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Updated: July 29, 1999 Written by: Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy This tool does not work with Google Chrome and may only work on legacy versions of Internet Explorer or Firefox. Make all the choices you wish to make, then click the "create" button. It will then create your autoexec. Highlight all the text (or press CTRL-A), right click, choose copy (or press CTRL-C). Now go into notepad and paste (or press CTRL-V). Choose File, Save As, and point it to your Sierra\Half-Life\Valve\hw\ directory. For mods, put it in the mod's directory (example: tfc\ ). Save it as "autoexec.cfg" (INCLUDE THE QUOTES). Now start Half-Life and your settings should be activated automatically.
Further instructions will be available when you have
created the autoexec. Enjoy!
Graphics Settings Decals, bulletholes, and explosion scars Make sure to limit the number of decals, bulletholes, and explosion scars. You will gain a 10% to 15% improvement in performance, especially in lengthy matches. See the pics below:  Click to enlarge Decals etc. disabled:  Click to enlarge
Maximum
number of decals on screen at a time (recommended 200
to 500)
Dynamic lighting Do you want to disable dynamic lighting?/p> Dynamic lighting is when lighted objects create projections on the walls or objects around them. You will gain performance (especially in rocket wars) by disabling this. However, your flashlight will no longer work. See the pics below: (pay close attention to the glow they create on the wall)  Click to enlarge Dynamic disabled:  Click to enlarge Dynamic enabled:  Click to enlarge Dynamic disabled:  Click to enlarge
Disable dynamic lighting and gain performance
Weapon visibility Do you want to be able to see your weapon during the game? The weapon limits visability, and making it invisible can give you between 3 and 5 FPS or more increase in performance. See the pics below:  Click to enlarge Visible weapon:  Click to enlarge
Make
weapon invisible and gain performance.
Collinear vertexes Enabling this will fill in more gaps, resulting in less cracking of polygons. Disabling this can boost performance, but I saw a little cracking when I tried it with my TNT card. You
may gain around 1 or 2 FPS from disabling this.
Shadows Shadows
are disabled by default in Half-Life. They look unrealistic,
and should only be used if absolutely necessary for
some reason.
Disable shadows and gain performance.
gl_texsort Enabling
this will give much brighter images, but performance
will take a big hit. Some video cards may need this
feature enabled or disabled. Try both if your video
card is having problems.
Disable
gl_texsort and gain performance
Offset This
adjusts the offset of textures/decals. It can fix problems
with decals heading through walls or being displayed
wrong.
Poly-Offset
Brightness/Gamma Brightness
adjusts the brightness of the characters, weapons, and
other objects only. It can brighten up objects very
well.
Brightness
(higher is brighter)
Gamma (higher is brighter)
Texture Gamma/Light Gamma Texture
Gamma (texgamma) adjusts the overall gamma of all textures
in the scene. If you set the above to 2 and 4, try setting
these commands to 3 and 2 (respectively)
Texture Gamma (lower is brighter)
Light Gamma (lower is brighter)
High quality player models Player models can be set to either high or low quality. I saw little visual difference betweent the two, and using low quality will save on texture memory. For TNT users (or other cards with tons of texture memory... not 3Dfx cards), little will be lost from enabling this. For 3Dfx owners, using low quality models will be to your benefit. Use low quality models.
Pic mip This
is the overall texture quality. You will gain a little
performance by changing it to 2, but you will lose SEVERE
image quality. Objects will appear blurry or less detailed.
Most new cards will gain nothing from setting this to
a value higher than 0, so I recommend keeping it there.
Pic
mip
ZTrick ZTrick
is a command to skip the clearing of the Z-buffer.  Click to enlarge Ztrick disabled:  Click to enlarge
Enable
ZTrick and gain performance.
Direct3D Flip If you use a TNT or any other video card that causes the input to be very slow (e.g. you move the mouse but it doesn't move on screen for 2 to 3 seconds) then you need to enable Direct3D flip.
Enable
Direct3D flip to correct input problems.
Texture Mode The
texture mode is the drawing mode the hardware will use.
Nearest neighbor interpolation will look blocky and
jagged, where linear interpolation will look smooth.  Click to enlarge Linear interpolation for bilinear hardware:  Click to enlarge Nearest neighbor interpolation for trilinear hardware:  Click to enlarge Linear interpolation for trilinear hardware:  Click to enlarge
Nearest
neighbor interpolation for bilinear hardware
Linear interpolation for bilinear hardware. Nearest neighbor interpolation for trilinear hardware. Linear interpolation for trilinear hardware.
Sound Settings Sound Compatibility Some
sound cards (Ensoniq AudioPCI in particular) have problems
with stuttering while playing games using the Quake
II engine.
Use
maximum performance sound (unchecked means maximum compatibility)
A3D A3D
is supported in Half-Life, but supposedly only by Vortex
2 cards. Since it is buggy, only enable it if you really
want to try it out.
Disable
A3D
EAX EAX
is another 3D audio API, which is supported by Sound
Blaster LIVE and other cards.
Disable EAX
Reverb Reverb, or echo, is the effect of sound bouncing of surfaces. In Half-Life, this command does not do much, and disabling it can boost performance slightly.
Disable
reverb
Sound quality Low quality sound will reduce the amount of memory the game will hog. It will also give a slight performance increase in some systems. If you have a PCI sound card or a really fast CPU, there is no reason to give up good sound.
8 Bit 11 kHz
8 Bit 22 kHz (high quality) 16 Bit 11 kHz 16 Bit 22 kHz (high quality)
Internet Settings Maximum modem framerate When
playing over modems, lag is unavoidable. The best
way to eliminate some lag is to limit your framerate.
Setting this lower will result in lower pings - but
also framerates. My favorite setting is 33. With a
56k modem my ping is usually around 160 (of course
that's after all my other tweak guides), so I can
fully recommend the setting of 33 to most users. If
your modem is slower, set it lower.
Max
modem framerate
Maximum LAN framerate This
command is the same as above, but for LAN users. I
recommend setting this to 45. If you experience lag
or poor performance, adjust accordingly.
Max LAN framerate
Rate Another way to battle lag is to adjust the rate. Setting this lower will result in lower pings in most cases, because the servers will be sending you less data. With my 56k (and 160 ping) I set the rate to 3000, which is very low, but works great for me. I recommend setting this to between 2500 and 3500 for 28.8/33.6 users, 3000 to 5000 for 56k users, and 5000+ for others. For LAN games, set this up to 25,000 or so. Try different values and pick what works for you.
Rate
Prediction This command (pushlatency) sets the prediction for multiplayer games on the internet. Play online for a while and get familiar with your ping. Once you have an estimate of your average ping, set this value between negative1/2 and negative 1 times the average ping. So, for example, if your ping was 300, you could set this to as low as -1/2 * 300 = -150 or as high as -300 (or between -300 and -150).
Push
Lantency
Allow download When
you connect to a server online, this variable decides
whether or not to download decals, maps, and models.
Allow
downloading of decals, maps, and models.
Allow upload When
you connect to a server online, this variable decides
whether or not to upload your decals, maps, and models.
Allow
uploading of decals, maps, and models.
Misc. Settings MMX If your processor supports MMX (Pentium MMX, Pentium II, Celeron, K6, K6-2, etc.) make sure you enable MMX. If your CPU does not support MMX, disable this option for a possible speed boost.
Enable
MMX support
Mouse filtering If you use a mouse and want smoother movements, make sure that filtering is enabled. This command averages the two coordinates (before and after) together to smooth out mouse movements.
Enable
mouse filtering
Console speed The
console (toggled up and down by hitting the ~ key)
is used for several purposes. By default, it slowly
moves its way down and up, wasting precious time (and
in some cases endangering your life)
Console
speed
Joystick Most people find it easier to use a mouse/keyboard combo rather than a joystick when playing first person shooters like Half-Life. Disabling joystick support will increase performance.
Disable Joystick and gain performance.
Third person view This
will enable the 3rd person view. It has no real purpose,
but may be fun for some. Performance may be slightly
lower in 3rd person. If the box is unchecked, it will
use 1st person (default) view. See the pics below:
Use
third person view.
Make
all the choices you wish to make, then click the "create"
button. It will then create your autoexec. Highlight all
the text (or press CTRL-A), right click, choose copy (or
press CTRL-C). Now go into notepad and paste (or press CTRL-V).
Choose File, Save As, and point it to your Sierra\Half-Life\Valve\hw\
directory. For mods, put it in the mod's directory (example:
tfc\ ). Save it as "autoexec.cfg" (INCLUDE THE QUOTES).
Now start Half-Life and your settings should be activated
automatically.
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