Installation of HL, AG or any other mod dedicated server under Windows.

 

All mentioned files are included in archive with this instruction.

Instruction for laziest are at the end.

 

Version 2.1

2010.04.02

Made by Lev.

1.     Server downloading:

Go to http://store.steampowered.com and download Windows HLDS Update Tool (this file is included in archive under name "hldsupdatetool Installer.exe").

Start it. This is an installer. Point it to new folder, for example: C:\HLServer. It will create file HldsUpdateTool.exe that we will use.

Create there (in folder C:\HLServer) new file HldsUpdate.cmd with this text (these are commands):

HldsUpdateTool.exe -command update -verify_all -game valve -dir .

pause

Important: Point in the end of first row is mandatory. I.e. there should be space and the point at the end.

-game valve (defines what game mod will be downloaded)

To find what to specify for other mods run this command:

HldsUpdateTool.exe –command list

It will output list of available mods. For example for Counter-Strike 1.6 you should use “cstrike”.

For AG or any other mod that is absent from list download HL mod. I.e. download command exactly as specified above.

How to create cmd file? It is easy: create text file (txt), copy command in it and rename the file.

Now, if you will run HldsUpdate.cmd file server will be downloaded in that folder.

Run it several times while it will not write at finish: «HLDS installation up to date».

2.     Downloading of additional files:

Now we have a server.

If you will run it, it will allow only steam clients to enter. One more moment: nowadays steam clients use protocol with version 48, but old non steam clients 47. So we have 2 task to solve: allow to enter clients with old 47 protocol and allow non steam clients (protocol 48).

For that you have to go to cs.rin.ru, specifically here: http://cs.rin.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=52728

Find and download latest version of dproto (currently it is 0.4.8). This is a plugin for metamod.

Direct link for downloading: http://cs.rin.ru/forum/download/file.php?id=9766

To use dproto you have to setup metamod. I recommend version 1.19p32, you can get it here: http://metamod-p.sourceforge.net/

Direct link for downloading: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/metamod-p/metamod-p-1.19p32-windows.zip?download

 

Now, what to do with all this?

3.     Setting up metamod and dproto plugin under it.

Metamod needs to be set up separately for each mod. So find in which folder your mod reside. For example HL is in valve folder, AG is in ag and CS is in cstrike.

I will specify how to install Metamod for HL in this example.

Go into folder C:\HLServer\valve and create there folder named addons. Enter this newly created folder and create there two folders named metamod and dproto (this one will be used for dproto installation).

So, now you have two folders:

C:\HLServer\valve\addons\metamod

and

C:\HLServer\valve\addons\dproto

In first folder extract metamod. I.e. file metamod.dll should be placed in folder C:\HLServer\valve\addons\metamod.

Now, near metamod.dll create file metamod.ini (you can use the same technique as in creation of cmd file). And write this line in file plugins.ini:

win32 addons/dproto/dproto.dll

Next, from archive with dproto extract file dproto.dll (it is reside in bin\windows folder), and put it in C:\HLServer\valve\addons\dproto folder.

Now you should point the server to load metamod at start. Here how to do it: in folder of any mod (for us this is C:\HLServer\valve folder) is file liblist.gam, it is text file so you can open it with notepad. In it seek for row starting with gamedll (but not gamedll_linux) and comment it out (place // in the start of the string). After that string add another so you get it looks like this:

//gamedll "dlls\hl.dll"

gamedll "addons\metamod\metamod.dll"

For dproto you also need to copy dproto.cfg file from archive to folder with the server or in the mod directory (in that case you can have different config files for different mods). If you don’t know – put it in server folder, i.e. C:\HLServer.

For some targets you may need SteamID generation for non-steam clients (for example, this is a mandatory for AG Mod), so open dproto.cfg with notepad and change cid_NoSteam47 and cid_NoSteam48 parameters to 3, here how it should look:

cid_NoSteam47 = 3

cid_NoSteam48 = 3

 

Now you have a server on which you can play with almost any client version.

4.     How to run the server?

In server folder (C:\HLServer) create file hlds.cmd with following content:

start /HIGH hlds.exe -console +maxplayers 10 +map crossfire +port 27015

What all that mean:

/HIGH (start server process with high priority)

-console (start server with console interface, not GUI)

+maxpalyers 10 (maximum number of players allowed to play)

+map crossfire (map loaded at server start)

+port 27015 (port used to listen for incoming connections).

If you need to start a mod then add to startup string this: -game <mod folder name>, for example (for AG):

start /HIGH hlds.exe -console +maxplayers 10 +map crossfire +port 27015 -game ag

There are much more parameters you can use, you can read about them in Internet. :)

That’s all. Just run hlds.cmd file and your HL server will start to work.

5.     Helpful hints.

If you are intend to play on computer where your run your server (and even if you don’t intend), I recommend to set high priority to server process (parameter/HIGH of start command serves for this).  This will give you lags free play.

Also I recommend to install FPS booster – mmtimer.

 

For automatic server startup you can use third-party software.

6.     Installation of AG mod.

Download AG installer (latest version 6.6) from http://agmod.planethalflife.gamespy.com. Currently site is down, so find installer somewhere in the Internet.

While setup AG select server folder, i.e. C:\HLServer. Installer will create folder “ag” there and will place mod files there.

Delete file C:\HLServer\ag\cheats.dat.

Copy files steam.inf and steam_appid.txt from folder C:\HLServer\valve into C:\HLServer\ag.

Open file steam_appid.txt in Notepad and add row at the end: «delete cheats.dat», so it should looks like this:

70

delete cheats.dat

Install metamod and dproto plugin for AG like described above on HL example.

For server startup create file agds.cmd in server folder with following content:

start /HIGH hlds.exe -console +maxplayers 10 +map crossfire +port 27020 -game ag

Here, for example, specified different from default port. Because you can’t run two servers with same port on same IP address.

 

Any other mod missing in HldsUpdateTool listing should be installed like AG. I.e create mod folder, copy mod files there and specify mod in startup string:

-game <mod folder name>.

7.     Instructions for laziest.

For simple life you can get HLServer folder from archive, copy it to disk C for example and run there HldsUpdate.cmd.

Run it several times while it will not write at finish: «HLDS installation up to date».

Install AG in that folder. And because installer overwrites file liblist.gam, you have to get it again from archive (from HLServer\ag  into C:\HLServer\ag), and delete cheats.dat file.