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HLTV Admin FAQ

"How can I run HLTV ?"
Let's assume your game server is already running and has IP 192.168.1.1:27015. Now start hltv.exe on any host in your network, for example host 192.168.1.2. Type "connect 192.168.1.1:27015" in the HLTV console and the HLTV proxy will join the game as spectator. Now everybody, who wants to watch the game via HLTV, has to connect to the HLTV proxy on port 27020. So start Half-Life, go to console and type "connect 192.168.1.2:27020" and you'll see the game with a default delay of 30 seconds. See HLTV-Readme.txt in your Half-Life folder for more details.


"What is the latest HLTV proxy version ?"
The lastest HLTV version is part of the current HLDS 3111 patch (4111 for Linux). Download links can be found at Valve ERC . Also check the Valve FTP server for updates: ftp.valvesoftware.com, user: hlserver, password: hlserver.


"Why doesn't "autorecord" work anymore?"
With the 3.1.1.1 release, the normal "record" command works like the "autorecord" command, all games are recorded to seperate demo files.


"Why does the custom banner TGA not work ?"
The custom banner TGA file has to be a 24 bit RGB or 32 bit RGBA image. If you didn't set the alpha channel correctly in the RGBA .tga, you won't see your logo. I've made a small banner (hltv.tga), you can use for testing. Make sure that you added your logo in hltv.cfg "bannerfile mylogo.tga". If you want to distribute a HLTV demo file that used your new logo, you have to add this logo file in the package too. Clients that watched the match live, download this logo to the "mod\gfx\temp\" subdirectory, it also gets a new unique name (eg. d5fb1c03ac7f9297cbdea9bedda09815.tga). This file is needed for proper demo playback too (in the same directory).


"Can't connect to local Proxy ?"
If you have a multihomed (multiple IP addresses) host, sometimes you can't connect to your proxy ("time out" or "network overloaded"). Then check with "status" the IP address, the proxy is using. If it's 0.0.0.0, you have restart the proxy and specify a valid public IP with the -ip commandline parameter. Eg "hltv.exe -ip 123.45.67.89".


"Bandwidth capacity exceeded ?"
Spectators sometimes get these message and can't connect even with many client slots available. HLTV is measuring the network packet loss rate and rejects new connections if packet loss exceeds 25%. This is done to avoid a total collapse. This also indicates that your available bandwidth is under heavy pressure, maybe reduce 'maxclientrate' or 'maxclients'. You can force the HLTV proxy to ignore this packet loss check by setting 'maxpacketloss 1.0'.


"How to use HLTV just as demo recorder ?"
Often when two teams have an official match, they don't trust each other. So they don't allow the other team to set up a HLTV proxy just to record the game, since they assume it will be used as cheat. To avoid this, players can now see IP address, maxclients and number of spectators of an connected HLTV proxy using the console command 'status'. The HLTV proxy should be started with "+maxclients 0 +autorecord 1 +connect ip:port" and no password restrictions. Unless maxclients is changed, any attempt to connect to the HLTV proxy will fail.


"How can I add commentator voice to a demo file?"
If you have recorded a normal HLTV demo and then want to add commentator voice afterwards, that's no problem. Start HLTV, set 'maxclientrate 10000' and 'blockvoice 1' to remove any voice data already in the demo. Type 'record withvoice', then set 'adminpassword test'. Start the demo with 'playdemo filename'. Start HL.EXE, go to console, set 'commentator 1' and set 'password test'. Now connect to the proxy and comment anything you like. After the match is completely replayed you'll have a nice withvoice-1.dem with all you comments. (Make sure voice is working before re-recording)


"How to run Linux HLTV in background ?"
I'm no Linux geek, but I know they use a tool named 'screen' to do this job.


"LAN Proxy freezes after startup"
Start the HLTV proxy with the "-nodns" parameter to avoid long DNS timeouts if no public Internet is accessable (e.g. "hltv.exe -nodns").


"How can I disallow HLTV at all ?"
To prevent HLTV proxies from connecting to your HL game server, just set sv_proxies 0.


"Which files are needed by HLTV proxy ?"
General : hltv.cfg, kver.kp, valve/woncomm.lst, mod/maps/*.bsp
Win32 : hltv.exe, WONAuth.dll, WONCrypt.dll, core.dll, proxy.dll, FileSystem_Stdio.dll
Linux : hltv, libhlwon.so
The proxy doesn't need a special WON CD-key or registry settings.


"Does HLTV support RCON ?"
Yes, you can remote control your HLTV proxy from anywhere. Just make sure to set "proxypassword" to your secret password before using RCON. You can use the proxy console also to send RCON request with the "rcon" command. The target RCON proxy or server must be specified with "rcon_address", the RCON password with "rcon_password".


"CD key already in use"
Proxy authenticates correctly on server but then is rejected with this message. If this happens, you tried to connect more than 2 HLTV proxies to the same game server. Keep sv_proxies 1, maybe 2 but not more. If you want to have more relay proxies, connect them to the master proxy.


"HLTV proxy crashes frequently"
Please help me to find bugs. Before starting the proxy, set in hltv.cfg "developer 1" and "logfile 1". After the proxy chrashed or aborted abnormally, make a copy of proxy.log and send me this file via email. Please provide as much information as possible (Operation system, CPU, RAM, HL & MOD version, #specators, delay time etc). Also some server addons may cause problems with HLTV. Remove them before using HLTV proxies.