I managed to find these commands which if put in your autoexec at the settings you want, should make them start up the way you want it.
Model Details:
r_rootlod 0 - High
r_rootlod 1 - Medium
r_rootlod 2 - Low
Water Details:
r_waterforceexpensive 0 - Single reflections
r_waterforceexpensive 1 - Reflect world
r_waterforcereflectentities 1 - Reflect all
Shadow Details:
r_shadowrendertotexture 0 - Low
r_shadowrendertotexture 1 - High
Texture details:
mat_picmip -10 - Ultra High
mat_picmip 0 - High
mat_picmip 1 - Medium
mat_picmip 2 - Low
mat_picmip 3 - Rather Low
mat_picmip 4 - Very Low
Shader details:
mat_reducefillrate 0 - High
mat_reducefillrate 1 - Low
Anti-aliasing:
mat_antialias 0/2/4/6
mat_aaquality 2
mat_antialias set to 4 and mat_aaquality set to 2 will = 8xCSAA
mat_antialias set to 8 and mat_aaquality set to 2 will = 16xQCSAA
Texture Filtering:
mat_forceaniso 0/2/4/8/16
mat_trilinear 0/1
V-sync:
mat_vsync 0/1
Multicore Optimisation:
mat_queue_mode 0/1/2