Configuration file locations

The engine supports three configuration files that are read in the following order, every next overriding values from the previous one:

1. Default config file, found in the game's installation directory, applied for the game loaded from that directory;
2. Current user's global config file, applied for any AGS game.
3. Current user's game config file, applied only for the game of particular title. This config file is also the one supposed to be written to when the engine or setup application modifies game configuration.

Locations of two latter files differ between running platforms:

• Linux:
  • user's global config: $XDG_DATA_HOME/ags/acsetup.cfg
  • user's game config: $XDG_DATA_HOME/ags/GAMENAME/acsetup.cfg
  • NOTE: if $XDG_DATA_HOME is not defined, then $HOME/.local/share is used instead.
• Windows:
  • user's global config: %USERPROFILE%/Saved Games/Adventure Game Studio/acsetup.cfg
  • user's game config: %USERPROFILE%/Saved Games/GAMENAME/acsetup.cfg

Configuration file options

• [graphics] - display mode and various graphics options
  • driver = [string] - id of the graphics renderer to use. Supported names are:
    • D3D9 - Direct3D9 (MS Windows only);
    • OGL - OpenGL;
    • Software - software renderer.
  • software_driver = [string] - optional id of the SDL2 driver to use for the final output in software mode, leave empty for default. IDs are provided by SDL2, not all of these will work on any system:
    • direct3d, opengl, opengles, opengles2, metal, software.
  • fullscreen = [string] - a fullscreen mode definition, which may be one of the following:
    • WxH - explicit window size (e.g. 1280x720);
    • xS - integer game scaling factor (e.g. x4);
    • desktop - use current system's desktop resolution;
    • native - use game's native resolution;
    • full_window - a borderless window covering whole desktop, as opposed to the exclusive fullscreen mode;
    • default - use engine defaults, which is full_window.
  • window = [string] - a windowed mode definition; the options are same as for the fullscreen, except for full_window, and following differences:
    • desktop - will try to create largest possible resizing window, while keeping game scaling style (see game_scale_win);
    • default - use engine defaults, which is desktop.
  • windowed = [0; 1] - when enabled, runs game in windowed mode.
  • game_scale_fs = [string] - game scaling rule for fullscreen mode, and...
  • game_scale_win = [string] - game scaling rule for windowed mode, where
    • round - deduce the maximal integer multiplier that fits into the current desktop/device size;
    • stretch - stretch to current desktop/device size;
    • proportional - similar to stretch, but keep the game's aspect ratio.
  • filter = [string] - id of the scaling filter to use. Supported filter names are:
    • stdscale - nearest-neighbour scaling;
    • linear - anti-aliased scaling; not usable with software renderer.
  • refresh = [integer] - refresh rate for the display mode.
  • render_at_screenres = [0; 1] - whether the sprites are transformed and rendered in native game's or current display resolution;
  • supersampling = [integer] - super-sampling multiplier, default is 1, used with render_at_screenres = 0 (currently supported only by OpenGL renderer);
  • vsync = [0; 1] - enable or disable vertical sync.
  • rotation = [string | integer] - screen rotation. Possible values are:
    • unlocked (0) - device can be freely rotated if possible.
      • portrait (1) - locks the screen in portrait orientation.
      • landscape (2) - locks the screen in landscape orientation.
  • sprite_cache_size = [integer] - max size the engine will allocate for the sprite cache, in kilobytes of RAM. Default is 131072 (128 MB).
  • texture_cache_size = [integer] - max size the engine will allocate for the texture cache, in kilobytes of VRAM (video memory). Default is 131072 (128 MB).
• [sound] - sound options
  • enabled = [0; 1] - enable or disable game audio.
  • driver = [string] - audio driver id, leave empty for default. Driver IDs are provided by SDL2 and are platform-dependent.
    • For Linux:
      • pulseaudio, alsa, arts, esd, jack, pipewire, disk, dsp, dummy
    • For Windows:
      • wasapi, directsound, winmm, disk, dummy
  • cache_size = [integer] - max size the engine will allocate for sound cache, in kilobytes. Default is 32768 (32 MB).
  • stream_threshold = [integer] - max size of the sound clip that engine is allowed to load in memory at once, as opposed to continuously streaming one. In the current implementation this also defines the max size of a clip that may be put into the sound cache. Default is 1024 (1 MB).
  • usespeech = [0; 1] - enable or disable in-game speech (voice-overs).
• [mouse] - mouse options
  • auto_lock = [0; 1] - enables mouse autolock in window: mouse cursor locks inside the window whenever it receives input focus.
  • control_when = [string] - determines when the mouse cursor speed control is allowed, acceptable values are:
    • never - self-explanatory;
    • fullscreen - only when the game is run in fullscreen (this is default);
    • always - both in fullscreen and windowed mode.
  • control_enabled = [0; 1] - enables or disables mouse control. Note that this setting may be overriden by control_when.
  • speed_def = [string] - determines how the cursor speed value is interpreted, possible modes are:
    • absolute - use precisely the speed value provided by config;
    • current_display - keep cursor's speed by screen size relation by increasing actual cursor speed when running game in low resolution and decreasing when running in higher than the current user's dekstop resolution (this is default).
  • speed = [real] - mouse cursor speed (default is 1.0).
• [touch] - touch input options
  • emul_mouse_mode = [string | integer] - touch-to-mouse emulation (whether touch input should emulate the mouse input and how):
    • off (0) - disabled;
    • one_finger (1) - one finger maps directly to left click;
    • two_fingers (2) - tap 1 finger for left click, hold 1st finger and tap 2nd for right click, double tap 1 finger for drag mode.
  • emul_mouse_relative = [0; 1] - enable or disable relative emulated mouse movement.
• [language] - language options
  • translation = [string] - name of the translation to use. A <name>.tra file should be present in the game directory.
• [misc] - various options
  • datafile = [string] - path to the game file.
  • datadir = [string] - path to the game directory.
  • localuserconf = [0; 1] - read and write user config in the game's directory rather than using standard system path. Game directory must be writeable for this option to work, otherwise engine will fall back to standard path.
  • user_data_dir = [string] - custom path to savedgames location.
  • shared_data_dir = [string] - custom path to shared appdata location.
  • antialias = [0; 1] - anti-alias scaled sprites.
  • clear_cache_on_room_change = [0; 1] - whether to clear all resource caches (sprite, texture, sound) on every room change.
  • load_latest_save = [0; 1] - whether to load latest save on game launch.
  • background = [0; 1] - whether the game should continue to run in background, when the window does not have an input focus (does not work in exclusive fullscreen mode).
  • show_fps = [0; 1] - whether to display fps counter on screen.
  • titletext = [string] - the title of the winsetup window.
• [log] - log options, allow to setup logging to the chosen OUTPUT with given log groups and verbosity levels.
  • [outputname] = GROUP[:LEVEL][,GROUP[:LEVEL]][,...];
  • [outputname] = +GROUPLIST[:LEVEL]; Groups may be defined either by name or by a LIST of one-letter IDs, preceded by '+', e.g. +ABCD:LEVEL. Verbosity may be defined either by name or a numeric ID.
    • OUTPUTs are:
      • stdout, file, debugger (external debugging program);
    • GROUPs are:
      • all, main (m), game (g), manobj (o), sdl (l), script (s), sprcache (c);
    • LEVELs are:
      • all, alert (1), fatal (2), error (3), warn (4), info (5), debug (6);
    • Examples:
      • file=all:warn
      • file=main:warn,game:all
      • stdout=+mg:debug
  • file-path = [string] - custom path to the log file.
  • sdl = LEVEL - setup SDL's own logging level, defined either by name or numeric ID:
    • verbose (1), debug (2), info (3), warn (4), error (5), critical (6).
• [override] - special options, overriding game behavior.
  • multitasking = [0; 1] - lock the game in the "single-tasking" or "multitasking" mode. In the nutshell, "multitasking" here means that the game will continue running when player switched away from game window; otherwise it will freeze until player switches back.
  • os = [string] - trick the game to think that it runs on a particular operating system. This may come handy if the game is scripted to play differently depending on OS. Possible choices are:
    • dos - MS DOS;
    • win - Windows;
    • linux - Linux;
    • mac - MacOS.
  • legacysave_assume_dataver = [integer] - when restoring a save of a legacy format, lets engine assume certain game data version ID. This may be necessary because of a mistake in pre-3.5.0 save formats, where contents depended on a game data version rather than a save version.
  • legacysave_let_gui_diff = [0; 1] - when restoring a save of a legacy format, lets engine read less gui elements than are registered by the current game. This was a (possibly unintended) effect in pre-3.5.0 save format.
  • restore_game_key = [integer] - key for calling built-in restore game dialog. Key value corresponds to the AGS script keycode.
  • save_game_key = [integer] - key for calling built-in save game dialog.
  • upscale = [0; 1] - run game in the "upscale mode". The earlier versions of AGS provided support for "upscaling" low-res games to hi-res. The script API has means for detecting if the game is running upscaled, and game developer could use this opportunity to setup game accordingly (e.g. assign hi-res fonts, etc). This options works only for games created before AGS 3.1.0 with low-res native resolution, such as 320x200 or 320x240, and it may somewhat improve game looks.
• [disabled] - special instructions for the setup program hinting to disable particular options or lock some in the certain state. Ignored by the engine.
  • gfxdrivers = [0; 1] - tells to lock "Graphics driver" selection in a default state;
  • <gfxdriver id> = [0; 1] - tells to remove particular graphics driver from the selection list;
  • filters = [0; 1] - tells to lock "Graphics filter" selection at the value set in the config file;
  • <filter id> = [0; 1] - tells to remove particular graphics filter from the selection list;
  • fullscreen = [0; 1] - tells to disable fullscreen desktop checkbox and fullscreen mode selection list;
  • antialias = [0; 1] - tells to lock "Smooth scaled sprites" selection at the value set in the config file;
  • render_at_screenres = [0; 1] - tells to lock "Render sprites in screen resolution" selection at the value set in the config file;
  • speechvox = [0; 1] - tells to lock "Use digital speech pack" selection at the value set in the config file;
  • translation = [0; 1] - tells to lock "Game language" selection at the value set in the config file;