How to improve performance in Team Fortress 2(Explained by a Notebook player.)

As someone who has a really bad computer and has felt the struggle of poor performance in TF2 with several low end PCs over the year, I feel like I should go ahead and finally put my foot in the door since I can generally give you a more direct and accurate display of the effects and sheer power configs really have on crappy setups.

Today I'm going to show you how to make TF2 run the best it possibly can on your hardware without losing too much of the game's visual goodness~!

"Is my computer good enough for TF2?"

Well. This question is simple on the surface, but a lot more complex than one might think.
TF2's spec requirements are pretty low as a game that came from 2007.


Though you also have to remember that the game has seen numerous updates and minor overhauls in the past thirteen years while the spec requirement listings on the game's store page HAVE NOT. I'm going to give it to you straight. You're not going to squeeze by with the minimal requirements listed here. Especially when the recommended specs could likely only run the current game at an inconsistent 45-60 frames with MEDIUM settings.

Chances are, if you're looking at this guide, then you've got specs more akin to mine. Maybe your school or I.T. job gave you a loaner laptop or your real beefy gaming rig is in a shop being fixed somewhere and you had to buy something cheap to pass the time with.



Regardless, you haven't got too much power. And I'll go ahead and tell you right now that you probably won't be seeing frames above 60. Hell, your average will likely be 33 fps like me if you're truly notebook gaming with lower specs. Though don't be alarmed! 33 fps is not bad at all. Of course, 60 fps and beyond is the optimal way to play the game as you get more reaction time and more potential input for aim adjustments. But we're budget gamers! We haven't got the luxury of beastly rigs! So staying at a smooth 33-40 frames without dipping below that threshold is all that matters here.

So today I'll show you how to make that happen.

Mastercomfig(It's the best. Always use it.)

If you have more than 10 or so hours in the game, you most likely already know what configs are. Those experienced with the source engine and TF2's unique set of client-side commands can take their time to perfectly craft their game into the perfect, sexy form just right for them! Some of those talented people have even gone out of their way to make websites for this such as CFG.TF or the much more primitive Chris' TF2 Configs.



And while these generators are reliable and do improve FPS significantly, there is one competitor among the others that does their job much more thoroughly and even leaves behind so much extra space for players to tweak and even write their own configs with it as a base. That competitor is none other than Mastercomfig



No other config can hold a candle to the sheer amount of customization options this config has to offer. And the performance gains from it are second to none. Being a very thorough config with very few holes to patch and a small team that really knows their stuff when it comes to optimizing TF2 for the best frames possible.



First pick your Preset. If you're a player who wants the game to look good while also running the best it possibly can, my recommendation would be the Medium or Medium Low presets. The differences are minimal, but you will notice that the lighting looks a lot more clean and lacks the usual odd, pasty shine. This is due to shader quality being turned down and phong being turned off. Trust me when I say that it really doesn't impact your experience much and you'll likely not even notice. If you're still starving for FPS on Medium Low, switch to low. But DO NOT use Very Low. It doesn't benefit your performance and only makes the game unplayable for a measly 1 or 2 extra frames.



Next pick your addon preferences. I haven't got any suggestions outside the ones I checked specifically for this screenshot. Those four are a must if you want the best possible experience playing TF2. The rest are optional and depend on your setup. Read the options carefully and pick what you think is best before proceeding to download your preset and addons.



Contrary to what the website says, you're going to want to download autoexec.cfg and modules.cfg. They're vital for any tweaking or adjustments you want to make in the future.

Installing Mastercomfig(+Extra Tweaks to start off with.)

This is the tricky part. I'm going to need you to pay VERY CLOSE ATTENTION to everything I say next if you want this to work.

First, open up steam. Preferably to the Library from your Task Bar.


Then Navigate to wherever TF2 is on your games list and right click it to bring up a menu and select properties.


When you open up the properties, immediately click the Local FIles tab. Followed by the "Browse Local Files" option to bring up TF2's file directory.


From here, open up the download location and copy everything EXCEPT for autoexec.cfg and Modules.cfg and tuck it all neatly into your tf/custom folder like so.

Now go to your tf/cfg folder and create a "user" folder like this one. This is where you're going to put Autoexec.cfg and Modules.cfg.


Once this is done, you're going to want to go into autoexec.cfg. This is where you're going to put all of your personal custom scripts and any specific tweaks you would like to run after Mastercomfig optimizes your game. In my case, I have a handful of scripts I pulled from Gamebanana for utility purposes. Such as a quickbuild engineer script.

//Haha Engineer go Bonk
bind kp_ins "destroy 2; build 2;"
bind kp_del "destroy 0; build 0;"
bind kp_plus "destroy 1; build 1;"
bind kp_enter "destroy 3; build 3;"
echo Mizzus quickest texan alive script loaded

A voicechat toggle bind.

//Voice Toggle
Alias voicetoggle "voicetoggleon"
alias voicetoggleon "+voicerecord; alias voicetoggle voicetoggleoff"
alias voicetoggleoff "-voicerecord; alias voicetoggle voicetoggleon"
bind "v" "voicetoggle"
echo "Toggle Voice Communications Script Loaded Properly"

Tab to look at my scoreboard AND Netgraph at any time.

//Tab Scoreboard
alias +scores "net_graph 3; +showscores"
alias -scores "net_graph 0; -showscores"
bind tab +scores

And a script that allows me to switch between classes with a single poke at my keypad.

//Quickswitch Classes
bind "KP_END" "join_class scout"
bind "KP_DOWNARROW" "join_class soldier"
bind "KP_LEFTARROW" "join_class demoman"
bind "KP_PGDN" "join_class pyro"
bind "KP_5" "join_class heavyweapons"
bind "KP_RIGHTARROW" "join_class engineer"
bind "KP_HOME" "join_class medic"
bind "KP_UPARROW" "join_class sniper"
bind "KP_PGUP" "join_class spy"

Of course, this is all completely optional stuff that I use specifically because it benefits me in-game. But the stuff I'd really recommend you check out and add to your autoexec file are from Delfy's FPS improvement video here.

At the end of the day, it all depends on what you want out of your game and how you'd like it to run. So feel free to experiment here. Autoexec is your experimentation playground, so go wild with whatever you think will push you further ahead.



Modules are simple and much more self explanatory as it is a way to override things that are changed by Mastercomfig by default. Things like model detail and texture quality can be changed here. But do this at your own risk since you might just end up needing to download a fresh module template if you don't edit the file properly.

Added in Post: Optivex has since created his own guide to mastercomfig for medium to high end systems. Though applying his advice alongside my own should seal the deal so long as your system is already capable of running TF2 at AT LEAST 30fps on average.

Bye for now!(And one last thing!)

Congratulations! You should now be able to run TF2 at a reasonable budget frame rate whether that be for the long term or just until you can get better hardware. But before you go, here's one last thing you could do for extra frames.

Navigate back to TF2's properties like before, but stay in the general tab and click set launch options. Copy and paste these commands into that box.

-novid -nojoy -nosteamcontroller -nohltv -particles 1

This is the standard reccommended launch options provided by Mastercomms. Any alterations of this should be thoroughly checked and researched as some may have the opposite effect on performance. I hope to see more of you low spec gamers on the battlefield now. The game's free. You don't have an excuse!

.............................................................................................................................................................

Excuse me again. Hiii. So... This guide took a lot of effort to make on my end and while it's not absolutely mandatory, it'd be kind of you to drop me a tip of some kind through my trade offer link here. Any amount of hats or metal are appreciated. Thanks!

https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffer/new/?partner=210208199&token=TzGeyODz

[K🐾]

You actually took time out of your life to check? lol

[Swifty]

The fact he has animal Jam though.

[K🐾]

Updated the Guide with Mastercomm's suggested Launch Options. Thank you for the Feedback.

[fiend]

(comment part 2)

Launch options you should run once and then remove:
-dxlevel No matter what dxlevel you want to use, this launch option isn't great. If its in you launch options, it will override whatever is already there EVEN if it is the exact same, this increases your launch time and is generally annoying
-W Same as above, the game saves this, and it increases your launch time. Only keep this in there if for some reason your game isn't saving this value, then use this
-H Same as above

Bad or non-existent launch options:
-noforcemparms Doesn't exist
-noforcemaccel This force disabled mouse acceleration, but the game saves it and there's no reason to have this in launch options, as it can be disabled in game

And one last thing, i'm like 90% sure you need -noborder to play in borderless windowed, this launch option doesn't exist in game, but is a universal windows one I believe.

[fiend]

Just wanted to alert you, for the most part those launch options are really bad.
Mastercomfig actually has recommended launch options which are:
-novid -nojoy -nosteamcontroller -nohltv -particles 1

Some of the listed launch options are good, but only under specific circumstances, these are:
-r_emulate_gl is mostly preference, since it literally emulates openGL. FPS wise it doesn't change too much, it just also emulates openGL quirks.
-nouserclip uses software clipping rather than hardware, which can increase or decrease your FPS depending on your PC.
-reuse to my knowledge reuses packets, which I don't think is a good idea on most internet connections, only if your speed is really bad, but thats why comfig has network modules!
-softparticlesdefaultoff once again preference, it doesn't matter too much and I don't think it affects FPS too much
-high Runs the game in "High Priority" I think it only works on windows and even then it can be much more detrimental than helpful

[ratspider]

cool wallpaper

[K🐾]

It should help with all hardware as far as I know. Though there are truthfully some systems that simply can't run the game no matter how much it's downgraded.

[Water Drinker]

when I saw this, I expected you to be playing on a spiral notebook, not some computer. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

[Hyre]

a small bit of advice, if you're running windows, running -noborder forces vsync due to windows' OS forcing vsync on all windowed applications, and -noborder runs the game as a windowed app.
it's also better to only specify the dxlevel and size of the window on the first time you launch the game, and to remove it from launch options for subsequent starts.