How do I host a single map on a hosted Windows Server

I am trying to set up a server for team to team competition. We only want a single map on the hosted server. I have tried numerous things to get the map to show up. I can get the map to work on a LAN by putting the pk3 file in the saved games/xonotic/data folder with Windows 7.

On the hosted Windows server, I have put the pk3 file in the /data folder. Also created a /data/maps folder and put it in there. I also put it in the /data/data folder.

When these didn’t work, based on http://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php?tid=4183, I pointed sv_curl_defaultur to a location and put the pk3 files in there.

When that didn’t work I put in a curl_url.txt.

So I am now stuck and looking for some suggestions. Unfortunately, I am not experienced with this stuff at all.

PK3 files are only loaded from the data directory root, i.e. /data.

You don't need a curl_url.txt if your third party maps are all hosted in the same place. The way sv_curl_defaulturl is used is to prepend it to the mapname.pk3 to form a URL which should point to the PK3. If your sv_curl_defaulturl is "http://example.com", the formed url will be "http://example.commapname.pk3" which is clearly wrong. What is your sv_curl_defaulturl set to?

Can you tell me how exactly your server failed? I can't really tell what's wrong with your setup if I don't know how it fails.

The server acts the same as if I didn't have the map in the data directory. We are using a shortened version of the courtfun map. The file is courtfun-full-6a3743c3a9b381eb93a020a842a2aec57d082a6f-bce306f786f2cd5f43e4f82a8b23efecabeb6756.pk3. I have the sv_curl_defaulturl in the server.cfg disabled at the moment. I have both the BSP only and the Full pk3 in the /data file.

Can you tell me how exactly your server failed? I can't really tell what's wrong with your setup if I don't know how it fails.

The server acts the same as if I didn't have the map in the data directory.

Oh, so the server itself won't acknowledge the map's presence?

Do you start the server with the map in the data directory? If you put the map there while the server was running, you need to either do "fs_rescan" or restart the server.

Anyway, what do you expect the server to do if everything worked right?

You can check if the map is loaded with this command:

Code:

ls maps/*.mapinfo

If the mapinfo is listed there, you can put the map in the maplist and it should work just fine, if the game type is compatible.

The code below pulls up a list of maps but not the one I want. We just want this one map on the server, all the others can go away.

I have stopped and started the server numerous times.

I would settle for the behavior we get when we "Create" a game for LAN play on Windows 7. I have put the map in the "saved games" xonotic/data file. When, on the LAN game, we choose courtfun as a map, it automatically pulls up the modified map from the pk3 I put in the data folder. Unfortunately, the server does not have this same folder structure. Otherwise I could just duplicate the action of putting it in the same folder.

Oh, so the server itself won't acknowledge the map's presence?

Do you start the server with the map in the data directory? If you put the map there while the server was running, you need to either do "fs_rescan" or restart the server.

Anyway, what do you expect the server to do if everything worked right?

You can check if the map is loaded with this command:

Code:

ls maps/*.mapinfo

If the mapinfo is listed there, you can put the map in the maplist and it should work just fine, if the game type is compatible.

Heh, the pk3s don't have mapinfos. Try this then:

Code:

ls maps/*.bsp

should show maps/courtfun.bsp among others.

The server should have the exact same folder structure. Where do you put your server.cfg? Any pk3 in the same directory as server.cfg should be loaded.

Heh, the pk3s don't have mapinfos. Try this then:

Code:

ls maps/*.bsp

should show maps/courtfun.bsp among others.

The server should have the exact same folder structure. Where do you put your server.cfg? Any pk3 in the same directory as server.cfg should be loaded.

So the courtfun.bsp shows up in the list. However, it is not the modified courtfun that we want to use.

The server doesn't have the saved games folder that is on Windows 7

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Heh, the pk3s don't have mapinfos. Try this then:

Code:

ls maps/*.bsp

should show maps/courtfun.bsp among others.

The server should have the exact same folder structure. Where do you put your server.cfg? Any pk3 in the same directory as server.cfg should be loaded.

So the courtfun.bsp shows up in the list. However, it is not the modified courtfun that we want to use.

The server doesn't have the saved games folder that is on Windows 7

Maybe there is a way to unzip the xonotic.pk3 and take out all the maps except the one we want.

So the courtfun.bsp shows up in the list. However, it is not the modified courtfun that we want to use.

The server doesn't have the saved games folder that is on Windows 7

Maybe there is a way to unzip the xonotic.pk3 and take out all the maps except the one we want.

Why is it not the modified courtfun that you want to use? How do you figure?

What makes you say the folder structure is different? You also seem to imply that the server isn't hosted on a Windows machine, can you please detail what machine and OS your client and server run on?

Don't unzip pk3s to manipulate files, there is never any need for that. That includes removing files. It can always be done using complementary homemade pk3s.

EDIT: You double-posted and that was collapsed into a single post which is hard to read. Please take note of that and use "edit" next time

Why is it not the modified courtfun that you want to use? How do you figure?

What makes you say the folder structure is different? You also seem to imply that the server isn't hosted on a Windows machine, can you please detail what machine and OS your client and server run on?

Sorry about the double post.

I have the same file structure as the server in my Xonotic folder on my Client. However, there is an additional folder that is on my Windows 7 PC under the C:users/(me)/saved games/xonontic. I put the modified pk3 into the subfolder /data in this directory. That way when I host a game, using my pc as a server, I get the courtfun map with only three control points rather than five. This is the configuration we want to use for 4x4 play.

I don't see a saved games folder on the windows server. Maybe if we converted the server to linux, we would have an easier time of it.

We have our server limited to ons maps. Therefore when I logon and choose multiplayer and then chose our server, I get the option for either runningman or courtfun. When I choose courtfun, I get the regular map.

The behavior I am looking for is to be automatically put into the courtfun map that SavageX modified for us. However, I would settle for having to choose courtfun each time but have it be the shortened version.

Oh okay, I get it.

I'm not sure the server doesn't load data from "My Saved Games". That would seem strange to me, especially if you run it on the same machine and user account as your client, as the FS code doesn't seem to make a distinction between dedicated server or client. You can see where the server or client looks for files using the "path" command in the server or client console. If you can manage to start the dedicated server using the -developer commandline parameter, it should tell you explicitly what directories it tries to use as personal data directories (i.e. "My Saved Games") in the first few lines of the backlog (the "userdir" lines).

Assuming there is indeed a directory that is looked into after the install directory (where the original xonotic pk3 files are), the modified courtfun should override the default one because it has exactly the same name. You can check where the server loaded courtfun from by using the command

Code:

which maps/courtfun.bsp

If that shows you the courtfun-full-6a3743...pk3 file, that means the server is running fine.

If there is no other data directory than the original install directory, that's unfortunate. It means that you would have to put the courtfun-full-...pk3 in that same directory, but since it comes before "xonotic" alphabetically, the vanilla xonotic-maps pk3, which contains courtfun.bsp, will override your modified version, because pk3s from the same directory are loaded in lexical order.

If launching the server with -developer shows that you indeed only have the install data directory available because the other options fail, you should launch the server using the -userdir command line option to give it a personal data directory, where you can put your courtfun pk3 to override the original:

Code:

server_windows.bat -userdir "c:\my\custom userdir\"

Oh okay, I get it.

If there is no other data directory than the original install directory, that's unfortunate. It means that you would have to put the courtfun-full-...pk3 in that same directory, but since it comes before "xonotic" alphabetically, the vanilla xonotic-maps pk3, which contains courtfun.bsp, will override your modified version, because pk3s from the same directory are loaded in lexical order.

If launching the server with -developer shows that you indeed only have the install data directory available because the other options fail, you should launch the server using the -userdir command line option to give it a personal data directory, where you can put your courtfun pk3 to override the original:

Code:

server_windows.bat -userdir "c:\my\custom userdir\"

I do need to use the -userdir command. Do I need to put more than the map file in the personal data directory?

Right not the command line is: -dedicated -nohome +net_address 69.46.35.35 +port 26000 +maxplayers 12 +serverconfig server.cfg

If I simply add a /maps directory to the hosted server and use it as the personal directory what should the command line be?

Since you say you need -userdir, I suppose you tried -developer and noticed that all userdirs it tried just failed?

In that case, you indeed need to pass -userdir as I said in my post above. This will be a substitute for the "My saved games" directory on your client. It will contain key files for xonstat server authentication, as well as a "data" directory where server logs will be written and pk3 files will be loaded from.

If you add the following to your command line

Code:

-userdir "c:\my\custom userdir\"

your server will store it keys in "c:\my\custom userdir\", and write and load files (including pk3s) in "c:\my\custom userdir\data\" (what I've been calling the "personal data directory").

All you have to do then is put your pk3 in that personal data directory.

This doesn't really correspond to what you were asking, but you can't just have a "maps" directory.

Here is the response for my request from our hosting company

"I can certainly add the -userdir however not the the C:\ it would need to be set specifically to your game installs directory.

We do this on other Quake engine games like CODWAW and use +set fs_localAppData %userfilespath% it then reads the maps from the mapsfolder in the game root instead of
the app data directory. This would be the only way as you do not have access to any other folders on that machine.

Can you update your post to them and let them know this is a rented dedicated game server install in a shared environment and maps need to be read from the gameroot/data .

There must be a way to tell the server using -userdir to point to the data folder you are adding the maps too. "

So, please tell me whether this is right: You have tried the "path" command or looked at the userdir trials when starting the server using the "-developer" commandline option, and have found that there is no specific user path that the engine is accessing to load pk3s from. That means "-developer" shows only userdir failures, and "path" only shows paths starting with "data/" and no absolute paths.

And please tell me more about your setup. You should have mentioned since the first post that you aren't administrating the server and have restricted rights on it. You are not helping me help you by forgetting to mention such important points.

I suppose you only have access to the one directory where Xonotic is extracted? Did your provider do this install for you? Do you not have any other directories you can access? I can only take guesses, so please be clear on your situation.

If what I guessed above is right, you should tell your provider that in order to have maps, you need BOTH an install directory AND a user directory. The userdir can NOT be the same one as the install directory for the reason I mentioned above: you have a custom pk3 that should override a file of the original release, but it comes before "xonotic" alphabetically and therefore can not be made to work properly. The one way to override the original data is to put the custom pk3 inside the userdir, because files there are loaded after the files in the install directory. Renaming the custom pk3 won't do because you are also supposed to serve that pk3 to your clients, and renaming files will cause a ton of confusion when you start doing that.

So, please tell me whether this is right: You have tried the "path" command or looked at the userdir trials when starting the server using the "-developer" commandline option, and have found that there is no specific user path that the engine is accessing to load pk3s from. That means "-developer" shows only userdir failures, and "path" only shows paths starting with "data/" and no absolute paths.

Okay, sorry for messing up. I thought by saying in several posts that it is a hosted server, it would mean that we are using a service to administer the server.

I will hire someone here local to help get it set up. I don't want to waste your time on this. Thanks for the patience and your help up to this point.

You're not wasting my time on this! I'm here to help

You're free to hire someone on your side if you feel that's more helpful. If you have subsequent questions about the way Xonotic servers work, feel free to ask.

You're not wasting my time on this! I'm here to help

You're free to hire someone on your side if you feel that's more helpful. If you have subsequent questions about the way Xonotic servers work, feel free to ask.

So I tried to set up a VPS but I can't get very far. Do you know of anyone that we could hire to try and get something set up for us. Again our goal is have a server that we can play a single map on so that we can have map developers put up their work for our teams to evaluate.

I really have no idea. It seems strange to me to hire someone for that.

I really have no idea. It seems strange to me to hire someone for that.

Well I am just very frustrated at this point and looking for any option. I obviously don't have the technical knowledge to pull this off.

But you're not alone in this, are you?