Quakelive Advanced Options
Advanced Client Options
QUAKE LIVE is a highly configurable game that often allows the client to customize certain aspects to be tailored to your liking. Some of these client variables (or cvars for short) are accessible the Game Settings link on the site or the Game Settings menu in-game. Although, there are many additional options available by altering ‘cvars’ from within the in-game console.
• To access the console in-game press: CTRL+ALT+~ (on your QWERTY keyboard). This will drop down the command console. To make the console easier to toggle, you can now type com_allowconsole 1. After doing so, you may now toggle the console on or off by simply pressing ~.
• Typing the beginning of a cvar or command and pressing TAB will autocomplete, or show all the commands that start with those letters.
• Pressing the up and down arrows on your keyboard will scroll through text already typed into the console.
• Pressing page up and page down will skip entire pages, combine these with ctrl to go to the very top or bottom of the console.
Here is a list of some commonly used or new cvars in QUAKE LIVE:
• bot_nochat <0|1> – default: “0″
A value of “1″ will disable the chat messages from bot ai players in Practice Mode.
• cg_allowTaunt <0|1> – default: “1″
Disable gesture events clientside in addition to disabling Team Arena style VO taunts when this cvar is disabled.
• cg_autoaction – default: “0″
0 – do nothing
1 – auto record demo
2 – auto record a screenshot at end of game
3 – auto record demo and screenshot
On Windows XP systems, demos are stored in the “%appdata%\id Software\quakelive\home\baseq3\demos” folder (baseq3\screenshots folder for screenshots), while on Windows Vista they are located in “%APPDATA%\..\LocalLow\id Software\quakelive\home\baseq3\demos”
• cl_demoRecordMessage <0|1> – default: “1″
Allows you to toggle the “RECORDING…” message on the hud when recording a demo.
• cg_autoswitch <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will disable the automatic switching to weapons that are picked up.
• cg_bob – default: “1″
Lower values between 0-1 will reduce the amount your player view bobs as they walk, values of “0″ will remove all bobbing. This is highly useful for players who suffer from motion sickness.
• cg_bubbleTrail <0|1> – default: “1″
Toggling this cvar off disables the underwater bubble trails drawn behind many bullets and projectiles while underwater.
• cg_buzzerSound <0|1> – default: “1″
Toggling this cvar off disables the end-game buzzer sound in all gametypes.
• cg_chatBeep <0|1> – default: “1″
Allows you to enable/disable the audible beep when you receive a message.
• cg_teamChatBeep <0|1> – default: “1″
Allows you to enable/disable the audible beep when you receive a message from a teammate.
• cg_compHud <0|1> – default: “0″
Enable the stream friendly hud on private servers.
• cg_crosshairBrightness – default: “1″
Lower values between 0-1 will make the crosshair appear darker, becoming black at “0.”
• cg_crosshairColor – default: “7″
Alternate colors for your crosshair are selectable by setting this cvar to a different value between 1-7. 1: red, 2: green, 3: yellow, 4: blue, 5: cyan, 6: magenta, 7: white.
• cg_crosshairHealth <0|1> – default: “0″
A value of “1″ will set your make your crosshair color reflect your health. While healthy it will appear white and as you take damage it will turn yellow, orange and then red when you are near death.
• cg_crosshairPulse <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will prevent your crosshair from enlarging momentarily when you pickup an item as a pick-up indicator.
• cg_crosshairSize – default: “32″
Lower or higher values may be used to decrease or increase the size of your crosshair.
• cg_deadBodyDarken <0|1> – default: “0″
Toggling this cvar on will darken ‘bright’ players as soon as they become corpses.
• cg_deadBodyColor <0xRRGGBBFF> – default: “0×101010FF”
Altering this cvar allows you to customize the color applied to dead bright bodies when cg_deadBodyDarken is enabled.
• cg_draw2D <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will remove all HUD elements including your crosshair, useful for capturing ‘clean’ screenshots.
• cg_drawAmmoWarning <0|1|2> – default: “1″
Low Ammo Warnings that display when a weapon is below 20% max ammo (Less than 5 for weapons with 25 max, less than 30 for weapons with 150 max). A value of “2″ Allows a client to use a smaller text display for their ‘Low Ammo Warning’ and ‘Out of Ammo’ warning messages.
• cg_lowAmmoWarningPercentile <0.01 - 1.00> – default: “0.20″
Customizes when you are warned of being low on ammo.
• cg_lowAmmoWarningSound <0|1> – default: “1″
Allows a client to toggle the low ammo warning sound on or off.
• cg_drawCrosshairNames <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will prevent player’s names appearing when you point your crosshair at them.
• cg_drawFPS <0|1> – default: “0″
A value of “1″ will display the frames per second that your game is rendering, useful for evaluating system peformance.
• cg_drawFragMessages <0|1> – default: “1″
Toggling this cvar off disables the ‘You Fragged So-and-So’ centerprint message from drawing on your screen. The shorthand obituary will still print to the HUD to make note of any kills.
• cg_drawGun <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will hide your weapon from view. A value of “2″ will display your weapon, but it will not sway as you walk.
• cg_drawRewards <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will disable the display of any in-game awards you receive, such as “Impressive,” “Excellent,” “Humiliation”.
• cg_drawSpecMessages and cg_drawPregameMessages <0|1>
Hide messages from the pregame / spec hud.
• cg_enableRespawnTimer <0|1> – default: “0″
Draw the respawn timings of certain items (armor, megahealth, powerups) for spectators — on private servers only. This feature is dependent upon server-side shoutcaster privileges being enabled. Items are sorted by height according to their placement in the level for non-ctf games, and are sorted by team according to proximity from flag in CTF.
• cg_followKiller <0|1> – default: “0″
Automatically switching to the killer of the player that has been fragged when in spectator mode.
• cg_followPowerup <0|1> – default: “0″
Automatically switching to following the player that has picked up the powerup when in spectator mode. Also supports a value of 2, which will not switch to a lesser power-up if already following a flag carrier.
• cg_forceEnemyModel – default “(null)”
Setting this cvar to a “
• cg_forceTeamModel – default: “(null)”
Setting this cvar to a “
• cg_fov <10-130> – default: “90″
High values will increase the field of vision of your player view allowing you to see more of the game world. Lower values will decrease the amount you can see but may make it easier to aim over long distances.
• cg_gunX – default: “0″
Offsets where the gun is drawn on the X-plane on a players first person view.
• cg_gunY – default: “0″
Offsets where the gun is drawn on the Y-plane on a players first person view.
• cg_gunZ – default: “0″
Offsets where the gun is drawn on the Z-plane on a players first person view.
• cg_HitBeep <0/1/2/3> – default: “1″
Playing different tones based on the amount of damage done to an opponent.
0 = off, 1 = single tone (old style), 2 = new multi-tone option, 3 = reverse multi-tone option.
• cg_crosshairHitStyle <0-8> – default: “0″
Allowing the same information given by cg_HitBeep to be displayed via the crosshair. Styles breakdown as follows:
0 = Off (the default).
1 = Colorize the crosshair based on damage dealt.
2 = Colorize the crosshair to color designated by cg_crosshairHitColor.
3 = Pulse the crosshair. (This is an exaggerated/scaled pulse)
4 = Colorize by damage and Pulse the crosshair.
5 = Colorize by cg_crosshairHitColor and Pulse the crosshair.
6 = Pulse the crosshair with a smaller pulse. (same size as the cg_crosshairPulse uses when picking items up)
7 = Colorize by damage and pulse with smaller pulse.
8 = Colorize by cg_crosshairHitColor and pulse with smaller pulse.
NOTE: If using the exaggerated pulse, you may want to set your cg_crosshairSize to 16, as the default 32 can be a bit overboard.
• cg_crosshairHitColor <1-7> – default: “1″
For hit styles that have a fixed color. For example, some players simply want the crosshair to turn red when a hit is made, rather than change color based on damage applied.
• cg_crosshairHitTime – default: “200″
Allows players to modify the amount of time the crosshair hit effect is displayed.
• cg_kickScale – default: “1″
A value lower than one will decrease the amount that your screen shakes or kicks when you receive damage. A value of “0″ will remove all damage feedback related shaking.
• cg_screenDamage <0xRRGGBBAA> – default: “0×700000C8″
Colorizes the on screen damage indicator; use “cg_screenDamage 0″ to disable.
• cg_screenDamage_Self <0xRRGGBBAA> – default: “0×00000000″
Toggles the on screen damage indicator for self damage. (for example, damage from rocket jumping).
• cg_screenDamage_Team <0xRRGGBBAA> – default: “0×700000C8″
Colorizes the on screen damage indicator for team damage; use “cg_screenDamage_Team 0″ to disable. (Friendly Fire in Team Deathmatch).
• cg_lagometer <0|1> – default: “0″
A value of “1″ will display a netgraph that shows your network packet traffic including received, rejected and lost packets. A value of “2″ will display the client ping estimation along with the standard lag-o-meter graph.
• cg_levelTimerDirection <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will alter the timer clock to count upwards towards the timelimit, rather than displaying the time left remaining in the match.
• cg_lightningImpact <0|1> – default: “1″
Toggles the impact fx created when the lightning stream impacts a surface.
• cg_lightningStyle <1|2|3|4> – default: “1″
Altering this cvar will cycle through various lightning stream effects: Default Q3/QL, QuakeWorld inspired, Team Arena shaft, and thin shaft options.
• cg_railStyle <1|2> – default: “1″
The new naming of the cg_oldRail cvar fits in line with the cg_lightningStyle and the old convention made little sense, as the reference ‘old’ is lost between iterations of the game.
• cg_rocketStyle <1|2> – default: “1″
The new naming of the cg_oldRocket cvar fits in line with the cg_lightningStyle and the old convention made little sense, as the reference ‘old’ is lost between iterations of the game.
• cg_plasmaStyle <1|2> – default: “1″
The new naming of the cg_oldPlasma cvar fits in line with the cg_lightningStyle and the old convention made little sense, as the reference ‘old’ is lost between iterations of the game.
• cg_muzzleFlash <0|1> – default: “1″
Toggles the muzzle flashes.
• cg_smoke_SG <0|1> – default: “1″
Toggles shotgun smoke puffs on/off. A value of 0 will entirely disable the smoke puffs.
• cg_smokeRadius_GL – default: “64″
Scales the size of the grenade/proxy smoke trails. A value of 0 will entirely disable the smoke trails.
• cg_smokeRadius_RL – default: “32″
Scales the size of the rocket smoke trails. A value of 0 will entirely disable the smoke trails.
• cg_smokeRadius_NG – default: “16″
Lowering the value of this cvar will scale the radius of the smoke puffs drawn in the nailgun trails. A value of 0 will entirely disable the smoke trails.
• cg_switchToEmpty <0|1> – default: “1″
Toggles the ability to switch to weapons that have no ammo.
• cg_nopredictItems <0|1> – default: “0″
A value of “1″ will provide more accurate pickup notification sounds, however at the cost of potentially delayed playback.
• cg_playernames <0|1> – default: “1″
Draws player names above their heads while you spectate (both freecam and 1st person spec).
• cg_playTeamVO <0|1> – default: “1″
Allows a client to disable some of the team related VO, to option out of the new Team Deathmatch VO behavior.
• cg_predictLocalRailShots <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will feel less responsive in high ping environments but may prevent wrongly predicted railshots and/or impacts.
• cg_redTeam, cg_redTeamShort, cg_blueTeam, and cg_blueTeamShort
Clientside cvars to override the team name displayed in the hud scorebox and follow info message for use in stream broadcasts
• cg_respawnTimerX and cg_respawnTimerY
Controls the position of where spectator respawn timers are drawn.
• cg_selfOnTeamOverlay <0|1> – default: “0″
Toggles whether you see yourself in the team overlay.
• cg_simpleitems <0|1> – default: “0″
A value of “1″ will use 2D image icons to display in-game items.
• cg_speedometer <0-3> – default: “0″
Monitors your horizontal velocity:
0 = disabled
1 = lag-o-meter style graph
2 = value and graph under crosshair
3 = value under crosshair
NOTE: Added CG_SPEEDOMETER UI component accessible by custom HUDs.
• cg_switchOnEmpty <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will prevent the automatic switching to a new weapon when attempting to fire a weapon without ammo.
• cg_trueLightning <0-1> – default: “0.75″
A value of “1″ will remove any sway from the lightning gun stream to make it easier to aim with, while values closer to “0″ will increase the sway but more accurately represent where the lightning is currently impacting.
• cg_waterWarp <0|1> – default: “1″
Toggling this cvar off disables the minor under-water warping effected that exists when submerged underwater. The effect has little impact on gameplay but can be induce disorientation in some players.
• cg_weaponBar <0|1|2|3|4> – default: “1″
0 – Disabled
1 – Left docked icons
2 – Right docked icons
3 – Center docked icons
4 – Large floating icons (Legacy Q3 Style)
• cg_weaponColor <0xRRGGBBAA> – default: “0×007000FF”
Used to colorize grenades according to cg_weaponColorStyle.
• cg_weaponColorStyle <1|2|3> – default: “1″
1 = In All Game Modes: All grenades colorized according to cg_weaponColor.
2 = In Team Games: Enemy grenades colorized according to cg_enemyUpperColor, all friendly grenades (including your own) colorized according to cg_teamUpperColor. In Non-Team Games: All grenades colorized according to cg_weaponColor.
3 = In Team Games: Enemy grenades colorized according to cg_enemyUpperColor, all friendly grenades (excluding your own) colorized according to cg_teamUpperColor, and your own grenades colorized according to cg_weaponColor. In Non-Team Games: All grenades colorized according to cg_weaponColor.
• cg_zoomFov – default: “22.5″
The field of view used while zooming
• cg_zoomOutOnDeath <0|1> – default: “1″
Resets player FOVs back to normal on death. This is useful if you use the cg_zoomToggle cvar.
• cg_zoomScaling <0|1> – default: “1″
Toggling this cvar off disables the zooming in / zooming out scaling effect that is used as a transition between your cg_fov and cg_zoomfov; causing the +zoom to act as a quick snap to and from the zoomed fov.
• cg_zoomSensitivity
The value of this cvar is multiplied to our current zoom sensitivity, allowing the user to increase or decrease their sensitivity while zoomed. A value of 0 will revert the zoomSensitivity code to the Q3 legacy code that was previously available in QuakeLive.
• cg_zoomToggle <0|1> – default: “0″
Toggling this cvar on alters the behavior of +zoom such that a single key press will enable zooming and a repeated keystroke disables zooming, no longer requiring players to hold the key down while zooming.
• cl_allowConsoleChat <0|1> – default: “0″
Allows a client to use the console area as a chat box, text entries that do not begin with a ‘\’ will be transmitted as chat text.
• cl_conTimeStamps <0|1|2> – default: “0″
Enables console time stamps. Can display values in game time.
0 – Do nothing
1 – Show values in game time (affected by cg_levelTimerDirection)
2 – Show values in servertime
• cl_currentServerAddress
This cvar is set to the ip address of the game server you are currently connected to. Obtaining the servers IP address may be necessary during testing.
• cl_mouseSensCap – default: “0″
Capping the mouse speed if you are using acceleration. Pass it an equivalent sensitivity with no acceleration value, and the acceleration code will not go beyond that.
• g_overtime <0|1> – default: “1″
Enable overtime periods. Overtime will be on by default in Duel and Team Deathmatch, with each overtime period lasting 2 minutes.
• g_suddenDeathRespawn* – listcvars
Sudden Death Respawn Delays in sudden death games (CTF). By default, upon entering sudden death, the player respawn time will go to 3 seconds (from the default 2.1s during normal gameplay), and increment by one second every minute, up to a maximum of 10 seconds after 7 minutes of sudden death.
• model – default: “Sarge”
Alter this cvar to set your
• r_ambientScale <1|100> – default: “10″
No longer be cheat protected, controls the amount of ambient light that is cast upon players.
• r_dynamiclight <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will remove dynamic lighting that surrounds rocket projectiles.
• r_enablePostProcess <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will degrade the quality of lighting in exchange for a boost in performance.
• r_fastsky <0|1> – default: “0″
A value of “1″ will replace the animated skybox with a solid black texture, primarily used for enhancing performance.
• r_picmip <0-16> – default: “0″
Lower values will manipulate and blend the colors of the map textures. Textures at the highest value, “16″ appear nearly as solid colors. A vid_restart or map load is required before changes will come into effect.
• r_subdivisions <0-80> – default: “4″
A value of “80″ will replace in-game curves with angled surfaces to give a performance boost.
• s_ambient <0|1> – default: “1″
A value of “0″ will remove the ambient background sounds from most maps. An s_restart or map load is required before the change will come into effect.
• s_musicvolume <0-1> – default: “0.25″
Lower values will lower the volume of the game music, a value of “0″ will disable the music.
• setenemycolor / setteamcolor
An easier, but less configurable cvar to color the enemy / team models. These commands accept one to three parameters to colorize the upper body, lower body and head of the bright skin. These parameters are entered in the form of letters, with a to x representing the rainbow, and two additional arguments of y (white) and z (gray). You may use a single color parameter to colorize the entire model one color, or up to three arguments to customize the players chest, legs and head.
Examples:
’setenemycolor h’ will set the entire model green
’setenemycolor hy’ will set the models chest green, legs & head white
’setenemycolor hyz’ will set the models chest green, legs white, and head gray
If you wish to have a greater control over their color options, you can configure the individual cvars that the setenemycolor and setteamcolor commands assign values to. These cvars accept only RGBA hexadecimal parameters, such as 0×00FF00FF for bright green (0xRRBBGGAA format).
Setting these cvars are not required if you use the simple setenemycolor and setteamcolor cmds:
cg_enemyUpperColor
cg_enemyLowerColor
cg_enemyHeadColor
cg_teamUpperColor
cg_teamLowerColor
cg_teamHeadColor
• timescale – default: “1″
Higher values set while playing back demo files will result in the demo fast forwarding at a rate times the timescale value.
Common and/or new game commands:
• +acc
Bindable command for displaying an in-game weapon accuracy panel. Usage: bind key “+acc”.
• clan
The clan command allows you to set your clan tag and add color codes to your clan name, in the same manner you can with the ‘name’ command.
• Dropflag
Dropflag allows you to drop the enemy flag for another player (who is perhaps more well equipped to survive with the flag).
• Dropweapon
Dropweapon only works in team games, and allows you to drop the weapon you are currently holding so that a team mate may have it.
• name
The name command allows you to add color codes to your name. Place a carot and colored code before any text string to colorize it, like in “name ^1Unnamed^3Player”
^1 – Red
^2 – Green
^3 – Yellow
^4 – Blue
^5 – Cyan
^6 – Magenta
^7 – White
• readyup – default bind: “f3″
Readyup toggles your ready-up state. Once enough players in a match have ready up’d, the match will begin.
• record
Records a demo of your current gameplay.
• stoprecord
Stops recording the current demo.
• tell_buddy
This command will send a QUAKE LIVE chat message to a friend on your friends list from in-game.
• quit
The quit command disconnects you from the server and will return you to the QUAKE LIVE site.
• togglechathistory
An alternative to “+chat”. This is a new command that will allow you to toggle the chat history rather than being required to hold down a bind in order to see the chat. It is still in testing and has a few known issues, such as the chat history toggling off when you issue a new chat message.
• spec command:
spec fc – follow/cycle through flag carriers
spec blue – follow/cycle through blue team
spec red – follow/cycle through red team
Not working / overwritten commands:
• cl_autoRecordDemo – default: “0″
Overwritten by: cg_autoAction.
• cg_noprojectileTrail – default: “0″
Overwritten by: cg_smokeRadius_NG, cg_smokeRadius_RL, and cg_smokeRadius_GL.
• cg_oldPlasma – default: “1″
Overwritten by: cg_plasmaStyle.
• cg_oldRail – default: “1″
Overwritten by: cg_railStyle.
• cg_oldRocket – default: “1″
Overwritten by: cg_rocketStyle.
• cg_newWeaponBar – default: “1″
Overwritten by: cg_weaponBar.