Config Guide

Config generator

Answer a few questions to get a user.cfg and an autoexec.cfg. Each line goes into the file where the game actually keeps it (see how configs load).

Your PC

Goal

Frame rate cap

Extras

Your own lines

Add any cvar from the database with its Add to my config button. It's placed in the right file automatically.

Save both files in the game folder, next to the Bin and Data folders (Steam: right-click the game > Manage > Browse local files). Name them exactly user.cfg and autoexec.cfg. Watch out: Notepad can quietly add .txt.

Lines in autoexec.cfg belong to video options or quality presets. The game re-applies its own values when you change that option in the menu, until the next restart. Whether autoexec also beats the values loaded from your profile at startup is likely but not yet verified.

Check a config

Paste a user.cfg or autoexec.cfg (yours, or one from a mod page), or open the file. Every line is checked against the game's real cvar list and loading rules. Nothing is uploaded; it all runs in your browser.

What the verdicts mean

Cvar database

Every console variable the game registers, with its type, default, the engine's own help text and, most importantly, whether a config file can change it. Click a row for details and quality-preset values.

Graphics presets

Each quality option in the video settings is a preset group. Picking Low, Medium, High or Very High sets every cvar in that group to the value in its column. The game applies them from your profile after user.cfg is read, so a different value for one of these cvars has to go in autoexec.cfg.

Highlighted values differ from the column before them. Level 7 exists in the game's preset files, but the menu stops at Very High.

How the game loads configs

Order

1. system.cfg, then user.cfg (game folder), while the engine starts.
2. A few thread/worker settings are read once, right after that.
3. Your saved profile is applied: resolution, V-Sync, FPS cap, FOV, the distance sliders, and every quality option. Each quality option is a preset group that sets dozens of cvars (209 in total).
4. autoexec.cfg runs when the game starts. (That this is after step 3 is likely but unverified.)
5. Changing a video option later re-applies its whole group.

So where does a line go?

Parsing rules

• A comment must start the line, with ; or --. A comment after a value is part of the value (harmless after a number, not after text).
• user.cfg needs name = value. Lines without = (like #comments or bind) are ignored. autoexec.cfg also accepts name value and commands like bind.
• Whole-number cvars cut off fractions: r_HDRBloom = 0.4 becomes 0, which turns bloom off.
• An empty value (name =) sets 0.
• The file must be called exactly user.cfg; user.cfg.txt is never loaded.

Full details, with engine addresses for every claim: cfg-loading.md, perf-cvars.md, community-cfg-audit.md.