Call of Juarez Tweak Guide

[Page 9] Advanced Tweaking (Pt.2)



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Audio.scr


API("DS3D")


This option controls the API used for the game, as covered under the Sound API option in the In-Game Settings section. Aside from the DS3D (DirectSound 3D) and OpenAL options which are already available in-game, you can also set this to NoSound, which disables all sound. This can improve performance, however obviously it removes all sounds and thus makes gameplay very difficult. The main reason you would want to use this is to troubleshoot a crash or performance slowdown to see if your sound card or sound drivers are the culprit.


MixFrequency(44100)


This option controls the audio quality in the game, corresponding to the Sound Quality in-game setting. At 44100 (Hz sample rate), this is equivalent to either High or Medium sound quality. At 22050 (Hz sample rate), this is Low sound quality. You can try setting a custom sound sample rate here.


Channels(32)


This option sets the number of independent sound channels used in the game. Depending on your sound card, it may support more or less sound channels, so you can manually alter this setting to match your sound device's capabilities. The maximum appears to be 32, and setting a number of channels which exceeds your hardware's capabilities will result in missing sounds, so alter the setting until all the various sound effects in the game can be heard. Lowering channels can improve performance on older sound hardware or when using Software mode, so you can try a value like 16 to see if this resolves any issues or improves performance for you.


ExtraSounds01()


Inserting this line into the bottom portion of Audio.scr may enable additional sounds in the game, but after a fair bit of testing I didn't notice any new sounds being used. It appears to be harmless to use, so try it and see if you notice a difference.



Game.scr


ViewDistance(8)


Using various values for this setting has no impact whatsoever. It appears that this may be a feature in previous builds of the game which is now disabled, or the full version of the game may indeed come with a View Distance slider which works.



Console Commands


Call of Juarez has an in-game command console you can open and close by using the ~ key. Thanks to Soulman and the guys over at the Official Call of Juarez Forums, I can now provide some working console commands below:


Single Player


Cheat.GiveAmmo() - Full Ammo

Cheat.GiveRifle() - Gives a Rifle

Cheat.GiveDynamite() - Gives the Dynamite

Cheat.Heal() - Fills health up to 100

Cheat.God(1) - God Mode on

Cheat.God(0) - God Mode off

Cheat.MagicAmmo(1) - 'Unlimited ammo and no reload' mode on

Cheat.MagicAmmo(0) - 'Unlimited ammo and no reload' mode off



Multi Player


Multiplayer commands need to be entered in the chat area (default Y or U keys), not in the actual game console. The following commands can be used by any players while on a multiplayer server:


/Nick [nickname] - Changes your player's nickname to the one you enter, limited to 14 characters

/PlayerList - Shows the list of all players and their IDs

/KillMe - Kills your character instantly

/Exit - Exits game


The following commands are for Server Administrators only, again to be entered in the chat area:


/AdminLogin [username] [password] - Logs you in as an admin; users and passwords are defined on the server in the ServerAdmins.scr file in the game's profile.

/AdminLogout - Logs you out as the admin

/Kick [nickname or ID] [reason] - Kicks a specified player off the server

/Kill [nickname or ID] - Kills a specified player instantly

/MapNext - Switches serverto the next map

/ServerShutDown - Shuts down server after a few seconds


Importantly, make sure to use the correct case for each of these commands (i.e. capitals in the appropriate places), any forward or backslash characters, and also include any brackets as required (even if they're empty). I'm sure that more commands will come to light, so if you know any additional useful commands, please Email Me so I can update this section for everyone to use as a central resource.



Command Line Parameters


At the moment I am only aware of one working command line parameter for single player:


-safemode


This launches the game in Safe Mode, which means that it uses the lowest options possible for your system, and is usually used after you crashed out of CoJ the last time.


There are two multiplayer command line parameters you can use:


-server [-dedicated] [-internet] [-forcemaxplayers N]


Runs the game and creates a multiplayer LAN server; use –dedicated for a dedicated server or –internet for an Internet server; use –forcemaxplayers N to overwrite the default limit of 16 players in multiplayer.


-join address[:port]


Joins a multiplayer game at a given address and port


To use any command line parameter, go to your Call of Juarez demo launch icon, right-click on it and select Properties. In the Target box, at the end of the line of text after the " mark, insert a space and then the relevant command(s), e.g.:


"C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Demo\Techland\Call of Juarez SP Demo\CoJDemo.exe" -safemode


Once again, I have tried a range of common commands here and none seem to work, so if you've discovered any others that work, please Let Me Know so I can include them here.


There are a large number of other .scr files you can find in the Data0.pak file under the \Program Files\Ubisoft\Demo\Techland\Call of Juarez SP Demo\ directory. You can open this .pak file using an archival utility Winzip or WinRAR, and the contents can be extracted and edited just like any other .scr file. However for the most part these files are not meant to be edited as they contain gameplay parameters.



One simple trick you can do with these files is covered on the next page, along with a range of other useful tips and tweaks to round out this guide.