Configuration

It's a good idea to configure SUAVE to your liking before you start playing. Most (but not all) config options may be changed during a game as well. SUAVE's configuration menu can be accessed from the main menu, or from the pause menu during a game. It's split into two pages: One for control options, the other for video options.

Control Options


Options on this page affect how you control the tank you play in the game. There are three panels on this page: One for movement, one for aim, and one for other controls.

By default, the user uses the W, A, S, and D keys on the American keyboard to move and the mouse to aim and fire, similar to many popular First Person Shooters. You can redefine the motion controls to come from any keys on the keyboard or axis on a joystick. The turret control can be either of these, or the mouse.

If you have a gamepad that has two analog sticks and triggers for the fingers, you may wnt to try setting movement to the left joystick and aim to the right one. Other people prefer having all the controls on the keyboard, but be careful -- some keyboards can give false input when more than two keys are pressed at the same time. There are dozens of ways you could set up the movement and aim controls, and it's important to find a configuration that you're comfortable with. More information about how these controls affect the tank can be found on the Playing page.

The bottom blue panel contains the remaining game settings. If your aim mode is set to joystick, your weapon will automatically fire when the joystick is moved to its edge. Otherwise, the key or button you use to fire the gun will be defined here.

The weapon swap button is a very important button to learn, and lets you pick up devistating alternate weapons from the ground.

The Time Device is an important feature to master, and has three different modes. Hold mode means that time will only slow down as you hold down the time device control button (space bar by default). Toggle mode means that the control button will toggle the device on and off. The third mode, Mouse Wheel mode, can only be used if your mouse has a scroll wheel, and lets that wheel control how much affect the device will have. We recommend trying this mode if you do have a mouse wheel.

The Camera Change key (C by default) switches the camera from a chase view behind the tank to a flat overhead view and back. When in the chase view, the Camera Target Toggle key (Tab by default) will change the camera to look down your gun barrel or the length of the tank.

Video Options


The top panel on this page is be used to change your screen resolution. This cannot be changed during gameplay, since it fully restarts SUAVE when changed. If your computer supports windowed 3D, the game defaults to being a window on your desktop. If you experience some sluggishness in Windowed mode, try one of the full-screen modes instead. SUAVE was designed to look best at 800x600 and 1024x768. Widescreen resolutions are also supported.

Below this, you'll find many options for controlling how SUAVE is displayed. The most important of these is the Detail Level. Raising and lowering this has a drastic effect on how much stuff is drawn on the screen; each detail level allows twice as many particles as the one before it. If SUAVE seems to run too jerky when many things are exploding, you may want to try turning the Detail Level down. The Permanent Debris setting below this can also affect speed a good deal, and controls if and how much debris cleans itself up after an explosion.

The Default Camera is simply which camera of the two mentioned by Camera Change the game will start with. Time Device Blur is an experimental option, off by default, and is only recommended for people who run in a fairly low resolution, or with a very fast graphics card.

Timing Mode affects how the game counts time. We recommend keeping it on "Smooth", but if you're experiencing input lag or other timing problems, you can try switching this to "Vertical Sync".

Brightness only applies to fullscreen resolutions, and can be used to boost the overall brightness of the game on the screen.

The Use button accepts the new configuration and uses it until the game is exited or the options are changed again. The Save & Use button will remember your configuration for when you run SUAVE again in the future.