Running xoreos

First, you need to fully install and/or copy the game you want to play with xoreos onto your hard disk. How you do this depends on the game, your operating system and where/how you have bought the game.

xoreos does not yet have a launcher GUI or anything like this. You need to start it from the command line. Run xoreos with the command line option "--help" (without the quotes) to get a help text about further command line options.

The quickest way to start a game in path /path/to/game/ would be to call

xoreos -p/path/to/game/

If you're on Windows and the path is, say, D:\Path\To\Game\, call

xoreos -pD:\Path\To\Game\

Config file

In general, xoreos can read the configuration which game to run from either the command line, a config file or both. Additionally, when you first specify a new game on the command line, xoreos will add a related entry in the config file (creating it first, if necessary).

To accurately identify a specific instance of an installed game, xoreos uses the concept of a "target". Each target has a separate section in the config file, and each of their options apply only to that target. The special target "xoreos" is a global section applying to all games, although the same option in a game target overrides the global option.

The format of the config file is also relatively simple: It's in essence an INI file. Targets are enclosed in [] and options are assigned values with a =. Comments can begin with either a ";" or a "#" and run to the end of the line. When changing the file, xoreos will try to preserve all comments it encounters, so you don't need to fear about losing them.

For example:

[xoreos]
# Global options
width=1024
height=768
fullscreen=false # Windowed mode, please
logfile=/home/drmccoy/xoreos.log # Log file for easy debugging
showfps=true # I want to see an FPS counter

[nwn]
# Neverwinter Nights
path=/home/drmccoy/games/nwn/
description=Neverwinter Nights (English)
texturepack=3 # High res texture pack
volume_music=0.500000
volume_sfx=0.850000
volume_video=0.850000
tooltipdelay=100
largefonts=true
fullscreen=false # Fullscreen for Neverwinter Nights
fsaa=4 # 4x anti-aliasing

[kotor]
# Knights of the Old Republic
path=/home/drmccoy/games/kotor/
skipvideos=true # I don't want to see any videos in KotOR

You can then start the game with the target "nwn" with

xoreos nwn

and xoreos will do the rest. This will start the game in the path /home/drmccoy/games/nwn/, running it in fullscreen at 1024x768.

As you can see with the volume options, xoreos also saves settings you made in the game' actual GUI into the target's section of the config file.

The place where xoreos expects the config file depends on your operating system:

• On GNU/Linux, the place is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xoreos/xoreos.conf. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME defaults to $HOME/.config/
• On Mac OS X, the place is $HOME/Library/Preferences/xoreos/xoreos.conf
• On Windows, xoreos.conf is in the subdirectory xoreos in either $APPDATA or $USERPROFILE, depending on your Windows version

Command line parameters

xoreos - A reimplementation of BioWare's Aurora engine
Usage: xoreos [options] [target]

          --help              Display this text and exit.
          --version           Display version information and exit.
  -cFILE  --config=FILE       Load the config from file FILE.
  -pDIR   --path=DIR          Override the game path with DIR.
  -wSIZE  --width=SIZE        Set the window's width to SIZE.
  -hSIZE  --height=SIZE       Set the window's height to SIZE.
  -fBOOL  --fullscreen=BOOL   Switch fullscreen on/off.
  -kBOOL  --skipvideos=BOOL   Disable videos on/off.
  -vVOL   --volume=VOL        Set global volume to VOL.
  -mVOL   --volume_music=VOL  Set music volume to VOL.
  -sVOL   --volume_sfx=VOL    Set SFX volume to VOL.
  -oVOL   --volume_voice=VOL  Set voice volume to VOL.
  -iVOL   --volume_video=VOL  Set video volume to VOL.
  -dLVL   --debuglevel=LVL    Set the debug level to LVL.
          --debugchannel=CHAN Set the enabled debug channel(s) to CHAN.
          --listdebug         List all available debug channels.
          --logfile=FILE      Write all debug output into this file too.

FILE: Absolute or relative path to a file.
DIR:  Absolute or relative path to a directory.
SIZE: A positive integer.
BOOL: "true", "yes", "y", "on" and "1" are true, everything else is false.
VOL:  A double ranging from 0.0 (min) - 1.0 (max).
LVL:  A positive integer.
CHAN: A comma-separated list of debug channels.
      Use "All" to enable all debug channels.

Examples:
xoreos -p/path/to/nwn/
  xoreos will start the game in /path/to/nwn/. Should a target with this
  path not yet exist in the config file, xoreos will create one named "nwn".
xoreos -p/path/to/nwn/ foobar
  xoreos will start the game in /path/to/nwn/. If a target "foobar"
  does not yet exist in the config file, xoreos will create it.
xoreos nwn
  xoreos will start the game specified by target "nwn", which must exit
  in the config file already.

Long-form command line option, like --skipvideos, map directly to config options. Options given on the command line will override any options found in the config file for this session, but will not save back to that config file.

Common hotkeys

Hotkey	Effect
Ctrl+Q Apple+Q	Quit
Alt+Enter	Toggle fullscreen
Alt+S	Take a screenshot
Ctrl+D	Open a debug console

In games that show an area in xoreos, you can fly through the areas in spectator-mode:

Hotkey	Effect
W Up	Forward
S Down	Backward
A Left	Turn left
D Right	Turn right
Q	Strafe left
E	Strafe right
Page Up	Look up
Page Down	Look down
End	Look straight ahead
Insert	Fly up
Delete	Fly down

You can also hold the middle mouse button down to look around.