Half-Life Console Commands and Variables

Category: demo

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). 
All · Audio · Cheats · Controls · DemoUtils · Developer · Help · Joystick · Misc · Mouse · Net · Prefs · Scripting · TFC · Tweaks · Unknown · Video
Command
or
Variable
Name
Arguments
or
Default
Description
appenddemo <demo> record a demo, appending to the demo file already at half-life/valve/demo.dem
cl_gg 0 enable Game Gauge mode (gg starts running a demo in gamegauge mode and will report averag FPS at the end
demos   runs a loop of demos set with startdemos
endmovie   stop a playing movie
gg <demoname> run Game Gauge benchmark using demoname if cl_gg = 1
host_framerate 0 set the speed that host and server interact with the game. 
listdemo <demoname> list info on demo file
playdemo <filename> play the demo in file Half-Life/valve/filename.dem at normal speed (use timedemo to play at max fps and report average fps).
playvol   set demo playback volume
record <filename> starts recording demo to Half-Live\valve\filename.dem, see stop
removedemo <demo> <segmt> remove segment from a demo
setdemoinfo <demo> <segmt> info add info to demo: info = title "text", play tracknum, fade 
startdemos   start playing demos in a loop, see demos
startmovie <file> play a movie (doesn't seem to work very well)
stop   stops recording a demo, see record
stopdemo   stop playing a demo
swapdemo <demo><seg><seg> swap two segments' positions in a demo
timedemo <demo> play demo HalfLife\Valve\demo.dem at max FPS and report average FPS (see r_speeds, timerefresh, gg)
timerefresh   spin view in place and report average FPS for the spin (see timedemo, r_speeds, gg)
All · Audio · Cheats · Controls · DemoUtils · Developer · Help · Joystick · Misc · Mouse · Net · Prefs · Scripting · TFC · Tweaks · Unknown · Video