Revision as of 07:08, 2 January 2010

Bitfighter can be started with a number of command line parameters. These will override the behavior and settings stored in the INI file. Most players can ignore these most of the time.

• -server [address] Start game in server mode, and optionally bind to specified address.
• -connect <address> Connect to server at specified address.
• -master <address> Use master server (game finder) at specified address
• -dedicated [address] Run as a dedicated game server (i.e. no game window)
• -name <string> Specify your user name
• -password <string> Specify a server password (if connecting to a private server)
• -adminpassword <string> Specify an admin password (allowing those with the password to kick players and change their teams) when you host a game or run a dedicated server
• -levelchangepassword <string> Specifies the password required for players to be able to change levels on your server when you host a game or run a dedicated server
• -hostname <string> Sets the name that will appear in the server browser when searching for servers
• -hostdescr <string> Sets a brief description of the server, which will be visible when players browse for game servers. Use double quotes (") for descriptions containing spaces.
• -maxplayers <int> Max players allowed in a game (default is 128)
• -usestick <int> Specify a joystick or other input device to use. Default is 1.
• -window Start in windowed mode
• -winpos <int> <int> Specify x,y location of game window (note that this is the position of the UL corner of the game canvas, and does not account for any window borders)
• -winwidth <int> Specify width of game window. Height will be set automatically. Note that the specified width is the width of the game canvas itself, and does not take account of window borders.
• -fullscreen Start in full-screen mode
• -rules Prints out a list of "rules of the game" and other possibly useful data
• -help Print a brief help message and exit.

Specifying Levels

• -levels <level 1> [level 2]... Note that all remaining items on the command line will be interpreted as levels, so this must be the last parameter.
• -alllevels This will cause all game levels in your levels folder to load, sorted in alphabetical order by level-file name. Note that if you have a lot of levels, this may cause a significant delay when starting a hosted game.
• -leveldir <folder or subfolder> Loads all levels in specified system folder, or a subfolder under the levels folder. Levels will be loaded in alphabetical order by level-file name. The idea is to allow admins to create custom level lists by copying selected levels into folders or subfolders, and rename them to get them to load in the proper order.

Please see Hosting a game for more information about specifying levels.

Developer-oriented options

• -loss <float> Simulate the specified amount of packet loss, from 0 (no loss) to 1 (all packets lost) [I think range is correct...]
• -lag <integer> Simulate the specified amount of server lag (in milliseconds)
• -createsampleini Direct Bitfighter to create bitfighter.ini.sample and exit. All other options will be ignored. Primarily for release support.
• -jsave <string> Record a game to a journal for later playback. Specify where to save the game. Useful for demonstrating and reporting bugs or other issues.
• -jplay <string> Play back a journaled game. Specify the playback file name.

Notes:
<param> denotes a required parameter
[param] denotes an optional parameter
address is an address in the form ip address:port. (e.g. 192.168.1.55:25955)
string means a parameter consisting of some combination of letters and numbers (e.g. BoronNoggin)
integer means an integer number must be specified (e.g. 4)
float means a floating point number must be specified (e.g. 3.5)