User.cfg fileI think it should be front page news, and not reserved for people who guess the right search terms for the forum. This is one of the things where PGI hasn't taken the time to explain, so they leave it to the community to keep each other informed.
The thread where I got this information has been heavily moderated, with a lot of posts edited and deleted, so it seems to me that PGI has spoken; The remaining information and alterations are OK as far as they're concerned.
When you find your user.cfg file you can change the file extension to .txt, and then you can read and edit it.
By default, this file is blank.
I found my user.cfg file here:
C:\Games\Piranha Games\MWO Public Test\MechWarrior OnlineThe one I copied is from Gray Ghost's post from 24 August 2014:
mwomercs.com/forums/topic/92015-high-end-usercfg-file/page__st__340I think my MWO usage is probably processor-bound, since I have a decent video card. If I just turned down in-game graphics settings to help my frame rate, it didn’t help my frame rate
that much AND the game graphics looked ugly.
By editing this file I got improvements in my frame rate AND made the game prettier.
Even if you don’t want to mess with it, you need to know that other guilds are using it
en masse.
For example, –MS- wants everyone who plays with them to optimize their user.cfg settings. Just go to the FRR TeamSpeak hub, scroll down to the –MS- channels, and read the various walls of text they’ve posted. I incorporated a couple of their user.cfg changes into my file.
Here's one thread where people share and compare user.cfg files,
mwomercs.com/forums/topic/156904-usercfg-guide/This link takes you to the thread where I actually copied some .cfg setups to try them.
mwomercs.com/forums/topic/92015-high-end-usercfg-file/page__st__340The user.cfgs I tried were from August, and the thread fizzled out in November, but it's probably important to know...
Modo44 wrote:
...most variables were locked a couple of months ago to prevent cheating (zero fog, no cockpit -- you can probably find it on YouTube). ...This is also why disabling PostAA is no longer possible, so everyone gets ghosting/motion blur all the time.So, the settings were locked at one time, and editing your user.cfg file didn't do anything for a while, but I can tell it's working again. And I don’t get that annoying ‘ghosting’ any more.
Once I pasted in Gray Ghost’s user.cfg, the first thing I wanted to adjust was the field of view.
I opened the spoiler shutters for "lowest_no_shadows.cfg", then copied and pasted to "user.txt"
cl_fov = 85 is the line for Field Of View (zoom)Change it a lot, or you'll be zoomed way the **** out. Default value (for zoom = 1.00) is about 60.
(Not 75, like when they posted all this)
EDIT: Oh, yeah... This is a setting in the game now.
Though my frame rate was up around 60 fps most of the time, I saw it drop sometimes. I often couldn't tell what was causing it.
Later it was really apparent that the frame rate drop coincides with a lot of LRMs in the air.
When the LRMs are really bad, I've seen my frame rate drop into the 20s. Or teens.
I used to think 18 frames per second was
awesome. Now that my eyes are used to 40+, 18 looks like crap, and is bordering on unplayable. No wonder my stats used to suck so much worse. Well, the LRMs and machine gun tracers are "particle effects".
SO, I found the line that controls the number of “particles” on the screen, and entered a lower number.
LRMs don’t destroy my frame rate like they used to.
However, those large bodies of water at Forest Colony affect my frame rate when I spawn there. Well, it could have been worse.
Is there a catch?With every patch, I now get a message saying "Issues were found with your install base. It is advised to run the repair tool to fix them."
Don't do it!!!
The time I played along, the repair tool deleted my user.cfg file. But, I made a new one from my backup and got back to business.
The last 3 patches I haven't played along, haven't run the repair tool, and my game runs just fine.