Customizing Team Fortress 2 is the act of exploiting the modular nature of Source Engine games to modify settings and game files in the Team Fortress 2 directory that could not be done in-game using the built in settings or developers console. Modifications to the HUD, game, and control settings can be made to customize the player's gaming experience.

Disclaimer: Modifying game files may leave Team Fortress 2 in a broken or otherwise unplayable state. Any mods you install may not work in sv_pure servers. Mods in the cfg folder and HUDs will work regardless of sv_pure.

If you've just downloaded this game, make sure you enable the console by going to Options > Keyboard > Advanced and checking "Enable developer console". This will allow you to change settings not otherwise available. By default, the key to open the console is the tilde ` key (in the top left corner). While you're there also check "Fast weapon switch".

1. Open the console now and type (without quotations): "fov_desired 90". This allows you to see more on your screen.
   
2. Enter "cl_autoreload 1". This enables automatic reload, which has no real downside.
   
3. Enter "hud_combattext 1" and "tf_dingalingaling 1". This allows you to both see exactly how much damage you've done and hear when you've done damage.
   
4. Enter "tf_dingaling_pitchmaxdmg 70" "tf_dingaling_pitchmindmg 130". This will change the pitch of your hitsound depending on how much damage you've done. Low = more damage, high = less damage.

Go in to Options > Video > Advanced and change everything to as low as you can go/want. This is pretty self-explanatory and easy for most people. FPS configs do this automatically, so you can skip this if you want to go more in-depth.

FPS configs execute console commands that change your TF2 graphics and network settings.

https://mastercomfig.com/ — constantly updated with tweaks, new features and documentation improvements. To install, copypasta the contents into a file called "autoexec.cfg". This file does not exist by default, you will need to create it and save it in "Steam\SteamApps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\cfg\". autoexec is automatically executed whenever you start the game or join a server. Edit accordingly to your needs, and READ THE COMMENTS IN THE CONFIG, especially if you want sprays, ragdolls, shadows and so on.

There are other cfg's out there, try and see which one you prefer. Alternatively, you can create your own custom config over at https://cfg.tf/make/.

Open this by right clicking on TF2 in your library > Properties > Set Launch Options. Almost 100% of the time this is what you'll want:
IMPORTANT: Remove -dxlevel 81 from the launch options after the first launch!

Fullscreen: -dxlevel 81 -full -w WIDTH -h HEIGHT -console -novid -useforcedmparms -noforcemaccel -noforcemspd
Windowed: -dxlevel 81 -sw -w WIDTH -h HEIGHT -console -noborder -novid -useforcedmparms -noforcemaccel -noforcemspd

If you want to know why, read this: http://etf2l.org/forum/customise/topic-16829/?recent=393545

While not a performance improvement, having a nice HUD with well placed elements will improve your gaming experience.

• http://huds.tf/ - A large collection of HUDs. Some popular ones include eveHUD, PVHUD, and broeselhud.
  
• https://toonhud.com/ - You can create your own HUD; highly customizable and easy-to-use. If you're lazy, you pick up some pre-made one!

http://teamfortress.tv/thread/16179/no-hats-mod - This mod replaces hat models with nothing, meaning your computer isn't rendering the hats (or unusual particles), which means better performance. You may experience longer loading times though.

If your settings are getting rolled back every time you start TF2, go into Advanced Multiplayer Options and disable "Synchronize with the Steam Cloud". Then go into your Steam library, right click Team Fortress 2 > Properties > Updates tab and uncheck "Enable Steam Butt synchronization for Team Fortress 2". Alternatively, you may also disable Steam Butt for all games in your Steam settings.

If it still happens, add "-autoconfig" to your TF2 launch options (see the above section "LAUNCH OPTIONS" if you don't know how). This will reset your config.cfg and other settings back to default, and you can start fresh without any bs. As a last resort, try deleting the userdata folder in your Steam folder (the one with Steam.exe) or just reinstall Steam. I've often found that the userdata folder contains sprays and config files for TF2 that I don't want.

These make your game look better at the price of FPS or performance. Most of them are tweaks of things Valve forgot to fix. All hail the useful members of the community. Don't install HD skins if you want performance. Most of these don't work in sv_pure 2 servers.

• http://tf2tip.maxofs2d.net/ - Improvement of textures. May have an impact on performance.
  
• http://gamebanana.com/tf2/skins/69848 - Enable water reflections.
  
• http://gamebanana.com/tf2/skins/92782 - Cinematic lightwarp, very pretty.
  
• More things can be found here: http://tf2.gamebanana.com/skins and here: http://tf2mods.net and here: http://mods.tf/

The native Linux build of TF2 uses the same console commands, so FPS configurations are still functional. Linux TF2 uses OpenGL, but forcing DX8 or DX9 in the launch options does the same changes as on Windows. The Steam folder is usually in ".steam" or ".local/share/Steam" in your home folder; everything else is exactly like Windows. There is no reason to run TF2 in wine these days unless you need the SDK compiling tools (if you want to submit gold star workshop items). Linux TF2 comes with a native VPK executable out-of-the-box, so you can make VPK files without Wine.

If you still can't get any performance out of Linux, or Linux performs worse than Windows out of the box, try getting a proprietary graphics driver. >MUH FREEDOMS dictates that Linux distros shouldn't use proprietary software, and thus come with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ open source driver that barely works and can only do 2D stuff reasonably well. So you will need to download official NVIDIA drivers seperately. Now there's about 90 million distros so just google around for instructions on how to install a proprietary driver for your distro/graphics card. For Ubuntu-based distros, you can likely find the drivers in your package manager or driver manager.

Note: Occasionally Linux users will get huge performance drops when joining a server (only being able to reach 5 FPS while playing) even with an accelerated proprietary driver. This is caused by mods from what I've seen, and you'll likely have to reconnect to the server or restart the game. You may also encounter 0 FPS and stuttering when joining a server as well, which appears to be caused by the client downloading something in the background. Just wait for it, and eventually the game will be playable at full framerate again.

1. More mods in your custom folder means longer load times and possibly FPS loss. Therefore, keep them to a minimum and ALWAYS make VPK files, especially if you have a slow hard drive. If you use folders, the game will ask your hard drive for the custom files it needs when the game needs to render or load it, meaning framerate drops while playing. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS MAKE VPK FILES, I CAN'T STRESS THAT ENOUGH, DON'T BE LAZY.
   
   
2. "mat_phong 0" removes phong shading which gives everything a matte (rather than shiny) texture. Some people find this aesthetically pleasing and it boosts performance somewhat.
   
   
3. "mat_filterlightmaps 0" does not give you much performance, but gives a blocky Minecraft light effect. If you use this in a config, go to the console and set it to 1 and then back to 0 for it to work again.
   
   
4. Fullscreen mode usually gives you more FPS than windowed mode because windowed mode still has your desktop environment rendering behind the game.
   
   
5. Run TF2 in the lowest resolution possible. 640x480 is the lowest resolution TF2 can run in. You can make this even smaller with mat_viewportscale, but it gives little performance boost. Using CCLeaner (or BitBleach equivalent on Linux) and keeping your OS optimized is also a good step into getting more frames. If you have 100 Chrome tabs running, all with Adobe Flash Player creating memory leaks, then you are going to get ♥♥♥♥ performance obviously.
   
   
6. Defragment your hard drives (if you use NTFS filesystem) and verify your game cache.

Thanks for reading till the end. This was my first ever guide and by no means it is perfect, if you have suggestions or questions, feel free to post them below!