Console commands and variables

cap_allow_tabbing_out_in_demos

• Default: 1
• If set to 1, allows tabbing out during demo playback without bringing up the pause menu.

cap_audio_bitrate

• Default: 256
• The audio bitrate, in kbps.

cap_audio_encoder

• Default: aac
• Sets the audio encoder, or shows the currently selected audio encoder. Other encoders include libopus and libvorbis (for WebM), libmp3lame and any others supported by FFmpeg.

cap_audio_encoder_settings

• Default: (empty)
• Sets the FFmpeg audio encoder settings in key=value key2=value2 <...> format.

cap_crf

• Default: 15
• Sets the video CRF (constant rate factor). The higher the value the lower the quality and the file size. For x264, 0 is lossless, 18 is visually lossless. Around 23 is a good value for YouTube, and 18 is a good value for downloadable video qualities.

cap_filename

• Default: capture.mp4
• Sets the output file name, relative to the Half-Life directory. Absolute paths are also supported, for example /home/yalter/video.mp4. If image sequence output is used, the filename should contain the format number specifier, just like in the FFmpeg command line parameters, for instance /home/yalter/temp/%03d.png.

cap_fps

• Default: 60
• Sets the output video FPS. The game is forced to run at this FPS when playing back demos, unless cap_sampling_sps is set. Allowed formats are <number> for <number> FPS and <numerator> <denominator> for <numerator>/<denominator> FPS, for example cap_fps "60000 1001".

cap_muxer_settings

• Default: movflags=+faststart
• Sets the FFMpeg muxer settings in key=value key2=value2 <...> format. The default value helps make .mp4 files start playing back faster over the network.

cap_pixel_format

• Default: (empty)
• Sets the output pixel format. If empty, uses the best format supported by the encoder. The values are the same as for the -pix_fmt FFmpeg option, for example yuv444p.

cap_playdemostop

• Default: 1
• If set to 1, stops the capturing automatically on demo end.

cap_sampling_exposure

• Default: 0.5
• The fraction of the frame exposed to incoming samples (from the end of the frame). Allowed values range from 0 (non-inclusive) to 1 (inclusive). See the HLAE documentation for more detail.

cap_sampling_sps

• Default: (empty)
• Samples Per Second. If set to a non-empty FPS value, enables sampling, and forces the game to run at that FPS during demo playback. Recommended values are multiples of cap_fps somewhere above 3000, for example 3840 for cap_fps 60. Allowed formats are <number> for <number> SPS and <numerator> <denominator> for <numerator>/<denominator> SPS, for example cap_sps "60000 1001".

cap_sound_extra

• Default: 0
• This value is in seconds. Sets how much extra sound to capture after the capture has been stopped. The sound is captured at that instant of time, so for example combined with cap_playdemostop 1, it records extra sound past the end of the demo, thus making it very useful for editing the segment transitions in segmented runs.

cap_start

• Starts the capturing.

cap_stop

• Stops the capturing.

cap_test

• Attempts to start and stop the capturing to check the settings, outputs if everything was good or if some error has happened.

cap_version

• Prints the hl-capture version.

cap_video_bitrate

• Default: 0
• The video bitrate, in kbps. Certain formats require this to be set to 0 for CRF to be used.

cap_video_encoder

• Default: libx264
• Sets the video encoder, or shows the currently selected video encoder. libx264 is the popular H.264 encoder which is very fast, has good quality and is supported by pretty much every player. Other encoders include libvpx for VP8, libvpx-vp9 for VP9, png for PNG frames and any others supported by FFmpeg.

cap_video_encoder_settings

• Default: (empty)
• Sets the FFmpeg video encoder settings in key=value key2=value2 <...> format.

cap_volume

• Default: 0.4
• Sets the output audio volume in the same way as volume controls the volume of the game's sounds that you hear. This means that you can set volume to 0 or any other value without affecting the capturing output.

cap_vpx_threads

• Default: 8
• Sets the number of threads libvpx uses for encoding.

cap_x264_preset

• Default: veryfast
• Sets the libx264 and libx265 encoding preset. These control the speed vs. quality ratio. Set to ultrafast for the fastest encoding speed. See the FFmpeg guide for more in-depth explanation.