developer

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For information about being a developer for Valve games, see Steam 3rd Party Mod Support.

developer is a console variable available in all Source games. It enables various levels of developer debugging options. This includes entity diagnostic information which will be printed to the console and also at the top of the screen.

Syntax: developer <value>

Valid values are:

• 0: No debugging information (standard behavior)
• 1: Standard debugging information:

• console messages appear in the top-left of the player's HUD (amount of lines shown adjustable by contimes cvar)
• execution of certain commands like ent_text and npc_kill is allowed
• VPhysics penetration errors are displayed in the map
• console logs exec-ed scripts
• etc.

• 2: More debugging information; console displays:

• input/output events
• errors and events in scripted sequences
• loaded models during map load
• entities transferred to next map when changing level
• NPCs that aren't in squads
• notification when orphaned child entities are removed when parent entity no longer exist
• etc.

• 3: Same as 2, but with more console messages
  Todo: Does this introduce any of the debugging stuff otherwise associated with 4?
• 4: Highest(?) level of debugging information; bounding boxes can show up on objects with VPhysics errors, etc.

developer 4 adds additional on-screen info like where the clients crosshair is pointing (not in HL2/Source 2013, shows the crosshair of all the players in multiplayer) and shows hitboxes and boundboxes when collision anomalies or errors occur.

Todo: Better details here!

Developer mode can also be enabled via the -dev or -developer command line switches, either as a shortcut or Steam command line. The Left 4 Dead series relies on this switch in order to load into developer mode.

See also

Other console commands and variables that a developer may find useful include:

• sv_cheats
• impulse

If you are looking for information about being a developer for Valve games, you may instead find these pages useful:

• Steam 3rd Party Mod Support