• Overview
• Download and Installation
• Configuration
  • Difficulty
  • Weapon inventory
  • Crosshair
  • HUD
  • Bullet time
  • Performance
  • Screen effects
  • Gore
  • Ragdoll
  • Bloom
  • Game enhancements
  • Gameplay
  • Game options
• Missions and Media
• FAQ
• Development
• Credits and Contact

Configuration

The SMOD Configuration Utility is a key part of CSS SCI FI. This simple utility sets hundreds of options and allows players to quickly transform the game according to their preferences.

The SMOD Configuration Utility can be found in the SMOD directory (..\SourceMods\smod) and will appear as a shortcut on your desktop after installation. The SMOD Configuration Utility can also be added to your Steam games window, please see this page for details.

After running this utility, you do not need to take any further action - the game is now ready to play. Each page of the SMOD Configuration Utility is described below, with each of the options outlined.

1. Difficulty

These settings determine enemy and ally skill and are independent of the skill settings in the options menu in game. The in game skill setting (Easy, Medium and Hard) determines enemy health, damage done by npc and player weapons, and the quantity of health and ammo given by various items. The settings in the Configuration Utility, above, determine the accuracy of npc shooting (both enemy and ally), the number of seconds enemies fire in each burst, and the frequency with which enemies use shields. Both should be set in any combination desired.

The chart on the left illustrates how difficulty works in CSS SCI FI. The CSS SCI FI difficulties are in blue on the y axis, while the HL2 skill settings are in orange on the x axis. For example, setting the in game skill to "Hard" and the difficulty setting above to "Standard" will produce the same gameplay as found in the unmodified HL2 single player campaign: enemy health is high and player weapons are less effective, while enemy shooting is unmodified. Conversely, setting the in game skill to "Easy" and the difficulty setting to "Realistic" will mean that player weapons are highly effective but also that enemies are aggressive and accurate.

The "Extreme" setting adds the "Extreme Strong Gappoi" option which means that you will from time to time encounter enemies with as much as 500 health. These enemies are tinted red or blue.

If you are dismayed by the accuracy of enemy shooting, or by having enemies able to fire single shot weapons such as the shotgun and SVD inhumanly fast, then leave this setting at "Standard".

2. Weapon inventory

These settings determine how many weapons the player can carry. "Unlimited" is the HL2 standard setting, and allows you to carry an unlimited number of weapons. "By quantity" limits your inventory to any 10 of the weapons listed below, including grenades (as a weapon, not each individual grenade). If you already have 10 weapons, you will need to drop your current weapon in order to pick up a new one. You should set a key to do this in the control options.

"By type" limits your weapons to one per type, as listed below. "By category" limits your weapons to one per key, so that for each key (1 to 4) you have one weapon, as in F.E.A.R. or Far Cry. Effectively, "by category" combines the Melee and Gravity Gun types (once you have the gravity gun you do not need the crowbar), the SubMachinegun and Assault Rifle types and the Rifle and Shotgun types. Grenades are exempt from the "by type" and "by category" settings. The AR2 ammo capacity has been increased to 90, in order to make these settings more effective.

Melee: crowbar
Gravity Gun: gravity gun
Pistol: pistol, alyxgun, flaregun, 357
SubMachinegun: smg1, grease gun, mp5
Assault rifle: Pulse rifle (ar2), ak47, lasergun, portable airboat gun
Rifle: svd, crossbow, kar98
Shotgun: shotgun
Rocket launcher: rpg

The following grenades are exempt from the "by type" and "by category" weapon limits (but are included in "by quantity" limits): frag, anm14, gravity grenade, hopwire, hopwire_old, motion sensor bomb. The player may carry up to 5 of each of these. Bugbait is also exempt.

3. Crosshair

These settings control the user crosshair. Click on the images above for examples of each. The "Vector based crosshair" is "soft aiming" similar to that used in Red Orchestra: rather than draw a simple cross in the middle of the screen, the game traces the direction in which the user weapon model is pointing and directs fire to that point. This setting cannot be used with a reticle as their positions will not match.

4. HUD

This setting enables Call of Duty style health regeneration. With regeneration enabled, player health regenerates all the time. When player health falls below 50, the screen jitters and turns red, which warns the player that he must find cover while regeneration takes place. When regeneration is enabled, health vials, medkits and health stations have no effect on the player, though can still be "used", in that touching them plays a sound and makes them disappear. Regeneration can be combined with various limitations to the hud, culminating in the ultra realistic but very difficult "No HUD" setting.

It is recommended that players new to this type of health start with the "Normal HUD with regeneration" setting, as this allows you to keep track of when health is low before the red warning begins (it is almost impossible to fight in this condition). More adventurous players can keep track of their health and ammo by using only the quickinfo on the reticle. To enable this mode, select "No HUD with regeneration" on the HUD page and "Simple crosshair with reticle" on the crosshair page. Then, in game, enable quickinfo in "Options > Mouse".

5. Bullet time

These settings determine bullet time configuration. Each setting is very different from the others, so players are encouraged to play a map or two with each.

"Classic bullet time" is the bullet time setting with which most players of SMOD will be familiar. Bullets, movement, player actions, enemies and physics are slowed.

"Improved bullet time" is similar to the bullet time settings found in F.E.A.R. Bullets and player actions are close to normal speed, so players can reload a weapon during bullet time and shoot almost normally. However, movement, enemies and physics are slowed.

"High speed bullet time" is provides the biggest advantage to the player out of the three modes listed above. Bullets, both those of the player and enemies, player movement and actions are close to normal speed. Enemies and physics are severely slowed and physics effects are increased. This has the effect of allowing the player to move around a body as it falls to the ground, or to snatch a weapon from the air as an enemy drops it.

"Time stop bullet time" freezes all enemies in mid motion. Player bullets, movement and actions are close to normal speed, while enemies do not fire at all. As in "High speed bullet time" above, physics is severely slowed. This provides a massive advantage to the player as enemies are no threat while bullet time is activated.

6. Performance

This setting controls the type and intensity of additional effects created by SMOD. These settings are expensive and will impact your frame rates. The "Standard" setting is identical to that of HL2. It adds no additional effects in order to maximise frame rates. Shaders can still be applied (they do not impact performance as much and are in the next section) but additional lighting and particle effects are not added.

"Improved" adds some lighting and particle effects. Gunfire and explosions particle effects are improved and muzzle flashes and fires give off static light. Some effects, including smoke from fires and explosions and the fountain effect when explosions occur in sand or water, are also enhanced. This setting is recommended for nearly all systems. Not only is it easier to run, it is also more realistic than the "Maximum" setting.

"Maximum" effects vastly increases the particles given off by gunfire and explosions and makes all additional lighting effects dynamic rather than static, which is more realistic but very costly. This setting also disables the fading of distant objects, which in large maps puts further strain on system resources. This setting is recommended only for systems with abundant spare resources.

7. Screen effects

This setting controls the application of shader effects to various game situations. Shaders do not greatly affect performance, but they do affect gameplay by altering how the player views the action. Shaders are only available to DX9 capable video cards.

"DX9 screen effects partial 1" adds blur around the edges of iron sight and zoom views, and adds the distorted effect of bullet time. This is the recommended setting.

"DX9 screen effects partial 2" adds all of the above shaders, plus blur when moving quickly in a vehicle, under water and near an explosion. The explosion effect makes the game very difficult, as the player cannot see when near a grenade, exploding barrel, Combine energy ball or helicopter grenade.

"DX9 screen effects full" adds all of the above shaders plus bullet impact blur. When bullets strike the player or near the player, the screen blurs slightly. Like explosion effects, this is the most realistic setting, but makes the game significantly harder.

8. Gore

This setting controls the amount of gore rendered in game. "Realistic" and "Extreme" gore add twitching and convulsing to corpses, which is slightly grotesque but adds realism. "Realistic" makes ragdolls harder to gib and reduces the amount of blood overall, while "Extreme" does the opposite.

9. Ragdoll

These settings control ragdoll behaviour. The "HL2" setting is the default behaviour, while the "SMOD" setting increases the violence of ragdoll reactions. "Realistic" dampens all effects and "Extreme" increases the mobility of ragdolls as well as the physics effects of attacks on NPCs.

10. Bloom

This setting controls Bloom effects in game. Bloom is a way of adding an HDR like effect to the game without actually using HDR, which the SMOD codebase lacks. It adds fringes of light to all bright objects in the game, which can improve the quality and realism of the image. Most of the screenshots on the missions page were taken with "Intense bloom" enabled, so you can see the effects. "Intense bloom" is very prominent in outdoor maps, especially desert maps such as CS_Beirut.

"Bloom with exposure" adds a bloom effect which changes as the player moves around the map, similar to HDR. The bloom is most intense when moving from a dark area to a light area, and then reduces to simulate pupil dilation. The rendering of this effect can cause noticeable framerate drops, but may be worth it to some players for the atmosphere it lends to the maps.

Please note that the shader used for bloom may not be compatible with some older video cards. If you have selected any type of bloom during configuration and the screen is completely black as soon as the game starts, then quit SMOD and run the Configuration Utility again. Be sure to select "No Bloom" and run the game again. This will eliminate the problem.

11. Game enhancements

These settings control additional game options. These do not significantly impact game performance and are purely optional.

The "Deathcam" is required if you are going to set up your user_custom.cfg to use a custom thirdperson view model (which you must do yourself, as no models are included in CSS SCI FI).

"Ragdoll collisions" are not recommended as they are expensive to render and constantly get in the way.

Disabling shooting while sprinting simply lowers the player weapon when the sprint key is pressed, then raises it again when released, for realism.

"Visor smearing" warps the players view with nice dripping water when emerging from under water as well as splats the player faceplate (or Gordon's glasses?) with blood when a kill is made very near to the player.

"Recoil" adds a tendency to creep upwards to all weapons, especially the MP7 (smg1).

12. Gameplay

These settings control what allies appear in CSS SCI FI maps. These settings have no effect on the single player HL2 campaign, or on any other maps other than those scripted specifically for CSS SCI FI. All of these options have a performance impact, so if you are having difficulty running the game smoothly you may wish to disable some or all of these options in order to lessen the amount of processing the game needs to do.

"Citizen allies" all spawn as medics or ammo suppliers. The type of ammo they give is randomly determined, and they may not give ammo until the player has the weapon which matches their supply type. Citizen allies can be commanded using all normal HL2 squad commands: "c" to send to a location, "cc" to recall. The only difference is that the time which the squad remains in place is increased to 60 minutes rather than a few seconds as in HL2. This means that when you station a squad, they stay put.

"Team Alyx" consists of Alyx, Barney and a randomly selected special team-mate, which can be a friendly combine (think of him as a captured and reprogrammed experiment), a vortigaunt (who will charge your HEV), or a citizen. Alyx and Barney cannot be commanded, but in hostage maps they will find the hostages for you, and stay with them until one or the other dies.

"Extra enemies" consist of zombies of all types, as well as autonomous Combine weapons such as rollermines, hopper mines and killer scanners. These enemies will spawn randomly in the spaces between the player start and the Combine. It is not required that you kill these enemies in order to win the game and are simply there for added interest.

If the "Extra Combine" check box is ticked, then maps with 32 spawn points may contain up to 32 Combine enemies, rather than the standard 16 or 24 enemies. This feature has a significant impact on frame rates, so only enable it if you have plenty of processing power to spare.

13. Game options

These options change the display of the chapter menu in game and determine what happens when a mission is complete.

"CSS SCI FI: campaign mode" enables you to play the 15 original maps and 12 custom maps as two multi-map single player campaigns. When each map's objectives are complete, the next map will load.

"CSS SCI FI: round mode" is designed for playing each map as a standalone arena. When the objectives are complete the map will restart. Because of the randomisation of enemies, movement and equipment, no two rounds will be the same, so each map can be played again and again.

"Half-Life 2" changes the display of the chapter menu to show the HL2 single player campaign chapters. You can still play the single player campaign without this setting, as no functionality is impaired. It merely changes the display of the chapters.

This feature is required because the Source engine cannot display more than 32 chapters in the chapter menu. Any extra chapters over 32 are discarded. If anyone can find a solution or workaround for this problem, so that all 27 CSS SCI FI maps and all 15 HL2 chapters can be displayed together, please send me an email.

"Restore core files." This setting restores core files after patching SMOD. When SMOD is patched, some script files required by CSS SCI FI may be overwritten. Choosing to "Restore Core Files" will reinstall all mapadd, node list, and script files used by CSS SCI FI. Counter-Strike: Source maps, batch files and start menu shortcuts will not be restored. For information about patching SMOD, please see the download page.