CS:S on a Windows install

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Edge100x
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CS:S on a Windows install

Post by Edge100x »

CS:S and a few other Source based games have been updated to use the SteamCMD tool to install and update their base installations. SteamCMD only works with games that have switched over to the SteamPipe content system for now, but eventually, all steam games will switch to this system.

SteamCMD Download and Installation
  1. Download the SteamCMD tool, linked here.
  2. Extract steamcmd_win32.zip to a folder of your choosing.
  3. Launch SteamCMD. The first launch will update the tool and download additional files. You should see a Steam> prompt once this finishes.
Counter-Strike: Source Installation
  1. At the SteamCMD prompt, login anonymously:

    Code: Select all

    login anonymous
  2. Now you'll need to choose where you want your server files installed to. A good default would be C:\servers\css

    Code: Select all

    force_install_dir C:\servers\css
  3. Trigger the install and validation of the CS:S server files:

    Code: Select all

    app_update 232330 validate
  4. Wait for the download to finish, then close SteamCMD by typing "quit".
  5. Navigate to your server's installation directory using Windows Explorer. Right-click on srcds.exe and select "Create shortcut". You can then copy the created shortcut to wherever you find convenient, such as your desktop.
  6. Right-click on the new shortcut and select "Properties." Paste the following into the "Target" field, substituting the directory for the one you chose earlier, then click "Ok."

    Code: Select all

    "C:\servers\css\srcds.exe" -game cstrike -ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
    Specify your actual IP address in place of "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx".
  7. Double-click your shortcut. You will see the "Start Dedicated Server" panel (made by Valve and included with the game) that allows you to start up a new dedicated server and provides various controls to interact with the server.
If a game update comes out later on and you need to update, shut down your server, then follow steps #1-4 again.

If you'd like to run several servers, simply copy the "css" folder to another folder in the same directory, and follow steps #5 and 6 again, adjusting them to reference it instead. Choose a different port from the dialog so that the servers don't interfere with each other.

You can also customize the server's configuration further by editing the "mapcycle.txt", "server.cfg", and "autoexec.cfg" files (among others) in the "C:\servers\css\cstrike\cfg" folder. If you would like to add custom content like maps to the server, we have a separate Knowledgebase article with instructions for doing so, linked here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9030

After you've gotten your server running well through this procedure, we recommend switching to a command-line oriented configuration, removing Valve's menus from the equation. To do this, repeat step #6, but enter this in the "Target" field instead:

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"C:\servers\css\srcds.exe" -game cstrike -ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -port xxxxx -maxplayers xx -console -nocrashdialog
Replace the IP, port, and maxplayers xx's with your desired values (you can find the IPs you have been assigned on the "IP list" page of your control panel, and the default port is 27015). This will start up the server in text-only console mode.

To take this one step further and have the server start up automatically when Windows is started, and run even when nobody is logged into the machine, you can configure it as a system service using a program like FireDaemon or srvany (the latter is a bit more difficult to use).
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