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Launch params

Launch parameters are special commands that allow you to change game settings before it runs
They can be useful for troubleshooting, performance tuning, or enabling specific features

Main Parameters

Parameter	Description
-console -toconsole	Forces console access to be enabled Both parameters perform the same action This parameter is obsolete and has no effect
-dev	Enables developer mode, which outputs debug information to the console This parameter enables developer 1
-game	Sets the mod directory to launch the game with For example: -game cstrike (defaults to valve)
-language	Forces the game language For example: -language english or -language en (defaults to System language)
-safe	Launches the game in safe mode, forcing a set of 'safe' parameters Most of them are now obsolete [-stdvid, -nolan, -nosound, -nocdaudio, -nojoy, -nomouse, -dibonly]
-novid	Formerly used to skip intro videos The current version has no intros, so this parameter has no effect
-lv	Forces 'Low Violence' mode, removing blood and gore effects
-noquit	Prevents the game from automatically closing after the built-in benchmark (Game Gauge) is complete By default, after running the gg <demoname> command, the game writes results to the console and fps.txt, then immediately exits This parameter allows you to remain in the game to review the results in the console

Graphics & Video

Parameter	Description
-w -width	Sets screen width in pixels For example: -width 1920
-h -height	Sets screen height in pixels For example: -h 1080
-freq -refresh -refreshrate -hz	Forces a specific monitor refresh rate (in Hz) For example: -freq 144 By default, the game automatically uses your desktop's refresh rate, so this parameter is not required in most cases It's useful if you want to use any rate that differs from your screen's default—either higher or lower For example: • To run the game at 75 Hz on a monitor where the desktop is 60 Hz (assuming the selected resolution supports 75 Hz) • Conversely, if you have a 144 Hz monitor but want to lock the game at 60 Hz (for streaming, testing, etc.), this parameter will also work
-full -fullscreen	Launches the game in fullscreen mode
-exclusivefs	Forces 'exclusive' fullscreen mode This may offer a slight performance boost but makes switching to other applications (Alt+Tab) slower
-noexclusivefs	Disables 'exclusive' mode, using a borderless fullscreen window instead This makes minimizing or losing focus of the game window smoother
-sw -window -windowed -startwindowed	Launches the game in windowed mode
-noborder	Removes the window border in windowed mode
-full_window -fullscreen_window	Launches the game in a borderless window at your desktop resolution, creating a 'borderless fullscreen' effect
-stretchaspect	Forces the image to stretch to fill the entire screen, ignoring the aspect ratio
-nomsaa	Disables MSAA anti-aliasing
-nofbo	Disables the use of Frame Buffer Objects (FBO) May improve performance on very old graphics cards but will disable several graphical features, such as stretching non-native aspect ratios and others
-nostencil	Disables the Stencil Buffer (currently used for the HUD radar; disabling it will result in a square radar display)
-gl	Formerly used to force the OpenGL renderer It is now used by default
-16bpp -24bpp -32bpp	Formerly used to set color depth (16, 24, or 32-bit) Only 32-bit color is used by default now
-d3d	Formerly used to force the Direct3D renderer Only OpenGL is used now
-soft -software	Formerly used to force Software rendering mode Only OpenGL is used now
-displayindex	Selects which monitor to launch the game on if you have multiple displays For example: -displayindex 1 (for the second monitor)
-align	Aligns the game window on the screen in windowed mode Usage: lt (left-top) — top-left corner rt (right-top) — top-right corner mid (middle) — center lb (left-bottom) — bottom-left corner rb (right-bottom) — bottom-right corner Default: Center
-x	Offsets the game window horizontally (X-axis) For example: -x 100
-y	Offsets the game window vertically (Y-axis) For example: -y 50
-negx	Offsets the game window to the left (negative X-axis) This is an alternative for specifying negative coordinates, as syntax like -x -100 may be handled incorrectly Thus, -negx 100 is equivalent to -x -100
-negy	Offsets the game window upwards (negative Y-axis) Works similarly to -negx, allowing a negative offset Thus, -negy 50 is equivalent to -y -50
-ontop	Makes the game window 'always on top' of other windows
-noontop	Prevents the game window from being always on top This is the direct opposite of the -ontop parameter
-directblit	Forces the use of an optimized blitting method for frame presentation, if supported by the video driver
-nodirectblit	Disables the use of the optimized blitting method
-forceres	Forces the game to use the resolution specified by -w and -h, even if it is not found in the list of supported video modes for the monitor NOT RECOMMENDED FOR USE!

Network & Server

Parameter	Description
-insecure	Launches the server in insecure mode, without VAC protection
-nomaster	Disables server registration on Steam master servers, making it invisible in the public server browser
-maxplayers	Sets the maximum number of players for the server For example: -maxplayers 20
-port	Sets the network port Default for client is 27005, for server is 27015
-sport	Sets the Steam authentication port (defaults to 26900)
-dll	Allows loading a custom gamedll For example: -dll dlls/ultimate_mod.dll
-sys_ticrate	Sets the server's tickrate For example: -sys_ticrate 500
-ip	Binds the server to a specific network interface For example: -ip 192.168.0.5
-nodns	Disables the use of DNS for resolving hostnames
-reuse	Allows the socket to reuse a local address (useful for quick server restarts)
-loopback	Enables or disables listening for multicast packets on the same host they were sent from
-netthread	Runs the network system in a separate thread
-netsleep	Allows the network thread to sleep, reducing CPU load
-noip	Disables IP initialization
-noipx	Disables IPX protocol support

Input & Sound

Parameter	Description
-nomouse	Disables mouse initialization
-nomousegrab	Prevents the game from 'grabbing' the mouse cursor in windowed mode Does not affect raw input mode m_rawinput 1
-noforcemspd	Do not override the system's mouse speed (sensitivity)
-noforcemaccel	Do not override the system's mouse acceleration
-noforcemparms	Combines the previous two parameters: does not override system mouse speed and acceleration settings
-nojoy	Disables joystick/gamepad support
-nosound	Completely disables all sound in the game
-simsound	Enables sound simulation mode The engine performs all mixing operations but does not send the final audio stream to the sound card, working with an 'empty' buffer in memory instead A developer tool for measuring performance by excluding the impact of audio drivers No practical use for a regular player
-wavonly	Forces the sound engine to use the old Windows WaveOut API exclusively, bypassing DirectSound This was a parameter for debugging or ensuring compatibility on systems where DirectSound had issues Completely obsolete in modern systems
-snoforceformat	This parameter is related to DirectSound and its 'Primary' buffer, which is shared across the system By default, the game tries to set its own format (sample rate, bit depth) for this buffer The -snoforceformat parameter prevents the game from doing so, which was used to solve compatibility issues where changing the format led to driver conflicts
-primarysound	Determines which DirectSound buffer the engine uses By default, it creates its own 'Secondary' buffer This parameter forces the engine to attempt writing audio directly to the 'Primary' system buffer This was a riskier method that could be used to reduce latency on older hardware but often led to sound issues
-nocdaudio	Disables CD audio playback

System & Performance

Parameter	Description
-heapsize	Allocates a specific amount of memory for the game's heap Supports K, M, G For example: -heapsize 512M Defaults to 128 MB
-minmemory	Launches the game with the minimum possible amount of allocated memory
-zone	Sets the size of the 'zone' memory in kilobytes For example: -zone 4096
-num_edicts	Sets the maximum number of entities For example: -num_edicts 2048
-particles	Sets the maximum number of concurrently rendered particles For example: -particles 4096
-legacyfont	Enables the old, 'problematic' font rendering style (especially noticeable for Cyrillic characters)
-starttime	Used to set an initial value for the game timer. No longer used

Miscellaneous

Parameter	Description
-demoedit	Enables demo editing mode
-nohdmodels	Forces the disabling of HD models
-addons	Disables loading of additional content from the _addons folder

Debugging & Development

Parameter	Description
-nosingle	Allows running multiple instances of the game simultaneously on one machine, bypassing the default restriction info When using this parameter, it will not be possible to connect to game servers where sv_cheats is 0
-condebug	Logs all console output to the qconsole.log file in the game's root directory
-debug_steamapi	Enables detailed logging of Steam API calls
-debug_voice -log_voice	Outputs debug messages about voice chat sessions (codec, status, sample counts, etc.) to the console
-debug_http	Enables logging of HTTP requests made through the internal ISteamHTTP implementation (used for fast resource downloading)
-nominidumps	Disables the creation of .mdmp (minidump) files on game crash in the crashdumps/ folder
-noassert	Disables assert error message boxes By default, error boxes are not created
-nobreakpad	Disables the crash handling system via Steam
-glext	Prints a list of all available OpenGL extensions to the console

Integration & Services

Parameter	Description
-steam	A legacy parameter that alters some internal checks to mimic the behavior of an 'official' Steam release
-nosteam	Forces the game to run in Non-Steam mode, even if the Steam client is running
-cloud	Enables the use of Steam Cloud to store and sync the game configuration (config.cfg) across devices on the same Steam account Disabled by default
-noservice	Disables all built-in client services that require connecting to external servers to provide additional content or functionality Using this parameter will disable: the friends service, player avatar display, and more

Auto-Updater

warning

These parameters are intended for temporary use for personal purposes (e.g., for testing, rolling back to another version due to issues, or any other valid reason)
It is not recommended to use them permanently, as they have the highest priority and completely block the ability to manage updates in the game settings
This can lead to confusion if you forget to remove these launch options

Parameter	Description
-noupdate	Disables checking for and installing updates on launch
-forceupdate	Forces an update check, even if the check period has not yet expired
-master	Sets the update target to the stable (master) branch
-beta	Sets the update target to the beta branch for testing
-fork	Sets the update target to a custom branch For example: -fork my_branch
-tag	Downloads a specific version of a branch For example: -tag 2.4.0.0 Use -tag latest to get the most recent version
-nopak	Disables the use of .pak archives, forcing the loader to download necessary content as individual files Downloading this way will be inefficient
-nocache	Always invalidates the cache when downloading content
-forcedef	Forcibly overwrites user configuration files (e.g., .cfg, .vdf) with the default versions from the update branch info This will reset user settings!