Configuration and options

Pass options when running openreliant:

./openreliant [<game-directory>] [<option>...]

If omitted, game-directory defaults to the current working directory ..

The original

OpenReliant improves on the original's look and sound. --original turns the improvements off, and an option after it turns one back on.

Option Description
--original The original's look and sound: 16-bit colour, one sample a pixel, bilinear filtering, lighting each vertex, light worked out on encoded colours, no shadows, motion that moves on with the game's ticks, a launching ship a frame behind the retainer that lowers it, lights from the latest shots only, muzzle flashes that light nothing and none from the turrets, a jump's flare that lights nothing, the force feedback's own effects only, a blow shaking the camera only while the controller rumbles, an explosion's debris lit by every light, its fireballs, rings, particles and burning bits as few, plain and brief as the original's, the Uber Explode as coarse, unlit and tied to the frame rate as the original's, a damaged ship's smoke as even as the original's, the shields' bubbles as coarse as the original's, the tractor beams as thin as the original's, the hangar's beacons falling short of the launching ship, a ship landing on the Reliant tilted as it came, its tube's door left open, the planets' atmospheres as coarse and fleeting as the original's and their terminators as hard, the Ice Field's rocks drawn only near the middle of the view, the loading screen's picture picked by the screen's width, the movies drawn at their size in the middle of the screen with Bink's blocks and its colour in steps of two pixels, the gates' tunnels as coarse as the original's, the ride through the worm rumbling the more often the higher the frame rate, the sun and its lens flares from their small textures and the sun's glow going out at once behind what hides it, the levels of detail changing as near as the original's, the marker for a target out of sight placed as the original misplaces it, a missile's sound left where it was launched, the radio's lines cut flat at their loudest and heard dry, Enriquez's last word in the briefing as loud as its recording, the loadout's ships and missiles solid, the interface's text in the game's bitmap fonts, and the sound mixed plainly in stereo

The mission

Option Description
--mission <number> Start this mission right away instead of opening the main menu. The number is the one in the mission's file name, mission<number>.dte, loaded from a mod, the game's missions folder or resource.hog. Mission 0 is OpenReliant's sandbox, which is built into openreliant for games without a mission 0
--ship <type> The ship type to fly, by its number in shipstats.bin or its name, such as predator or a mod's teapot:teapot (The records), in place of the loadout screen's choice, with its default missiles; the mission's own by default, the Predator in mission 0
--view <0\|1\|2> The view it starts in, as the game's settings keep it: 0 the cockpit; 1 the chase view; 2 no cockpit. The settings' own by default, which the settings screen's VIDEO changes, or 0 without them
--difficulty <easy\|medium\|hard> The game's difficulty: how hard hits land on your ship, and shots on the enemy. By default, as in the game, medium with --mission, where a new campaign's starts, and easy in the main menu until SET GAME DIFFICULTY sets it
--music <file> A piece from the game's music folder to play from the start, until the mission's script plays its own; none by default
--no-pause-menu With --mission, fly the mission again as soon as it ends, where it otherwise ends in the game's pause menu
--skip-launch With --mission, play the player's launch through without drawing it, so that the mission shows from the moment the ship is out; --screenshot-ticks count from there
--part <name\|number> With --mission, run this part of the mission's script once the player's launch is over, as a trigger would. Name it by its number, or by its name or a piece of it in any case, as sltool dte parts lists them, such as --part "antanov in". Give it again for more parts, up to 8, which run in the order given. The part runs where the mission is, so a part that needs ships from an earlier part may find them missing
--watch <name\|number> With --mission, watch this ship of the mission once the player's launch is over and the ship is there, from a place beside it that moves with it. Name it by its number, or by its name or a piece of it in any case, as sltool dte ships lists them. It is the game's own watch view, with the bars of a cutscene and no head-up display; the mission's script can still take the camera, and then keeps it
--watch-from <x,y,z> Where --watch watches from, in the ship's own axes, in multiples of its size: x to its right, y down and z ahead. 1,-0.5,2.5 by default: ahead of it, to its right and above

Display

Option Description
--fullscreen Fill the display; Alt and Enter switch while playing
--size <width>x<height>\|<percent>% Draw frames of this size in pixels whatever the window's, which shows them scaled, as for a screenshot larger than the display; or a share of the window's own, such as 50%, to draw faster; the window's own by default
--fps <rate> Frames a second at most; without vsync, the display's rate by default; 0 for no limit
--no-vsync Draw without waiting for the display

Graphics

Option Description
--software Draw on the software device, OpenReliant's reference, rather than the GPU
--16-bit 16-bit colour, dithered
--msaa <1\|2\|4\|8> Samples a pixel, for smooth edges; 4 by default
--filter <original\|trilinear\|crisp> How textures are filtered; crisp by default (trilinear, sixteen times anisotropic, and magnified with a Catmull-Rom filter, or the nebulae with a smooth cubic one; the bitmap fonts' text is drawn crisp from its glyphs' coverage)
--no-bloom Draw without the bloom around bright things
--no-dither Draw 32-bit colour without dithering
--no-pixel-lighting Light each vertex rather than each pixel, as the original does
--gamma-space Light, blend and filter the encoded colours, as the original does, rather than in linear light
--no-materials Ignore the material maps of mod textures: no normal maps, reflections or emissive glow, and the original highlights instead of the maps' highlights (Modding)
--shadows <off\|low\|high> Shadows from the sun: low is soft and light on older GPUs, high sharp and smooth; high by default, and none without lighting each pixel
--no-cockpit-shadows Leave the shadows out of the cockpit, keeping them on the ships
--no-smooth-motion Move what moves on with the game's ticks, a hundred a second, as the original does, rather than on every frame
--few-shot-lights Light only the latest two of the player's shots and the latest two of everyone else's, as the original does
--baked-lights Bake the steady lights of ships and stations into their hulls, as the original does, rather than shine them as lights on what stands near (Rendering)
--launch-steam original\|soft The Yamato's launch steam: original brightness or softer jets with less glare. Defaults to soft; --original selects original (Launches)
--uncompressed-textures Keep the mods' pictures uncompressed on the GPU, as 8-bit RGBA, rather than compressed in BC7 and BC5: four times the memory, and a slower start (Modding)
--bitmap-fonts Draw the interface text with the original bitmap fonts, scaled up to the window, instead of outline fonts drawn at the window's resolution (the built-in Newtown, or a font from a mod) (Modding)
--no-mod-effects Don't draw the mods' shaders: their post effects, their surface and lighting functions, and their replacements for OpenReliant's shaders (Post effects)

Sound

Option Description
--hrtf Place the sounds for headphones whatever the output; by default they are while the output is headphones
--no-hrtf Place the sounds for speakers whatever the output
--no-reverb Play the sounds around you, the cockpit's voice and the Reliant's rooms without reverb
--no-compressor Leave the mix's loudness as it is, only keeping its peaks in check
--no-sound Play without sound

Other options

Option Description
--no-mods Start without the mods in the game's mods folder (Modding)
--no-intro Start without the three movies the game plays as it starts, as --mission and --screenshot do
--developer-mode The tools for writing mods' scripts: the scripting console, which F11 brings up where a mod has scripts, and folder mods' scripts reloading when they or their shaders are saved (Scripting)
--screenshot <file.png> Draw one frame, with the camera settled, to a PNG, and quit; the controls, the [OpenReliant] settings and the details in [Device] are not read, so that it comes out the same each time
--screenshot-ticks <ticks> With --screenshot, how many game ticks to run first, one a frame, so that the scene plays out; 2 by default
--version Show the version
-h, --help Show the help page

Commands

Command Description
openreliant install Install the game's files from the StarLancer discs into a directory
openreliant joysticks List the joysticks and gamepads, and which one the game uses
openreliant missions List the game's missions, its own and those added to its missions folder, and check that each loads

Each command's --help shows its options.

Missions of your own

A mission file named mission<number>.dte, stored expanded, in the missions folder of the game's directory plays in place of that mission, as it does in the original: the game reads a loose file before its own copy in resource.hog. The retail game ships two, mission18.dte and mission25.dte. Check that a mission loads with:

./openreliant missions StarLancer

It lists every mission, where each comes from (loose or archive), and what its file holds, including the ship type and name of the player's own record, and says which fail to load. A mission can carry a name for OpenReliant to show, in a section of the file the original game ignores: see OpenReliant's mission name.

In-flight keys

The flight keys are the game's own, as starlancer.ini binds them. Among them:

Key Action
Escape Open the pause menu
F1 Open the controls (Controllers and input)
1 to 8 Camera views: 1 cockpit, 2 left, 3 right, 4 rear, 5 flyby, 6 target, 7 external, 8 missile
C Open the radio menu, whose number keys call your wingmen and the base
F5 to F8 Give orders to your wingmen, and request landing
0 Save a screenshot, a PNG in the screenshots folder of the game directory; O does the same in the briefing

In the target view (6) and external view (7), arrow keys orbit around the object and Shift with Up or Down zooms.

OpenReliant adds:

Key Action
F2, F3 In the sandbox, start it again in the previous or next ship type
F4 In the sandbox, bring in another wing
F11 In the developer mode, the scripting console, where a mod has scripts, in the menus too (Scripting)
Alt+Enter Switch between windowed and fullscreen mode

Configuration file (starlancer.ini)

Settings are read from starlancer.ini in the game directory. The game keeps its volumes, its view and its brightness there:

[Sound]
Mastervolume=127
Fxvolume=80
Musicvolume=80
Speechvolume=127

[Device]
View=0
gamma=100
Transitions=1

[Sound] keeps the four volumes, from 0 to 127, which the settings screen's AUDIO changes. [Device] keeps the view a mission starts in (View: 0 the cockpit, 1 the chase view, 2 no cockpit), the brightness in hundredths (gamma), whether the movies between the front end's screens and into the Reliant's rooms play (Transitions, 1 or 0), and the details, which take effect at the next start: the texture detail (Tdetail: 0 low, 1 medium, 2 high), the graphic detail (Gdetail, the same) and the light maps (Lmaps, 1 or 0). The settings screen's VIDEO changes them all. A screenshot taken with --screenshot draws at the highest details, whatever the file says. The controller's settings and the bindings, in [KeyConfig] and [JoyConfig], are in Controllers and input.

OpenReliant's settings

OpenReliant keeps its own settings in the same file, in its [OpenReliant] section, which the original game never reads. They are the options above, kept from one run to the next. Options on the command line change them for that run only.

[OpenReliant]
Original=1
Bloom=1
Samples=8
Setting Values Option
Original 1 for the original's look and sound; the settings below then change it. VIDEO's GRAPHICS writes it: ORIGINAL as 1, MODERN by taking it out --original
Fullscreen 1 or 0, which VIDEO's FULL SCREEN sets --fullscreen
Size <width>x<height>, or a share of the window's own such as 50%, which VIDEO's RESOLUTION sets --size
FrameRate Frames a second at most, which VIDEO's FRAME RATE LIMIT sets; 0 for no limit, and without it, the display's rate where vsync is off --fps
Vsync 1 or 0, which VIDEO's VSYNC sets --no-vsync
Software 1 or 0 --software
SixteenBit 1 or 0, which VIDEO's COLOR DEPTH sets: 16-BIT or 32-BIT --16-bit
Samples 1, 2, 4 or 8, which VIDEO's ANTI-ALIASING sets --msaa
Filter original, trilinear or crisp, which VIDEO's TEXTURE FILTER sets --filter
Bloom 1 or 0, which VIDEO's BLOOM sets --no-bloom
Dither 1 or 0, which VIDEO's DITHER sets --no-dither
PixelLighting 1 or 0, which VIDEO's PER-PIXEL LIGHTING sets --no-pixel-lighting
LinearLight 1 or 0, which VIDEO's LINEAR LIGHT sets --gamma-space
Materials 1 or 0, which VIDEO's MATERIALS sets --no-materials
Shadows off, low or high, which VIDEO's SHADOWS sets --shadows
CockpitShadows 1 or 0, which VIDEO's COCKPIT SHADOWS sets --no-cockpit-shadows
SmoothMotion 1 or 0, which VIDEO's SMOOTH MOTION sets --no-smooth-motion
ShotLights 1: every shot lights the ships it passes; 0: the latest two of each side's, as the original; which VIDEO's SHOT LIGHTS sets --few-shot-lights
RealLights 1: the steady lights of ships and stations shine on what stands near; 0: they are baked into their hulls, as the original; which VIDEO's REAL LIGHTS sets --baked-lights
OutlineFonts 1 or 0, which VIDEO's OUTLINE FONTS sets: the interface's text drawn from outline fonts, or in the game's bitmap fonts --bitmap-fonts
ModEffects 1 or 0, which VIDEO's MOD EFFECTS sets: whether the mods' shaders draw: their post effects, their surface and lighting functions (Post effects), and, from the next start, their replacements for OpenReliant's shaders. GRAPHICS' presets and Original leave it as it is --no-mod-effects
Hrtf auto, on or off, which AUDIO's 3D SOUND sets: AUTOMATIC, HEADPHONES or SPEAKERS --hrtf, --no-hrtf
Reverb 1 or 0, which AUDIO's REVERB sets --no-reverb
Compressor 1 or 0, which AUDIO's COMPRESSOR sets --no-compressor
DeveloperMode 1 or 0; 0 by default --developer-mode
TextureCompression 1 or 0; 1 by default: the mods' pictures compressed for the GPU (Modding) --uncompressed-textures

The mods screen keeps which mods are on, and the order they load in, in a section of its own, [OpenReliantMods] (The mods screen).

In the example, the game has the original's look and sound, but with the bloom and eight samples a pixel. A setting you leave out keeps its default, or Original's where it is 1.

The settings screen keeps the graphics' settings so: a preset chosen with VIDEO's GRAPHICS is written as Original alone, and a graphics option changed after it is written only where it differs from what Original gives, and taken out where it is the same. As Original plays the original's mixer, ORIGINAL writes Hrtf, Reverb and Compressor beside it while OpenAL Soft plays the sound, so that the sound stays as AUDIO has it. A screenshot taken with --screenshot leaves this section out, so that it comes out the same for everyone.

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