Dedicated Servers

<cat>Play.Server</cat>
<title>Dedicated Servers</title>

<note>There's no Linux server build yet, there will be one in the future.</note>

# Downloading and Launching

You can use [SteamCMD](https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD) to download the s&box dedicated server.

Once you have that, in a command line, or by making a .bat file in the same directory as steamcmd.exe, run the following:

```
steamcmd +force_install_dir C:\MyServer\sboxserver +login anonymous +app_update 1892930 validate +quit
```

<warning>
Until the public branch is updated, you'll need to download the server files from the staging branch, to do so run the following:
</warning>

```
steamcmd +force_install_dir C:\MyServer\sboxserver +login anonymous +app_update 1892930 -beta staging validate +quit
```

Alternatively, you can use the default `sbox-server.exe` in your Steam sbox directory.

Once downloaded, to launch the server, you would typically do something like this in some kind of .bat file (see the next section for more information on how to configure your server):

```
sbox-server.exe +game facepunch.walker facepunch.flatgrass +hostname "My Epic Server"
```

## Dealing With Updates

You will have to re-run steamcmd every time s&box updates in order to update the server to the latest version; players will not be able to join if they are running on a different version of the game to your server.

This poses a problem since currently s&box updates many times each day. One way around this is to use a .bat script that restarts and re-updates the server at regular intervals:

```
:loop
C:\MyServer\steamcmd.exe +force_install_dir C:\MyServer\sboxserver +login anonymous +app_update 1892930 -beta staging validate +quit
start "" C:\MyServer\sboxserver\sbox-server.exe +game facepunch.walker facepunch.flatgrass +hostname "My Epic Server"
timeout /t 3600 /nobreak
taskkill /im sbox-server.exe
goto loop
```
 
This script will restart the server every 3600 seconds (every hour).

The downside of this is that it will forcefully close your server. For most games, this probably doesn't matter. But, if your server was doing I/O operations at the time like saving to file, this could lead to data corruption. The only guaranteed way to prevent this is to make sure your gamemode is not doing any I/O at the time the process is killed. Since you know your server is going to be restarting every hour or so, you could do this by implementing a `TimeSince` that stops I/O operations during the last minute.

## Shutting Down Gracefully

You can shut down your server gracefully at any time by typing `quit` into the console.

## Troubleshooting

Occasionally, the dedicated server might crash unexpectedly. You might want to check the following:

- Make sure the server is up to date following the steps above.
- Check `/logs/Log.log` for clues.
- Update the s&box editor and re-upload the gamemode to asset.party. Sometimes updates to s&box require the gamemode to be rebuilt.

If all else fails, file a bug report, preferably with logs.

# Launch Configuration

As with any Source dedicated server, when launching you can use convars to customize your server settings.
To load a game and a map, specify its organization and identifier - you can find them by browsing [sbox.game](https://sbox.game/)

This is a list of some of the more useful convars.

| convar        | Behaviour     | Example  |
|---------------|---------------|----------|
| +game     | Sets the game and map. | +game facepunch.walker facepunch.flatgrass |
| +hostname     | Sets the name of the server. | +hostname "My Epic Server" |
|+net_game_server_token | Allows you to set a token for your server that ensures that you will always have the SteamID. Visit Visit https://steamcommunity.com/dev/managegameservers to generate a token associated with your Steam Account. | +net_game_server_token <token> |

<note>If you're getting an engine.dll not found error when launching the server you most likely will need to install _CommonRedist/vcredist/2022/VC_redist.x64.exe</note>

<note>If the command prompt instantly closes when running the .bat you are most likely missing the .net runtime environment, you can get the required v7 version from here: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/7.0</note>

# Connecting

To connect to a server from in game, you may use the console command `connect <ip>:27015`, where `<ip>` is your server's public IP address. 

If you're connecting from the same machine that is hosting the dedicated server, you may use the loopback address like `connect 127.0.0.1:27015`.

# Hosting Unreleased Content

It seems to be the case that you can host dedicated servers for gamemodes that are not public on [sbox.game](https://sbox.game/). This is useful because it means you can host your gamemode whilst stopping it from showing up in the games list. The downside to this is that it presumably means that other people can host your unreleased content with a dedicated server too. Although, in practice, no one is likely to care enough to do this.

Dedicated Servers

Account Management

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S&box Wiki