diff --git a/overviewer.py b/overviewer.py
index 3a638e5..bb7c088 100755
--- a/overviewer.py
+++ b/overviewer.py
@@ -398,7 +398,7 @@ dir but you forgot to put quotes around the directory, since it contains spaces.
         render = render_things[render_name]
         logging.debug("Found the following render thing: %r", render)
 
-        w = world.World(render['world_path'])
+        w = world.World(render['worldpath'])
 
         # if no dimension has been specified, just use the first one
         # TODO support the case where a different dimension is specified
diff --git a/overviewer_core/configParser.py b/overviewer_core/configParser.py
index bf74ef9..5e792bb 100644
--- a/overviewer_core/configParser.py
+++ b/overviewer_core/configParser.py
@@ -276,6 +276,7 @@ class MultiWorldParser(object):
                 definition = settingsDefinition.render[key]
                 try:
                     val = definition['validator'](world[key])
+                    world[key] = val
                 except Exception as e:
                     print "Error: %r" % e
                     next
diff --git a/overviewer_core/settingsDefinition.py b/overviewer_core/settingsDefinition.py
index b7a84e6..b80f1aa 100644
--- a/overviewer_core/settingsDefinition.py
+++ b/overviewer_core/settingsDefinition.py
@@ -17,19 +17,19 @@ from settingsValidators import *
 # note that all defaults go thought the validator
 
 render = {
-    "world_path": dict(required=True, validator=validateWorldPath),
+    "worldpath": dict(required=True, validator=validateWorldPath),
     "rendermode": dict(required=False, validator=validateRenderMode),
-    "north-direction": dict(required=False, validator=validateNorthDirection),
-    "render-range": dict(required=False, validator=validateRenderRange),
-    "force-render": dict(required=False, validator=bool),
-    "stochastic-render": dict(required=False, validator=validateStochastic),
+    "northdirection": dict(required=False, validator=validateNorthDirection),
+    "renderrange": dict(required=False, validator=validateRenderRange),
+    "forcerender": dict(required=False, validator=bool),
+    "stochasticrender": dict(required=False, validator=validateStochastic),
     "imgformat": dict(required=False, validator=validateImgFormat, default="png"),
     "imgquality": dict(required=False, validator=validateImgQuality),
-    "bg-color": dict(required=False, validator=validateBGColor),
-    "optimize-img": dict(required=False, validator=validateOptImg),
-    "no-markers": dict(required=False, validator=bool),
-    "texture-path": dict(required=False, validator=validateTexturePath),
+    "bgcolor": dict(required=False, validator=validateBGColor, default="1a1a1a"),
+    "optimizeimg": dict(required=False, validator=validateOptImg, default=0),
+    "nomarkers": dict(required=False, validator=bool),
+    "texturepath": dict(required=False, validator=validateTexturePath),
     "renderchecks": dict(required=False, validator=int, default=0),
-    "rerender_prob": dict(required=False, validator=float, default=0),
+    "rerenderprob": dict(required=False, validator=float, default=0),
     }
 
diff --git a/overviewer_core/settingsValidators.py b/overviewer_core/settingsValidators.py
index 60935bc..918e7c4 100644
--- a/overviewer_core/settingsValidators.py
+++ b/overviewer_core/settingsValidators.py
@@ -59,7 +59,19 @@ def validateImgQuality(qual):
     return intqual
 
 def validateBGColor(color):
-    raise NotImplementedError("bg color")
+    """BG color must be an HTML color, with an option leading # (hash symbol)
+    returns an (r,b,g) 3-tuple  
+    """
+    if color[0] != "#":
+        color = "#%s" % color
+    if len(color) != 7:
+        raise ValidationException("%r is not a valid color.  Expected HTML color syntax (i.e. #RRGGBB)" % color)
+
+    r = int(color[1:3], 16)
+    g = int(color[3:5], 16)
+    b = int(color[5:7], 16)
+    return (r,g,b)
+
 
 def validateOptImg(opt):
     return bool(opt)
diff --git a/overviewer_core/tileset.py b/overviewer_core/tileset.py
index fcb7f21..5737356 100644
--- a/overviewer_core/tileset.py
+++ b/overviewer_core/tileset.py
@@ -529,7 +529,7 @@ class TileSet(object):
         stime = time.time()
 
         rendercheck = self.options['renderchecks']
-        rerender_prob = self.options['rerender_prob']
+        rerender_prob = self.options['rerenderprob']
 
         # XXX TODO:
         last_rendertime = 0 # TODO
diff --git a/test/data/settings/settings_test_1.py b/test/data/settings/settings_test_1.py
index 9460de9..fe1f3f6 100644
--- a/test/data/settings/settings_test_1.py
+++ b/test/data/settings/settings_test_1.py
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
-world_path="test/data/settings/test_world"
+worldpath="test/data/settings/test_world"
 rendermode = "normal"
 
 render["world"] = { 
     "rendermode": "normal",
-    "north-direction": ["upper-left"],
+    "northdirection": ["upper-left"],
 }
 
 render["otherworld"] = {
diff --git a/test/data/settings/settings_test_rendermode.py b/test/data/settings/settings_test_rendermode.py
index b7c6f27..5c28040 100644
--- a/test/data/settings/settings_test_rendermode.py
+++ b/test/data/settings/settings_test_rendermode.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 render["world"] = { 
-    "world_path": "test/data/settings/test_world", 
+    "worldpath": "test/data/settings/test_world", 
     "rendermode": "bad_rendermode",
-    "north-direction": ["upper-left"],
+    "northdirection": ["upper-left"],
 }
diff --git a/test/test_settings.py b/test/test_settings.py
index 2408e40..2582922 100644
--- a/test/test_settings.py
+++ b/test/test_settings.py
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ class SettingsTest(unittest.TestCase):
         s.validate()
         things = s.get_render_things()
         # no exceptions so far.  that's good
+        self.assertEquals(things['world']['bgcolor'], (26,26,26))
+
     def test_rendermode_validation(self):
         s = configParser.MultiWorldParser("test/data/settings/settings_test_rendermode.py")
         s.parse()