Player Armor Male Female Takes effect the next time you join a server.
Voice Heard when you use the voice chat menu. Display Graphics upgrades are browser-only, on top of the 1998 renderer; players, weapons, turrets and stations always wear their new models. "Enhanced" turns the upgrades back on.
Quality Auto Desktop Laptop Phone What this device can draw smoothly. Auto picks it and steps down if the game cannot keep up. Render scale Native renders every screen pixel on HiDPI displays (sharper, smaller HUD text); below Standard the 3D view draws fewer pixels (faster, softer). Field of view View distance Mission default 1,000 m 1,500 m 2,500 m 5,000 m 10,000 m Terrain, sky and haze extend past the map's distance. Players and objects still appear at the server's range. Antialiasing Off 2× MSAA 4× MSAA Smooths polygon edges in the 3D view (multisampling). Texture filtering Anisotropic filtering keeps ground textures sharp at shallow angles. Smooth mipmaps Trilinear filtering removes visible bands where texture detail changes. HD textures AI-upscaled world textures (2×, 4xNomos8kDAT by Phhofm, CC BY 4.0), streamed as you play. World Photo materials Off Terrain Terrain + buildings Terrain + buildings + sky Poly Haven photo-scanned materials (CC0) in place of the 1998 terrain tiles, building surfaces and sky, following the original layout and colours. Material pack Poly Haven (CC0) Tribes: Ascend (local build) Which pack photo materials use. Ascend: the world textures of Tribes: Ascend with their normal and specular maps, when the build includes them. Rounded edges Off Subtle On Soft highlights and shading along building corners, as if the 1998 geometry were bevelled. Terrain mounds Off On Strong Photo materials: the ground lit as rolling hummocks, rock on steep slopes. Material shine Map colour grade The material pack's own colour grade for the map (Ascend: Raindance's teal storm grade). Terrain detail Off On Fine bumps and crevices on the ground near you, lit by the sun, where the original terrain texture is magnified to a blur. Ambient occlusion Off Subtle Strong Soft contact shadows in creases, under bridges and around buildings (from the depth buffer). Sun shadows Off Soft Strong Shadow map Shadow map + soft Players, vehicles and placed objects cast shadows from the mission's sun (terrain and buildings already have baked shadows). Soft and Strong trace them on screen; Shadow map renders them from the sun with exact shapes, on the ground and on each other. Atmosphere Off On Haze that glows toward the sun, a thin depth haze in the middle distance and mist lying in the lowest valleys. Sun shafts Off Subtle Strong Rays of light from the sun past hills, buildings and players. Light and colour Lighting Original Per-pixel sun Per-pixel sun + gloss Per-pixel sun + strong gloss Players, vehicles, weapons and objects are lit by the sun per pixel: smooth curved armour and sun highlights on metal. Bloom Off Subtle Strong Glow around lasers, explosions, jet flames, shields and the sun (HDR rendering). Tone Original Cinematic Cinematic: the ACES film curve on linear light (HDR rendering): bright highlights roll off softly instead of clipping. Auto exposure Your eyes adjust: brighter in dark interiors and shade, a touch darker on snow and in glare (HDR rendering). Grade Neutral Warm Cool Colour temperature of the 3D view. Players Hands Armoured hands hold your new-model weapon, gripping, firing and reloading with it. Weapon light Off On Strong Your new-model weapon gets a light of its own from over your shoulder, so its metal shows a sheen in any weather. Ascend animation Armors with Ascend animation move with Tribes: Ascend's own run, ski, jet, aim, weapon holds, firing and reloading on their own skeleton; deaths, taunts and riding take the original moves onto it. Your body in first person With Ascend animation: your own legs and arms show in first person, the arms holding your weapon. Costume colour Ascend Match Tribes Match Tribes: each armor takes the contrast and colour depth of the Tribes skin it replaces, keeping its own colours; team colours stay deep. Costume contrast Costume saturation Costume warmth Costume brightness Costume lighting Basic Sky light Sky light: costumes take light from the mission's sky above and the ground below, reflect the sky on metal and visor, and catch light on their edges. Weapon and effects Effects Original Enhanced Enhanced + shake Sparks, smoke and shockwaves on explosions, jet exhaust, projectile trails, landing dust, and a hit marker and damage direction in the HUD. "+ shake" adds camera shake from nearby blasts and a small recoil kick (view only, aim is unchanged). Jet ribbons Off Pair Helix Threads Helix threads Ribbons in the team's colours (Blood Eagle oxblood and gunmetal, Diamond Sword navy and gold, Phoenix burnt orange and gold, Starwolf charcoal and azure) trail from every jetting player's pack and paint the flight in the sky like brush strokes: they bank into turns, twist from thick to thin, drift into slow curves, fade along their length and dissolve from their oldest end after five seconds. Pair: two side by side. Helix: two winding loosely round the flight path, tighter in turns and dives. Threads: a bundle of thin strands that braid, and fan out in turns. Helix threads: both, two bundles of threads winding round each other. Weapon sway Off Subtle Standard Strong Your weapon carries momentum in first person: it lags behind your turns, swings when you change direction, jump, land or jet, leans into strafes and bobs as you run. Only the drawn weapon moves; aim and shots are unchanged. Weapon kick Off On Each shot shoves your weapon back and tips it up: a heavy thump from the disc launcher and mortar, a snap from the blaster, a rattle while the chaingun spins. Aim is unchanged. Weapon switch Instant Raise A newly selected weapon comes up from below the view while it readies. Weapon field of view Follow the view 70° 80° 90° 100° Your weapon is drawn at its own field of view, so a wide field of view, zooming or the wind's widening never stretch or magnify it. 90° matches the default view. Muzzle flash light Off On Each shot lights your weapon and the ground around you for a moment, in the colour of what it fires. HUD HUD Browser Edition Original (1998) Browser Edition: health, energy, speed, weapons, compass, score, chat and server messages, drawn sharp at any screen size. Original: the 1998 bitmaps. HUD size Small Medium Large Team colours Identity Relative Identity: every team in its own colour, the same for every player (Blood Eagle crimson, Diamond Sword blue); friend or foe shows by shape, hollow markers yours, filled ones theirs. Relative: your team cyan, every other team red. Speed in km/h mph m/s The speed readout under the view. One unit of the game world is a metre. Feedback Hit markers On Off On our servers, a marker round the crosshair for damage you did, never for a teammate's. Kills get a red cross. Hit sound Punchy Soft Off Feedback volume Damage numbers Combined Per hit Off Health points: every player has 100. Combined adds hits on one target into one number. Kill feed On Off On our servers, who killed whom and with what, with badges. The 1998 obituary sentences are not repeated. Callouts All Big moments only Off Words for the loud moments: a banner under the score bar for flags, streaks, records and the end of the round, and small text under the crosshair for your own mid-airs and multi-kills. Big moments only: captures, saves, long streaks, records and the round's end, plus the warnings for your team (your flag taken, a generator under attack or down). Callout sounds On Off A short synthesized sting with each callout, never more than a few a second. Every sting has its words on screen. Follows the Feedback volume and the Hit sound style (Soft is quieter). Screen effects Full Reduced Reduced: callouts, markers and numbers fade instead of sliding and popping. Always on when your system asks for reduced motion. Coaching Coaching tips Short tips while you play: how to ski, jet and use each weapon, each shown when it matters and gone for good once you have done it. Never during a fight. Objective tips on community servers Tips about flags, generators and vehicles are for our servers, where the rules are known. Turn this on to get the ones that can work on other servers too, from what the game itself shows and says. Clear the skills and tips you have learned so far. Reset what I've learned
Movement How moving feels. Client only: works on every server, and nothing you send changes beyond what your own keys allow.
Mouse look Every frame Original (32 ms ticks) Every frame: the view and your weapon follow the mouse on every frame instead of catching up a tick or two later (32–64 ms). Shots still go where the game aims them. Hold Jump to ski While Jump is held you jump again each time you touch the ground: skiing without tapping (the classic ski script, built in). Off in vehicles. Ski style Glide Original Glide: skiers are drawn in a low ski stance leaning into turns and down slopes, with snow and dust kicked up from the ground under them, instead of running and hopping; in first person the bump of each touchdown is smoothed out of your eye height. Positions and hit boxes are unchanged. Smooth other players On Off When an update from the server moves another player (or corrects your own), the drawing eases over in a few frames instead of jumping. Wind Off Sound + air Full Rushing air that rises with your speed, a ski hiss near the ground and streaks of air past the edges of the view. Full adds a blur toward the screen edges and a slightly wider view at high speed. Landing impact A hard landing dips your view a few centimetres and lands with a low thud (your own landings, not the hops of skiing). Touch Touch controls Auto Always Never Auto: on-screen controls on a phone or tablet, or whenever a finger was used more recently than a mouse. The stick moves, dragging anywhere on the right looks, Jet and Fire are held (drag while holding to look), Jump is a tap, weapons are picked by tapping their slots. Layout Auto Simple Standard Simple (phones): six controls in the thumb zones. Standard (tablets): also Ski and Crouch buttons. Auto-ski With the stick pushed, skiing engages by itself when you are fast, in the air or heading down a slope; slower than that the stick runs. Holding Jump still skis. Left-handed Stick on the right, buttons and look on the left. Touch look sensitivity 1.00× Up/down look sensitivity 1.00× How fast dragging up and down looks, compared with left and right. Button size Button opacity Move and resize the on-screen buttons; the game pauses while you do. Edit controls
Easy aim The view turns slower while your crosshair is on an enemy, so it is easier to stay on them. Auto fire Simple layout only On Off Chaingun and blaster fire by themselves while the crosshair is on an enemy. Discs, grenades and the mortar never do: they have to be aimed ahead. Gyro aim Turn the phone or tablet to fine-tune your aim (the first time, your browser asks for permission). Flip gyro If turning the device moves the view the wrong way. Vibration A tick when you fire and a buzz when you are hit, where the device supports it (Android). Fade idle buttons Buttons you have not touched for a few seconds fade back so they hide less of the game. Mouse Sensitivity 1.00× Invert vertical look Free look always on Off: the view only turns freely around you in third person while Free look is held. Sound Effects volume Weapons, jets, explosions and everything else in the world. Interface volume Menus, HUD sounds and voice messages. Voice messages Other players' calls from the voice menu. Privacy Send anonymous gameplay statistics Load times, frame rate, your device class and errors, to this site only, with no name, chat or address. What is sent . Keys Click a key, then press the new key or mouse button. Esc cancels, Backspace clears.
Every key and the mouse back to the defaults. Reset controls
