Darkmod.cfg

written by Fidcal

Darkmod.cfg Important Howto

This article describes info about editing Darkmod.cfg

Introduction

Game configuration settings are stored in the file Darkmod.cfg. This section concerns anyone that might want to manually add or change settings to that file. So if you only change settings in the Dark Mod menus or in the console then you do not necessarily need to read the following.

Summary of how to edit Darkmod.cfg

• UNinstall the current FM in the Dark Mod New Mission menu.
• Quit Dark Mod
• Edit the Darkmod.cfg in the darkmod folder only

Different folder configs

Although Dark Mod FMs are placed into the folder darkmod\fms they actually run in their own game folder within the darkmod folder. Each of these folders can have its own Darkmod.cfg. This can lead to complications and has been a real headache for the Dark Mod team to decide how to handle it. Imagine 50 different FMs each with its own config and you want to change one thing!

Method

This is the current default method:

• When an FM is 'installed' (made current) or re-installed then when Dark Mod is run the darkmod\Darkmod.cfg is copied over to the FM's game folder (replacing any that might be there.)
• While Dark Mod is running, any changes to menu settings are stored in the FM's game folder.
• When UNinstalling or Quitting Dark Mod then the Darkmod.cfg is copied back from the FM's game folder to the darkmod\Darkmod.cfg

The above effectively synchronises the two configs. It also propagates any changes to other FM game folders next time they are made current. At any one time it is possible for different 'inactive' FM game folder config files to be different from others but the one in the darkmod folder is the master and should automatically propagate to an FM game folder next time you play it.

Editing Darkmod.cfg

From the above you can see that to manually edit the config you MUST:

• UNinstall the current FM in the Dark Mod New Mission menu.
• Quit Dark Mod
• Edit the Darkmod.cfg in the darkmod folder only
• Use a plain text editor only and follow the format of entries already in the file.

When you next run Dark Mod those settings will be effective and whenever you install an FM those settings will be copied to its FM game folder.

An ALTERNATE way to do the above is:

• Quit Dark Mod WITHOUT UNinstalling any current FM
• Edit the Darkmod.cfg in the darkmod folder only
• Use a plain text editor only and follow the format of entries already in the file.
• Copy it over to the relevant FM game folder

How to have independent, non-synch'ed FM configs

The above method can be disabled by entering tdm_fm_sync_config_files 0 in the Dark Mod console. After which each FM game folder will have its own independent config. Any changes in the settings menu or indeed in the FM's game folder Darkmod.cfg will only work for that FM

autoexec.cfg

In addition for advanced users there is an autoexec.cfg. This is not described in detail here except to say it can be useful to enter some console commands or cvars that are not 'sticky' - ie, are not preserved within Darkmod.cfg. Note that it's format is different in that you do not include quotation marks. An example is g_fov which can be used to change the player's field of view. This would be entered in this form...

set g_fov 75  // set player narrow view (default 90) slightly helps performance & feel closer to tables etc.