Dota 2 Everytime I Click the Screen Goes Black

The small icon of a gear at the top left corner opens the settings menu.

The game settings allow the player to customize many aspects of the game. The settings are divided into three main categories. Hotkeys, gameplay options and graphics/sound options. The hotkeys settings are further categorized down into gameplay and spectator.

1 Hotkeys
2 Options
- 2.1 Game
- 2.2 Minimap
- 2.3 Camera
- 2.4 Interface
- 2.5 Chat
- 2.6 Social
- 2.7 Network
- 2.8 Miscellaneous
3 Video settings
- 3.1 Resolution
- 3.2 Rendering
4 Audio settings
- 4.1 Volume
- 4.2 Audio
- 4.3 Voice

Hotkeys [ ]

The hotkeys settings can be accessed by clicking on the little gear icon in the most top left corner in the main menu. Here, the player can customize many hotkeys, or select one of the many pre-set hotkey templates. Almost every key on the keyboard can be bound to something, with a very few exceptions. The exceptions usually have a set purpose in the game and thus are unbindable.

Some commands are <blank> because they have no default Hotkey bounded.

Options [ ]

The option settings is the second tab in the settings menu. It consists of game, minimap, camera, profile, network, chat and some misc settings. These settings affect the hud, general unit behavior, privacy of the player's profile and some general preferences.

Game [ ]

Setting	Explanation
Basic
Auto Attack	`◎ Never` Never attack a new target without explicitly targeting it. Makes the player's hero only attack when order, or when forced by an ability.
	`◉ Standard` Attack any nearby target unless you have just moved, denied a creep, or pressed the stop or hold key. Makes the player's hero automatically attack after casting an ability or item.
	`◎ Always` Automatically attack any enemy within range. Makes the player's hero automatically attack after every order it receives.
Auto Select Summoned Units	When new units are summoned by the Hero, they are added to your selection group.
Double Tap Ability to Self Cast	`↓↓ Double-tapping` an ability or item `Hotkey` will cast it on yourself when available. Causes self-castable ability to target self when `↓↓ Double-tapping` or double- `Left Click` them. Also works with most teleport spells, targeting the fountain.
Smart Double Tap	Holding down `Alt` when pressing an ability or item will trigger `↓↓ Double-tapping` if possible. Enables double- `Left Click` support for when using Quickcast. Instead of `↓↓ Double-tapping` , `Alt` + `Hotkey` .
Unified Orders with Ctrl	Holding down `Ctrl` when issuing an order will send it to all units you control. Causes move ( `M` ), attack ( `A` ), stop ( `S` ) and hold commands to be ordered to every unit under the player's control (except Courier, given they can execute the order. The units do not have to be selected for this. When turned off, issued commands while holding `Ctrl` while having multiple units selected are only ordered to the highlighted unit in the current unit selection.
Teleport Requires Hold/Stop	Moving or casting a spell won't cancel a teleport in progress. Applies only to Town Portal Scroll and Boots of Travel. Causes any command given except stop ( `S` ) and hold commands while channeling items with teleport abilities to get executed when the teleport finishes. When multiple orders are given, only the last one gets executed. Abilities which do not cancel channeling can still be used.
Channeled Abilities Require Hold/Stop	Moving or casting an ability will not cancel a channel in progress. Applies to all Channeled Items and Abilities except Town Portal Scroll and Boots of Travel. Causes any command given except ( `S` ) and hold commands while channeling any channeling ability or item, except for items with teleport abilities, to get executed when the channeling finishes. When multiple orders are given, only the last one gets executed. Abilities which do not cancel channeling spells can still be used.
Right-Click to Force Attack	`Right Click` on a friendly unit will cause your hero to attempt to attack that unit. Causes `Right Click` on allied units to act like as if they are enemies. Instead of giving a follow order, it gives an attack order. The ally can only be attacked when it is deniable.
Quick Attack	Causes the attack ( `A` ) key to directly select the point or target the mouse cursor is currently pointing on. The equivalent of Quickcast for attacks.
Quick Move	Causes the move key ( `M` ) to directly select the point or target the mouse cursor is currently pointing on. The equivalent of Quickcast for move orders.
Advanced
Summoned Unit Auto Attack:	`◎ Same as Hero` Use the same setting as the selected Hero auto-attack option.
	`◎ Never` Never attack a new target without explicitly targeting it. Makes the player's non-hero units only attack when order, or when forced by an ability.
	`◉ Standard` Attack any nearby target unless you have just moved, denied a creep, or pressed the stop or hold key. Makes the player's non-hero units automatically attack after casting an ability or item.
	`◎ Always` Automatically attack any enemy within range. Makes the player's non-hero units automatically attack after every order it receives.
Disable Autoattack When Stop is Held	Makes that stop ( `S` ) prevents currently selected units from attacking when the stop key is being held, regardless of auto-attack settings.
Toggle Autoattack Automatically	Makes that holding the hold key change the auto-attack behavior to "Never", and pressing stop ( `S` ) change it to "Always". The order reverts to the whatever the auto-attack is set to upon giving a manual attack order.
Quickcast On Key Down	Makes that Quickcast uses the ability as soon as the button is pressed, instead of when releasing the button.
Shop Always Uses Hotkeys	`Hotkeys` in the shop will override any keys that have been assigned to other functions when the shop is open. Activating this does not mess up/interfere with other set hotkeys.
Shop Search Gets Focus On Open	Causes the shop's search box to be cleared and to be selected whenever the shop is opened, allowing the player to instantly type to search for specific items.
Smart Attack Move	When issuing an Attack Move order, the selected unit(s) will target the enemy nearest to the cursor, instead of the unit nearest to its current location. Causes manual attack command (not right-clicking) to display a 175 radius area in red. When enemies are within the selected area, the closest enemy towards the center gets chosen for attacks. The closest unit gets marked with a visual effect. The red area turns green when the mouse cursor is on a deniable allied unit. When no enemy units are within the area, it chooses the closest enemy to the ordered unit as usual.
Auto-repeat Right Mouse	When holding down the right mouse button, `Right Click` repeatedly. Causes right-clicks to be repeated in 0.25 second intervals when holding the key down.
Use Broadcaster Stats	When spectating a game, show the stats dropdown that the broadcaster is using. Causes any stats dropdown window to show whenever the currently selected broadcaster is using it. Has no effect when not using the camera perspective of any broadcaster.
Bring Dota2 to Front when Match Found	When the game is minimized, causes the game to get maximized again whenever a match is found.
Bring Dota2 to Front for Pick Phase and Game Start	When the game is minimized, causes the game to get maximized again whenever the picking phase begins and whenever the match begins after the strategy time of the picking phase.
Bring Dota2 to Front when Unpaused	When the game is minimized, causes the game to get maximized again whenever the game gets unpaused.
Enable Console	Changes to this setting will not take effect until the next launch. If you have launch options, like `-dev` or `-console` that enable the console, they override this setting. Grants access to the Valve console, which can be used for commands and to get some technical information. The default hotkey is `<blank>` .

Minimap [ ]

Setting	Official description	Explanation
Use Simple Colors in Minimap	Minimap colors are determined by team rather than individual players.	Causes all own and allied units to appear green and all enemy units red. This does not affect anything outside of the minimap. For spectators, Radiant players appear green and Dire players appear red. Demo
Hide Minimap Background	N/A	Causes the entire minimap to turn black, instead of displaying map features like trees, cliffs, the river and fogged areas. Only icons and names remain visible. Demo
Use Simple Minimap Background	N/A	Replaces the minimap's detailed background with a simple greyscale minimap. Demo
Use Extra Large Minimap	N/A	Enlargens the minimap. Demo
Use Alt to show Hero Icons	When holding ALT, show an icon of the hero in the minimap, instead of the Hero's name.	Causes the minimap to display small hero icons, instead of full hero names when holding the ALT key. Demo
Invert Alt Toggle	Switch Minimap icon type between selected default and ALT modified version.	Causes the minimap to always display hero icons or names, without needing to hold ALT. Holding ALT causes the minimap to display arrows and drops for heroes again.
Show Minimap on the Right	N/A	Changes the hud layout so that the minimap is on the right side. Also moves the Killed By box and event messages to the right and the unit query to the left. Demo
Minimap Hero Size	N/A	Sets the size of the icons on the minimap. Minimum: 50% Maximum: 200%

Camera [ ]

Setting	Official description	Explanation
Basic
Edge Pan	N/A	Enables moving camera by moving the mouse to the edges of the screen.
Reverse Camera Grip	N/A	Reverses in which the camera moves when using camera grip to move the camera.
Center Camera on Hero on Respawn	Refocus the camera on your Hero as soon as it has respawned.	Causes the camera to jump towards the player's hero as it respawns. This includes respawning with Reincarnation. Does not move the camera when the player has another unit under their control selected.
Disable Camera Zoom	N/A	Disables the ability to zoom in and out the camera.
Hold Select Hero to Follow	Hold select hero to follow your hero.	Causes the camera to follow the player's hero when holding down the "select hero" key.
Camera Speed	N/A	Sets the speed at which the camera moves. Minimum: 2000 Maximum: 8000
Advanced
Left-Click Activates Camera Grip	When checked, you must use the left mouse button in addition to the Camera Grip key to start camera movement.	Adds the left mouse button as a required combo-key in addition to the set camera grip hotkey to move the camera.
Enable Screen Shake	Some spells and stuns shake the camera.	Causes the player's screen to shake a bit whenever the main hero gets disabled by stuns, sleeps and disabling forced movement. There are also some other spells (usually ultimates) which cause a screen shake when the casting hero is selected.
Smoothdrag Camera when Spectating	When spectating, dragging the camera with the middle-mouse button allows for smooth camera motion.	When using camera dragging, causes the camera to accelerate and decelerate smoothly, instead of starting to move or stopping abruptly. It also causes the mouse cursor to disappear while dragging.
Camera Deceleration	The speed at which the camera comes to rest after moving. Larger number equates to faster stop.	Sets the speed at which the camera accelerates/decelerates when edge-panning or using hotkeys to move the camera. Minimum: 5 Maximum: 50

Interface [ ]

Setting	Official description	Explanation
Holding ALT Highlights Hero	Draw a green arror over your Hero when ALT is held down.	Causes an green arrow to point on the player's hero when holding the ALT key. Only highlights the main hero. Does not highlight Meepo clones, illusions or any other unit.
Holding ALT Shows Neutral Spawnboxes	Show the spawnboxes for Neutral camps when ALT is held down.	Causes the spawnboxes of neutral creep camps to be visible when holding the ALT key. The spawnboxes are outlined in bright green.
Holding ALT Shows Tower Attack Range	Show the Tower's attack range when ALT is held down.	Causes the attack ranges of all towers and fountains to be visible when holding the ALT key. Allied towers display a green ring, enemy towers a red ring. Does not show range of fountains.
Show Ability Rangefinder While Casting	Display a range indicator on the ground for spells.	Causes every targeted spell to display a green line on the ground when getting selected. The line is between the unit and the mouse pointer. When within cast range, the line appears clearly. When outside of cast range, the line gets less visible and the portion of distance which exceeds the cast range (and the caster would have to move) is displayed in red.
Display Names Over Player Healthbar	Hero Names	Causes the hero name to appear above every allied and enemy hero, in the player's slot color.
	Player Names	Causes every allied and enemy player's name to appear above their heroes, in the player's slot color.
	Nothing	Causes nothing to appear above allied and enemy heroes.
Disable Status Text	N/A	Disables the status display which appears over unit health bars when they are disabled.
Hide Damage Numbers	N/A	Hides the small red and white damage numbers which appear upon the player dealing or taking damage. Does not affect the numbers upon taking high damage and the crit numbers.
Unit query overrides hero control console	Selecting another unit will show their details in the main HUD instead of in a separate display	When turned off, selecting a unit not under control shows a separate HUD on the side of the screen with the unit's details.
Color Blind Mode	N/A	Causes allied/Radiant over-head health bars, all hud health bars, unit highlighting and allied/Radiant minimap unit marks to appear blue. For spectators, it also turns neutral creeps' over-head health bars teal. Also changes Power Treads' agility color from green to yellow. Minimap demo
Differentiate Ally Healthbars	Ally healthbars display as yellow to further differentiate them from your own green healthbar. This mode is incompatible with Colorblind Mode.	Causes allied health bars to appear yellow, similar to the neutral creep health bars for spectators. Also affects all units under the player's control, except for the main hero.
Automatically choose cursor size	If the -cursor_scale_percent launch option is used it overrides cursor size settings	Automatically sets cursor size so that it appears big enough on each screen size.
Cursor Size	If the -cursor_scale_percent launch option is used it overrides cursor size settings	Sets the size of the cursor. Minimum: 30% Maximum: 300%
Show Help Tips	Help tips are overlays that highlight and explain features in the user interface.	`[ Info Needed ]`

Chat [ ]

Setting	Official description	Explanation
Display Steam messages as whispers	N/A	Causes Steam's default chat pop-ups to not appear and sound to not play. Instead, steam chats are displayed in the menu in the chat section as whispers.
Channel messages appear in other channel tabs	By default, display messages received from one channel in all other channel tabs.	Causes the current chat channel to show chat messages from other channels. It allows the party chat, whispers, or area chat to all be included in the same channel. Note: You will only be replying in the channel you have active.
Mute all incoming chat	N/A	Causes the player to not see any messages in the in-game chat.
Mute chat from enemies	N/A	Causes the player to not see any messages enemies put into all-chat.

[ ]

Setting	Official description	Explanation
Expose Public Match Data	Allow third-party services to access your match data.	Exposes match data from your public games to third party entities.
Block party invites from non-friends	N/A	Prevents players not in player's friends list from inviting the player to a party.
Hide party status when not in an Open Party	Show as playing alone to people in your friends list, unless in an Open Party.	Prevents other players from seeing whether the current player is in a party or not if the party isn't "open."
Do not auto-accept invites when in Open Party	Require friends and mutual friends joining an Open Party to request an invite first.	Prevents other players from automatically joining your party if it is "open" stats. If this option is on then you will have to manually accept their invite even if you are in an "open" party.
Trade invites from: Guildmates and Friends/Friends Only/Anyone	N/A	Prevents players not in the selected groups list from inviting the player to a trade.

Network [ ]

Advanced network options section.

Setting	Official description	Explanation
Network Quality: Low/High	If you have a low end network connection, setting this to 'LOW' may help your network performance.	On high, causes the game to send 40 packets per second, resulting in less delay for users with high end internet. On low, causes the game to send 20 packets per second. Although this creates a (usually unnoticeable) delay compared to high, it results in a better ping for users with Low Bandwidth or congestioned connections.

Miscellaneous [ ]

Setting	Official description	Explanation
Minimap Misclick Protection Time	Time in seconds that input isn't registered when the mouse first enters the minimap area.	Adds a small buffer time during which clicks on the minimap are not registered, to prevent accidental misclicks. Minimum: 0 Maximum: 0.5 Default is 0.2
Double-Tap Self Cast Timeout	Time in seconds between an ability being clicked or pressed twice in a row to register as casting on yourself. Default is 0.60.	Determines the time window for double-clicks to be registered for self-castable abilities. Minimum: 0 Maximum: 2
Dynamically Scale Hero Icons in Minimap	Scale Minimap Icons down as they get close to each other. Doesn't scale Hero icons, only directional icons.	Makes the minimap directional icons (drops and arrows) to adapt in size so they do not overlap when close together.
Move after Ability Target Cancelled	When using right-click to cancel targeting an ability, move to the clicked location in addition to cancelling the ability.	When having a targetable ability selected, making a right-click deslects it and gives the unit a move order, instead of only deselecting it.
Camera Color-shift when Dead	N/A	Causes the camera to take a grey tone while the player's hero is dead. Demo
Display Network Information	Display FPS, ping & packet-loss in-game.	Causes the current frame rate, ping and packet loss to be displayed in the ingame HUD at the top right area. Demo
Hide Tips in Loading Screens	N/A	Causes the tips which appear at the bottom of the screen during loading phases to not appear.
Default Tournament Spoiler Block to On	N/A	Causes tournament match results to be spoiler blocked.
Automatically Add New Items to Collection	When you received or purchase new items, automatically add them to the Collection view under the Armory.	Causes all new obtained cosmetic items to get added to the collection tab.
Join regional chat channel on startup	N/A	Causes the player to automatically join a chat based on the region the player is in whenever the game gets launched.
Strict Solo Ranked Matchmaking	Do not match with or against parties when playing ranked games.	Allows the player to be matched up with and only with other solo players. This only works when not in a party.

Video settings [ ]

The video settings are in the 3rd tab in the settings menu. It consists of game performance affecting settings like rendering, resolution, lightings and VSync, and some miscellaneous like ambient creatures or animated portraits.

Clicking the reset to defaults button automatically sets all rendering settings based on the computer specs the game detects. The resolution and the aspect ratio are adapted to the player's screen as well.

Resolution [ ]

Here, the player can set aspect ratio, resolution, the display mode and the brightness. Except for brightness, the settings are only saved when the "Apply" button is pressed.

Setting	Options
Aspect Ratio	4:3	16:9	16:10
Size	640 x 480 720 x 576 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1152 x 864 1280 x 960 1280 x 1024 1360 x 1024 1400 x 1050	1280 x 720 1360 x 768 1366 x 768 1600 x 900 1920 x 1080	720 x 480 1280 x 768 1280 x 800 1440 x 900 1440 x 960 1680 x 1050
Display Mode	Exclusive Fullscreen Windowed Borderless Window
Brightness	50% - 150%

Rendering [ ]

The basic settings slider, which has 4 options: Fastest -> Best looking.

Here, the player can set other video options, mainly about lighting, quality and miscellaneous settings. Some settings are applied instantly upon changing them, some are applied upon closing the settings window. The player can either manually set everything by clicking on the advanced settings, or use pre-set settings by clicking on basic settings and using the slider.

Setting	Explanation
Animate Portrait	Enables/Disables unit portrait animations
Additive Light Passing	Enables/disables performing multiple light passes within the screen
World Lighting	Enables/disables dynamic light sources of certain objects in the game world
Ambient Occlusion	Enables/disables occluding of light and shadows
Normal Maps	Enables/disables normal mapping, a polygon map of a very detailed image that makes the 3d models in-game appear more detailed.
Ground Parallax	Makes the flat ground texture appear 3 dimensional, making them shift based on camera movement. Only available when "Normal Maps" is enabled.
Ambient Creatures	Enables/disables random critters creeping around the world
Ambient Cloth Simulation	Allows some loose parts and cloths of models to freely wiggle around, instead of being static.
Grass	Adds 3 dimensional grass straws and bushes all around the map on the ground.
Anti-Aliasing	Enables/disables smoothing of edges
Specular	Enables/disables light reflections
Specular and Light Blooms	Enables/disables light glowing (requires Specular to be on)
High Quality Water	Lowers/highers the quality of the water.
Atmospheric Fog / Caustics	Enables/Disables fog layers.
High Quality Dashboard	Raises/lowers the quality of the dash board, like textures, lighting and background.
VSync	Enables/disables FPS synchronization with your screen's refresh rate
Tree Wind	Makes trees wave around softly.
Texture Quality	3 options: Low - low resolution textures, Mid - medium resolution textures, High - High resolution textures
Shadow Quality	3 options: Low - No shadows, Mid - Rough shadow rendering, High - Detailed shadow rendering, Ultra - Very detailed shadow rendering
Game Screen Render Quality	Determines how much the game screen is rendered. Minimum: 40%, Maximum: 100%
Maximum frames per second allowed	Sets the FPS limit. Extended values can be provided with the +fps_max launch option. Values out of range for the slider will disable the slider.

Audio settings [ ]

The audio settings are in the 4th tab in the settings menu. It has settings for various volumes, like game sounds, responses and music, various sound device and speaker config settings, voice communication settings and other sound related miscellaneous settings.

Clicking the audio defaults button automatically sets all volume sliders to 100%, unit speech to "all", turns High Quality Audio and Autodetect Audio Latency on and all others in that section off, sets open mic threshold to 6% and turns Streamlined Push to Talk off. The audio device and speaker configuration are adapted to the player's sound hardwares as well.

Volume [ ]

Here, the player can find various sound sliders, which all range from 0% to 100%, and unit speech settings.

Setting	Explanation
Master Volume	Sets the volume of the entire game
Game Volume	Sets the volume of all in-game and menu sounds
Music Volume	Sets the volume of all music in the game
Voice Volume	Sets the volume of voices from voice chat
Unit Speech Volume	Sets the volume of all hero, unit and announcer responses
Unit Speech	Determines which unit responses are activate: Off - no responses play ever Event - Announcer responses play, hero responses play on kills and deaths All - All responses play

Audio [ ]

Here, the player can select audio devices and speaker configs, as well as set some miscellaneous sound options.

Setting	Official description	Explanation
Sound Device	N/A	Choose the sound device you are using. Options depend on your devices
Speaker Configuration	N/A	Options: Default, Headphones, 2 speakers, 4 speakers, 5.1 speakers, 7.1 speakers
Play Sound in Desktop	N/A	Causes all game sounds to continue to play while the game is in the background
Chat Message Sound	N/A	Causes all in-game chat messages to play sounds
Mute Co-Broadcasters	N/A	Causes the co-broadcasters to be muted for the player while spectating games.
Use Captions	N/A	Causes captions to appear on the right middle right side of the screen, reading whatever unit response the player hears
Always use default respawn music	N/A	Causes the respawn music to always be from the default music pack, regardless of which music pack the player has equipped.
Always play default death music	N/A	Causes the death music to always be from the default music pack, regardless of which music pack the player has equipped.
Autodetect Audio Latency	N/A	When enabled the game compensates for wireless audio delay to sync sound effects with what's happening on screen. Good for Bluetooth devices using the A2DP profile.

Voice [ ]

Here, the player has some settings for voice communication. Recording device settings are based on the player's steam voice settings.

Setting	Official description	Explanation
Voice Chat (PARTY)	Use your microphone to communicate with all party members. If set to use open mic, this will also work in the dashboard.	When used, the user's voice is only heard by the current party members.
Voice Chat (TEAM)	Use your microphone to communicate with all team members.	When used, the user's voice is only heard by the player's team in the current match.
Push To Talk	N/A	Hotkey can be set for party and team voice. Both can be set to use the same hotkey. This setting can also be found in the hotkeys section. Holding the hotkey causes the user's microphone to record, until releasing the button.
Open Mic	N/A	Cannot be turned on for party and team voice at the same time. When used, the player's microphone records whenever sound is registered.
Current recording level	N/A	This is a display, showing how much the user's microphone is currently recording. It is not a setting.
Open Mic Threshold	N/A	Determines how soon the user's microphone registers sound. The lower the slider is set, the louder sounds must be to make it record. at 100%, all registered sounds activate it.
Streamlined Push To Talk	Keeps the recording device active to avoid gameplay freezes on some hardware.	Causes Open Mic to record without stop, ignoring the threshold setting.

v•d•e System

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Dota 2 Everytime I Click the Screen Goes Black

Source: https://dota2.fandom.com/wiki/Game_settings