Options (OpenXcom)

OpenXcom Options screen

OpenXcom has a variety of game settings that can be customized through the Options screen in the Main Menu. These options are global and affect any old or new savegame, and take effect instantly after pressing OK.

• Display Resolution: Resolution the game is rendered at. Note that the game always renders at 320x200 (original DOS resolution) and resizes to whatever you specify, so for a better picture use a resolution with the same ratio. 640x400 or 640x480 (if you like non-square pixels) are recommended. Use the arrows to scroll through the resolutions supported by your monitor, or click on the numbers to type in your own resolution. If you screw it up, use Restore Defaults or delete your options.cfg file (see below) to reset your settings.
• Display Mode: Display the game in a window or covering the whole screen. Windowed mode is recommended as monitors usually don't properly support OpenXcom's lo-fi nature in fullscreen.
• Music Volume: The volume of the background music (0 is mute, 1 is lowest, 4 is highest).
• SFX Volume: The volume of the sound effects (0 is mute, 1 is lowest, 4 is highest).
• Language: Change the language used to display all the game text.

Display Filter

By default OpenXcom just resizes the screen to fit the resolution, maintaining pixel accuracy as in the original game, but a variety of image scaling filters can be applied to change the image quality or apply smoothing and emulation effects:

• Scale: Smooths out edges, making the game look less pixelated. This setting is only compatible with 320x200, 640x400 and 960x600 resolutions.
• HQX: Similar to Scale, but more accurate and high-quality. This setting is only compatible with 320x200, 640x400 and 960x600 resolutions.
• CRT (OpenGL): Mimics a CRT monitor by adding interlaced lines and simulating a rounded display.
• CRT-interlaced (OpenGL): Mimics a CRT monitor by adding interlaced lines and simulating a rounded display.
• CRT-simple (OpenGL): Mimics a CRT monitor by adding interlaced lines and simulating a rounded display.
• Curvature (OpenGL): Simulates a rounded display.
• dot_n_bloom (OpenGL) Applies both a dot grid effect and a bloom effect.
• heavybloom (OpenGL): Applies a very heavy bloom effect.
• HQ2X (OpenGL): A double-scale version of HQX, which smoothes pixel edges, but not quite to the extreme of HQX.
• Openxcom (OpenGL): Smooths rough edges while maintaining a semi-pixellated feel similar to the original X-Com. (default)
• Phosphor-simple (OpenGL) Applies a dot grid effect.
• Pixellate (OpenGL): Default pixel-accurate behaviour, but using OpenGL.
• SABR (OpenGL): Applies texel-based smoothing to the display.
• Scale4xHQ (OpenGL): A quadruple-scale version of HQX, which results in a more subtle smoothing of pixel edges.
• simplebloom (OpenGL): Applies a bloom effect.

Controls

In the Controls screen you can customize keyboard shortcuts for a variety of functions normally only accessible with the mouse. To change a control, left-click on it and press the new key. To erase a control, right-click it.

Besides the controls listed on the screen, there are also these hardcoded shortcuts:

• ALT-ENTER – Toggles between windowed and fullscreen mode.
• Right-Click - Automatically set the min/max on an increase/decrease arrow button.
• Scroll Wheel - Scroll lists / Zoom globe / Change Battlescape view level.
• Back/Forward Buttons - (if available) Switch between soldiers on the Battlescape.

Advanced Options

By default OpenXcom is set up for vanilla behavior, but provides a variety of options that allow players to change gameplay features. In the Advanced Options screen you can customize the most-popular options to your preference, and further options can be found in the Options File described below.

Custom Music

If you don't like or have trouble getting the original X-COM music to work, you can use your own The formats supported are MIDI, MP3, OGG, MOD and FLAC. Just put it in the SOUND subfolder of the Data folder with the same filenames as the original:

Original	PlayStation	Cydonia's Fall
GMDEFEND	Briefing1	Defend Base
GMENBASE	Briefing2	N/A
GMGEO1	Geoscape1	Geoscape (Part I)
GMGEO2	Geoscape2	Geoscape (Part II)
GMGEO3*	Geoscape3	N/A
GMGEO4*	Geoscape4	N/A
GMINTER	Dogfight	Interception
GMINTRO1	N/A	Intro (Part I)
GMINTRO2	N/A	Intro (Part II)
GMINTRO3	N/A	Intro (Part III)
GMLOSE	N/A	Lose Game
GMMARS	Debriefing	Debriefing
GMNEWMAR	Mission Accomplished	Mars Briefing
GMSTORY	Final Briefing	The Story
GMTACTIC	Battlescape1	Tactical Battle
GMTACTIC2*	Battlescape2	N/A
GMWIN	N/A	Win Game

*not available in original

WARNING: There are some bugs with the audio playback on MP3, primarily on Unix-like systems. If you start experiencing crashes after using custom music, switch to a different music format.

Options File

OpenXcom stores its options in a options.cfg YAML file stored in the User folder, which can be easily edited with any text editor. You can also pass them as command line arguments in the form "-<option name> <option value>". These include the options shown in the Options screen as well as other advanced options.

WARNING: Invalid values can cause incorrect behaviour or game crashes. Options that accept true/false are marked by "When enabled", options that accept a range of numbers have this listed in brackets after their description, and options that accept a numeric flag have bullets to describe the functionality of each option.

Option	Description	Default
General
allowChangeListValuesByMouseWheel	When enabled, scrolling the mouse wheel over increase/decrease buttons in lists will change the value.	false
autosave	When enabled, the game is autosaved.	0
captureMouse	When enabled, the mouse cursor is locked to the window.	false
changeValueByMouseWheel	The amount to increase/decrease when allowChangeListValuesByMouseWheel is enabled.	10
debug	When enabled, provides features to make it easier for developers/contributors to debug their work.	false
debugUi	When enabled, shows text borders in UI elements to make it easier for developers/translators to debug their work.	false
fpsCounter	When enabled, shows an FPS Counter on the top-left of the screen.	false
language	Filename of the language loaded at startup. Shows the Language screen if none is specified.
keyboardMode	Keyboard input mode. 0 = Keyboard enabled. 1 = Keyboard disabled, type in text boxes with the arrow keys (arcade style).	0
key*	(...various options starting with this prefix) Stores the keyboard controls.
NewBattle_*	(...various options starting with this prefix) Stores the last-used settings in the New Battle screen.
pauseMode	Controls how the game behaves when it loses focus (eg. minimized or alt-tabbed). 0,1 = Continue running normally on loss of focus. 2 = Slow down the game on loss of focus. 3 = Pause completely on loss of focus.	0
playIntro	When enabled, plays the intro cinematic on startup.	true
Display
allowResize	When enabled and the game is in windowed mode, the game resolution can be dynamically resized by changing the window size.	false
asyncBlit	When enabled, the display surface uses asynchronous updates. This will usually slow down blitting on single CPU machines, but may provide a speed increase on SMP systems.	true
baseXResolution baseYResolution	The game's base resolution in pixels, you can think of it as the "viewport", so changing this would let you see more of the Geoscape/Battlescape at once. WARNING: This feature is experimental and can cause UI and performance problems, as the game is not designed for flexible resolutions.	320 200
borderless	When enabled, the game is displayed without a window frame when playing in windowed mode.	false
displayWidth displayHeight	Display resolution in pixels. The game will scale the base resolution to fit this value, so it should be greater than or equal to baseXResolution x baseYResolution.	640 400
fullscreen	When enabled, the game will run in fullscreen mode as opposed to windowed mode. NOTE: The display might become distorted or clipped in fullscreen if your device doesn't support the specified resolution.	false
maxFrameSkip	Specifies the maximum amount of frames the game can skip rendering.	8
windowedModePositionX windowedModePositionY	When running in windowed mode, forces the game window to start in the specified position in pixels. Use -1 to have the OS decide the window position.	-1 -1
useHQXFilter	When enabled, applies a rendering filter that smoothes out diagonal edges, making the game look less pixelated. This setting is only compatible with 320x200, 640x400 and 960x600 resolutions, and useOpenGL must be disabled.	false
useScaleFilter	When enabled, passes the game through a software Scale2x filter. This option achieves similar results to useHQXFilter but with less overhead and slightly less quality. This setting is only compatible with 320x200, 640x400 and 960x600 resolutions, and useOpenGL must be disabled.	false
useOpenGL	When enabled, uses OpenGL hardware rendering and enables the following OpenGL options:	false
checkOpenGLErrors	When enabled, logs all errors returned by OpenGL.	false
useOpenGLShader	Selects which GLSL rendering filter to apply when the useOpenGL option is enabled. This option takes a path relative to the OpenXcom Data Folder as an argument. OpenXcom comes packaged with some filters in the data\Shaders folder which are described earlier in Display Filter.	Shaders/Openxcom.OpenGL.shader
useOpenGLSmoothing	When enabled, the game will use linear interpolation instead of nearest-neighbour pixel scaling when no shader is specified.	true
vSyncForOpenGL	When enabled, puts OpenGL into vertical synchronisation mode, ensuring the FPS do not exceed your monitor's refresh rate, preventing tearing and excessive hardware demand, but may cause slower animations.	true
Sound
audioBitDepth	Bit depth of the output audio. Only change this if you know what you're doing!	16
audioSampleRate	Sample rate (in Hz) of the output audio. Only change this if you know what you're doing!	22050
musicVolume	Background music volume (0-128).	128
soundVolume	Sound FX volume (0-128).	128
mute	When enabled, disables all audio output. Automatically enabled if no audio hardware is detected.	false
Geoscape/Basescape
agressiveRetaliation	When enabled, aliens on any type of mission may detect your base if they are in very close range.	false
alienContainmentLimitEnforced	When enabled, enforces the limit of live aliens that can be held in each containment facility.	false
allowAutoSellProduction	When enabled, players can automatically sell manufactured items by right-clicking the Up Arrow on the Quantity in the manufacture screen.	false
allowBuildingQueue	When enabled, unfinished facilities act as links to the access lift when new facilities are placed, thereby allowing facilities to be "queued" waiting for neighboring facilities to finish.	false
anytimePsiTraining	When enabled, psi training can be performed at any time, instead of waiting for the end of the month.	false
canManufactureMoreItemsPerHour	When enabled, allows manufacturing projects to produce more than one item per hour, if the amount of engineers is very large (like in TFTD).	false
canSellLiveAliens	When enabled, captured aliens can be sold for cash in the same fashion as alien corpses. Recommended when alienContainmentLimitEnforced is enabled.	false
canTransferCraftsWhileAirborne	When enabled, crafts can be transferred between bases while they are OUT (as long as they have enough fuel).	false
craftLaunchAlways	When enabled, allow crafts to take off without being READY.	false
customInitialBase	When enabled, allows the player to customize the facility placement of the starting base.
globeAllRadarsOnBaseBuild	When enabled, all radar ranges will be shown when hovering a valid base location while building a new base.	true
globeSeasons	When enabled, the day/night cycle takes into account the Earth's axial tilt for a more realistic projection of the light.	false
researchedItemsWillSpent	When enabled, researching an item spends it.	false
showFundsOnGeoscape	When enabled, shows your available funds above the time/date on the Geoscape sidebar.	false
Battlescape
allowPsionicCapture	When enabled, mind-controlling all the remaining enemy units results in a victory, and they count as live captures.	false
battleAlienSpeed	Animation speed of alien / civilian units moving on the map.	30
battleAutoEnd	When enabled, the turn is automatically ended when all friendly/enemy units are neutralized, therefore ending the mission.	false
battleExplosionHeight	A coefficient that controls how much vertical power explosions have. 0 = Explosions are completely flat, as per the original game. 1 = -30 damage units per level (this penalty is in addition to the horizontal penalty of -10 damage per tile) 2 = -10 damage units per level 3 = -5 damage units per level	0
battleFireSpeed	Animation speed of bullets after being fired.	20
battleInstantGrenade	When enabled, grenades are "hot". This means that when primed to 0 turns, they simply explode on impact, instead of waiting for the end of the turn.	false
battleNotifyDeath	When enabled, displays a text notification when a soldier dies.	false
battlePreviewPath	When enabled, your first left-click displays the path the selected unit will take, and your second click confirms the move order. The amount the unit can move this turn (according to TUs) is highlighted in green, and the rest is highlighted in red.	false
battleRangeBasedAccuracy	When enabled, changes how shot trajectories are calculated, the basic theory being "the further away it the target is, the harder it is to hit". Also takes into account shot type, lighting of the target and lowering height of target when he (she) is kneeling.	false
battleScrollSpeed	Map scrolling speed.	24
battleScrollType	Map scrolling mode. 0 = Trigger Scroll: Hold down the LMB over the edges of the screen to scroll. 1 = Auto Scroll: Hover your mouse over the edges of the screen to scroll. 2 = Drag Scroll: Hold down MMB and drag to scroll. Recommended for playing windowed.	1
battleScrollDragButtion	Controls which mouse button is held down in Drag Scrolling 1 = Left Mouse Button 2 = Middle Mouse Button 3 = Right Mouse Button 6... = Other Mouse Buttons	2
battleScrollDragInvert	When enabled, Drag Scrolling moves the camera away from your mouse, rather than moving towards it.	false
battleScrollDragTimeTolerance	Amount of miliseconds the mouse needs to be pressed to trigger a Drag Scroll.	300
battleScrollDragPixelTolerance	Amount of pixels the mouse needs to be moved after pressing to trigger a Drag Scroll.	10
battleTooltips	When enabled, hovering the Battlescape buttons displays a tooltip.	true
battleXcomSpeed	Animation speed of X-COM units moving on the map.	30
showMoreStatsInInventoryView	When enabled, the inventory screen displays extra stats in the top-right corner, such as the weight of equipment the soldier is currently wearing/carrying and their maximum weight before TU reduction sets in, their firing accuracy, reactions and psi stats.	false
sneakyAI	When enabled, AI avoids exposing themselves to player whenever possible.	false
strafe	When enabled, holding CTRL allows soldiers to strafe and run, and allows tanks to rotate their turret independently of the chassis.	false
traceAI	Debug feature. When enabled, highlights the paths that enemy units took after their turn.	false
weaponSelfDestruction	When enabled, weapons dropped by aliens are destroyed unless they are captured alive (similar to the new X-COM).	false

Debug mode

Debug mode is a special feature that makes it easier for developers/contributors to test out game features without needing to play a new game from scratch. After setting "debug: true" in the options.cfg file (see above), you can enable it by pressing Ctrl-D in-game to access a variety of features:

Geoscape: All research is unlocked, allowing you to easily test all features in the Geoscape without needing to manually unlock them yourself. This doesn't affect your saved game. Regional and Country borders will be displayed.

Battlescape: Whole map is revealed and opening the inventory screen resets TUs, allowing you to easily test out the map and any Battlescape features without being affected by game restrictions.