling dynamic decals altogether.



[UTGame.UTPawn]


Bob=0.010

bWeaponBob=true


If you wish to remove the bobbing motion when your character is moving, set Bob=0.000 and bWeaponBob=false.



[UTGame.UTPlayerController]


bEnableDodging=true


If set to False, you cannot use the standard dodge moves, namely double-tapping a movement key to dodge in that direction. There should be no reason to disable this, as dodging is an important part of UT.


bLandingShake=true


If set to False, disables the slight shaking of your view when you land from a height.


bFirstPersonWeaponsSelfShadow=true


If set to False, this option disables the detailed self shadowing on weaponry, which reduces realism slightly but improves performance. Note that weapons will still have some general shadow and light effects displayed on them.



[UTGame.UTDeathMessage]


bNoConsoleDeathMessages=true


If set to False, this option allows for classic UT death messages to be shown in green in the lower left of the screen. The death of all players will be described in a sentence as they happen.



[UTGame.UTGame]


Update: As of the 1.3 Patch, the following server-side commands have been added to this section of the UTGame.ini file (not covered here in detail since they are server options - see the patch release notes):


bMidGameMapVoting

MapVotePercentage

MinMapVotes

InitialVoteDelay



[UTGame.UTHUD]


bShowDoll=true


If set to False, removes the small human icon on the bottom left of the HUD which is shown when you have a powerup, as well as your Health indicator.


bShowAmmo=true


If set to False, removes the ammo count display from the bottom right of the HUD


bShowPowerups=true


If set to False, removes the display of powerups on the human icon on the HUD (if it's enabled).



UTInput.ini


[Engine.PlayerInput]


DoubleClickTime=0.250000


This setting determines the time period within which two clicks of a key counts as a double click. The default is 0.25 seconds, during which for example if you press A twice, it will count as a dodge to the left. You can raise this value if you wish to make dodging easier, or lower it to prevent accidental double clicks. A value of 0.0 disables double clicks altogether.


Bindings=(Name="F9",Command="shot")


For the most part you can alter your key bindings in the in-game settings. Here you can see all your key bindings and the commands they invoke. In the example above, you can see that the F9 key has been bound to the command 'Shot', which takes a screenshot. You can edit the line to change the key from F9 to F11 for example, and that will bind the Shot command to the Function 11 key. Changing and creating complex bindings can be quite an art, and is impossible to detail here due to space requirements. If I find an appropriate guide to binding in UT3, I will link to it here.



[UTGame.UTConsolePlayerInput]


bViewAccelerationEnabled=TRUE


If set to False, this option should disable mouse acceleration, which some people find annoying.



That brings the .ini file tweaking to a close, but keep in mind that as new tweaks are discovered and as more details come to hand, the information above will be updated.



Click to enlarge

Console Commands


In UT3 you can open and close the in-game command console at any time by pressing the TAB key by default for smaller command line, or press F10 to open the full console. There are a range of console commands you can use, and below is a list of the most common commands and a brief description for each:


General Commands


Say [text] - Shows specified text in global chat

Teamsay [text] - Shows specified text in team chat

FOV [degrees] - Changes the Field of View to the specified degrees

Slomo [speed] - Alters the speed of the game to the value specified. Values above 1 speed up the game, values below 1 slow it down

Showhud - Toggles whether to display or hide the HUD

Togglescreenshotmode - Toggles 'screenshot mode' which removes all text, the HUD and your gun

Setbind [Key,Command] - Binds the specified command to the specified key

Setsensitivity [value] - Changes your mouse sensitivity to the specified value

Shot - Takes a screenshot in .BMP format

Exec [filename] - Executes a file under the \Program Files\Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries directory

Brightness [value] - Changes the brightness to the specified value

Contrast [value] - Changes the contrast to the specified value

Gamma [value] - Changes the gamma to the specified value

Demorec [demoname] - Starts recording an in-game demo with the name specified

Demostop - Stops recording a demo

Demoplay [demoname] - Plays back a demo with the name specified

Switchlevel [mapname] - Changes the level to the map specified

Switchteam - Toggles you to the other team

Suicide - Kills your character

Open [mapname or IP] - Loads up the specified map, or joins the specified IP address

Reconnect - Reconnects to the last connected server

Disconnect - Disconnects from current server

Exit, Quit - Exits the game to desktop immediately


Information Commands


Stat FPS - Toggles the display of your framerate

Stat Net - Toggles the display of network statistics including Ping

Stat Audio - Toggles information about the audio system

Stat Engine - Toggles information about the rendering system

Stat Game - Toggles information about the game engine


Cheat / Fun Commands


Behindview - Toggles between 1st and 3rd person view

God - Makes your character indestructible, toggles on or off

Fly - Allows your character to fly

Ghost - Allows your character to fly and move through solid objects

Walk - Switches off Fly and Ghost modes

Allweapons - Gives you all weapons

Allammo - Gives you maximum ammo for all your weapons

Loaded - Gives a combination of all weapons and all ammo

Playersonly - Freezes all bots

Addbots [number] - Adds the specified number of bots to the current game

Killbots - Kills all bots in the game

Giveweapon [itemname] - Gives yoou a weapon with the specified name. For example to summon the instagib rifle, or translocator, try the following commands:


Instagib Rifle: giveweapon utgame.utweap_instagibrifle

Translocator: giveweapon utgamecontent.UTWeap_Translocator_Content


Summon [itemname] - Summons an item/vehicle with the specified name. For example, to summon vehicles, try the following commands:


Fury: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_fury_content

Hellbender: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_hellbender_content

Darkwalker: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_darkwalker_content

Manta: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_manta_content

Scorpion: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_scorpion_content

Cicada: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_cicada_content

Goliath: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_goliath_content

Nemsis: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_nemesis

Paladin: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_paladin

Hellfire SPMA: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_spma_content

Raptor: summon utgamecontent.utvehicle_raptor_content



That concludes the list of all the major .ini variables and console commands. In addition to alll the variables and commands above, I'm aware that UT3 accepts a range of command line parameters, for example the -nomoviestartup, -login and -password parameters covered on the last page of this guide. Aside from those however I haven't found many others which are of much general use (e.g. the ones used for benchmarking are not of great benefit in other respects). As always, if you are aware of an important omission or error, please Email Me with the details. Please make sure to only provide verified details and not guesses, and keep in mind that the list above is designed to provide commands which will be useful to most players; as noted earlier I've tested every relevant .ini option and many obscure commands or those which have minimal impact are deliberately omitted. I will keep this section updated with new commands and tweaks as I learn about them, so check back often.



The next page concludes the guide with some useful tips and information.