CrazyCanuck
06-18-2008, 11:16 AM
Ok everyone..heres some hints tips to get your COD4 running the way its supposed to.
1) if you are using an LCD monitor ensure you are running the monitor and the game at the Native resolution of the monitor.
-whats Native resolution you may ask??
Native resolution is the resolution that your lcd monitor is "suppossed" to run at. EG. a 22 inch widescreen lcd monitor usually runs at 1680x 1050 resolution with a 16:10 apsect ratio.
WINDOWS XP/PRO
Best way to check your LCD monitors native resolution is to find a blank spot on your desktop, right click your mouse and go to "properties" then choose the "settings" tab and move slider all the way to the right. click apply and your there.
WINDOWS VISTA
1) Open Display Settings by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, clicking Personalization, and then clicking Display Settings.
2) Under Resolution, move the slider to the resolution you want( all the way to right is highest), and then click Apply.
options menu settings, after you started game in menu
choose options then graphics
1) video mode - select the same resolution that you have set for your desktop..(native resolution)
2) refresh rate - for lcd monitors 60 khz is just fine, the difference really plays a role with old style CRT monitors. They render the images as pictures at "X" times per second. the refresh rate is how many times a second a CRT monitor will "flash" or change the image per second. For CRT monitors its prefferable to use them at a higher refresh rate. 75-80 khz. this helps reduce eye strain and makes for a nicer image as well. LCD monitors display the images in a different way and refresh rate really doesn't have a large effect at all. although some say that a higher refresh rate doesn't hurt either for LCDs in game.
3) aspect ratio.- set this to your monitors requirements. again a 22inch widescreen lcd monitor will usually run at 16:10 aspect ratio. ( try not to use the auto setting as the game may not pick up the proper setting on its own) if your unsure your monitors owners manual will tell you or check with the manufacturer.( i bet you wished you kept the manual now eh??!,lol)
4) anti aliasing settings ..start at 2x and see how the game looks. this setting helps smooth out lines ingame. with AA turned off lines look jagged and unrefined..you will give up a few FPS for a higher setting. if you have a good video card then try a higher setting, that bad boy can handle it. if you have an older or budget model of video card leave at 2x.
5) sync every frame...turn this off or to no. This setting ties your frame rate to the refresh rate of your monitor. It has some benefits , but only at specific times and when getting problems with screen tearing.
6) dual video cards..unless you are running an SLI setup or crossfire setup select off or NO
7) shadows..this is 'eye candy" the game renders shadows anyways this mode sharpens and deepens the shadows for "realism" . you will sacrifice frame rate for this setting. unless you are running a high end rig select no or off.
8) specular map..this helps with more "realistic lighting effects" again its eye candy..you have a system or card that can handle it and not lose some frames turn it on..you want to gain a few frames select no or off
9) depth of field...this setting again is for a more realistic look. more eye candy. same as above for specular map. ( i do leave this on myself)
10) glow setting...again eye candy...if your playing a night map and there is a full moon in the sky..the full moon will have a more realistic "glowing effect" for example.
11) dynamic lighting..again makes the game look nicer..i would leave this set at normal for pretty much everyone aside from the lowest spec systems
12) soften smoke edges..eye candy. when a smoke nade is tossed or a vehicle blows up the emerging smoke looks more "fluffy and realistic"
13) Ragdoll..this setting again improves the physics of the game. when you shoot a player off a roof or ladder the body will fall limp to the ground and look realistic. turn this on but as a note you will lose about 10% of your frame rates for this setting. as it renders the ragdoll effects for all action around you and not just what you see. high end cards its no biggie..lower cards i would personally gain FPS and turn it off.
14) bullet impacts...doesn't make a huge difference. when you shoot a wall you see the impact points..i leave this on regardless.
15) model detail..unless you have a very low end system..leave on normal..switch to low if you really have to. but this drops the amount of detail you see on buildings and cars and objects..brick looks more a solid colour then textured.
16) water detail...same as above..leave on normal unless your system is really pushing to play the game..this will make the water look "static" doesn't move and no realistc shimmering if set on low.
TEXTURE SETTINGS
basically i would leave these on automatic for most users..
foir high end system you can go in and manually set these to "extra" for a little more eye candy and more relaistic textures on walls and surfaces.
1) texture filtering..trilinear is the better of the two and bilinear is the lower..i leave mine on auto and the system has done well in making the choice for me.
2) Texture Quality ...leave at auto or you can go in and make some changes...extra for higher end systems will make surfaces look nicer or low for lower end systems.
FOR THE NEXT SECTION MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR CONSOLE ENABLED TO USE INGAME
- to enable console ..go to game options and select to enable console "yes"
- to turn on your console hit the tilde key " ~ " <<< that squiggley looking thing right side of keyboard usually beside the #1 key or above the "tab" key
_ type the commands as you see me put them in here including the slashes.
1) /com_maxfps *** << this command typed in the console sets your games maximum fps rate. default is 85 i believe but i have mine set to 125. some servers will not allow above 125 FPS. setting to zero is fun to see what your game can do but can cause "spike lag". this is when your frame rate jumps to extremes too fast and your system cannot keep up. you can set this number to what ever you like though. i would suggest 125 fps as this gives you enough over head for graphically intensive times and the game runs glass smooth as well. ( where i have put *** is where you enter your numbers and the space between maxfps and the numbers is required)
2) /cg_drawfps 1 <<< this setting will show you your ingame fps rate without having to resort to a third program like fraps. the #1 is to draw "simple" fps rate as compared to a whole wack of other information.
3)/cg_drawlagometer 1 <<< this command turns on a nifty little tool that helps you see the general performance of the server data and your system perfomance to help you see where any "lag" is stemming from. also it can tell you other information..here is a link that can help you see what else it does.
http://gameadmins.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=5
heres a basic description for you lazy ones..lol
- Top meter on graph. If blue, (or blue with small amounts of yellow) then you system is in synch and your screen/system is refreshing in synch with the server’s perspective of the game world. If Yellow, then you are having issues and your screen/system may not be in synch with what the server thinks is happeing.. in blue shows how well your graphics card is staying in synch with the server as it relates to rendering the gaming environment. A few yellow items is OK but you want the vast majority to be blue. If you have a lot of yellow, this means that your graphics rendering and server rendering of the gameworld is out of synch. The smoother the flow on this meter, the better.
- Bottom meter should be all or mostly green. Lots of yellow or red means there are issues. When you spawn or die, you can sometimes see lots of RED , this seems to be OK. If you are all green, then you can consider changing your cl_packetdup to 0 and you can increase your cl_maxpackets
4) /cg_fov 80 <<< this setting changes your field of view from 80 degrees from the default 65. 65 degrees field of view is more tweaked to consoles and not pc's which have usually had this set at 80 degrees. Just a note this will impact your frame rate..so if your system is already pushing to play the game i would leave this alone.
5) /maxpackets 100 << this will help players who have a good fps rate but bad registration...(long story) but this setting works fine for most players with no problems
6) /snaps 30 <<This command tells your cod4 server how many times to update positions of players, bullets ect per second. Default its 20 setting it to "/snaps 30" should make movement look smother and hits register better. i ahve had this setting up as high as 40 in coduop..but never tried it in cod4 and wouldn't suggest going beyond 40 in anycase.
*** heres a link to a post i put in earlier to bind your backspace key as a single button to turn demo recording on and off for you,
http://www.theoldbreed.com/showthread.php?t=5712
**** heres a link to a neat little program to help you backup your player profile in cod4 with out having to go digging around your program files to find it. just change you serttings to put folder in a place you want to keep it(or leave the default ones) and after playing just click the icon on your desktop and it will automatically make a backup copy of your player profile. this does not work for custom servers..only ranked servers and your main profile. although being honest changing the path the backup program goes to find the profile can easily be changed and back up for Cutom mods as well as far as i can see.
http://files.filefront.com/CallofDuty4Backup092+Sepexe/;9118620;/fileinfo.html
If anyone has any questions please feel free to pm me and i will most certainly be happy to sit on TS and help you with this ..its actually very simple and can these changes can make the game play way better and look a lot nicer and play smoother for some people...these commands can be made as changes in the MP_config file..but i don't reccomend this for most players as most people haven't forayed into these files and doing this can cause some major problems if not handled correctly.
1) if you are using an LCD monitor ensure you are running the monitor and the game at the Native resolution of the monitor.
-whats Native resolution you may ask??
Native resolution is the resolution that your lcd monitor is "suppossed" to run at. EG. a 22 inch widescreen lcd monitor usually runs at 1680x 1050 resolution with a 16:10 apsect ratio.
WINDOWS XP/PRO
Best way to check your LCD monitors native resolution is to find a blank spot on your desktop, right click your mouse and go to "properties" then choose the "settings" tab and move slider all the way to the right. click apply and your there.
WINDOWS VISTA
1) Open Display Settings by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, clicking Personalization, and then clicking Display Settings.
2) Under Resolution, move the slider to the resolution you want( all the way to right is highest), and then click Apply.
options menu settings, after you started game in menu
choose options then graphics
1) video mode - select the same resolution that you have set for your desktop..(native resolution)
2) refresh rate - for lcd monitors 60 khz is just fine, the difference really plays a role with old style CRT monitors. They render the images as pictures at "X" times per second. the refresh rate is how many times a second a CRT monitor will "flash" or change the image per second. For CRT monitors its prefferable to use them at a higher refresh rate. 75-80 khz. this helps reduce eye strain and makes for a nicer image as well. LCD monitors display the images in a different way and refresh rate really doesn't have a large effect at all. although some say that a higher refresh rate doesn't hurt either for LCDs in game.
3) aspect ratio.- set this to your monitors requirements. again a 22inch widescreen lcd monitor will usually run at 16:10 aspect ratio. ( try not to use the auto setting as the game may not pick up the proper setting on its own) if your unsure your monitors owners manual will tell you or check with the manufacturer.( i bet you wished you kept the manual now eh??!,lol)
4) anti aliasing settings ..start at 2x and see how the game looks. this setting helps smooth out lines ingame. with AA turned off lines look jagged and unrefined..you will give up a few FPS for a higher setting. if you have a good video card then try a higher setting, that bad boy can handle it. if you have an older or budget model of video card leave at 2x.
5) sync every frame...turn this off or to no. This setting ties your frame rate to the refresh rate of your monitor. It has some benefits , but only at specific times and when getting problems with screen tearing.
6) dual video cards..unless you are running an SLI setup or crossfire setup select off or NO
7) shadows..this is 'eye candy" the game renders shadows anyways this mode sharpens and deepens the shadows for "realism" . you will sacrifice frame rate for this setting. unless you are running a high end rig select no or off.
8) specular map..this helps with more "realistic lighting effects" again its eye candy..you have a system or card that can handle it and not lose some frames turn it on..you want to gain a few frames select no or off
9) depth of field...this setting again is for a more realistic look. more eye candy. same as above for specular map. ( i do leave this on myself)
10) glow setting...again eye candy...if your playing a night map and there is a full moon in the sky..the full moon will have a more realistic "glowing effect" for example.
11) dynamic lighting..again makes the game look nicer..i would leave this set at normal for pretty much everyone aside from the lowest spec systems
12) soften smoke edges..eye candy. when a smoke nade is tossed or a vehicle blows up the emerging smoke looks more "fluffy and realistic"
13) Ragdoll..this setting again improves the physics of the game. when you shoot a player off a roof or ladder the body will fall limp to the ground and look realistic. turn this on but as a note you will lose about 10% of your frame rates for this setting. as it renders the ragdoll effects for all action around you and not just what you see. high end cards its no biggie..lower cards i would personally gain FPS and turn it off.
14) bullet impacts...doesn't make a huge difference. when you shoot a wall you see the impact points..i leave this on regardless.
15) model detail..unless you have a very low end system..leave on normal..switch to low if you really have to. but this drops the amount of detail you see on buildings and cars and objects..brick looks more a solid colour then textured.
16) water detail...same as above..leave on normal unless your system is really pushing to play the game..this will make the water look "static" doesn't move and no realistc shimmering if set on low.
TEXTURE SETTINGS
basically i would leave these on automatic for most users..
foir high end system you can go in and manually set these to "extra" for a little more eye candy and more relaistic textures on walls and surfaces.
1) texture filtering..trilinear is the better of the two and bilinear is the lower..i leave mine on auto and the system has done well in making the choice for me.
2) Texture Quality ...leave at auto or you can go in and make some changes...extra for higher end systems will make surfaces look nicer or low for lower end systems.
FOR THE NEXT SECTION MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR CONSOLE ENABLED TO USE INGAME
- to enable console ..go to game options and select to enable console "yes"
- to turn on your console hit the tilde key " ~ " <<< that squiggley looking thing right side of keyboard usually beside the #1 key or above the "tab" key
_ type the commands as you see me put them in here including the slashes.
1) /com_maxfps *** << this command typed in the console sets your games maximum fps rate. default is 85 i believe but i have mine set to 125. some servers will not allow above 125 FPS. setting to zero is fun to see what your game can do but can cause "spike lag". this is when your frame rate jumps to extremes too fast and your system cannot keep up. you can set this number to what ever you like though. i would suggest 125 fps as this gives you enough over head for graphically intensive times and the game runs glass smooth as well. ( where i have put *** is where you enter your numbers and the space between maxfps and the numbers is required)
2) /cg_drawfps 1 <<< this setting will show you your ingame fps rate without having to resort to a third program like fraps. the #1 is to draw "simple" fps rate as compared to a whole wack of other information.
3)/cg_drawlagometer 1 <<< this command turns on a nifty little tool that helps you see the general performance of the server data and your system perfomance to help you see where any "lag" is stemming from. also it can tell you other information..here is a link that can help you see what else it does.
http://gameadmins.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=5
heres a basic description for you lazy ones..lol
- Top meter on graph. If blue, (or blue with small amounts of yellow) then you system is in synch and your screen/system is refreshing in synch with the server’s perspective of the game world. If Yellow, then you are having issues and your screen/system may not be in synch with what the server thinks is happeing.. in blue shows how well your graphics card is staying in synch with the server as it relates to rendering the gaming environment. A few yellow items is OK but you want the vast majority to be blue. If you have a lot of yellow, this means that your graphics rendering and server rendering of the gameworld is out of synch. The smoother the flow on this meter, the better.
- Bottom meter should be all or mostly green. Lots of yellow or red means there are issues. When you spawn or die, you can sometimes see lots of RED , this seems to be OK. If you are all green, then you can consider changing your cl_packetdup to 0 and you can increase your cl_maxpackets
4) /cg_fov 80 <<< this setting changes your field of view from 80 degrees from the default 65. 65 degrees field of view is more tweaked to consoles and not pc's which have usually had this set at 80 degrees. Just a note this will impact your frame rate..so if your system is already pushing to play the game i would leave this alone.
5) /maxpackets 100 << this will help players who have a good fps rate but bad registration...(long story) but this setting works fine for most players with no problems
6) /snaps 30 <<This command tells your cod4 server how many times to update positions of players, bullets ect per second. Default its 20 setting it to "/snaps 30" should make movement look smother and hits register better. i ahve had this setting up as high as 40 in coduop..but never tried it in cod4 and wouldn't suggest going beyond 40 in anycase.
*** heres a link to a post i put in earlier to bind your backspace key as a single button to turn demo recording on and off for you,
http://www.theoldbreed.com/showthread.php?t=5712
**** heres a link to a neat little program to help you backup your player profile in cod4 with out having to go digging around your program files to find it. just change you serttings to put folder in a place you want to keep it(or leave the default ones) and after playing just click the icon on your desktop and it will automatically make a backup copy of your player profile. this does not work for custom servers..only ranked servers and your main profile. although being honest changing the path the backup program goes to find the profile can easily be changed and back up for Cutom mods as well as far as i can see.
http://files.filefront.com/CallofDuty4Backup092+Sepexe/;9118620;/fileinfo.html
If anyone has any questions please feel free to pm me and i will most certainly be happy to sit on TS and help you with this ..its actually very simple and can these changes can make the game play way better and look a lot nicer and play smoother for some people...these commands can be made as changes in the MP_config file..but i don't reccomend this for most players as most people haven't forayed into these files and doing this can cause some major problems if not handled correctly.