As you all know there are a tremendous amount of just standard game settings in HL and C-Strike.  It's very hard to understand some of their meanings let alone just what half of them even do in the first place.  Hopefully this area will best serve you in understanding some of those settings potentials and of course make recommendations for them. Be sure to correct us if  we are ever wrong about something and by al means feel free to take an active role yourself, if you have any info worthy that isn't already explained here, email it in at the link on the previous page. Thanks and  good luck.

Written by: Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy

Edited and revised by: [MOD]FUCKERR!!!!!! 10.30.00

Originally I was planning on writing a full Half-Life Internet tweak guide, but Gamers.com wrote one hell of a good guide so I don't need to mention all that again. But I used to play Half-Life online almost every day, so I know a few tricks that were either not mentioned or barely hit in this guide that I think are very important, so I'll share some wisdom. If your ISP is good, your ping should rarely jump above 250 with a 56k modem. Mine usually hovers around 150 to 200, but occasionally (usually on laggy servers) it hits about 300 or higher. After you've tweaked your settings a lot, if your ping is still very high, try getting a new ISP. NOTE: Use the ~ or ` key to enter the console. These tweaks must be applied online.

Finding a server that's right for you

To see the ping values of the servers as numeric instead of green dots, add to the command line: -numericping. How to change a command line: Right click your shortcut to TFC or Half-Life (whether it be in the Start Menu or on the Desktop) and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab. You should see the Command Line box with a path like "C:\sierra\half-life\valve\hl.exe". Change this to say "C:\sierra\half-life\valve\hl.exe" -numericping. Choose Okay and you're ready to try it out.

Now you'll have a better idea of what servers are slow and what servers are not. This is not 100% accurate.. refreshing the server list may change the results considerably so try several servers before giving up.

Measuring lag

Don't rely on your ping at all times. Using the netgraph is much more efficient for determining lag. I bind the keys n and m to enable/disable netgraph. (respectively) To do this, enter Half-Life. At the console, type bind n "net_graph 1" then hit enter. Now type bind m "net_graph 0". Now, when playing a game, hit the n key to enable the netgraph, and the m key to disable the netgraph. If things are going perfect, you'll only see the color green (or maybe red at the far right, see below). The smaller the green bars are, the lower your ping is. Yellow bars mean the server is sending you data faster than you can receive it. Red lines indicate that you are losing packets. This is sometimes unavoidable, but if you are losing packets, you are certainly lagging. If you receive blue lines, something is wrong. Either the server just plain sucks, or your ISP does. Bad packets cause the game to freeze solid. If you are getting blue lines or the message "U_REMOVE on full update" in the console, leave the server and try another.

When packetloss is as bad as shown above, the game will not function properly or possibly at all. You should either quit and rejoin or find another server.

Avoiding / Fighting lag

There are a few ways to avoid lag in general. Having a low ping is always to your advantage.

Two binds that will save your life

Two of the most valuable commands to bind are cl_allowdownload and cl_allowupload. When connecting to a server, you may notice in the bottom left corner of your screen that there is a little status bar. This is the progress of your uploading/downloading of decals, etc. This makes the game very laggy, especially if it is a crowded game (more decals to download...) Find 4 keys you normally don't use. (I use i,o, k, and l) At the console, type: bind i "cl_allowdownload 0" to disable downloading, then type: bind o "cl_allowupload 0" to disable uploading. Now, when you start a game and it starts to download decals, you can just hit I and O to turn off download/uploading. To turn downloading and uploading back on, type: bind k "cl_allowdownload 1" and then type: bind l "cl_allowupload 1". Now hitting K and L will turn back on downloads/uploads of maps/decals, etc.

If you do not have downloading enabled when you join a server using a map you do not have, you will be kicked from the server... so make sure to re-enable the downloading before rejoining or joining a new server using the key that is binded to this command.

Additional tweaks

The netgraph is the best reference for tweaking. Once enabled, you'll know exactly what needs to be tweaked.

In this screenshot, whose fault do you think it is?
It's not mine, it's the server's. The green indicates that the data is getting through to me fine. The reason it is so high is because the ping is 700 ms here. It is safe to say that this was a bad server. So I quit, and found another.

This server was actually fairly good. Notice there is only a little yellow, very little red, and a lot of low green. My average ping here was about 225. When you see a lot of yellow, it is a good idea to raise the rate by about 300 to 500. Type at the console: rate. It will say: rate 4000 or something similar. If you see a lot of yellow lines, you would want to type: rate 4500. If the yellow lines disappear soon, then you have successfully tweaked your lag. If there is more red lines or higher green lines, lower the rate until it seems right.

Pushlatency it another good way to tweak your lag. Type at the console: pushlatency. A value will be displayed again, like pushlatency -500. This the prediction of your lag. This value should be set anywhere from -1/2 your ping to -1 times your ping. Set this value to as high as -150 if your ping is between 150 and 300. If your ping is higher, set the pushlatency as high as -300.

Do this by typing at the console: pushlatency -150 or your desired value. If your ping goes down at all in the netgraph, pat yourself on the back; you're almost done. Here's a little chart showing how I would attempt to use the pushlatency command to decrease lag:

The fps_modem variable sets the cap on the max framerate for modem based gameplay. (If your rate is less than 5500) Decreasing this will often decrease lag, to a point. Don't try setting this to 5 or some wacky number like that just to decrease your lag, because your framerate will then be maxed out at 5, making the game less playable than before you tweaked it. Instead, set it 30. Sure it isn't fancy, but setting it lower hardly reduces the ping at all, and makes the game choppy. Check your current fps_modem by typing at the console: fps_modem. To set the value to 30, type fps_modem 30. If you want the game to be a bit smoother, try setting it anywhere from 30 to 40. I don't recommend setting it higher than this because the visual difference is not justified by the lag increase. NOTE- If your rate is set to a value much higher than 5000, your computer will assume your are playing a LAN game and use the command fps_lan.

Also check out speed tweaks section there is some good info there for getting that modem to run faster.  Don't be afraid to try tweaking your modem.. you will definitely gain a lot and surely reduce your ping significantly.


 
Creating an autoexec

Don't forget to check out the Half-Life Autoexec Creator for more tips and tweaks.

To create an autoexec for Team Fortress Classic, put the autoexec in the TFC folder instead of the specified folder.

Conclusion

If you are playing with people that have much lower your pings than you, try finding a server with more people closer to your ping. This gives you a better chance to win and also reassures you that you are better than you think. :)
These are just my opinions, but they work for me. Good luck tweaking your game, and I look forward to seeing you on the battlefield.

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