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Customizing Hotkeys in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition

Relic Staff
Updated

Default Key Bindings Files

Starting with the 2.1.0 Update of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition copies of the 5 hotkey presets are placed in the basic folder of every player profile you create or log into. In most cases this folder would be: 

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Relic Entertainment\Dawn of War\Profiles\Profile1

If you have multiple profiles, the Profile# may be different.

Note also that the \AppData folder is (by default) hidden in windows, so you may want to check “Hidden Items” in the view options of Windows Explorer when navigating there. You can also enter “%AppData%/Relic Entertainment/Dawn of War/Profiles/Profile1” in a Windows Explorer window.

The five files are:

  • keydefaults.lua (for classic hotkeys)
  • keydefaults_grid.lua (for gridkeys on an QWERTY keyboard)
  • keydefaults_grid_azerty.lua (for gridkeys on an AZERTY keyboard)
  • keydefaults_grid_qwertz.lua (for gridkeys on an QWERTZ keyboard)
  • keydefaults_modern.lua (for the modern hotkeys)

These files can be opened in any basic text editor. If using one that recognizes coding languages (such as Notepad++) you will get some extra highlighting as these are LUA files.

Creating Custom Key Bindings

NOTE: For existing custom hotkey files you need to add the new camera_bindings section in order for it to work. If this is missing, you will still see the custom binding in the hotkey dropdown menu, but it will error and default to the one listed above it (Modern).  

It is generally best to create a separate custom key bindings file. 

To do so you can copy whichever of the files you feel is closest to your desired hotkeys. (All other things being equal keydefaults_grid.lua is probably the cleanest file.)

  • Name the copy as you would like (custom_keys.lua) but make sure it has the .lua extension.
  • Open the file and find the bindings_locstring entry and change the text between the quotes (currently a dollar sign and a series of numbers) with whatever name you want to appear in the list of keybindings. So:
    • bindings_locstring = "Custom"
  • Change the bindings_version entry to 1.0 (just to track your own file).
  • Update the key bindings you wish to change.

When you next launch the game, this new entry will appear in the dropdown in the Options/Gameplay menu.

Updating Legacy Bindings Files

If you had a custom keydefaults.lua file with your customizations in place, you have two options (we recommend the first for better quality of life with future updates):

Option 1: To Have Your Bindings Appear as a New Entry in the Options Menu:

  1. Rename the file (for example to “myKeys.lua”)
  2. Open the file in a text editor
  3. Add the data for camera bindings as a new lua table at the bottom of your file:

camera_bindings =

{

camera_panleft = "Left,Shift+A",

camera_panright = "Right,Shift+D",

camera_panup = "Up,Shift+W",

camera_pandown = "Down,Shift+S",

camera_rotate = "Alt", 

camera_defaultcam = "Backspace",

}

  1. (Optional) add the following entry to customize the name in the list (this should be outside the bindings and camera_bindings tables):

bindings_locstring = "My Custom Keys"

camera_bindings =

Option 2: Maintain Your Custom Bindings as the “Classic Hotkeys” Entry in the Options:

  1. Open your local keydefaults.lua in a text editor
  2. Update bindings_version to 15.0
  3. Add bindings_locstring = " $11271750" in the file right after bindings_version
  4. Add the data for camera bindings as a new lua table at the bottom of your file:

camera_bindings =

{

camera_panleft = "Left,Shift+A",

camera_panright = "Right,Shift+D",

camera_panup = "Up,Shift+W",

camera_pandown = "Down,Shift+S",

camera_rotate = "Alt", 

camera_defaultcam = "Backspace",

}

Advanced Topics

  • Bindings Per Mod: Within you profile folder are subfolders for the Definitive Edition (DoWDE) and for any campaign or third-party mod you have used (W40K, WXP, DXP2, DXP3 are the folders for the Dawn of War, Winter Assault, Dark Crusade, and Soulstorm campaigns). You can put a key bindings lua into one of these folders if you want it to apply ONLY for that mod or campaign. The game will load files in the individuals over those in the profile root (unless versions do not match).
  • Double Bindings: Camera controls (listed at the bottom of the file) support double bindings, for example arrow keys and shift+WASD to move the camera. Other bindings do not support double bindings.
  • Editing Defaults: Instead of creating a custom bindings file, you can edit your local copies of the default bindings files. This works but may cause issues when a future patch attempts to update those files (see Versioning item for more details).
  • Versioning: Each binding file has a version number (bindings_version) that is used when the default bindings are updated in patches. When scanning for bindings files, when the game finds identically named files but with different version numbers, the game will load the file with the highest version number. (If version numbers match, it will favor the file in the mod folder, then the file in the profile folder, and finally the file in the game archive.) This means that any local customizations you have done in your pdrofilef-older without renaming files won’t be loaded. You can resolve this by giving your changed file a unique name (This is the reason it is best to create your own custom bindings files). If you wish the latest version to be copied into your profile directory, delete or rename the existing files there before running the game.

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