[Special Guide] A Guide to the Settings and Its Changes

[Thekillerpenguin 1,731]

 

A Guide to the Settings and Its Changes

 

The long beleaguered Settings menu has recently undergone some similarly long-due renovation. This is definitely not the most interesting of changes, especially not compared to the addition of the Clan system in the same update, but it's important regardless. A few new features have been added along with the visual changes that can be quite handy. I'll also be reviewing each of the settings since a guide like that hasn't been done in a while. I'll also be reviewing each of the settings to help clarify information.
 

 
The previous Settings menu was a rather ugly single page, cluttered with all the settings in the game, ranging from graphics options to email information. While it did minimize the number of clicks required to change a given setting, as said by the developers, it wouldn't leave much room for future additions. Also, a newbie could be easily overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of checkboxes.
 

Game

 

The settings menu is currently divided into multiple panels, or pages, if you will. Here's a screenshot of the first panel, which manages game settings.
 

 
This panel manages settings that will affect your gameplay, not including graphics and controls. As you can see, the ubiquitous "show damage", "show chat", and "alternate camera behavior" buttons, among others, have been moved to here. The volume slider and option for background sound are present as well. I'll cover what each of these do.

• Show damage: This controls the display of the damage numbers that appear when you damage a tank, enemy or otherwise. They appear in ticks of roughly half a second and last for a second or so before disappearing; if you have a weapon that damages continuously, the numbers will stack/appear simultaneously to a noticeable degree. If you destroy a tank within one of those ticks, the final damage number is displayed in red. I generally recommend that you turn these on because they provide quite a bit of utility. If I shoot someone far away with my Shaft's arcade shot and notice that I'm only dealing 300 or so points of damage, I immediately know that they are either using Double Armor or a module with roughly 50% Shaft protection. This allows you to pick your fights and determine what tactics you should use. In addition, if you use Thunder, Striker, or Ricochet to damage an opponent out of your line of sight, you can see the damage numbers that result. This means that you can randomly shoot into corners to check for enemies or see the location of an enemy that you're trying to splash/hit with ricochets. It's very useful overall.
• Show drop zones: This controls the display of the 2D symbols marking the location of drop zones for supply boxes. Unlike before, these drop zones markers no longer become transparent over distance, so you can now see a gold box marker from across the map. I generally recommend that you turn these on because there is no real downside to doing so. I haven't noticed any extra lag from enabling this setting, and on unfamiliar maps, knowing where a repair kit is can be a lifesaver.
• Alternate camera behavior: This one is a little confusing since it isn't described anywhere in-game. According to the wiki, it causes the camera to follow your tank when you are inside tunnels. This isn't particularly descriptive either, so the concept will be illustrated with a few screenshots. First, here's a first-person view in the tunnels of Iran with the camera panned to look down on the tank. This is without Alternate camera behavior enabled.

 

A little claustrophobic, but I can kind of see what's in front of me. The below screenshot me in the same spot with Alternate camera behavior enabled.

 

 
Of course, there's no reason to have the camera panned up so high in a tunnel in the first place. Instead, one should pan it lower for optimal vision, a habit that should have formed by playing Tanki for a while. Anyways, this setting is generally not recommended since it can be disorienting if your camera is panned up high (common on Iran) and your tank suddenly drives underneath an overhang. The normal setting would at least provide some awareness while you tone down your camera angle.

• PM from friends only: Fairly self explanatory. This controls whether or not any random person can Private Message you in the server chat, or whether only players in your Friends list can PM you. I like to leave this on since I don't really have any reason not to, but if you're a famous player or simply get swamped by PMs from random people, turning this on could be helpful. In addition, if someone is harassing you in PM, turning this on temporarily can help solve the problem. Your harasser will have to either switch to attacking you with public messages, which can get them banned (alas, you can't report people for private messages), or they'll just have to stop. Good to know. If you don't have any problems of that nature, I would not recommend turning it on.
• Show chat: Self explanatory. This controls the display of the messages in the server chat and suppresses the display of the battle chat. I don't see much reason to use it, but if you are annoyed by the server chat for any reason, like people spamming "+"s for gold boxes, and there are too many people involved for ignoring all of them to be viable, then you can try this. However, your friends and other people won't be able to talk to you. In battles, while you can still access the battle chat by pressing Enter, you may miss out on important pointers from your teammates, since it's usually not worth it to interrupt battles by pressing Enter all the time. I would recommend keeping it on.
• Show notifications: This controls the display of the "xyz invites you to a battle" type notifications. With it on, you will be notified if someone invites you to a battle, accepts your invite, or declines your invite. I would recommend keeping it on unless you really need to be concentrated on a battle.
• Sound volume: This large slider allows you to control how loud the game sounds are. I don't touch this because I prefer to use the master volume control of my computer instead, but if you are having a Skype call or are playing music in the background, this could be useful.
• Background sound: This option controls whether or not you'll hear ambient noise in battle. On almost all maps, this is just the sounds of the wind, random Thunder/Railgun shots, and what might be a sort of rumbling helicopter noise. It's mostly pleasant white noise, but if you are playing a serious competitive game, the gunfire noises could be misleading or distracting, so turning it off could be a good idea. If you're not a tryhard competitive player and enjoy the sound, then I would recommend keeping it on.

Let's head to the next panel, which manages the Graphics options that give some players joy, and for everyone else, lag.

 

Graphics

 

These are the settings that control how the game looks. You can turn them all off for maximum performance, turn them all on for maximum appearance, or use something in between. The above picture shows my personal settings. They're mostly a holdover from when I was using a rather low-end computer, and I haven't really changed them since getting a new one. From personal testing, my current computer (Intel i5 processor, integrated graphics, 8 GB of RAM) can handle medium-high graphics well, but my FPS tends to drop to high 40s-50s when shadows and lighting need to be rendered. If I turn all of the setting on, I get only 20 FPS. I prefer using the bare bones settings above and keep a consistent 60 FPS, but it depends vastly on your choice of computer. For all of these settings, choosing whether or not you want to enable them is personal choice, so I'll skip recommendations. I'll be covering the important ones.

• Show skybox: This allows you to see the skies of the various maps in the game. Otherwise, it will be replaced with a brilliant flat white. From what I can tell, if you turn this option off when playing with your browser, the skybox is replaced with a flat grey instead. I don't think the skybox contributes very much to lag because it's a simple box that surrounds the map with textures, but if your graphics card isn't very good and you need every reduction of lag you can, consider turning it on. Do note that the white sky is obscenely bright and quite taxing on your eyes, and it can be a disadvantage on night maps because the contrast is so great that you won't be able to spot hidden enemies as easily.
• Automatic graphics quality: If you don't feel like adjusting your own settings, you can let the game pick for you. It will select settings that it thinks are appropriate for your computer, but unfortunately it doesn't list what it picks. In any case, it seems to do a pretty good job, but don't expect to have perfect performance on graphically intensive maps.
• Dynamic shadows: This allows map objects and tanks to cast a shadow. Even turrets will cast a visible shadow with this enabled. Of course, this means that it's taxing on your graphics card.
• Dynamic lighting: This is also very demanding of graphics card. With this enabled, turret effects such as muzzle flash and impacts, in addition to destruction explosions, will generate light. Drop boxes will also glow with this enabled. It's definitely pretty, but I can't enable this without having FPS issues.
• Soft particles: These smooth out the interaction between turret effects/tanks and the environment by smoothing out intersecting edges. For example, if I shoot the corner of a wall, the edges of the explosion that contact the building will be smoothed out. If I drive a tank over bushes, the edges of the tank against the bushes will be smoothed out. This contributes to FPS lag, but maybe not quite as much as the above two options.
• Adaptive FPS: According to the wiki, this setting "allows you to avoid 'controls delay' (some people get delay after pressing a tank control button, for example, by pressing 'Up', it takes some seconds till the tank reacts and moves forward) Do not use it unless it is necessary." In practice, it tends to lower your FPS, so don't use it unless you have control delay issues and find that it helps overall.
• Mip-mapping: This allows the game to almost seamlessly substitute textures of varying detail depending on how close you are to the object in question. Overall, this means that objects seen from a distance will be less detailed and more out of focus than those close to you, which looks smooth and fairly nice. There's not much downside to using it if your computer can handle it, but targets at a distance will be harder to spot. This contributes to lag, to a lesser degree than dynamic lighting but still significant.
• Deep shadows: Deeply impressive, but probably the laggiest option here. The wiki says that it "adds volume to the picture, underlining the unevenness of the relief, corners between walls and any surface drops."
• Fog: Adds a layer of bluish fog to the map that increases with distance. It looks nice and adds a sense of depth, but it can obstruct your view of camouflaged targets.
• Antialiasing: Smooths the edges between rendered objects in a similar manner to Soft particles, but basically for everything, no physical intersection required. It makes everything look smoother, but you know the drill.

Account

 

 

If you've linked your account to an email (you should), you will see the above. In this case, the only button you see regarding email there will cause the Tanki system to send you an email allowing you to change your password and email. This means that even if a hacker gets into your account, they can't change your password or email address unless they find and hack your email as well.

 

If you're a scrub and haven't linked your account, you will see the below screen. And no, I'm not a scrub. This is from an account I made while the test server was open.

 

 

Fairly self explanatory.

 

The other option available in both cases is the ability to link your account to Facebook for added security. You'll also be able to log in using Facebook. I don't use it myself, but if you do, then it's an option.

 

Let's head to the last panel, which contains most of the fun stuff.

 

Controls

 

 

Some of the old settings have been moved here, but most of them are new. Let's cover the ones in the top half.

• Mouse controls: This allows you to control your tank's aiming and shooting with your mouse, instead of relying on the keyboard. Normally, I'd be on board with something like this, but personally I find that Tanki doesn't really suit mouse controls since there is a difference between the speed at which you can look and the speed at which your turret rotation can keep up. There's also no crosshair (something that you can find in Tanki X), which furthers the problem. Use whatever you prefer; I've been using keyboard controls since the beginning and find that they are the most reliable, but you can do some fun tricks with the ability to look around without turning your turret with right click, such as hiding your laser sight while sniping with Shaft and seeing what's behind you while you're backpedaling. I've heard that they're good with Striker too.
• Mouse look sensitivity: This slider controls how much your view moves when you move your mouse, similar to other games. Note that this doesn't affect your turret rotation speed. From playing around with it, high sensitivity seems to be preferable to low sensitivity, but whatever floats your boat is the best. Just don't push it all the way down (or to the left in this case); trying to play like that is literally torture.
• Mouse look vertical inversion: This controls how moving your mouse will affect the ability of mouse controls to adjust your camera angle. Normally, if you want to decrease your camera angle with mouse controls, you move your mouse away from you, and you can increase it by pushing your mouse towards you. This setting inverts it, which can be useful if you play other games with inverted settings or are naturally inclined to it.
• Mouse view vertical inversion for Shaft Sniping Mode: Shaft's sniping mode is similar to a traditional first person shooter, allowing you to aim on both axes. This inverts the aiming in a way similar to other FPS games: move your mouse down to shift your view up, and move your mouse up to shift your view down.
• Inverse turn controls while moving back: When driving backwards, pressing the Left button turns your tank towards the right and vice versa. This seems needlessly confusing to me, but if I remember correctly, actual cars behave this way. If you have driving experience and this seems more intuitive to you, do it. Otherwise, don't.

Alright, now to the keyboard binds. You can now customize your controls in the settings instead of being forced to use the default left/right handed layouts. You can map almost any gameplay function to any key. Practically speaking, you'll want to keep most of these default, and some of them are non-negotiable, such as the Enter button to open chat. If you ever mess things up, there's a handy Restore default buttons feature.

 

To rebind a key, first delete one of the default keys from the first or second column, or put your text cursor in the default blank column on the right. Then, simply press the key that you rebind it to. Don't type in the name of the key in cases like "Numpad5". Note that you need to activate NumLock if you want the game to recognize the numpad keys. Once you see your key of choice appear in the field, congratulations, you have rebinded a key. Woohoo. Remember that keys cannot perform two functions, so if you use a preexisting key as a target for rebinding, it will be removed from the location it was in previously. For example, if Zemult Sagittarii bounded Pause to the spacebar,  spacebar will be removed from the Shoot field and he won't be able to attack...or even be useful, given that he'll be pausing every time he tries to shoot.

 

fun fact: this is indistinguishable from his normal performance

 

The possibilities for rebinds are endless, but the below two changes are the most useful.

• Keyboard ghosting: Keyboard ghosting is a perennial problem in gaming, and Tanki is no exception. The keyboard I use has ghosting issues with the arrow keys. I can't simultaneously hold down the Left and Up keys while holding down the spacebar, which made using Shaft very difficult. I worked around it by downloading a program called AutoHotKey and writing up a script to rebind part of my Numpad (which doesn't ghost) to the arrow keys for use as pseudo-arrow keys. This has worked just fine for me, but using the integrated controls manager is more convenient. If you want to use my solution without using external programs, turn your NumLock on and bind the movement keys to something similar to my setup. I'm still using an external script since I'm lazy and don't want to have to check if NumLock is on before I play Tanki, but the above is probably a better idea.
• Not dropping gold boxes by accident: Gold box supplies are super valuable. I think everyone knows that. Because of their scarcity, accidentally dropping a gold box can be infuriating, especially if you were reserving it for a Save the Gold event or a rank up party. The fact that they are by default bound to the 6 key, which is right next to the 5 key for mines, doesn't help. So, if you want add an extra layer of safety, try removing the default 6 key in the first column for the Gold Box supply and rebinding it to something like 8 or 0 instead.

 

That's about it for this article. I hoped it helped you with understanding the new changes and refreshing your knowledge of the other settings. Do you have any tips for controls that I've missed here? Any comments or suggestions? Feel free to post them here. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time.

 

Edited February 9, 2017 by Thekillerpenguin
Thanks for the correction, emrakul

[emrakul 7,801]

• Show drop zones: This controls the display of the 2D symbols marking the location of drop zones for supplies, and, if I'm not mistaken, gold boxes. Unlike before, these drop zones markers no longer become transparent over distance, so you can now see a gold box marker from across the map. I generally recommend that you turn these on because there is no real downside to doing so. I haven't noticed any extra lag from enabling this setting, and on unfamiliar maps, knowing where a repair kit is can be a lifesaver. And of course, everyone wants to know where a gold box will be dropping.

They are not included in "Show drop zones", you will always see the dropzone. :)

Since the time, my friend told me that it doesn't affect gold box markers, I immediately turned it off and I'm playing like that, because I rememeber most of dropzones on many different maps.

If you are playing on a "new" map, and don't know where supply boxes drop, I really recommend turning it on, especially now after update, you can see those markers at any distance, they should be really helpful.

Great article :) I was always confused with the "Alternate camera behaviour" option :lol:

[G-FORCE_01 9]

Thanks .

[VPS 141]

Niice o: !

Edited February 8, 2017 by VPS

[I.ZEUS.I 865]

Nice article :)

Still the keyboard ghosting is really an issue, i have tried with AutoHotKey, but is doesnt allow me to configure it to the numpad.
will try again, will see how it works...
 

[NastyCaptKlutz 20]

Thanks, a good clear guide :)

[Ninja 10,468]

 And no, I'm not a scrub. 

[Stamina 143]

Ha nice explanation.

Edited February 8, 2017 by Stamina

[vecky 86]

Alternate camera behavior isn't do good job at all.

For example:

1. I am in the game in the normal situation on the free field without walls

    or tunnels, with default turned off Alternate camera behavior, and then

    come near the wall with my backside nothing spectacular happens the

    view is close and downed to the ground,

2. then returned to the start position and turn on Alternate camera behavior

    the result is the same, in the position of my back close to the wall my

    view is downed to the ground,

3. I didn't be so lazy and I tried one more time and voila the wonder happens

    Alternate camera behavior started to work.

 

OK it works. But I ask my self and You Do you think that it must be simple work

and not push button from three time to activate the option??????

 

And If You think it is END of ASKING my SELF AND YOU, NO it isn't.

4. I am not so lazy man what you would think about me, no. Then I go out from

    that game and entered the same game again and voila with the option

    Alternate camera behavior turned off I got the same result from the first point.

    And it is no matter that it worked last game with the same settings, with the new

    entering the game Alternate camera behaviors doesn't work.

5. I am not lazy again and started all over the process of three time activating and

    deactivating (started with off, one ON and one OFF) and voila the Alternate

    camera behavior started to work again.

 

6. and it is mo matter it is I entered the game with turned off or on the same result is
     That I must be with the back in the close to wall position and then turned off or on
     and then start to work. and it last for one game only.

 

I ask my self and you Is it possible that you do that option for the one game job???

And do I must activate that option for the every game I enter??

And If I believe my case it is true for me.

 

Solve the problem, please don't be so naive that everything is so good as it is.

 

BYE

 

PS. Blocking turret and shooting when I am returning from the battle is still in the game.

Edited February 9, 2017 by TheZigzagoonThatCan
Please, don't use large and obnoxious font sizes and colors for an entire response.

[Hate 5,582]

Great article with a lot of useful information. 

[LIMITFULL 1,793]

Ooo SNAP on ...

     @Savage!!   :D

[A.F.F 98]

^^ I hope this guides were when i start playing .... Thanks for your efforts !

[Zenyth 6,494]

never knew what alternate camera did, thanks

and :ph34r: I'll get back to you later

[TheIsaneClown 1]

Sound doesn't save on Mozilla FireFox... always super loud (very annoying) when I log in now. It never used to do that before.

[Bowty57 10]

Awesome Guide, lots of info, thanks for the help!!!

 

[RIDDLER_8 5,552]

Shall the be more settings tabs in the future to meet more custom controlled settings?

[Thekillerpenguin 1,731]

 

 

Alternate camera behavior isn't do good job at all.

For example:

1. I am in the game in the normal situation on the free field without walls

    or tunnels, with default turned off Alternate camera behavior, and then

    come near the wall with my backside nothing spectacular happens the

    view is close and downed to the ground,

2. then returned to the start position and turn on Alternate camera behavior

    the result is the same, in the position of my back close to the wall my

    view is downed to the ground,

3. I didn't be so lazy and I tried one more time and voila the wonder happens

    Alternate camera behavior started to work.

 

OK it works. But I ask my self and You Do you think that it must be simple work

and not push button from three time to activate the option??????

 

And If You think it is END of ASKING my SELF AND YOU, NO it isn't.

4. I am not so lazy man what you would think about me, no. Then I go out from

    that game and entered the same game again and voila with the option

    Alternate camera behavior turned off I got the same result from the first point.

    And it is no matter that it worked last game with the same settings, with the new

    entering the game Alternate camera behaviors doesn't work.

5. I am not lazy again and started all over the process of three time activating and

    deactivating (started with off, one ON and one OFF) and voila the Alternate

    camera behavior started to work again.

 

6. and it is mo matter it is I entered the game with turned off or on the same result is

     That I must be with the back in the close to wall position and then turned off or on

     and then start to work. and it last for one game only.

 

I ask my self and you Is it possible that you do that option for the one game job???

And do I must activate that option for the every game I enter??

And If I believe my case it is true for me.

 

Solve the problem, please don't be so naive that everything is so good as it is.

 

BYE

 

PS. Blocking turret and shooting when I am returning from the battle is still in the game.

 

 

Hi vecky,

 

I'm not a developer and don't have any control over any technical glitches or bugs that you might encounter. On my computer, the Alternate camera behavior setting works fine from the first try. If you keep having this type of problem, you can try posting it in the Bugs & Glitches thread or submit a new topic in the Problems and Solutions forum.

[troc_roc 0]

I find the Background Sound useful. If I spawn: and I hear a turret turning but don't see any tanks, I know it is close by,. behind a wall or building; If I hear shots fired but no tanks are in front of me, I swing turret and turn hull to see what's behind me; If I hear a tank traveling close and not firing at me, I can look for it immediately, before moving into the open.

 

After the recent updates, and the sound was not turned on, it was like playing with a set of eyes missing. 'Til I found out that the sound had to be turned back on. lol

 

Thanks for the explanations.

Edited February 9, 2017 by troc_roc

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

the ubiquitous "show damage", "show chat", and "alternate camera behavior" buttons, among others, have been moved to here.

I don't necessarily agree with your choice of wording here. I wouldn't [personally] use the word 'ubiquitous' in this context, I feel like it's a big exaggeration. Nevertheless, GREAT article!

[jesser2300 0]

The mouse controls are verry handy if you'r a sniper!