Let me console you

This post is for those of you who have never used the in-game console in COD2. You have undoubtedly heard about it, but probably thought it too difficult to mess with.

Well let's try and give you some examples on its use and we'll see if you get the hang of it.

NOTE that all the modifications you do here will be lost as soon as you quit your COD2 session. To remember these changes you will need to modify your player configuration file. We will discuss that in a later post.

This will be the first post in a series, I'll be labeling these under "tweaking" so that you can find them. There's not much here that you cannot find on the net; however, I hope that I can explain some of these things so that even the most non-technical of you will be able to understand.

The Console

The console is a program that runs when you are running COD2 in multiplayer mode. It let's you change your game configuration, monitor your framerate, check your download/upload speed, even connect to a different server.

This is all heady stuff, unfortunately, the user interface consists of typing text comments (direct entry) and is not at all intuitive. For that reasons, many players ignore the Console. Hopefully, after you have read this, you won't as it can be quite useful.

To enter into "Console" mode, when in COD2 and logged into a server, you must first type the tilde symbol: ~

Console Commands

Now that you are in Console mode, here are some of the things you can do:

1. Change your name

Let's say you decide that you would like to change your current screen name from Jock Yitch to Cap'n America (may he rest in peace). Then, type the following (after entering into Console mode).

/name CapnAmerica

Colors in your screen name are all the rage, you can add colors in this command by simply using the caret symbol (^) as follows:

/name ^3CapnAmerica

This command will make CapnAmerica yellow - which was just the opposite of his character. Poor, brave Cap (RIP).

2. Connect to another server

If you decide to connect to another server, mid match, bring up the Console mode and use the /connect command. This allows you to manually connect to other servers without having to back out into the COD2 server menu screen. Here's an example. Say you are in a server and your clan tells you there is a scrimmage at 181.12.1.300. You can quickly head there by typing the following in Console mode:

/connect 181.12.1.300

If that server is password protected (for example, say the password is "scrim") then use the password command THEN connect to the server as follows:

/password scrim
/connect 181.12.1.300

The password must be set before connecting.

3. Frame rate check

How many frames are being drawn on your screen? Well this is an important question as it really affects your gameplay. Although there are many factors in this equation, your in-game reaction times will be better the faster your framerate is.

When in Console mode, use the /cg_drawfps command to have COD2 tell you your framerate. The following sets the framerate display on:

/cg_drawfps 1

This sets it off

/cg_drawfps 0

The framerate is in frames per second (fps). Tweak your system to keep that number above approximately 60 fps and you will be doing well. Let it fall into the 30-50's and you will notice perceptive lagging.

4. Game Lag

We will be discussing lag in another post, in the meantime you can see if you or the server is causing your gameplay to slow by using the /cg_lagometer command. Turn the lagometer on by typing:

/cg_lagometer 1

Turn it off by typing:

/cg_lagometer 0

You will see two graphs on the right side of your screen. We'll talk extensively about the lagometer in a future post. For now, the bottom graph is roughly representative of your ping. The lower the green line on this graph, the lower your ping. Red lines mean dropped packets.

The top graph is a measure of your graphics card. Video performance can be affected by ping - but not the reverse. If you have a connection interruption, or are dropping packets, or your ping goes high, you will likely see the top graph go up as well.

5. Recording mode

To record your play in the game, you can set COD2 to save your game like you were using a VCR. This is done with the /record command. The following example labels the name of the file "game1":

/record game1

You can use this feature for training purposes, demos, bragging rights, or even to catch cheaters! Remember, if you don't use a name for record mode - COD2 simply gives you a default name. If you look at the bottom left of your screen you will now see a "game1 xxK" title - this means you are recording! Use the following command to stop recording:

/stoprecord

To play what you have recorded back, use:

/demo game1

6. Binds

You can set "binds" in Console mode. For example if you want to set the "[" and the "]" keys to turn off/on the framerate viewer, you can type the following commands while in Command mode:

/bind [ "cg_drawfps 0"
/bind ] "cg_drawfps 1"

The keys will be "mapped" for the current session only. The bind will be lost the next time you log in. A better way to always have these commands set is to add them to your configuration file. We showed how to do this this earlier, in the post "A brighter day in COD2". A future post will show you how to permanently bind the above commands onto your keyboard.


Related posts:

A brighter day in COD2