Nope, because people can change values. Though, I could do a better job of helping people find that host_thread_mode needs to be set to 0.

I know what bitshifting is. My point with my previous response was to tell you that it is indeed used by the TF2 client, contrary to what you had said. Anyway, you're right about the code logic. I just didn't pay much attention to it because it was such a fringe case anyway (512MB of system RAM). Sorry.

I wanted to ensure heapsize started bigger because audio cache takes up a quarter of memory. When using the async sound system, I needed to ensure that the heapsize was big enough to keep enough of the sound cache to prevent stuttering in most cases.

I don't. But it disables some things that can't be disabled normally. I haven't seen that problem.

I agree that the documentation needs to be better. But the documentation is a work in progress. I agree for consistency that the values should be different.

Because model detail is much more noticeable than some map objects that fade out of view sooner. You need to look at how that function is used. flMinDist is not going to be negative, because as I explained before, flMinDist will be 5000 + -5000, and flMaxDist will be 5000.

It clears the color buffer. I think you're thinking of gl_clear_randomcolor, which clears the buffer to a random color. Admittedly, I don't have a GPU that supports tiled rendering (stuck with a GTX660 for now :( ) so I can't test the effects of gl_clear. I should label it as an experimental CVar, then.

I've made a new preset for the config for max frames, while all benchmarks so far use my default config which does not squeeze out every last frame.

Please check back soon for benchmarks for my max frames preset!

Some things were ported to Linux directly, but ToGL does most of the main rendering work, translating from DirectX to OpenGL. ToGL was only made to support at least dxlevel 90. As for some rendering effects being turned off, Source checks the dxlevel and disables features if the dxlevel doesn't support them. Perhaps there is some messy workaround being used to clamp mat_dxlevel to 90 for OpenGL systems which doesn't rerun the dxlevel checks to re-enable some features.

The ai and some other server replicated commands were put in because I wanted to accommodate some singleplayer Source engine experiences for myself. My bad for keeping them, but I didn't see the problem in keeping them since there isn't any harm in doing so.

Not sure why you think it is useless just because that choreography tool isn't released to the public. anim_3wayblend is still used in the Source Engine for calculating bone poses, not just in the VCD Blocking Tool. Anyway, although it is server replicated, it has the same reason as the other commands in that I've kept it in there for singleplayer Source Engine use.

Because it isn't broken, except in local servers, and that's because of an oversight with input and networking logic differences for client and servers. Using threaded mode better runs what the engine is tasked to do per frame.

I read the documentation, but documentation can be inaccurate. For systems with 512MB of RAM, the Source Engine uses mem_max_heapsize_dedicated instead of mem_max_heapsize.

I'm sorry if traditionally TF2 configs weren't like this, but mine is made out of editable text. I've also included any values people may find helpful for them to adjust. Instead of others spending the time to find how to customize a specific option, I've included it in my config for them. Anyway, since bloom is by default disabled in the config, you should know that having those CVars there don't actually affect anything.

It keeps track of if you're currently building cubemap samples. Some rendering features are disabled by this command because the game thinks you're building cubemaps. Source code can reveal some wacky stuff.

Nothing by default. As you said, they do nothing if cl_ragdoll_forcefade is enabled. So it's not a problem for them to be there.

Model LOD and LOD fade controlled by lod_TransitionDist are completely different things. lod_TransitionDist controls the fade distance for the func_lod brush entity, which is an emulation of LOD by literally fading models out of view, rather than fading down to a lower quality. r_rootlod 1 was chosen because people who are looking for max performance will find it, while more casual users will not feel comfortable changing options. I looked for feedback from users about model quality, and I found that r_rootlod 1 was the average preference. Anyway, you seem more confused about the -5000 value and rightfully so. lod_TransitionDist is not the actual final fade distance value. There is a min fade distance of 5000 (where closer than this the object is not faded at all) and lod_TransitionDist is added onto that to get the max fade distance (where at or further away the object is fully faded). By setting it to -5000, you get a min fade distance of 5000 and a max fade distance of 0. Thankfully, the Source engine swaps the min and max values if the min value is greater than the max. So with this, you get an object fade from 0 distance to 5000 distance, rather than from 5000 distance to at least 5000 distance.

Drivers for tile based rendered graphics cards will do reads on framebuffers unless you specifically clear them, because the driver will assume you'll need it in a rendering step later since you didn't explicitly clear the buffer. My mistake for saying 700 series, I'll correct the comment there.

Thank you for your work on reviewing my config! I'm happy to see more discussions come of this.

I'm sure you won't have to worry about that.

When has Valve ever done the norm? MOBA games had buyable heroes, and other paid game mechanics, but not Dota. FPS titles had paid map packs and weapon DLC. But not TF2 or CSGO.

Added a new max frames preset addon config. Would really appreciate it if it was benchmarked!

(still don't have a lot of mat_ CVars, but this should give a lot better FPS)

You're on Linux, right? gl_mtglflush_at_tof should be set to 0.

I'd like to point out that the whole point of the extensive commenting was so people could understand the values and choose the best value for their needs.

I'll post a max frames config soon for benchmarks.

A mistake. It should be commented. Sorry about that.

Possibly something to do with conflicting HDR settings. I haven't had that issue, so if you could log your console with con_logfile console.log and then run cvarlist, I can check your CVar values to see where the problem is.

Because disabling trilinear reduces the stuff the material system has to do for textures.

Glad lots of people are excited for this!

Knowing Valve, they will change from the normal monetization model of online card games.

In addition to adding more options to make the graphics less taxing on weak computers, I'm also planning on revamping the comments. Right now, the purpose of comments aren't very well defined, so I wanted to have each comment both explain the CVar, as well as why I chose a certain value for that CVar to be the default for the config. However, I'm not entirely sure how to organize the text for that. So, anyone have ideas on what they would prefer for comment formatting?

Also, I've been thinking for a while now about adding presets/versions for my config for different setups (kind of like what Comanglia did for their config). However, the problem that's been making me hesitant to do that is that there isn't really a one size fits all for some of these CVars (eg maxframes) and that's why I've only added comments suggesting to change values in certain cases. I'm turning to the community for feedback as to what I should do for this problem about varying values being optimal for different PCs.

There are a few config options that the comments suggest setting based on if you have a weak GPU and weak CPU. Try setting those. Also, I haven't investigated a lot of the visual settings that will boost FPS on these potato computers.

Even with that, I feel like FPS only gives part of the story. What about load times, stuttering, etc?

Thanks. I'll investigate soon.

:( I'll try out transparent viewmodels and see what the problem is. Could I use your HUD (for consistency)?

Try using building_cubemaps 0.