List of Command Line Parameters

This is a list of user level Command Line Parameters that players have access to use while launching City of Heroes/Villains, in alphabetical order. In cases where the command line parameter can also be used as a slash command, the launch parameters will link to the slash command page.

Working Command Line Parameters        ★ or ♣ = Using slash Command page         ✅ = Need to Check

-assetpath options	Points the game client to the piggs folders, in load order.
-auth	Auth server IP string.
-compatiblecursors ★	Enables useage of basic windows mouse cursors instead of graphical cursors (command line option).
-console	Turns on debug console (where printfs go).
-CoV	Sets your login theme to city of villains with launch parameters.
-demoplay	Start playing the specified demo file.
-enablevbos ★	Turns on vertex buffer object extension
-exitlaunch ★	Set program to run when game exits.
-fullRelight ★	Do not cap number of relit vertices per frame.
-fullscreen ★	Sets video mode to fullscreen.
-gfxreset	Resets all graphics settings and launches the game in windowed mode.
-legacylayout	Enables existing installs of the game client to find certain files when you aren't launching the game with Tequila, Island Rum, or the Homecoming launcher.
-lodbias ★	Multiplier for LOD (Loss of Detail) distances for entities (alters the Character Detail setting in Options).
-maxfps ★	Sets the maximum limit for frames per second that a player's client can utilize, whether the game is in focus or not.
-maxInactiveFps ★	Limits max frames per second while the game is not in the foreground.
-maxtexunits ★	Limits number of textures used, set to 4 to emulate GF 4/5 path
-mtu	Sets the mtu size for client-generated packets (command line option).
-noATI	Disables use of R200 shader path, uses only ARB shaders instead.
-nodebug	Turns off error printing.
-noHDR	Disable HDR lighting effects.
-noNV	Disables use of NV1X/NV2X shader path, uses only ARB shaders instead.
-no_nv_clip	Disable using nvidia specific vertex profiles for user clipping. (use on command line).
-nooverride	Disallows override files.
-noPBuffers	Disables PBuffers. Active.
-noperforce	Disable perforce usage for life of the app.
-nopixshaders	Turns off pixel shaders.
-nopopup ★	Enable or disable popup error dialogs.
-norenderthread	Tell the client not to use a separate thread for rendering graphics.
-noRTT	Disables RTT PBuffers.
-nothread	Disables threaded texture loading
-noversioncheck	Allow connecting to wrong version of mapserver.
-pbuftest	Thrash PBuffers.
-port	Sets a network port.
-profile	Set profile for launching the game (live / diag / beta / pre).
-profiling_memory ★	Set the number of mb of memory to use for profiling.
-project	Set project registry key (coh / cohtest / cohbeta).
-reduce_mip ★	Reduces the resolution of textures to only use the reduced (mip-map) textures. must pass as command line arg -reducemip or you need to subsequently run unloadgfx.
-renderscale ♣	Changes the scale at which the 3D world is rendered relative to your screen size
-renderscalefilter	Changes method of filtering used in renderscaling
-renderscalex ♣	Changes the horizontal scale at which the 3D world is rendered relative to your screen size
-renderscaley ♣	Changes the vertical scale at which the 3D world is rendered relative to your screen size
-rendersize ♣	Changes the size at which the 3D world is rendered
-renderthread ★	Tell the client to use a separate thread for rendering graphics.
-screen ★	Sets x and y screen dimensions.
-shaderdetail 0-2 ♣ ✅	Changes the shader detail level. Default = 0
-shader_init_logging	Set to 1 to view shader initialization details in the console.
-shader_optimization ♣ ✅	Values: 0-3, or -1 to return to default. Causes shaders to reload with the new optimization hint.
-shadowvol 0-4 ♣ ✅	Controls whether or not shadow volumes are drawn. 0 = off, default, 1 = green shadows, 2 = no shadows, 3 = white shadows, 4 = blue shadows. Dev comment: //disabled for now
-sliClear number ♣ ✅	Clear each FBO the first time it is used in the frame to help SLI/CF (0 to disable).
-sliFBOs number ♣ ✅	Number of SLI/CF framebuffers to allocate (1 to disable).
-sliLimit number ♣ ✅	Limit number of SLI/CF frames to allow in parallel (0 to disable limiter).
-stopinactivedisplay ★	Stops rendering when the game is not the foreground application.
-soundDebugName ✅	name of sound to debug (will only play this sound name)
-splatShadowBias ✅	Change how far from the camera to give people shadows. //scales distance to draw entitys' splat shadow.
-ss boolean ♣ ✅	Controls whether or not simple shadows are drawn
-texwordeditor	Edit the text layout for translatable textures.
-uiskin	Sets your preferred login theme.
-useARBassembly	Forces use of arb assembly shader path.
-usebumpmaps ♣ ✅	Use bumpmaps
-usecelshader ★	Enables or disables the cel shader graphics setting.
-useCG	Use CG shaders instead of ARB.
-useFBOs ✅	Use FBOs, if supported, for off-screen rendering
-usefp	Use a floating point render target for HDR lighting effects if available.
-useMRTs ♣ ✅	Use MRTs, for DoF effect debugging
-usenvfence number ♣ ✅	Use NV fences instead of ARB queries.
-usePBuffers	Force use of PBuffers even if on a suspected unsupported video card.
-userenderscale ♣	Enables/disables render scaling feature
-useTexEnvCombine	Forces use of texture_env_combine shader path.
-vis_scale ★	Controls draw distance for World Detail (1.0=default).

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Unknown or Non-functional Command Line Parameters ^†

-assert_on_bs_errors	Tells debug dbid's client to assert on a BS error (non-functional). This was commented out by the devs in the cmdserver list, so was most likely removed.
-ati_stencil_leak	enable stencil FBO's which causes memory leaks on ATI GPUs. (Command removed. Dev Note: // TODO: Remove this once ATI memory leak regarding glEnable(GL_POLYGON_STIPPLE) in rt_shadow.c is fixed (11/06/09))
-ati_stipple_leak <int>	Enable call to glEnable(GL_POLYGON_STIPPLE) which causes memory leaks on ATI GPUs. (Command removed. Dev Note: // TODO: Remove this once ATI memory leak regarding glEnable(GL_POLYGON_STIPPLE) in rt_shadow.c is fixed (11/06/09))
-authserver	The IP address for the authorization server for user/password login. (Removed)
-dxt5nm_normal_maps	1 = use dxt5nm cvompressed normal maps, 0 = use dxt5 normal maps (old mode).
-forcecrashcheck	Disabled. Used to be part of the verify files routine after the game client crashed.
-ignorebaddrivers	Issue 25: The -ignoreBadDrivers command line parameter will hide the popup and warnings about your drivers being out of date. You will still get a warning if the driver is in a (very small) list of drivers that are known to cause problems.
-launcher	Tells the game that the client was started with the NCsoft Launcher instead of the CohUpdater.
-launchedfromsteam	Tells the game that the client was started with the Valve Steam launcher. If so, the Steam SDK is initialized.
-lwc	LWC = "Light Weight Client". (crashes game client)
-noARBfp	Disables use of ARBfp shader path, uses vendor-specific fragment shaders instead. (crashes game client)
-noJPG	Disables saving of .JPG files in image server mode. Probably a dev command.
-nolastauthor	turns off error printing (non-functional)
-nominidump	disables writing of a minidump upon crash (non-functional)
-noStencilShadows	Command line option to disable stencil shadows.
-novbos	Turns off vertex buffer object extension. (crashes game client)
-noverify	Skip verify. This command prevented the CohUpdater from verifying files. Although not disabled, the command now has little or no functionality since the Homecoming Launcher now performs the file verification function.
-NV1X	Forces NV1X rendering path. GPU-acceleration of a style of 2D graphics known as path rendering all CUDA-capable NVIDIA GPUs (crashes game client on system with non-Nvidia GPU)
-NV2X	Forces NV2X rendering path. (crashes game client on system with non-Nvidia GPU)
-patchdir	Command removed by Homecoming in Issue 26 Page 5.
-patchversion	Command removed by Homecoming in Issue 26 Page 5.
-priorityBoost	Set the game process priority to Above Normal rather than Normal when running in the foreground.
-profile_spikes	Save profiles of any frame longer than the specified time in ms. (non-functional)
-R200	Forces R200 rendering path. (crashes game client)
-runnerdebug	Enable limited debugging for a possible critter run-away bug (probably a dev command)
-safemode number	Forces most compatible graphics and audio settings. (non-functional)
-setlocale	Command line argument to change the locale of the game client. (Non-functional for players). See /playerlocale for more info.
-setregion	Sets one of two "regions" for the game client: EU and NA. Default value is empty or N/A, meaning the "world" region. (non-functional for players)
-testgameprogress	Test the progress of the game. (Non-functional for players)
-verify	Although not disabled, the command now has little or no functionality since the Homecoming Launcher now performs the file verification function. Dev Notes: // This function is needed if we launch from NcLauncher because Launcher does not validate the installation before running. COHUpdater does a validate so we don't do another here in that case. Enable this block if only want to verify when -verify passed on command line.

† It's possible that many of these command line parameters work, but how to get them to work is currently unknown. Maybe you'd have better luck in figuring some of these out? We could use your help...

Note: Commands that are colored red merely indicate that the command does not have an individual wiki page.