Aah, finally finished the first AppleBits column. Uberacating, get it? Arnt I witty. Well what better way to start off applebits then focusing my first article on how to properly set it up. This is a list of everything I can think of to set up your tfc game for the best performance. If I miss anything, am inacurate or theres anything awry, submit it and Ill change it or mention your idea next article. Even if you consider yourself vetey this is a nice checklist to make sure your all set. Happy reading.

CONTROLS

Last Used Weapon
        If your mouse wheel is acurate enough to flip through weapons fast get used to using it, however mine is not and I personally recomend seting Q to last used weapon, this helps tons when you get used to it. Especially soldiers, medics and spies who need to quickly toggle between 2 weapons. Importance: 5

Class Controls
        Set your demoman 5sec det and spy feign death in the control options menu, its not very important but can help out if you play these classes a lot. Engies may want to bind their own keys and so may spies and demo's who want the rest of the spy/demo menu on their keyboard. If you dont know how to bind or what the commands are there are links at the end of this column to help you out. Importance: 4

Command Menu
        The default tfc command menu (shift in game) is extreamly NOT helpful, get my custom one here. Even if you dont like the binds its a good place to start to see what I did and modify them yourself. Note: Ignore the BAY specific binds, it was intended for bay members. Importance: 8

VISUALS

Custom crosshairs
        Get custom crosshairs!!! I cant stress this more, you may have gotten used to it but I will assure you that alot of times you cant see your crosshair and will loose accuracy. A nice sleek one made by wrench can be found here (the hud picture below is using these crosshairs). However the most accurate and game improving crosshairs I know of are sumo's. Heres a picture, the link to the download is at the end as a file of the week. Importance:10

Super Sumo's crosshairs. Simple, sleek but more importantly, accurate.

Custom HUD
        While the default crosshairs are definatly much harder to see the hud also can be a problem when you need to look down and quickly know how much health you have. Definatly not as important as the custom crosshairs it is still one factor in making a well executed tfc environment. Heres a picture of my favorite, the link is at the end as a file of the week. Importance: 5

Ooooh sleek

Custom rockets and concusion grenades
        Definatly not the most important thing to have, but its ever so slightly helpful. For the tfc player who wants to spot soldiers and concers ever so slightly better or notice a rocket to dodge, if you dont want to worry about it, dont, its not important, but mods like this are mainly to spice up your game, not to increase performance in my opinion, and it sure does look cool. Heres a picture of my favorite the link is at the end as a file of the week. Importance: 1 Coolness: 10! :-p

Screw rockets, eat my blue orb!

PERFORMANCE

Video Settings
        Theres been lots of debate on the specific video settings you should have, my opinion? Select OpenGl and pick the largest resolution you think your game can handle, up to 1024X768, without a loss in game performance. Limited to 1024 since after that things just get a little too small, and will not increase gameplay, only possibly slow down your game.
         In the video menu choose a resolution and then go to a packed server (like [BAY]) and jump into a crowd and see if you get jittery (Make sure your not confusing performance problems with ping problems), if you do find performance problems, then lower your resolution, then pump it up until you hit 1024x768. Alot of people think theres lag on servers with alot of people (like bay's) when its really a performance issue. A screen with clearer details and small but readable text will make your gaming much more perceptive. Importance:7

Configuring Autoexec
        You should decide wether or not you want to configure your autoexec file. Theres a great page by tweak3d here that will actually make one for you after you choose what settings you want. Should you get a custom autoexec? If your half life game is framey at all you should, it will increase fps. If you dont care about increasing fps then dont worry about it. Importance: 9 (slow computerss) 1 (faster computers)

Ping Issues
        If your ping is lower then 100 dont worry abut it unless your gready. 100 and over can pose some performance issues when playing. If your using a dial up modem then well, thats your problem, but if your using cable or dsl and getting above 100 there might be a problem somewhere. But if you cant help but have to deal with pings above 100 there may be ways to reduce them, especially on a packed server like bay. The main way to configure tfc to reduce lag is to fiddle with your rate and see how it effects your net_graph. An easy quick tutorial by planetfortress on how can be found here. Importance: 0 (ping below 100), 4 (using dial up modem), 10 (using cable/dsl with ping above 100)

Brightness
        Dark spots are a problem in tfc, sometimes you wont see who you shoot or a sniper will get you from somewhere you cant see. To take off shadows open up your config.cfg in your tfc folder with notepad and type lightgama "0" on one of the lines. Importance: 6

       Well that about sums up everything that I know about customizing tfc for best performance. Happy playing, now for the goodies.

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HOW TO BIND YOUR OWN KEYS
If hitting ~ doesn't pull down the console in game go here.
If you need a good tutorial on binding go here.
If you just want a good list of binds go here.
If you want every freaking tfc bind there is go here.
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Column Goodies
The following goodies have recieved the official donkey's seal of aproval
Super Sumo's custom crosshairs
Dr. Flexyjerkov's custom rockets\
HydRo's custom HUD
Custom TFC's custom concs

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Beyond
By: AcidReniX & Caesium

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