.properties Files#

This page covers how to manually modify the settings of your GlobalQuake client.

You can change most of these graphically by going into Options > Settings in the top left bar of GlobalQuake.

#Introduction

GlobalQuake stores user data in .properties files. The client uses three files:

• alerts.properties — alert thresholds and notification behavior
• client.properties — server connection and general client settings
• ui.properties — display, sound, and interface preferences

These files are stored in %APPDATA%\GlobalQuake for Windows and in a subfolder called .data/ for macOS & Linux from where GlobalQuake was run.

You can quickly access them from the Open > User Data Folder button in the top bar.

#alerts.properties

Controls when and how GlobalQuake alerts you about earthquakes.

alertCountFelt=5000000
alertCountStronglyFelt=100000
alertGlobal=true
alertGlobalMag=6.0
alertLocal=true
alertLocalDist=200.0
alertPossibleShaking=true
alertPossibleShakingDistance=30000.0
alertRegion=true
alertRegionDist=1000.0
alertRegionMag=3.5
eewClusterLevel=2
eewLevelIndex=5
focusOnEvent=true
jumpToAlert=true
shakingLevelIndex=0
shakingLevelScale=0
strongShakingLevelIndex=5
strongShakingLevelScale=0

#Alert Conditions

#Local Alerts

• alertLocaltrue — Enable alerts for earthquakes within local distance of your home location.
• alertLocalDist200.0 — Maximum distance in km from your home to trigger a local alert.

#Regional Alerts

• alertRegiontrue — Enable alerts for regional earthquakes.
• alertRegionDist1000.0 — Maximum distance in km for a regional alert.
• alertRegionMag3.5 — Minimum magnitude required for a regional alert.

#Global Alerts

• alertGlobaltrue — Enable alerts for large earthquakes worldwide.
• alertGlobalMag6.0 — Minimum magnitude required for a global alert.
• alertCountFelt5000000 — Minimum estimated population that would "possibly feel" the earthquake to trigger a global alert (alternative to magnitude threshold).
• alertCountStronglyFelt100000 — Minimum estimated population that would "heavily feel" the earthquake to trigger a global alert.

#Shaking Alerts

• alertPossibleShakingtrue — Enable a sound alert when a seismic cluster is detected within the configured distance of your home location.
• alertPossibleShakingDistance30000.0 — Maximum distance in km from your home at which a cluster triggers the "possible shaking" sound.

#Shaking Thresholds

These control when the alert box escalates from blue (detection) to yellow (shaking) or orange (strong shaking).

• shakingLevelIndex0 — Intensity level index for the "Shaking is expected!" alert (on the selected scale).
• shakingLevelScale0 — Intensity scale for the shaking threshold: 0 = MMI, 1 = Shindo.
• strongShakingLevelIndex5 — Intensity level index for the "Strong shaking is expected!" alert.
• strongShakingLevelScale0 — Intensity scale for the strong shaking threshold.

#Early Warning (EEW)

• eewLevelIndex5 — Intensity level index at your home location that triggers the EEW warning sound.
• eewScale0 — Intensity scale for the EEW threshold: 0 = MMI, 1 = Shindo.
• eewClusterLevel2 — Minimum cluster level (0–4) required before an EEW can trigger. Higher values reduce false alarms.

#Behavior

• focusOnEventtrue — Automatically bring the GlobalQuake window to the front when an alert triggers.
• jumpToAlerttrue — Automatically move the globe view to center on the earthquake when an alert triggers.

#client.properties

Controls server connection, distance units, and general client behavior.

distanceUnitsIndex=0
eewScale=0
logsStoreTimeMinutes=5
maxArchivedQuakes=1000
primaryServerIP=server.globalquake.net
primaryServerPORT=38000
secondaryServerIP=server-backup.globalquake.net
secondaryServerPORT=38000
versionCheckEnabled=true

#Server Connection

• primaryServerIPserver.globalquake.net — Hostname or IP address of the primary GlobalQuake server.
• primaryServerPORT38000 — TCP port of the primary server.
• secondaryServerIPserver-backup.globalquake.net — Hostname or IP address of the backup server.
• secondaryServerPORT38000 — TCP port of the backup server.
• versionCheckEnabledtrue — Check for newer versions of GlobalQuake on startup.

#General

• distanceUnitsIndex0 — Distance display unit: 0 = Kilometers (km), 1 = Miles (mi).
• eewScale0 — Intensity scale used for the EEW sound threshold: 0 = MMI, 1 = Shindo.
• logsStoreTimeMinutes5 — Duration in minutes that waveform data and detection logs are retained in memory for station analysis and display (range: 0–180).
• maxArchivedQuakes1000 — Maximum number of past earthquakes stored and displayed on the globe and list. Oldest events are evicted when this limit is reached.

#ui.properties

Controls display, sound, cinema mode, and all interface preferences.

antialiasing=false
antialiasingClusters=true
antialiasingOldQuakes=true
antialiasingQuakes=true
cinemaModeOnStartup=true
cinemaModeReenable=true
cinemaModeSwitchTime=10
cinemaModeZoomMultiplier=100
confidencePolygons=false
displayAdditionalQuakeInfo=false
displayAlertBox=true
displayAllQuakesList=true
displayArchivedQuakes=true
displayCapitalCities=true
displayCityIntensities=true
displayClusterRoots=false
displayClusters=false
displayCoreWaves=false
displayFaults=true
displayHomeLocation=true
displayMagnitudeHistogram=true
displayShakemaps=true
displaySystemInfo=true
displayTime=true
earthquakeSoundsMaxDist=30000.0
earthquakeSoundsMinMagnitude=0.0
enableEarthquakeSounds=true
enableSound=true
experimentalAllCities=false
fpsIdle=60
globalVolume=100
hideClustersWithQuake=false
hideDeadStations=true
homeLat=49.7438
homeLon=15.339
intensityScaleIndex=0
keyboardNavigationSpeed=0.7
oldEventsMagnitudeFilter=4.0
oldEventsMagnitudeFilterEnabled=false
oldEventsOpacity=50.0
oldEventsTimeFilter=24.0
oldEventsTimeFilterEnabled=false
qualityFilter=4
selectedDateFormatIndex=0
selectedEventColorIndex=0
shakemapQualityOffset=0.0
stationIntensityVisibilityZoomLevel=0.2
stationsShapeIndex=0
stationsSizeMul=1.0
timezoneStr=Asia/Bangkok
uiTheme=dark
use24HFormat=true
useOldColorScheme=false

#Display — Globe Elements

• displayArchivedQuakestrue — Show past earthquake circles on the globe. Also toggleable with the E shortcut.
• displayFaultstrue — Show active fault lines on the globe. Also toggleable with the F shortcut.
• displayHomeLocationtrue — Show the home location marker on the globe.
• displayCapitalCitiestrue — Show city markers and names on the globe.
• displayShakemapstrue — Show colored hexagonal shakemap overlays on the globe during earthquakes.
• displayCoreWavesfalse — Additionally show PKP (magenta) and PKIKP (green) seismic wavefront circles for each earthquake, representing waves that pass through Earth's core.

#Display — Earthquake Info

• displayAllQuakesListtrue — Show a clickable list of up to 10 active earthquakes (with magnitude and region name) on the left side of the globe. Clicking an entry jumps the camera to it.
• displayAdditionalQuakeInfofalse — Show extra data on the focused earthquake (stations used, depth range, etc).
• displayMagnitudeHistogramtrue — Show a magnitude histogram on the globe panel.
• displayCityIntensitiestrue — Show a panel listing nearby cities and their estimated shaking intensities when a quake is selected.
• displayAlertBoxtrue — Show the alert status box at the bottom of the globe view.
• displaySystemInfotrue — Show system information (RAM usage, station count, etc) in the bottom left corner.
• displayTimetrue — Show the current system time in the bottom right corner.

#Display — Debug / Advanced

• displayClusterRootsfalse — Show flashing markers at the geographic center of each active seismic cluster on the globe.
• displayClustersfalse — Show cluster ID numbers next to each station assigned to a seismic cluster.
• confidencePolygonsfalse — Show the hypocenter location confidence polygon(s) around each earthquake epicenter.
• hideClustersWithQuakefalse — Hide cluster root markers immediately once an earthquake has been identified from that cluster. When disabled, markers remain visible for several minutes.
• hideDeadStationstrue — Hide stations that have stopped sending data.
• experimentalAllCitiesfalse — Show all cities from the full GeoNames dataset (population > 10k) instead of only country capitals and major cities.

#Cinema Mode

• cinemaModeOnStartuptrue — Enable cinema mode automatically when GlobalQuake starts.
• cinemaModeReenabletrue — Automatically re-enable cinema mode after it has been manually disabled.
• cinemaModeSwitchTime10 — Seconds between automatic camera transitions in cinema mode (range: 1–3600).
• cinemaModeZoomMultiplier100 — Zoom multiplier for cinema mode (100 = normal, higher = closer zoom, range: 1–1000).

#Sound

• enableSoundtrue — Master toggle for all sound effects.
• enableEarthquakeSoundstrue — Play sound alerts (found, update, felt, EEW, etc.) when earthquakes meet the configured magnitude and distance criteria.
• globalVolume100 — Master volume level for all sounds (0–100).
• earthquakeSoundsMinMagnitude0.0 — Minimum earthquake magnitude required to trigger sound alerts.
• earthquakeSoundsMaxDist30000.0 — Maximum distance in km from your home at which earthquake sound alerts will play.

#Intensity & Shakemaps

• intensityScaleIndex0 — Intensity scale for displayed labels: 0 = Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI), 1 = JMA Shindo scale.
• shakemapQualityOffset0.0 — Additive offset in magnitude units (range: -4 to +4) applied when computing shakemap resolution. Positive values increase detail.
• stationIntensityVisibilityZoomLevel0.2 — Minimum globe zoom level at which station intensity labels become visible (0 = very close, 2.0 = very far).

#Stations

• stationsShapeIndex0 — Shape for station markers: 0 = Triangles, 1 = Circles, 2 = Based on sensor type.
• stationsSizeMul1.0 — Size multiplier for station markers (0.2–10.0, default 1.0).

#Archived Earthquakes

• oldEventsOpacity50.0 — Opacity percentage (0–100) for archived earthquake circles on the globe.
• oldEventsMagnitudeFilterEnabledfalse — When enabled, hide archived earthquakes below the configured minimum magnitude.
• oldEventsMagnitudeFilter4.0 — Minimum magnitude for archived earthquakes to display (only effective when the filter is enabled).
• oldEventsTimeFilterEnabledfalse — When enabled, hide archived earthquakes older than the configured number of hours.
• oldEventsTimeFilter24.0 — Maximum age in hours for archived earthquakes to display (only effective when the filter is enabled).
• qualityFilter4 — Maximum quality class allowed for displaying archived earthquakes (S=0 best through F=6 worst; default D=4).

#Color & Appearance

• selectedEventColorIndex0 — Color scheme for archived earthquake circles: 0 = Color by age (red=fresh, orange=recent, yellow=older), 1 = Color by depth, 2 = Color by magnitude.
• useOldColorSchemefalse — Use the older color scheme for station intensity display instead of the default.
• uiThemedark — UI theme: "dark", "light", or "system" (follows OS theme).

#Time & Date

• timezoneStrsystem default — Timezone ID used for displayed timestamps. Uses the TZ database format, e.g. America/New_York, Asia/Tokyo.
• use24HFormattrue — Use 24-hour clock format (HH:mm:ss). When disabled, uses 12-hour format (hh:mm:ss).
• selectedDateFormatIndex0 — Date format: 0 = dd/MM/yyyy, 1 = MM/dd/yyyy, 2 = yyyy/MM/dd.

#Navigation & Performance

• keyboardNavigationSpeed0.7 — Speed multiplier for arrow key globe panning (0.2–2.0). Higher values = faster panning.
• fpsIdle60 — Target frames per second for globe rendering when idle.
• antialiasingfalse — Master toggle for anti-aliasing on the globe. May impact performance.
• antialiasingQuakestrue — Enable anti-aliasing for active earthquake wavefronts and markers.
• antialiasingOldQuakestrue — Enable anti-aliasing for archived earthquake circles.
• antialiasingClusterstrue — Enable anti-aliasing for cluster root markers.

#Home Location

• homeLat49.7438 — Latitude of your home location, used for distance calculations and alert evaluation. Default points to geographical center of the Czech Republic
• homeLon15.339 — Longitude of your home location.