Project settings

The file game.project contains all project wide settings. It must stay in the root folder of the project and must be named game.project. The first thing the engine does when starting up and launching your game is look for this file.

Every setting in the file belongs to a category. When you open the file Defold presents all settings grouped by category.

Below are all the available settings, arranged by section. Some settings are not yet exposed in the settings editor (these are marked “hidden setting” below), but can be set manually by right clicking “game.project” and selecting Open With ▸ Text Editor.

Sections and settings

Project

Title

The title of the application.

Version

The version of the application.

Write Log

When checked, the engine will write a log file log.txt in the project root. When running on iOS, the log file can be accessed through iTunes and the Apps tab and the File Sharing section. On Android, the file is stored in the app’s external storage. When running the dmengine development app, you can view the log with:

$ adb shell cat /mnt/sdcard/Android/data/com.defold.dmengine/files/log.txt

Compress Archive

Enables compression of archives when bundling. Note that this currently applies to all platforms except Android where the apk already contains all data compressed.

Dependencies

A list of URLs to the project Library URLs. Refer to the Libraries manual for more information.

Custom Resources

custom_resources A comma separated list of resources that will be included in the project. If directories are specified, all files and directories in that directory are recursively included. The resources can be loaded using sys.load_resource().

Bundle Resources

bundle_resources A comma separated list of directories containing resource files and folders that should be copied as-is into the resulting package when bundling. The directories must be specified with an absolute path from the project root, for example /res. The resource directory must contain subfolders named by platform, or architecure-platform.

Supported platforms are ios, android, osx, win32, linux, web, switch

A subfolder named common is also allowed, containing resource files common for all platforms.

Access to files within the the bundle resources is platform specific. The Lua module io is one way to do it. Care must be taken to have the correct file paths for the platform. (e.g. prefix using “file:///android_asset/” on Android)

Bundle Exclude Resources

bundle_exclude_resources A comma separated list of resources that should not be included in the bundle. That is, they’re removed from the result of the collection of the bundle_resources step.

Bootstrap

Main Collection

File reference of the collection to use for starting the application, /logic/main.collection by default.

Render

Which render setup file to use, which defines the render pipeline, /builtins/render/default.render by default.

Library

Include Dirs

A space separated list of directories that should be shared from your project via library sharing.

Script

Shared State

Check to share a single Lua state between all script types, unchecked by default.

Engine

Run While Iconified

Allow the engine to continue running while the application window is iconified (desktop platforms only), false by default.

Display

Width

The width in pixels of the application window, 960 by default.

Height

The height in pixels of the application window, 640 by default.

High Dpi

Creates a high dpi back buffer on displays that support it. Typically the game will render in double the resolution than what is set in the Width and Height settings, which will still be the logical resolution used in scripts and properties.

Samples

How many samples to use for super sampling anti-aliasing. It sets the GLFW_FSAA_SAMPLES window hint. It is 0 by default, which means that anti-aliasing is turned off.

Fullscreen

Check if the application should start full screen. If unchecked, the application runs windowed.

Frame Cap

If Vsync checked, snaps to the closest matching swap interval for the set frame cap if a monitor is detected. Otherwise uses timers to respect the set value, 0 means no cap. This setting maps to display.update_frequency. (See below).

Vsync

Vertical sync, rely on hardware vsync for frame timing. Can be overridden depending on graphics driver and platform specifics. (See below).

Display Profiles

Specifies which display profiles file to use, /builtins/render/default.display_profilesc by default. Learn more in the GUI Layouts manual.

Dynamic Orientation

Check if the app should dynamically switch between portrait and landscape on device rotation. Note that the development app does not currently respect this setting.

Render

Clear Color Red

Clear color red channel, used by the render script and when the window is created.

Clear Color Green

Clear color green channel, used by the render script and when the window is created.

Clear Color Blue

Clear color blue channel, used by the render script and when the window is created.

Clear Color Alpha

Clear color alpha channel, used by the render script and when the window is created.

Physics

Type

Which type of physics to use, 2D (default) or 3D.

Gravity Y

World gravity along y-axis, -10 by default (natural gravity)

Debug

Check if physics should be visualized for debugging.

Debug Alpha

Alpha component value for visualized physics, 0–1. The value is 0.9 by default.

World Count

Max number of concurrent physics worlds, 4 by default. If you load more than 4 worlds simultaneously through collection proxies you need to increase this value. Be aware that each physics world allocates a fair amount of memory.

Gravity X

World gravity along x-axis, 0 by default.

Gravity Z

World gravity along z-axis, 0 by default.

Scale

Tells the physics engine how to scale the physics worlds in relation to the game world for numerical precision, 0.01–1.0. If the value is set to 0.02, it means that the physics engine will view 50 units as 1 meter ($1 / 0.02$). The default value is 1.0.

Allow Dynamic Transforms

Check if the physics engine should apply the transform of a game object to any attached collision object components. This can be used to move, scale and rotate collision shapes, even those that are dynamic. true by default.

Debug Scale

How big to draw unit objects in physics, like triads and normals, 30 by default.

Max Collisions

How many collisions that will be reported back to the scripts, 64 by default.

Max Contacts

How many contact points that will be reported back to the scripts, 128 by default.

Contact Impulse Limit

Ignore contact impulses with values less than this setting, 0.0 by default.

Ray Cast Limit 2d

The max number of 2d ray cast requests per frame. 64 by default.

Ray Cast Limit 3d

The max number of 3d ray cast requests per frame. 128 by default.

Trigger Overlap Capacity

The maximum number of overlapping physics triggers. 16 by default.

Graphics

Default Texture Min Filter

Specifies which filtering to use for minification filtering, linear (default) or nearest.

Default Texture Mag Filter

Specifies which filtering to use for magnification filtering, linear (default) or nearest.

Max Draw Calls

The max number of render calls, 1024 by default.

Max Characters:

The number of characters pre-allocated in the text rendering buffer, i.e. the number of characters that can be displayed each frame, 8192 by default.

Max Debug Vertices

The maximum number of debug vertices. Used for physics shape rendering among other things, 10000 by default.

Texture Profiles

The texture profiles file to use for this project, /builtins/graphics/default.texture_profiles by default.

Shader

Output SPIR-V

Compile and output SPIR-V shaders for use with Metal or Vulkan.

Input

Repeat Delay

Seconds to wait before a held down input should start repeating itself, 0.5 by default.

Repeat Interval

Seconds to wait between each repetition of a held down input, 0.2 by default.

Gamepads

File reference of the gamepads config file, which maps gamepad signals to OS, /builtins/input/default.gamepads by default.

Game Binding

File reference of the input config file, which maps hardware inputs to actions, /input/game.input_binding by default.

Use Accelerometer

Check to make the engine receive accelerator input events each frame. Disabling accelerometer input may give some performance benefit, checked by default.

Resource

Http Cache

If checked, a HTTP cache is enabled for faster loading of resources over the network to the running engine on device, unset by default.

Uri

Where to find the project build data, in URI format.

Max Resources

The max number of resources that can be loaded at the same time, 1024 by default.

Network

Http Timeout

The HTTP timeout in seconds. Set to 0 to disable timeout, which is the default.

Collection

Max Instances

Max number of game object instances in a collection, 1024 by default.

Max Input Stack Entries

Max number of game objects in the input stack, 16 by default.

Sound

Gain

Global gain (volume), 0–1, The value is 1 by default.

Max Sound Data

Max number of sound resources, i.e the number of unique sound files at runtime, 128 by default.

Max Sound Buffers

(Currently not used) Max number of concurrent sound buffers, 32 by default.

Max Sound Sources

(Currently not used) Max number of concurrently playing sounds, 16 by default.

Max Sound Instances

Max number of concurrent sound instances, i.e. actual sounds played at the same time. 256 by default.

Use Thread

If checked, the sound system will use threads for sound playback to reduce risk of stutter when the main thread is under heavy load. Checked by default.

Sprite

Max Count

Max number of sprites per collection, 128 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

Subpixels

Check to allow sprites to appear unaligned with respect to pixels, checked by default.

Tilemap

Max Count

Max number of tile maps per collection, 16 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

Max Tile Count

Max number of concurrent visible tiles per collection, 2048 by default.

Spine

Max Count

Max number of spine model components, 128 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

Mesh

Max Count

Max number of mesh components per collection, 128 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

Model

Max Count

Max number of model components per collection, 128 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

GUI

Max Count

Max number of GUI components, 64 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

Max Particlefx Count

The max number of concurrent emitters, 64 by default.

Max Particle Count

The max number of concurrent particles, 1024 by default.

Label

Max Count

Max number of labels, 64 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

Subpixels

Check to allow lables to appear unaligned with respect to pixels, checked by default.

Particle FX

Max Count

The max number of concurrent emitters, 64 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

Max Particle Count

The max number of concurrent particles, 1024 by default.

Collection proxy

Max Count

Max number of collection proxies, 8 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

Collection factory

Max Count

Max number of collection factories, 128 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

Factory

Max Count

Max number of game object factories, 128 by default. (See information about component max count optimizations).

iOS

App Icon 57x57–180x180

Image file (.png) to use as application icon at given width and height dimensions W × H.

Launch Screen

Storyboard file (.storyboard). Learn more about how to create one in the iOS manual.

Pre Rendered Icons

(iOS 6 and earlier) Check if your icons are pre-rendered. If this is unchecked the icons will get a glossy highlight added automatically.

Bundle Identifier

The bundle identifier lets iOS recognize any updates to your app. Your bundle ID must be registered with Apple and be unique to your app. You cannot use the same identifier for both iOS and macOS apps.

Info.plist

If specified, use this info.plist file when bundling your app.

Custom Entitlements

If specified, the entitlements in the supplied provisioning profile (.entitlements, .xcent, .plist) will be merged with the entitlements from the provisioning profile supplied when bundling the application.

Override Entitlements

If checked the Custom Entitlements will replace the ones in the provisioning profile when bundling. Must be used in combination with the Custom Entitlements setting above.

Default Language

The language used if the application doesn’t have user’s preferred language in Localizations list (see CFBundleDevelopmentRegion). Use the two-letter ISO 639-1 standard if preferred language is available there or the three-letter ISO 639-2.

Localizations

This field contains comma-separated strings identifying the language name or ISO language designator of the supported localizations (see CFBundleLocalizations).

Android

App Icon 36x36–192x192

Image file (.png) to use as application icon at given width and height dimensions W × H.

Push Icon Small–LargeXxxhdpi

Image files (.png) to be used as custom push notification icon on Android. The icons will automatically be used for both local or remote push notifications. If not set the application icon will be used by default.

Push Field Title

Specifies which payload JSON field should be used as notification title. Leaving this setting empty makes the pushes default to the application name as title.

Push Field Text

Specifies which payload JSON field should be used as notification text. If left empty, the text in the field alert is used, just as on iOS.

Version Code

An integer value indicating the version of the app. Increase the value for each subsequent update.

Package

Package identifier.

Gcm Sender Id

Google Cloud Messaging Sender Id. Set this to the string assigned by Google to enable push notifications.

Manifest

If set, use the specified Android manifest XML file when bundling.

Iap Provider

Specifies which store to use. Valid options are Amazon and GooglePlay, GooglePlay by default.

Input Method

Specifies which method to use to get keyboard input on Android devices. Valid options are KeyEvent (old method) and HiddenInputField (new). KeyEvent by default.

Immersive Mode

If set, hides the navigation and status bars and lets your app capture all touch events on the screen.

Debuggable

Whether or not the application can be debugged using tools such as GAPID or Android Studio. This will set the android:debuggable flag in the Android manifest.

macOS

App Icon

Image file (.png) to use as application icon on macOS.

Info.plist

If set, use the specified info.plist file when bundling.

Bundle Identifier

The bundle identifier lets macOS recognize updates to your app. Your bundle ID must be registered with Apple and be unique to your app. You cannot use the same identifier for both iOS and macOS apps.

Default Language

The language used if the application doesn’t have user’s preferred language in Localizations list (see CFBundleDevelopmentRegion). Use the two-letter ISO 639-1 standard if preferred language is available there or the three-letter ISO 639-2.

Localizations

This field contains comma-separated strings identifying the language name or ISO language designator of the supported localizations (see CFBundleLocalizations).

Windows

App Icon

Image file (.ico) to use as application icon on Windows. Read more about how to create a .ico file in the Windows manual.

Iap Provider

Specifies which store to use. Valid options are None and Gameroom, None by default.

HTML5

Heap Size

Heap size (number of megabytes) for Emscripten to use. By default this value is 256MB.

.html Shell

Use the specified template HTML file when bundling. By default /builtins/manifests/web/engine_template.html.

Custom .css

Use the specified theme CSS file when bundling. By default /builtins/manifests/web/light_theme.css.

Splash Image

If set, use the specified splash image on startup when bundling instead of Defold logo.

Archive Location Prefix

When bundling for HTML5 game data is split up into one or more archive data files. When the engine starts the game, these archive files are read into memory. Use this setting to specify the location of the data, archive by default.

Archive Location Suffix

Suffix to be appended to the archive files. Useful to, for instance, force non-cached content from a CDN (?version2 for example).

Engine Arguments

List of arguments that will be passed to the engine.

Show Fullscreen Button

Enables Fullscreen Button in index.html file. By default true.

Show Made With Defold

Enables Made With Defold link in index.html file. By default true.

Scale Mode

Specifies which method to use to scale the game canvas. By default Downscale Fit.

IAP

Auto Finish Transactions

Check to automatically finish IAP transactions. If unchecked, you need to explicitly call iap.finish() after a successful transaction, checked by default.

Live update

Private Key

If set, use the specified private key file when bundling live update content. If no key file is set, a key is generated.

Public Key

If set, use the specified public key file when bundling live update content. If no key file is set, a key is generated.

Native extension

App Manifest

If set, use the app manifest to customize the engine build. This allows you to remove unneeded parts from the engine making it possible to decrease the final binary size. Note that this feature is in alpha state. Please visit the forum for information on how to proceed.

Profiler

Track Cpu

If checked, enable CPU profiling in release versions of the builds. Normally, you can only access profiling information in debug builds.

File format

The format of the settings file is simple text (INI format) and can be edited by any standard text editor. The format looks like this:

[category1]
setting1 = value
setting2 = value
[category2]
...

A real example is:

[bootstrap]
main_collection = /main/main.collectionc

which means that the setting main_collection belongs to the bootstrap category. Whenever a file reference is used, like the example above, the path needs to be appended with a ‘c’ character, which means you’re referencing the compiled version of the file. Also note that the folder containing game.project will be the project root, which is why there is an initial ‘/’ in the setting path.

Setting config values on engine startup

When the engine starts, it is possible to provide config values from the command line that override the game.project settings:

# Specify a bootstap collection
$ dmengine --config=bootstrap.main_collection=/my.collectionc

# Set two custom config values
$ dmengine --config=test.my_value=4711 --config=test2.my_value2=1234

Custom values can—just like any other config value—be read with sys.get_config():

local my_value = tonumber(sys.get_config("test.my_value"))

Component max count optimizations

The game.project settings file contains many values specifying the maximum number of a certain resource that can exist at the same time, often counted per loaded collection (also called world). The Defold engine will use these max values to preallocate memory for this amount of memory to avoid dynamic allocations and memory fragmentation while the game is running.

The Defold data structures used to represent components and other resources are optimized to use as little memory as possible but care should still be taken when setting the values to avoid allocating more memory than is actually necessary.

To further optimize memory usage the Defold build process will analyse the content of the game and override the max counts if it is possible to know for certain the exact amount:

• If a collection doesn’t contain any factory components the exact amount of each component will be allocated and the max count values will be ignored.
• If a collection contains a factory component the spawned objects will be analysed and the max count will be used for components that can be spawned from the factories.

Vsync, frame cap, and swap interval

The first thing of note is that on desktop platforms vsync can be controlled globally by graphics card settings. If for example vsync is force-enabled in the graphics control panel it is not user controllable, e.g. the setting cannot be accessed or modified from Defold. Most mobile devices also has vsync enabled by default.

With Vsync checked in game.project the engine relies on hardware vsync and uses a fixed time step dt based on any detected monitor refresh rate. This is the default setting. With Vsync checked and Frame cap > 0, the rate will be clamped to a swap interval that matches any detected main monitor refresh rate. With Vsync unchecked and Frame cap 0, the time step is not fixed but instead uses actual elapsed time difference for dt. With Vsync unchecked and Frame cap > 0, timers are used to respect the set frame cap value. There is no guarantee that the frame cap will be achieved depending on platform specifics and hardware settings.

Swap interval is the interval with which to swap the front and back buffers in sync with vertical blanks (v-blank), the hardware event where the screen image is updated with data from the front buffer. A value of 1 swaps the buffers at every v-blank, a value of 2 swaps the buffers every other v-blank and so on. A value of 0 disables waiting for v-blank before swapping the buffers*. Setting swap_interval is done by calling the set_vsync_swap_interval function.

Caveat

Currently, Defold queries for monitor refresh rate at init and uses that as a basis for picking a fixed dt. If you want to support monitors using variable refresh rate (GSync or FreeSync for example) or other scenarios where the refresh rate might not be trivial to query, uncheck Vsyncto let the engine measure actual dt each frame instead of relying on a fixed time step.

Vsync and frame cap in Defold