Options

Graphics tab in the Options window

Accessed via the main menu or the CTRL O hotkey, the options interface enables the customization of a great number of client-side attributes within SWG. The options are categorized into sections, selectable via the buttons on the left side of the associated interface.

Graphics

• Brightness: adjusts the brightness of your screen.
• Contrast: adjusts your game contrast. Higher contrast makes dark colors darker and light colors lighter.
• Gamma Contrast: gamma acts much like brightness, except it makes colors "glow" whereas brightness makes everything uniformly lighter.
• Enable bloom: "bloom" is a graphical effect that makes light sources glow and radiate light. This option only affects graphics in space.

• Viewing Distance: controls the distance at which terrain and game objects appear in your client's view.
• Field of View: determines how much of the game world is displayed on your screen by adjusting the width of your viewing space. Increasing this value shows more of the game world at one time, but displays objects out of proportion.

• Show Detail World Objects: displays world objects that don't have any function but simply add to the scenery, like pipes jutting from buildings.
• Fade Objects: gently fades in objects as they appear in your client's view instead of simply popping them into existence.
• Cross-Fade Levels of Detail: similarly, fades between low-detail and high-detail models for game objects as they get closer, rather than abruptly and jarringly switching between them.
• Use Low Detail for Distance Characters: draws low-detail models for character that are far away from you, saving processing time and improving FPS.
• Enable Character Lod Manager: "Lod" stands for "level of detail"; this option will cause your client to automatically control how many high- and medium-quality characters are rendered at one time.
• Simple Camera Collision (Faster): frees up some CPU power by making simpler but less accurate camera positioning calculations.

• World Detail Bias: like Viewing Distance, controls the distance at which buildings appear in your view.
• Static Object Level of Detail: controls the total detail of static game objects like boxes, trees, rocks, and others.
• Character Level of Detail: controls the total detail of character objects, including players, NPCs, and creatures.
• Particle System Level of Detail: modifies the quality of particle effects in the game, including blaster bolts, fire, smoke, and combat visual effects. It is recommended that players keep this value high, as many combat-related effects will not appear on screen if this value is too low (such as the targetting crosshairs from a Squad Leader's Volley Fire.
• Nebula Density (space): changes the density of nebulae in outer space.

• Render Shadows (ground): toggles the drawing of shadows on characters and static game objects. Shadows are an enormous rendering task and should only be turned on for high-end computers.
  • Character Shadows: controls the style of shadows drawn for players, NPCs, and creatures.
    • None: no shadows.
    • Simple: draws a simple dark circle beneath most characters.
    • Volumetric: draws shadows based on the shape of a character's body, as shadows behave in real life.
  • Non Character Shadows: controls the style of shadows drawn for game objects like trees, buildings, and other static objects.
    • None: no shadows.
    • Volumetric: draws shadows based on the shape of the game objects.
  • Shadow Detail: controls the total detail used when drawing all shadows.

• Save Screenshots As: determines the image format used when saving screenshots. Keep this on Jpgs with maximum quality.

Terrain

• Global Terrain Detail: adjusts the overall quality of terrain and terrain objects in game.
• Terrain High Detail Range: controls the distance at which terrain is drawn in "high-detail" mode.
• Render Distant Radial Flora: toggles the drawing of distant trees.
• Render Non-collidable Flora: uncheck this box to turn off the rendering of radial flora and other small bushes and plants that do not impede your game movement.
• Render Nearby Radial Flora: radial flora is the cosmetic grass and bushes you see close to your camera. The flora adds a lot to the visual experience of the game but requires significant processing power. Adjust this slider to control the distance radial flora will be drawn from your character.
• Water Detail: modifies the level of detail used when drawing water.

Sound

• Enable Sound: uncheck to completely mute all game sound.
• Max Sounds: limits the number of concurrent sound effects. Can decrease CPU load in hectic battles.
• Master Volume: controls the overall volume of the game.
• Effects Volume: raises or lowers the volume of special effects like background noise, blaster shots, creature noises, etc.
• Background Music Volume: controls the volume of background music that plays during combat and exploration.
• User Interface Volume: adjusts the volume of user interface sounds, including button clicks and beeps from tells.
• Player Music Volume: modifies the volume of player bands in cantinas.

• Sounds from character's perspective: adjusts the loudness and location of sounds based on where your character is, rather than where the camera is.

Combat

• Show Damage Numbers over Others: displays damage dealt to other characters as flytext over their positions.
• Show Damage Numbers over Self: displays damage received over your character as flytext.
• Damage Numbers Size: adjusts the physical size of damage numbers displayed over yourself and other characters.

Chat

• Default Chat Box Font Size: changes the point size of text in your chat box windows. This can also be changed by holding Control and moving your mouse wheel while your cursor is over a chat window.
• Chat Formatting: choose one of three styles for displaying chat text from others:
  • Prose: adds grammatical and punctuational flair to chat. Uses a variety of styles when formatting text, by splitting sentences ("Hello," says Korren. "How are you today?") and repositioning text to create a varied reading experience.
  • Diku MUD Style: chat will always be formatted in the same way (Korren says, "Hello. How are you today?").
  • Brief: minimal flair, stripping most conversations down to the bare minimum said (Korren [says]: Hello. How are you today?).

• Profanity Filter On: replaces all profane words (most curses as well as other "inappropriate" remarks) with a random combination of symbols. Also filters player names that contain offensive words within them, like "Essex" ("sex" is filtered so the name looks like "Es&$*").
• Show Chat From AFK Players: unchecking this box can help cut down on AFK spam in starports, but will also prevent you from hearing yourself speak should you be AFK.
• Perform Animations When Speaking: allows the game to automatically animate your character in a variety of social gestures when you speak certain keyword triggers.
• Timestamp Incoming Messages: puts the time of each chat message at the beginning of a chat line.
• Chat Box Keyclick: causes a short "click" sound to play each time you type a letter in a chat box.

• Chat Bubbles Enabled: check box to draw bubbles with other players' chat text in them above each character's head. Uncheck this if you do not wish to see the bubbles, perhaps if you're taking screenshots.
  • Chat Bubble Range: modifies the distance at which chat bubbles can be seen.
  • Chat Bubble Font Size: alters the point size of the font used when drawing chat bubble text.
  • Chat Bubble Duration: controls how long chat bubbles stay active above a character's head.
  • Prose Style Chat Bubble Text: automatically capitalizes the first letter in each sentence in a chat bubble. Uncheck this to display bubbles exactly as they are shown in your chat box.
  • Chat Bubbles Show Emotes: toggles the display of emotes in chat bubbles (actions like /wave).
  • Show Chat Bubbles For All Others: checking this forces all the following check boxes:
    • Show Chat Bubbles For...: individually toggles the display of chat bubbles for the player, other players, NPCs, guild members, and group members.

• Brief Combat Messages: limits combat spam to "Korren hits a bolma male 528 points".
• Verbose Combat Messages: at a minimum, adds the special attack used to combat spam, as well as displaying it in a prose format. Optionally can include the following information:
  • Show Attacker's Weapon: displays the name of the weapon used in the attack.
  • Show Damage Detail: gives the amount of energy/kinetic and elemental damage applied in the attack.
  • Show Armor Absorption: shows the total damage absorbed by the target's armor.