Joint Operations Tweak Guide

[Page 7] Advanced Tweaking



You can change more than just the settings available under the in-game menus in Joint Operations. There are two configuration files for the game which can be edited by users, called Admin.cfg and Game.cfg, and these can be found under your \NovaLogic\Joint Operations Typhoon Rising\ directory. Before you make any changes to these files however, create a backup copy of them first and keep them somewhere safe. You can edit these .cfg files using any text editor, such as Windows Notepad.


It's also important to note that changing the .cfg files as detailed here is not considered cheating or 'hacking', either by the community or by PunkBuster. Editing these files appropriately is simply further customizing the game settings to maximize your system's performance.


Click to enlarge

Note that settings which can be easily changed using the in-game settings are typically not covered here. You should make such changes using the settings under the Options section (See In-Game Settings section). Also note that some settings current appear to have no impact on the game, so they are not mentioned below. Details of the particular sections and settings to edit are provided as follows:



Game.cfg


DISPLAY


hw3d_res1280x768=1


There is a list of resolutions here, with either 0 or 1 next to them. These are the resolutions your video card and monitor are considered capable of rendering. If you are certain your graphics card and monitor are capable of a particular resolution here, but for some reason it is not available in-game, change the value next to that resolution from =0 to =1.


game_res=7


You should change the game resolution using the in-game settings, but in case you have problems getting into the game because of your resolution, you can change it here. 640x480 is =1, 800x600=2, 1024x786=3, 1280x720=4, 1280x768=5, 1280x960=6, 1280x1024=7, 1600x1200=8, 1920x1080=9, 1920x1440=10, and 2048x1536=11. Do not set a resolution which exceeds your hardware's capability or you may damage your monitor.


gamma=1.0


You can change the exact value of your gamma (brightness) here, but be very careful: extremely high gamma values are detected as a cheat by PunkBuster.


antialias_mode=0


You can change your Antialias level using the in-game menus, but if you've increased Antialiasing to the point where you are having problems launching the game, you can change it here to fix your problems. 0=None, 1=2x, 2=4x and 3=6x. Higher levels of Antialiasing are not possible.


lock_framerate=1


Enabled by default, this setting attempts to keep your framerate below 60fps, which is the 'tick rate' of servers - the rate at which the network and physics code run. If you set this value to =0, you may see a very slight performance improvement, however for most purposes it should have no performance impact. For high end systems if you set lock_framerate = 0 you will get larger variability in your minimum and maximum FPS, and this can cause jerkiness if your FPS constantly goes above 60fps. Note this 'lock' has nothing to do with VSync – See Force VSync below.


force_vsync=0


Vertical Synchronisation (VSync) is the synchronization of your graphics card and monitor's abilities to redraw the screen a number of times each second (measured in FPS or Hz). If force_vsync = 0 (the default setting), your performance will be optimal, however you may see some image "tearing" as your monitor and graphics card go slightly out of synchronization whenever the refresh rate exceeds the monitor's abilities. For most people I recommend force_vsync=0 be used for maximum graphics performance in Joint Operations. Also make sure that in your graphics card's control panel the 'Wait for Vertical Sync' (or similar) option for Direct3D is set to 'Application Preference' or 'Off', otherwise it will override this setting and enable VSync. If image tearing really bothers you, set this value =1 however you may see a slight drop in FPS.


reduce_mouselag=1


This setting is on by default, so if you have issues with your mouse 'lagging' (being extremely unresponsive or jerky) on screen, it is almost certainly associated with low framerates. Follow the advice in this guide to adjust your other settings to improve your average FPS. Ironically the Reduce Mouselag setting also affects FPS. When enabled, it reduces your FPS, so if you have no mouse lag problems set reduce_mouselag = 0 for an increase in performance. Remember, mouse lag problems in Joint Operations are mostly caused by low FPS (and/or extremely high ping). However if nothing else works to fix your mouse lag, you may have to enable this setting.



AUDIO


audio_channels=2


Although you can change the number of channels in the Options section, by selecting either 2 Speaker (2 Channels), 4 Speaker (4 Channels) or 5.1 Speaker (6 Channels), you can also manually change it here if you wish. Importantly, if you want to disable all sound you can set this =0, however there is no significant performance improvement. Note, you cannot set greater than 6 Channels, nor can you set 1 Channel (mono).


audio_rate=44100


If the 'Select 44KHz Output (Higher Quality Sound Effects)' option is ticked under your in-game Audio settings, the highest audio rate of 44,100Hz is used. If the setting is unticked, a moderate 22,050Hz sampling rate is used. You can modify the audio sampling rate manually here to see if your FPS improves, or to achieve a different audio quality. Try various common sampling rate values such as 11025, 16000, 32000 and even 48000. Generally speaking, and depending on your audio hardware and CPU, the lower the sampling rate, the better your performance. Note that using sampling rates other than 22050 and 44100 (the two common game values) may cause audio glitches.



CONTROLS


hud_color_index=2


This setting determines the color of the text in the top left corner of your HUD. A value of =0 makes the text white, a value of =1 makes the text black, and =2 makes the text the same color as your crosshair color. Other values give different colors, so experiment (e.g. =3 is blue).


hud_detail=1


This setting determines whether your HUD is displayed or not. To display the HUD, leave this at the default value of 1. If you want to remove the HUD however, set this to =0. It is not recommended that you disable your HUD as it contains important information.



MULTIPLAYER


mpnovaworldportmin="32768"

mpnovaworldportmax="65535"


If you are having connection problems getting into NovaWorld, you can specify a specific port number to open for your router/firewall by changing these settings. Change the mpnovaworldportmin value to = the port number you wish to open. If necessary also change the mpnovaworldportmax to the same number, to make sure that only that port is used. If you plan on hosting a game, you'll need to open port 32768.


mpmaxpacketsize="1300"


This setting controls the maximum packet size in bytes being sent by the server. If the packets are too large in size, they can fragment and cause connection problems such as lag. If they are too small, you get less than optimal responsiveness. Changing this value may improve your connection smoothness and ping. I am not currently aware of the best sizes for various connections, so experiment and let me know your results.


The remaining settings in the Multiplayer sections of Game.cfg relate to options used by servers. Changing these will not have any effect on game settings if you're playing on someone else's server, such as a public server.



Admin.cfg


The Admin.cfg file is used by server administrators to allow individuals to log in to the server. Read the comments in the Admin.cfg file to see how to edit the file correctly. For more details on how to set up and use a Remote Server using the Remote Admin Tool (RAT), read the instructions in this short guide: RAT 101



The next section covers the Joint Operations Console Commands.