Developer console

Developer console is a tool available on video games, which is usually accessed by pressing the tilde (~) or grave key (`) key (the key may be different for keyboards with different language set-up; it is usually the key to the left of 1). They may only be accessed on PC and Mac. The console can be used to significantly alter the game, including but not limited to making the player invincible, obtaining a weapon that would normally be impossible to get, free-flying, changing game rules and more. The console can be used for testing and to give information useful to the developers of the game, generally for debugging, hence the term "developer console".

Since Call of Duty uses the same base for most of its game engines, many commands remain the same throughout the series.

Note: While activating the console in games until Call of Duty: World at War is rather simply done completely in-game, starting with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the game files have to be altered. Editing the configuration files ("config.cfg" and "config_mp.cfg") in all of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is safe and cannot lead to a VAC ban, although in the later games the corresponding files are encrypted and are not considered safe to edit. Console enabler mods in any games are also very likely to result in a ban. Generally, if the player is not aware of what they are doing, they should not do it.

Call of Duty
The process for enabling console commands in Call of Duty is different to the others, as it runs on the ID Tech 3 Engine.


 * 1) Right click on the Call of Duty Single Player shortcut and select "Properties"
 * 2) In the "Target" field enter +set thereisacow 1337 +set developer 1 +set sv_cheats 1 +set monkeytoy 0 (e.g. "C:\Program Files\Call of Duty\CoDSP.exe +set thereisacow 1337 +set developer 1 +set sv_cheats 1 +set monkeytoy 0)
 * 3) Start up the game, press the tilde key (~) or grave key (`) to enter console.
 * 4) Some computers, like Macintosh using bootcamp does not have this capability.

Singleplayer

 * 1) From the in-game options, the player should enable the console.
 * 2) The player should then press the tilde key (~) or grave key (`) to open the console.
 * 3) The player can now type seta thereisacow 1337 and press Enter.
 * 4) The player may now type spdevmap [mapname] (or devmap [mapname] in Nazi Zombies) and press Enter.
 * 5) This will start whichever map was typed in with console commands enabled. While playing, the player can press the tilde or grave key to bring up the console and type in commands. The player can press Enter to activate them, type them in again, and press Enter to deactivate them.

Note: The player has to devmap or spdevmap as opposed to selecting a map from the mission select screen in order for the commands to be available. In addition, the mission names are not always their in-game names. For example, Death From Above would start with spdevmap ac130, and Nacht der Untoten would start with devmap nazi_zombie_prototype. The names can be seen in their individual articles on the wiki or by browsing the game files. To find out the codename of the map you are currently playing on simply type mapname in the console, the first option in the dropdown shows the codename of the current map.

Multiplayer

 * 1) The player should go to multiplayer and open the console
 * 2) The player can then enter devmap [mapname]</tt>. This will load a new server on with whichever map was entered with commands enabled.
 * 3) The player may now enter commands with a /</tt> in front of them. Not doing so will merely send what was typed as a message.

Note: Not all commands will work.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops
To enable console cheats for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or Call of Duty: Black Ops the player must do the following:
 * 1) Open the file location where the game is located (in most cases it is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\game title") and go to "players" folder
 * 2) Open "config" (for singleplayer) or "config_mp" (for multiplayer) with a text-editing program such as Notepad
 * 3) Locate  (can be found easily by searching monkey with Ctrl+F) and change it to
 * 4) Go to the bottom of the text and type in
 * 5) Press enter twice
 * 6) Type  (where   is replaced with the desired key used for the command and   is replaced with the desired command)
 * 7) Click back to "players" and right click on "config"
 * 8) Click "Properties" and turn off "Read Only"
 * 9) Save the "config file"
 * 10) Right click on "config", click "Properties", and enable "Read Only"

The player should note that the tilde or grave key will not work in singleplayer. The only way to use the command console now is to simply enter bind commands into the config.cfg file.

To use the cheats, the  command must be used:   - on the place of X the player must put a key, which is not in use (they should check the other "bind" lines, and ensure that the key they want is not already in use). On the place of Y, between the two tildes, the player must put the cheat code. Before someone attempts to enable the cheats bound, they need to bind the  command and enable it every time they start the game. The bind should look like this:, where X is the bound key.

Examples of bound console commands:



When ingame, the player simply has to press one of these keys, and the cheat code will be activated.

Codes and Effects
Commands can be enabled and disabled, depending on how they must be activated. The most basic will require the player to simply enter the command to activate, and enter it again to deactivate (ex.  and  ). There are also commands that are activated and deactivated by entering the number 1 after it to activate, and 0 to deactivate (ex. ).

There are also commands that alter game elements. These cannot be activated, but changed. When entering in one of these commands, the console will say "Domain is any number between X and Y (X and Y being the minimum and maximum values)." As such, the player can enter any number between X and Y to change the domain, and as a result, the effect. The default is also given, so players can return to the normal value if they wish. An example is "timescale 1", which dictates the game's speed. The default is 1, but players can enter any value between 0.001 (X) and 1000 (Y).

Below is a list of some of the most useful console commands. Note that the underscore ( _ ) cannot be used in place of a space, and vice versa.

Usage in Multiplayer
Console commands that can potentially give the player an unfair advantage cannot be used in online multiplayer. Certain visual and harmless tweaks can be used, such as those to toggle HUD elements such as crosshair, or edit graphical settings such as removing fog. On LAN servers however, commands can still be used as normal.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The following images (save the last two and the pickup icons) use a field of vision of 120.

Trivia

 * In Call of Duty 4, if the player uses  all of the lasers on the weapons will originate from the barrel. However, if the player has an M4A1 without attachments it will originate from the AN/PEQ-2A and curve towards the barrel.
 * Only Call of Duty: World at War can have third person mode activated in the singleplayer campaign, unlike other Call of Duty installments which can only be activated in multiplayer.
 * In Treyarch games, the player will be notified in the top left corner if the console command is activated or deactivated.