Yamagi Quake II Console Variables

This lists explains most console variables (cvars) added by Yamagi Quake II. Most of the original clients (Vanilla Quake II) cvars are still in place, however due to architectural changes some of them have been renamed. The prefixes are:

No prefix: General stuff.
cl_: Client.
gl_: Common to all OpenGL renderers.
gl1_: OpenGL 1.4 renderer.
gl3_: OpenGL 3.2 renderer.
ogg_: Ogg/Vorbis music playback.
r_: Common to all renderers.
s_: Sound system.
sw_: Software renderer.
vid_: Video backend.

All cvars may be given at command line through +set cvar value or typed into the console. The console can be opended with Left Shift + Esc.

Keep in mind that some cvars need quotation marks around the arguments. When giving such cvars at the command line the argument string must be surrounded by ticks. For example +set sv_maplist '"q2dm1 q2dm2"'.

Command line arguments

These are not console variables, they cannot be entered into the console, only be given through the command line at startup. While cvars are prefixed with a +, arguments are starting with a -. For example it's +set busywait 0 (setting the busywait cvar) and -portable (setting the portable argument).

cfgdir: The name (not the path) of the configuration directory.
datadir: Directory from which the game data is loaded. Can be used in startup scripts, to test binaries, etc. If not set, the directory containing the binaries is used.
portable: Makes Quake II portable, all runtime data like the the config, savegames and so on is stored next to the executable and not in the users home directory.

General

aimfix: Fix aiming. When set to to 0 (the default) aiming is slightly inaccurate, bullets and the like have a little drift. When set to 1 they hit exactly were the crosshair is.
busywait: By default this is set to 1, causing Quake II to spin in a very tight loop until it's time to process the next frame. This is a very accurate way to determine the internal timing, but comes with a relatively high CPU usage. If set to 0 Quake II lays itself to sleep and tells the operating system to send a wakeup signal when it's time for the next frame. The later is more CPU friendly but rather inaccurate, especially on Windows. Use with care.
cl_async: If set to 1 (the default) the client is asynchronous. The client framerate is fixed, the renderer framerate is variable. This makes it possible to renderer as many frames as desired without any physics and movement problems. The client framerate is controlled by cl_maxfps, set to 60 by default. The renderer framerate is controlled by vid_maxfps. There are two constraints:
- vid_maxfps must be the same or greater than cl_maxfps.
- In case that the vsync is active, vid_maxfps must not be lower than the display refresh rate.
Both constraints are enforced.

If cl_async is set to 0 vid_maxfps is the same as cl_maxfps, use cl_maxfps to set the framerate.
cl_http_downloads: Allow HTTP download. Set to 1 by default, set to 0 to disable.
cl_http_filelists: Allow downloading and processing of filelists. A filelist can contain an arbitrary number of files which are downloaded as soon asthe filelist is found on the server. Set to 1 by default, set to 0 to disable.
cl_http_max_connections: Maximum number of parallel downloads. Set to 4 by default. A higher number may help with slow servers.
cl_http_proxy: Proxy to use, empty by default.
cl_http_show_dw_progress: Show a HTTP download progress bar.
cl_kickangles: If set to 0 angle kicks (weapon recoil, damage hits and the like) are ignored. Cheat-protected. Defaults to 1.
cl_limitsparksounds: If set to 1 the number of sound generated when shooting into power screen and power shields is limited to 16. This works around global volume drops in some OpenAL implementations if too many sounds are played at the same time. This was the default behavior between Yamagi Quake II 7.10 and 7.45. Defaults to 0.
cl_loadpaused: If set to 1 (the default) the client is put into pause mode during single player savegame load. This prevents monsters and the environment from hurting the player while the client is still connecting. If set to 2 the client stays in pause mode after loading. If set to 0 pause mode is never entered, this is the Vanilla Quake II behaviour.
cl_r1q2_lightstyle: Since the first release Yamagi Quake II used the R1Q2 colors for the dynamic lights of rockets. Set to 0 to get the Vanilla Quake II colors. Defaults to 1.
cl_showfps: Shows the framecounter. Set to 2 for more and to 3 for even more informations.
in_grab: Defines how the mouse is grabbed by Yamagi Quake IIs window. If set to 0 the mouse is never grabbed and if set to 1 it's always grabbed. If set to 2 (the default) the mouse is grabbed during gameplay and released otherwise (in menu, videos, console or if game is paused).
in_sdlbackbutton: Defines which button is used in the gamepad or joystick as the Esc key, that is, to be able to access the menu and 'cancel'/'go back' on its options. When set to 0 (the default) the Back/Select/Minus button is used. Set this to 1 to use the Start/Menu/Plus button, and to 2 to use the Guide/Home/PS button. Requires a game restart when changed.
singleplayer: Only available in the dedicated server. Vanilla Quake II enforced that either coop or deathmatch is set to 1 when running the dedicated server. That made it impossible to play single player campaigns over the dedicated server. When set to 1, both coop and deathmatch are forced to 0 and maxclients is forced to 1. This can be used to run a dedicated server with an old single player mod, where the source code isn't available, inside a Windows 98 or XP VM and connect over network from an non Windows system.
coop_pickup_weapons: In coop a weapon can be picked up only once. For example, if the player already has the shotgun they cannot pickup a second shotgun found at a later time, thus not getting the ammo that comes with it. This breaks the balancing. If set to 1 a weapon can be picked up if a) the player doesn't have it or b) it wasn't already picked up by another player. Defaults to 1.
coop_elevator_delay: In coop it's often hard to get on the same elevator together, because they're immediately triggered once the first player steps on it. This cvar sets a delay for the elevator to wait before moving, so other players have some time to get on it. Defaults to 1.0 (seconds).
coop_baseq2 (Ground Zero only): In Ground Zero, entity spawnflags (which difficulty modes / game modes level entities spawn in) are interpreted a bit differently. In original Quake 2, if an entity is set to not spawn on any difficulty, it is treated as deathmatch-only, however, in Ground Zero this same condition is treated as coop-only. This causes maps made for original Quake 2, including the entire Quake 2 campaign, to not work correctly when played in Ground Zero in co-op mode. This cvar, when set to 1, restores the original interpretation and enables you to play original Quake 2 maps in Ground Zero co-op. Though keep in mind that Ground Zero maps will not work correctly when this cvar is enabled so remember to disable it again before playing Ground Zero maps in co-op. By default this cvar is disabled (set to 0).
g_commanderbody_nogod: If set to 1 the tank commanders body entity can be destroyed. If the to 0 (the default) it is indestructible.
g_footsteps: If set to 1 (the default) footstep sounds are generated when the player is on ground and faster than 255. This is the behaviour of Vanilla Quake II. If set to 2 footestep sound always generated as long as the player is on ground. If set to 3 footsteps are always generated. If set to 0 footstep sounds are never generated. Cheat protected to 1. Note that there isn't a reliable way to figure out if the player is on ground. Footsteps may not be generated in all circumstances, especially when the player is moving over stairs and slopes.
g_fix_triggered: This cvar, when set to 1, forces monsters to spawn in normally if they are set to a triggered spawn but do not have a targetname. There are a few cases of this in GroundZero and The Reckoning. This cvar is disabled by default to maintain the original gameplay experience.
g_machinegun_norecoil: Disable machine gun recoil in single player. By default this is set to 0, this keeps the original machine gun recoil in single player. When set to 1 the recoil is disabled in single player, the same way as in multiplayer. This cvar only works if the game.dll implements this behaviour.
g_disruptor (Ground Zero only): This boolean cvar controls the availability of the Disruptor weapon to players. The Disruptor is a weapon that was cut from Ground Zero during development but all of its code and assets were still present in the source code and the released game. This is basically a player-held version of the 2nd Widow boss' tracker weapon - a black-ish ball of energy. When this cvar is set to 1 you can use the "give Disruptor" and "give rounds X" commands to give yourself the weapon and its ammo, and its items, weapon_disintegrator and ammo_disruptor, can be spawned in maps (in fact, some official Ground Zero maps contain these entities). This cvar is set to 0 by default.
nextdemo: Defines the next command to run after maps from the nextserver list. By default this is set to the empty string.
nextserver: Used for looping the introduction demos.

Audio

al_device: OpenAL device to use. In most cases there's no need to change this, since the default device is normally the correct choice.
al_driver: OpenAL library to use. This is useful if for some reasons several OpenAL libraries are available and Quake II picks the wrong one. The given value is the name of the library, for example libopenal.so.1.
ogg_enable: Enable Ogg/Vorbis music playback.
ogg_ignoretrack0: Normally Quake II disables the background music if a major objective has been archived by setting the music track to 0. Setting this cvar to 1 disables this behavior, the music keeps playing.
s_doppler: If set to 1 doppler effects are enabled. This is only supported by the OpenAL sound backend.
s_openal: Use OpenAL for sound playback. This is enabled by default. OpenAL gives a huge quality boost over the classic sound system and supports surround speakers and HRTF for headphones. OpenAL is much more reliable than the classic sound system, especially on modern systems like Windows 10 or Linux with PulseAudio.
s_underwater: Dampen sounds if submerged. Enabled by default.

Graphics (all renderers)

cin_force43: If set to 1 (the default) cinematics are displayed with an aspect ratio of 4:3, regardless what the actual windows size or resolution is.
cl_gun: Decides whether the gun is drawn. If set to 0 the gun is omitted. If set to 1 the gun is only drawn if the FOV is equal or smaller than 90. This was the default with Vanilla Quake II. If set to 2 the gun is drawn regardless of the FOV. This is the default in Yamagi Quake II.
fov: Sets the field of view.
r_gunfov: The weapons are rendered with a custom field of view, independently of the global fov, so they are not distorted at high FOVs. A value of 75 should look identical to the old code at fov 90, it defaults to 80 because that looks a bit better. Set to -1 for the same value as fov.
horplus: If set to 1 (the default) the horplus algorithm is used to calculate an optimal horizontal and vertical field of view, independent of the window or screen aspect ratio or resolution.
r_consolescale / r_hudscale / r_menuscale and crosshair_scale: Scale the console, the HUD, the menu and the crosshair. The value given is the scale factor, a factor of 1 means no scaling. Values greater 1 make the objects bigger, values lower 1 smaller. The special value -1 (default) sets the optimal scaling factor for the current resolution. All cvars are set through the scaling slider in the video menu.
r_customheight / r_customwidth: Specifies a custom resolution, the windows will be r_customheight pixels high and r_customwidth pixels wide. Set r_mode to -1 to use the custom resolution.
r_farsee: Normally Quake II renders only up to 4096 units. If set to 1 the limit is increased to 8192 units. This helps with some custom maps and is problematic with other custom maps.
r_fixsurfsky: Some maps misuse sky surfaces for interior lightning. The original renderer had a bug that made such surfaces mess up the lightning of entities near them. If set to 0 (the default) the bug is there and maps look like their developers intended. If set to 1 the bug is fixed and the lightning correct.
r_vsync: Enables the vsync: frames are synchronized with display refresh rate, should (but doesn't always) prevent tearing. Set to 1 for normal vsync and 2 for adaptive vsync.
r_anisotropic: Anisotropic filtering. Possible values are dependent on the GPU driver, most of them support 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16. Anisotropic filtering gives a huge improvement to texture quality by a negligible performance impact.
r_msaa_samples: Full scene anti aliasing samples. The number of samples depends on the GPU driver, most drivers support at least 2, 4 and 8 samples. If an invalid value is set, the value is reverted to the highest number of samples supported. Especially on OpenGL 3.2 anti aliasing is expensive and can lead to a huge performance hit, so try setting it to a lower value if the framerate is too low.
r_videos_unfiltered: If set to 1, don't use bilinear texture filtering on videos (defaults to 0).
r_2D_unfiltered: If set to 1, don't filter textures of 2D elements like menus and the HUD (defaults to 0).
r_lerp_list: List separated by spaces of 2D textures that should be filtered bilinearly, even if r_2D_unfiltered is set to 1.
r_nolerp_list: List separated by spaces of textures omitted from bilinear filtering (mostly relevant if r_2D_unfiltered is 0). Used by default to exclude the console and HUD font and crosshairs. Make sure to include the default values when extending the list.
r_retexturing: If set to 1 (the default) and a retexturing pack is installed, the high resolution textures are used.
r_scale8bittextures: If set to 1, scale up all 8bit textures.
r_shadows: Enables rendering of shadows. Quake IIs shadows are very simple and are prone to render errors.
vid_displayrefreshrate: Sets the displays refresh rate. The default -1 let the game determine the refresh rate automatically. Often the default setting is okay, but some graphics drivers report wrong refresh rates. For example 59hz are reported while the display has 59.95hz.
vid_gamma: The value used for gamma correction. Higher values look brighter. The OpenGL 1.4 and software renderers use "Hardware Gamma", setting the Gamma of the whole screen to this value in realtime (except on MacOS where it's applied to textures on load and thus needs a vid_restart after changing). The OpenGL 3.2 and Vulkan renderers apply this to the window in realtime via shaders (on all platforms). This is also set by the brightness slider in the video menu.
vid_fullscreen: Sets the fullscreen mode. When set to 0 (the default) the game runs in window mode. When set to 1 the games switches the display to the requested resolution. That resolution must be supported by the display, otherwise the game tries several steps to recover. When set to 2 a fullscreen window is created. It's recommended to use the displays native resolution with the fullscreen window, use r_mode -2 to switch to it.
vid_maxfps: The maximum framerate, if cl_async is 1. Otherwise cl_maxfps is used as maximum framerate. See cl_async description above for more information. Note that vsync (r_vsync) also restricts the framerate to the monitor refresh rate, so if vsync is enabled, the game won't render more than frame than the display can show.
vid_renderer: Selects the renderer library. Possible options are gl1 (the default) for the old OpenGL 1.4 renderer, gl3 for the OpenGL 3.2 renderer and soft for the software renderer.

Graphics (GL renderers only)

gl_zfix: Sometimes two or even more surfaces overlap and flicker. If this cvar is set to 1 the renderer inserts a small gap between the overlapping surfaces to mitigate the flickering. This may make things better or worse, depending on the map.
gl_texturemode: How textures are filtered.
- GL_NEAREST: No filtering (using value of nearest source pixel), mipmaps not used
- GL_LINEAR: Bilinear filtering, mipmaps not used
- GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST: The default - Bilinear filtering when scaling up, using mipmaps with nearest/no filtering when scaling down
Other supported values: GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST, GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR, GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR

Graphics (OpenGL 1.4 only)

gl1_intensity: Sets the color intensity. Must be a floating point value, at least 1.0 - default is 2.0. Applied when textures are loaded, so it needs a vid_restart.
gl1_overbrightbits: Enables overbright bits, brightness scaling of lightmaps and models. Higher values make shadows less dark. Possible values are 0 (no overbright bits), 1 (more correct lighting for water), 2 (scale by factor 2) and 3 (scale by factor 3). Applied in realtime, does not need vid_restart.
gl1_particle_square: If set to 1 particles are rendered as squares.
gl1_stencilshadow: If gl_shadows is set to 1, this makes them look a bit better (no flickering) by using the stencil buffer.

Graphics (OpenGL 3.2 only)

gl3_debugcontext: Enables the OpenGL 3.2 renderers debug context, e.g. prints warnings and errors emitted by the GPU driver. Not supported on macOS. This is a pure debug cvar and slows down rendering.
gl3_intensity: Sets the color intensity used for 3D rendering. Similar to OpenGL 1.4 gl1_intensity, but more flexible: can be any value between 0.0 (completely dark) and 256.0 (very bright). Good values are between 1.0 and 2.0, default is 1.5. Applied in realtime via shader, so it does not need a vid_restart.
gl3_intensity_2D: The same for 2D rendering (HUD, menu, console, videos)
gl3_overbrightbits: Enables overbright bits, brightness scaling of lightmaps and models. Higher values make shadows less dark. Similar to OpenGL 1.4 gl1_overbrightbits, but allows any floating point number. Default is 1.3. In the OpenGL 3.2 renderer, no lighting fixes for water are needed, so 1.0 has no special meaning.
gl3_particle_size: The size of particles - Default is 40.
gl3_particle_fade_factor: "softness" of particles: higher values look less soft. Defaults to 1.2. A value of 10 looks similar to the OpenGL 1.4 particles.
gl3_particle_square: If set to 1, particles are rendered as squares, like in the old software renderer or Quake 1. Default is 0.
gl3_colorlight: When set to 0, the lights and lightmaps are colorless (greyscale-only), like in the original soft renderer. Default is 1.

Graphics (Software only)

sw_gunzposition: Z offset for the gun. In the original code this was always 0, which will draw the gun too near to the player if a custom gun field of view is used. Defaults to 8, which is more or less optimal for the default gun field of view of 80.
sw_colorlight: enable experimental color lighting.

cvar operations

cvar operations are special commands that allow the programmatic manipulation of cvar values. They can be used for scripting and the like.

dec [val]: Decrements the given cvar by 1 or the optional value val.
inc [val]: Increments the given cvar by 1 or the optional value val.
reset : Reset the given cvar to it's default value.
resetall: Reset all known cvar to their default values.
toggle [val0] [val1]: Toggle the given cvar between 0 and 1. If the optional arguments val0 and val1 are given the given cvar is toggled between them.

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