RE_Kenshi Features - BFrizzleFoShizzle/RE_Kenshi GitHub Wiki

RE_Kenshi Features

This page contains descriptions for all features in RE_Kenshi 0.2.13

Player Features

Force save on crash

RE_Kenshi's crash handler can attempt to force the game to save when a crash is detected.
It is possible for this to fail in some cases, but it should usually generate working save files, allowing you to keep your progress when a crash occurs.

Emergency save

RNG bug fix

Fixes a bug in Kenshi's random number generation code.
Enabling this causes the following side-effects:

Randomized recruits will actually be random
Randomized item spawns will actually be random

Custom game speed controls

Set the game to any speed (up to 1000x, also supports slow-motion/speeds under 1x)

game_speed_tutorial

Increase max camera height

Doubles the maximum camera height.
Note: zooming the camera out too far can cause visual bugs (most notably with shadows)

Shader cache

Cache precompiled shaders.
This reduces load time to get into the game, and may occasionally reduce stuttering when moving around the map.

Change mod-controlled values in-game

Supported values:

  • Attack slots (1-5)
  • Max. squad size (1-1000)
  • Max. faction size (1-1000)
  • Max. squads (1-1000)

If you drag the slider to 0, these will default back to the value set by mods.
You also need to check the tick box next to the slider in order to enable the setting override. Leaving this unchecked will default back to the value set by mods.

There is unofficial support for setting these to out-of-range values by manually editing RE_Kenshi's config file RE_Kenshi.ini
Some visual bugs occur in the UI if the player has over 256 characters in a squad, but gameplay seems to work correctly.

Heightmap optimization

Kenshi reads the heightmap in an inefficient way that causes measurable performance issues, particularly on HDDs.
There are two options for optimizing the heightmap loader:

  1. Compressed heightmap (recommended for HDDs)
    Enabling this setting can often halve load time on HDDs, but usually causes little to no difference on SSDs.
    The "compress heightmap" option must be enabled when installing RE_Kenshi in order to use this setting. The install option is enabled by default when installing to an HDD, and disabled by default when installing to an SSD.
    The current implementation caches decoded heightmap values in RAM, which can use up to 500MB of extra RAM.

  2. Fast uncompressed heightmap (recommended for SSDs)
    This uses a different method of reading the vanilla .TIF heightmap file designed to outperform the vanilla implementation on SSDs. For HDDs, it will still outperform vanilla but won't be as fast as the compressed heightmap.
    Because the fast uncompressed heightmap uses the vanilla .TIF file, it should work regardless of what setting you installed RE_Kenshi with.

The first time RE_Kenshi is run, it will attempt to automatically select the "highest performance" option based on the type of drive you're loading the game from.

Fix mod list scroll

Stops Kenshi from scrolling to the top of the mod list every time you enable/disable/rearrange mods.

Modder Features

File rebinding/mod hard-coded files

The file rebinding system can be used to redirect file paths from one location to another. This can be used, for example, to redirect a hard-coded file path in Kenshi's install directory to a path in a mod's directory.
Tutorials and documentation for this feature can be found on the following pages:

Sound modding

The soundbank loading system allows mods to load new sound banks, allowing you to add new sounds and replace existing sounds.
The documentation for this is still a work-in-progress as the community is still figuring out the best way to use this.
More information can be found here:

Undocumented settings/features

Performance notes

The following settings negatively impact performance and should be left off unless you are actively using them:

Log file I/O
Log audio IDs/events/switches/states
Viewing the Debug Log tab (I recommend staying on "Settings" or closing the window)
On some high-end SSDs, the compressed heightmap can hurt performance vs vanilla, but this is largely fixed in 0.2.9 onwards

Preload heightmap

If heightmap compression is enabled, this forces the entire heightmap to be loaded + decompressed into RAM when the game starts. This isn't well-tested and it is recommended to keep this disabled.
If you want to enable this, set "PreloadHeightmap" to true in RE_Kenshi.ini

Game speeds above 1000x

Speeds above 1000x can be added by manually typing them into the UI, but this isn't officially supported

Disable save on crash

To disable the save on crash system, set "EnableEmergencySaves" to false in RE_Kenshi.ini

Disable hash check

If you are using a modified version of Kenshi's executable, you can disable RE_Kenshi's hash check to stop it from disabling itself. This makes RE_Kenshi compatible with hard-coded mods such as the "LVL 200 Max" mod on Nexus.
Note: disabling the hash check WILL NOT allow RE_Kenshi to work on unsupported versions, it will only fix modified copies of SUPPORTED versions.
To disable the hash check, set "IgnoreHash" to true in RE_Kenshi.ini
EXTRA WARNING: Enabling this may cause crashes after updating Kenshi from a supported version to an unsupported version. If this occurs, set "IgnoreHash" back to false.

Disable update checker

To disable the version/update checker, set "CheckUpdates" to false in RE_Kenshi.ini

Disable mod list scroll fix

To revert Kenshi's mod list behaviour back to vanilla, set "FixModListScroll" to false in RE_Kenshi.ini