175 replies to this topic

[UmarOMC1]

I'm very much looking forward to getting this game which is set to be released, coincidentally, on my daughter's birthday. Of course, as computer gamers (I would say "Mac gamers" but many of us have sold out and installed Windows to play games or whatever- yes, I called you out! Damn you, Bungie! *cries*), I can only assume we're looking for the best possible gaming experience. This is where, more often than not, editing a config/cfg/ini file comes into play.

Doing a rudimentary search I came across this Steam Forums Game Tweak Tips for Borderlands for PC (here's a good Gearbox Forums Borderlands PC Tweaking post as well). Unfortunately the ability to enable anti-aliasing requires a 3rd party, PC-only program for either the ATI/AMD or NVIDIA video card, respectively. That seems to be about the only thing I assume we won't have immediate access to on the Mac end. Quite honestly, disabling it (anti-aliasing) makes for a smoother game and running on a newer, high resolution 1680x1050 or 1920x1080+ resolution monitor with a good graphics card and CPU combo leaves the visual experience quite intact. This is the case with Bioshock- there's no way to enable anti-aliasing because that's how the engine was designed but, thanks to the use of the Havok animation and physics engine, editing the line HavokNumThreads=x where 'x' was the number of physical CPU cores you've available to you, an immediate difference was noticed when I changed the default 2 to 4 for my QuadCore- I maxed everything after that and the game looks stupendous!

The thread covers; disabling voice chat, enabling vsync, disabling intro movies, FOV, mouse smoothing, enabling 3rd person view (appears to be over-the-shoulder), Toggle Aim (as opposed to simply having to hold down the right mouse button as long as you want to aim, I assume), windowed mode (of the two options, I can only assume the in-game should prove more successful for Mac gamers), disabling the HUD, showing more item attributes, et cetera.

Below is a direct copy-paste of most of the first post with all text color changed to black. I'd love for IMG Forums to have a darker background... I can't be the only one up all night! And by all means, please peruse the original thread yourself!

–Itching


Disable Voice Chat
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowEngine.ini  
Find:
   Code: bHasVoiceEnabled=True  
Change To:
   Code: bHasVoiceEnabled=False

Enable V-Sync (Stops screen tearing)
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowEngine.ini  

Find:      Code: UseVsync=False  

Change To:      Code: UseVsync=True

Disable Intro Movies
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: \Steam\steamapps\common\borderlands\WillowGame\Movies  
Delete:
   Code: 2K_logo.bik, Gearbox_logo.bik, NVidia.bik

Disable Intro Movies (Without Deleting Any Files)
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowEngine.ini  
Find:
   Code: [FullScreenMovie]
StartupMovies=2K_logo
StartupMovies=Gearbox_logo
StartupMovies=NVidia
StartupMovies=Loading
SkippableMovies=2K_logo
SkippableMovies=Gearbox_logo
SkippableMovies=Attract
SkippableMovies=NVidia  
Replace With:
   Code: [FullScreenMovie]
;StartupMovies=2K_logo
;StartupMovies=Gearbox_logo
;StartupMovies=NVidia
;StartupMovies=Loading
SkippableMovies=2K_logo
SkippableMovies=Gearbox_logo
SkippableMovies=Attract
SkippableMovies=NVidia
  Adjust the FOV (Field Of View)
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.ini  

Find Under The "[Engine.PlayerInput]" Section:      Code: Bindings=(Name="F8",Command="shot")  

Add Below:      Code: Bindings=(Name="F11",Command="FOV 90",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)  
You can experiment with different FOV figures to find a field of view that suits you.

Disable Mouse Smoothing
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.ini  

Find:      Code: bEnableMouseSmoothing=true  

Change To:      Code: bEnableMouseSmoothing=false

Enable Third Person (Thanks [BoX]SteroidFreud)
   Quote:                  Screenshot: http://www.uploads.g....derlands3P.jpg

Open:      Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.ini  

Find Under The "[Engine.PlayerInput]" Section:      Code: Bindings=(Name="F8",Command="shot")  

Add Below:      Code: Bindings=(Name="F3",Command="Camera ThirdPerson",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)
Bindings=(Name="F4",Command="Camera FirstPerson",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Toggle Aim (Right Mouse)
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.ini  

Find Under The "[Engine.PlayerInput]" Section:      Code: Bindings=(Name="RightMouseButton",Command="advancedbutton bAdvancedButtonAux5")  

Replace With:      Code: Bindings=(Name="ToggleAimOn",Command="advancedbutton bAdvancedButtonAux5 | OnRelease StartAltFire | setbind RightMouseButton ToggleAimOff")
Bindings=(Name="ToggleAimOff",Command="advancedbutton bAdvancedButtonAux5 | OnRelease StopAltFire | setbind RightMouseButton ToggleAimOn")
Bindings=(Name="RightMouseButton",Command="ToggleAimOn")

Enable Windowed Mode
   Quote:                  To run the game in windowed mode you need to add the following onto your shortcut's command line:
   Code: -windowed  
To do this in Steam, right click on Borderlands, goto "Properties", click "Set launch options..." and enter:
   Code: -windowed  
To disable windowed mode, change the command line to:
   Code: -fullscreen

Enable Windowed Mode (When In Game)
   Quote:                  Whilst the game is running press:
   Code: Alt + Enter  
Press it again to revert back to fullscreen.

Ports Required To Host Multiplayer Game
   Quote:                  To host an online game, the following ports need to be opened / pushed to the host's internal IP address:
   Code: 7777 (TCP/UDP)
28900 (TCP)
27900 (UDP)
28910 (TCP)

Disable The HUD
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.ini  

Find Under The "[Engine.PlayerInput]" Section:      Code: Bindings=(Name="F8",Command="shot")  

Add Below:      Code: Bindings=(Name="F7",Command="togglehud")

Show More Item Attributes
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Steam\steamapps\common\borderlands\WillowGame\Localization\INT\gd_globals.INT  

Find:      Code: AttributePresentationTranslation="$NUMBER$ $CONSTRAINT$ $DESCRIPTION{:content:}quot;  

Replace With:      Code: AttributePresentationTranslation=<font size="10">$NUMBER$ $CONSTRAINT$ $DESCRIPTION{:content:}lt;/font>  
Alter the size="x" variable to a size that suits you, eg: 8, 10, 12 etc.              

[edddeduck]

Anything that really adds to the experience for the average user we have already enabled I have gone through the list below with what I found during dev when I tried these and other mods. For example we added back in the tweak so the mouse wheel can scroll text correctly in mission windows which is missing from the PC. We also enabled skippable opening videos Anyway without further ado here are my thoughts on each hack from my experiences when we developed the Mac version.

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

Doing a rudimentary search I came across this Steam Forums Game Tweak Tips for Borderlands for PC (here's a good Gearbox Forums Borderlands PC Tweaking post as well). Unfortunately the ability to enable anti-aliasing requires a 3rd party, PC-only program for either the ATI/AMD or NVIDIA video card, respectively. That seems to be about the only thing I assume we won't have immediate access to on the Mac end. Quite honestly, disabling it (anti-aliasing) makes for a smoother game and running on a newer, high resolution 1680x1050 or 1920x1080+ resolution monitor with a good graphics card and CPU combo leaves the visual experience quite intact.

FSAA will not work even if you force it on due to the way the FSAA code works, even on the PC the effect is not really that good. I did have a look during dev at this hack.

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

–Itching


Disable Voice Chat
Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowEngine.ini  
Find:
Code: bHasVoiceEnabled=True  
Change To:
Code: bHasVoiceEnabled=False

This has no effect as far as I know as the voice chat is not enabled on the Mac version anyway.

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

Enable V-Sync (Stops screen tearing)
Quote:
Open:
Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowEngine.ini  

Find:Code: UseVsync=False  

Change To:Code: UseVsync=True

Mac version (and the PC) don't really suffer from tearing so all this does in most cases is make your game run slower I would not recommend you try it unless you have tearing. Tearing on video files is a seperate issue and will not be foxed by this hack.

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

Disable Intro Movies
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: \Steam\steamapps\common\borderlands\WillowGame\Movies  
Delete:
   Code: 2K_logo.bik, Gearbox_logo.bik, NVidia.bik

Disable Intro Movies (Without Deleting Any Files)
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowEngine.ini  
Find:
   Code: [FullScreenMovie]
StartupMovies=2K_logo
StartupMovies=Gearbox_logo
StartupMovies=NVidia
StartupMovies=Loading
SkippableMovies=2K_logo
SkippableMovies=Gearbox_logo
SkippableMovies=Attract
SkippableMovies=NVidia  
Replace With:
   Code: [FullScreenMovie]
;StartupMovies=2K_logo
;StartupMovies=Gearbox_logo
;StartupMovies=NVidia
;StartupMovies=Loading
SkippableMovies=2K_logo
SkippableMovies=Gearbox_logo
SkippableMovies=Attract
SkippableMovies=NVidia

All opening videos are already skippable by pressing any button in the Mac version without needing any hacks.

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

  Adjust the FOV (Field Of View)
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.ini  

Find Under The "[Engine.PlayerInput]" Section:     Code: Bindings=(Name="F8",Command="shot")  

Add Below:     Code: Bindings=(Name="F11",Command="FOV 90",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)  
You can experiment with different FOV figures to find a field of view that suits you.

This works but makes the game look like you are playing with a fish eye lens unless you have a very strange monitor I would not recommend you mess with this setting unless you like the mad style

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

Disable Mouse Smoothing
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.ini  

Find:     Code: bEnableMouseSmoothing=true  

Change To:     Code: bEnableMouseSmoothing=false

Much debate about this setting among the testers in the end we thought the smoothing was better than the slightly faster response for your average player but again it does work on the Mac if you edit this figure.

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

Enable Third Person (Thanks [BoX]SteroidFreud)
   Quote:                  Screenshot: http://www.uploads.g....derlands3P.jpg

This is pretty cool looking but it is a LOT easier to play in 1st person mode. You can make some crazy screenshots though!

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

Open:     Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.ini  

Find Under The "[Engine.PlayerInput]" Section:     Code: Bindings=(Name="F8",Command="shot")  

Add Below:     Code: Bindings=(Name="F3",Command="Camera ThirdPerson",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)
Bindings=(Name="F4",Command="Camera FirstPerson",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Toggle Aim (Right Mouse)
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.ini  

Find Under The "[Engine.PlayerInput]" Section:     Code: Bindings=(Name="RightMouseButton",Command="advancedbutton bAdvancedButtonAux5")  

Replace With:     Code: Bindings=(Name="ToggleAimOn",Command="advancedbutton bAdvancedButtonAux5 | OnRelease StartAltFire | setbind RightMouseButton ToggleAimOff")
Bindings=(Name="ToggleAimOff",Command="advancedbutton bAdvancedButtonAux5 | OnRelease StopAltFire | setbind RightMouseButton ToggleAimOn")
Bindings=(Name="RightMouseButton",Command="ToggleAimOn")

Enable Windowed Mode
   Quote:                  To run the game in windowed mode you need to add the following onto your shortcut's command line:
   Code: -windowed  
To do this in Steam, right click on Borderlands, goto "Properties", click "Set launch options..." and enter:
   Code: -windowed  
To disable windowed mode, change the command line to:
   Code: -fullscreen

Enable Windowed Mode (When In Game)
   Quote:                  Whilst the game is running press:
   Code: Alt + Enter  
Press it again to revert back to fullscreen.

[edddeduck]

Regarding full screen tweaks (see last post)

You don't need to do any hacking for this mode just press Alt+Enter when playing. This mode however just like all the other hacks is not supported.

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

Ports Required To Host Multiplayer Game
   Quote:                  To host an online game, the following ports need to be opened / pushed to the host's internal IP address:
   Code: 7777 (TCP/UDP)
28900 (TCP)
27900 (UDP)
28910 (TCP)

You don't need any of this in fact turning on the port forwarding when not needed could break things. If GameRanger works then Borderlands LAN and Internet will also work fine.

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

Disable The HUD
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config\WillowInput.ini  

Find Under The "[Engine.PlayerInput]" Section:     Code: Bindings=(Name="F8",Command="shot")  

Add Below:     Code: Bindings=(Name="F7",Command="togglehud")

This also works

UmarOMC1, on 26 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

Show More Item Attributes
   Quote:                  Open:
   Code: Steam\steamapps\common\borderlands\WillowGame\Localization\INT\gd_globals.INT  

Find:     Code: AttributePresentationTranslation="$NUMBER$ $CONSTRAINT$ $DESCRIPTION{:content:}quot;  

Replace With:     Code: AttributePresentationTranslation=<font size="10">$NUMBER$ $CONSTRAINT$ $DESCRIPTION{:content:}lt;/font>  
Alter the size="x" variable to a size that suits you, eg: 8, 10, 12 etc.              

This is already fixed so this edit will not give you more information so DO NOT use this one.

During development we used the wikia for Borderlands which has a very detailed tweaks page. The wikia is invaluable for tips and tricks. Also one final tweak you can find a 100% save game for Playthrough 1 only hidden in the main game data dmg this will allow you to play through the game on playthrough 2 from the first mission with NOTHING completed but fully tooled up with guns n ammo. You might want to change the user name from Edwin at a save point though

Cheers,

Edwin

[Smoke_Tetsu]

You where against us unlocking the FOV in Bioshock as well but I prefer it that way here. So I'm not surprised that you are discouraging it here too. To me it doesn't feel the way it does to you in fact it's more immersive that way. The FOV for games such as those was made for gamepad users sitting a way from their screen. While i agree turning the FOV up too much does make it look like a fish eye lense the way I adjust it looks fine to me and not so fish eye.... it's all personal preference any way. How high I turn up the FOV depends on the game\engine as well. For example... in many games I turn the FOV cvar to 106 but in id tech 4 games that FOV looks too fish eye to me so I turn it to 103.

About Vsync I generally with most games turn it on as I HAVE encountered tearing on my system with it off and for me the speed hit wasn't as bad as the tearing I'd get with it off but obviously I haven't played Feral's Borderlands yet so we'll see.

[UmarOMC1]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 26 November 2010 - 12:10 PM, said:

You where against us unlocking the FOV in Bioshock as well but I prefer it that way here. So I'm not surprised that you are discouraging it here too.

The main issue on this was that the FOV in Bioshock was another element in impressing a claustrophobia-inducing atmosphere. The game designers relented to the complaints, but the FOV was quite deliberate. To give a 180° example- this is akin to widescreen movies being watched on 4:3 ratio screens... people whom didn't appreciate the widescreen saw the black space or bars as a waste despite [its] maintaining the director's original, cinematic presentation.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

IMO they handled it badly.... and playing it Hor+ does not take away one ounce of atmosphere. The atmosphere for me is due to the design of the city and the architecture..

They where catering more to 4:3 gamers giving them an increased horizontal view and removing the view for widescreen gamers. If that was he correct way they should have cropped the sides for 4:3 users.... after all that would only add to the "deliberate artistic claustrophobic design" for 4:3 users as well. Any reasons for that where just excuses IMO.  That problem was just compounded on those people who have multi-monitor setup who need to be able to adjust it even further than 16:10 or 16:9 users. I prefer to see letterboxed movies even on my 16:9 monitor when viewing cinemascope films but this is a different ballpark from that.... and the way they did it it would have been like if they would have given those people who didn't understand widescreen an increased vertical view instead of the letterboxes.... yet the two choices there where letterboxed or cropping out the sides to fit the screen (aka pan and scan). The only time when movies did vert- was with imax transfers but that was because of the format... those had taller screens.... a 4:3 is not a tall screen like an imax it's a non-widescreen. Games have the benefit of being able to adjust to whatever display you are displaying it on whether it be resolution or aspect ratio... that's what sets them apart from movies which have less options. Or at least they should... some games... mainly older ones weren't made with widescreen envisioned so even when you hack them they get stretched or get more zoomed in than in 4:3.

In movies what the camera is looking at at any given moment and how much is more of an artistic decision than in games where the player is in control of the camera and most of the time can look at whatever they want. One can just stare at the ground for hours if they want for example. Games are different than movies the camera is not pre-rendered (except for FMV cut scenes).... and if how much one saw in 4:3 in Bioshock was the correct amount to see then seeing a bit more horizontally in widescreen makes sense... not less. In that situation it was like if the assumptions those people who disliked letterbox was true except in reverse with widescreen showing less of a view than 4:3.

You're right though some people don't understand widescreen. When they get a widescreen they think stretching a 4:3 video to 16:9 is widescreen and they even stretch a 4:3 video with built in letterboxing making it a short, skinny squashed screen. There's much confusion surrounding widescreen because there are so many standards...

Not that I'm begrudging anyone running for example Bioshock with the FOV locked in widescreen... if that's how they like it more power to them. But obviously there are enough people who prefer otherwise who have a better experience with the other option to not only include it but to have forums dedicated to them such as WSGF. They even have a calculator there to help you find the best FOV for the type of display you are using for those games that let you adjust it. I know zoomed in when I see it and Bioshock was zoomed in (compared to even source engine games where 90 is the highest you can go and no further).... and again for me that didn't add to the atmosphere.

In the end it's personal preference as some people may prefer a fish eye look or some people may even prefer a more constricted look.

[UmarOMC1]

Smoke, who, with the capability to play this game, plays with a 4:3 monitor?

[Smoke_Tetsu]

UmarOMC1, on 27 November 2010 - 11:15 PM, said:

Smoke, who, with the capability to play this game, plays with a 4:3 monitor?

Thing is you never know who is running the game in what aspect ratio and many people on the lead platform (Xbox360) haven't upgraded to HDTVs... especially in 2007 and earlier. Even the year of the DTV transition there where still many people who are on CRT TV's. If you are just thinking about Macs then yeah.. quite literally everyone who can run the game runs it with widescreen with some minor exceptions. But you can't make such assumption with consoles or even PCs. It's a fact that they decided to cater to 4:3 users by giving them increased height in Bioshock. Many people are slow to upgrade or they upgrade selectively and don't see the value in widescreen or flat panel or prefer the look of CRTs (many people stuck to cd-rom drives years after DVD came out forcing publishers to release games on multiple cd's). Most games letterbox the image there but not Bioshock.... they decided to instead give increased view (vertically) to them over what you get in widescreen... and again compared to even other games in widescreen it was zoomed.

[edddeduck]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 26 November 2010 - 12:10 PM, said:

You where against us unlocking the FOV in Bioshock as well but I prefer it that way here. So I'm not surprised that you are discouraging it here too.

When using the FOV in the hack above in Borderlands you start to get some visual distortion and when you run you get a strange effect where it looks like you are running super fast but getting nowhere fast Hence I personally don't think it is that much fun at least for 16:9/10 ratio monitors.

I never was against FOV hacks for anti modding  reasons with BioShock (in fact I have ported 3 or 4 Rome PC mods to the Mac in my spare time), I was against it in BioShock as it removed the claustrophobic effect that the original developers wanted you to experience. I argued that to get the original experience in all it's glory you should play as intended, however I don't mind if someone wants to change the POV although I dislike it when people claim a certain POV was wrong or obviously designed like this when they have no facts to go on apart from their own personal views on what FOV they like. Changing the FOV is fine but claiming your modded FOV is how it should be played or that it is "better" is a step to far IMHO.

Edwin

[Frigidman™]

I have a key bound to change my FOV to 85 in Borderlands, because everytime you get out of a vehicle, it would default back to narrow-vision. I don't like fisheye, its crap... looks god awful and find it almost impossible to actually aim at anything right in front of you since it looks like its five miles away. I set the FOV to 85 for just a 'slight' bit of push out, since I run a widescreen monitor.

It's nice to see the mac version fixed the broken mouse-wheel scrolling in interfaces. It half works on the PC, but never works for new mission windows you get. It was one of those little annoying things I mentioned about the interface port from console. Livable, work-aroundable, but annoying.

I've tried the FSAA hack with atitray and the like, and it looks like a blurry mess because it anti-aliases EVERYTHING. So, I just run a notch higher res, and I never notice jaggies. Performance is actually better. The single most feature I like in borderlands is the faux distance blur. Really adds a sense of depth to everything.

The rest of the tweaks are YMMV types. I dont have much to add to it.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

edddeduck, on 29 November 2010 - 12:28 PM, said:

When using the FOV in the hack above in Borderlands you start to get some visual distortion and when you run you get a strange effect where it looks like you are running super fast but getting nowhere fast Hence I personally don't think it is that much fun at least for 16:9/10 ratio monitors.

I never was against FOV hacks for anti modding  reasons with BioShock (in fact I have ported 3 or 4 Rome PC mods to the Mac in my spare time), I was against it in BioShock as it removed the claustrophobic effect that the original developers wanted you to experience. I argued that to get the original experience in all it's glory you should play as intended, however I don't mind if someone wants to change the POV although I dislike it when people claim a certain POV was wrong or obviously designed like this when they have no facts to go on apart from their own personal views on what FOV they like. Changing the FOV is fine but claiming your modded FOV is how it should be played or that it is "better" is a step to far IMHO.

Edwin

Err, yeah well on the same token simply turning off the locked FOV and letting the game handle it isn't hacking... it's just making use of a feature they provided. Like I said I felt differently than you and for me making use of that feature added to the atmosphere... not detracted. My experience is opposite of yours. For me with the FOV lock disabled it felt like a more cinematic experience and the claustrophobic nature of the environment wasn't changed one bit. So I would say it's better for me but probably not for everyone. Everyone is free to choose whatever feels best for them. There are people who get motion sickness from a constricted FOV as well. There are people who couldn't play Bioshock until the option to disable FOV lock was included.

You always seem to mention what happens when you overdo a hack and that's never what I advocate. In my opinion modifying something like that is like adding spice you add to taste but not too much.

If you are to just argue that one should only play "as intended" then no one should ever change the settings past what is given on the Xbox360 by default and that includes the resolution... Bioshock should only be played in 1280x720 no matter what it's played on with a gamepad and default settings. IMO Mac\PC gaming should be a more flexible experience. Being able to change cvars to tweak for different hardware configurations and types of screens has always been a plus in my book.

The one thing in Bioshock I did hack was the crouch toggle. I changed it so you hold down the crouch key and when you let it go you stop crouching. For me that's more intuitive than having to tap it again to stop crouching... IMO that's more of a console thing... and I don't care if crouch toggle is what was "intended".

[edddeduck]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 29 November 2010 - 10:22 PM, said:

You always seem to mention what happens when you overdo a hack and that's never what I advocate. In my opinion modifying something like that is like adding spice you add to taste but not too much.

Not really, all I did in this thread was point out what the setting that was in the ini tweak would do. When the FOV was tweaked on my machine it looked weird as Fridgidman pointed out 85 would be a better FOV. Also I am slightly tempered by support emails if we get a few hundred inexperienced gamers reading the tweak list and breaking things left right and center I am the one with the support emails not you hence my comments are aimed at all gamers most of which do not understand or have ever used mods. As you know from your own actions the experienced modding gamers will just go and start hacking away no matter what I say The good thing is they also know how to start again if they break something.

Smoke_Tetsu, on 29 November 2010 - 10:22 PM, said:

If you are to just argue that one should only play "as intended" then no one should ever change the settings past what is given on the Xbox360 by default and that includes the resolution... Bioshock should only be played in 1280x720 no matter what it's played on with a gamepad and default settings.

I don't want to argue please!

If the Mac was a console your comment above might make some sense but the Mac version is based off the PC version which was designed for the PC specifically with, increased texture quality, increased graphical accuracy, additional shader effects, brand new control mechanism and a whole list of user selectable options in the pause menus. These options are all "as intended", when you start using the ini to tweak stuff you have entered into modding and you are no longer using the game as designed. This is not a bad thing but the crucial point I was trying to make is once you start modding you are now playing your own special version of the game which might be very different from the one that the original developers designed. That's all!

I hope you enjoy borderlands and please tell me what mods you do end up using I would be interested to try them out.

Edwin

p.s. I did debate the crouch toggle in BioShock but in the end we decided to leave it as the PC version as it made the final approvals a quicker process as it meant we had not modified the game. Perhaps we can sneak it into a patch

Edwin

[Frigidman™]

I'm always tweakin my games on the pc and mac. I try to find the happy balance of performance, and most frills as possible. This is something that cant come 'canned out of the box' for mac/pc games. Not like Consoles, where all hardware is basically the same. To this day, I am still fussing and modding oblivion, and still have yet to actually FINISH the game once. Borderlands I have added only supported patches. Havnt modded it further than just ini tweaks. Some games, you just don't need too... and borderlands is one of them. I found it pretty intense and awesome out of the box (after adjusting some graphics).

So, props for Feral on looking at all the mods and tweaks out there and taking them into account. Thats more than some companies do... who just turn a blind eye and hide behind shields.

[edddeduck]

Frigidman, on 30 November 2010 - 10:04 AM, said:

I'm always tweakin my games on the pc and mac. I try to find the happy balance of performance, and most frills as possible. This is something that cant come 'canned out of the box' for mac/pc games.

So, props for Feral on looking at all the mods and tweaks out there and taking them into account. Thats more than some companies do... who just turn a blind eye and hide behind shields.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Just to give a bit of backstory I went through all the mods and tweaks I could find on the net and tried them out anything that was a definite improvement we tried to get it added in (like the mouse scroll support) but ones that are more subjective like FOV etc I checked they worked like the PC but left them disabled so modders can use them if they wish. If you usually play as the sniper I have left my save games in the data which start at the very beginning of the second play-through none of the missions are complete but with a high base level (I completed all side quests etc in play-through 1) it means you pretty much need no grinding at all.

Edwin

[Smoke_Tetsu]

edddeduck, on 30 November 2010 - 06:24 AM, said:

Not really, all I did in this thread was point out what the setting that was in the ini tweak would do. When the FOV was tweaked on my machine it looked weird as Fridgidman pointed out 85 would be a better FOV. Also I am slightly tempered by support emails if we get a few hundred inexperienced gamers reading the tweak list and breaking things left right and center I am the one with the support emails not you hence my comments are aimed at all gamers most of which do not understand or have ever used mods. As you know from your own actions the experienced modding gamers will just go and start hacking away no matter what I say The good thing is they also know how to start again if they break something.

I don't want to argue please!

Sorry, it just seemed to me like you where begrudging people like me the choice from your own personal experience\preference.

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If the Mac was a console your comment above might make some sense but the Mac version is based off the PC version which was designed for the PC specifically with, increased texture quality, increased graphical accuracy, additional shader effects, brand new control mechanism and a whole list of user selectable options in the pause menus. These options are all "as intended",

Then the FOV unlock option being a user selectable option in the pause menu in Bioshock is "as intended" *nudge nudge* Many games today are made with console limitations in mind and certain people like the developrs at Crytek would back me on this. They said computers are easily 1 generation ahead of the consoles but many publishers don't see the financial incentive to target them apart from porting the game with higher screen resolution and more anti-aliasing being the main benefits (even Rage for example is one of those games as those where the things listed as benefits to the PC versions).  Not that some games don't have those things you listed (I can't honestly make a blanket statement saying they ALL don't) but just porting a game doesn't make that so unless they change for example the assets and often times they don't. Sometimes they say they do but it's just marketing talk to sell more units and most people don't know the difference because of the increase of screen resolution. They just see the increase of resolution and perhaps the increase of texture detail from raising the detail levels and assume the textures are different from on the console but they are just the same ones they are simply shown in an increased screen resolution\more full quality. The Xbox360 became the lead platform during Bioshock's dev cycle and so it was designed around its limitations including designing the FOV with playing from the sofa away from the screen rather than up close to a computer monitor (many other modern games especially on UE3 exhibit this as welll)... so it has a more zoomed in FOV by default so you can see it better in such an environment... also some of the textures even in the PC port where blurry and still are in the Mac version.

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when you start using the ini to tweak stuff you have entered into modding and you are no longer using the game as designed. This is not a bad thing but the crucial point I was trying to make is once you start modding you are now playing your own special version of the game which might be very different from the one that the original developers designed. That's all!

Well I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's totally your own version but it is more custom to a degree (depending on how much you modded it) than out of the box... yeah. Sometimes those ini\cfg files simply enable the full quality of something that can't be enabled in the in game menus. Like for example with many id tech 3 games they had r_roundimagesdown set to 1 which made certain textures blurrier than they are supposed to be (to save VRAM on older video cards that where current around the time the game came out). Tweaking your ini\cfg file and setting that to 0 enables the full quality which is especially good when your hardware outstrips the recommended system requirements. ... and that's why and is a benefit computers have over consoles. I would bet anything they didn't intend for those textures to be blurry.. it was just limitations at the time for the hardware most people where running. Sometimes the settings that are made available only in game without variable tweaks aren't one size fits all for all hardware and software configurations (and people... some people get motion sickness when the FOV is too zoomed in).

Like for example... they could come out with cinemascope 2.35:1 ratio computer monitors (they are already bringing out TVs like this) and if a game isn't hor+ automatically or locks the FOV to the same view you get in 16:9 or lower it would need adjustment... people who play with triplehead also experience this. I would love to play it in cinemascope as it would be even more cinematic in my eyes and even more like being there in person (it wouldn't be any less claustrophobic in person I'd say). Luckily BIoshock has a solution in place for just such a situation and should adjust itself once that option is toggled.

I like widescreen gamers forum's guides because they tend to calculate the FOV depending on resolution and aspect ratio such as this one for Borderlands.

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I hope you enjoy borderlands and please tell me what mods you do end up using I would be interested to try them out.

Well apart from minorly adjusting the FOV and the crouch toggle (see below) I don't do much to borderlands really as most options I change are exposed in the menus.... I doubt it'll be any different with the Mac version but we'll see.

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p.s. I did debate the crouch toggle in BioShock but in the end we decided to leave it as the PC version as it made the final approvals a quicker process as it meant we had not modified the game. Perhaps we can sneak it into a patch

Interesting, I'm glad I mentioned it (I also have to do that with borderlands now that I'm on the subject of crouch toggle).

Hold crouch instead of toggle Edit
WillowInput.ini Under:

[WillowGame.WillowPlayerInput]
Find:

advancedbutton bAdvancedButtonAux1 | SwitchSeats
Change to:

Duck | SwitchSeats

There are certain other games (from another publisher, first party.. not a port) where you can't even modify that certain through an ini file and that's... annoying. (singularity I'm looking at you)

Oh yeah the toggle aim thing might be a good one to add as a in game adjustable (for Borderlands) in the menus because of how many Macs use mice that don't allow you to hold down the right mouse button and click the left one at the same time.

Speaking of adding something to a patch are you ever going to enable the detail surfaces option (to Bioshock)?

[edddeduck]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 30 November 2010 - 01:08 PM, said:

Sorry, it just seemed to me like you where begrudging people like me the choice from your own personal experience\preference.

Oh yeah the toggle aim thing might be a good one to add as a in game adjustable (for Borderlands) in the menus because of how many Macs use mice that don't allow you to hold down the right mouse button and click the left one at the same time.

Speaking of adding something to a patch are you ever going to enable the detail surfaces option (to Bioshock)?

1.) That's fine I was more trying to make sure people knew that as soon as you start mod your game things *might* go wrong. I like modding personally just I know even with Rome mods (which are officially not supported) we still get the odd email or complaint about a problem that only occurs with a badly or buggy mod installed

2.) The toggle aim is a good suggestion for a patch. I have logged that idea in the tracker for the first patch.

3.) With all the new features that are in the newer 10.6 OS support for this feature should now be possible although with us being busy working on all the new titles we will have to see how much time it would take away from porting the next game. That's not a no but it is unlikely in the next few months looking at our busy schedule.

Edwin

[UmarOMC1]

...if you wanna throw my copy in the mail a day early I promise to tell NO ONE!

[edddeduck]

UmarOMC1, on 02 December 2010 - 07:40 AM, said:

...if you wanna throw my copy in the mail a day early I promise to tell NO ONE!

Sadly the public forum nature of the request makes that a little tricky

Edwin

[UmarOMC1]

edddeduck, on 02 December 2010 - 07:55 AM, said:

Sadly the public forum nature of the request makes that a little tricky

Edwin

Which is why I really only mean it in jest (no, really ). Some years back I worked for Electronics Boutique– now under the ubiquitous GameStop, which was once FuncoLand– and I remember some hoopla about KB Toys starting to sell something (I have no idea what it was) before they were supposed to which netted them a huge fine from the system or software's publisher and all other retailers were quick to follow suit, although, from the grapevine, only KB Toys was fined. Well, I can wait a day. But if you ever hear of some guy who's distraught wife received a copy of Borderlands: GOTY right after he died... you better start cryin'!

[edddeduck]

UmarOMC1, on 03 December 2010 - 03:32 AM, said:

I remember some hoopla about KB Toys starting to sell something (I have no idea what it was) before they were supposed to

Reminds me of my student job at Blockbuster watching movies before they had been released in the staff room