Increased Grahpics settings

[TheZaw]

Hiya everyone! My new rig is up and eating tf2 like a hungry guy goes at a pizza! 100 fps no problem with mat_picmic -10!


I WANT MOAR! What other things can i mess around with to make my tf2 graphics even better? Note, i don't want my fps dropping any lower than 30.

Can you help me? Thanks in advance and =3 Davethegreat and Ma$termind!

 

[=[Ga]= AutoDMC]

I was afraid to use mat_picmip -10 because I heard you might get kicked from servers? I'm assuming then you've never had problems with that?

 

[Davethegreat]

Options > Multiplayer > Advanced > set the decals to a high number 15000 is what I use, it keeps bullet holes and blood.

 

[TheZaw]

I was afraid to use mat_picmip -10 because I heard you might get kicked from servers? I'm assuming then you've never had problems with that?

Never been kicked

Added the decal limit dave.

 

[VoiDeD]

Heres some convars that will "tighten" up your graphics:

mat_picmip -10
mat_parallaxmap 1

r_threaded_particles 1
r_threaded_client_shadow_manager 1
cl_threaded_bone_setup 1
cl_threaded_client_leaf_system 1
r_threaded_renderables 1

mp_usehwmmodels 1
mp_usehwmvcds 1

Some of the convars use multithreading, so anything with _threaded_ should be set to 0 if you dont' have a multi-core processor.

The hardware morph (hwm) convars increase the quality of the models to those used in the "meet the ..." videos.

 

[Morbo]

Do you already have antialiasing and anisotropic filtering enabled?

For all games based on The Orange Box engine (DoD:S, TF2, Portal, Episode Two, Synergy, etc.) I use:

mat_picmip -10
mp_usehwmmodels 1
mp_usehwmvcds 1
r_lod 0

These might work for Left 4 Dead as well, but I won't try that until the demo is available to everyone on the 11th.

r_threaded_particles 1
r_threaded_client_shadow_manager 1
cl_threaded_bone_setup 1
cl_threaded_client_leaf_system 1
r_threaded_renderables 1

Those commands have no effect on quality, and could potentially cause instability as well, although I didn't notice any problems or benefit when I used them. r_threaded_particles is already enabled by default, so don't worry about that one.

mat_parallaxmap 1

IIRC, this command does not work with anisotropic filtering, and for me it causes some odd glitches such as random black textures.

I was afraid to use mat_picmip -10 because I heard you might get kicked from servers? I'm assuming then you've never had problems with that?

When TF2 first came out, it would kick for using this command, but I understand that was fixed pretty soon after release.

 

[Hostile]

What does mat_picmip -10 do?

 

[Secret Agent Steve]

Hahaha, scientifically, anything over 24 frames per second will look like constant motion to your eyes so do you really need over 100? lol

 

[Lafinass]

Hahaha, scientifically, anything over 24 frames per second will look like constant motion to your eyes so do you really need over 100? lol

There is a difference between seeing constant motion and seeing smooth constant motion. I doubt you're going to notice much difference between 75 and 100, but between 30 and 60 I for one can clearly see the difference.

All of the above suggestions are good, but another option is to force higher settings than the game has. For example, I run a combined anti-aliasing 2x2SSAA + 4MSAA that is just gorgeous.

 

[TheZaw]

Thanks for the posts guys! Unless anyone else can add anything, i'd lock this thread.