Reduce min (Slash Command)
Slash command
Sets the minimum size that textures will be reduced to (requires -reduce_mip > 0).
- Default = 0.
Editor's Note: If you Google this command, it seems like this is one of those graphics commands that get a lot of action when a player is having weird graphics problems such as random artifacts, black splotches, lines and other patterns and a bunch of other symptoms. If you do a Google search, you'll find at least 2 other games developed by Cryptic Studios, the same company that made COH, using the exact same command, with the exact same description as our /reduce_min. According to nearly every post I read, the only option needed for the command to solve some graphic problem is "1" (/reduce_min 1). Unfortunately, that's as far as they go, but my biggest problem with this command is that I don't see any change in the graphics on my display when I use the command. I also don't get any errors, so it might be I just don't know how to use it... or Homecoming changed something... or the command is broken and never worked for COH... or on my system just doesn't show any effect.
/Reduce_min supposedly works with texture images within "mip maps". A mip map is a file that contains a high resolution image and multiple copies of that same image at successively smaller resolutions. The game client selects the resolution of the image depending on many things, including how far away the object is from the viewer. If we take this command's description at face value, /reduce_min would designate one of those images inside the mip map as the minimum, and tell the game to select that resolution image or higher if it ever needs a lower resolution texture image. Most mip map images are halved with each successive copy. For example, a 256K resolution image at level 0, a 128K resolution image at level 1, 64K at level 2, 32K at level 3, 16K at level 4, etc. I have no idea what the actual resolutions of the textures in COH are, but it's the idea that counts here. The way I imagine this command working is to use a number to set the resolution level. For example, the number "0" would tell the game there is no minimum resolution for textures. "1" would tell the game to use the the highest resolution image only. "2" would set the second highest resolution image as the lowest able to be selected by the game (that means it could also select 1). "3" would mean the game could use 3, 2, or 1. Or it could be reversed... 1 is the lowest resolution texture, 2 is higher resolution than that one, 3 higher still, etc.
I can see how this command could solve some graphical problems. If a lower resolution of a mip map is messing up, then using a different, higher resolution texture could "fix" the problem, or at least stop selecting the bad image and select one that's good. It's possible that the actual image in the mip map could be bad, or the graphics card has an issue with processing that image at that resolution. Mip maps can also be created by the graphics card on the fly, and then saved in memory for when it needs a lower resolution image. The system can just select it quickly rather than spending the time to create a whole new, lower resolution new image.
Part of me thinks that Homecoming might have locked the highest resolution texture as the only texture in the mip map that the game is allowed to use. This would have the result of improving the overall look of the game. Well, at least parts of the game.
Anyway, I'm torn about which list to put this command in... the working section or the unknown section. If you have experience with this command and it works for you, please update this page, and feel free to delete all of what I've written here (or just keep the parts that seem relevant).
Example
/reduce_min 1