Urban Terror 4.1

Ultimate Guide to Configuration and Scripting

Round 0 - The Config File

 

Table of Contents:

 

This information is for the FPS (First Person Shooter) game Urban Terror 4.1 from Frozen Sands.  This is a Quake III mod, based on the ioquake III engine. 

This round is to help you use your Urban Terror Console and Config file(s) properly.  I will instruct on how to call up the console and execute commands.  I will also instruct how to create a simple cfg file and how to execute it (exec). 

 

The Game Console (~)

Those of you who grew up with Quake and ID Software's Quake series of games (Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, and of course Quake IV) , you probably know a good deal about "the console".  If you are already familiar with the console and its usage you will probably want to either skip to the next round, or jump straight to the pay dirt and go to the appendix sections as they simply contain the raw variables and commands you are looking for.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Quake game series, the console is a text based engine that is an interface to your game.  At any point in the game you can open the console and see good bits of data going on, as well as execute commands or change variables.  It is similar to an old fashioned DOS Prompt or Linux/UNIX Shell, except it is just for the game.  Once you have started the game binary, you can call the console by typing the "~" key. That is called a "tilde".  When you press this a text area should slide down your visible screen area and you should see a blinking cursor at the bottom of this area.  This is where you can type in commands or variables and make changes during game play.

All commands and variables need to start with a "/" to tell the console you are calling a command or variable (otherwise it just assumes you are typing text to print on the screen). So for example if you wanted to change your name you would enter this:

/name newNameHere

After you press enter... your name (in the game) has been changed. I will give many other examples in this guide but this is just a starter about the console.

Why would I want to do this? The game is completely playable without using the console directly, but using the console gives you lots of information and control over your game.  If you are having a problem it can tell you what is going on, or if you want to make non-standard changes to your game it gives you that option.

And just a note for you who wish to explore, if you type “/” and then a letter (any letter) and TAB, the game will give you all options or commands with that letter (AKA auto-complete).

 

The Config File (*.cfg)

You can create a human readable file with all the commands you want to use in a single plain text file that can be read and interpreted by the console.  What does that mean... lets say you execute a series of commands every time you start a game... instead of having to type them all. You could put them in a config file, and just load the config file then all your commands are done.  The console actually "reads" the config file as if you were typing it into the console.  So it is just a short cut or tool to help do things you do regularly better and faster. (like old fashioned batch files *.bat, if you remember that kind of thing. Of if you are up to date with your OS's a Shell script)

The first thing to know is that you can, in a normal text editor (ie Notpad/gedit/vi/etc), create a standard text file that is human editable that can then be read by the game to change its configuration and play-ability. You can place graphics, sound, and keyboard settings in this file and the game will use them. You have the availability to make more changes to your config (cfg) file than the standard graphic (GUI) game interface allows you.

Most people create a file called autoexec.cfg in the games user path directory (different for different platforms) and call that file on start up.  You can also call other configuration files from within a config file.  So for example my autoexec.cfg calls 6 other configuration files: settings.cfg, binds.cfg, scripts.cfg, toggles.cfg, gear.cfg, and my personal settings cfg. (I will explain how to do this later.)

Your cfg files need to be located within your game path.  This location can vary from Operating system to Operating system.
Linux:
    /home/your_name/.q3a/q3ut4
Windows:
    ~\UrbanTerror\q3ut4  (Where UrbanTerror is the install folder)
MAC
   User\Library\ApplicationSupport\Quake3\q3ut4\config.cfg

"The path" is where the game expects to find your cfg files. 

 

On the inside of your config file

In your config files you do not need the "/" before each command or variable.  The console assumes every new line is started with one.  So if you wanted to change your name in a config file you would simply type:

name newNameHere

In your config file save it and then execute it from the console.  (Notice there is no "/" before the name command.)


Loading Your Config File:

There are 2 ways to load a config (cfg) file that I am aware of at this point.

  • Loading on the program open: ioUrbanTerror.exe +exec yourconfig.cfg (or) ioUrbanTerrori386 +exec yourconfig.cfg
  • In-game loading of the config file. Simply open your console (~), and type /exec yourconfig.cfg

 

Word To The Wise BACKUP!

Do you know how to backup your game config in Urban Terror? (if no you should) Before you go crazy with the information in this guide I would strongly recommend that you backup your settings BEFORE you tinker. This way if you break something (and some things can) you can put it at least back to where you had it. To backup your game settings you use the following command:

writeconfig "file_name.cfg"

This will save your current configuration to the file named "file_name.cfg" in your path folder.  You will obviously want to rename this to something more obvious like My_backp.cfg or OriginalConfig.cfg.  This way if you EVER change something and the game won't start... you have something to go back too.  I can warn you that if you set your graphics parameters beyond that of your video card or configure it for the wrong video card... the game will not start.  There are several settings that can cause a crash (and have even on my machine) so please be aware that you are messing with the inner workings of the game, things that the developers did not necessarily want to create Graphic Interfaces for to keep those who don't know what they are doing out.  (Or they were lazy... I like to think they were just smart though.)

 

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This file was last updated: "February 7, 2011, 12:23 pm"