Becoming a better player, the first step is to improve your fps believe it or not.
Frames per second or the framerate at which your game runs is a crucial aspect of getting the smoothest Counter-Strike: Source experience.In a game like CS:S where the player (and team) with the faster action dominates, fps is fundamentally vital because you need to visually trace the movement of animated objects and come up with your own response quickly.
Use the command net_graph 3 to see your fps.
If your fps is low, then in-game actions will take far too long (the difference is certainly very small, but even that is significant) to complete because of the less frames available and your gameplay will falter.
Now I am assuming you have already lowered your ingame resolution to help with FPS without having a totally crappy game. Turning your ingame options to low or off also nets more FPS every little bit helps.
Aside from the above methods, you will be glad to know that the Source engine has other user friendly options to give you that extra edge on fps. You need to open Steam (usually in your system tray, the lower right of your desktop) > My Games > Right-Click on Counter-Strike: Source > Properties > Set Launch Options.
Here you can set which DirectX level Source should run in by typing -dxlevel ##.
-dxlevel 95 for DirectX 9.0c
-dxlevel 90 for DirectX 9.0
-dxlevel 81 for DirectX 8.1
-dxlevel 90 This is the default for all directx 9.0 compatible cards, if yours is different please find out what dx level its supports otherwise you might end up with the wrong dx config skewing your CSS performance
this level has all of css's features, nothing taken away.
-dxlevel 81 A favourite of mine as it maintains a nice balance between graphics and performance, your models will have less poly's (lower quality) but you will still maintain all the eye candy features like bumapping. (If you have no idea what im talking about just look for things you understand)
-dxlevel 80 very similar to 81 but without the bumpmapping.. no point really unless you are really desperate, will improve smoothness a tad more than 81.
-dxlevel 70 Now this leaves all of the basic eye candy which makes css look decent but improves smoothness phenominally on my old comp I went from 20 - 30 fps to 60 - 100 /w a config not bad eh? I will include my fps config later, if you really need it.
An interesting fact is that choosing the level lower than what your card supports may actually increase the performance. Go ahead and try it and figure out which one gives you the best performance. But you must be careful which level you choose (dxlevel 70 is considered illegal for leagues).
You can also choose how much system memory to dedicate to Source by typing -heapsize <number>.
-heapsize 262144 for 512 MB RAM
-heapsize 524288 for 1 GB RAM
-heapsize 1048576 for 2 GB RAM
Applying this setting will stabilize your game performance greatly - with no reduction in visual quality. Textures are better handled by the game, and the game has an increased ability to cache resources.
Finally, if you want to go beyond these, you can create your config file to tweak your fps. First open Notepad and then File > Save As. Delete *.txt and type cs.cfg. Now save it in this folder: Steam > SteamApps > your steam username > counter-srike source > cstrike > cfg. In this cs.cfg file, you will type any scripts that will tweak the in-game graphics and performances. But for this file to work you need to open the config.cfg file that can be found in the same directory. At the very bottom of the config.cfg file type: exec cs.cfg and save that file. This way, CS:S will run your own config file each time you start the game.
r_3dnow "1" (enables 3DNow! instruction set)
r_mmx "1" (enables MMX instruction set)
r_sse "1" (enables SSE instruction set)
r_sse2 "1" (enables SSE2 instruction set)
These commands above can also be used against your processor to better handle the gaming graphics.
CVARs
The following is a list of CVAR tweaks I've compiled through experimenting and various research. These commands help to strike an appropriate balance between quality and performance. You can find other CFGs that basically destroy the look of the game. I tried to maintain the appeal of Source while making it playable. These commands are CAL / CSP compliant.
cl_ejectbrass "0"
Disables shells flying out of guns
cl_phys_props_enable "0"
Disables physics objects
cl_phys_props_max "0"
Disables physics objects
cl_muzzleflash_dlight_3rd "0"
Disables 3rd person muzzle flashes lighting up surrounding area
cl_muzzleflash_dlight_1st '0"
Disables 1st person muzzle flashes lighting up surrounding area
cl_ragdoll_fade_time "1"
Causes dead bodies to disappear immediately (default: 15)
cl_ragdoll_physics_enable "0"
Disable ragdoll physics
cl_show_splashes "0"
Disables water splash effects
cl_smooth "0"
Disables smoothing views after prediction errors/juddering effect
commentary "0"
Disables map commentary
dsp_enhance_stereo "0"
Disable stereo effect sound enhancing
dsp_slow_cpu "1"
For systems with slower CPU's: Reduces quality of dsp effects
mat_antialias "0"
Disables AA
mat_bumpmap "0"
Disables Bump Mapping
mat_bloom "0"
Disables bloom effect
mat_bufferprimitives "1"
Buffer primitive objects
mat_clipz "0"
Lowers water quality
mat_fastspecular "1"
Fast specular lighting
mat_hdr_enabled "0"
Disables HDR
mat_mipmaptextures "0"
Textures quality worsens with distance
r_cheapwaterstart "1"
Worsens water quality
r_cheapwaterend "1"
Worsens water quality
r_drawdetailprops "0"
Don't draw detail props
r_dynamic "0"
Disables dynamic lighting
r_lightinterp "0"
Disables light interpolation
r_propsmaxdist "100"
Object fading distance
r_RainSimulate "0"
Disables rain
r_shadows "0"
Disable shadows
rope_smooth "0"
Disables Anti-Aliasing effect on ropes
fog_enable "0"
Disables Fog
fog_enable_water_fog "0"
Disables water fog
gl_clear "0"
Disables hiding of cracks/faults between textures
cl_lagcomp_errorcheck "0"
Disables lagcompensation error checking, only needed if you're having any registration/loss/choke problems.
mp_decals "0"
How many player sprays will be shown.
cl_drawmonitors "0"
Disables the rendering of ingame "monitors" which contain 3d rendered images.
cl_forcepreload "1"
Forces the game to load all texture and model information into memory on map load
cl_phys_props_enable "1"
Enables phsyics props.
cl_phys_props_max "50"
Maximum amount of physics props allowed.
cl_ragdoll_physics_enable "0"
Disables ragdoll.
cl_show_splashes "0"
Disables water splashes.
r_3dsky "0"
Disables the rendering of 3d sky boxes.
r_decal_cullsize "9999"
Any decals under this size are not rendered.
r_drawbatchdecals "1"
Enables the rendering of decals in batch.
r_drawdetailprops "1"
Enables the rendering of detail props.
r_drawflecks "0"
Disables the sparks and dirt from bullet impacts.
r_drawmodeldecals "0"
Models decals (i.e. blood).
r_eyes "0"
Disables eyes in models.
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_occlusion "0"
Enables the Model Occlusion system.
r_propsmaxdist "100"
Max distance at which props are rendered.
r_rootlod "2"
Base lod of the model in the memory.
r_shadowmaxrendered "32"
Max shadows the game will render.
r_shadowrendertotexture "1"
Rendered the shadow texture causing it to match the player model.
r_teeth "0"
Disables teeth in models.
r_waterdrawreflection "0"
Disables the rendering of water reflections.
r_waterforceexpensive "0"
Forces cheap water.
gl_clear "0"
Disables the gl_clear convariable.
props_break_max_pieces "0"
Disables prop fragmenting
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 "1"
Disables texture compression. Users with low amounts of system memory should turn this on.
mat_disable_bloom "1"
Disables bloom effects.
mat_hdr_enabled "0"
Disables HDR.
mat_hdr_level "0"
Double Disables HDR.
mat_mipmaptextures "1"
Enables the use of mipmapping to make textures look smooth.
mat_monitorgamma "1.6"
Lower the number the brighter the screen. Only works in fullscreen.
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_reducefillrate "1"
Reduces the fillrate when the game is run in DXLevel 8.
mat_specular "0"
Disables Specularity on objects.
mat_trilinear "0"
Disables the use of Trilinear mipmapping.
mat_wateroverlaysize "8"
Sets the resolution of water distortion. Must be multiple of 8.
fps_max "101"
Caps framerate. Set to max monitor refresh rate + 1.
cl_forcepreload 1
forces preload to help increase performance
This is a copy of a script that I used to use tweak it however you want. Just add this into your config.cfg as I stated before
cl_cmdrate "101"
cl_interp "0.01"
cl_interpolate "1"
cl_lagcomp_errorcheck "0"
cl_lagcompensation "1"
cl_smooth "1"
cl_updaterate "101"
rate "25000"
cl_forcepreload 1
//_Set MP vars_
mp_decals "0"
//_Set Client vars_
cl_drawmonitors "0"
cl_ejectbrass "0"
cl_forcepreload "1"
cl_phys_props_enable "1"
cl_phys_props_max "50"
cl_ragdoll_physics_enable "0"
cl_restrict_server_commands "0"
cl_show_splashes "0"
//_Set Render vars_
r_3dsky "0"
r_decal_cullsize "9999"
r_decals "0"
r_drawbatchdecals "1"
r_drawdetailprops "1"
r_drawflecks "0"
r_drawmodeldecals "0"
r_eyes "0"
r_lod "-1"
r_modellodscale "1.0"
r_occlusion "0"
r_propsmaxdist "100"
r_renderoverlayfragment "0"
r_rootlod "2"
r_shadowmaxrendered "32"
r_shadowrendertotexture "1"
r_teeth "0"
r_waterdrawreflection "0"
r_waterforceexpensive "0"
gl_clear "0"
props_break_max_pieces "0"
//_Set Materials vars_
mat_antialias "0"
mat_bumpmap "0"
mat_clipz "0"
mat_compressedtextures "1"
mat_disable_bloom "1"
mat_hdr_enabled "0"
mat_hdr_level "0"
mat_mipmaptextures "1"
mat_monitorgamma "1.6"
mat_picmip "2"
mat_reducefillrate "1"
mat_specular "0"
mat_trilinear "0"
mat_wateroverlaysize "8"
//_Set Violence vars_
violence_ablood "1"
violence_agibs "1"
violence_hblood "1"
violence_hgibs "1"
//_Set HUD vars_
hud_centerid "1"
net_graph "3"
net_graphpos "2"
//_Set Misc settings_
cl_downloadfilter "nosounds"
fps_max "101"
jpeg_quality "100"
Frames per second or the framerate at which your game runs is a crucial aspect of getting the smoothest Counter-Strike: Source experience.In a game like CS:S where the player (and team) with the faster action dominates, fps is fundamentally vital because you need to visually trace the movement of animated objects and come up with your own response quickly.
Use the command net_graph 3 to see your fps.
If your fps is low, then in-game actions will take far too long (the difference is certainly very small, but even that is significant) to complete because of the less frames available and your gameplay will falter.
Now I am assuming you have already lowered your ingame resolution to help with FPS without having a totally crappy game. Turning your ingame options to low or off also nets more FPS every little bit helps.
Aside from the above methods, you will be glad to know that the Source engine has other user friendly options to give you that extra edge on fps. You need to open Steam (usually in your system tray, the lower right of your desktop) > My Games > Right-Click on Counter-Strike: Source > Properties > Set Launch Options.
Here you can set which DirectX level Source should run in by typing -dxlevel ##.
-dxlevel 95 for DirectX 9.0c
-dxlevel 90 for DirectX 9.0
-dxlevel 81 for DirectX 8.1
-dxlevel 90 This is the default for all directx 9.0 compatible cards, if yours is different please find out what dx level its supports otherwise you might end up with the wrong dx config skewing your CSS performance
this level has all of css's features, nothing taken away.
-dxlevel 81 A favourite of mine as it maintains a nice balance between graphics and performance, your models will have less poly's (lower quality) but you will still maintain all the eye candy features like bumapping. (If you have no idea what im talking about just look for things you understand)
-dxlevel 80 very similar to 81 but without the bumpmapping.. no point really unless you are really desperate, will improve smoothness a tad more than 81.
-dxlevel 70 Now this leaves all of the basic eye candy which makes css look decent but improves smoothness phenominally on my old comp I went from 20 - 30 fps to 60 - 100 /w a config not bad eh? I will include my fps config later, if you really need it.
An interesting fact is that choosing the level lower than what your card supports may actually increase the performance. Go ahead and try it and figure out which one gives you the best performance. But you must be careful which level you choose (dxlevel 70 is considered illegal for leagues).
You can also choose how much system memory to dedicate to Source by typing -heapsize <number>.
-heapsize 262144 for 512 MB RAM
-heapsize 524288 for 1 GB RAM
-heapsize 1048576 for 2 GB RAM
Applying this setting will stabilize your game performance greatly - with no reduction in visual quality. Textures are better handled by the game, and the game has an increased ability to cache resources.
Finally, if you want to go beyond these, you can create your config file to tweak your fps. First open Notepad and then File > Save As. Delete *.txt and type cs.cfg. Now save it in this folder: Steam > SteamApps > your steam username > counter-srike source > cstrike > cfg. In this cs.cfg file, you will type any scripts that will tweak the in-game graphics and performances. But for this file to work you need to open the config.cfg file that can be found in the same directory. At the very bottom of the config.cfg file type: exec cs.cfg and save that file. This way, CS:S will run your own config file each time you start the game.
r_3dnow "1" (enables 3DNow! instruction set)
r_mmx "1" (enables MMX instruction set)
r_sse "1" (enables SSE instruction set)
r_sse2 "1" (enables SSE2 instruction set)
These commands above can also be used against your processor to better handle the gaming graphics.
CVARs
The following is a list of CVAR tweaks I've compiled through experimenting and various research. These commands help to strike an appropriate balance between quality and performance. You can find other CFGs that basically destroy the look of the game. I tried to maintain the appeal of Source while making it playable. These commands are CAL / CSP compliant.
cl_ejectbrass "0"
Disables shells flying out of guns
cl_phys_props_enable "0"
Disables physics objects
cl_phys_props_max "0"
Disables physics objects
cl_muzzleflash_dlight_3rd "0"
Disables 3rd person muzzle flashes lighting up surrounding area
cl_muzzleflash_dlight_1st '0"
Disables 1st person muzzle flashes lighting up surrounding area
cl_ragdoll_fade_time "1"
Causes dead bodies to disappear immediately (default: 15)
cl_ragdoll_physics_enable "0"
Disable ragdoll physics
cl_show_splashes "0"
Disables water splash effects
cl_smooth "0"
Disables smoothing views after prediction errors/juddering effect
commentary "0"
Disables map commentary
dsp_enhance_stereo "0"
Disable stereo effect sound enhancing
dsp_slow_cpu "1"
For systems with slower CPU's: Reduces quality of dsp effects
mat_antialias "0"
Disables AA
mat_bumpmap "0"
Disables Bump Mapping
mat_bloom "0"
Disables bloom effect
mat_bufferprimitives "1"
Buffer primitive objects
mat_clipz "0"
Lowers water quality
mat_fastspecular "1"
Fast specular lighting
mat_hdr_enabled "0"
Disables HDR
mat_mipmaptextures "0"
Textures quality worsens with distance
r_cheapwaterstart "1"
Worsens water quality
r_cheapwaterend "1"
Worsens water quality
r_drawdetailprops "0"
Don't draw detail props
r_dynamic "0"
Disables dynamic lighting
r_lightinterp "0"
Disables light interpolation
r_propsmaxdist "100"
Object fading distance
r_RainSimulate "0"
Disables rain
r_shadows "0"
Disable shadows
rope_smooth "0"
Disables Anti-Aliasing effect on ropes
fog_enable "0"
Disables Fog
fog_enable_water_fog "0"
Disables water fog
gl_clear "0"
Disables hiding of cracks/faults between textures
cl_lagcomp_errorcheck "0"
Disables lagcompensation error checking, only needed if you're having any registration/loss/choke problems.
mp_decals "0"
How many player sprays will be shown.
cl_drawmonitors "0"
Disables the rendering of ingame "monitors" which contain 3d rendered images.
cl_forcepreload "1"
Forces the game to load all texture and model information into memory on map load
cl_phys_props_enable "1"
Enables phsyics props.
cl_phys_props_max "50"
Maximum amount of physics props allowed.
cl_ragdoll_physics_enable "0"
Disables ragdoll.
cl_show_splashes "0"
Disables water splashes.
r_3dsky "0"
Disables the rendering of 3d sky boxes.
r_decal_cullsize "9999"
Any decals under this size are not rendered.
r_drawbatchdecals "1"
Enables the rendering of decals in batch.
r_drawdetailprops "1"
Enables the rendering of detail props.
r_drawflecks "0"
Disables the sparks and dirt from bullet impacts.
r_drawmodeldecals "0"
Models decals (i.e. blood).
r_eyes "0"
Disables eyes in models.
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_occlusion "0"
Enables the Model Occlusion system.
r_propsmaxdist "100"
Max distance at which props are rendered.
r_rootlod "2"
Base lod of the model in the memory.
r_shadowmaxrendered "32"
Max shadows the game will render.
r_shadowrendertotexture "1"
Rendered the shadow texture causing it to match the player model.
r_teeth "0"
Disables teeth in models.
r_waterdrawreflection "0"
Disables the rendering of water reflections.
r_waterforceexpensive "0"
Forces cheap water.
gl_clear "0"
Disables the gl_clear convariable.
props_break_max_pieces "0"
Disables prop fragmenting
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 "1"
Disables texture compression. Users with low amounts of system memory should turn this on.
mat_disable_bloom "1"
Disables bloom effects.
mat_hdr_enabled "0"
Disables HDR.
mat_hdr_level "0"
Double Disables HDR.
mat_mipmaptextures "1"
Enables the use of mipmapping to make textures look smooth.
mat_monitorgamma "1.6"
Lower the number the brighter the screen. Only works in fullscreen.
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_reducefillrate "1"
Reduces the fillrate when the game is run in DXLevel 8.
mat_specular "0"
Disables Specularity on objects.
mat_trilinear "0"
Disables the use of Trilinear mipmapping.
mat_wateroverlaysize "8"
Sets the resolution of water distortion. Must be multiple of 8.
fps_max "101"
Caps framerate. Set to max monitor refresh rate + 1.
cl_forcepreload 1
forces preload to help increase performance
This is a copy of a script that I used to use tweak it however you want. Just add this into your config.cfg as I stated before
cl_cmdrate "101"
cl_interp "0.01"
cl_interpolate "1"
cl_lagcomp_errorcheck "0"
cl_lagcompensation "1"
cl_smooth "1"
cl_updaterate "101"
rate "25000"
cl_forcepreload 1
//_Set MP vars_
mp_decals "0"
//_Set Client vars_
cl_drawmonitors "0"
cl_ejectbrass "0"
cl_forcepreload "1"
cl_phys_props_enable "1"
cl_phys_props_max "50"
cl_ragdoll_physics_enable "0"
cl_restrict_server_commands "0"
cl_show_splashes "0"
//_Set Render vars_
r_3dsky "0"
r_decal_cullsize "9999"
r_decals "0"
r_drawbatchdecals "1"
r_drawdetailprops "1"
r_drawflecks "0"
r_drawmodeldecals "0"
r_eyes "0"
r_lod "-1"
r_modellodscale "1.0"
r_occlusion "0"
r_propsmaxdist "100"
r_renderoverlayfragment "0"
r_rootlod "2"
r_shadowmaxrendered "32"
r_shadowrendertotexture "1"
r_teeth "0"
r_waterdrawreflection "0"
r_waterforceexpensive "0"
gl_clear "0"
props_break_max_pieces "0"
//_Set Materials vars_
mat_antialias "0"
mat_bumpmap "0"
mat_clipz "0"
mat_compressedtextures "1"
mat_disable_bloom "1"
mat_hdr_enabled "0"
mat_hdr_level "0"
mat_mipmaptextures "1"
mat_monitorgamma "1.6"
mat_picmip "2"
mat_reducefillrate "1"
mat_specular "0"
mat_trilinear "0"
mat_wateroverlaysize "8"
//_Set Violence vars_
violence_ablood "1"
violence_agibs "1"
violence_hblood "1"
violence_hgibs "1"
//_Set HUD vars_
hud_centerid "1"
net_graph "3"
net_graphpos "2"
//_Set Misc settings_
cl_downloadfilter "nosounds"
fps_max "101"
jpeg_quality "100"
)
