Yes its a real pain the way they do things. Here is a list of most display commands. In the past I used these in the video setup for EP -- EQ settings. I have started using them in my preset file too, just tweeked the values best I could find.
Code:
r_frame_buffer_scale 1.000
r_light_buffer_scale 1.000
o_max_farplane 650.000000
r_fast_layer_min_distance 25.000000
cl_textureshrink 1.0
cl_charactertextureshrink 1.0
r_texture_lodding_shrink 1.0
r_bloom false
r_bloom_atmospheric false
r_heatshimmer false
r_underwaterdistortion false
r_splashes 0.0
splash_particles_enabled false
r_update_procedural_textures true
r_drawocean_quality 3.0
r_envcube_updates 1.0
r_reflections 0.0
r_reflectionsinhouse 1.0
r_particle_priority 2.0
num_active_spell_results 3.0
r_particlesinrelfections true
r_particlesinrelfectionsinhouse false
r_particle_lod_scale 1.0
r_point_particle_max_size 0.300000
r_point_particle_near_plane 0.0
r_light_priority 1.0
r_max_torches 2.0
r_torch_intensity 1.0
r_max_lights 5.0
r_light_spec true
r_rain_spec false
r_max_spec_lights 2.0
r_light_bump_max_distance 10.000000
r_min_dir_ambient_intensity 0.300000
r_shadow_priority 1.0
r_shadows true
r_shadows_torch false
r_shadows_characters true
r_shadows_on_flora true
r_shadows_other false
r_shadows_spec false
cl_lod_scale 1.0
cl_lod_tridensity 80000.0
r_ec_max_lod0 5.0
r_ec_max_lod1 25.0
r_min_anim_update_rate 0.100000
r_anim_update_start 0.030000
r_initial_point_weight 0.850000
r_particle_cloth false
r_flora true
r_flora_displacement false
r_flora_radius_scale 1.0
r_flora_density_scale 1.0
These are the settings for ballanced btw..
Hope it helps any out.