Command Line Options

Introduction

Battlefield 2 supports quite a few command line options. Most of you are probably already familiar with ones such as +fullscreen 1. Incase some of you don't know, you can set a command line option by bringing up a shortcut's properties, going to the shorcut tab, and adding any of these options to the end of the 'Target' field. Command line options can only be set on shorcuts, which is useful because it allows you to have multiple shortcuts, all with different command line options. The following is a list of known command line options.

NOTE: The following options were found with the debug version of the BF2.exe, so some of these options may not work with the normal BF2.exe. The debug build can be obtained by downloading and installing the Battlefield 2 Editor. Once installed the debug build is named BF2_r.exe in your main Battlefield 2 directory. The Battlefield 2 Editor can be downloaded at Battlefield 2 Editor Also, case does matter when using these options.

Basic Options

+multi

Description: Allows you to start multiple instances of Battlefield 2 at the same time.

Usage: +multi <bool>

+joinServer

Description: Joins the specified server. Accepts either a server ip or a hostname.

Usage: +joinServer <string> OR <ip>

+playerName

Description: Sets the player name.

Usage: +playerName <string>

+password

Description: Used in conjunction with +joinServer when the server requires a password. Possibly also sets the password for a dedicated server?

Usage: +password <string>

+lowPriority

Description: Runs Battlefield 2 with a lower process priority(less CPU intensive, lower performance)

Usage: +lowPriority <bool>

+loadLevel

Description: Loads the specified level.

Usage: +loadLevel <string>

+wx

Description: When Battlefield 2 is running in windowed mode, this sets the window's horizontal position on the screen. When setting this option, keep in mind that 0 corresponds to the left of the screen, and that the window is being positioned from its left side.

Usage: +wx <int>

+wy

Description: When Battlefield 2 is running in windowed mode, this sets the window's vertical position on the screen. When setting this option, keep in mind that 0 corresponds to the top of the screen, and that the window is being positioned from its top side.

Usage: +wy <int>

+szx

Description: When Battlefield 2 is running in windowed mode, this sets the window's horizontal size.

Usage: +szx <int>

+szy

Description: When Battlefield 2 is running in windowed mode, this sets the window's vertical size.

Usage: +szy <int>

+loadObfuscated

Description: Load obfuscated shaders. No idea what that means.

Usage: +loadObfuscated <bool>

+fullscreen

Description: Toggles Battlefield 2 between windowed and full screen mode.

Usage: +fullscreen <bool>

+noSound

Description: Starts Battlefield 2 with sound disabled.

Usage: +noSound <bool>

+lateLoading

Description: If set to 1, then resources (only sound at the moment) will be loaded on first use.

Usage: +lateLoading <bool>

+skipMips

Description: Sets how many mip-levels to skip in textures.

Usage: +skipMips <int>

+mergeMaterials

Description: Concatenate materials at load time.

Usage: +mergeMaterials <bool>

+managedTextures

Description: Decides whether system memory should be used for textures.

Usage: +managedTextures <bool>

+debugOutput

Description: Enables or disables debug output.

Usage: +debugOutput <bool>

+demo

Description: Sets the con-file with demo options. Not sure what this does.

Usage: +demo <??>

+pyVerbose

Description: Display verbose Python script output. Nothing too interesting here.

Usage: +pyVerbose <bool>

+modPath

Description: Sets Battlefield 2's mod path. This is normally mods/bf2.

Usage: +modPath <string>

+ignoreAsserts

Description: Ignores debug assertion errors. This can only be used in conjunction with +developer 1 or +dedicated 1.

Usage: +ignoreAsserts <bool>

+disableShaderCache

Description: Disables the shader cache. This should only be used in conjunction with +developer 1.

Usage: +disableShaderCache <bool>

+dumpAllConFiles

Description: Writes the names of every .con file to mods/$MOD$/allConFiles.con.

Usage: +dumpAllConFiles <bool>

+customConFile

Description: Uses the specified .con file instead of loading all of the .con files. This file should be used to specify which con files to run, using the run command.

Usage: +customConFile <string>

+help

Description: Displays command line option help, which lists all command line options and gives some descriptions.

Usage: +help

+?

Description: Does the same thing as +help.

Usage: +?

+fileMonitor

Description: Enables automatic update of changed files (shaders, etc). This could prove to be very useful if it applies to .con and .py files.

Usage: +fileMonitor <bool>

+playerPassword

Description: Sets the player's password

Usage: +playerPassword <string>

+developer

Description: Does not auto-login, and also allows other command line options to be used in conjunction with it.

Usage: +developer <bool>

+disableSwiff

Description: Disables swiff player. Basically this disables the flash that is used at the main menu area. Swiff refers to .swf, the flash file format.

Usage: +disableSwiff <bool>

+debugSwiff

Description: Enables swiff debug output. Swiff refers to .swf, the flash file format.

Usage: +debugSwiff <bool>

+playNow

Description: Starts up the game and automatically uses the 'Play Now' functionality.

Usage: +playNow <bool>

+pbPath

Description: Sets the path to Punkbuster for multiple-instance configurations. This is normally {install_dir}/pb.

Usage: +pbPath <string>

+keepCollisionForNavMeshes

Description: Keep collision mesh lods needed to generate AI navigation meshes. Not sure what this does.

Usage: +keepCollisionForNavMeshes <bool>

+restart

Description: Used by BF2 to restart the game without showing video for example when mod switching - can also be used to start BF 2 without showing videos using your own shortcuts

Usage: +restart <bool>

+port

Description: Used for specifying a port number to connect to in conjuntion with +joinServer

Usage: +port <integer>

Dedicated Server Options

+dedicated

Description: Starts Battlefield 2 in dedicated server mode. Not needed on Linux

Usage: +dedicated <bool>

+port

Description: Specifies which port the server should use.

Usage: +port <int>

+maxPlayers

Description: Sets max number of players for the server.

Usage: +maxPlayers <int>

+gameMode

Description: Sets the gamemode for the server.

Usage: +gameMode <string>

+config

Description: Sets the path to the ServerSettings.con file to use.

Usage: +config <string>

+mapList

Description: Sets the path to the mapList.con file to use.

Usage: +mapList <string>

+noStatusMonitor

Description: If you don't want to run bf2 inside screen you need to use this.

Usage: +noStatusMonitor <int> with values 1 (or 0 the default if you don't specify this option at all)

+ranked

Description: Allows gamespy snapshot sending. This setting will do nothing unless EA has the IP of the server in their database.

Usage: +ranked <bool>

Advanced Options

+hostServer

Description: Unknown at the moment. Most likely starts a local server.

Usage: +hostServer <??>

+checkForAvailablePatch

Description: Unknown at the moment. Most likely does what the name says. When used with the debug build, returns an error message on startup. Appears to be broken.

Usage: +checkForAvailablePatch <??>

+checkForPatch

Description: Unknown at the moment. How does this differ from +checkForAvailablePatch? When used with the debug build, returns an error message on startup. Appears to be broken.

Usage: +checkForPatch <??>

+aidll

Description: Unknown at the moment. Perhaps disables or enables the Battlefield 2 aidll.dll?

Usage: +aidll <??>

+ai

Description: Used to Force BF2 to load AI BOTS! No matter the map, requirements, or settings. --MasterX

Usage: +ai <0/1>

+refresh