Jedi
Outcast is the latest sequel in Lucasarts Dark Forces game series, though this
time developed by Raven Software it’s
been just as well received as the previous Jedi Knight, perhaps even more so.
This guide will take you through configuring the multitude of options available
for the game & other information.
For those who have read this guide before,
take note we have updated it to catch up with latest
released patch as well as added Multiplayer tweaks and more
information on console commands and Audio options. Also if
you happen to be looking for a review of the game, be sure
to read our complete write up on it.
Troubleshooting
Begin by downloading the latest patch for
Jedi Outcast; this may resolve many of the bugs or other
problems you may have encountered. You can find the latest
patch for the Game at Lucasarts
(1.03 currently). Now download the latest Drivers for your
Graphics card & Soundcard. This may solve (most) Input
or Audio problems you might be having. There are links to
various manufacturers on the Drivers
page.
InstallDirectX
8.1 on your system if you haven’t done so yet. This
may also fix problems with Sound & Input devices. If you
experience any lockups & such they might be caused by
overclocking, if so try lowering the Memory/Core
speed of the overclocked device. Still having problem? Check
Lucasarts' technical
support.
Config
Files & Console commands
The tweaks here can be either changed in
your jk2config.cfg (Single player) or jk2mpconfig.cfg
(Multiplayer) or you may make your own custom Config
file for the Game. If you want to make you own Config file
then simply create a New Text Document, enter in the
settings & save the file as All files & name
it customconfig.cfg (Replace customconfig with your
own title). Save it in the GameData\base subdirectory
of where Jedi Outcast is installed.
To load your customconfig.cfg in Jedi
Outcast, bring down the console (Press Shift & Tilde key
together) & type exec
customconfig.cfg & hit the Enter key.
NOTE – If you choose to make the settings
in your own custom Config file then you can omit the seta
(space) from each setting. In the jk2config there
will be a seta followed by a space. E.g. In your jk2config.cfg
a setting would appear as follows, seta r_finish
"0",
while in your own customconfig.cfg it would appear simply as r_finish “0”.
Should you
wish to enter commands during the game bring down the
console (Press Shift & Tilde
key together) & simply enter the command without
quotation marks & hit the Enter key, e.g. cg_drawFPS
1. NOTE – Some commands entered this way may not have
effect immediately unless you then enter vid_restart
or snd_restart which will restart the video &
audio subsystems respectively.
Graphics
Options
We will start off with some of the most
basic graphics functions; you can jump into more advanced
options using our browse menu below. Load Jedi Outcast,
select Setup then the Video button.
Video Quality.
This option allows you to choose from a few pre-defined
Video configuration settings for the Game. This guide will
be covering them all so there’s probably no real need to
use one of these when you can more appropriately set these
yourself.
GL Extensions.
This setting should be ignored by most unless you are
having severe problems trying to run the Game. This will
more than likely only be a problem for those with an
out-dated Graphics card Driver installed or those with poor
OpenGL support. On such Graphics cards you should set this
to Off if you are having problems with the Game,
otherwise leave this set to On. This shouldn’t
be required for anyone with any sort of gaming oriented
Graphics card, e.g. Kyro, GeForce, etc.
Video Mode.
Selecting a lower resolution can improve performance
& maintain a stabler, higher frame rate. Higher
resolutions look better (sharper & smaller jagged
edges), they also tend to run slower. This all depends on
how slow/fast your system (Particularly Graphics card) is of
course. 1024 x 768 should be ideal in Jedi Outcast
for most users.
Color Depth.
Set this to 16 bit for best performance, but reduced
visual quality (More apparent color banding). Select 32
bit for best visual quality (Less apparent banding),
although performance will be reduced – especially on older
Graphics cards. Using a 32-bit colour depth will also reduce
rendering errors as it uses a higher Z-Buffer precision for
performing depth calculations & those with Kyro 1/2
Graphics cards should leave this set to 32 bit given
the negligible performance difference as compared with other
Graphics cards. Setting this to Default will use the
regular Windows desktop colour depth, just select an option
instead.
Full Screen.
Set this to your own preference, though preferably On
of course for best performance & a largest viewing area.
Geometric Detail.
Selecting a Higherdetail option will allow
the use of increasingly more complex meshes in the
Game, which will yield more realistic appearing Models, but
this will require increasingly higher amount of polygons to
be rendered as a result. Using a Lower detailed
option will use less complex meshes, which will give
less detailed shapes, though this can improve performance
– especially if your Graphics card can't handle rendering
a high amount of polygons, perhaps most noticeable during
larger fights or where you have a great viewing distance.
Texture Detail.
This setting controls the resolution of textures used in the
Game. Setting this to High will enable the use
of sharper, more detailed textures, although performance can
be lowered (Especially on low Video memory Graphics Cards).
The Lower the setting the more blurred level textures
will appear. If you intend to use High resolution
textures be sure you have AGP Texturing enabled in
the BIOS &/or a Graphics Card with 32MB or more of Video
memory.
Texture Quality.
This setting controls the quality of textures used in Jedi
Outcast. 32 bit will provide best quality for
textures used in the game, although this will also consume
an even greater amount of video memory, as a result you
shouldn't select this option unless you have a Graphics card
with 32MB video memory or greater (Or supports AGP
Texturing). Using 16 bit will provide the best
texture quality/performance trade off & will also
consume less Video memory as a result.
Texture Filter.
Trilinear texture
filtering operates by taking 4 samples (texels) from 2
neighbouring Mipmaps, applies a bilinear filter to them
& then interpolates the results. This results in
improved image quality, with more seamless transitions
between Mipmap levels & enhanced texture detail compared
to Bilinear
filtering. Most modern Graphics cards should
be able to use Trilinear with little performance
problems, except for those (still unfortunately) with
3dfx Graphics cards which should set this to Bilinear
for best performance (As they cannot simultaneously perform
Multi-texturing & Trilinear filtering).
