Provided by: freespace2_3.7.0+repack-1_amd64 
NAME
fs2_open - manual page for FreeSpace 2 Open
SYNOPSIS
fs2_open
DESCRIPTION
FreeSpace 2 Open Website: http://scp.indiegames.us Mantis (bug reporting): http://scp.indiegames.us/mantis/
OPTIONS
Usage: fs2_open [options]
Graphic:
-spec Enable specular
Only polygons mapped with textures for which a shinemap exists will receive specular mapping; no
attempt is made to generate spec maps where they do not exist. Specular maps are specified with
the base map name plus "-shine" (i.e. TCov3A-shine.pcx).
FS2 Open, 3.6.15: This feature is on by default, use launcher option Disable Specular or if
necessary to manually disable enter the flag -nospec
-glow Enable glow maps
Only polygons mapped with textures for which a glowmap exists will be glowmapped. Glow maps are
specified with the base map name plus "-glow" (i.e. TCov4A-glow.pcx)
FS2 Open, 3.6.15: This feature is on by default, use launcher option Disable Glow Maps or if
necessary to manually disable enter the flag -noglow
-env Enable environment maps
It only works if -spec is also set. Environment mapping intensity will be determined from the
shine map too (see Texturing for more info). See Video setup.
FS2 Open, 3.6.15: This feature is on by default, use launcher option Disable Environment Maps or
if necessary to manually disable enter the flag -noenv
-mipmap
Enable mipmapping
Causes for non-mipmapped textures to have mipmaps generated within the GPU on certain kind of
texture formats, (IIRC, DDS formatted textures with a power of 2 size in both width and height).
Since the use of already mipmapped DDS textures has become common, it has become deprecated. The
quality of the generated mipmaps depends on each GPU and used driver. It is normally used with
-img2dds flag.
-nomotiondebris
Disable motion debris
-noscalevid
Disable scale-to-window for movies
Disables fullscreen scaling of video clips.
-missile_lighting
Apply lighting to missiles
-normal
Enable normal maps
Normal maps require GLSL rendering, (see OpenGL Shaders (GLSL) for further info). It needs
auxiliary normal maps (the same name of the base map plus "-normal"). DXT5_NM DDS format is
needed. (Technical note: DXT5 will work, since only the GREEN and ALPHA channels are read by the
current shader system. One direction of lines goes into the GREEN channel, the other direction
goes into the ALPHA channel. RED and BLUE can be either base gray (#808080) or black. Usual
practice is after creating the DXT5_NM, copy the RED channel to the ALPHA channel, black out the
RED and BLUE an then save as either a DXT5 or u8888 (uncompressed) DDS file.)
FS2 Open, 3.6.15: This feature is on by default, use launcher option Disable Normal Maps or if
necessary to manually disable enter the flag -nonormal
-3dshockwave
Enable 3D shockwaves
This only has any effect when both a 2d and 3d shockwave effect are present, otherwise the only
available effect is used.
-post_process
Enable post processing
enables the use (if present) of post-processing effects as defined by the post_process.tbl. Bloom
usage has an additional cmdline option for setting it's value, most post processing effects are
achieved in mission per the mission designer or can be enabled globally in the table.
-soft_particles
Enable soft particles
-fxaa Enable FXAA anti-aliasing
Enables the FXAA postprocessing stage. Needs optional FXAA shaders, which can be found here:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=76145.0
Game Speed:
-img2dds
Compress non-compressed images
Converts all images to DDS (compressed) format. Decreases memory usage but potentially reduces
image quality.
-no_vsync
Disable vertical sync
-cache_bitmaps
Cache bitmaps between missions
Will ideally reduce the load-time from one mission to another.
HUD:
-dualscanlines
Add another pair of scanning lines
Adds a second pair of scanning lines to the target window when scanning an object.
-targetinfo
Enable info next to target
Displays target info, such as name and class, beside the targeted object.
-orbradar
Enable 3D radar
An Orb style 3D radar will replace the standard 2D version.
-rearm_timer
Enable rearm/repair completion timer
Displays time remaining until rearm and repair from a support ship is complete.
-ballistic_gauge
Enable analog ballistic ammo gauge
Adds an ammo gauge to the HUD when armed with a ballistic weapon.
Gameplay:
-mod
Specifies in which folders inside FreeSpace 2 directory, the game looks for all the game data
(models, missions, textures, tables, ...). Retail version only looks inside Freespace2/data/
structure and Freespace2/vp archives.
This flag allows installing several different mods that modify retail behavior, and switching
between them without needing to erase files or having undesired cross effects. Each mod should be
installed in its own folder.
It takes one argument string: the chain of names of the used directories. Comma (,) must be used
as separator. In this way, -mod dir1,dir2,dir3,...,dirx causes the game to use the following
directory precedence:
Freespace2/dir1/
Freespace2/dir2/
Freespace2/dir3/
... (the rest of the typed directories) ...
Freespace2/dirx/
Freespace2/
This flag can be indirectly set, (and it is normally set), through Launcher MOD tab and mod.ini
file.
Within the Launcher's MOD tab you can select one directory, (let's call it moddir), so the flag is
at least set to -mod moddir. If Freespace2/moddir/mod.ini exists it will be used to modify the
-mod flag, too.
-ship_choice_3d
Use 3D models for ship selection
Uses ship models in ship selection window. It completely disables the standard ANI interface in
this screen. Some mods need a compulsory use of this flag because they don't have available
animations for their ships. In this situation, and if it is not used, the game will probably crash
to desktop in the ship selection window.
-weapon_choice_3d
Use 3D models for weapon selection
Uses weapon models in weapon loadout window for secondary weapons (missiles and bombs). It
completely disables the standard ANI interface in this screen. Some mods need a compulsory use of
this flag because they don't have available animations for their secondary weapons. In this
situation, and if it is not used, the game will probably crash to desktop in the weapon loadout
window.
-3dwarp
Enable 3D warp
Use full geometry for the subspace warp effect.
-warp_flash
Enable flash upon warp
Enable a flash at warp in and warp out.
-no_ap_interrupt
Disable interrupting autopilot
Tells the game to not allow players to interrupt an autopilot already-in-progress.
Audio:
-snd_preload
Preload mission game sounds
Useful in preventing game stuttering when sounds are played for the first time.
-nosound
Disable all sound
-nomusic
Disable music
Multiplayer:
-standalone
Run as standalone server
Creates a standalone multi-player server.
-startgame
Skip mainhall and start hosting
Once you launch and choose a pilot within the game, you will immediately have begun to host a
game. This can be used in conjunction with several options to customize the game you create:
-closed, -restricted, -password, -gamename, -allowabove, and -allowbelow. -startgame has no effect
when -standalone is used.
See related: -closed -restricted -password -gamename -allowabove -allowbelow
-closed
Start hosted server as closed
Hosts a new game in a closed state, where no one can join until the in-game "Close" button is
cleared. This only works when used in conjunction with -startgame. Cannot be used in conjunction
with -restricted or -password.
See related: -startgame -restricted -password
-restricted
Host confirms join requests
Hosts a new game in a restricted state. The host is presented with option to accept or deny each
client's request to join the game. This only works when used in conjunction with -startgame.
Cannot be used in conjunction with -closed or -password.
See related: -startgame -closed -password
-multilog
Creates a log file with a summary of packets sent and received in multiplayer games. The file is
saved as atalti.log within the active mod folder—or with main data folder if no mod is active.
-clientdamage
This feature is not available in current builds.
-mpnoreturn
Disable flight deck option
Disables return to the flight deck screen after a mission completes.
Troubleshooting:
-nohtl Software mode (very slow)
Reverts to software rendering mode. Warning: Enabling this will significantly reduce performance.
-no_set_gamma
Disable setting of gamma
Disables the gamma settings in the options screen.
-nomovies
Disable video playback
Disables all video playback.
-noparseerrors
Disable parsing errors
Disables some parsing warnings and makes other parse errors non-fatal. Do not rely on this when
creating new tables. The errors are there for a reason.
-query_speech
Check if this build has speech
Determines if the current build includes text-to-speech.
-novbo Disable OpenGL VBO
-noibx Don't use cached index buffers (IBX)
Disables IBX caching of model geometry data. This will dramatically increase load times, but will
help troubleshoot a model if one is working incorrectly.
-loadallweps
Load all weapons, even those not used
-disable_fbo
Disable OpenGL RenderTargets
-no_glsl
Disable GLSL (shader) support
Disables the use of GLSL rendering (OpenGL shaders). The game will revert to legacy fixed render
pipeline. Please note that Normal and Height map effects will be unavailable.
-ati_swap
Fix colour issues on some ATI cards
-no_3d_sound
Use only 2D/stereo for sound effects
-disable_glsl_model
Don't use shaders for model rendering
-use_gldrawelements
Don't use glDrawRangeElements
Experimental:
-ingame_join
Allow in-game joining
-voicer
Enable voice recognition
Windows-only. Enables voice-recognition for wingmen commands. Must be specifically compiled into a
build in order for it to be available; 3.6.10 final includes the feature. See Voice Recognition
for more details.
-fb_explosions
Enable Framebuffer Shockwaves
Development Tools:
-fps Show frames per second on HUD
Displays current frames per second.
-pos Show position of camera
Displays current position coordinates of camera.
-window
Run in window
Runs the game in a window. No check to make sure that resolution is no higher than your desktop
resolution, so be careful.
-stats Show statistics
Shows total and free physical memory, virtual memory and system pagefile.
-coords
Show coordinates
Shows coordinates of the mouse cursor.
-show_mem_usage
Show memory usage
Shows detailed RAM usage based on file, handler and process usage and display on the left-center
side of the screen during mission load and while in mission.
The meaning of the info displayed in the upper right corner of the HUD is:
DYN = dynamic memory, basically anything that's been allocated by the vm_* memory functions. This
does NOT indicate total memory usage but does account for most of it.
POF = model memory, how much memory is being used by models (does not include textures)
C-BMP, BMP = bmpman memory, how much is used by the textures/images that are loaded. C-BMP means
that you are using -cache_bitmaps and it will try to keep textures in memory between level loads
and as the new level is loading it will keep what it needs and unload what it doesn't. Can greatly
increase level loading speed, but does so at the cost of memory between level loads. This does not
increase overall memory usage though, only during the loading screen. BMP means that it is not
cached and all textures are unloaded from memory at the start of level load and all needed
textures are then loaded from the disk again.
S-RAM = sound memory, how much is used by the sounds loaded in memory at the time. This counts
static sounds only (from sounds.tbl, etc.) and not streaming sounds (music, voices, briefing
stuff, etc).
V-RAM = approximate memory usage of video textures. This does not mean that your card has this
much memory, and can report higher numbers that your card actually has memory. For OpenGL it also
includes some of the geometry data, but this number does not reflect the total memory that your
video card is using. It only reports how much data the game has purposefully loaded into API
memory (meaning it could be in system memory, video card memory, or AGP memory).
(It only works with debug builds, not with release builds).
-pofspew
Reads all objects in the pof file of the selected mod, and creates an ibx cache file for each
object in the data/cache folder for that mod. Details for each object are output to a pofspew.txt
file created in the data folder. Otherwise, ibx files are created in game before each mission.
-tablecrcs
Is actually now (or should be) a typed reference rather than as a selection item. Takes 1
argument, usually a descriptive name. Example usage: "-table_crcs MediaVPs" will create a
table_crcs.csv file in the running mod (name can be separate of the mod selected) that allows for
the validation of the tables used by that mod while on-line. The descriptive parameter given helps
"allocate" that .csv file to the mod in question, and as such should closely or exactly match that
mods name if possible.
-missioncrcs
Is actually now (or should be) a typed reference rather than as a selection item. Takes 1
argument, usually a descriptive name. Example usage: "-mission_crcs MediaVPs" will create a
mission_crcs.csv file in the running mod (name can be separate of the mod selected) that allows
for the validation of the missions used by that mod while on-line. The descriptive parameter given
helps "allocate" that .csv file to the mod in question, and as such should closely or exactly
match that mods name if possible.
-dis_collisions
Disable collisions
-dis_weapons
Disable weapon rendering
-output_sexps
Output SEXPs to sexps.html
This will make the FSO build spit out an html file that documents the supported SEXP's.
Just double click on sexps.html and it should open in your default web browser.
-output_scripting
Output scripting to scripting.html
This will make the FSO build spit out an html file that documents the supported scripting hooks
and LUA libraries.
Just double click on scripting.html and it should open in your default web browser.
-save_render_target
Save render targets to file
-debug_window
Display debug window
Lists the fs2_open.log in (nearly)real-time generation.
-verify_vps
Spew VP CRCs to vp_crcs.txt
Exports the CRC values of the VP files being loaded into a vp_crcs.txt file.
-nograb
Don't grab mouse/keyboard in a window
Unix only. Disables focus grabbing in a window.
SEE ALSO
Command-Line Reference
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Command-Line_Reference