Configuration

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Glest is highly configuratable, and for those not interested in modding the engine, there is still a wide number of options available for configurating the game, and even more with GAE and MegaGlest.

In Game

In the game, you may change a small assortment of very basic options in the option menu. Note that the majority of useful changes cannot be done from this screen. In-game.jpg

  • Fx Volume - The volume of sound effects such as the clash of swords.
  • Ambient Volume - The volume of ambience sounds such as the chirp of birds.
  • Music Volume - The volume of the background music.
  • Language - The language of the dialogue. Additional language files may be downloaded from the Glest Homepage.
  • Filter - The used graphics filter, either Bilinear or Trilinear.
  • Shadows - The method of projecting the shadows to use, if any. Either none (no shadows), Projected (fast, but can't project onto other objects), or Shadow Mapping (slow and blocky, but can project onto other objects).
  • 3D Textures - Whether or not to use 3D textures such as water. Warning: Water becomes horrendously ugly with this off.
  • Max lights - The maximum number of lights to display at one time. Must be 1-8. Note that some graphics cards cannot handle multiple lights.

Autoconfig sets the settings to a near minimum that your graphics card can manage.

The INI

Most of Glest's settings must be changed in the INI. This is a separate file that is stored in the Glest Directory (aka: the installation directory, where you installed Glest to) called glest.ini.

  • AiLog=0
    • Enables AI logging, 0 means log is disabled, higher values enable more log messages.
  • AiRedir=0
    • Redirects AI log to console.
  • Autotest=0
    • Tests the data to confirm functionality.
  • CheckGlCaps=1
    • Check for OpenGL caps.
  • ColorBits=32
    • Framebuffer color bits. Don't change this, 32 is the only acceptable value.
  • ConsoleMaxLines=10
    • Max number of messages in the console.
  • ConsoleTimeout=20
    • Seconds before a console message disapears.
  • DayTime=1000
    • Speed of day/night cycle, in seconds.
  • DebugMode=0
    • When enabled some useful info is diaplayed on the screen (such as the FPS).
  • DepthBits=32
    • Depth buffer bits. For Nvidia cards 24 is enough but 32 is recomended for ATI.
  • FactoryGraphics=OpenGL
    • The graphics renderer to use. Should be OpenGL.
  • FactorySound=OpenAL
    • The sound renderer to use. Either OpenAL (any operating system) or DirectSound8 (Windows).
  • FastSpeedLoops=2
    • The speed of the fast loops.
  • Filter=Bilinear
    • Selects from Bilinear and Trilinear filter.
  • FirstTime=0
    • If true, runs auto-config at startup. Don't edit this, this is automatic, and WILL overwrite all other settings.
  • FocusArrows=1
    • Draws arrows for units one is selected.
  • FogOfWar=1
    • Enables or disables fog of war.
  • FogOfWarSmoothing=1
    • Enables or disables fog of war smoothing.
  • FogOfWarSmoothingFrameSkip=3
    • Frame skip for fog of war smoothing.
  • FontConsole=Verdana
    • Font used in the console (in the bottom left corner of the screen, where messages appear).
  • FontDisplay=Verdana
    • Font used for normal display in the GUI, such as unit GUI.
  • FontMenu=Verdana
    • Font used in the menus, such as the main menu.
  • Lang=english
    • Default language, the name of the *.lng file without the extension.
  • MaxLights=4
    • Max number of dynamic lights. 1-8.
  • NetworkConsistencyChecks=1
    • Checks to ensure that all players in multiplayer have the same binary and same operating system. The game may get out of sync without this, but with it, playing cross-platform cannot be done.
  • PhotoMode=0
    • Disables camera constraints and removes GUI. For images only, and is primarily unplayable due to hidden GUI.
  • RefreshFrequency=75
    • Refresh frequency when changing display mode.
  • ScreenHeight=768
    • X size of the screen
  • ScreenWidth=1024
    • Y size of the screen.
  • ServerIp=
    • IP address to use as a server.
  • ServerPort=6666
    • Port to use for multiplayer games.
  • ShadowMapAlpha=0.2
    • Transparency of shadow map shadows.
  • ShadowMapFrameSkip=2
    • Frameskip for shadows.
  • ShadowMapSize=512
    • Size of shadow maps, must be a power of 2 but always under the screen size, higher values result in more accurate shadows and slower performance.
  • Shadows=Projected
    • The method of projecting the shadows to use, if any. Either none (no shadows), Projected (fast, but can't project onto other objects), or Shadow Mapping (slow and blocky, but can project onto other objects).
  • SoundStaticBuffers=16
    • Voices for FX sounds.
  • SoundStreamingBuffers=4
    • Number of streaming buffers.
  • SoundVolumeAmbient=80
    • The volume of ambience sounds such as the chirp of birds.
  • SoundVolumeFx=80
    • The volume of sound effects such as the clash of swords.
  • SoundVolumeMusic=90
    • The volume of the background music.
  • StencilBits=0
    • Stencil buffer bits, should be 0 unless you want to use shadow maping that must be 8 or 16.
  • Textures3D=1
    • Enable/disable 3D textures, such as the water. This should be kept on, as water will look very poor without it.
  • UpdateFps=40
    • World update frame rate. Higher rates smoother animations and slower performance.
  • Windowed=0
    • Whether to display full screen or windowed. 0=Windowed, 1=Fullscreen.

Using the Configurator Application

The configurator program that is bundled with Glest (also found in the installation directory, but may appear as a link in the start menu if the windows installer was used), can be used to edit more settings than the in-game options menu, but is still more limited than directly using the INI. It may be handy, however, for those intimidated by the INI who still need to edit some settings such as fullscreen, resolution, etc;

The configurator is simply called the configurator in the installation directory, and displays a form for choosing settings. The question mark button (?) at the top right corner can be clicked, then click the text of any setting to get a description at the bottom of the configurator. The default button restores all settings to the default. Tabs at the top of the page make for easy switching among categories.

Video Card Hints and Tips

Auto config

The first time you run the game it will try to detect the graphic settings most suitable for your video card. Some older or poor quality graphics cards can't support some of the OpenGL features required for Glest, and autoconfig will try and detect that, as well, analyzing the computer to try and set the options to ensure the game is playable. This autotest can be rerun by clicking the "Autoconfig" button in the options menu.

Required card features

The game requires either OpenGL 1.4 or OpenGL 1.3 plus the GL_ARB_env_crossbar extesion. Most video cards with recent drivers support this features. You can bypass the feature check by replacing the "CheckGlCaps=1" line in glest.ini by "CheckGlCaps=0", but the game may crash or have graphics errors.

ATI card problems

It seems to be bug in some very old ATI OpenGL drivers that makes the game crash with certain card/driver configurations when using more than 1 light. Auto config will detect this issue and turn off all secondary lights when it detects an ATI card. If you still want to try running the game using more than 1 light you can change this setting in the in-game config menu. Upgrading to the latest drivers may help clear up the issue as well.

Shadows

The game features real-time shadows using different algorithms. 1) Projected: Fast shadows but they provide unit over terrain shadows only, and can produce incorrect shadows in some circumstances. 2) Shadow mapping: Slow shadows but they are always correct and provide everything over everything shadows. In ATI cards they look aliased. Both types of shadows require a video card with 3 texture unit support. Auto config will set the most suitable shadow mode for your video card, though you may also change this in the INI manually.

3D textures

The game uses 3D textures for some effects like animated water. Some old video cards (ie: GeForceMX) don't support this feature by hardware and the game runs really slow when the camera is near a river. Auto config will detect this and disable 3D textures when needed. If a message saying "your system does not support 3d texture units, required for shadows" appears, disable shadows.

Differing Glest Branches

This article is for the settings of the original Glest v3.2.2 only. For MegaGlest and GAE, please see their respective pages.

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