iw4Strike v0.3.3 alpha (Windows, Linux untested)

Alpha update of iw4Strike: Counter-Strike gameplay on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 maps, built on IW4L.

Alpha. v0.3.3 fixes the stutters in matches, brings Counter-Strike 2's guns (experimental), AMD FSR 3, new audio options (output device, volume sliders, HRTF) and a CS2-style console, and makes the game faster again.

v0.3.3 keeps network protocol 103, so it plays with v0.3.2.

New in v0.3.3

Smoother matches

• No more stutters and freezes in matches on PCs with 16 GB of RAM. Each one held the game for 100 to 400 ms: it was using so much memory that Windows had to page it out. It now uses about 4 GB less (Favela with 9 bots: 11.3 GB → 7 GB).

• Sounds no longer hitch the first time they play. Every CS gun, player, radio and bomb sound, breaking glass and the map's own sounds are loaded with the match.

• Adding several bots at once no longer hitches the game.

• Higher FPS. The engine stopped redoing work every frame when nothing had changed. With 6 bots on our test PC:

  Map	FPS
  Highrise	173 → 211
  Afghan	164 → 191
  Favela	130 → 152
  Terminal	162 → 177
  Rust	257 → 271

• Firefights with many players shooting at once cost the server less.

Counter-Strike 2 (experimental)

• CS2's guns in your hands. Tick CS2's Use box in Manage Game Paths to get all 24 guns, the knife, the grenades and the C4. They come with CS2's arms, animations and materials: shotguns reload shell by shell, pistols lock their slide back, and the M4A1-S and USP-S show their silencer only when it's on. You still need CS:S, CZ or CS 1.6 for everything else.
• Knife and grenades in third person (work in progress): the knife takes the installed CS game's stance (CS2, CS:S, CZ or CS 1.6), on the server's hitboxes too, and its animations are still being worked on. Grenades are experimental.
• CS2's volumetric smoke (work in progress): smoke that fills the room and flows around corners. Smoke stays CS:GO's by default. Try it with smoke_mode cs2 (set by the host), and use smoke_quality high|medium|low to trade looks for speed.
• Blood splatters on the walls and floor behind a player a bullet hits, as in CS:GO.

Graphics

• AMD FSR 3 upscaling: Options > Advanced Video > AMD FSR 3 (Native AA, Quality, Balanced, Performance, Ultra Performance) and FSR Sharpness. From the console: r_fsr, r_fsr_sharpness.
• Sun shadows fixed:
  • Laundry, props and players out of view cast their shadows again.
  • No more dark blocks on the ground under trees.
• Muzzle flashes, bullet impacts and explosions light the area warm orange again. They had been lighting it teal.

Audio

• Volume sliders: Options > Audio has Master, SFX, Music, Voice and Ambient, each with a slider and a box to type the percent into.
• Output device: pick your speakers or headset in the game. It switches at once, mid-match included. Otherwise the game follows Windows' default device, including a headset you connect mid-match. From the console: snd_device.
• HRTF (Options > Audio, for headphones): hear whether a sound is in front or behind, above or below, not only left or right.
• CS 1.6 and CZ falls and deaths sound as in CS 1.6:
  • a flesh hit when a fall hurts;
  • a body splat when it kills;
  • CS's death cry for every death, instead of MW2's.
• Glass sounds as in MW2: one sound when a window cracks and one when it breaks. It sounded like an explosion before.

Console and window

• console_style 1 makes the console look like CS2's, read from your CS2 install. 0 keeps the original.
• In the console, Enter runs the typed line and right-click copies.
• The console window shows warnings and script errors by default.
• Exclusive fullscreen steps aside on Alt+Tab and Win+D, and lets the mouse go.
• The mouse arrow no longer disappears after screenshots, Alt+Tab or NVIDIA's Alt+Z overlay.

Fixes

• The main menu is no longer black with FSR 3 on.
• A riot-shield script error no longer appears every match.
• Linux:
  • Audio keeps playing through ALSA and PipeWire glitches.
  • Shaders and textures are cached in ~/.cache/iw4strike.

Known issues

• Mice at 4000 Hz or higher can cause short freezes. Use 1000 Hz for now; a fix is planned.
• Switching AMD FSR 3 modes quickly in the menu while taking screenshots (Win+Shift+S) can close the game: the graphics driver resets it. Pick the FSR mode first, then take screenshots.
• With CS2, the first time each gun is drawn it can take a moment to appear.
• Third person: the knife's animations are still a work in progress (it can point a little off in the hand), and grenades are experimental.

What you need

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) on Steam
• Counter-Strike: Source on Steam (weapon models, sounds, HUD and the buy menu are read from your install). Without it you can select Counter-Strike: Condition Zero or Counter-Strike 1.6 instead.
• Optional: Counter-Strike 2 on Steam, for CS2's guns (experimental). It needs one of the games above as well.

No game files are included.

How to play

Windows

1. Download iw4Strike-v0.3.3-windows.zip and extract it to a folder you can write to (for example Desktop or Documents, not Program Files).
2. Run iw4strike.exe. If SmartScreen warns you, click More info > Run anyway.
3. The game folders window shows what was found. MW2, CS:S and CS2 are found through Steam automatically; if not, press Browse... and select the folder. To play with Condition Zero or CS 1.6 instead of CS:S, untick CS:S's Use box. Then press Play. Later you can change this from Manage Game Paths on the main menu.
4. For the bomb mode, Create Game > Search and Destroy. Press B to buy. Press **** (the key under Esc) for the console, for example bot add 3`.

Linux (not tested yet)

1. Install MW2 in Steam through Steam Play: in its Properties > Compatibility, tick Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool, then install it. iw4Strike only reads its files. The native Linux CS:S works.
2. Download iw4Strike-v0.3.3-linux.tar.gz and extract it, for example to ~/Games: tar xzf iw4Strike-v0.3.3-linux.tar.gz.
3. Run ./iw4strike from that folder. You need a Vulkan graphics driver and Ubuntu 22.04 or newer (or a similar distribution).
4. Then the same as on Windows.