FAQ
When experiencing problems running the game, this is the first place to look as it contains the fastest method of getting an
answer to your
question/problem. Should your question not be answered here, use the
Cube Forums to ask a question, and
not the discussion page here.
If you're just starting out, consider going over the
Beginners Guide and the
Documentation, which touches on more topics in depth.
EDITORS NOTE: Please add to the bottom of this page so TOC links are not changed. This allows forum posts that link directly to a topic to remain relevant. Also, please restrict the topics to Cube/Sauerbraten, if a question requires further information, link to another (more in-depth) page.
Q: The game runs very slowly, how can I fix it?
Performance is a big issue with 3D games, and it is essential to a quality experience with the game.
A: Manipulate game settings
Refer to the
Performance Guide for steps on how to configure the game for more speed.
A: Tweak graphics drivers settings
A common issue with performance are quality settings in your graphics driver configuration, mostly with forced settings. How to do so is beyond the scope of this document, please refer to your driver manufacturers website for further information:
Q: Why is the game behaving strangely?
The most common cause of this problem is having configured (knowingly or otherwise) some obscure setting or attempting to install over an older version of the game.
A: Remove your old config
Most of the time, it should be sufficient enough to simply delete the file
config.cfg in the game's base directory, this allows the game to load updated bindings and commands from
data/defaults.cfg. Read more about these files on the page
Configuration Hints.
A: Perform a clean install
A sure fire way to ensure the game will run correctly is to completely delete/uninstall and install from scratch.
Q: How do I fix the 'Hall of Mirrors' effect?
This problem occurs most frequently on older ATI video cards or cards with incorrect or poor support for pixel shaders.
A: Limit or disable shaders
You should first try the console command
/shaderdetail 0. Failing that, you may try disabling shaders completely by using the
-f0 switch on the command line as a last resort.
Q: The game locks up my system, how do I get back?
A: Linux
With ATI cards, your problem could be related to driver issues with 3D Acceleration, for more information visit the
Fglrx article on
ThinkWiki.
- Try pressing CTRL-ALT-Fn to switch consoles (from X).
- Try logging in from another computer using SSH.
If you manage to get to a console, run
ps ax | grep sauerbraten to find the process id of the process (the first number) then
kill -KILL N where N is the process id. If you are unable to do any of this, it might indicate a hard lock which could be related to a hardware/driver problem.
A: Windows
- Try pressing ALT-TAB until you find the console (also known as the command prompt) window for Sauerbraten. If you are able to select the icon that comes up with this, press CTRL-BREAK (sometimes known as PAUSE/BREAK) to terminate the batch process.
- Try pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE to bring up the task manager, to manually find the sauerbraten.exe on the process page. Select it and End Process.
If you are unable to do any of this, it might indicate a hard lock which could be related to a hardware/driver problem.
A: MacOS
- Try pressing APPLE-OPTION-ESCAPE to get back to your desktop and deal with Sauerbraten. (This section could use expanding).
Q: Why aren't my maps in the menu?
A: The game already knows about them
Either use auto-complete on the console or manually modify your maps menus. See
Script Demo - Map Menu.
Q: Where are the monsters?
A: Start in SinglePlayer
You need to be in a singleplayer mode (-1 or -2) - see
Beginners Guide.
Q: How do I change my name?
A: Use the commands
Type
t to open a chat-console and enter
/name my_name or
/name "my name with spaces".
t opens your text-console, if
/ is the first character the input is interpreted as a CubeScript-command.
You can put these commands into autoexec.cfg too (create if it doesn't exist); in this file you do //not__ need to prepend the
/ - all lines are interpreted as CubeScript-commands!
Welcome to the world of
CubeScript.
Q: Which ports do Sauerbraten servers need opened?
A: RTFM docs/config.html
It's on the configuration page of your local documentation (README.html);
always check there for most accurate information.
Rumour has it they`re fixed at
udp 28785 and
udp 28786.
Q: How can I save my settings ?
A: Use config.cfg
The engine autosaves into config.cfg.
You should always check config.cfg for "on-the-fly" scripting and personal settings before erasing it;
keep it backuped from time to time.
A missing config.cfg will be replaced.
By data/default_settings.cfg plus any "on-the-fly" and personal changes done in-game.
A: Use autoexec.cfg
Put any required settings into autoexec.cfg. It's executed after config.cfg.
Q: The screenres comamnd doesn't work
Q: How do I change my screen resolution in-game?
A: Use the commandline parameters
Depending on your Operating System this can be either the sauerbraten.bat file (Win32) or a shell script.
Add the
-w and
-h parameters for width & height respectively.
On Win32 it might be advisable to simply create multiple links to the BAT and change the parameters soley in the attributes of that link - that way you can have multiple setups for running - e.g. one with shaders and filters off, one with all features on that your card can support ... and so on. See
Performance Guide for hints at what to tweak.
A: On linux screenres works fine
screenres and fullscreen work only on linux/unix based systems (e.g. Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat, ..) or even OS X.
Q: I get an exception dialog on Windows, what do I do?
A: Grab the output in the console
This message contains information useful to the developers, you can contribute to eliminating bugs by posting a copy and paste of the output in the console window running the game on the forum. It also helps if you add information on your system (OS Win95/98/NT/XP/Vista, Service Pack(s), CPU, RAM, GFX, Drivers Installed, etc).
Q: I an error "your video card is WAY too old", how can I fix it?
A: Check out your system configuration
A fatal error like this could mean several things. Most likely, you have a video card far too old to be playing Sauerbraten with. If you have a modern card though, it could be because you have failed to install the drivers for your card. Go to your video card manufacturer's website and download the latest drivers there (links at the top of the page). If you however have a modern card with proper drivers installed and still get the error, make sure that 'extension limit' in your Nvidia/ATI control panel is set to 'off'.
Q: How can I make the game run on old hardware?
A: Tweaking Settings
There's no easy answer to this question, every computer is different. If you're having problems running the game due to graphical glitches, try the
-f0 command line option. For further performance tweaking see the
Performance Guide.
Q: Where do I get the latest development snapshot?
Q: How do I download CVS?
A: use a CVS client
Actually - most people will not really want to download a development snapshot from CVS,
but since it is regularly discussed and hence asked about in the community:
CVS stands for "Concurrent Versions System" -
meaning all the developers around the world share into this system and they can even rollback if someone messes up along the way.
Once they've done their stuff a new release is made available and the cycle begins anew.
So - when you download from CVS - you just don't know what you're getting - you
have been warned!.
Now just go and read
Sourceforge CVS Repository Primer (for Sauerbraten) - you will need to install a CVS-client for yourself - e.g. SmartCVS (a java client - should work on most platforms).
Q: Where can I obtain the music files?
A: In Fanatic's folder, or on his website
Check out the (Sauerbraten base folder)\packages\fanatic. There are a bunch of OGG Vorbis files there - numbered 1-41 - and the tracknames (in Track Names.txt). If you want to download the mp3's, go to
Fanatic's website and look for the albums "Two Minute Warning", "Sauer Anger", "Panexypnos Dimiourgia", and "Spontaneous Failure".
Q: How do I use colours in my text?
A: Use the FormFeed Control Character
ASCII-12, "\f" - see the
coloured text explanation.
Q: Why is my mouse not working in OpenGL (Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex))?
A: It seems to be caused by Compiz.
Try installing the Compiz-Fusion Button and switch to Metacity whenever you're gaming. For some reason, this fixes the mouse problem. See the following message and it's followups on the official forum
Mouse Fix on Ubuntu 8.10