Essential ET tweaks (UPDATED 13 MAY 2020)

[Pedro-NF]

0 - If you own an AMD/ATI Radeon graphics card , you HAVE TO include the following line in your autoexec.cfg file:

set r_primitives 2

1 - The most important graphics quality setting in ET is r_picmip, and it must be set to 0 (best quality) instead of the default 1. Call the console and type /r_picmip to check. If it's at 1, for Satan's sake, /r_picmip 0 then /vid_restart. If almost two decades after the game was released you can't reach a steady 76 FPS with this setting at 0, go play Minesweeper then.

2 - The second most basic setting which improves graphics a lot, besides having very little impact on performance, is Anisotropic Filtering (AF), which makes textures on a plane surface, like the ground, don't look blurrier the further away you look at them. This one must be set via the video drivers control panel. Right click on the desktop, select the NVIDIA or the ATI Catalyst control panel, then go to the 3D settings section and set it to 16x. Do not confuse this with Antialiasing (AA), which is the most taxing setting for a GPU. Important: leave "Antialiasing - Transparency" OFF - that setting blurs things in ET.

3 - Still on the control panel, make sure that vertical sync is set to force off, and if you have an NVIDIA card, the threaded optimization setting MUST be set to OFF (for ET only - leave it on AUTO for other games).

4 - To turn the artillery and explosion smoke effects off, just type /cg_wolfparticles 0 (no /vid_restart needed). Leaving these effects on has a very heavy impact on FPS, besides hindering visibility. To turn rain and snow off, /cg_atmosphericeffects 0.

5 - In the game's menu, click on OPTIONS > VIEW and turn OFF the two settings at the bottom, Blood flash and Blood splatter. The Particles setting may also be used here to control the cg_wolfparticles Cvar.

6 - To turn off the annoying flash when you fire your weapons, /cg_muzzleflash 0.

7 - There are four "magic" values for FPS (frames per second) in the Quake 3 graphics engine used by ET that will help you jump further and do trick jumps: 43, 76, 125 and 333. Set this to the highest value you can keep a steady FPS at with /com_maxfps X. Most of you probably play on disgusting 60 Hz LCD monitors, so 76 will be your best choice. If you happen to play on a 120 Hz monitor, you may set it to 125 (if your graphics card can handle it). DO NOT set this value to 333 - your frame rate is directly linked to the game's and the mod's netcode, and setting it to 333 will make you lag badly, besides being total overkill. The key factor here is to keep a steady FPS. If you can't keep your FPS steady at one of these values 99.99% of the time, then go for a lower value.

8 - Last but not least, you've GOT TO turn AMD's Cool'N'Quiet or Intel's SpeedStep OFF when playing ANY game. On XP, Desktop > Properties > Screen Saver > Power (or Control Panel > Power Options), choose Always On to turn it off. On 7 and later, Start button > Control Panel > System > Power Options, choose High performance.

Of course you know that game commands are typed on the console, and that to call the console you press the tilde (~) key (the key to the left of the 1 key), right?

Important: settings altered by commands typed on the console will probably be lost if you don't switch to the server's mod before issuing the commands and before connecting. That's because if you don't switch to the mod first, the commands will be stored in your etmain (unmodded ET) profile, not in the mod's profile. So, first click on MODS in the game's menu, then double click on jaymod, and only then type the commands.

I've created a basic autoexec.cfg config file with all these settings and many others. You should keep identical copies of your autoexec.cfg file in both the etmain and the jaymod directories.

Read this topic for info on how to configure the game's memory settings correctly:

http://forums.noobsforever.net/viewtopi ... =16&t=1141

I couldn't end this little piece without mentioning that the nice folks who wrote the best multiplayer FPS game of all time and released it for free also included a complete manual for the game. It can be found in the directory where you installed ET, in the Docs\Help\Manual subdirectory. You can also download a little collection of very useful documents about configuring ET HERE.

[DuendeX]

I know this is an old post, but there are some tweaks for this game that improve the player's movement and aiming A LOT. Here is a list of some tweaks I use:
cg_runroll 0
cg_runpitch 0
cg_bobpitch 0
cg_bobroll 0
cg_bobup 0
cg_bobyaw 0

Some other tips:
- Always aim at head level while moving. That way you will have higher probs to shoot at the head when facing an enemy.
- Always try to shoot in crouch position. The spreed is a lot lower than standing.
- Use headphones, not the speakers. You will hear when someone is near.
- Get used to check the radar. If you hear someone walking, check the radar to see if is a teammate or not.
- Don't use autoreload feature. It is faster to change weapon (to akimbo i.e.) than reload the gun.

[Metalcommand]

I have done none of this things yet dominate. Noobs!

[Pedro-NF]

Memory settings

[EasyKill]

Thanks for leaving this up all this time. I appreciate it.