CS2 launch options: how to set them and which ones Valve documents

Launch options are text parameters Steam passes to a game when it starts. They can override the game’s internal settings before it loads. In Counter-Strike 2, Valve has documented some of them in patch notes and Steam Support pages.

This guide covers how to set launch options, the ones Valve has named for CS2 and the general Steam list of options for Source-engine games, as of the Aug. 14, 2025 update.

How to set launch options in Steam

Steam Support describes launch options as a way to change game settings before the game runs. It also calls them an effective means to recover from incompatible video settings and to troubleshoot issues.

Open your Steam Library.
Right-click Counter-Strike 2 and select Properties.
On the General tab, find the Launch Options section.
Enter the options you want. Separate each one with a space.
Close the Properties window and launch the game.

Steam Support also says launch options can be set for a game shortcut, which is a separate route from the Library.

Many console commands can work as launch options if you put a + in front of them. Steam Support adds that some cannot be used this way. An example from Valve’s own CS2 notes is +map de_dust2 in the dedicated server command line below.

Launch options Valve has documented for CS2

These options are named in Valve’s release notes and in Steam Support’s Trusted Mode page:

Option	What it does	Source
`-allow_third_party_software`	Lets software that is normally blocked work with the game	Steam Support, last updated Nov. 1, 2023
`-joy`	Restores joystick input	Valve patch notes, May 29, 2024
`-perfectworld`	Starts in Perfect World mode and skips the launch prompt in China	Valve patch notes, Sept. 29, 2023
`-worldwide`	Starts in worldwide mode and skips the launch prompt in China	Valve patch notes, Sept. 29, 2023
`-promptperfectworld`	Brings up the Perfect World or worldwide prompt at launch	Valve patch notes, Sept. 29, 2023
`-dedicated`	Starts a community dedicated server	Valve patch notes, Sept. 29, 2023

Trusted mode and -allow_third_party_software

Trusted mode in CS2 blocks third-party files from interacting with the game. According to Steam Support, it is enabled by default for all CS2 players. The same idea existed in CS:GO: Valve wrote in the July 23, 2020 release notes that Trusted Mode became the default launch mode there. It also deprecated the earlier Trusted Mode launch options and introduced -allow_third_party_software as the compatibility option.

Steam Support says there is no whitelist of software that can safely be injected into the game. In Trusted mode, all foreign software is blocked. To play with software that is normally blocked, add -allow_third_party_software to your launch options.

The page lays out several consequences of leaving Trusted mode:

In normal mode, software DLLs must be signed to inject. Unsigned DLLs make the game launch in insecure mode, which prohibits playing on VAC-secure servers.
Running outside Trusted mode does not by itself bring a ban. Steam Support says your Trust Factor may be negatively affected over time, but it does not guarantee a penalty.
Players in both modes are not excluded from playing with each other.
If you start incompatible software after the game has launched in Trusted mode, you may be disconnected from your match until you relaunch in Trusted mode. Steam Support says cooldowns received this way cannot be removed from your account, like other Competitive cooldowns.

Steam Support last updated this page on Nov. 1, 2023. It says that fixes for performance problems and crashes in Trusted mode are still to ship, so details may have changed since.

-joy: joystick input

Valve wrote in the May 29, 2024 patch notes that joystick input is now ignored by default in CS2. It called joystick input “not an officially supported feature of CS2.” You can restore the old behavior with the -joy launch option.

-perfectworld, -worldwide and -promptperfectworld

These options matter for players launching the game in China. Valve wrote in the Sept. 29, 2023 notes that players who launch there and have previously accepted the Steam China Subscriber Agreement get a prompt at launch. The prompt lets them select “-perfectworld” or “-worldwide” mode.

The prompt can be brought up with the -promptperfectworld command line flag. Using -perfectworld or -worldwide bypasses it completely.

Dedicated server command lines

The same Sept. 29, 2023 notes give a reference command line for launching a community dedicated server:

cs2 -dedicated +map de_dust2

To enable logging, add this to the server command line:

+sv_logfile 1 -serverlogging

Alternatively, put these two lines in a config file:

sv_logfile 1
log on

Valve also described HTTP logaddress forwarding with logaddress_add_http, which requires logging to be enabled as above. It wrote that dispatched logs can be handled the same way as in CS:GO.

Steam’s general list of launch options

Steam Support also keeps a list of common launch options. The page says they apply to GoldSrc and Source engine games only, not to most third-party games, and it does not name CS2. Treat the list below as background and check in the game whether an option has any effect.

Option	What Steam Support says it does
`-autoconfig`	Restores video and performance settings to default for the detected hardware. It ignores settings inside any .cfg files until you remove it
`-console`	Starts the game with the developer console enabled
`-toconsole`	Starts the engine directly in the console, unless a map is specified with `+map`
`-condebug`	Logs all console output into the console.log text file
`-dev`	Enables developer mode, disables loading of menu background maps and stops the quit dialog from appearing
`-novid` or `-novideo`	Skips the intro Valve video
`-fullscreen`	Forces fullscreen mode
`-windowed` or `-sw`	Forces windowed mode
`-w` and `-h`	Force a resolution width and height. Steam says `-h` is not needed if `-w` is set, because the width determines the height
`-refresh`	Forces a specific refresh rate
`-heapsize`	Sets the heap size in kilobytes the game will use
`-nocrashdialog`	Suppresses some “memory could not be read” unhandled errors
`-dxlevel`	Forces a specific DirectX version, useful on older graphics hardware

Steam Support warns that its games no longer support DirectX 7 as a launch option and that it can cause crashes. If you have -dxlevel 70 set, remove it.

Steam Support’s page also lists console commands that adjust detail levels, such as model, texture and shadow detail, with a + prefix; check in the game whether any of them take effect in CS2.

Removed options and frame rate limits

Valve wrote in the Oct. 2, 2024 notes that it “Removed support for command line options that were intended for development purposes only.” As a result, a development-only option that worked before that update may no longer do anything.

One related change concerns frame rates. Since the Aug. 14, 2025 update, fps_max can no longer be changed while connected to a server. The “Maximum FPS In Game” and “Maximum FPS In Menus” sliders in the Advanced Video settings control the fps_max and fps_max_ui convars. They were added on June 25, 2024.