Half-Life Console Commands and Variables

Category: misc

Use these console commands and variables to customize Half-Life, TFC, Opposing Force, or most HL Mods, troubleshoot problems with video or sound hardware, optimize performance, or make your own scripts. If you don't know how to use these console commands and variables, please see the Console Tutorial. Many of these variables are boolean, which means that they can be either 1 (on) or 0 (off) and no other values are allowed. In the descriptions for boolean variables, I use "enables" or "disables" to indicate what happens when that variable is set on (1). The opposite is always true (if 1 enables the feature, 0 disables it, and vice-versa). Variables that can accept any number as a value have descriptions that begin with "sets the . . . " 

Be sure to check out the other categories, especially the tweaks!. The flags listed at the end of the descriptions of some variables have the following meanings: 

  • a - attribute variable, changes to these variables will be automatically saved to Half-Life/valve/config.cfg (or Half-Life/tfc/config.cfg for TFC). Variables without this flag will return to the default value listed unless set by Half-Life/valve/autoexec.cfg (or Half-Life/tfc/autoexec.cfg for TFC).
  • i - info variable, the values of these variables are displayed in response to the info command. 
  • sv - server info variable, the values of these variables are displayed in response to the serverinfo command. 
  • tfc - team fortress classic variables, these variables apply to TFC mode only (hl.exe -game tfc). 
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Command
or
Variable
Name
Arguments
or
Default
Description
clear   clear the console screen
cmd <cmd> [arguments] formal way for a client to issue a command to the server -- when using the console, the 'cmd' part may be omitted.
exit   quit game or server to windows without confirmation
keys   show CD key info
load <name> load a saved game
quit   exit to windows without confirmation
save <name> save the current game (1p only), see load
screenshot   capture the current screen and save to disk
shortname   display client's 'short name' (name)
skill 3 set the skill level (single player, coop)
snapshot   capture screenshot and save to disk
speak <word> say something over the intercom (see console help for the 622 available words), to use in an alias, surround in quotes with no spaces: alias count "speak one,two,three_comma,four,five,six,_period"
time   display the current time in military (24-hour) format
version   display build version and exe date/timestamp
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