Ambrosia Community
General Category => Support Section => Tutorials => Topic started by: drn on May 30, 2013, 11:41:36 pm
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Several people have been asking me for advice all of a sudden, not sure why but I'm going to post it here for all to see and point anyone who asks this way to save my fingers and keyboard. I'm no expert but I have played cs for more than 10 years, played at a premiership level for the first few of those and even been fortunate enough to earn a little money from it before all the league prizes and sponsors dried up, many, many years ago.
There is no single setting that will magically make you a better cs player. Accept that fact.
Don't rage at people for 'rates', 'spraying', 'camping' etc.. 90% of counterstrike is psychological and mental. 10% is skill and good aim. Everyone here can shoot well on a good day. Getting angry makes you lose focus and you will get sloppy. Relax make everyday a good day and enjoy it, it is a game we play for fun after all. Don't rage at people, if they're warpy let them know and ask them if they can fix it, politely. Remember for you - you see them warping around - for them they see everyone warping around. Many of you are now blessed with amazing broadband connections, some people aren't, accept this and move on.
Use Steam
Make friends, have fun, play with the same people and learn to enjoy playing against people who can kill you - it forces you to raise your own game and is the only way to improve.
Launch options
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/67f8/7bl88yadt6jv87nfg.jpg)
You want to use the "no force" commands to turn of mouse acceloration - which basically means if you move your mouse so far - it will always move your crosshair the same distance. Some posh gaming mice do this automatically through their own drivers but this is useful. Google the cpl registry fix if you care about the final 1% built into windows itself from XP onwards but use registry editors at your own risk.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/a949/5jghayd6v4sbrd7fg.jpg)
-console -noforcemspd -noforcemparms -noforcemaccel
The console is vital for recording demos, looking up player steam id's, changing settings on the fly and managing servers.
Graphics Settings
These are personal preference. I would argue strongly playing at your monitors natural resolution to prevent image distortion is of benifit. Many older players will swear by 640x480 or 800x600 resolutions. I would argue that it's mostly psychological and personal preference. At higher resolutions seeing small targets at range is easier (shooting to long pit on d2) but on lower resolutions spraying up close is easier to control to a minor degree and people heads will appear slightly larger and definitely "blockier". I use 1920x1200 to make the game as pretty as possible for myself. Again I'm not going to argue with people who believe in one or another super low res's because SpawN used them in 1999 - I play cs to enjoy it, I want to look at something that is as pleasing to the eye as possible.
Turn OFF vsync. I'm not going to show how to do this for all graphics cards but please, if you do nothing else from this little guide. Turn it off. This tries match the fps of the game to the output your monitor can support and will limit your fps to as close to an integer value of this as possible. So if it can't handle 60 fps on a 60 Hz monitor it'll settle for 30.
Suggestions:
(I'm not going to explain these in great depth, look up what you want for more information on individual settings, again most of this is personal preference.)
Turn ansiostropic filtering to 8x or 16x if your card can handle it - makes looking through partially transparent textures at range easier (fences on inferno, vents on most maps)
Have your gamma and contrast set to a brightness so you can see into dark spots on dust2 - but no higher or brighter than this - or flashbangs will feel like they last forever.
Turn antialiasing off. This tried to smooth edges of objects - making heads look round - but also makes smoke grenades much harder to see through as it smooths out the edges where player models meet the smoke particles.
Rates
Use as low ex_interp as possible until you see people warping around - then you've gone too low. I use 0.05 on public servers and 0.03 on match servers. Play around see what you feel works best for you.
Loads of myths out and about. Rates are a crutch people seem to use to blame their poor aim on 90% of the time, but yes very low rate setting players are annoying to look at, and yes, the game does default to very low ones to spite us all.
Rates affect how much data is sent from your computer to the server, by specifying a packet size. The sweet spot for a broadband connection is the more data the quicker back and forth the better. However that's assuming a perfect dedicated server with only 10 players on it at the time.
In these conditions rate 25000, cl_updaterate 101 and cl_cmdrate 101 are fine. Slight deviations to this is splitting hairs. Current max the game client allows is 102 for up and cmd rates as of the Feb/April 2013 updates.
Biggest myth in cs is that these rates are the best for every player on every server. The minutia of this has been gone into at great length in other places on the internet but I can summarise a little for you here. Public servers work better at lower settings, they can't handle 32 players using huge amounts of bandwidth all in one go. Server providers will tell you other things but in practise on public servers rates higher than 15000/40/40 will almost always suffice, less than this and experienced players with good connections will see you warping slightly and your bullet registry will be affected.
I use rate 20000, cl_updaterate 80 and cl_cmdrate 80 on a machine playing on a 75hz monitor at 100fps with a rock steady 30mb down 4mb up connection.
Go on. Spit at me for not using the hallowed 25k/101/101 combination. I spent months and months playing around with my settings, trying a wide variety and these are the ones that work best for me. On worse internet connections use slightly lower numbers (try 17500/70/70 or 17500/65/65). Rough rule of thumb never let your update and cmd rates be lower than your physical fps (normally your monitors refresh rate) or you'll affect your bullet registry as data you are seeing doesn't match what the server receives and sends.
Much of the hatred for low rate players was from the early days of cs when it defaulted every player to 2000/20/20 or worse and most seasoned players will see you warping with the naked eye and all your bullets will be a year behind what you think you've fired - making hitting moving targets impossible.
Config
Make your config.cfg file in the half-life/cstrike folder read only to prevent silly server admins editing it on dodgey servers. This will mean you need to remove this read-only property if you want to edit it yourself so any changes made in game are not saved naturally. But thats a small price to pay to stop yourself spamming "JOIN GAY SERVER X" whenever you try to buy something.
Use whatever settings you are most comfortable with. I turn corpse stay off - so I can see the bomb when it lands inside a death player model. I use minmodels so every player model is identical on each team so the silhouettes of both are hard-wired into my brain. Buy scripts are optional but usefull if your playing on servers with no freezetime and haven't memorised all the key combinations or mouse movements just yet.
My biggest point about configs is that I findwould argue most people use far too high a mouse sensitivity - a carry over from fast death match games like UT and Q2 where pixel perfect accuracy wasn't needed but being able to turn and shoot behind you quickly was. CS is different - 1 pixel can be the difference between a one shot headshot and a complete miss. For me - one sweep in either direction of the mouse over the whole length of the mouse mat will make me turn 180 degrees in that direction. Any more is just pointless in my eyes. The lower your sensitivity the further you have to move the mouse to get the crosshair to go as far - making you slower for reaction shots but miss less and over shoot your target less. But there are top level players who use even lower sensitivities than me and sensitivities 10x mine. Personal preference and possibly governed by play style and personality. I like hitting my target every time. I don't mind being a few hundredths of a second slower on a 180 spin shot.
My config is freely available here: http://www.mediafire.com/view/jfx7bwqypd51wx6/config.cfg (http://www.mediafire.com/view/jfx7bwqypd51wx6/config.cfg)
It even has 3 aliases I wrote for myself from back in the day - a walk on/off toggle button that you don't have to press down, a button that will swap the weapon hand left to right and visa versa and a button to kill the ingame sound so you can listen to music while your dead if you want, or clear the air while you call strats during scrims and mixes.
Finally TL;DR
There is no single setting that will magically make you a better cs player. Accept that fact.
Never forget to enjoy the game - it is fun, and should always be fun otherwise take a break and play something else for a while, we all get bored from time to time.
I hope some of you find this useful and it explains a few of the basics for people newer to the game. I'm no expert, but I have quite alot of experience that I'm happy to share that. Feel free to add your thoughts and opinions but respect other people's opinions.
Remember:
Rule 1 of CS - There is always another person waiting around the next corner.
Rule 2 of CS - Do not AWP drn.
There is always someone better than you. Learn from them and then beat them. Enjoy it.
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Nice guide drn :)
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im non steam how i can use your config... i want it...
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1) Get steam.
2) Failing that. Move it to the "half-life/cstrike/" folder. Wherever that is default is something like "C:/program files/valve games/half-life/cstrike" . Make sure it's read only.
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Really nice to see this :)
About corpse stay. I leave it on as sometimes corpse is giving a good info about camping enemy direction and/or location, as you can read from the radar where is your killed teammate, and if you are near, then corpse can show or give an idea where an enemy might be. But it's for pub..
About rates yeah, I knew that one day it will come when I will dig in google for this as I've seen many tuts how you must set/check your rates and overall they are not 25k/101/101.
Nice tut, later will move it, but for now this can stay here as many ppl are not visiting other sections..
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Ill try ur config xD Nice guide
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Nice guide .
idk how i read it all :\ LONG GUIDE :P :P xDD Gj drn
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Moved to tutorial section
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im non steam how i can use your config... i want it...
one advise do your own config its better instand of copying another guys because you wont know the tactics of the guy that is playing with his own config.
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For real Drn you use volum set 0.8...Lol are u deaf man ;D and actually over 0.5 volum I wouldnt recommend for anyone....
You are still using old cs 1.6, what I see quickly from config..I am using currently new updated cs 1.6
Here is my config files :o :
http://www.mediafire.com/view/5mcdhackaouwd9c/config.cfg (http://www.mediafire.com/view/5mcdhackaouwd9c/config.cfg)
http://www.mediafire.com/view/wlekwtg7kzb65jr/userconfig.cfg (http://www.mediafire.com/view/wlekwtg7kzb65jr/userconfig.cfg)
(http://i44.tinypic.com/b861s1.jpg)
Fail pic..
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rambaten i have volume 2 xD
edit:
yes drn you still use old version i can see in your config, i see missing files.
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I appreciate sound, what more can I say? One footstep and I know where another target it. One bullet landing on a wall near me and I know which way they are looking. Sound is massively underused by most.
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Yeah I know about sound things more or less..But somewhere I read and I have tested sound volum over 0.5..I can't hear things not clearly if I have that high sound..
I have very good soundcard and headset..So I have always used under 0.5 before up from that sound not clear..And I use 48K or 44K...Even I could use 192..But in that settings I cant hear footsteps.....Footsteps are near 44-48k
Well all has personal preferences, some things can work somebody but to the other might not..
Example if you use sensitivities of other players...You can't know which kind of mousepad people are using..And of course it depends highly from mouse and what DPI settings and windows settings people are using...Noforce commands and freq etc..So many things effect your sensitivity..Even your resolution..
I have mousepad: Allsop gigapad Steel
(http://www.puolenkuunpelit.com/kauppa/images/generated_filenames/000009_pc_allsop_gigapad_xl_steel.jpg)
My mouse settings are windows 6/11 and dpi 400..So from that point my sensitivity is not that high..(3.7) 29cm /360..But if you go under 25cm it goes harder to control...I have tested quite a lot mouse settings..Once I even played with 1.5 sensi. (69cm /360). Yea I might be accurate people in front of me...But if someone sneak my behind..I was doomed..
Time to time I change my mouse sensitivity..And I have noticed that I should go so low sensitivity I can...so I mainly have two option 1.8 or 3.7...I like 3.7 I can make some nasty jumps but in other hand I can easily pown with awp low sensi..Bekos my aim is steady..
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Add -gl and -nofbo in launch parametres. -gl will ensure that your game will run in OpenGL mode. -nofbo will ensure that you keep the 4:3 aspect ratio in the following resolutions: 640, 800, 1024. By playing on a streched screen on those resolutions, the hitboxes change dramatically, so you will notice a difference in accuracy. Also, you can still modify your CS, in order to look better. All you need to do is add trackerscheme.res into your resource folder. Take one of a random gui floating on the internet. Then, you can make the changes you want. ;)
Mine: http://www.mediafire.com/view/8hdvf4rssztsj2i/TrackerScheme.res (http://www.mediafire.com/view/8hdvf4rssztsj2i/TrackerScheme.res)
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My mouse settings are windows 6/11 and dpi 400..So from that point my sensitivity is not that high..(3.7) 29cm /360..But if you go under 25cm it goes harder to control...I have tested quite a lot mouse settings..Once I even played with 1.5 sensi. (69cm /360). Yea I might be accurate people in front of me...But if someone sneak my behind..I was doomed..
I have the same sensitivity lol ;)
Great topic drn, lots of useful info for beginners and not. Good job!
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Don't force 4:3, on wide screen 16:9 or 16:10 you lose a little off the top and bottom but the only map thats really significant on is Nuke. Much better to use the natural resolution of the monitor and hitboxes are not affected by your resolution only the representation of them.
What most people struggle with is change, its a natural thing for most and when widescreen support was added all sort of rumours were spread.
Sound distortion occurs a what ever level exceeds your speakers or headphones capacity, below 1.0 there should be no ingame distortion but you may experience some if your windows volume is high enough to make ingame sounds louder than they should be. For me I find if the volume is loud enough to make me wince when I spray with ak/unsilence m4 then it's too loud. Simple as.
Mouse and mouse mat are personal preference, I find 400 dpi, 18 inch mat on windows 6/11 at sens 2.6 just right for me.
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I will move this to tutorials, better place :)
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Don't force 4:3, on wide screen 16:9 or 16:10 you lose a little off the top and bottom but the only map thats really significant on is Nuke. Much better to use the natural resolution of the monitor and hitboxes are not affected by your resolution only the representation of them.
What most people struggle with is change, its a natural thing for most and when widescreen support was added all sort of rumours were spread.
Sound distortion occurs a what ever level exceeds your speakers or headphones capacity, below 1.0 there should be no ingame distortion but you may experience some if your windows volume is high enough to make ingame sounds louder than they should be. For me I find if the volume is loud enough to make me wince when I spray with ak/unsilence m4 then it's too loud. Simple as.
Mouse and mouse mat are personal preference, I find 400 dpi, 18 inch mat on windows 6/11 at sens 2.6 just right for me.
I'm pretty sure that the hitboxes change, if you don't force 4:3 and leave those resolutions streched. CS is better on 4:3, unlike CS:GO, which is better on 16:9.
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Well after this update if I don't use -nofbo...Happens that I will have black bars in my cs resolution...I have only 19'' monitor samsung syncmaster.....
Well I found good volume settings long time ago..I use Xonar DS and I have 44k, volum 50 and smart volum off and no equalizer..and No GS or what it was...
I had huge problems after update with hud_fastwitch...But I have now learn to scroll it better for guns..But sometimes I still manage to get knife in hand accidently:D
But I heard from the Lurppis when I asked him once about noforcecommands...He said only good command you cud use is parms..
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Most of the noforce commands are redundant now but I can never remember which is the important one so I just leave them all in. Widescreen vs 4:3 aspect debate is personal preference, I used to use 4:3 on a 200hz monitor and swore by it but have mellowed over the years and tbh I like using my 28" widescreen - I can sit further away and in a more comfortable position and see just as much really.
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Most of the noforce commands are redundant now but I can never remember which is the important one so I just leave them all in. Widescreen vs 4:3 aspect debate is personal preference, I used to use 4:3 on a 200hz monitor and swore by it but have mellowed over the years and tbh I like using my 28" widescreen - I can sit further away and in a more comfortable position and see just as much really.
28" monitor for CS? That must be weird as hell.
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Best rate guide I could find. Craig's been playing cs as long as I have and was an old Q2 player too.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=126383209 (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=126383209)
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Yeah saw it once..the problem with cmd_rate 105 is ...I play often swedish server DM..if I would use this cmd..Server asks me to default config.