Holomatch version 1.2 - Suggestions

Started by Chomenor, April 19, 2020, 02:40:54 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Chomenor

First, thank you for including my cMod engine modification in your release! If anybody has any questions, issues, or bug reports regarding it let me know.

I noticed a few things with the release that I thought I might be able to help clarify and some suggestions that could be considered for future releases, especially regarding the included autoexec.cfg file.

- Most settings in your autoexec.cfg file are currently ignored by cmod. The setting "cmod_restrict_autoexec" needs to be set to 0 in cmod.cfg to enable fully loading autoexec.cfg files. This behavior is mentioned under Settings Handling in the readme. Many of the lines in the autoexec.cfg file are probably not necessary anyway, since they are effectively equivalent to what the cMod defaults already provide.

- The method of writing an autoexec.cfg file during install might not be the best way to confer default settings in general. Since it gets executed whenever the game is started it prevents the user from changing settings normally. For example your autoexec.cfg file sets cg_fov to 90, which is a reasonable default, but it also means that if a user sets it to 80 or 100 in the console it will get reset to 90 every time the game starts.

- Also if a user has customized their own autoexec.cfg file and runs the TLO installer to the same directory their autoexec.cfg file may be overwritten and lost.

- The setting of com_maxFPS 240 is probably not best for EF holomatch. In regular EF (not necessarily mods; RPG-X might be different) the framerate affects movement physics. A setting of com_maxFPS 240 can impair strafe jumping and have other physics effects compared to the standard value of 125.

- The setting of cl_allowDownload 0 is questionable because most servers, especially the gladiator mod servers that tend to account for the most player activity on EF, need custom map downloads in order to play. Probably most games with active players would not be joinable without cl_allowDownload 1 (or other means of getting maps).

If you want to include custom settings in your release with cMod, here are some possible alternatives to using autoexec.cfg:
- Save a different config file name, like tlo_defaults.cfg, and include instructions for how to optionally execute it on the download page or such.
- Include your own cMod fork/custom build with the default settings modified. Default settings can be changed or added in this area (I can help if interested):
https://github.com/Chomenor/ioef-cmod/blob/b8bc81e3e9da47ff67d1117ce72a7b358c2628fd/code/cmod/cmod_cvar.c#L1054
This should correctly change the default, but still allow the user to override, and avoid any of the other issues associated with changing autoexec.cfg.

I hope this is helpful!