1BOOM.CFG(5) File Formats Manual BOOM.CFG(5)
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6 boom.cfg, glboom.cfg - Configuration file for PrBoom v2.1.0 onwards
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9 When a version of PrBoom is run, it searches for this configuration
10 file to modify its default settings. Every time PrBoom exits, it
11 rewrites the configuration file, updating any settings that have been
12 changed using the in-game menus.
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14 PrBoom expects the config file to be ~/.prboom/boom.cfg, or
15 ~/.prboom/glboom.cfg if compiled with GL support. Alternatively, it can
16 be made to look elsewhere by using a command-line parameter:
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18 {prboom,glboom} [-config myconf]
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21 boom.cfg consists of a number of variables and values. Each line is of
22 the following format:
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24 [ { {{#,;,[} comment_text , variable {decimal_integer, 0x hex_integer,
25 "string_text"}}]
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27 Any line beginning with a non-alphabetic character is treated as a com‐
28 ment and ignored; for future compatibility you should start comments
29 with a #, ; or [. Note however that when PrBoom rewrites boom.cfg it
30 does not preserve user added comments.
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32 Any line beginning with an alphabetic character is treated as a vari‐
33 able-value pair. The first word (sequence of non-whitespace charac‐
34 ters) is the variable name, and everything after the following block of
35 whitespace is taken to be the value assigned to the variable.
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37 Variables not recognised by PrBoom, or which are given an invalid value
38 or a value of an inappropriate type, are ignored. Warning messages are
39 given where relevant.
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41 The variables recognised by PrBoom are described per-section in the
42 following sections. The sections are informal however; when PrBoom
43 rewrites the config file it writes in section headings and puts vari‐
44 ables into the relevant sections, but when reading these are ignored.
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46
48 compatibility_level
49 PrBoom is capable of behaving in a way compatible with earlier
50 versions of Doom and Boom/PrBoom. The value given here selects
51 the version to be compatible with when doing new games/demos.
52 See README.compat for details.
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54 realtic_clock_rate
55 Selects the speed that PrBoom runs at, as a percentage of normal
56 game speed. Leave at 0 unless you want to experiment. Note that
57 it is considered `cheating' to use this at any setting below 0
58 (or above?).
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60 max_player_corpse
61 Sets the maximum number of player corpses to leave lying around.
62 If this limit would be exceeded, an old corpse is removed. Use‐
63 ful for big/long Deathmatch games, where the sheer number of
64 corpses could slow the game down.
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66 flashing_hom
67 Flag indicating whether a flashing red background is drawn to
68 highlight HOM errors in levels (for level developers)
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70 demo_insurance
71 Selects a method of protecting demos against `going out of sync'
72 (where the player seems to lose control and behave madly, but in
73 fact the players original instructions as stored in the demo
74 have got out of sync with the game he was playing). 0=No protec‐
75 tion, 1=Full protection, 2=Only while recording demos. Safest
76 when left set to 2.
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78 endoom_mode
79 This parameter specifies options controlling the display of the
80 credits screen when Doom exits. Currently it is the sum of 3
81 options: add 1 for colours, 2 for non-ASCII characters to be
82 displayed, and 4 for the last line to be skipped so the top line
83 doesn't scroll off screen.
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85 level_precache
86 If set, when loading a new level PrBoom precaches all the graph‐
87 ics the level is likely to need in memory. This makes it much
88 slower to load the level, but reduces disk activity and slow‐
89 downs reading data during play. Most systems are fast enough
90 that precaching is not needed.
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94 wadfile_1, wadfile_2
95 The names of 2 .wad files to be automatically loaded when PrBoom
96 is started. A blank string means unused.
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99 dehfile_1, dehfile_2
100 The names of 2 patch files (.deh or .bex) to be automatically
101 loaded when PrBoom is started (empty string for none).
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105 default_skill
106 The default skill level when starting a new game.
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108 weapon_recoil
109 Enables recoil from weapon fire.
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111 doom_weapon_toggles
112 Flag indicating whether pressing 3 or 1 when that weapon is
113 already selected causes the selected shotgun or fist/chainsaw to
114 be toggled, as in original Doom. Some people prefer to use a
115 number for each weapon alone.
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117 player_bobbing
118 Enables player bobbing (view randomly moving up/down slightly as
119 the player runs).
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121 monsters_remember
122 Makes monsters remember their previous enemy after killing their
123 current target.
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125 monster_infighting
126 Whether monsters will fight each other when they injure each
127 other accidentally.
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129 monster_backing
130 Whether monsters without close combat weapons will back away
131 from close combat (unlike original Doom).
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133 monster_avoid_hazards
134 Whether monsters avoid crushing ceilings.
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136 monkeys
137 Whether monsters will climb steep stairs.
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139 monster_friction
140 Whether monsters are affected by changed floor friction (they
141 should be, but weren't in Boom)
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143 help_friends
144 Whether monsters will help out injured monsters by aiding them
145 against their attacker.
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147 player_helpers
148 The number of helper dogs to spawn.
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150 friend_distance
151 Distance within which friends will generally stay.
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153 dog_jumping
154 Whether dogs will jump.
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156 sts_always_red
157 PrBoom can make the colour of the text displays on the status
158 bar reflect your current status (red=low, yellow=average,
159 green=good, blue=super-charged). This option if set selects the
160 traditional Doom behavior of always-red status bar display; set
161 to 0 to allow the coloured display.
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163 sts_pct_always_gray
164 See above, this makes just the percent signs always gray,
165 instead of changing colour.
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167 sts_traditional_keys
168 Doom and PrBoom have two types of keys; PrBoom will normally
169 display both keys of a given colour if you have both. This
170 option, if enabled, instead makes PrBoom only ever display one
171 key of each colour, in the same way Doom did.
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173 traditional_menu
174 Changes PrBoom's menu ordering to be the same as original Doom
175 if enabled.
176
177 show_messages
178 When enabled, text messages are displayed in the top left corner
179 of the screen describing events in the game. Can be toggled in
180 the game, this is just to preserve the setting.
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182 autorun
183 Makes the player always run, without having to hold down a run
184 key. Can be toggled in the game, this just preserves the set‐
185 ting.
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189 sound_card
190 Selects whether sound effects are enabled (non-zero enables).
191 For compatibility reasons with Boom, a range of values are
192 accepted.
193
194 music_card
195 Selects whether in-game music is enabled (non-zero enables). For
196 compatibility reasons a range of values are accepted.
197
198 pitched_sounds
199 If enabled by this variable, this enables `pitching' (making
200 pitch adjustments to the playing sounds) for 16 bit sound cards.
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202 samplerate
203 The samplerate for soundmixing and timidity. The sound quality
204 is much better at higher samplerates, but if you use timidity
205 then higher samplerates need much more CPU power. Useful values
206 are 11025, 22050, 44100 and 48000.
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208 sfx_volume
209 Sound effects volume. This is best adjusted in the game.
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211 music_volume
212 Music volume. This is best adjusted in the game.
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214 mus_pause_opt
215 Selects what PrBoom does to the music when a games is paused.
216 0=stop the music, 1=pause the music (stop it playing, but when
217 resumed resume it at the same place - not implemented), 2=con‐
218 tinue playing.
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220 sounddev, snd_channels, soundsrv, musicsrv
221 These variables are no longer used by PrBoom, but are kept for
222 compatibility reasons.
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224
226 These are settings that let you choose whether the normal game mechan‐
227 ics are used, or whether various quirks, bugs and limitations of the
228 original Doom game are emulated.
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230
232 screen_width, screen_height
233 For versions of PrBoom which support high-res, these specify the
234 default screen or window size for PrBoom. These settings are
235 ignored and preserved by versions of PrBoom which do not do
236 high-res (they assume 320x200).
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238 use_fullscreen
239 If set, this causes PrBoom to try to go full screen. Depending
240 on your video driver and mode, this may include changing screen
241 resolution to better match the game's screen resolution.
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243 use_doublebuffer
244 Use double buffering to reduce tearing. On some machines this is
245 even faster than the normal method, but on others this makes
246 problems, so you have to try out which setting works best.
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248 translucency
249 Causes PrBoom to display certain objects as translucent.
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251 tran_filter_pct
252 Selects how translucent objects are when they are translucent.
253 Play with this and see for yourself.
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255 screenblocks
256 Selects a reduced screen size inside the PrBoom window (the
257 player's view is surrounded by a border). Normally this is unde‐
258 sirable, but it can help speed up the game. Can be changed in
259 the game with the +/- keys, this variable is just to preserve
260 that setting.
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262 usegamma
263 Selects a level of gamma correction (extra screen brightening)
264 to correct for a dark monitor or light surroundings. Can be
265 selected in the game with the F11 key, this config entry pre‐
266 serves that setting.
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268
270 If you are knowledgeable about OpenGL, you can tweak various aspects of
271 the GL rendering engine.
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273 gl_nearclip
274 The near clipping plane *100.
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276 gl_colorbuffer_bits
277 The bit depth for the framebuffer. (16, 24 or 32 bits)
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279 gl_depthbuffer_bits
280 The bit depth for the z-buffer. (16, 24 or 32 bits)
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282 gl_tex_filter_string
283 A string, one of the following: GL_NEAREST or GL_LINEAR (no
284 mipmapping), or one of GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST, GL_NEAR‐
285 EST_MIPMAP_LINEAR, GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST, GL_LIN‐
286 EAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR with mipmapping.
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288 gl_tex_format_string
289 One of the following strings: GL_RGBA - means format selected by
290 driver (not so good), GL_RGBA2 - means 2 bits for each component
291 (bad), GL_RGBA4 - means 4 bits for each component (like GL_RGBA
292 on most cards), GL_RGB5_A1 - means 5 bits for each color compo‐
293 nent 1 bit for the alpha channel (default), GL_RGBA8 - means 8
294 bits for each component (best quality, but only a little bit
295 better than GL_RGB5_A1 and slower on most cards)
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297 gl_drawskys
298 If 0, disables drawing skies, which may be needed with some
299 problematic 3D cards.
300
301 gl_sortsprites
302 Experimental option, possibly faster but less reliable.
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304
306 This section specifies settings for using a mouse with PrBoom. There
307 are several settings that control button bindings (what action each
308 button causes in the game); these are easiest set from the in-game
309 menus, these config entries are to preserve the settings between games.
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311 use_mouse
312 Enable or disable the use of a mouse with PrBoom.
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314 mouse_sensitivity_horiz, mouse_sensitivity_vert
315 Sets the sensitivity of the mouse in PrBoom. Easier set from the
316 in-game menus.
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318
320 These specify the keys that trigger various actions in PrBoom. The
321 codes used for keys are internal to PrBoom, though many keys are repre‐
322 sented by their ASCII codes. It is easiest to modify these via the in-
323 game menus (OPTIONS->SETUP->KEY BINDINGS). These config file entries
324 preserve the settings from this menu between game sessions.
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326
328 There are the trigger variables here, which are calculated during joy‐
329 stick calibration (the values received from the kernel driver outside
330 of which movement is caused in the game). Also there are the button-
331 bindings, again best adjusted using the in-game menus.
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333 use_joystick
334 This selects the number of the joystick to use, or 0 selects no
335 joystick. You have to have the relevant device files (/dev/js0
336 etc) and the kernel driver loaded.
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338
340 These are pre-written text strings for quick transmission to players in
341 a network game (consult your Doom documentation). Easiest set via the
342 in-game menus (OPTIONS->SETUP->CHAT MACROS).
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344
346 These are settings related to the automap. These are easiest set from
347 within the game.
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349
351 These are settings related to the heads-up display, that is messages
352 received while playing and the heads-up display of your current status
353 obtained by pressing + while the view is full-screen in PrBoom. See the
354 Boom documentation for details. All controlled best from within the
355 game.
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357
359 Here are the settings from the Weapons menu in the game (OPTIONS->SET‐
360 UP->WEAPONS).
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364 prboom(6), PrBoom's documentation (including the Boom and MBF documen‐
365 tation) and your Doom documentation.
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367
369 See the file AUTHORS included with PrBoom for a list of contributors to
370 PrBoom. This config file reference written by Colin Phipps
371 (cph@moria.org.uk).
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376 local BOOM.CFG(5)