Changes: Settings

Latest revision as of 18:28, 7 July 2024

PC/Mobile/3DS-Only Content: This information applies only to the PC, Mobile, and 3DS versions of Terraria.

Settings are a set of gameplay options available from the game's main menu, the pause menu (), or the inventory screen ( ).

Desktop version

General

Setting	Description
Autosave On - or - Autosave Off	On: Saves your world and character data every 10 minutes in the background during gameplay. Off: Only saves when you click "save and quit" in the Inventory (Esc) screen. Note that the game will always autosave your character upon death regardless of this setting. Turning Autosave on (default) has the benefit of keeping your progress saved in case of a crash or power outage, without having to worry about saving manually. Some players prefer to leave this option off, in case a potentially world-altering glitch occurs, or if they would like to experiment in a world without altering it, and be able to go back to its previous state later.
Autopause On - or - Autopause Off	For singleplayer only, this setting pauses the game whenever you open your inventory or talk to an NPC. This can be useful, as you can work with your inventory without worrying about being attacked or drowning. However, with autopause on, you can't place items from directly out of inventory (the item must be in the hotbar and selected), nor can you use usable items directly out of inventory. Note that independently from this setting it is—also in singleplayer only—also possible to pause the game by any method which switches out of the Terraria program, such the Alt-Tab hotkey or the Windows key function.
Map Enabled - or - Map Disabled	Moved somewhere else. The Minimap can be enabled or disabled. If you cannot open your minimap and this setting is not there, it may be turned off in your CONFIG.JSON file. Inside that file, you will find "mapenabled", make sure it is set to true . If it is already set to "true", then your PC may simply not be able to handle this feature, due to its memory requirements. Disabling the Minimap can provide a performance boost on old hardware, but it is heavily recommended you do not because playing with it disabled means you cannot use Pylons or Wormhole Potions.
Passwords: Visible - or - Hidden	Moved somewhere else. When set to hidden, password characters entered into the game window, such as those for logging into a multiplayer game, will appear only as asterisks (*).
Quick Wall Replace:^[1] Enabled - or - Disabled	Moved somewhere else. When enabled, this setting allows a player to replace an existing wall with one from their inventory, without the need to directly use a hammer to remove the existing wall. The player must have an appropriate hammer to remove the wall in their inventory, as well as the ability to remove the wall normally. Groups of naturally generated walls must still be removed from the edge(see Walls for more information.)
Activate Set Bonuses:^[1] Up - or - Down	The majority of armor set bonuses are passive, meaning they're always active. Some Armor sets include a bonus that must be activated by double-tapping either `▲ Up` or `▼ Down`, depending on the setting found here. Note: Double-tapping `▼ Down` may also make you drop through if you're standing on a platform at the time.
Smart Doors:
Hover Controls:
AutoFire:
UI Scale	Allows you to increase the size of the interface for easier viewing on high resolutions, up to 180% (though the slider goes up to 200%).
Zoom	Allows you to zoom in on your character to see more detail, up to 200%. The maximum amount you can zoom out is determined by your resolution.

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Available only while in-game.

Interface

Setting	Description
Pickup Text On - or - Pickup Text Off	Determines whether or not to show pop-up text describing the items you pick up. This can be useful so that you don't need to constantly check your inventory to see what was picked up, although the text annoys some players as it covers up parts of the graphics above your character during gameplay. The Sonar Potion is effectively useless when turned off.
Event Progress Bar On - or - Event Progress Bar Off - or - Event Progress Bar Timed	On: Shows a progress bar displaying percent of an event completed. Off: Hides the progress bar. Timed: Shows the progress bar, but hides itself if no enemies have been defeated in the past few seconds. Reappears when another enemy is defeated.
Placement Preview On - or - Placement Preview Off	Determines whether or not to preview placement of furniture. This can help pinpoint exactly where furniture is placed as opposed to having to break and replace it if improperly placed.
Highlight New Items On - or - Highlight New Items Off	Determines whether newly picked up items are highlighted in the inventory. This aids in quickly locating acquired items and disappears when a highlighted item is moused over or the inventory is closed.
Tile Grid On - or - Tile Grid Off	Shows a five block wide grid around the cursor if the player is not moving to place blocks more precisely.
Gamepad Instructions On - or - Gamepad Instructions Off	Shows on screen how to perform different actions using a gamepad.

Video

Setting	Description
Go Fullscreen - or - Go Windowed	Toggles between full-screen and windowed modes.
Resolution sub-menu
Fullscreen Resolution	Sets the resolution used for full-screen mode. Affects windowed mode when switched back, though the window's size will still alter its resolution. Higher resolution makes the game look smoother but can slow performance. Note that although resolution can affect the "zoom" from your character (that is, increase the game screen boundaries), it can only do so within the limit of your computer's maximum screen resolution.^[1] That is, screens with high max resolution can produce a much greater zoom than screens with lower max resolution, even if it may require third-party software to make Terraria accept abnormally high resolution values (example: RomTerraria, image).
Borderless Windows: Enabled - or - Disabled	Sets the window resolution to the native desktop as well as removing the title bar and window frame. This setting can be useful when using and switching between multiple monitors. This setting is not visible during gameplay and can only be changed from the main menu.
Parallax	Changes how much the background biome images scrolls in relation to the player's movements. Higher numbers make the background move more, producing a more apparent 3D depth effect. Lower numbers make the background more stationary.
Frame Skip On - or - Frame Skip Subtle - or - Frame Skip Off	Frame Skip skips unnecessary frames to improve performance and reduce Desynchronization issues in multiplayer.^[2] On: Enables a default frameskip function provided by XNA, the programming environment that Terraria is developed in. Subtle: Redigit's revised custom frameskip, developed between version 1.3 and 1.3.1 for monitors and computers capable of more than 60 frames per second (FPS). Off: Redigit's first custom frameskip that has existed since Terraria's original beta version.
Lighting	Changes the lighting mode.
Multicore Lighting	Sets the number of threads used to render lighting effects. Set this to the number of cores your CPU has for optimal performance (or twice the number of cores for CPUs with SMT (simultaneous multi-threading), also called hyper-threading for Intel CPUs. You can search http://ark.intel.com for Intel processors, or https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications for AMD processors, to see if your CPU has hyper-threading available). Setting this to a higher number than the number of available CPU cores could negatively impact performance.
Quality	Switches between low, medium, high, or auto lighting quality. Higher qualities will look better but may slow performance on some computers. Auto continually adapts the quality setting based on your computer's performance (FPS, or "framerate") during gameplay. (The Lighting setting above merely defines the type of lighting, this Quality setting determines actual rendering quality.)
Background On - or - Background Off	Switches the biome backgrounds on or off (eg. background trees). Switching these off can improve performance on slower computers.
Blood and Gore On - or - Blood and Gore Off	Toggles blood and gore effects. When disabled, entities "bleed" puffs of smoke. This includes things that create blood particles as part of their animation, such as Demon Eyes and Skeletron. Skeletal and mechanical entities, being made out of bone and metal, will still produce their usual gibs. Players may turn Blood and Gore off so the screen isn't littered with enemy pieces to remove clutter caused by defeated enemies or simply to reduce lag from killing too many mobs. It may also be suitable to disable this setting when involving a younger audience, as some mature dialogue will also be removed.
Miner's Wobble	Toggles the block effect where when a block isn't fully broken, it grows and shrinks in size for a quarter of a second. See Trivia.
Effects sub-menu
Storm Effects: Enabled - or - Disabled	Toggles the background effects seen during Snowstorms and Sandstorms.
Heat Distortion Enabled - or - Disabled	Toggles heat distortion effects seen in the Underworld and Desert.
Waves Quality	Increases and decreases wave effects seen on the surface and under the water, but this setting has no effect under Retro or Trippy lighting. Off - Water as it was prior to 1.3.4. Low - Passive water distortion; nothing really interacts with it. Medium - Players and most NPCs create ripples as they pass through water. (Along with other things like the drops of water from the ceiling) High - Projectiles also create ripples and ripples can bounce off walls.^[3]

Volume

Type	Description
Sound	Various sounds like those from using items/weapons, splashing from liquids, using the interface, killing enemies/players,etc. Turn off if you do not like too much noise from fighting events or PvP servers.
Music	The official Terraria music.
Ambient	Occasional background sounds like bubbling lava, Rain/Blizzard/Sandstorm, NPC ambient sounds such as Bird chirping, waterfalls, etc.

Cursor

Type	Description
Cursor Color	Opens a GUI allowing the player to choose the color of the cursor.
Border Color	Opens a GUI allowing the player to choose the color of the cursor's border.
Smart Cursor Mode: Toggle - or - Hold	Changes the way that the Smart Cursor is activated. Toggle: Smart Cursor is activated when the mapped key (Left Ctrl by default) is pressed once, and deactivated by pressing again. Hold: Smart Cursor is only active when the mapped key is held down.
Smart Cursor Priority: Pickaxe -> Axe - or - Axe -> Pickaxe	Changes the target priority when holding a pickaxe with smart cursor mode. Pickaxe -> Axe: The cursor will always target the nearest tree regardless of pointing direction. It will only target blocks if no tree is reachable. Axe -> Pickaxe: The cursor will target the block in pointing direction. If no block is reachable it will target the nearest tree.
Smart Block Placement: Filling - or - To Cursor	Filling: Blocks are placed from the position of the cursor towards the player when Smart Cursor is enabled. To Cursor: Blocks are placed from the players current position towards the cursors position when Smart Cursor is enabled.
Lock On Priority: Clearest Line - or - Target Closest	Clearest Line: Enemies are chosen based on line of sight. Enemies obstructed from the players reach by solid objects will have a lower priority. This setting is useful in the Dungeon and other areas with many obstructions. This setting sometimes results in the furthest enemy being targeted. Target Closest: The enemy closest to the player will be targeted regardless of intervening tiles. This setting is useful in flat open areas.

Controls

Function	Description
Activate Set Bonuses: Up - or - Down	When set to up, Forbidden armor and Vortex armor set bonus abilities are triggered by double-tapping `▲ Up` instead of `▼ Down`.
Quick Wall Replace: Enabled - or - Disabled	When enabled, this setting allows a player to replace an existing wall with one from their inventory, without the need to directly use a hammer to remove the existing wall. The player must have an appropriate hammer to remove the wall in their inventory, as well as the ability to remove the wall normally. Groups of naturally generated walls must still be removed from the edge(see Walls for more information.)
Left Shift Quick Trash: Enabled - or - Disabled	Allows the player to quickly send items to the trash by holding left shift and left clicking the item from the inventory menu. Caution should be exercised to prevent the deletion of important items. If this option is disabled, left control clicking is used instead.
Keybindings	Allows you to change the bindings for the different game controls, both for Keyboard and Mouse or Controller. See game controls for a detailed explanation.

Language

You can choose the language to play the game in.

Language
English
Deutsch (German)
Italiano (Italian)
Français (French)
Español (Spanish)
Pусский (Russian)
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
Português brasileiro (Brazilian Portuguese)
Polski (Polish)

3DS version

Sound options

Setting	Description
Sound Effects On or Off	Toggles game sounds. On by default.
Music On or Off	Toggles music. On by default.

Multiplayer options

This sub-menu is only accessible while in a Multiplayer game.

Setting	Description
Broadcast status On or Off	Allows the game to be discovered by other 3DS systems. Can only be changed by the session host. Off by default.
PvP On or Off	Off by default.
Team None, Red, Green, Blue or Yellow	Controls which team the player is on. Set to "None" by default.

Gameplay options

Setting	Description
Save reminder On or Off	Displays an SD card icon in the top right of the bottom screen if the game has not been saved in the last 15 minutes. Tapping on the icon will automatically save the game and cause it to disappear. On by default.
Pickup texts On or Off	Determines whether or not to show pop-up text describing the items the player picks up. On by default.
Credits	Displays the game credits.

Other settings

Notes

The Frame Skip setting can alter the output from the DPS Meter.

Trivia

Before 1.2.3, going to your inventory with autopause on while using a weapon or tool and clicking an item would get it stuck and make it drop when you exit your inventory (unless you right-clicked outside of your inventory to drop the item yourself). If this was tried with a consumable item, it would be used as such. Healing items acted uniquely to this bug; they would still heal you, but would not inflict Potion Sickness. Update 1.2 had somewhat tried to fix it, but could still be circumvented by using a tool or weapon with continuous use.

History

PC version

Desktop 1.4.0.4: Fixed an issue where a lot of non-gore objects were hidden by Blood/Gore settings.

Desktop 1.4.0.1: Animated accessories now no longer animate when paused.

Desktop 1.3.5: Professionally translated languages introduced.

Desktop 1.3.3.2: Miner's Wobble can now be toggled on and off.

Desktop 1.3.3:
- Fixed sliders in the Gamepad settings not being "locked on" when dragged around.
- Introduced Miner's Wobble.

Desktop 1.3.0.4: Fixed being unable to leave settings menu under rare and unfortunate circumstances. Fixed parallax not loading correctly.

Desktop 1.2.4.1:
- Made Smart Cursor smarter when placing Minecart Tracks.
- Fixed a bug where Smart Cursor wall would not ignore doors pillar when open.
- Fixed bug where pressing “Reset to default” in controls would reset the quick mana key to M rather than J.
- Fixed bug where glowsticks will not be selected when the mouse is near the player in a dry area (Auto Select).

Desktop 1.2.4:
- Added Smart Cursor. This can be toggled using control and has an interface option. Smart Cursor makes digging, chopping, placing, and breaking much faster and easier.
- Changed the Quick Heal to use the best fit healing item instead of the first.

Desktop 1.2.3.1:
- Fixed bug where Autopause played bad with Chest renaming (and sign editing a bit).
- Fixed bug where in-game options Map Control section wasn't blocking input like the regular controls.

Desktop 1.2.3:
- Added ingame settings menu.
- There's now options for the ambient sound. Save and Exit is now in the settings menu.
- Added sliders for parallax & volume settings.
- Game now loads at saved resolution and even remembers if you use maximized window.
- Multicore Lighting added to options menu.
- When you hover over text in the interface menu the text now turns yellow.
- Fixed bug where Dust would grow massive when you paused the game.
- Fixed bug where guide will tell you to press Escape to open inventory even if you changed your keys.
- Fixed bug where special armor visuals don't apply with auto-pause on (robes / werewolf / merform).
- Fixed exploit with moving items around in auto-pause.

Desktop 1.2.0.1: Configuration settings will be set to default to fix problems with loading incorrect configurations from previous versions.

Desktop 1.2:
- Map introduced - “M” has been remapped for the map feature.
- “J” is now the default button for mana use.

Desktop 1.1.2:
- Terraria has been translated to German, Italian, French, and Spanish.
- Terraria now has support for accented letters and multiple keyboard layouts.
- When first run, Terraria will ask which language to use. This can be changed in the options menu.

Desktop 1.0.1:
- Leaving the settings menu via the back button should no longer crash.
- Added a toggle for Frame Skip, which can correct some slowdown issues on higher-end computers.

Desktop-Release: Introduced.

Nintendo

version

3DS-Release: Introduced.

References

[ingame-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Available only while in-game.

[2] www.terrariaonline.com Foums → Help & Support → Technical Support → PC → thread:"Zooming out" the view?

[3] ttp://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/pc-1-3-1-1-hotfix.44359

[4] "For anyone worried about performance, there's multiple levels of quality (Off, Low, Medium, and High)"

[1]

Terraria Wiki