Well, some things have been updated since us oldtimers first played Homeworld. If you still have your CD, all the arguments laid out by JR768 still work fine. However, if you're here, you probably sprang for the Remastered collection.

Now, whether you're an achievement hog, or you're unhappy with some of the engine changes, you're playing HW : Classic, and not all of the old arguments still work anymore. Heck, you can't even apply them to the given shortcut! So we'll start there.

For the full list, click "List of Arguments" to the right, in the guide index. ------------->

I'll try to make this noobie friendly, since you never know when it's someone's first game.

Updated after 3/19/15 patch.

You're gonna need a direct shortcut to the HW : Classic EXE. Go to your game folder.

It will usually be some variation of this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\Common\Homeworld\Homeworld1Classic\exe

Was that right? If so, BAD! Bad gamer! No!

For this to work, you need to install your games outside of the x86 folder. It's because you'll need to run the exe as admin, and User Account Control does NOT like admin level permissions in the x86 folder. Maybe you'll have better luck than me, but my system likes to reset admin permissions fairly often. At least every restart.

If you're interested in fixing this, just go into your Steam Settings ->Downloads -> Content Libraries/Steam Library Folders. Add a new folder (mine is C:\Games), but anything is fine. Just don't put it into Program Files or Program Files (x86). From now on, download ALL of your games to this new folder. It can prevent some wonky errors in a lot of games.

Either way, go to your C:\...SteamApps\common\Homeworld1Classic\exe folder.

Right click your Homeworld.exe , and go to Properties. In the Properties menu, go to the Compatibility section.

In the Compatibility section, check "Run this in Compatibility Mode for" and select "Windows 95."
This keeps your in-game menus properly aligned. Now, under Settings in the same menu, check "Run this program as an administrator."

It should look like this :

Now click OK, and make a shortcut on your desktop. To do this, right click Homeworld.exe, and select "Send to," then click "Desktop (create shortcut)."

To add arguments to your game, right click your new shortcut on the desktop, and again select Properties. Go to the Shortcuts Tab.

You're going to want the first text field. All arguments will go at the very end of the line, after Homeworld.exe.

Like so:



You'll need to input all arguments into the highlighted text field. Go to the end of the highlighted text, add a space, and add the argument of your choice.

It should look something like this:



That -d3d parameter is why I made this guide. It doesn't work anymore.

When adding these parameters, you can input them with a - instead of a /.

In other words:

C:\...\Homeworld.exe /closeCaptioned

functions just like:

C:\...\Homeworld.exe -closeCaptioned

This list was pulled directly from the error message I got when trying to run my game with -d3d, descriptions and all. There may be more, but this was the whole list.



SYSTEM OPTIONS
/heap <n> - Sets size of global memory heap to [n].
/prepath <path> - Sets path to search for opening files.
/CDpath <path> - Sets path to CD-ROM in case of ambiguity.
/ignoreBigfiles - don't use anything from bigfile(s).
/logFileLoads - create log of data files loaded.

PROCESSOR OPTIONS
/enableSSE - allow use of SSE if support is detected.
/forceSSE - force usage of SSE even if determined to be unavailable.
/enable3DNow - allow use of 3DNow! if support is detected.

SOUND OPTIONS
/dsound - forces mixer to write to DirectSound driver, even if driver reports not certified.
/dsoundCoop - switches to co-operative mode of DirectSound (if supported) to allow sharing with other applications.
/waveout - forces mixer to write to Waveout even if a DirectSound supported object is available.
/reverseStereo - swap the left and right audio channels.

DETAIL OPTIONS
/rasterskip - enable interlaced display with software renderer.
/noBG - disable display of galaxy backgrounds.
/noFilter - disable bi-linear filtering of textures.
/noSmooth - do not use polygon smoothing.
/stipple - enable stipple alpha with software renderer.
/noShowDamage - disables showing ship damage effects.

VIDEO MODE OPTIONS
/safeGL - don't use possibly buggy optimized features of OpenGL for rendering.
/triple - use when frontend menus are flickering madly.
/nodrawpixels - use when background images don't appear while loading.
/noswddraw - don't use DirectDraw for the software renderer.
/noglddraw - don't use DirectDraw to setup OpenGL renderers.
/sw - reset rendering options to defaults at startup.
/noFastFE - disable fast frontend rendering.
/fullscreen - display fullscreen with software renderer (default).
/window - display in a window.
/noBorder - no border on window.
/640 - run at 640x480 resolution (default).
/800 - run at 800x600 resolution.
/1024 - run at 1024x768 resolution.
/1280 - run at 1280x1024 resolution.
/1600 - run at 1600x1200 resolution.
/device <dev> - select an rGL device by name, eg. sw, fx, d3d.
/nohint - disable usage of OpenGL perspective correction hints.

TEXTURES
/nopal - disable paletted texture support.

MISC OPTIONS
/pilotview - enable pilot view. Focus on single ship and hit Q to toggle.
/nosteam - disable validation of game ownership with Steam.

If you need a widescreen or other custom resolution, try this handy guide by DainBramage77. Just remember, your menus stay the same size relative to your resolution, so don't go too crazy.

Also, watch out! Some parameters may bork your game, so experiment at your own risk!

I have no idea what some of these things actually do, this is just the whole list.

Anyhoo. Good luck, have fun modding. Or whatever this counts as.