For the past 10 months of using steam, I learned over the summer that if you know what to do, you can change most of your steam files to do certain things. If your a complete noob at this, before you do ANYTHING make a backup of the file. or just don't even do it. 1. Having an In-Game Browser The following is a way to use an internet browser from within a steam game. Open up your Steam/Public folder. Open url_list.txt Replace %community%/profiles/%steamID%/home with www.google.com This will set your steam community homepage to Google. From there you can search any website in the search box and go there. -I had to do this two-three times for it to finally stay permanently, make a backup of the file before you edit. -If you want to actually use steam community, just search "Steam Community". -While in game, the typing is a bit buggy. you cannot see the LAST letter you typed. -I don't think logging into forums works IN GAME. im typing this on my steam browser right now. -Please note that the code block you want to change is the 3rd one from the top, which looks like this: } SteamIDControlPage { url "%community%/profiles/%steamID%/home" method "community" Replace %community%/profiles/%steamID%/home with a website of your choice, but before you do this you might want to keep a copy and pasted text file of the url_list just in case you mess up, or something goes wrong. 2. Scripting. -Scripting can be extremely useful in some games, and not useful at all in other's. -Overwriting something very useful like:+forward,+right,+strafe,+attack,slot1 ect. so that admin's can't run it on you, is just extremely stupid. if you have done this, I could care less, don't ask for help on how to fix it. -note that doing Alias MiniLS MiniLS will most likely cause an infinite loop and either crash your computer, or your game if your lucky. This works with all scripts. a script(which is basicly a bundle of console commands) trying to run itself when it hasn't even be created yet can make things go awry. the one of the things scripting is useful for is making a barrier against something called "cexec". "cexec" is an admin mod command that lets a super admin run certain source engine commands on you, or everyone in the server. For example(typing this in console as a super admin) (cexec is also in mani... others im not sure) ulx cexec "kaotix" killserver or mani cexec "kaotix" killserver this would cause the "killserver" command to be run on the player as if he typed it in the console himself. I HAVE abused it lots of times before, (on my own server) but I also sought protection against it. This is MY filepath that I used to get to my config folder. C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods\Empires\cfg once your in this folder, make a txt. file called autoexec.cfg Type this in the newly created autoexec.cfg file: (this is what I used as an example, you can use any source engine command. "r_cleardecals" is clientside and reduces lag by clearing decal's like blood ect.) Alias "exit" "say Don't Run exit on me!" In game if a super admin try's to run exit on you threw cexec, you will automatically type this message in chat notifying you that you should either leave the server before he trys another command, or ask a super admin about it. 3. Empires CFG files Damn these Text files, for some reason the CFG files of empires are plentiful and hard to script with. autoexec cfg is not a problem, but writing script's with it is hard because it has a CFG auto-regenerator system. The one command I found this useful for is the grenadier. C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods\Empires\cfg either Use this filepath or go into C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods\Empires\cfg Once you are there add to your grenadier.cfg add "slot1" in grenadier.cfg, this will make it so you will spawn with your pistol out instead of your RPG (I use "slot3" for the mowtar) 4. Source Engine Commands - Performance or Graphics? REDONE! mat_picmip 0/1 Texture level of Detail. [OB] cl_smooth 0/1 when its set to 1, it reduces console commands but can also induce game "stuttering" r_lod -8/8 This determines the level of detail a model has at a certain distance. can have Large impacts on performance, positive and negative. Default is normally -1. r_rootlod -8/8 Root level of model detail. [OB] r_dynamic 0/1 When set to 0, removes dynamic lighting effects. a fairly good boost in performance with this at 0 too. r_maxdlights 0/x When at 0, this means you see NO dynamic lights on your screen at any given time. higher numbers produce better graphics(for multiple dynamic lights) lower numbers increase performance. mat_specular 0/1 Toggles Reflective lighting on Surfaces. mat_clipz 0/1 For the poor souls out there on Nvidia FX cards, activate this feature to solve some rendering issues. For everybody else, activate it for safety’s sake. It will have no negative impact on your performance and in some cases may actually improve it. r_drawflecks 0/1 Disabling this increases performance when veiwing explosions, when something is "dropped"(yes like ent's/props) the source engine renders particle effects when these things happen, This turns them off. mat_bloomscale 0/1 Highly recommended on use of glycen city. (turns bloom off) Tip:HDR does nothing. its made to mimic a humans eye when we look at something dark, then something light. WE HAVE EYES. no need for this, it is a complete waste of 30 FPS. mat_filterlightmaps 0/1 this controls filtering applied to levels light maps. 0 is an increase in FPS, 1 makes the quality of lighting go up. mat_mipmappedtextures 0/1 Turns of "mipmapping" but also causes textures to look crude. mat_bumpmap 0/1 This causes models, textures and ent's to almost look like there straight from TF2. large increase on FPS, Large decrease on overall graphics. mat_nofastbump 0/1 causes the floor's to look like Quake 1, but an FPS increase none the less. r_propsmaxdist 0/x Much like r_lod, but works on "props" instead of models. not that useful for empires... mp_decals 0/x The number after the command will determine the maximum amount of “decals”, which include small touches like bullet holes, visible on the games surfaces. By decreasing, fewer bullet holes will appear, causing an increase in performance. By increasing it, you will have lower performance. For reference, this number can go no higher than 4096. r_fastzreject -1,0,1 Setting it to 1 will make an algorithm increase performance while playing. if you experience corruption or abnormality's your hardware most likely will not support this. set to -1 to correct, rather than 0. dsp_slow_cpu 0/1 will lower your sound quality slightly, but gives a boost in performance net_graph 3 (net_graph 1 for oj box, does not include choke and loss on net_graph 1) Shows your ping, Frames per two second(Valve uses FP2S) and your strain on the server r_cleardecals I suggest to bind this to an "out of the way" key, this is useful for cleaning up client's visuals of decal's, like blood, scorch marks, ect. cl_showpos 1 Show's your world position, your angle and your velocity(speed of movement) cl_ragdoll_fade_time 0 shows how long until ragdolls fade from view. r_ropetranslucent "0" // Enable/Disable ropes rope_smooth "0" // Antialiasing effect on ropes rope_wind_dist "0" // Don't simulate wind on ropes past X distance rope_collide "0" // Collide rope with the world rope_subdiv "0" // Rope subdivision amount Pulled these from valves wiki. All about ropes! This is also the fps commands on there wiki that I dont have up here already. mat_antialias "0" // [!0] mat_aaquality "0" // [!0] 4/2 = 8xCSAA, 8/2 = 16xCSAA mat_forceaniso "2" // [!2] Antiscopic Filtering mat_reducefillrate "1" // [!1] Shader Detail mat_hdr_level "0" // High Dynamic Range Lighting r_decals "100" // Amount of decals (Bulletholes, sprays, etc) that can be on the world at one time r_drawdetailprops "0" // 'Detailed' props, such as grass r_shadows "1" // [!0] Player Shadows r_shadowmaxrendered "4" // The amount of how many fully rendered player shadows will be drawn - anything else is rendered as a blur oval shadow r_3dsky "0" // [!0] Render the 3D skybox projection r_waterdrawreflection "0" // Water reflection r_waterforceexpensive "0" // Detailed water r_waterforcereflectentities "0" // Allow water object reflection r_worldlights "0" // [!0] Lights that reflect off your weapon r_renderoverlayfragment "0" // Overlaid textures that make up decal like effects cl_phys_props_max "0" // Maximum clientside physic props cl_ragdoll_physics_enable "0" // Enable/disable ragdoll physics cl_ragdoll_collide "0" // Ragdoll collisions If you know ones that I didn't nab, or that some of these won't work on empires, post it down below. There is many things that you can do with mods, games and the steam files located in your directory... Just make sure it doesn't give you a major gameplay advantage over other players, or you could be banned from some servers/reported to valve. and make sure not to mess up your steam/mods and games. make backups of files before you edit them.
Warning: Changing anything in your scripts folder will change nothing in game, because the server's copy of the scripts are what is used to play the game. The client side scripts ONLY change what the client sees. Messing with the scripts without a backup copy can, and probably will, result in you being unable to play empires normally. Changing things like vehicle weights, the amount of weapon slots, etc, can litterally break your game in such a way that you cannot equip armor or you cannot build a vehicle. Also, mounting any weapon on a tank that does not already have that type of weapon will result in the weapon firing from the origin of the vehicle, IE the middle of it. DU Jeep? not really, it'll shoot the hull directly, same with cannons. You can really mess up empires by playing with the scripts. My suggestion is to NOT DO IT. If you mess with research times/costs, you may be unable to com due to wrong research information being shown. Brief explanation of how server and client interact: To get rid of some of the lag, nothing is sent to the server unless it is okay according to the client side scripts. Say you change the weight of the tank in your own scripts to over 9000. The screen will always say that you are under the maximum weight of 9000~, and will send a vehicle creation request to the server. The server will send back a message that the vehicle is too heavy, because the server script says it can only be 1337 in weight. Also, if the client side is lower than the server side's max weight of 1337, the client cannot send a request to build a tank to the server without the client side scripts saying that the server could possibly okay the tank build. once again, play with the empires scripts at your own risk.
It's just IE6. Also, I'm pretty sure cl_ejectbrass if for CS:S only. Also, specular isn't lighting, it's reflective surfaces.
I found your simple descriptions of what the commands do very amusing (They're right, though so don't worry)
That is AMAZING. Im going to get the song thriller, then get the video and just put the song on it. I can actually use that in my CPT...
that got fixed and you used to be able to make them give you money and give them like 5 HE arties(back when they were godly) weeeee
Redone for the Orange engine, Removed scripting part(not alot of people would want to mess with it anyways) And im going to see if theres any particular empires commands that would help.
