A New Way To Idle? - Games - Facepunch Forum

EDIT: Added useful Launch Options as suggested by the extremely useful Facepunch community. Well I didn't see a thread about this on Facepunch, so I'm going to give it a go. [url=http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1189993&page=5]Source: Steam Forums[/url] Users Red Dot and Mvwill first brought it to my attention that you can now idle in a nice DOS window entirely through Steam with the (EDIT: Apparently it's not new) new "-textmode" launch option. Step 1: Right click on tf2 in steam and click on "launch options". Step 2: Type in -textmode. Step 3: Launch the game. At first it will appear to be launching normally, but the screen will eventually disappear and will be replaced with what appears to be a dos prompt. Step 4: Go to the servers tab on steam and find your favorite idling server. Connect to it. Step 5: Kick back and relax, because you now have a completely legal idling program! USEFUL LAUNCH OPTIONS! In addition to -textmode, you should also consider adding these to the launch command list. For each additional command, simply add a space in between each one. -novid -nosound -nopreload -noshaderapi (When you use this command; you'll have to reset your video settings next time you play) No Vid will bypass the video that opens up with the Valve logo. Your game will promptly bring up the TF2 menu, then close out to the DOS box. No sound will disable sound. I don't know what no preload does, but it reportedly lowers memory useage by a significant amount. No shaderapi will allow you to run TF2 in textmode on many computers that would usually be unable to run the game. Useful for idling on shittiest hardware. [b]YOU WILL NOT BE VAC BANNED![/b] [img]http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/9898/idled.jpg[/img] I'm currently testing it now, and it seems to work fine. Valve said they would not tolerate third party programs, but this is done entirely with Steam. As you can see, the HL2.exe is also still running. However, I do see this being short lived. What does Facepunch think?

I don't know. I'll wait and see what happens to other people.

I can't wait to get my set of angel wings!

[QUOTE=Communist Cake;20754476]I don't know. I'll wait and see what happens to other people.[/QUOTE] Probably the safest and most smart option.

I'll give it a go.

Doing it now, but I got a weird black bar at the bottom left of my screen.

[QUOTE=MAspiderface;20754555]Doing it now, but I got a weird black bar at the bottom left of my screen.[/QUOTE] I do as well (you can see it in my pic). I can't explain it, but it's a minor nuisance.

i don't see the point as it still takes up as much resources as if it was just alttabbed.

This looks awesome, but I'm not gonna risk it.

also, if you go to its window, you hear sounds ingame like its running.

So it's TF2 with every graphical bit stripped away. It's basically the same as alt+tabbing in an idle server.

But this brings back th love of Steamstats.exe [u]EXCEPT WE'RE ACTUALLY RUNNING HL2.EXE AND IN-GAME SO THIS IS PERFECTLY FINE ACCORDING TO VALVE[/U]

Its like running TF2 with infinite FPS!

This is nice, but I got spooked out when I started hearing sentries.

Not risking until someone e-mails and gets a response from Robin. Actually, that's silly. Trying it anyway. :)

Ugh. It's taking all my will and self-control not to idle.

If it still uses a ton of resources and you still hear sounds, my bets are that all it does is hide the game's window. Everything is still being rendered just as if you were running it in windowed mode.

Maybe we can finally have the text based TF2 game.

[QUOTE=Shugo;20754867]If it still uses a ton of resources and you still hear sounds, my bets are that all it does is hide the game's window. Everything is still being rendered just as if you were running it in windowed mode.[/QUOTE] -noshaderapi will disable the need for a gfx card that has 3d acceleration. -nosound disables the audio.

North You stumble into a demominefield. The owner has not noticed you. Ahead of you you see the Enemy's Intelligence, ready for theft. Take Intelligence The Demoman heard you attempt to steal, setting off his minefield. You are turned into a smoldering pile of giblets. ***YOU ARE DEAD. NOT BIG SURPRISE***

-snip-

!!![b]To mute sound[/b]!!!! add: -nosound to your launch options Those of you who think there will be repercussions for using "-textmode", you better get off your paranoia high horse. A hl2.exe launch option is a hl2.exe launch option. It's part of the game, nothing is modified. Here are other launch options that are in the same game code section [.dll file] as "-textmode" -dxlevel -novid -noborder -window -fullscreen -nosound -autoconfig -height -width -high -condebug -nocrashdialog shall I go on?

[QUOTE=Keychain;20754485]I can't wait to get my set of angel wings![/QUOTE] I might not use them if Valve gave the people who didn't use this method both angel and demon wings, and gave out more misc items. Sure, its not 3rd party, but its not safe. Oh, its safe=few months later, Valve decides to crack down on this and removes all illegal items(or all if you used the idler program before) from this method. Thanks, but no thanks. Want to lose your items again, fine by me, but I am not going to do this shit again.

They said they didn't like 3rd Party Idling Software. This is not 3rd party idling software.

I stopped idling. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have [b]enough[/b] hats.

[QUOTE=ihatecompvir;20755415]They said they didn't like 3rd Party Idling Software. This is not 3rd party idling software.[/QUOTE] You don't know if they will crack down on this, in the words of L4D: Better safe than sorry Better safe than sorry Better safe than sorry Better safe than sorry Better safe than sorry Okay, vote, who thinks this thing(textmode) will cause Valve to crack down on this again. Hell, Valve might have added or kept textmode for TF2 to see how many people used it, if they can track it down.

How do you know when the server loses connection to the Steam servers?

I already got 3 items doing this. [editline]04:59AM[/editline] [url]http://www.tf2items.com/id/maspiderface[/url]

How can I even tell if I'm getting anything like this. MID POST EDIT I GOT JARATE FINALLY [editline]01:02AM[/editline] And Hey! I'm not losing connection to Vac servers, this shit is my new form.

I still believe Source Tools is better.