Launch Options
Game Launch options can be used to change game settings before running the game. Launch options allow the user to supersede internal settings of the game. This is an effective means to recover from incompatible video settings and well as troubleshooting a wide range of issues. They are used in all Valve's Source-Engine games
Many Console Commands can function as a launch option by adding a "+" in front of the console command, but some cannot be used in this fashion.
These launch options apply to Source engine games only. They do not apply to most third party games.
- -autoconfig: Restores video and performance settings to default for the current hardware detected. Ignores settings inside any .cfg files until this parameter is removed.
- -dev: Enables developer mode. Also disables the automatic loading of menu background maps and stops the quit dialog from appearing on exit.
- -condebug: Logs all console output into the console.log text file.
- -console: Starts the game with the developer console enabled.
- -toconsole: Starts the engine directly in the console, unless a map is specified with +map.
These launch options may be creating an improper video mode, which is not preferred by the material system and can reduce performance. Try applying these options through the settings window instead or use them only when are explicitly needed:
- -fullscreen: Forces the engine to start in Fullscreen mode.
- -windowed or -sw: Forces the engine to start in windowed mode.
- -w : Forces the engine to start with resolution set to .
- -h : Forces the engine to start with resolution set to . This launch option does not need to be set in the presence of -w. The width value will determine the height automatically.
- -noborder: When used with the game set to windowed mode, will make the game act as if in Fullscreen mode (no window border).
These launch options in most cases aren't useful. Use them only if there is an explicit need due to a non-functional application from the configuration.
- -refresh or -hz: It forces a specific refresh rate, but the game already run at the default monitor's refresh rate.
- +exec: It executes specific config file immediately after the engine is loaded, but the game already execute it at startup.
These launch options in most cases aren't useful. Try to avoid them unless there is an explicit need. In fact, Valve (employees) doesn't recommend them. Here are the brief explanations.
- -high: A high-priority thread should execute for a brief time, and only when it has time-critical work to perform.
- -threads: It is better to let the engine decide how many threads it spawns.
