TUTORIAL:CS:S for low end users (FPS help)

[siosios]

This tutorial is intended for people with low end machines, which can be qualified as machines with some type of 1.7 gigahertz processor or below, an agp slot - mostly towards 4x, or an nVidia 5900 series or below card or an ATI 9600 series or below (although you may also want to copy and paste the following link for the VALVe hardware assesment service)

steam://support/?Issues=*

. It is separated into six sections:

Graphic Card Drivers
Command Line Settings
Automatically Executed Configuration
Setting Priorities
In game settings.
Other Helpful links

It is intended to get the maximum playability for those who can not afford to upgrade; it is not going to make a pretty game with all the bells and whistles, rather, it will turn them ALL OFF. Your game, when done, will now graphically resemble CS 1.6, but hopefully will be more playable in Source. This tutorial is not intended for users who already have a decent machine and just want to "squeeze out a few more fps", rather, it's for players who have fps problems. I hope it helps. This tutorial can easily be modified to work on all Source games, not just CS: S. This tutorial is not the end all be all of tutorials, it is only here for help. If you find it helpful, great, if you find something in it that does not work for you, feel free to let me know what doesn't seem to work and why in this thread. Computers are very different from one another, there is no generic single solution for everyone. Nothing is 100% and neither is this tutorial. Feel free to add your own tweaks or recommendations to this thread.

**Note** THIS TUTORIAL PROBABLY WON'T HELP IF YOU DON'T HAVE AT LEAST THE MINIMUM SPECS

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1.) Graphic Card Drivers

BE SURE TO HAVE DirectX 9.0c INSTALLED. NOT SURE WHAT VERSION YOU HAVE? CLICK START-> RUN-> TYPE IN DXDIAG. THIS WILL TELL YOU RIGHT AWAY

Older cards require older drivers. Just because a new driver was released doesn't mean you should install it. They won't help geForce F/X or ati 9600 or below series owners, and may in fact hinder you. I think nVidia put it best, on this one. Guru3d has a great database of graphics drivers for everything, and an awesome forum to help you identify which drivers you need(although for older nVidia users I recommend the 79.11 drivers). Check them out at: http://www.guru3d.com (http://www.n00bunlimited.net/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guru3d.com%2F)

But, be sure to use the software removal tools for any drivers. There are some on Guru of 3D although I've also heard good things about Driver Cleaner, too. When you've downloaded and installed the driver removal tool of your choice, and after you've downloaded but before you've installed the new driver, be sure to:

open Control Panel-> Add/remove Software-> find your card's drivers -> remove
Reboot in Safe Mode ->tap the f8 key while rebooting to get this option
Run the driver removal tool of your choice
Reboot normally
Install your new driver

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2.) Command Line Settings

THESE ARE EASY TO UNDO

First, start Steam. (Figure 2 shows DoD:S, substitute CS:S instead)

Then, right click on the Steam icon in the lower right hand corner Figure 1.
Select Games Figure 1.
Right click on Counter Strike : Source Figure 2.
Click Properties
Click Set Launch Options Figure 2.
enter in the following commands, the only spaces being between the commands as well as the command values Figure 2.:


Set the amount of ram used by Steam*. it is recommended to use 1/2 your available ram - so for the following:
Code:
-heapsize <number>Ram - Heapsize
2 gigs - 1048576
1 gig - 524288
512 megs - 262144
256 megs - 131072
128 megs - 65536 (you should consider buying more ram)
*VALVe has said that this doesn't control
the same resources it did in Half-Life. For more
information read this.

Specify the DirectX level used by the game.**
Code:
-dxlevel <number>DxLevel - Number
9.0c - 90 (really unnecessary if you are already fine)
8.1 - 81
8.0 - 80
7.0 - 70 (recommended for very low-end, although leagues consider this a cheat, for which I can understand.)

**Also, once set, you should remove this command from the launch options before
the next time you play. That way, if you've made any video setting changes
from the game engine after this, it will save and not reset itself each time.

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3.) Automatically Executed Configuration

TO UNDO THESE, RENAME OR DELETE THE AUTOEXEC.CFG FILE, THEN START THE GAME. OPEN YOUR CONSOLE ANDTYPE IN THE FOLLOWING -
-autoconfig
Thanks, Bazooka

Copy the following code (Thanks, Casey) and paste it into windows notepad. Name it autoexec.cfg and save it in your Steam directory - in one of two places (I have been made aware of two different directory structures - I believe it depends on how old your Steam installation is - if you don't have one path you most likely have the other, unless you made a custom path)
c:\Program Files\Steam\ . . .counter-strike source\hl2\cfg\
or
c:\Program Files\Steam\ . . .counter-strike source\cstrike\cfg\
directory.
**Note**Both the r_drawdetailprops and the r_propsmaxdist are considered cheats in most leagues, so do not include these if you play in CAL, TPG, BFE, or ViE **

Here are the commands, with a brief explanation (to activate or de-activate certain lines, simply comment or un-comment them by adding or removing "//" in front of the actual command. when the two forward slashes are there, like "//mat_dxlevel 60" that means it's not going to be read by the computer.):


*more below*

[siosios]

Code:


// Casey's Config v2 (CAL compliant)
// Updated for new season by CAL|Stone
// Updated 01/06/07 - Lowered some vars to increase FPS within rule limits. Also removed one cheat var.
// Updated 01/07/07 - Reorganized and updated original version

//_Set Netcode vars_
cl_cmdrate "101"
cl_interp "0.01"
cl_interpolate "1"
cl_lagcomp_errorcheck "0" // Disables lagcompensation error checking, only needed if you're having any registration/loss/choke problems.
cl_lagcompensation "1"
cl_updaterate "101"
cl_smooth "1"
rate "25000"

//_Set MP vars_
mp_decals "0" // How many player sprays will be shown.

//_Set Client vars_
cl_drawmonitors "0" // Disables the rendering of ingame "monitors" which contain 3d rendered images.
cl_ragdoll_physics_enable "0" // Disables ragdoll.
cl_show_splashes "0" // Disables water splashes.
cl_phys_props_enable "1" // Enables Phsyics Props.
cl_phys_props_max "50" // Maximum amount of Physics props allowed.
cl_forcepreload "1" // Forces the game to load all texture and model information into memory on map load.
cl_restrict_server_commands "0" // Compatible/needed with serverplugins

//_Set Render vars_
r_decals "0" // Disables decals.
r_drawbatchdecals "1" // Enables the rendering of decals in batch.
r_decal_cullsize "9999" // Any decals under this size are not rendered.
r_rootlod "2" // Base lod of the model in the memory.
r_lod "-1" // Different level of details on models. -1 = Variable at distance. 0 = None. 1 = Minor. 2 = Less minor.
r_modellodscale "1.0" // The transitioning power of LOD.
r_drawmodeldecals "0" // Models decals, I.E. Blood.
r_shadowmaxrendered "32" // Max shadows the game will render.
r_shadows "0" // Disables shadows (Change to 1 if you like them.)
r_shadowrendertotexture "1" // Rendered the shadow texture causing it to match the player model.
r_dynamic "0" // Disables dynamic lights.
r_propsmaxdist "1200" // Max distance at which props are rendered.
r_drawdetailprops "1" // Enables the rendering of detail props.
r_occlusion "1" // Enables the Model Occlusion system.
r_renderoverlayfragment "0"
r_3dsky "0" // Disables the rendering of 3d sky boxes.
r_waterdrawreflection "0" // Disables the rendering of water reflections.
r_waterforceexpensive "0" // Forces cheap water.
r_drawflecks "0" // Disables the sparks and dirt from bullet impacts.
r_eyes "0" // Disables eyes in models.
r_teeth "0" // Disables teeth in models.
gl_clear "0" // Disables the gl_clear convariable!


//_Set Materials vars_
mat_monitorgamma "1.6" // Lower the number the brighter the screen. Only works in fullscreen.
mat_disable_bloom "1" // Disables bloom effects.
mat_hdr_enabled "0" // Disables HDR.
mat_hdr_level "0" // Double Disables HDR.
mat_specular "0" // Disables Specularity on objects.
mat_picmip "2" // Changes the resolutions of textures when they're loaded into memory. May improve FPS on graphics cards with low memory sizes.
mat_antialias "0" // Disables the use of multisampling to smooth out edges.
mat_bumpmap "0" // Disables bump mapping.
mat_clipz "0" // Disables optimized Z-Buffer rendering.
mat_compressedtextures "0" // Disables texture compression. Users with low amounts of system memory should turn this on.
mat_mipmaptextures "1" // Enables the use of mipmapping to make textures look smooth.
mat_reducefillrate "1" // Reduces the fillrate when the game is run in DXLevel 8.
mat_trilinear "0" // Disables the use of Trilinear mipmapping.
mat_wateroverlaysize "8" // Sets the resolution of water distortion. Must be multiple of 8.

//_Set Violence vars_
violence_ablood "1"
violence_agibs "1"
violence_hblood "1"
violence_hgibs "1"

//_Set HUD vars_
net_graph "3" // Enables net_graph (Required in SS round)
net_graphpos "2" // Adjusts netgraph position-set between 1 and 3.

clear
echo _Casey's Config v2 (CAL compliant) loaded________________________________
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4.) Setting Priorities

THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR EVERYONE, AS ON SOME SYSTEMS IT CAN DESTABILIZE THINGS.

Launch CS:S. Wait for it to fully load.
hit ctrl+alt+del.
In the taskmanager window, hit the processes tab.
Find Steam.
Select it, right click it-> set priority-> below normal.
Close the Taskmanager, alt+tab back into game.


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5.) In Game Settings

THESE ARE THE EASIST TO EDIT, BUT BE SURE AFTER YOU SET THESE AND SUCCESSFULLY TEST THEM TO REMOVE THE DXLEVEL SWITCH FROM YOUR LAUNCH OPTIONS IF YOU HAVE ENABLED IT, OTHERWISE THEY WILL RESET.

Video Qualities

Start CS:S.
Click Options Figure 3.
Make sure your screen resolution is set to a smaller size, like 640 x 480 or 800x 600 Figure 3.
Click advanced. make everything low or off, except leave the texture filtering to trilinear unless you have a graphics card older than 3 years, in which case you most likely need bilinear, and should really consider an inexpensive upgrade. Figure 3.
Apply.


Sound Quality


Also, on some machines, certain soundcards, especially board integrated sound cards, rely too much on the cpu. Try setting your sound quality to medium or low.
->Options->audio Fig.4

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6.) Other Helpful Links

GotFrag Tweak
Whisper's Wiki -General Game FPS guide
Amadeus III's Configs
EMORAY'S Links
Got draw distance problems? Checkout hwkiller's helpful tutorial.


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Good luck to those with older machines, once again I hope this helps. Please feel free to repost this tutorial anywhere, but please credit me for it. If anyone has any questions or contributional comments please post below.