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Q325037: Dungeon Siege: Command-Line Switches, Troubleshooting Shortcuts

Article: Q325037
Product(s): Microsoft Home Games
Version(s): 1.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbimu
Last Modified: 25-JUL-2002

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Dungeon Siege, version 1.0 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY
=======

You can use command-line parameters to customize the Dungeon Siege startup
process and to resolve certain problems that may occur when you try to start or
play the game. This article lists the command-line parameters and explains how
they work.

This article also lists several troubleshooting shortcuts that Dungeon Siege
provides. The troubleshooting shortcuts are preconfigured with command-line
parameters to resolve certain problems.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The following table lists the command-line parameters that you can use to start
Dungeon Siege.

  Parameter           Description
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

  fpslog=true         Records frames-per-second information and outputs it 
                      to the Fps.log file in the DS folder. 

  zonematch=true      Disables the Microsoft and GPG logo movies and goes
                      immediately to ZoneMatch. 
  
  nosound=true        Turns off all sounds, including music. 

  nointro=true        Disables the Microsoft and GPG logo movies.

  fullscreen=false    Forces Dungeon Siege to run in windowed mode. 

  height=xxxx         Forces Dungeon Siege to run at xxxx resolution
                      height.

  width=xxxx          Forces Dungeon Siege to run at xxxx resolution 
                      width.

  bpp=xx              Forces Dungeon Siege to run in a specific color
                      depth, where xx can be 16 or 32.

  verifydata=true     Instructs Dungeon Siege to verify the integrity of 
                      its executable and resource data when it starts up.  
                      This process takes time to run and shows a dialog 
                      box after it verifies each file. If the test 
                      indicates that a file is corrupted, try reinstalling 
                      Dungeon Siege.

                      NOTE: Turn this option off after you use it.

  bltonly=true        Forces blt mode instead of flip mode (to work 
                      around the nVidia blinking problem with earlier
                      drivers). 

  aa_screenshots=true Uses anti-aliasing when it renders a screen shot (may 
                      cause your computer to stop running with earlier 
                      drivers). By default, anti-aliasing is off. 

  nospacecheck=true   Skips the free-disk-space and available-memory 
                      checks on startup. 

  simplerender=true   Forces simple rendering mode. This turns off         
                      multitexturing. Use this parameter to get rid of
                      rendering problems for some video adapter/driver 
                      combinations. 

  asynccursor=false   Turns off the asynchronous cursor. This parameter 
                      increases the frame rate but slows mouse response 
                      time. 

  turtle=true         Turns on auto-disconnect from a multiplayer session  
                      when a computer times out (that is, when a computer 
                      is not heard from for a long time). By default,
                      this feature is on. Setting turtle=false turns off 
                      auto-disconnection. Changing this option is not 
                      recommended. 

  maxfps=xx           Forces Dungeon Siege to run at a maximum framerate 
                      of xx. 

When you install the Dungeon Siege 1.1 Update, additional parameters are
available:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Parameters     | Description                                                                  | 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| noalttab=true  | Prevents task switching during gameplay (supported on Windows XP only).      | 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| nowinkeys=true | Disables the Windows keys (supported on Windows 2000 and Windows XP only).   | 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| user_path=path | Specifies where the user files go (rather than \My Documents\Dungeon Siege). | 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

NOTE: Other path-related command line options are: keys_path, map_paths,
mod_paths, res_paths, save_path, and shots_path.

To manually add parameters to the Dungeon Siege shortcut command line, follow
these steps:

1. Insert Dungeon Siege disc 1 into the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Hold down the
  SHIFT key to prevent the program from starting automatically.

2. Right-click Start, and then click Open or Open All Users.

3. Double-click the Programs folder.

4. Double-click the Dungeon Siege folder.

5. Right-click the Dungeon Siege shortcut, and then click Properties.

6. Click the Shortcut tab.

7. Click the Target box, press END, press SPACEBAR, and then type the parameter
  that you want to use. If you want to use an additional parameter, press
  SPACEBAR, and then type the next parameter.

  For example, the following command line includes several parameters:

  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Dungeon Siege\DungeonSiege.exe"
  nosound=true bltonly=true fullscreen=false nointro=true

  NOTE: Parameters are not case-sensitive. The path must be in quotation marks
  if it contains spaces.

8. Click Apply or OK.

9. Double-click the Dungeon Siege shortcut to start the game.

Troubleshooting Shortcuts
-------------------------

When you install Dungeon Siege, the Setup program creates several troubleshooting
shortcuts that customize the Dungeon Siege startup process.

To access these shortcuts, click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft
Games, point to Dungeon Siege, and then click Troubleshooting.

These troubleshooting shortcuts include the following:

- Dungeon Siege 640 x 480

  This shortcut starts Dungeon Siege with the following parameters: height=480
  width=640 bpp=16

- Dungeon Siege No Intro

  This shortcut starts Dungeon Siege with the following parameter: nointro=true

- Dungeon Siege No Sound

  This shortcut starts Dungeon Siege with the following parameter: nosound=true

Additional query words: hang black screen flickering quit crash creative distort gforce

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbimu 
Technology        : kbHomeProdSearch kbGamesSearch _IK kbDungeonSiege
Version           : :1.0
Issue type        : kbinfo

=============================================================================

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