While I totally get why people turn off the horrid XBLA sprites, I don't understand the sentiment for low-resolution wall textures when the high res ones are so faithful, and yet still wanting to run with all the fancy OpenGL. The wall textures were done to such perfection, in my opinion, that they go hand-in-hand with the improvements to the code.
One large reason FOV settings are not implemented besides people simply not having the time or interest, is because in-game there is a very rare "powerup" item that increases your field of view from 80° to 130°. I'm honestly not sure of where to find one in the entire trilogy, but they are an item that is in the original game and is used for 3rd-part scenarios.
Since your wanting a "vanilla experience" of low-resolution textures doesn't exactly jibe with the extremely non-vanilla messing with of FOV, the old guard may not want to help you. It certainly doesn't help when you insist it ought to be an option just because we have the source. But, my intent to enhance the architecture and recreate cut material also turns them off from wanting to help me, so, while I disagree with your ideas, I certainly sympathise, and this community certainly could use new players! But, to mess with field of view, you need to read up on MML, here:
htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/Aleph-One-Marathon/alephone/blob/master/docs/MML.html
Or, if you're okay with 130° FOV, download a cheat script from Simplici7y and give yourself extravision.
Settings for what it sounds like you are aiming for as far as vanilliaishness goes:• Environment: disable ALL plugins EXCEPT "Default HUD"
• Graphics:
- tick "Limit Vertical View"
- tick "Camera Bobbing"
- untick "Overlay Map"
• Rendering Options submenu:
- untick "Bloom Effects," they make stars and terminals look really bad
- If your're playing M1A1, definitely untick Fog
- do tick Static Effect and Colour Effects
- untick Transparent Liquids
- Bump mapping is not implemented for M1 yet and only lives in plugins for M2 and M∞ so don't worry
- 3-D models live in plugins that you'll have disabled already
• Controls:
- UNtick "Always Run"
- UNtick "Always Swim"
- tick "Auto-recenter view"
- tick "Auto switch weapons"
But, if you're going to go so far as to disable high-res textures, you may as well set the renderer to Software and forget about all those rendering options except turning off transparent liquids.
If you're hardcore:• Play with a keyboard that limits the number of simultaneous keystrokes
• Set your screen resolution to 640x480
And if you really, truly want to be "vanilla" and "authentic:"• Forget Aleph One and play the original code on an M68k running MacOS 7.1. Personally, I played through it all on a Performa 630CD.