https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByoxTCko1SHqczFIS21SWGJQQms/view?usp=sharing

Looking at the screenshots, I noticed your custom cfg files (Scout, Soldier, Regen, and so on) are located in the root cfg folder:

...\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\cfg

instead of a custom cfg folder that TF2 would scan. For example:

...\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\custom\my_custom_stuff\cfg

Moving them to the correct directory may not fix your 10 fps problem, but it would be a good start.

If a person already knows the network specifics of TF2 (which they would need to swap out the information, as you suggest), then why would they be looking at such an article, let alone one written specifically for Left 4 Dead networking?

If someone unfamiliar with the networking of TF2 were to read that article they would be either be seriously confused by all the very Left 4 Dead specific details in that article, or would end up with some very unhelpful network settings.

There's all kinds of misleading information and advice in that article, but my favourite was one he chose to write in bold:

If you have yellow lerp, asking the server admin to turn up the server framerate is a good idea.

Good luck asking your server admin to turn up the framerate in your next game!

For what it's worth, wareya's article is pretty solid.

Konr, that's a link to an article on Left 4 Dead networking - A 30 tick game.

It conflates ping and interpolation in the first section, so I'm not sure it's valuable to anyone.

If you want solid information on Source networking, look here:

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_Multiplayer_Networking

Anything I've read elsewhere takes the information found on those page and mutates it into advice that often does more harm than good.

Try these:

tf_show_preset_explanation_in_class_loadout "0"
tf_show_taunt_explanation_in_class_loadout "0"

You're welcome.

The game engine isn't perfect. Loading new areas full of players will often cause your game to feel lagged. I think that experience is pretty much universal.

I'd be hesitant to pinpoint whether the issue you're having is server or client specific.

If you're playing 6v6 and encounter this issue, the server would have to be in a pretty poor state (outdated hardware/poor routing to and from) to have a severe stuttering issue.

I play a lot of 12v12 (or more) TF2, and even a technically solid server (maintaining a constant tickrate of 66) can have difficulty handling the network requirements needed for 12v12 play, often due to enforcing a low max_rate setting e.g. 30000, causing prolonged choke spikes of up to 50-60.

If you think your low end fps dips below 66, or you notice that you're frequently suffering with choke issues, try lowering your cmdrate and updaterate values - Ideally, your chosen values will never be higher than your lowest fps.

It's really just about spending the time experimenting with these values to find what works best for you.

You might decide that it's worth enduring some occasional stuttering because you're hitting more shots, or maybe having an overall smoother gameplay experience is your priority.

My only other advice would be to set your cl_interp value to "0", which allows your updaterate to determine your interp value. e.g. 1/66 = 0.0152 (approx), 1/40 = 0.025 and so on.

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Networking_Events_%26_Messages#String_Tables

The stringtables/cmds aren't causing the spike in your netgraph.

Entities (bright red) and Other Players (bright green) are causing the spikes. The stringtables/cmds values scale with those.

The screenshots you've taken may not show any other players, or entities, but the game engine will load those in sight unseen if you're near a populated area, and that's one of the many things that can make the game stutter.

I can't really get a sense of how well the game runs on your PC, but in your first screenshot your fps value is 78, which suggests that it's possible that your requested updaterate and cmdrate of 66 might not be ideal i.e. if your framerate dips below your requested rates, then the game will not feel smooth, and your overall experience could improve if your drop those rate values.

It's often a trade-off. You're playing Soldier, and high rates/low interp make rockets feel much more crisp/responsive, but you might suffer with choke that can cause other issues with hitreg.

It's up to you to determine what's best.

EDIT: sky_ figured it out mid-post.

Add this command to your autoexec:

tf_show_taunt_explanation_in_class_loadout "0"

It should prevent the pop-up, but I don't know what was causing to re-pop in the first place, so there might be something else not quite right - any other issues?

http://thegraphicequalizer.com/assets/img/clockwork.png

Sketch for an alternate design. Haven't quite figured it out - Worth pursuing?

Scratch that idea.

Might as well try something different:

http://thegraphicequalizer.com/assets/img/tee_hoops_black_white.png

http://thegraphicequalizer.com/assets/img/tee_drawn_street_hoops.png

https://chrisdown.name/tf2/

Valve likely changed something in the game engine that affected Chris's configs, and he's not updating them anyone.

You could email the TF2 team, but I don't think they can help because they don't have anything to do with performance configs - They never intended TF2 to look like that. If it's not a setting you can adjust from the game menu, I don't think they feel the need to look after it.

As far as I can tell, Chris did all the config work himself, so fixing it would require someone else to find out what changed in the latest version of the game engine (Source 2013 Multiplayer), and then determine if it's now even possible to replicate the effect Chris acheived with his config.

delpo might be that guy :)

#31

Thanks for posting the extra detail.

There's nothing relating to the game that would cause fps fluctuations on a day-night cycle. That is weird :)

The only possible (and even then it's a stretch) scenario where the daytime would have a negative affect upon your fps is if the ambient temperature is high enough (coupled with an internal cooling problem) to cause your CPU/GPU to overheat. Given that it's late autumn and cold, this seems highly unlikely - except for yuki and friends.

pharaoh posted some good general pointers. I disabled the Steam Community Overlay a long time ago because it's a bugged mess.

I don't think TF2 uses that much RAM* but it sure can spring a few holes. A leak could quickly eat up memory, but it doesn't sound like that's your problem - you'd be crashing a lot.

* One of the "problems" with the game is that, unlike Crysis (another late 2007 game), it wasn't designed with newer/future hardware or software in mind, so it can't take full use of it: Basic Multi-Core CPU support was patched in post-launch. It's a 32-bit application so it can't see your 8 gigs of RAM, let alone use it, and Valve's continued DX8.1 + DX9 support means any optimisations found in DX10 and DX11 can't be used either. Hence the diminishing returns as you upgrade your hardware.

That said, if you're running additional processes while playing, like streaming, then the resources left for the game become much smaller. A good memory overhead is important in this situation.

Another minor, but occasionally overlooked tip: Aero is a puzzling resource-hog. If you're using Vista or Windows 7 and have Aero enabled, set TF2 (can be applied to all games) to disable it on-launch: \steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\hl2.exe right-click\Properties\Compatibility\Check "Disable visual themes" and "Disable desktop composition\OK.

These CPU threading commands are stable for my i5:

cl_threaded_client_leaf_system "1"
mat_queue_mode "2"
r_queued_ropes "1"
r_threaded_client_shadow_manager "1"
r_threaded_particles "1"
r_threaded_renderables "1"

There are a couple more commands that relate to threading, but they're disabled by default, and enabling them caused some weird rendering glitches for no discernible fps gain.

If you encounter any issues using these, return to whatever you were using before. Or you can trial and error your way through each of them to see which one is causing the problem.

Clunk's Overclocking guides are the best I've found, but it looks like their site http://www.clunk.org.uk/ is offline :(

In the absence of Clunk, this looks to cover everything you'd need to OC your i7:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1247413/ivy-bridge-overclocking-guide-with-ln2-guide-at-the-end

Don't worry about the use of "i5" in places. The CPUs are very similar when it comes to OCing them.

There's always a risk when overclocking a CPU. I was pretty nervous about the entire process, but found that once I read the guides and understood the various terms and what they're doing, then it didn't seem so scary. There'll be a period of trial and error. I set out with the target of 4.0ghz with the hope of getting to 4.5ghz, but my CPU maxed at 4.3ghz. Anything above just wasn't stable - I'd get 15 minutes of beautifully smooth gameplay, then my PC would crash :) Not all CPUs are "born" with the same OC capability (forums are full of people showing off their stable 4.5-6.0 and over Overclocks), but it's definitely worth the effort.

That said, if you're truly worried about the risk, I'd say don't do it. Depending upon your motherboard there might even be a built-in OC or "performance" mode in the BIOS. That alone could help, and it's virtually risk free. Check your motherboard's manual.

You say your fps drops are "huge" and "constant". I'm familiar with the drops to 70-80. It's at this point the game feels like it might as well be 20fps it's so distracting, but for me I suffer those when I move into a new "area", like (12v12) Gullywash mid from what you fancy 6's players call Big Door :) That makes sense to me because the game has to start rendering so much information (23 other players, projectiles, hats) immediately, but I don't feel like I'm getting constant drops. They feel pretty logical. Can you provide any information on what you think is triggering your fps drops? Is it associated with something? A poorly designed map, or a certain type of animation or effect (the Bombinomicon death effect is a needless fps drain, for example) Or is it just random? The latter is something I've never encountered.

#1

I think we're long past the point where TF2's branch of the Orange Box engine (Source 2013 Multiplayer) can readily handle what the TF2 team has thrown at the game. The sheer volume of cosmetics, weapon particle and unusual effects were never factored-in to the design of the engine, so yeah, every major new addition will degrade the experience - I'm almost scared of playing MvM because it seems impossible to me that all those bots wouldn't lead to the game being a nightmare to play.

Most of us have compensated by throwing newer, better hardware at the problem, and that can help to a degree, but there are definite parts of the game that don't benefit from mo better parts.

The Orange Box games are primarily CPU-bound, and it's all about speed (ghz). You'd think a GTX 670 should have no trouble running it, but a faster CPU will see more benefit than a better GPU. I have an i5 OC'd to 4.3ghz and the game runs pretty great, for the most part (attacking top left of Badwater out of BLU primary spawn has never not felt like my game was about to die, for example). What's your i7 clocked at?

If you've never overclocked I can point you at a decent guide or 2.

With regards to your GPU: I find a high (capped 132), relatively stable framerate to be a much better experience than a very high (350+), wildly fluctuating framerate. To that end, I bumped up my AA and Filtering recently, both of which are GPU intensive tasks, and my game felt smoother (which is the most important issue here), as well as looking better. The overall framerate was slightly lower, but there was a definite drop in how much the framerate was varying. Note: This is for a 60hz monitor. I've never used 120hz, so I can't speak to that, but I do notice fps drops from 132 to 80 (12v12 mid-fights), but there's usually some network choke to factor into that scenario too.

You could also use MSI Afterburner to safely OC your GPU, but given your GTX 670 is already running at a minimum of 915/980MHz out of the box it seems absurd you'd need more speed. Simply increasing AA might help make it feel smoother. I doubt TF2 is maxing-out your card? Afterburner doubles as a GPU monitoring program, if you're not sure.

Sidenote: I've never noticed much of a difference (timedemo or in-game) between the various DX9 levels (.0, .5, .8), though I've being using 9.8 quite happily of late.