[TF2] Do Graphics REALLY Matter? 

Interesting topic, clear voice, good editing, entertaining script?? I hope this blows up. 100k views minimum.

Then there was that one time where STAR_ needed as much FPS as possible so he could shield turn better, way back before the tide turner, so his game was just all at the minimum graphics. When Valve patched it, they also added the Tide Turner to make up for it, since it was so fun to have that much charge control.

When it comes to ragdolls and blast smoke, they are easy to config out without touching stuff like resolution and model and texture quality. I asked b4nny on his stream about why he plays with an odd and low resolution, and he said it was mostly down to old habits. Computers back in the day weren't (generally) as powerful as modern ones, so to get the most frames, comp players would play with extremely low settings and resolutions. Nowadays, it's not really all that needed, but old habits die hard, and new comp players imitate the old.

you're wrong on the pyro flames, it does block a lot of our view too. afaik it was a deliberate choice in jungle inferno, since that's when the new effect particles were added.

Interesting! Never considered how lowering graphics could help with gameplay besides raising fps. Also its real cool how you went above and beyond to reach the minimum possible level of graphics to test it out!

*goes into combat without my glasses so my brain can run at a higher framerate"

great points! this is actually amazing, you're seriously underrated hope to see more bangers (the stuff you make other than tf2 is also spectacular)

This was highly enjoyable! Can't wait to see what you cook up next dude :)

I think this would apply to any fps really. Its definitely an interesting topic in gaming to talk about.

Been looking for a video about this topic thanks for making this

Lowering certain graphics may increase performance but also put you in a gameplay disadvantage. It's better to just lower what is necessary instead of everything, there's a number of graphics options that can hinder your gameplay that's better explained in video than via the comment section

Lovely to see someone else using Center HUD too, such a great HUD

Nice video man! Keep up the work, love ur channel

this just in: local kobold makes really interesting tf2 video

Good stuff. I'm a new player in tf2 with 400 hours and as a heavy main I can agree that low graphic configs that you get help a lot and removing your own gun model helps with aim, at least for me. It also helped with stuttering that I would have sometimes on some maps even though I have a high end pc.

a damn great vid the only think that i recommend is getting a comparison beetwen low and very high

Enjoyed this a lot. Subscribed:) Personally I started out with a poor computer so set it to minimum. Now 9 years later I am used to things/worried about changing them so I will never know the difference:)

No way you have like 150 subscribers this is some high quality stuff

peak tf2 content wishing you a camillion more subs and viewers

1 thing that is shown in optivex's google dock benchmark for this game is running textures lower than high (if your machine is somewhat modern) actually runs worse than high or above. DX8 also reduces the game visuals further by reducing transparencies and removing warpaints and also does improve performance outside of really modern hardware. (Edit: you can get master-comfig high or ultra presets to get better visuals if fps isn't much of a concern.)

gotta see more tf2 videos from you cam, youre nice to listen to, doing a good job mate

There was in fact a lighting update a some point. I swear player shadows leaking through walls didn't used to happen way back when either.

Your voice sounds like one of those 10 ten / life hack channels and i love it. But great video. keep up the good work (:

You, sir, have earned my subscription.

I think having lower graphics (esp the general lighting and detail of everything) helps remove visual clutter. If I were to play on max graphics, I might be distracted by the beautiful layout of the map. But after using mastercomfig low for over 5 years, I’ve been “trained” to only focus on the enemies: my and their movement, my aim, general gamesense during the round. All that may sound sweaty af (because it is) but I’d argue having dogwater graphics _will_ improve your skills as it forces you to focus on just players.

Very good video, subscribed.

aside from fps a low cfg can reduce particles, explosions, ragdolls, gibs, muzzle flash, tracers, shells, and flatter lighting can make models clearer. Also yeah more fps does mean you can play better.

I do have to say, I think the classes blend more into the background now

I recommend anyone who plays TF2 to install mastercomfig. It has a simple user interface to customize graphics(much better than TF2's embedded graphics settings) and only disables most unoptimized settings instead of making your game look like it is from 90s.

Why do you only have 200 subscribers? Seriously I want to know this content is too good for a crowd this small

Actually an interesting topic. For me, i always lower my graphics down in PvP multiplayer games. In a game like TF2 that for some reason, isn't very optimised when there's a lot on the screen, a lot of missing frames can disturb my experience way too much while fighting. I don't lower graphics at a point where it looks like dog poopoo, but at "medium" kind of level where the experience is smooth and looks great. I don't know if i write this well tho lol but yeah that's a cool video !

No dx_level 81?

Phenomenal work on this video. I definitely agree that while there are benefits to lowering graphics, looking at muddy dog doodoo graphics isn't a FUN way to play the game. If there IS a benefit to lowered settings, by all means try to eek out just a few extra kills per round because of a better ability to decipher the action around you. But I'll take a crocket that hits me dead-on out of nowhere but literally in front of my eyeballs through a pyro's flames any day if it means looking at one of the most visually interesting and timeless collection of character and environment designs of the past three decades. I'll be keeping view ideas on too, cause someone worked hard on those first person animations.

Liked, saved, subscribed.

in my case, i cant play good when i am using tf2 default graphics, its way too much thing going on the screen that i get lost in the map

I think graphics dont really matter too much but if you are in competitive lower settings can help cause ragdolls and effects can be very distracting

I just swapped to spy and this really helped thanks

I play on a potato and my settings are already at their lowest. I even remove ragdolls otherwise my game lags out whenever i get something like a backstab. On a sidenote does anyone know how to type eg the ragdoll commands in one go? I always have to type them everytime I open up the game. Thanks in advance.

honestly that pyro example around 8:20 wasnt perfect, he was using the phlog, which is way better for visibility even on high graphics

As long as you can tell what is and isn't about to shoot you, not really.

That sentence mentioning Overwatch had smell of that trend "OW2 bad, TF2 good, lol"

I'm a heavy main with about, 2k hours in tf2, I play pretty well, my friends say I'm good, and usually my kd is 50-10 or around that. I find it a lot easier on lower graphics, because its much clearer, imagine if you put a image of a mercenary on a background, one detailed with fancy graphics, and one a plain flat color, I feel like it would be a lot easier to see the mercenary on the plain background, as well as just making the game clearer I suppose. I tried out not using a config, and using a config, and honestly im just to overwhelmed with standard tf2, so many effects, colors, and what not. I use "cowmanglias max fps for high quality PCs," if you care to see how it looks. One downside I also didnt see you bring up, is that on lower dx levels (which make the game look a lot worse and can be changed on the launch options) is that glowing outline on teamates, objectives, and scotish resistance stickys is gone, which makes it a lot harder to tell whats going on when you spawn, or spot decloaking spys with spawn wallhacks. overall, I feel as if low graphics can be a bit of a mixed bag, mostly better visual clarity, but the game looks like trash lol, which sometimes removes the silliness of tf2, esp without ragdolls.

amazing video🗣

Looking through the transparent viewmodels hurts my eyes fsmr

See if I use minimum graphics on tf2 i cant see the cat stickers on my pistol and that just won't do

It depends on what game ur playing, if you play Shadow Of The Collosus then you should play on high graphics, but if ur playing a game like CS then better fps is a must

I can confirm, i got this laptop with no graphics and only Intel 7, i runned the game at 48o p, at decent 6o fps but of couse i disabled some animations, the explosions, and off-render all the map, it looks so cursed and small window, just a square screen of the game with shadow borders aside all the monitor, but is worth, i can game gud still

it look like we all be making tf2 for ps1 or ps2

i assume lowering your graphics is a bit more necessary if your rig is chugging a bit to run TF2, in which case more fps is more important.

Umm cammie what warpaint are you using on your scatter gun i literally cant find it anywhere :(

you can go even lower with your graphics, something like mastercomfig low would ve good starting point but you can go even lower than that or even mastercomfig very low with use of some additional commands and gpu tweaks. people who use lower graphics do it because they are just used to it, need some extra frames or just like the look as it has been proofen that texture quality has no impact on framerates, yes you can use picmip -10 on your potato without any difference in frames or resource usage, settings for more serious casual play would be disabling bloom, ragdolls and gibs and rimlight/phong if you want to as rest doesn't matter that much, other than that there is no reason to go lower unless you need more frames/want better frametimes. i myself use mastercomfig low with max possible textures and high quality shadows

When you read this comment I finished the whole video. First thought: after finishing the video this was to me a pointless watch as I personally have not learned anything new. Second thought: (this is a long one) when I clicked on this video that was on my front page of you tube, I was assuming this would be a comparison the highest settings and lowest settings that you can set by default, or compare numbers between various configs like Master config, setting various commands within the console, DX level, while comparing FPS numbers on either one or more systems, basically anything more than what this video was which was 4 minutes explaining the premise of this video then another 6 minutes showing the minimal changes you made to the settings without showing an FPS value. 2:05 something funny to mention: there's a small joke that some make in the competitive TF2 community where Uncle topia is referred to Uncle topia (UT) div with it being below newcomer (NC) div, 0 point in mentioning this just thought I would. 2:05 Third thought: I can't remember who said this but the reason why Uncle topia is more sweaty it's because Uncle Dane is a TF2 Tuber who makes videos about improving on team fortress, so of course the people playing on Uncle topia would take the game much more seriously when the person they watch makes videos on how to improve. 3:31 Forth thought: I don't think that this has been a problem for me, I'm going to ask some of my friends if this has been a problem for them. 5:28 Fifth thought: they've not seen this person's video but it was his goal trying to make the game look as bad as possible or try to get the most frames per second out of it That's a big difference right there. 7:15 sixth thought: I have trouble remembering but don't transparent view models lower your games FPS make your game darker and required to be on DirectX level 9 and above. Oops accident posted my comment before I was done writing Eighth thought: I should have mentioned this earlier but one reason you would turn down your settings is in competitive you want his little visual clutter as possible but still want enough visuals to tell what's going on so there needs to be a balance but it's also player dependent. I honestly have more things to say but I'm too tired so I'll finish off with this to agree with strawberryblitz the topic you chose is definitely one I'm quite interested in your voice is definitely clearer than most that make videos, and the editing in this one was all right not bad, although the script could be better(not like I'm better script writer), it also would not surprise me if this video does get over 25K views within the next few days.

nice

Do a koboldkare essay next

Hope you make it to the valveillion of subs

i literally play with the old school fortress mod that turns all most of the models into N64 versions.

This is great, but I think you could add more visuals to your words to make it more entertaiming. Still 9/10 video

Kobolds are friend shaped!

finally i cqn play on my 2005 HP laptop... only if i coul open it

hey just wanted to add I am a spy main and recently copied stabby's config setting and it gave me a massive boost I would miss some trickstabs but suddenly I can do them easily now and I got a 4090 witb 128 gigs of memory so my pc aint bad

Fatmagic is my absolute favourite TF2uber, but the reason he uses min graphics is legitimately insane: His monitor refresh rate is 240Hz, so he says he NEEDS to run TF2 at 240fps to match it. *He bought a new gaming PC, just to play TF2 at 240fps.*

Good video

Absolutely not. Tried mat_picmip 4 and - 10 on my _(now replaced)_ 5 years old low end laptop and there was no difference. TF2 is just unoptimized as hell, that's why you might have low FPS.

iirc the main reason competitive players play at low graphics is because the game just straight up runs better, and when you're playing at that ultra high level the better the game physically runs the better you play.

Casual is still playable in my opinion. Maybe its just luck or the fact that i only play a single tf2 map, but i rarely run into bots.

I don't really see the benefit as a sniper main in removing ragdolls, never once in my entire career playing tf2 *since about 2010* the headshot is pretty clear.

As a guy with a potato for pc I play with low graphics so my game could run atleast 60fps

Anyone else get a higher framerate from maxed out graphics settings?

What is it with so many tiny TF2 RU-vidrs popping up, that have such good quality I keep getting baffled by the fact that they only have a couple videos and less than a couple of thousand subs. Strange.

I like this, you play on the controller as well

"think of it as an older better Overwatch" omfg yes! xD

bro made his game look like half-life💀 also, flames, rocket trails, and any other trails block out view too. and mat_phong turns my game into flickery black stuff

In short. yes. will making a compromises in some areas to ensure stability worth it. also yes (also some setting do improve visibility but don't push it. a good start is disabling motion blur and limiting decals but not by too much) My final verdict: play tf2 and not "tf2" that look worse than the roblox game that copied tf2. tf2 is beautiful, why rob yourself from the visual stimulation it offers if you already enjoy playing it. contrary to fake beliefs. Graphics do matter but they should not detract from the experiences or be the only thing that carry the game. and graphics is not an argument of realism vs fantasy here. it about image clarity and how beautiful things are (the second part is subjective).

Woah when i was watching the video i thought it was a guy with like, 100k suscribers cuz of the editing and script, but now that actually see how many suscribers do you have i really feel like its wrong haha, you really deserve more views and suscribers man, keep it up good stuff!

What hud do you use?

tldr without yapping: slightly helps with visibilty besides fps point missed: those players have 240hz monitors and tf2 is REALLY poorly optimized

When you say homunculus do you mean test tube baby?

watching in 144p

Three letters FPS b4nnt for example has a 240 hz monitor, so he needs his fps to be higher than 240 all the time and tf2 even tho is a old game runs really bad for the most part, also most players dont have a top tier pc to even run the game on the 60s fps so pushing the graphics to super low help it

0:57 as someone who plays at a very high graphics quality, I can say that I do suck at TF2 (this is not a joke, I actually do suck at TF2)

The video is good but you missed some other things, like the no cosmetics script, no particles and a lot more, it doesn't make you a better player but it gives you a lot more fps which that's why b4nny and fatmagic have their games like that

Cam, heres my list of fps boost commands //fps boost mat_phong 0 r_drawdetailprops 0 cl_detaildist 0 cl_detailfade 0 r_shadows 0 r_lod 10 lod_TransitionDist -1 mat_hdr_level 0 mat_vsync 0 mat_dxlevel 95 mat_mipmaptextures 0 cl_hud_playerclass_use_playermodel 0 r_rimlight 0 cl_lagcompensation 1 cl_pred_optimize 2 cl_smooth 0 cl_smoothtime 0.01 cl_updaterate 67 rate 60000 tf_particles_disable_weather 1 g_ragdoll_fadespeed 0 g_ragdoll_lvfadespeed 0 ragdoll_sleepaftertime 0 cl_ragdoll_fade_time 0 cl_ragdoll_forcefade 1 cl_ragdoll_physics_enable 0 cl_phys_props_enable 0 cl_phys_props_max 0 props_break_max_pieces 0 r_propsmaxdist 1 violence_agibs 0 violence_hgibs 0 violence_ablood 0 violence_hblood 0 mat_picmip 10 mat_reduceparticles 1 paste these in your autoexec.cfg

Graphics don't really matter... As long as you have the power to run it on minimum of 60 fps... Which some people don't have.

Scout turned himself into a force a nature Funniest shit i ever seen😂

Subbing for the TF2 kobold 👍

What is am overwatch

Lower graphics tend to give you better performances. like better fps and stuff. idk i never played tf2

The main reason why competitive players will turn down their graphics for better frams is just that the Source engine is heavily CPU based and terrible at optimizing rendered assets, so even on more modern hardware your computer may have a terrible time cooperating with Source's jankiness.

Transparent viewmodels consume resources...

dude my tf2 looked way worse before I reset my laptop

1:25 "60s-70s" I don't want to be THAT guy but hear that truly made me sad. this is not dig on you but tf2 is 40-50s game. that sadly is the result of the tf2 art style denigration (via Valve neglect). judging from how old your youtube account. you are not a new guy but if tf2 time frame has been pushed this far. i only lament it. here is "short" comment i like to repost about the tf2 artstyle (or one aspect that is neglected to be talked about) "TLDR: tf2 is 12v12 chaotic casual shooter themed with 40-50 industrial America with hint of retro futurism and spy tech of the time." -me from observing tf2 for years. the thematic differences in tf2 architecture: vvv RED is more old school prospector town with hint of mines and cowboys also wood and dust. (sometime red bricks) BLU represent the revolutionary inventions of 20th of modern industrial building via the use of steel concrete metal panels and chain link fence etc... massive difference in time period and materials used. reflected on color too. and it's more appropriate because of what the companies of both team actually do. RED: Reliable Excavation Demolition. BLU: Builders League United."

What crosshair do you use? it looks cool

A bit too long on some points, got a bit tough to follow, kinda wish there was a bit more visuals to accompany the current subjects or theme. You're doing great otherwise.

mat_dxlevel 70 btw :)

You didn't touch on one of the biggest massive upsides of lowering graphics, the increase in framerate. If you have a gaming monitor that renders above the standard fps and goes up to say, 120 or even 240, the advantages are numerous. I dont know how to explain it other than saying you see more. . You can track that target rocketing through the air with your eyes, your movement and aim feel much more responsive, you can see the person slowing down before changing directions. Having a higher FPS and a monitor capable of showing those frames completely elevates the gameplay and how you can move and react to an entirely different level. . If you don't want to spend a huge amount of $$ for having this while things look pretty, lowering graphics is a simple tradeoff for a competitive advantage.

you want real visual clarity? try flat textures mod

That pfp is cute af wtf

i expected like a 200k subs youtuber and then its 200?? did you reupload someone elses channel lmao

Well done vid good sir 🫡

Played on below minimum grafics, for 6 years, to run it on an underpowered laptop.