Bridge Command - Configuration
Introduction
Bridge Command's settings are controlled in the file bc4.ini, found in the Bridge Command root directory. This can be edited with either a standard text editor (Such as notepad), or with the program provided, Configuration Editor, accessible from the start menu.
These settings control how Bridge Command runs on your screen, such as whether it runs full screen, or in a window, and at what resolution, as well as many other things
Using the configuration program
If you run the Configuration Editor, use the icon in the Bridge Command folder on the start menu, or by run config.exe in the Bridge Command installation directory (normally C:\Program Files\Bridge Command X.X), this will take you through the configuration process step by step, then show you the settings you have selected, and check if you want to make the changes shown.
The bc4.ini technical specification
This file uses the general principles documented in the Ini File Format document, which should be referred to alongside this document.
Example bc4.ini file
graphics_width=800 graphics_height=600 graphics_depth=16 graphics_mode=2 scenario_dir="Scenarios" minimum_distance=0.5 maximum_distance=100000 collision_mode=1 terrain_detail=2000 name="" multihead=0 udp_timeout=30 udp_send_port=18304 udp_recv_port=18303
Parameters and descriptions
The parameters set in the file are:
- graphics_width: This sets the screen width. If running full screen, this should be a width your graphics card supports.
- graphics_height: This sets the screen height. It should be 0.75x the graphics_width value, and should also be supported by your graphics card.
- graphics_depth: This is the colour depth used when running full screen. It should be supported by your card, and is likely to be one of 16 or 32.
- graphics_mode: 1 is full screen, 2 is windowed
- scenario_dir: This is the location where Bridge Command looks for the scenarios to choose from. It should either be relative to your Bridge Command root folder, or an absolute path.
- minimum_distance: The minimum distance in metres that is rendered by the camera. If this is too small, you will see strange depth artifacts.
- maximum_distance: The maximum distance the camera will render in metres. If the visiblity is less than this, the smaller value will be used.
- collision_mode: This can be 0, 1 or 2. 0 disables any collision detection for the own ship model. 1 uses a simple distance and ship shape collision detection method, and 2 uses polygon-polygon collision detection. This is most accurate, but is slightly slower running.
- terrain_detail: The detail with which the terrain is rendered to the display. 2000 is a good default, but you can reduce this to around 500 in order to increase performance, at the cost of a less smooth terrain with more simplification artefacts.
- name: This allows you to give the simulator a unique name of your own choice, and can be any text string, enclosed in double quotation marks ("). It can also be blank (name="").
- multihead: This sets whether multiple displays are shown on one screen. This will reduce the resolution of each display, but show you a wider viewpoint around the ship. Set to 0 for normal, single display, 1 for the screen divided into four quarters, or 2 for a short, wide screen with a 270 degree field of view. Please note that there is a better way of displaying on multiple screens, with multiple computers each rendering to one full screen, to get high resolution multi-screen display. Please see the main documentation for more details on how to do this.
- udp_timeout: Where Bridge Command is being used with the Map Controller, how long in milliseconds to wait for a data message to arrive.
- udp_send_port: The port used by Bridge Command to send UDP data when being used with the Map Controller or multiple displays.
- udp_recv_port: The port used by Bridge Command to receive UDP data from the Map Controller when being used with it.
The map.ini technical specification
This file configures the Map Controller, and the other associated programs (Replay etc).
Example map.ini file
graphics_width=640 graphics_height=480 graphics_depth=16 graphics_mode=2 smooth_radar=0 cache_radar=1 zoom_levels=3 udp_timeout=30 udp_send_port=18303 udp_recv_port=18304
Parameters and descriptions
The parameters set in the file are:
- graphics_width: This sets the screen width. If running full screen, this should be a width your graphics card supports.
- graphics_height: This sets the screen height. It should be 0.75x the graphics_width value, and should also be supported by your graphics card.
- graphics_depth: This is the colour depth used when running full screen. It should be supported by your card, and is likely to be one of 16 or 32.
- graphics_mode: 1 is full screen, 2 is windowed
- smooth_radar: If this is set to 1, the map image will be smoothed when it is scaled for display. This will mean that the program will take more time to load.
- cache_radar: One of the processes which takes most time in start-up is scaling the map images to the correct size. If this parameter is set to 1, the images will be scaled the first time they are used, and these prescaled images saved ready to be loaded directly. This significantly speeds up loading times, but can use substantial disk space. Set to 0 if you do not want to save the pre-scaled images.
- zoom_levels: The number of zoom levels for which a map image is displayed. This number must be 1 or greater. Since scaling the map to higher zoom levels is a slow process, increasing the zoom levels may make the program start very slowly.
- udp_timeout: How long in milliseconds to wait for a data message to arrive from Bridge Command.
- udp_send_port: The port used by the Map Controller to send UDP data to Bridge Command.
- udp_recv_port: The port used by the Map controller to receive UDP data from Bridge Command.