Color to Number Conversions | Available UO.CFG Options | Remaining Options | Files Used | UO.CFG Editor | UO Journal Converter
Optional 'uo.cfg' Lines
In order to edit your uo.cfg file, locate your uo directory and right-click on the uo.cfg file within that directory. When the "Open With" dialogue appears, choose a text editor, such as Notepad or Wordpad for use in editing the file. As an alternative, you may want to download our UO.CFG Editor, written by Darksoul, which allows you to adjust the options within your uo.cfg file through an easy-to-use visual interface (you can always find the latest UO.CFG Updater update news at http://members.xoom.com/uoeditor).
Command Line In-game Result
AcctID=[ASCII string] Your account name that you use to log on to UO.
AcctPassword=[encrypted string] Your account password in encrypted form. This is relatively easy to crack though. That is why you should never give your uo.cfg file to anyone.
AllowPathfind=[On/Off]* Lets you set whether or not you wish to have pathfinding available. If it is turned off, then double-right-clicking will do nothing.
allowWindowResize=[On/Off]* Set this to 'Off' if you have video problems when using the Big Window. You must add this line only while the client is not running! If you add it while the client is running, unpredictable results may occur!
AssumePlayAsGhost=[On/Off]* This option is for use only by those who do not wish to ever get the 'Resurrect With Penalties' option.
AutoArrangeMinimized=[On/Off]* This toggle will turn on automatic arranging of minimized gumps to preset locations, rather than stacking them all in the corner.
BarkFontNumber=[1/2] In the game options section under "Miscellaneous" there's three options for "Speech font". When the top-most font is selected there's no "BarkFontNumber" line found in uo.cfg. if you choose the middle font the client adds a line to uo.cfg that reads: BarkFontNumber=1 If you choose the down-most font the line reads: BarkFontNumber=2
BarkTimeModifier=#[000000-FFFFFF] These two UO.CFG options adjust the duration of player and NPC speech. BarkTimeModifier sets how long all speech remains on screen (default is 4 seconds) as a percentage. The default is 300% as long for speech (12 seconds). ScaleBarkTimes is a toggle to adjust whether or not the duration scales based on the length of the text displayed.
ScaleBarkTimes=[On/Off]*
CacheSize=[#] Sets the size of a UO only hard drive cache in megabytes. If you did not do a full install this can speed up UO. If you did a full install you can set this to 1 to conserve disk space.
CdRomDataPath=[Path]* Path to the UO CD.
CensorBlood=[On/Off]* These two UO.CFG options allow one to censor realistic blood from the game. Set CensorBlood to "On" and adjust the new color of the blood using the CensoredBloodColor line. See the color page for all available colors.
CensoredBloodColor=#[000000-FFFFFF]
CensorFlesh=[On/Off]* When turned on chopped up body parts appear as 'nodraw' pictures. They become invisible when placed in a backpack.
ChestOpening=[On/Off]* Turns off the animation of the menu-chest, which on some computers can be very slow and painful to watch.
CircleTransPos=[00000-fffff] Determines where on screen the center of the circle of transparancy is.
CircleTransRadius=[0-750] Adjust the radius of a character's Transperency Circle by pixel's. Setting this value to a large number will allow you to completely igore walls and see into most buildings, however, this large Circle is bandwidth-intensive and may lock up the UO Client.
ColoredLighting=[On/Off]* Switches the colored lighting effects on or off. On low-end machines this can be turned off to improve performance.
CombatHueColor=#[000000-FFFFFF] or [-255-0] This UO.CFG option's purpose is to assist the colorblind. This will let you adjust the combat cursor color when in combat mode. It seems this uses yet another color coding scheme that also uses negative numbers. -67 will give a bright blue, -41 a bright green. #FF8000 will give a dark green. These are not the colors that are displayed on the color page.
CurrentVer=[#] Current UO client version number.
DefaultChar=[1/2/3/4/5] The default character that will be selected on the character selection screen during logging on to the game.
EnableMessenger=[On/Off]* Enables or disables the in-game mail system known as Ultime Online Messenger.
Footsteps=[On/Off]* Sets the sound of footsteps in the game on or off. The setting 'Off' can improve lag a bit.
FrameCounter=[On/Off]* Reduces the percentage of frames each refresh. Default is off.
FrameSkipping=[On/Off]* This will make the client attempt to skip draw frames when the time spent drawing becomes too high. (You may notice an improvement in performance when in crowded areas). Note that this can also cause "stuttering" in the image if your video card simply cannot keep up.
FullScreen=[On/Off]* Sets the screen to windowed mode or full-screen.
FullScreenRes=[640x480/800x600/1024x768] Sets the screensize for full screenmode. This only works if you are using the 'Big Window' client. The FullScreenRes option can be set to resolutions that do not appear in the Options menu, but when the Options menu is opened it will revert back to 640x480. Resolutions to 1152x864 and 1280x1024 are possible.
GamePlayWindowSize=[640x480/800x600] Sets the size of the game's play area. The 800x600 resolution is also known as "The Big Window" mode.
GDIFullScreen=[On/Off]* Enable/disable the direct draw features of directX for full screen mode.
HdUsage=[Max/on/??] Indicates what install you're using. Max is for a full install.
HighlightColorCanAttack=#808080 [000000-FFFFFF]
HighlightColorCriminal=#808080 [000000-FFFFFF]
HighlightColorEnemy=#FF8000 [000000-FFFFFF]
HighlightColorFriend=#00FF00 [000000-FFFFFF]
HighlightColorInnocent=#0000FF [000000-FFFFFF]
HighlightColorMurderer=#FF0000 [000000-FFFFFF]		 The purpose of these UO.CFG options is to assist the colorblind. This will let you adjust the combat highlighting color when in combat mode and targeting an opponent. The numbers before the brackets represent the default values, the numbers within the brackets signify the legal range. See the color page for all available colors.
HoldTabForCombat=[On/Off]* Lets you choose which way it will operate. If the option is set to yes or on, then holding down the TAB key will keep you in combat mode, and releasing the key will return you to peace mode. If the option is off, then the TAB key will work exactly like a combat mode macro toggle: hit it once to enter combat mode, hit it again to exit.
JournalSaveFile=[Filename] or [Path and filename]* This allows you to save all of the text that appears on your screen for later viewing. This includes system messages, dialogue, etc. If you use it, just remember to delete it every once in a while, or else it will get huge and eat up your hard drive space. In the example listed to the right, the game will save the journal into a file called "uo.txt" in the uo directory on your C: drive. If you play with this option set up, then you may want to download our UO Journal Converter, written by Tolian Worf. This handy utility archives your journal files according to date, so that you may keep a longterm record of your in-game exploits.
JournalSaveUnicode=[On/Off]* Indicates whether Unicode characters should be saved in the Journal or not.
LastServerID=[#] The number of the server that you last logged on to. This will be used on the server selection screen during logon. See the server page to find out the ID's of all shards.
LastTip=[#] The number of the tip shown at the last startup.
LoginServerFile=[Filename]* The name of an alternate server login file to be used instead of login.cfg, this can be used to login to the T2A beta or a server emulator like Fuse or UOX.
Mouse=[Slow/???] 'Slow' sets the mouse to run in separate thread. It can help if you're having mouse trouble, otherwise it can make the mouse jumpy.
MouseThread=[Fast/Slow] Determines the speed of the mouse cursor when it runs using its own thread.
Music=[On/Off]* Sets in-game music on or off.
MusicVol=[0-255] Sets in-game music volume. 255 is loudest.
NotorietyQuery=[On/Off]* A useful feature that will ask you "Are you sure?" before attacking something that will lower your notoriety. (Not 100% failsafe).
ObscenityFilter=[On/Off]* Usually this line exists in the UO.CFG file anyway, and it can be set from the options menu in-game, but people tend to forget about it too. Do you want to see what people are actually saying? If so, turn the filter to "off".
OffsetGumps=[On/Off]* If you set this to on or yes, when you open a container window it will offset from the place where the last one opened. If you set it to off or no, then container windows will always open as they do now, all on top of one another.
OrderCache=[Startup/Off] If you did not do a full install, Startup causes UO to load info off the CD into the hard drive cache. This can improve performance once you log on with a character, but it takes longer to start UO.
OrderCacheOnStartup=[On/Off] If you did not do a full install, Startup causes UO to load info off the CD into the hard drive cache. This can improve performance once you log on with a character, but it takes longer to start UO.
PageFlip=[On/Off/gdi] Settings for DirectDraw, gdi avoids using DirectDraw as much as posible for trouble-shooting, on is the default, and off can speed up DirectDraw but can cause graphic distortion.
PlayerName=[ASCII string] The name of the character you logged on with last.
RememberAcctPW=[On/Off]* Indicates whether the game saves your account password in the uo.cfg file. For security reasons always set this option to Off.
SaveJournal=[On/Off]* If set to on then all spoken text and system messages displayed in-game will be saved to a Journal file.
SavePassword=[On/Off]* Indicates whether the game saves your account password in the uo.cfg file. For security reasons always set this option to Off.
ShadedFonts=[On/Off]* Toggles between regular speech font and shaded speech font.
ShowIncomingNames=[On/Off]* This toggles the display of the names of mobiles (players, animals etc.) when they appear on your screen.
ShowIntroAnim=[On/Off]* This is automatically set after you've watched the intro movie the first time, but if you're just reinstalling the game, you can put it in right away.
ShowTips=[On/Off]* Indicates whether or not to show the scroll with game tips at startup.
SkillReportDiff=[1-1000] Sets the amount of points (in tenths) a skill has to raise or drop before the game informs you of the change. See also "StatReport".
Sound=[On/Off]* Sets in-game sound on or off.
SoundVol=[0-255] Sets in-game sound volume. 255 is loudest.
StatReport=[On/Off]* If set to on the game will display stats and skill gain and loss.
TreeCanopies=[On/Off]* Shows trees in Felucca with or without leaves/foliage
UnicodeFont=[On/Off]* Replaces the regular font with an alternate font that supports the Unicode character set.
UnicodeSpeech=[On/Off]* Brightens character speech and text display.
UseCircleTrans=[On/Off]* This creates a "circle of transparency" around your character, so that you can click on people/items that are obscured by walls, etc.
UserLanguageCodeString=ENU* For European and Asian customers, this will put the client into its original English mode. Helps a lot with crashes due to localization or those who prefer English instead of the localized texts.
UseToolTips=[On/Off]* This switches the popping up of the newbie tooltips that appear when you hover the mouse cursor over an in-game object on or off.
use565=[On/Off]* This fixes mouse cursor problems, on Bus Master enabled Matrox G200 series and Matrox Millenium II graphics cards. Strange flashing square around UO mouse pointers on G200's in all 16 bit colour modes without this option. G200's still corrupt the opening movie in 32 bit mode, but in 16bit, with the Use565=on, the movie, and the game are perfect. Probably worth trying if screen display is slightly corrupt. The only caveat is that with the Millenium II you will not be able to see the correct item color when buying from an NPC.
Also this may speed up color conversions, especially on Windows NT, but it almost always causes graphic distortion.
* Wherever the option [On/Off] is mentioned it is possible to use either On/Off or Yes/No or True/False.
[Path] is used where a valid path is required, i.e. C:\UO
[Filename] is used where a valid filename is required, i.e. T2ALOGIN.CFG
[Path and filename] is used where a valid path and filename are required, i.e. C:\UO\JOURNAL.TXT


Full List of Remaining uo.cfg Options

On this page is listed all existing UO.CFG options. The chart above details those that have been tested and have well-known and predictable results. Some options only work with the 'Big Window' client though. The following list represents those existing UO.CFG lines that may or may not be functional. Please remember to test the below optional lines with caution. If you do discover the functionality of any of the below lines, please e-mail us your findings to [email protected].

  • AcctLastName
  • AltKeyModNum
  • autoLogIn seems to have no effect when used in the form of "autoLogin=on" or "autoLogin=off"
  • BackupLoginServer probably not a uo.cfg option but rather a login.cfg option
  • CdKey
  • ClientFirstLaunch=[yes/no]
  • DefaultChar=[1/2/3/4/5]
  • FilterPWOn
  • FilterPassword
  • Language
  • NextLoginKey=[#]
  • ObsceneWord
  • OrderCacheOnStartup
  • Password
  • ProfileColor1
  • ProfileColor2
  • ReverseSpeakers
  • Sound8Bit
  • SpamLimit It seems that when used in the form of "SpamLimit=5", if you or someone else talks more then a few words it blocks off your text for a certain amount of seconds, and for each time you try to talk during the blockage, it increases your time of blockage. "Spamlimit=On" will crash the client.
  • UseVerData
  • UserCentral
The following options are only available in the T2A client
  • ChatAntiAlias
  • ChatColorCommandMenuBackground
  • ChatColorConferenceMenuBackground
  • ChatColorDialogBackground
  • ChatColorIgnored
  • ChatColorInput
  • ChatColorInputBackground
  • ChatColorMenuOption
  • ChatColorMutedName
  • ChatColorMutedText
  • ChatColorName
  • ChatColorOpsName
  • ChatColorOpsText
  • ChatColorSelfName
  • ChatColorSelfText
  • ChatColorSystemMessage
  • ChatColorText
  • ChatColorTextBackground
  • ChatColorUserListBackground
  • ChatFontNumber=[#]
  • ChatSpaceWidth
  • PopupHelpEnabled=[On/Off]*
  • PopupHelpPersistant
  • PopupHelpPreDelay
  • PopupHelpSticky
  • PopupHelpTextColor
  • PopupHelpTextFont
  • ToolTipPreDelay
  • ToolTipTextColor
  • TranslationServer=[On/Off]*
  • TranslationServerAutomatic=[On/Off]*
  • TranslationServerIPAddress
  • TranslationServerSystranDocumentType
  • TranslationServerSystranNFWMarker
  • TranslationServerSystranTopicalGlossaries
  • TranslationServerTranslatorName
  • TranslationServerUserLanguageCode


Files used to store data about your game
desktop.uoX 5 files (uo1 through uo5), one for each character slot, that store the location of your on-screen gumps, spell icons etc.
uo.cfg All kinds of settings, see above.
macros.txt All keyboard macros
skillgrp.mul Modifcations made to the skill list you see when using Alt-K
chardata.mul Unknown. Data is saved to this file at every game session though.
ignore.lst Players on your ignore list
uobscene.lst Additions made to the obscenity filter