There are three main components that are installed:
- A set of config files
- A hitsound file
- Minor HUD improvements
The config files will always be installed, but the rest may be opted out by choosing "Advanced Install" during setup. Some additional detail on each component has been added below.
The config, neodefaults.cfg, is a script file that configures in-game settings like the FOV. Many
of these options are available to be edited in the "Advanced Options" menu inside of TF2. Every
command in the file is provided with an explanation of why the setting is being changed.
The config files will be stored under <your TF2 install path>/tf/cfg/NeoDefaults/, and can be
opened with a text editor like Notepad. neodefaults.cfg cannot be edited, however. See
Customizing NeoDefaults for more information.
The hitsound provided (as well as the pitch settings) come from b4nny's config, but is originally from Quake. The low damage values have a pleasant sound, and the high damage values have a very satisfying bass.
This was added as part of the installer because a hitsound is a very reliable way of judging damage dealt, and can help with decision-making while playing. For example, hearing only high-pitch damage sounds during a fight would mean an opponent has taken very little damage, which would make retreating a wise choice.
The hitsound is installed under tf/custom/ in the neodefaults-quake-hitsound.vpk file, but the
pitch settings are configured in neodefaults.cfg.
While the default HUD is not really a good choice compared to all the other custom HUDs available
(just ask woolen 🙂), deciding on a custom HUD mostly revolves
around personal preference. Instead of replacing the HUD entirely, some minor modifications are
placed in the neodefaults-hud-tweaks.vpk file, which is stored in the tf/custom directory.
Currently, the only change made is to increase the size of damage numbers to make them more
readable, as discussed in the README.
This VPK file is only intended for use with the default HUD, and may not work if you are using a custom HUD.
If NeoDefaults changes a game setting that you don't like, you can fix it by overriding that
setting in the custom.cfg file that NeoDefaults creates for you.
For example, let's say you wanted to disable the hitsound. First, open the neodefaults.cfg file.
This is located in the <your TF2 install path>/tf/cfg/NeoDefaults/ folder. You can use Notepad or
a similar program to open this.
Next, find the setting that you want to change. Every setting in the file has a description, so you
can read through it to see which setting is the one you want to change. In this example, the setting
that turns on/off the hitsound is called tf_dingalingaling. To reset this value, add the following
line to custom.cfg:
tf_dingalingaling 0
Now, after a restart (or if you run exec autoexec in your console), doing damage will no longer
play a sound.
An uninstall tool is planned for a future release. Currently, this has to be done manually, but it is a short process.
Open your Team Fortress 2/tf/ folder. This folder will have a cfg/ and a custom/ folder inside
it.
Open cfg/, and delete the folder called NeoDefaults. Then, in custom/, there will be two
.vpk files with "neodefaults" in the name. Delete these two files. There will likely also be two
".cache" files with "neodefaults" in the name, and these can be deleted too.
Unfortunately, due to the way TF2 works, the settings NeoDefaults changed (e.g., FOV value, damage numbers, etc.) will stay the same, so you will need to manually set these back to what they were before in the Advanced Options menu in the game. This is annoying, so hopefully, this problem will be solved when the uninstall tool is released.
Computers are complex machines, and it's possible that you could run into problems while trying to
run the installer. To help diagnose these, the installer writes its operations to a log file. This
is usually stored in C:\ProgramData\NeoDefaults\log.txt. If you open the file, it will look
something like:
Logfile initialized on: 5/18/2020 11:26:44 PM
Version 1.0.0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beginning automatic filepath check...
Checking if the path exists: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf
...
You can refer to this file for more detail on what happened the last time the program was run, especially if you're trying to diagnose a problem. Any errors that occur will have the associated stacktraces printed here.
The log file is rotated to keep the two most recent runs (if the installer is run multiple times),
which are named log.txt and log_prev.txt. All older logs will be deleted.
If you run into problems, first check the FAQ to make sure your question hasn't already been answered. If there's nothing there related to your question, then open a new issue here on GitHub. It would be helpful if you also attach the log file, as discussed in the previous section.