[SOLVED] Resetting settings in Xonotic + LAN

Right, two closely related questions for my case...

---

Background:
So in the "study room" of my Sixth Form we have the computers all to ourselves. So naturally, we play games over LAN all the time. Someone brought in a copy of Quake III: Arena last week and after seeing how popular it turned out, I decided to copy my... copy of Xonotic to my USB flash drive and stick it in all the computers' local storage on Monday. I'm sure it will be a hit (especially Key Hunt, which is my favourite game mode of all time along with CTF).

---

So, here are the questions:

1. How can I "reset" all the profile configuration and the like? I want them to see the initial start-up screen and start them from the first single-player mission (they like to teach themselves when no-one's around). Basically, I'd like a "factory reset" on all the settings in the game, if possible.
   
2. How do I switch to displaying only servers in local networks in the Multiplayer menu?
   

The computers there are obviously Windows PCs, by the way (damn education system! But then again, I do all of my gaming on Windows too).

Also, this is why it is important for the game to be self-contained in a single folder. Portability = demand for the title in school and the workplace, chaps, it's as simple as that.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read my rather boring story and I hope you I will get a bit of help with these issues soon.

You want to remove the file config.cfg in the "My Saved Games" in My Documents, something like that. Depending on the OS it could be somewhere else in the user's personal directory. In any case, you can figure out the path by starting xonotic (for at least the second time), opening the console (shift esc) and typing the command : which config.cfg

Be aware that this directory in the user documents is where all the data is stored. This includes the downloaded map cache. It grows over time if you get new maps from public servers.

Also, to disable public server listing, put this in a file called autoexec.cfg in the same directory as config.cfg:

Code:

sv_masterextra1 0.0.0.0
sv_masterextra2 0.0.0.0
sv_masterextra3 0.0.0.0
sv_masterextra4 0.0.0.0

or launch the game with these commandline parameters:

Code:

+sv_masterextra1 0.0.0.0 +sv_masterextra2 0.0.0.0 +sv_masterextra3 0.0.0.0 +sv_masterextra4 0.0.0.0

Maybe there's a better way but I'm not aware of this :X

Another detail which you might find interesting is the -nohome commandline parameter which, instead of using a user directory to store cached files and configs, uses the install directory itself. Launched that way, the game is fully portable. No file leaves the install directory. You can put autoexec.cfg in the same directory as the .pk3 files (xonotic-data-somethingsomething.pk3 etc.)

(By "install directory" I mean the directory extracted from the release zip file)

Right, two closely related questions for my case...

---

Background:
So in the "study room" of my Sixth Form we have the computers all to ourselves. So naturally, we play games over LAN all the time. Someone brought in a copy of Quake III: Arena last week and after seeing how popular it turned out, I decided to copy my... copy of Xonotic to my USB flash drive and stick it in all the computers' local storage on Monday. I'm sure it will be a hit (especially Key Hunt, which is my favourite game mode of all time along with CTF).

---

So, here are the questions:

1. How can I "reset" all the profile configuration and the like? I want them to see the initial start-up screen and start them from the first single-player mission (they like to teach themselves when no-one's around). Basically, I'd like a "factory reset" on all the settings in the game, if possible.
   
2. How do I switch to displaying only servers in local networks in the Multiplayer menu?
   

The computers there are obviously Windows PCs, by the way (damn education system! But then again, I do all of my gaming on Windows too).

Also, this is why it is important for the game to be self-contained in a single folder. Portability = demand for the title in school and the workplace, chaps, it's as simple as that.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read my rather boring story and I hope you I will get a bit of help with these issues soon.

All settings are stored in a cfg file called config.cfg, which will be in my documents/my games/xonotic/data. So if you should have a fresh install on other pc that have never played Xonotic.

As for being 1 folder, I suppose you could copy your config.cfg into the xonotic install data folder (example: program files/xonotic/data), but I don't know if the game will continue to use that or create another config.cfg in the my games/xontoic/data folder. Perhaps someone else could chime in and let us know how that works.


Ah nvm, ninja'd by Mr bougo

Thank you very much for your help! I have to say... the lack of polish on Xonotic really began to show in this thread. -.-

There really should be a default configuration file though from which you can restore the settings. Paintball 2, which is based on the Quake II engine has a load/save settings option. This might be a bit complicated, though, but it is necessary.

So I take it that games hosted over the LAN and those hosted over the internet are both included in the list? Cannot it be filtered? Damn shame. Anyway, I added that autoexec.cfg file, cheers for the advice.

6th form gaming. Back in my day we did this for Windoom and Quake. Worked brilliantly.

The first issue might not actually be a problem but it depends what you are actually trying to achieve. Is it just so that anyone who plays the game runs with default settings? If they are each using a different Windows login then this will be the case anyway as user preferences go in config.cfg in the users home rather than in the game directory. Or is it that you want to be able to reset the config on the fly?

And there is a default config, it gets used unless the users config.cfg is found. I can't think of any easy way of execing that directly in game but what you could do is start the game, then exit without changing anything, now go into the users config.cfg and save this somewhere as say default.cfg. Now when running the game from a shortcut you could add '+exec default.cfg' for example and it would pull back the config everytime. There are plenty of other things that can be done with configs.

I wouldn't say it's a lack of polish, that's just how every other Quake game works.

It's not a lack of polish, it's a lack of use cases. Since you seem to need it and it's fairly simple to implement, I think it's worth giving it a shot. Please post a feature request item on the dev tracker.

As for default settings, I guess this could work:

Code:

unbindall; cvar_resettodefaults_all; exec default.cfg; quit

This will quit the game and start it over with a default config. *Maybe* you can replace quit with

Code:

exec quake.rc; vid_restart

to simulate restarting, but that's not an intended use of quake.rc so I can't guarantee it will work smoothly.

Put that in a file called factoryreset.cfg in the "data" directory in your install directory and you can do a factory reset just with exec factoryreset.cfg

LAN filtering and factory reset are definitely worth implementing IMHO. Please make two feature requests on the dev tracker.

And remember we haven't reached 1.0 yet

EDIT: a quick comment on edh's comment: I think cvar_resettodefaults_all is necessary there, because some engine cvars aren't set by default.cfg, and unbindall is necessary to clear user binds.
EDIT2: wow, nope, you said to create default.cfg but that's a bad idea. It will break the game, since default.cfg is the name of an existing config file that execs defaultXonotic.cfg. Overriding it will break compatibility with further versions of the game and perhaps other things.

just make a blank config.cfg and write protect/change permissions on it.

Oh, if she/he wants a factory reset on every startup then that's indeed the cleanest solution.

That would be a 'he', Mr Bougo. And one more little question... would xonotic.exe or xonotic-sdl.exe run faster? I don't notice a difference on my PC, but I guess the situation will be quite different on the computers there, and I want the best experience possible.

Thanks for the recommendations, it works if you just config.cfg anyway. Xonotic just generates a new one. Unfortunately, I have NO idea on how to change permissions in Windows (piss-easy in Linux distros though).

The issues I have filed for LAN filtering and a 'factory reset' option in the menu can be found here and here respectively. I thought of setting the LAN filtering issue to "high", but I supposed that would be a bit pompous.

Autoexec.cfg worked like a charm. I just hope that LAN games will be visible.

I guess one more nice thing could be implementing profiles like in Quake III:Arena so everyone can pick their names and preferred configuration more easily, but that would probably need a lot of work, so I won't file it.

Oh yeah, and config.cfg seems to be saved in the /xonotic/data folder. Which is a good thing, because My Documents is a bit iffy on these computers. We save all the games locally in the target computer's hard drive, not in network storage. I just hope things stay that way because My Documents is a bit unreliable.

6th form gaming.  Back in my day we did this for Windoom and Quake.  Worked brilliantly.

We mostly play Age of Empires II and whatever the hell we find on PortableApps.com*, most of which is unfortunately not multiplayer. Which reminds me, I have to get them to check out Warzone 2100 though I'm not a big fan of it myself. Maybe after 3.10 is released. The game we played most before AoEII was brought in was probably AssaultCube, funnily enough. Time to introduce everyone to some new experiences.
*Which, by the way, would be good for promoting the game in the future. There is only a handful of people that haven't played Kobo Deluxe yet, and by people I mean 'everyone including girls', as my VIth form is tiny.

To ensure that it does not create a directory in My Documents, use the -nohome commandline parameter I mentioned above.

You could make a shortcut to the executable that includes that commandline parameter, for convenience. Make a shortcut to the executable the usual way (with right click > create shortcut or shift-dragging or whatever), right-click > Properties and add -nohome at the end of Target, so that it looks like "C:\bleh blah\xonotic.exe" -nohome

Made a screenshot, I might need it later


EDIT: it is essential that "start in" refers to the base Xonotic directory. As long as "start in" is correct, you can move the original executable into a subdirectory and replace it with a shortcut. That way you can be sure that it's always launched the right way.

You can make a file read-only in its properties under the "General" tab, it's a checkbox at the bottom.

would xonotic.exe or xonotic-sdl.exe run faster?

Let's find out! Run one of them, goto Multiplayer > Demos, select 'the-big-keybench.dem' and hit 'Timedemo'. This runs a ~10000 frame timedemo so should take no more than a few minutes to run if Xonotic is playable on the hardware. At the end it writes some framerate results in the console, take note of these, the main fps number is the important one. Then exit, run the other executable and go through the same process. Now you have numbers for the SDL and non-SDL engines. Beware these numbers are neccesarily comparable with any other system as your settings may be different. For this reason there is also The Big Benchmark if you have some computer time to waste overnight:
http://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php?tid=2562

SDL stands for Simple Direct Media Layer:
http://www.libsdl.org/

In general the SDL version is slightly quicker and I would try first but it depends on the system. There can also be differences in how mice and other controllers perform and how sound works (or not) in each engine. Hence if you have any trouble, the other engine is always worth trying.

Cheers everyone. Looks like SDL is the faster of the two, yet by a a tiny margin*. And hey, I do know what SDL is... I'm fluent in Lua and HTML4.01, though understandably that skill set is not very impressive at all!

And anyway, from my experience, Xonotic doesn't make any folders in My Documents at all, but I put in a shortcut with -nohome at the end just in c

* Perhaps the result will be different in the 32-bit computers at Sixth Form... yet that remains to be seen. I'm not sure if Xonotic will run on them at all, though they should be just fine on the lower settings.

Does the config.cfg really end up in the install directory? The user dir might be in something like app data, in my documents' parent. You can find it out with the xonotic console command which config.cfg.

It's really OS dependant so the only way to make sure it uses the install dir is to use -nohome.

Does the config.cfg really end up in the install directory? The user dir might be in something like app data, in my documents' parent. You can find it out with the xonotic console command which config.cfg.

It's really OS dependant so the only way to make sure it uses the install dir is to use -nohome.

Sure does. This is on Windows XP by the way, and obviously the program comes with no installer, whether one compiles it or not. I just downloaded the precompiled "stable" (well, technically still in beta) version that's in a ZIP.

Curiously, when I play the game from an external drive, it loads config.cfg from My Documents\My Games\Xonotic\data whether -nohome is enabled or not. Unless "My Games" is a directory Xonotic would create in case it didn't already exist... well, my mind is full of fudge (language!). Actually, I just tried it again, and even with -nohome, it creates a config.cfg file in the local drive, not the external from which the game is running (my USB in this case).

Also, I wasn't able to reset progress in single-player, which would be nice, but I suppose it will be just fine like this. A pity.
But everything should be just fine, we'll just have to change the names every time I guess. Not the smoothest of experiences, but it works and the game itself is still miles better than Quake III or Cube 2.

Single player progress is stored in data/data/campaign.cfg. Not data/campaign.cfg, mind you. I know, it's a little weird.

As for nohome, I'm really confused. The source code (in fs.c) isn't ambiguous about this: unless -userdir is specified, when -nohome is specified the engine doesn't even try finding a user directory.

There's a convenient debug print that might give us some answers. Try to launch xonotic with +developer 1 (that is, "C:\bleh\xonotic.exe" +developer 1, not "C:\bleh\xonotic.exe +developer 1". At the very top of the log (shift-escape, then page up) you will see five or so lines that start with "userdir". These debug prints should not happen if you start with -nohome +developer 1.

We played it today, everything worked marvellously! Except the fact courtfun (one of my favourites, personally) was in TRON mode because of the lack of OpenGL 2.0 support. As for the profile issue, I just went around and changed each one individually. I couldn't be bothered to change the shortcut so I just played vanilla Xonotic.

Some general comments (I asked the opinions of 3 people afterwards):
Good points:

• GREAT GAME
  
• The bunnyhopping is incredibly well-implemented
  
• Good maps
  
• Generally awesome and really fun to play
  
• Cool art direction (down to the flags in CTF, one said)
  
• Pretty good graphics (but remember, OpenGL 1.3, but still looked better that Q3)
  

Not-so-good points:

• Felt a bit iffy. No intro (these people really like Call Of Duty and strategy games by the way*).
  
• The two different loading screens and the gap inbetween
  
• One gun (rocket launcher) looked a bit ugly (though this was on low settings), one gun design (that of the Laser introduced in 0.6) was unoriginal
  
• Too few models**

* I have to say, I'm not exactly a fan but I do find them quite fun to play in multiplayer. The single player of CoD sucks though.
** I think this too, actually. I miss the "butt pirate" (that's what we call him, the nearly topless fat clown) from Quake III. I think Xonotic takes itself a bit too seriously. Lighten up (though please don't include any MyLittlePony models from that mod)! In fact, this is why we prefer Q3A to OpenArena. They also don't look very impressive, unlike, say, the guy in Q3 that has flame running through his armour (basically, his model is animated).

Not-so-good points:

• Felt a bit iffy. No intro (these people really like Call Of Duty and strategy games by the way*).
  
• The two different loading screens and the gap inbetween
  
• One gun (rocket launcher) looked a bit ugly (though this was on low settings), one gun design (that of the Laser introduced in 0.6) was unoriginal
  
• Too few models**

1) I don't really know what you mean? You mean like a CG movie or montage? I suppose some people might like that, but is it really important? I know I would watch it once and then find a way to disable it.

2) I agree, I hate the 2 loading screens.

3) A new Rocket launcher is being made already, and it looks so much better. As for the laser, it's just a simple laser. It doesn't even have a secondary fire. How do you think it should look? I always figured the model was simple in design to match the functionality. I like it more than the old one, which looks like a Transformer's penis, imo.

4) I think that comes down to: who's gonna make them? What we have now are very high quality, and most people use 1 model, Mega Erebus, for the glowing texture. Also, Open Arena has some damn good models. Perhaps there aren't as many as Q3 came with, but Q3 also had a budget to pay people to make models. I'm all about demanding game studios deliver as much as they can because they are getting my money, but I wouldn't expect a free game made by enthusiasts that model in their free time to deliver as much content.

snip

Hey, don't shoot the messenger; just what I was told by my friends.

And anyway, OpenArena's models are pretty lame. It has a lot, but they suck (like the anime girl, really?). Xonotic has brilliant models, but there's too few of them. You could make a call for them in the forum or OpenGameArt (a lot of OSS games have made successful use of this), maybe have a competition; it probably will get a bunch of half-decent models in. Anyway, Xonotic aims to be the best in its class, and it's already just about there. Fake Nexuiz is the only major arena FPS that's coming out soon. If it flops, is too buggy or something, then Xonotic will simply be the best.

Also, LOL'd at Transformer's penis. But it's true. Now it looks a bit (from the first-person perspective, mind you) like a common assault rifle from RL. You can always rip out a few models from UFO:Alien Invasion (which has finally clarified all art asset licenses after a two-year long drive), the electromagnetic rifle from there looks really cool and very original, for instance. If the model was designed to match the functionality, it would at least look a bit more powerful. Seriously though, that electromagnetic rifle looks awesome and you should see if you can test the model in the game. Both run on what is essentially the same game engine, after all, you might just be able to drop it in and it will work right off the bat. And it would be nice to see co-operation between various open-source projects.

OpenArena's models are pretty lame. It has a lot, but they suck (like the anime girl, really?)

I was more defending the quality of the models in OA, not the creativity behind them. The models are nicely done. If they aren't your taste, i can understand that, but that's completely subjective.


If you want to lead the way and sponsor a competition for new Xonotic models, you should feel free to do so. But I'd imagine any new models proposed for official releases will need to be voted on by the Xonotic community before implementation. I'm certainly not dismissing the idea of new, high quality models being added to the game. Only if you are going to suggest something like that, you have to be willing to contribute. if that contribution is organizing a contest amongst modelers, then by all means do it. But don't suggest someone else make the models, and then suggest someone else organize a contest and expect it to be done. The same applies to the pistol model as well.

And 1 other thing to consider, if you do organize a contest like that(which I do think is a neat idea btw), you should consult with the devs first to find out what is required as far as keeping a consistent theme is concerned.