server.md

Q2RTX Server Manual

Andrey Nazarov skuller@skuller.net
and
Copyright (c) 2019, NVIDIA Corporation. All right reserved.

About

Quake II RTXPerimental is my 'playing field' and an attempt to improve the engine in various parts where I see fit. This can range from implementing possible scripting language as a game replacement, improving the actual network protocol to support fragmenting, implement an API to deal with skeletal models, etc..

Q2RTX is built upon Q2VKPT and Q2PRO source ports of Quake 2 and inherits most of their settings and commands, listed in this manual. It also adds many settings and commands of its own, also listed here. Many of them are primarily intended for renderer development and debugging.

Q2PRO is an enhanced, multiplayer oriented Quake 2 client, compatible with existing Quake 2 ports and licensed under GPLv2. This document provides descriptions of console variables and commands added to or modified by Q2PRO since the original Quake 2 release. Cvars and commands inherited from original Quake 2 are not described here (yet).

Variables

Network

net_enable_ipv6

Enables IPv6 support. Default value is 1 on systems that support IPv6 and 0 otherwise.

• 0 — disable IPv6, use IPv4 only
• 1 — enable IPv6, but do not listen for incoming IPv6 connections and prefer IPv4 over IPv6 when resolving host names with multiple addresses
• 2 — enable IPv6, listen for incoming IPv6 connections and use normal address resolver priority configured by OS

net_ip

Specifies network interface address server should listen on for UDP and TCP connections using IPv4. The same interface is also used for outgoing TCP connections (these include MVD/GTV and anticheat connections). Default value is empty, which means listening on all interfaces.

NOTE: There is a limitation preventing anticheat to work correctly on servers accessible from multiple IP addresses. If you are running the server on multi-ip system and plan to use anticheat, you need to explicitly bind the server to one of your network interfaces using the net_ip cvar, otherwise expect any kinds of problems.

net_ip6

Specifies network interface address server should listen on for UDP and TCP connections using IPv6. The same interface is also used for outgoing TCP connections (these include MVD/GTV connections). Default value is empty, which means listening on all interfaces. Has no effect unless net_enable_ipv6 is set to non-zero value.

net_port

Specifies port number server should listen on for UDP and TCP connections (using IPv4 or IPv6). Default value is 27910.

net_ignore_icmp

On Win32 and Linux, server is able to receive ICMP ‘destination-unreachable’ packets from clients. This enables intelligent detection of crashed clients, allowing the server to quickly re-use their slots. If this behavior is not wanted for some reason, then this variable can be used to turn it off. Default value is 0 (don't ignore ICMP packets).

net_maxmsglen

Specifies maximum server to client packet size clients may request from server. 0 means no hard limit. Default value is conservative 1390 bytes. It is nice to have this variable as close to your network link MTU as possible (accounting for headers). Thus for normal Ethernet MTU of 1500 bytes 1462 can be specified (10 bytes quake header, 8 bytes UDP header, 20 bytes IPv4 header). Higher values may cause IP fragmentation for misconfigured clients which is better to avoid. Please don't change this variable unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Generic

sv_iplimit

Maximum number of simultaneous connections allowed from single IP address (per connection type, TCP and UDP client lists are separate). Setting this variable to 0 disables the limit. Default value is 3.

sv_status_show

Specifies how the server should respond to status queries. Default value is 2.

• 0 — do not respond at all
• 1 — respond with server info only
• 2 — respond with server info and player list

sv_status_limit

Limits the rate at which server responds to status queries. Default value is 15 queries per second.

Rate limits specification

Rate limiting is implemented as a simple token bucket filter. Full syntax for specifying rate limits is: <limit>[/<period>[sec|min|hour]][*<burst>]. Only the limit argument is mandatory. Zero limit means rate is not limited.

Default period is one second. Custom period can be specified after a slash, with optional sec, min, or hour suffix (default units are seconds).

Default burst value is 5. Custom burst can be specified after an asterisk. Burst specifies initial number of extra packets that are permitted even if they arrive at rate higher than allowed.

sv_auth_limit

Limits the rate of client connection attempts with invalid password. Default value is 1 invalid authentication attempt per second.

sv_rcon_limit

Limits the rate at which server responds to invalid rcon commands. Default value is 1 invalid command per second.

sv_namechange_limit

Limits the rate at which clients are permitted to change their name. Default value is 5 name changes per minute.

sv_password

If not empty, allows only authenticated clients to connect. Authenticated clients are allowed to occupy reserved slots, see below. Clients set their passwords via password userinfo variable. Default value is empty (no password).

TIP: If password protection is needed for a server, it is preferable to use sv_password instead of going the game mod way and using password variable. The latter will prevent MVD/GTV features from working.

NOTE: If sv_password is set, then game mod's password variable must be empty. Otherwise clients will be unable to connect.

sv_cinematics

If set to 0, server will skip cinematics even if they exist. Default value is 1.

sv_max_packet_entities

Maximum number of entities in client frame. 0 means unlimited. Default value is 128. Some non-standard maps with large open areas may need this value increased. Consider however that default Quake 2 client can only render 128 entities maximum. Other clients may support more.

sv_reserved_slots

Number of client slots reserved for clients who know sv_reserved_password or sv_password. Must be less than maxclients value. Default value is 0 (don't reserve slots).

NOTE: If sv_mvd_enable is non-zero and sv_reserved_slots is zero, sv_reserved_slots is automatically set to one to reserve a slot for dummy MVD observer.

NOTE: Value of sv_reserved_slots cvar is subtracted from maxclients value visible in the server info.

sv_reserved_password

The password to use for reserved slots. Default value is empty, which means no one is allowed to occupy reserved slot(s), except of dummy MVD observer. Clients set their passwords via password userinfo variable.

sv_locked

Locks the server, preventing new clients from connecting. Default value is 0 (server unlocked).

sv_lan_force_rate

When enabled, do not enforce any rate limits on clients whose IP is from private address space (127.x.x.x, 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, 172.16.x.x). Default value is 0 (disabled).

`sv_min_rate``

Server clamps minimum value of rate userinfo parameter to this value. Default value is 1500 bytes/sec. This parameter can't be greater than sv_max_rate value or less than 1500 bytes/sec.

`sv_max_rate``

Server clamps maximum value of rate userinfo parameter to this value. Default value is 15000 bytes/sec.

sv_calcpings_method

Specifies the way client pings are calculated. Default ping calculation algorithm is very client frame and packet rate dependent, and may give vastly inaccurate results, depending on client settings. Using improved algorithm is in fact recommended, it should always give stable results similar to ones obtained by the ping command line utility. Default value is 2.

• 0 — disable ping calculation entirely
• 1 — use default ping calculation algorithm based on averaging
• 2 — use improved algorithm based on minimum round trip times

sv_ghostime

Maximum time, in seconds, before dropping clients which have passed initial challenge-response connection stage but have not yet sent any data over newly established connection. This also applies to MVD/GTV clients in request processing stage. Helps to avoid attacks flooding server with zombie clients, combined with sv_iplimit variable. Default value is 6.

sv_idlekick

Time, in seconds, before dropping inactive clients. Default value is 0 (don't kick idling clients). Moving, pressing buttons while in game and issuing chat commands counts as activity.

NOTE: Don't set sv_idlekick too low to avoid kicking clients that are downloading or otherwise taking long time to enter the game.

sv_force_reconnect

When set to an address string, forces new clients to quickly reconnect to this address as an additional proxy protection measure. Default value is empty (do not enforce reconnection).

sv_redirect_address

When server becomes full, redirects new clients to the specified address. Default value is empty (don't redirect).

sv_downloadserver

Specifies the URL clients should use for HTTP downloading. URL must begin with a http:// prefix and end with a trailing slash. Default value is empty (no download URL).

sv_show_name_changes

Broadcast player name changes to everyone. You should probably enable this unless game mod already shows name changes. Default value is 0 (don't show).

sv_allow_nodelta

Enables automatic removal of clients that abuse the server with requests for too many nodelta (uncompressed) frames, hogging network resources. Default value is 1 (don't remove clients), since this may sometimes legitimately happen on very poor client connections.

sv_allow_unconnected_cmds

Controls whether client command strings are processed by the game mod even when the client is not fully spawned in game. Originally, Quake 2 server forwarded all commands to the game mod even for connecting clients, but this is known to cause problems with some (broken) mods that don't perform their own client state checks. Default value is 0 (ignore commands unless fully connected).

sv_uptime

Include uptime key/value pair in server info. Default value is 0.

• 0 — do not display uptime at all
• 1 — display uptime in compact format
• 2 — display uptime in verbose format

sv_enhanced_setplayer

Enable partial client name matching for certain console commands like kick and stuff. Default value is 0 (use original matching algorithm).

sv_recycle

Temporary variable useful for automatically upgrading the server at the next map change. Default value is 0.

• 0 — handle gamemap command normally
• 1 — turn the next gamemap into map and reload the game module
• 2 — turn the next gamemap into recycle and reload entire server

WARNING: Be sure to read recycle command description below before enabling sv_recycle.

sv_allow_map

Controls the map command behavior. map is often mistakingly used by server operators to change maps instead of the more lightweight gamemap. Thus, this variable exists to prevent misuse of map. Default value is 0.

• 0 — disallow map and print a warning unless there are pending latched cvars
• 1 — handle map command normally
• 2 — turn map into gamemap unless there are pending latched cvars

sv_changemapcmd

Specifies command to be executed each time server finishes loading a new map. Default value is empty.

sv_fps

Specifies native server frame rate. Only used when game mod advertises support for variable server FPS. Specified rate should be a multiple of 10 (maximum rate is 60). Default value is 10 frames per second. Only clients that support Q2PRO protocol will be able to take advantage of higher FPS. Other clients will receive updates at default rate of 10 packets per second.

Downloads

These variables control legacy server UDP downloads.

allow_download

Globally allows or disallows server UDP downloads. Remaining variables listed below are effective only when downloads are globally enabled. Default value is 0.

• 0 — downloads are disabled
• 1 — downloads are enabled

allow_download_maps

Enables downloading of files from ‘maps/’ subdirectory. Default value is 1.

• 0 — map downloads are disabled
• 1 — map downloads are enabled for physical files and disabled for files from packs
• 2 — map downloads are enabled for all files

allow_download_models

Enables downloading of files from models/ and sprites/ subdirectories. Default value is 1.

allow_download_sounds

Enables downloading of files from sound/ subdirectory. Default value is 1.

allow_download_pics

Enables downloading of files from pics/ subdirectory. Default value is 1.

allow_download_players

Enables downloading of files from players/ subdirectory. Default value is 1.

allow_download_textures

Enables downloading of files from textures/ and env/ subdirectories. Default value is 1.

allow_download_others

Enables downloading of files from any subdirectory other than those listed above. Default value is 0.

sv_max_download_size

Maximum size of UDP download in bytes. Value of 0 disables the limit. Default value is 8388608 (8 MiB).

MVD/GTV server

MVD stands for "Multi View Demo"

GTV stands for "Game TeleVision"

Removed in Q2RTXP because it's a hell of a thing to maintain, and I see little use in it, it's 2025.

System

sys_console

On UNIX-like systems, specifies how system console is initialized. Default value is 2 if both stdin and stdout descriptors refer to a TTY, 1 if running a dedicated server and 0 otherwise.

• 0 — don't write anything to stdout and don't read anything from stdin
• 1 — print to stdout and read commands from stdin, but don't assume it is a terminal
• 2 — enable command line editing and colored text output

System console key bindings

The following key bindings are available in Windows console and in TTY console when command line editing is enabled:

• HOME, Ctrl+A — move cursor to start of line
• END, Ctrl+E — move cursor to end of line
• Left arrow, Ctrl+B — move cursor one character left
• Right arrow, Ctrl+F — move cursor one character right
• Alt+B — move cursor one word left
• Alt+F — move cursor one word right
• DEL, Ctrl+D — delete character under cursor
• Backspace, Ctrl+H — delete character left of cursor
• Ctrl+W — delete word left of cursor
• Ctrl+U — delete all characters left of cursor
• Ctrl+K — delete all characters right of cursor
• Ctrl+L — erase screen
• Ctrl+C — quit
• Down arrow, Ctrl+N — next line in command history
• Up arrow, Ctrl+P — previous line in command history
• Ctrl+R — reverse search in command history
• Ctrl+S — forward search in command history
• Tab — complete command

In Windows console additional key bindings are supported:

• PGUP — scroll console buffer up
• PGDN — scroll console buffer down
• Ctrl+PGUP — scroll to console top
• Ctrl+PGDN — scroll to console bottom

sys_parachute

On UNIX-like systems, specifies if a fatal termination handler is installed. Default value is 1, which means Q2PRO will do some cleanup when it crashes, like restoring terminal settings. However, this will prevent core dump from being generated. To enable core dumps, set this variable to 0.

sys_forcesvgamelib

Specifies the full path to the game library server should attempt to load first, before normal search paths are tried. Useful mainly for debugging or mod development. Default value is empty (use normal search paths).

Console Logging

logfile

Specifies if console logging to file is enabled. Default value is 0.

• 0 — logging disabled
• 1 — logging enabled, overwrite previous file
• 2 — logging enabled, append to previous file

NOTE: Log file is not automatically reopened when game directory is changed.

logfile_flush

Specifies if log file data is buffered in memory or flushed to disk immediately. Default value is 0. See setvbuf(3) manual page for more details.

• 0 — system default mode (block buffered)
• 1 — line buffered mode
• 2 — unbuffered mode

logfile_name

Specifies base name of the log file. Should not include any extension part or path components. logs/ prefix and .log suffix are automatically appended. Default value is console.

logfile_prefix

Specifies the time/date template each line of log file is prefixed with. Default value is [%Y-%m-%d %H:%M] . See strftime(3) manual page for syntax description. In addition, the first @ character in the template, if found, is replaced with a single character representing message type (T — talk, D — developer, W — warning, E — error, N — notice, A — default).

console_prefix

Analogous to logfile_prefix, but for system console. Additionally, sequence <?>, if present at the beginning of prefix, is replaced with printk()-style severity level based on message type. This is intended for logging server stdout with systemd(1). Default value is empty (no prefix).

Miscellaneous

map_visibility_patch

Removed, however:

NOTE: Q2RTX makes further adjustments to the visibility data in order to make water properly transparent. The adjustments happen in the RTX renderer, and the patched PVS data is saved into maps/pvs/<mapname>.bin files so that the dedicated server could use it too.

com_fatal_error

Turns all non-fatal errors into fatal errors that cause server process exit. Default value is 0 (disabled).

com_debug_break

Development variable that turns all errors into debug breakpoints. Default value is 0 (disabled).

rcon_password

Password for the remote console (rcon). When set to an empty string, rcon is disabled. Default value is empty string.

sv_novis

Disables visibility culling of entities that are transmitted to clients, which effectively means that clients see the entire map and everything in it. Q2RTX sets sv_novis to 1 when there are security cameras in the map. Default value is 0.

sv_savedir

Path within the gamedir where save game files should be stored. When hosting a dedicated server with cooperative mode games, sv_savedir should be set to different paths on different instances of the server. Default value is save, which maps to baseq2/save when playing the base game.

sv_flaregun

Switch for flare gun, which is a custom weapon added in Q2RTX. Default value is 2.

• 0 — no flare gun
• 1 — spawn with the flare gun
• 2 — spawn with the flare gun and some grenades for it

Commands

Generic

status [mode]

Show information about connected clients. Optional mode argument may be provided to show different kind of information.

• t(ime): show connection times
• d(ownload): show current downloads
• l(ag): show connection quality statistics
• p(rotocol): show network protocol information
• v(ersion): show client executable versions

stuff <userid> <text ...>

Stuff the given raw text into command buffer of the client identified by userid.

stuffall <text ...>

Stuff the given raw text into command buffers of all connected clients.

stuffcvar <userid> <variable> [...]

Stuff a command to query value of console variable into command buffer of the client identified by userid. Result of the query is printed in server console once a reply is received. More than one variable can be specified on command line.

dumpents [filename]

Dumps the entity string of current map into entdumps/_filename_.ent file. Original map entity string is dumped, even if override is in effect. See also map_override_paths variable description.

pickclient <address:port>

Send passive_connect packet to the client at specified address and port. This is useful if the server is behind NAT or firewall and can not accept remote connections. Remote client must support passive connections (R1Q2 and Q2PRO clients do), must be in passive connection mode and the specified port must be reachable. See passive [[client]] command for more details.

addban <address[/mask]> [comment ...]

Adds specified address to the ban list. Specify mask to ban entire subnetwork. If specified, comment will be printed to banned user(s) when they attempt to connect.

delban <address[/mask]|id|all>

Deletes exactly matching address/mask pair from the ban list. You can also specify numeric id of the address/mask pair to delete, or use special keyword all to clear the entire list.

listbans

Displays all address/mask pairs added to the ban list along with their IDs, last access times and comments.

kickban <userid>

Kick the client identified by userid and add his IP address to the ban list (with a default mask of 32).

addblackhole <address[/mask]> [comment ...]

Adds specified address to the blackhole list. Specify mask to blackhole entire subnetwork. All connectionless packets from blackholed hosts will be silently ignored.

delblackhole <address[/mask]|id|all>

Deletes exactly matching address/mask pair from the blackhole list. You can also specify numeric id of the address/mask pair to delete, or use special keyword all to clear the entire list.

listblackholes

Displays all address/mask pairs added to the blackhole list along with their IDs, last access times and comments.

addstuffcmd <connect|begin> <command> [...]

Adds command to be automatically stuffed to every client as they initially connect or each time they begin on a new map.

delstuffcmd <connect|begin> <id|all>

Deletes command identified by the numeric id from the specified list. You can also specify all to clear the whole stuffcmd list.

liststuffcmds <connect|begin>

Enumerates all registered commands in the specified stuffcmd list.

addfiltercmd <command> [ignore|print|stuff|kick] [comment ...]

Prevents client command otherwise unknown to the server from being interpreted by the game mod, and takes the specified action instead. For print and stuff actions comment argument is mandatory, and should contain data to print and stuff, respectively. Default action is ignore. Commands are matched in a case-insensitive way.

delfiltercmd <id|name|all>

Deletes command identified by numeric id or by name from the list of filtered commands. You can also specify all to clear the whole filtercmd list.

listfiltercmds

Enumerates all filtered commands along with appropriate actions and comments.

listmasters

List master server hostnames, resolved IP addresses and last acknowledge times.

quit [reason ...]

Exit the server, sending disconnect message to clients. Optional reason string may be provided instead of the default ‘Server quit’ message.

recycle [reason ...]

This command is equivalent to quit, with an exception that reconnect message is sent to clients instead of disconnect. Useful for quickly upgrading the server binary without losing clients, assuming the server process will be automatically restarted by an external shell script right after it exits.

Incompatibilities

Q2PRO server tries to be compatible with other Quake 2 ports, including original Quake 2 release. Compatibility, however, is defined in terms of full file format and network protocol compatibility. Q2PRO is not meant to be a direct replacement of your regular Quake 2 server. Some features are implemented differently in Q2PRO, some may be not implemented at all. You may need to review your config and adapt it for Q2PRO. This section tries to document most of these incompatibilities so that when something doesn't work as it used to be you know where to look. The following list may be incomplete.

• ip variable has been renamed to net_ip.

• port variable has been renamed to net_port, and ip_hostport and hostport aliases are no longer supported.

• serverrecord and demomap commands has been removed in favor of mvdrecord and mvdplay.

• On Windows, ./release/gamex86.dll path will not be tried by default when loading the game DLL. If you need this for loading some sort of a game mod proxy, use sys_forcesvgamelib variable.

• Q2PRO works only with virtual paths constrained to the quake file system. All paths are normalized before use so that it is impossible to go past virtual filesystem root using ../ components. This means commands like these are equivalent and all reference the same file: exec ../global.cfg, exec /global.cfg, exec global.cfg. If you have any config files in your Quake 2 directory root, you should consider moving them into baseq2/ to make them accessible.

• Likewise, link command syntax has been changed to work with virtual paths constrained to the quake file system. All arguments to link are normalized.