Found this on the steamboards....pretty nifty.

If you don't care much for how the command works and my comparisons, just skip to the bottom.

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Currently, the highest settings that texture resolution can can be set to is "Very High". The command in the console that controls this setting is "mat_picmip". Looking at mat_picmip, the values go from 4 to -10. The higher the number, the more compression the texture is under.

Low settings: mat_picmip 2
Medium settings: mat_picmip 1
High settings: mat_picmip 0
Very High settings: mat_picmip -1

Here is the Very High settings compared to my own settings while looking at an object.
As you can see, there is a lot more detail in -3 than there is in Very High's -1 setting.

Here is another comparison:
Look at the circled spot on the left-side. This shows a bit of texture artifacting/blurring that follows the floor pattern. This mark doesn't show in mat_picmip -3.
You can also compare the seams in the Spy's gloves. On the left side, they are a bit blurry. On the right, the seams are much easier to see and even have more depth to them.

This image shows -1, -3, and the maximum value, -10 all together.
The leap between each of them is very noticeable, but there's a point before you won't really notice the detail, especially in a heated game. Other things such as in-game resolution will effect how well you will notice the higher settings, too.

I understand Valve's reasoning for not having any higher settings, as many of the people who play this game run it at medium-ish settings. I just thought I'd put this out there, for those like me who want every little graphical upgrade they can.

One final comparison, showing the difference in normal mapping. Notice the scouts gloves and the texture

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To enable this and see the differences yourself, type into the console (or preferably, in an autoexec):

Code:
mat_picmip #In place of the #, put in a negative number from -2 to -10 (-10 being the highest quality). If your system is a bit slow on these settings, just keep decreasing the number until you're somewhere you like.

Sweet! Maybe I'll finally be making use of those dual 9800's :-D

Giller, didn't you already post the exact same thing a while back?

Weird, I know for a fact that I've seen those pictures and this way to increase your texture resolution. Maybe on the Steam forums when I was looking for tech support.

I knew about it along time ago and tried it. I don't think the settings stay forever. I think it changes back to the original value you had before.