'Team Fortress 2' ('TF2') is a cooperative and competitive multiplayer-only game where you join one team and fight against the other. However, you do not have to join a team and fight; you can spectate the match from a safe place. This lets you enjoy watching two teams fighting against one another without having to employ any skills in the game. Spectator mode features several cameras you can switch to at any time.
Click 'Browse Games' on the main menu.
Double-click the server you want to join. Wait for the game to load.
Click 'Continue' twice. You will see three doors and a television on-screen.
Click the television between the 'Exit' and 'BLU' doors. Alternatively, press '2' on your keyboard.
Left-click to cycle through the cameras. Right-click to go back to a previous camera. You cycle through static cameras and then through the views of each player. Press 'Space' to change the camera view from first-person to third-person and to free roam.
Tips
If you are already on a team, press the period key (.) to change teams in-game.
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Troubled from Team Fortress 2 lag? Save yourself the frustration and solve your problem with this detailed guide.
Team Fortress 2 has been one of the best games of all time and there are still a lot of players who play the game. It is one of the top free-to-play games on Steam right now with players flowing in on a daily basis. However, with the ever-increasing players, there have been increased and consistent reports of TF2 lag which includes instances of high ping, disconnections and more.
![]() Team Fortress 2 Lag
There have been a lot of reports on different community forums on the internet of players experiencing all kinds of problems related to TF2 lag in the game and these reports have been increasing in numbers.
While Valve, the game’s developer is working with Internet Service Providers around the world to rectify this problem for everyone, players who are looking to fix Team Fortress 2 lag have been left searching for a solution to the problem.
How To Fix TF2 lag
This guide is going to try to end that search for you and is going to provide you with some of the general fixes to the problem. These fixes have been tried and tested and have been confirmed working by many players out there and this is why you should check out these fixes to see if it helps you with your problem.
So, with that said, let us have a look at some of the best ways to fix TF2 lag.
System Requirements
Before you try any fixes and tweaks for fix Team Fortress 2, you should make sure that you meet the official recommended system requirements for the game. The official recommended system requirements that have been released by Valve for the game can be seen below:
Minimum
Recommended
Meeting the official system requirements for the game is very important as it can help you fix the majority of the TF2 lag problems. If your computer does not meet these system requirements, it is advised that you upgrade your system to meet these requirements.
TF2 Lag Spikes
If you do not have the option to upgrade your computer at this time and are looking for another way to fix TF2 lag, you can try to adjust the graphics settings for the game according to your current setup and see if you notice any improvement in your problem. A screenshot of the graphics settings for Team Fortress 2 can be found below:
The best way to pursue this would be to turn down all of the settings to the lowest graphics settings in the game and then check if your problem is resolved. If the problem has been solved, work your way through the settings to find the ones that suit your setup the best. This should help you fix this problem for good.
How to Reduce Lag In TF2
One other way to fix TF2 lag reliably is to reinstall the game and Steam and this should help you fix this problem for good. But, you need to carry out this process correctly. First, you should uninstall Team Fortress 2 and Steam and then remove any remaining traces of them using a program like CCleaner. Once done, restart your computer and then reinstall Steam and then the game.
This might sound cumbersome and unnecessary to you but it is worth noting that it has helped a lot of users fix this problem for good and this is why you should try this.
Choose A Different Game Host
Sometimes, the problem could exist because of a problem on your game servers end and also because of issues with the internet connection of your game host or game server. In this case, you can try switching to a different game server to see if it helps you with your problem.
TF2 Server Lag
You should also make sure that you have a decent internet connection available to you when gaming online as a slow or incapable internet connection is one of the big reasons why people experience TF2 lag. While there is no fixed requirement for internet connections in this regard, you should make sure that you have at least 4MBPS of download and upload available to you when playing online.
You should also make sure that there are no other devices on your home network that are using the internet when you are playing the game as this is also one of the big reasons why people experience this problem.
Use A Wired Internet Connection
You might not know it, but if you are on a wireless internet connection, it is most probably the reason why you are experiencing TF2 lag. A wireless internet connection is prone to packet loss, high ping and disconnections by nature because of it traveling through the airwaves.
This is why it is not recommended to play your game on a wireless connection and you should switch to a wired connection to make sure that such problems do not occur. Switching to a wired connection should help you fix this problem for good.
Kill Ping Lag Buster
One of the most reliable ways to fix TF2 lag is to use a gaming VPN. These Gaming VPN use different techniques to reduce your lag and latency to the game server and have been reliable in fixing this and other related problems as well.
One of these popular Gaming VPNs is Kill Ping which uses its network of dedicated servers around the world to reduce your latency to the game server. This will help you fix Team Fortress 2 lag and other related problems for good and you should download Kill Ping for free if you still have not tried it out.
Archived
So I have compiled a lot of different mods and cfgs that help you increase your FPS by A LOT.
If you need help installing any of these mods/cfgs comment down below and I will try to get back to you.
This is really useful for people with really bad computers like me and for people who just really like to have high FPS for some reason.
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If any of you are wondering, this improved my FPS by about 100. (I was getting about 10-20 before.)
Ok, let's start.
And that's it! I really hoped this helps you guys out there who need a little more FPS in there lives. If there are any other FPS improving mods out there please either PM them to me or post them in the comments and I will add them to the list. Again, if you need help installing any of these, don't be hesitant to ask a question! I don't bite ;). Thanks! And have fun.
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'TF2,' or 'Team Fortress 2' demo files have a .dem extension and contain game-play footage. 'Team Fortress 2' is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Valve. 'TF2' demo files are used by gamers to record their game play and even create movies from multiple demo files. You can play the file from within 'Team Fortress 2' or send it to your friends. However, they must have 'TF2' installed to view the demo file. A recent 'TF2' feature allows you to convert 'TF2' demo files to AVI files. AVI files can be viewed by users who don't have the game installed.
Step 1
Launch 'Team Fortress 2,' go to the 'Options' menu, select 'Video Settings' and change the settings according to your preferences. The resolution you select will be the resolution of the final AVI file. The higher the settings and resolution, the longer it will take to render the demo file.
Step 2
Press the '~' (tilde) key to open the console. Type 'bind l endmovie' (without quotes) and press 'Enter.' When you press the 'L' key, the conversion will end. Type 'sv_cheats 1' (without quotes) and press 'Enter.' Type 'host_framerate 30' (without quotes) and press 'Enter.' This is your AVI's frame rate. If you want to record at 60 frames per second, run the 'host_framerate 60' command (without quotes).
Step 3
Type 'playdemo demo_name' (without quotes) to start playing your demo in 'Team Fortress 2.' Replace 'demo_name' with the name of your demo.
Step 4
Type 'startmovie video_name avi' (without quotes) when you want to start converting the demo file. Replace 'video_name' (without quotes) with anything. This is the name of your future AVI file. You will see a pop-up window containing a list of codecs. Select the Xvid codecs.
Step 5
Close the console and watch the game you recorded. Do not press any keys because everything you see on your screen is converted. Don't worry if the playback is choppy and the sound is distorted.
Press the 'L' key to stop the conversion at any point. When the conversion is stopped, the AVI file is created in the '/Steam/SteamApps/SteamAccount/team fortress 2/' folder. It will be named 'video_name.avi.'
Tip
Warning
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I experience alot of lag when I play in large servers, is there anyway of turning down the quality of the graphics in the game, or changing anything to make it render faster?
TTSTTS
1 Answer
There are a lot of things that can affect your FPS when playing TF2, and not all of them are TF2-specific. I've listed a lot of things below, but I will preface this with one thing: make some minor tweaks/changes and test them out in-game before making more changes.
Not only will this help if something goes wrong (you'll know which setting caused the issue), but if you find that you're happy with the current settings, you won't need to make unnecessary changes to your configurations.
![]() Antivirus
Antivirus Programs can adversely affect your PC's performance by constantly checking temp files that are created when playing.
Specifically related to Steam, there is this folder (path may vary depending on where you installed Steam to):
This 'stats' folder is constantly updated while you play TF2, and thus a lot of antivirus programs will be constantly checking this folder as files are added, updated, or removed, costing you CPU time.
Most antivirus software allows you to add folders as an exception, so check your Antivirus settings. If no such option exists, you should (temporarily!) disable your antivirus whilst playing TF2, and reenable it after you're done.
Startup Programs
Some programs such as Dropbox, Google Update, Adobe Updater and others (including Steam!) tend to set themselves to start when your PC is turned on. While this can be great for keeping things up to date, you may find that your gaming is adversely affected by such programs running in the background.
You can either close them every time by using 'End Process' with Task Manager, or remove them from startup entirely.
Disable Overlay
The Steam overlay can be taxing to less-powerful PCs, and can be enabled/disabled from within the Steam settings:
Finally, onto some actual TF2 configuration.
TF2 In-game options
From the in-game TF2 Menu, click 'Options' -> Video -> Advanced
A lot of these will be overridden with a custom config file, but if you choose not to go down that route, these are the settings you'll need to tweak in-game.
Basically, you want to lower/turn off most of these advanced settings:
and so on.
TF2 Launch OptionsDirext X Level
From Steam, open up the TF2 Properties Window again, and click on 'Set Launch Options'. You can force the game to run on an older version of DirectX, by specifying this Launch Option:
This sets your DirectX level to 8.1. However, Note that with the new 'Meet your Match' update, Competitive mode requires DirectX 9 or higher, so if you plan to play in competitive mode the lowest you can go is:
Also note that once set and launched, the changes made are permanent, so if you want to revert this change, you should change it to run with Direct X 9.8 i.e:
How To See Fps In Tf2Other launch settings
Add these based on your preference. You can run the game windowed instead of fullscreen. Adjust the width and height to match your monitor's output.
You can also disable the startup videos, and enable the console on startup:
Autoexec Config
TF2 has a lot of hidden settings that aren't apparent in the 'Video' options. Below is the configuration that I have used on my own terrible laptop. It's based on Kapito's dxlevel 90 config. It includes tweaks such as disabling ragdolls, weather, lighting effects and other things that are known to impact performance.
I do have a single tweak of my own:
Reduced number of decals:
Decals are used for visual effects like bullet impacts/holes, visible sprays, and other visual effects. Kapito had this set to '4', I prefer to reduce it to '1'. Though the change is minimal, higher numbers do give more persistent decals at the expense of some performance, so I set it to the barest of minimums. Autel tire sensor.
Copy and paste the following settings into your
autoexec.cfg file at
If you can't see an
autoexec.cfg file, you can just make one, TF2 will pick it up automatically.
Honestly there's a lot that will depend on your PC. There are plenty of guides out there, nevermind the few that I've linked below, so you should do some research of your own and tweak these settings until you get a level that you're comfortable with running.
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