Half-Life Console Introduction

What is it? The console is just a way to enter commands and settings directly into the game without using the configuration menus. It's a simple command-line interface, sort of like an MS-DOS window. 

Why Should You Use It? The console provides much more control over the game settings than the configuration menus do. Some fixes, work-arounds, and tweaks must be enetered via the console or config files because menu options are not available to set them otherwise. In fact, the console gives you access to a relatively powerful in-game programming language (the console language) that can perform functions as simple as binding a key to a command or as complex as a script that gives you 10 different zoom levels that you can cycle through with a single key.

The console is also a great way to test out settings before you make them automatically applied by adding them to your Half- Life/Valve/autoexec.cfg file, or to make quick in-game changes without exiting to the menus.

How Do You Use It? Just keep reading. If you don't feel like reading about console commands and variables to try and make your own lag reduction or image quality autoexec.cfg file, go download one from the Files Section. If you do decide to skip this info, I strongly recommend you at least check out the Tweaks list and make sure you have all of those set to the best values for your system and personal preferences. Failure to do so could cost you tens of frames-per-second (or more) in video perfomance, and hundreds of milliseconds of ping (more lag online!) Trust me -- it's not hard, and the Tweaks page includes several commands that you can use to help determine which settings are best for you.

NOTE: The console commands, variable, and descriptions listed here apply to the latest versions of Half-Life (and TFC), but the concepts (and many of the commands and variables also) also apply to earlier versions and many other Quake/Quake2 engine games (such as Kingpin or Sin). If you don't have the latest version, you can always get the patch you need from the Patches page!
 
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