Options menu

EmptyEpsilon's Options menu provides in-game access to many Preferences file settings. Changing settings here also updates them in the Preferences file.

To access the Options menu, click Options from the Main menu or Ship selection screen.

The options menu has three tabs: Graphics, Audio, and Interface.

To return to the previous screen, click Back at the bottom-left corner.

To save the options without leaving the screen, click Save at the bottom-left corner.

Graphics options

• Fullscreen toggle: Toggles fullscreen mode for this window.

• FSAA: Select a full-screen anti-aliasing (FSAA) sampling mode, from off to 8x.

  You must restart EmptyEpsilon after changing FSAA to apply the change.

• Line rendering: Choose between GL lines (low quality with fixed widths, faster) or quad lines (higher quality with variable width, at a performance impact).

  GL lines draw very quickly but are generally limited to 1-pixel widths, which can become hard to see on high-resolution displays. Quad lines can be of variable width, which can make lines easier to see at higher resolutions and allows for more variation in line thickness for visual contrast.

• Field of View (FoV): Sets the default field of view, in degrees. Defaults to 60, and can range from 30 to 140.

  Some camera functions zoom onto a subject by temporarily changing the field of view. Changing the default FoV sets the base FoV used at normal (1x) zoom.

• Dynamic nebula lighting: If enabled, weapons, explosions, engine exhaust, and shield hits cast colored dynamic lights onto nebula clouds, illuminating them from within. Disabling this can improve performance on systems with many active effects inside a nebula. Defaults to enabled.

• Nebula fog: If enabled, the camera's view distance is reduced and fog is applied while the camera is inside a nebula cloud, obscuring distant objects. Disabling this removes the fog effect, revealing distant objects even while inside a nebula. Defaults to enabled.

• Draw distance: Sets the maximum view distance (in world units) at which objects are rendered, from 1,000 to 100,000. Defaults to 25,000. Lower values reduce distant object rendering, which can improve performance. Higher values render objects at greater distances.

Audio options

See also Audio.

• Sound volume: The volume of sound effects, such as lasers and explosions.
• Music playback
  • The music playback selector defines where music plays while in a crew or extra screen. Defaults to Main Screen only, which plays music cues only if this EmptyEpsilon client is running the Main screen. It can also be set to Disabled (never) and Enabled (play music regardless of screen).
  • Music volume: The volume of background music.
• Impulse engine sound
  • The impulse engine sound selector and volume control behave in the same manner as the music playback section's.
• Preview soundtracks: Lists all .ogg files in EmptyEpsilon's resources/music/ directory. Click an entry to listen to the file.

Interface options

• Language: The selector contains language codes for all interface and script languages that have translation files. Select the language you want to use for play, then click the Back button to apply it. The selector defaults to en (English), and if you select any other language, all untranslated content defaults to English. See also Translation and localization.
• Interface theme: The selector contains all user-interface themes defined in *.theme.txt files located in EmptyEpsilon's resources/gui/ directory, listing only the first part of the filename. Select a theme and then click the Back button to apply it. The selector defaults to default, and if only default.theme.txt exists, the selector might not appear.
• Control options
  • Configure keyboard/joystick: Opens hotkey configuration controls for keyboard, joystick, and mouse inputs. See Hotkey configuration for details.
  • Show tooltips: If enabled, tooltips appear over certain UI controls if you hover the mouse cursor over them, or tap and hold them when using a touchscreen.
• Radar rotation lock: Defines whether a crew screen's radar rotates when the ship turns (enabled, "Radar rotates"), or if the radar's orientation stays fixed and the player ship rotates at its center (disabled, default; "Ship rotates"). Each toggle button is associated with the crew screens listed to their left.
• Cinematic view options
  • Mouselook sensitivity: Defines how quickly the camera moves with mouse movement when mouselook is enabled on the Cinematic view. Defaults to 15, ranges from 1 (least sensitive) to 100 (most).
  • Randomize cinematic fly-by angles: Toggles whether the fly-by Cinematic view mode randomizes its distance and relative elevation as it tracks the player ship. Enable for a more dynamic fly-by camera. Defaults to disabled.