Command line parameters

Command line parameters can be used to set settings in the command line before the game launches, this is useful mainly for advanced users or server hosts. This page pertains to version 0.17.79.

General options

-h, --help	display help
--version	show version information
-v, --verbose	enable verbose logging
-c, --config PATH	config file to use
--no-log-rotation	don't rotate log file
--mod-directory PATH	Mod directory to use
--check-unused-prototype-data	Print a warning for all prototype values that were not accessed. Note for mod authors: If an entry is unused and is a table that contains the key/value pair 'ignore' with the value 'true' then the entire entry is ignored.
--executable-path PATH	Override autodetected __PATH__executable. Usually not needed except on very weird systems.

Running options

-s, --map2scenario arg	map to scenario conversion
-m, --scenario2map arg	scenario to map conversion
--apply-update arg	immediately apply update package
--create FILE	create a new map
--map-gen-settings FILE	Map generation settings for use with --create, --start-server-load-scenario or --generate-map-preview. See data/map-gen-settings.example.json
--map-gen-seed SEED	Map generation seed for use with --create, --start-server-load-scenario or --generate-map-preview. Will override seed specified in map gen settings
--map-gen-seed-max SEED	Map generation seed for use with --generate-map-preview to generate multiple previews using every second seed in the interval from map-gen-seed to map-gen-seed-max.
--map-settings FILE	Map settings for use with --create or --start-server-load-scenario. See data/base/prototypes/map-settings.lua
--preset arg	Name of the map generation preset to be used.
--generate-map-preview PATH	Generate preview images of the map; PATH should name a PNG file or end with a '/' or '\' to indicate a directory.
--generate-map-preview-random COUNT	Number of maps to generate with a random seed using --generate-map-preview.
--map-preview-size SCALE	Size (in pixels) of map preview (default: 1024)
--map-preview-scale SCALE	Scale (meters per pixel) of map preview (default: 1)
--map-preview-offset X,Y	Offset of the center of the map, in meters (default: 0,0)
--noise-outputs TAG,TAG...	Indicate which variables of noise program to output
--slope-shading SHADEAMOUNT	Apply elevation shading to map preview
--slope-shade-property SHADEPROP	Property to apply slope shading to (default: elevation)
--report-quantities PROTOTYPE,...	When generating map preview, report approximate quantities of the named entity prototypes
--threads THREADCOUNT	Number of threads to use when generating map previews
--disable-migration-window	Disables the gui that is shown when opening a save with migrated content
--instrument-mod	Name of a mod to enable Instrument Mode
--start-server FILE	start a multiplayer server
--start-server-load-scenario [MOD/]NAME	start a multiplayer server and load the specified scenario. The scenario is looked for inside the given mod. If no mod is given, it is looked for in the top-level scenarios directory.
--start-server-load-latest	start a multiplayer server and load the latest available save
--until-tick TICK	run a save until given map tick
--benchmark FILE	load save and run benchmark
--benchmark-ticks N	number of ticks for benchmarking. Default is 1000
--benchmark-runs N	how often the number of ticks will be run, map will reload after each run. Default is 1
--benchmark-verbose timings	comma separated list of Update timings to output each tick. "all", "timestamp" as well as all other values seen in the debug show-time-usage view's Update section are allowed here. An empty string disabled verbose benchmarking. Timings are returned in nanoseconds.
--benchmark-sanitize	only output the final benchmark results
--benchmark-ignore-paused	leaves the game paused if it was paused when saved. By default the game is unpaused when a benchmark starts.
--output-perf-stats FILE	path of file to which rendering performance statistics measurements should be saved. Special tags {api}, {hw}, {time} and {tag} will be replaced.
--mp-connect ADDRESS	start factorio and connect to address
--heavy	run the game in heavy mode if singleplayer with graphics (heavy mode is related to investigating desyncs, see Desynchronization#Using_heavy_mode_command)
--load-game FILE	start Factorio and load a game in singleplayer
--load-scenario [MOD/]NAME	start Factorio and load the specified scenario in singleplayer. The scenario is looked for inside the given mod. If no mod is given, it is looked for in the top-level scenarios directory.
--benchmark-graphics FILE	load save and run it with graphics for benchmark-ticks number of ticks as normal game would
--benchmark-frame FILE	load save and benchmark graphics rendering of single frame (prepare + render) without updating the game
--force-opengl	use OpenGL for rendering (windows only)
--force-d3d	use Direct3D for rendering (windows only)
--d3d-adapter ID	adapter which should be used to initialized Direct3D (windows only)
--d3d-feature-level	override feature level (11, 10.1, 10) (windows only)
--dxgi-blit-model	force Blit presentation mode (windows only)
--audio-driver	default = Allegro's DirectSound8 backend, sdl = SDL's WASAPI backend)
--debug-graphics	enables debugging layer for graphics API. If DirectX is used DirectX SDK needs to be installed for this to work.
--fullscreen BOOL	start game in windowed mode (saved to configuration)
--max-texture-size N	"maximal size of texture that the game can use (saved to configuration). Should be power of two greater than 2048
--graphics-quality arg	accepted values: normal, low, very-low
--video-memory-usage arg	accepted values: all, high, medium, low
--force-graphics-preset arg	accepted values: very-low, low, mac-with-low-ram, medium-with-low-vram, medium, high, very-high, extreme
--gfx-safe-mode	resets some graphics settings to values that should work on most configurations
--low-vram	sprites that are not put into sprite atlases won't be allocated as texture objects
--shader	enable/disable shader postprocessing (saved to configuration)
--disable-audio	Disable audio. Mainly for faster startup during development.
--disable-prototype-history	Disables tracking which mod created/changed what prototype. Mainly for faster startup during development.
--window-size arg	Desired window resolution. For example "1680x1050". Or "maximized"
--single-thread-loading	Disables loading of sprites in multiple threads.
--cache-sprite-atlas BOOL	Enable/disable sprite atlas cache.

Server options

--port N	network port to use
--bind ADDRESS[:PORT]	IP address (and optionally port) to bind to
--rcon-port N	Port to use for RCON
--rcon-bind ADDRESS:PORT	IP address and port to use for RCON
--rcon-password PASSWORD	Password for RCON
--server-settings FILE	Path to file with server settings. See data/server-settings.example.json
--use-authserver-bans BOOL	Verify that connecting players are not banned from multiplayer and inform Factorio.com about ban/unban commands.
--use-server-whitelist BOOL	If the whitelist should be used.
--server-whitelist FILE	Path to file with server whitelist.
--server-banlist FILE	Path to file with server banlist.
--server-adminlist FILE	Path to file with server adminlist.
--console-log FILE	Path to file where a copy of the server's log will be stored
--server-id FILE	Path where server ID will be stored or read from

Multiplayer

 --start-server SAVE

Will start a Headless (Dedicated) server, with no GUI.

 --mp-connect ADDRESS

ADDRESS is the IP:port of the remote host. Port is optional. Examples:

 ./factorio --mp-connect 192.168.1.101
 ./factorio --mp-connect 192.168.1.101:2345

As above, port can be specified by placing the port number after a colon in the address.

Creating a map from custom settings

Sometimes it's useful to create a new game with map and/or map generator settings stored in a JSON file rather than going through the in-game map settings screen. One reason is that by editing the settings directly it is possible to set settings outside the range normally available from the GUI.

To do this, Factorio is run from the command-line, and a JSON file containing the map generator settings and a JSON file containing map settings (if customizing them) are needed.

Example for custom generator settings:

{
    "terrain_segmentation": 0.5,
    "water": "2",
    "width": 0,
    "height": 0,
    "starting_area": "normal",
    "peaceful_mode": false,
    "autoplace_controls":
    {
        "coal": {"frequency": 1, "size": 2, "richness": 0.5},
        "copper-ore": {"frequency": "low", "size": "normal", "richness": "high"},
        "crude-oil": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "normal", "richness": "normal"},
        "enemy-base": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "normal", "richness": "normal"},
        "iron-ore": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "normal", "richness": "normal"},
        "stone": {"frequency": "normal", "size": 0, "richness": "normal"},
        "uranium-ore": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "none", "richness": "normal"}
    },

    "cliff_settings":
    {
        "name": "cliff",                
        "cliff_elevation_0": 30,        
        "cliff_elevation_interval": 20, 
        "richness": 1                   
    },

    "property_expression_names":
    {
        "elevation": "0_16-elevation",
        "temperature": "35"
    },
    
    "seed": null
}

Note that this is the same format as MapGenSettings that are modifiable from Lua. Everything in the file is optional.

Creating a custom save:

"C:\Program Files\Factorio\bin\x64\Factorio.exe" --create stuff-seed123.zip --map-gen-settings map-gen-settings.json --map-gen-seed 123

Generating a map preview:

"C:\Program Files\Factorio\bin\x64\Factorio.exe" --generate-map-preview preview-seed123.png --map-gen-settings map-gen-settings.json --map-gen-seed 123

Creating the JSON files from a map exchange string

It can be useful to create the initial JSON files from a known map exchange string instead of creating them from scratch. To convert the map exchange string to JSON, open the game and run the following command with your map exchange string:

/c game.write_file('map.txt', game.table_to_json(game.parse_map_exchange_string(<your exchange string here>)))

Then open the script_output folder in the user data directory and open map.txt - it will look like this:

{"map_settings":{ ...<MAP_SETTINGS> ... },"map_gen_settings":{ ...<MAP_GEN_SETTINGS>... }}

Copy the { ...<MAP_SETTINGS> ... } section into a new file called 'map-settings.json' in the desired location. Copy the { ...<MAP_GEN_SETTINGS> ... } section section into a new file called 'map-gen-settings.json' in the desired location.

See also

• Console