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SWY1985 edited this page Dec 7, 2017 · 3 revisions

Settings are saved in text files in the ~\settings\ directory. Here's an overview of settings:

ArrowHelper

When set to 1, the game will provide the player with helping arrows when using the regular 4-direction arrow keys. The game expects 2 key presses before a unit is moved. This was added because many laptops and some desktop keyboards lack a keypad.

AspectRatio

Since Civilization was developed for the 320x200 screen resolution, which is 16:10, and most computers run at a 4:3, 16:9 or 5:4 screen resolution, scaling is needed and everyone has personal preferences. The aspect ratio settings offers several options, which will either scale, letterbox or expand the game content to the game window.

Automatic

Automatic scaling scales to the maximum possible width and height without distorting any pixels, keeping the contents centred in the window. It might stretch pixels to a non-squared shape.

Fixed

Fixed scaling scales to the maximum possible width and height while maintaining squared pixels, keeping the contents centred in the window.

Scaled (blurry)

Scaled (blurry) will stretch the game contents to fill the entire screen. This will cause the game to appear blurry.

Scaled and fixed (blurry)

Scaled and blurry will stretch the game contents to fill the screen while maintaining the 16:10 aspect ratio. The contents will be centered in the window. This setting will cause the game to appear blurry.

Expand (experimental)

The Expand setting will attempt to render the game contents to resolutions above 320x200 pixels. This feature is incomplete and may have unexpected results. It will also cause the game to run slower. Below is a table with full screen resolutions and the virtual resolutions it will expand to:

Resolution Scale Virtual Resolution
512x384 1x 512x384
640x480 2x 320x240
800x600 2x 400x300
1024x600 3x 340x200
1024x768 3x 340x256
1152x864 3x 384x288
1280x720 3x 424x240
1280x768 3x 424x256
1280x1024 4x 320x256
1366x768 3x 452x256
1440x900 4x 360x224
1600x1200 5x 320x240
1920x1080 5x 384x216
1920x1280 6x 320x212
2560x1080 5x 512x216

CursorType

This changes the mouse cursor used by the game. Possible values are:

  • 0 (default)
  • 1 (built in/alternative)
  • 2 (no mouse graphics, use OS native cursor

CustomMapSize (experimental)

Setting this to 1 will enable an extra menu before starting a new game, where the player can select a map size. Map sizes other than Normal (80x50) are not compatible with the Save Game format. As such, the save game function will be disabled when selecting alternative map sizes.

DebugMode

This setting enables a debug (cheat) menu, where the player can change player advances, gold and science values, and add units to the game.

DeityEnabled (experimental)

This enabled the Deity difficulty level.

DestroyAnimation

Changing this to 1 will use an alternative animation for destroying units.

ExpandWidth/ExpandHeight (experimental)

Setting these values to 320-512 (width), 200-384 (height), in combination with AspectRatio Expand, will force the game to use an alternative resolution. For example, setting width to 424 and height to 240 will force a 16:9 screen resolution.

FullScreen

Setting this to 1 will start the game in full screen mode.

GraphicsMode

The Graphics Mode setting has two possible values. Value 1 equals 256 colours (VGA mode). Value 2 equals 16 colours (EGA mode).

RevealWorld

Setting this to 1 will start the game with the entire map visible. This is the same as using the Shift 5+6 cheat in game.

Scale

This setting will set the initial scale mode. For example, setting this to 2 will set scaling to 2x, meaning the game window will be 640x400 pixels (2 times 320x200 pixels).

Sidebar

Setting this to 1 will move the game side bar (info bar) to the right, just like in Sid Meier's Colonization.