Return to Castle Wolfenstein MP Test tweak guide

Posted on September 19, 2001 by Thomas McGuire

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Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer pits players in a team-based Axis versus Allies contest for front-line domination, where multiple player classes must mobilize & work together to accomplish mission objectives.

This guide will take you through many of the options available for the Game, along with other tips & hints.

Troubleshooting

Download the latest drivers for your Graphics card & Soundcard. This may solve (some) Display or Audio problems you might encounter. There are links to various manufacturers on the Drivers page.

Install DirectX 8.0A, or later, on your system if you haven’t already done so. This may fix problems with Audio playback/Input devices.

If you are having problems running the game (Performance or otherwise) on Windows 2000 then try checking our Windows 2000 Compatibility & Performance guide.

If you experience any lockups & such they might be caused by overclocking, if so try lowering the Memory/Core speed of the overclocked device.

Config files

The tweaks here can be either changed in your wolfconfig.cfg 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 autoexec.cfg (Or other name, although autoexec.cfg will be loaded automatically). Save it in the demomain subdirectory of where the Wolfenstein Demo is installed.

To load your customconfig.cfg in Wolfenstein (If you didn’t name it autoexec.cfg), bring down the console & 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 wolfconfig there will need to be a seta followed by a space. E.g. In your wolfconfig.cfg a setting would appear as follows, seta r_finish "1", while in your own autoexec.cfg it would appear simply as r_finish “1”.

Graphics

Load Return to Castle Wolfenstein, select Options, System then the Graphics tab.

Quality. This option allows you to choose from a selection of predefined settings for Graphics to be used in Castle Wolfenstein, although seemingly this is a non-functioning setting at the moment. This isn’t an issue however as I’d recommend against using pre-defined settings anyway.

GL Driver. This displays which OpenGL renderer is to be used in Castle Wolfenstein, although this is seemingly an useable option given that 3dfx no longer exist, thus supporting older (& Unsupported by the manufacturer) Graphics Card isn’t much of an issue (In Castle Wolfenstein this option allowed you to select the 3dfx OpenGL for older 3dfx Graphics Cards).

GL Extensions. For optimal performance set this to Yes, you should only set this to No if you are having problems getting the Game to run, or it is displaying odd image artefacts. This may only be a problem with old Graphics Cards or by incompatible Drivers.

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 would be ideal in Operation Flashpoint for most users.

Color Depth. Select 16-bit for best performance, but reduced visual quality (More apparent 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. Owners of Kyro 1/2 Chipset based Graphics Cards should leave this set to 32-bit.

Fullscreen. Leave this set to Yes if you are using OpenGL rendering in Castle Wolfenstein (Which you should be).

Lighting. Set this to Light Map lighting for best visual quality of lighting in the Game. Vertex lighting should only be used if you have a slow CPU as it will reduce the visual quality of levels rather significantly.

Geometric Detail. This setting controls the LOD (Level Of Detail) used in levels, with Higher settings enabling the use of more detailed models in the Game environment. Using a Lower setting will yield less detailed models being used, which will give the Game a more blocky appearance, although on older Graphics Cards this can improve performance.

Texture Detail. This setting controls the resolution of textures used in the Game. The Higher this setting the sharper the textures used in the Game will appear, although performance can be lowered (Especially on low Video memory Graphics Cards). The Lower the setting the more blurred player & weapon model 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 (Or have Texture compression enabled).

Texture Quality. This setting controls the bit depth of textures used in the Game. 32 Bit will provide best quality for textures used in the game, although this will also consume the greatest 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. This option controls the texture filtering method used. Options available are Bilinear & Trilinear. For best visual quality you should set this to Trilinear (Improved texture sharpness & less texture aliasing), although with some Graphics Cards the performance hit from this may be a bit much, in which case set it to Bilinear instead. Those with 3dfx Cards are should set this to Bilinear only as they cannot perform Multi-texturing & Trilinear texture filtering simultaneously. Most other Graphics Cards should be able to use Trilinear without issue.

Compress Textures. When set to Yes, textures will be compressed using DXT1 - 5 algorithms. This will reduce texture memory requirements, which will improve performance, although can introduce undesired image artefacts such as more apparent colour banding into textures & also will increase level loading times. Those with 64MB of Video memory should set this to No for best texture quality & improved level loading times.

Now select the Other tab.

Brightness. Use this slider to set the game brightness (glare) level. Sliding the bar to the Right will increase brightness & vice versa. The further this is to the Right the more washed out textures may appear. Adjust this to suit your own needs.

Screen Size. Use this slider to adjust the screen size of the Game. Moving to the right to increase the size & vice versa. Move this from the far right position if you see fit to do so.

Select Troubleshooting, Config and Graphics Graphics Settings #2 Graphics Settings #3 Audio Network Settings Mouse Controls & Conclusion

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