q2admin and r1q2 newbie

[peewee_RotA]

Hello. I've been running a standard client server for a while now but I want to upgrade to q2admin and so on.

The instructions that come with the most recent version of q2admin do not seem to be correct seemingly because the directory structure that the download extracts to does not match the directory structure the installation instructions refer to.

I use windows XP and my installation directory for quake2 is c:\quake2.

Basically what files need to be in c:\quake2\baseq2 and will I still be using the standard c:\quake2\quake2.exe executable or a new one?

(I will take the time to learn configuration on my own. I do not want to waste R1ch's talents on my petty problems)

The current instructions in my readme describe extracting a single gamex86.dll into c:\quake2\release. This does nothing because nothing tells quake 2 to look into that directory unless I type "game release" at which point I still did not see the version number before the "init game" line.

[QwazyWabbit]

Quake2 doesn't load the DLL's unless it is launching single player or dedicated server mode. If you are not running a dedicated server you have no need of q2admin. If you are running a client for single player or online gaming then you can forget all about q2admin. In any case, Q2admin's functions are largely obsolete when running dedicated.exe or r1q2.exe in dedicated server mode with anticheat enabled and you are better off using r1q2's management functions instead.

How quake2 loads the DLL:

In single player the Quake 2 engine loads and runs the DLL named gamex86.dll it finds in the ./baseq2/ folder. This dll contains all the logic for playing the Strogg invasion scenario. The dot (.) represents the folder containing the quake2 executable you are running, usually c:/quake2/ but it can vary.

In addition to the baseq2 scenario you can modify the game dll and override the original game. In dedicated server mode the engine may load multiple DLL's. This allows "overlaying" of DLL's and modification of the game by using different DLL's than the one that came with the original game. Modding is what made Q2 such a long-lived game.

We can also have debug and release builds of the engine. When the engine is a debug build, it looks in quake2/debug/ for the dll. If it is a release build it looks in quake2/release/. The only time you would have a debug build of the engine is if you build it from the Quake2 3.21 source or r1q2 source.

Once this dll is found the engine sets up to find the mod dll. The folder it looks in is set by the "game" variable set in the command line as in: +set game modname. If this variable exists the engine looks for ./modname/gamex86.dll and loads it if the path is valid.

In this way you can mod the mods by loading the DLL in the ./release folder and this is how q2admin works in dedicated servers.

This method works with quake2.exe or (r1q2) dedicated.exe or r1q2.exe in dedicated mode.

So the paths cascade into each other this way:
./baseq2 (if no +set game modname on command line)
./debug or ./release depending on engine code.
./modname (if +set game modname)

[peewee_RotA]

Where's the "duh" key?

What I'm asking is this. q2admin requires about 5 or 6 configure files. When i loaded the game as dedicated with that release folder in existance it did not give me a version number for q2admin and it did not ask for these required configure files.

Also there are about 20 some extra files that came with the .zip for q2admin (apart from the .dll and the configure files) that the readme never addresses. Some of these I'm pretty sure are required for r1ch's patch.

Which is why I'm so confused. Why do i have so many extra files when it says all i need is a single gamex86.dll. I feel like i just assembled a kids toy and have extra parts.


But I'll try it again as dedicated to see if I can give some more specifics. Really I'm just wondering if there's a tutorial or support forum specific to this so that I can just read through archives.

[QwazyWabbit]

R1ch's dll and the newer, centrally managed q2admin dll cited elsewhere in this board don't include samples of the configuration files you need. For that, you have to go to the original q2admin archives. I'm sure that you can probably find a copy of it somewhere. If you have the readme that comes with the dll, then you should have the configuration files also. When it properly loads, the q2admin dll complains loudly if any of the configuration files are missing. They all belong in the quake2 root or else the mod folder depending on whether you are hosting in Windows or Linux. If you are not getting the version banner and config file complaints, then I would say your dll isn't loading.

Otherwise, I can't help you. I don't have a "duh" key and I am not sure it would work for your problem.

[sad]

Haha, poor peewee. cussed out all the q2 admins that he knew, and now he needs their help.
Sucks to be you!

[peewee_RotA]

Cussed out? I was just curious why:

"This dll contains all the logic for playing the Strogg invasion scenario.", "The folder it looks in is set by the "game" variable set in the command line as in: +set game modname.", and so on was necessary.

I thought it was a humorous dodge really.

[QwazyWabbit]

I write for the larger forum audience that might have questions about how stuff works rather than trying to work you through your particular problem. The proper method for installing mod dll's and proxy overlay dll's requires a fundamental understanding of how the engine expects stuff to be organized. Quake 2 loads the game libraries differently in Windows and Linux. Without understanding how the engine wants the dll's located you are incapable of properly configuring and managing your server. The answers to your fundamental questions are there, you just didn't see them.

[peewee_RotA]

Got it working. Here's what happened.

The q2admin download that I had found from q2admin.net came from the following link:
http://www.q2admin.net/index.php?i=f.

This is labeled simply as "server install" on the main page without mentioning action quake2. However the mod is also irrelevant.

Inside this zip the file structure exists as such. Q2server containing the folders baseq2, release, action, and q2admin. When you extract this file to c:\quake2 it creates the folder c:\quake2\q2server and then the respective directory structures c:\quake2\q2server\baseq2, c:\quake2\q2server\release, c:\quake2\q2server\action, and c:\quake2\q2server\q2admin. Simply put this file was incorrectly zipped with the wrong file structure.

The "correct" q2admin downloads found at http://www.q2admin.net/index.php?i=d include only the gamex86.dll and do not include the installation information or configure files. The installation information also warns that you need these configure files to run quake 2 admin. So downloading the action q2 "server install" file ad discussed furst is a better choice to have a basic setup for q2admin to work off of.

However, The installation information inside this "server install" zip does not address specifically where these configure files need to be. The correct answer is to extract the files into a temporary folder. Rename the root "q2server" directory to quake2 and zip the files into a new zip file. Then you can extract them to c:\ and the file structure will be restored to c:\quake2\ with the respective structures of c:\quake2\baseq2, c:\quake2\release, c:\quake2\action, and c:\quake2\q2admin. (This also depends on where you have quake 2 installed to. For example I have it isntalled on d:\quake2 and then extracted my new zip to d:\)

Q2admin is not properly installed until you see the q2admin version number printed immediatly above the "init game" text in the console after you start a game. In 2 instances involving several re-installations of q2admin, the c:\quake2\release folder is never accessed by a standard version of quake 2, either in dedicated or normal loads of the game. It seems as though r1q2 must be installed, and you must be using the r1q2.exe entry point in order for this c:\quake2\release folder to ever be read.


Simply put (and correctly predicted in the original post) stanard quake 2 does not seem to read from c:\quake2\release and c:\q2server\release and c:\quake2\q2server\release are the incorrect paths for the q2admin gamex86.dll.


To be exact to correctly use q2admin the following files must be in the following places:
R1q2 must be installed
Put the q2admin dll into c:\quake2\release\gamex86.dll
Place all q2admin configuration files into c:\quake2

[QwazyWabbit]

To be exact to correctly use q2admin the following files must be in the following places:
R1q2 must be installed
Put the q2admin dll into c:\quake2\release\gamex86.dll
Place all q2admin configuration files into c:\quake2

It's been a very long time since I did anything with the Quake2 v3.20 server but the Quake2 3.21 source code clearly shows the use of the /release/ and /debug/ folders in the Sys_GetGameAPI function. You should probably check the properties of any shortcuts you used to launch the server if your not loading a dll located in either of these folders.

R1q2 is strongly recommended as an internet game server because of all the exploitable vulnerabilites in v3.20 and v3.21 quake2 code that R1ch has fixed.

The q2admin configuration files should be located in the mod folder rather than the quake2 root if you are going to run servers of different mods with different q2admin values. If you are only running one q2admin configuration for any/all mods you are serving then leaving them in quake2 is OK.