[deuxsonic]

I've noticed with months of builds of EDuke32 that the game doesn't remember certain settings, such as texture filtering (always shows Classic even after Filtered has been selected), clearing mouse and joystick controls result in the defaults being put back in place when they should in theory be empty if I remove these bindings from the config files as well, the string for "polymost" when selecting renderer shows up as "POLYMOST,F" and the game seems to throw out certain settings put in the config files manually (you can see this using an old config file with a new build as many settings will be erased.) Finally, anisotropic filtering sometimes resets to 16x when None is selected.

[Helixhorned]

Yes, this is annoying indeed. Roughly, it happens because EDuke32 switches from the default pair of configuration files (eduke32.cfg and settings.cfg) to a mod-defined one such as DukePlus/dp.cfg and DukePlus/dp_settings.cfg. The settings saved with the last session are stored in the latter pair, but on the next start-up, EDuke32 loads a portion from the default ones, now outdated. A workaround is to update them manually, e.g. before starting DukePlus:

copy DukePlus\dp.cfg eduke32.cfg
copy DukePlus\dp_settings.cfg settings.cfg

(Or simply stick these commands into the BAT file.)

[deuxsonic]

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason why a setting is in eduke32.cfg or settings.cfg. Both contain the same kinds of stuff. When Unreal split the configuration into 2 files, one took all the hardware settings and the other took all the user settings, but with EDuke32 there are user settings and system settings in both, and then it keeps creating more config files for mods.

Here are some other things I've thought about...

For older mods that are simply loaded as group files in the root, the save games get overwritten when ZDOOM as an example will just keep going past the original max number of saves to however many saves you want, eliminating the problem through allowing any number of saves (in 2015 we still need to restrict the number of saves? The disk space for holding hundreds or thousands of saves has long since been available.) The best way to handle the config would be how ZDOOM handles it where all configuration is kept in a single file, and mods simply add separate new sections dedicated only to what the mod has changed from the normal configuration, such as extra controls that need to be bound so everything is in one place and there is little duplication.

Even if you try to correct some of these settings by editing the configuration files themselves, settings like the texture filtering will not take. Others, like joystick controls, if removed, will reappear with the next start even if you're trying to neaten up your configuration files.

I've also noticed that when settings match the defaults, they're omitted completely from their respective configuration file, even though having them in there makes it easier to tinker with settings.

One last thing that kind of goes off-topic but the colored lighting that Polymer adds I feel should not be active unless the HRP is also loaded because many of the switches are not supposed to be seen but the colored light from them can still be seen, without the HRP you have to disable this via editing the config manually but since the setting is now missing from the config, you have to dig around online to figure out what it is and then add it. The only other way of handling it would be maphacks for just vanilla Duke but if you're going to go that far... I've noticed graphical anomalies in all the different renderers which can be frustrating because I try to find the renderer that's the most modern but has the fewest bugs, when in Polymost you have skies not stretched as far as they should be and the lighting deviates a lot from Classic, like when fullbrights are involved, and sprites against walls will sometimes not show up or will flicker or be only partially visible. Polymer is much better, but it has problems where sometimes say a door opens, there's a spot in the door's path of being opened where there is no texture. Sometimes a huge surface will be missing a texture. It will do this even just playing vanilla Duke3D in Polymer.

I know this all sounds really negative but I've been using EDuke32 for many years and it can do incredible things (if only Blood had something like this) and I feel like these things work against the experience. It's all a big work-in-progress but some of these issues date back to even when JFDuke3D was still going.