Game-Loader

Game-Loader

Game-Loader is a simple Quake2 'mod' that allows you to specify what game

DLL to load on the Quake2 command line.

Game-Loader is a simple Quake2 'mod' that allows you to specify what game

DLL to load on the Quake2 command line.

The main source program, plugin.c is a slightly modified version of Zarjazz's

plugin source code sample from http://www.barrysworld.com/Zarjazz/, the author

of BW-Admin. The only addition is the cvar used to specify what DLL to load.

I've compiled and released this program for use with Night Hunters Xatrix

(http://www.planetquake.com/nighthunters), but it can be used with any mod.

Game-Loader does NOT provide ANY added functionality for Quake2. It is only

used to specify what DLL to load when starting Quake2.

Game-Loader would be used when you want to run two servers which need to be

run from the same directory, but different DLL's need to be loaded.

For example: You want to run a Xatrix server AND a Night Hunters Xatrix

server at the SAME TIME. Both Xatrix and Night Hunters Xatrix must run from

the quake2/xatrix folder, but they both require DIFFERENT gamei386.so /

gamex86.dll files to be loaded. That creates a problem...

Another example would be with CTF. You could run two different CTF mods from

the same quake2/ctf folder.

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Installation:

1. Rename your existing DLL/SO file to something else in the mod directory

2. Copy the Game-Loader gamei386.so (Linux) or gamex86.dll (Windows) file

into the mod directory

3. Copy the second DLL/SO mod file into the mod directory with a different

name

Start up your server as you normally would but add the following:

+set game_dll (dll filename name)

For example, to run both Xatrix and Night Hunters Xatrix (NHX) servers at

the same time, your xatrix folder should contain:

gamex86.dll (Game-Loader DLL - gamei386.dll for Linux)

gamex86.xatrix.dll (original Xatrix DLL - gamei386.xatrix.so for Linux)

gamex86.nhx.dll (Night Hunters Xatrix - gamei386.nhx.so for Linux)

To start the regular Xatrix server, use:

Windows: quake2 +set game_dll gamex86.xatrix.dll +set game xatrix +set deathmatch 1 +set dedicated 1

+set port 27910 +exec server.cfg

Linux: ./quake2 +set game_dll gamei386.xatrix.so +set game xatrix +set deathmatch 1 +set dedicated 1

+set port 27910 +exec server.cfg

To start the Night Hunters Xatrix server, use:

Windows: quake2 +set game_dll gamex86.nhx.dll +set game xatrix +set deathmatch 1 +set dedicated 1

+set port 27911 +exec nhserver.cfg

Linux: ./quake2 +set game_dll gamei386.nhx.so +set game xatrix +set deathmatch 1 +set dedicated 1

+set port 27911 +exec nhserver.cfg

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I have tested Game-Loader with BW-Admin, and it appears to work fine. The

configuration is a bit tricky, but it seems to work. If Zarjazz can change

BW-Admin to allow us to specify the DLL to load on the command line (instead

of bw-admin.cfg), then we won't need to go through all this:

Windows:

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1. Setup BW-Admin as per the BW-Admin instructions (using the quake2\release

directory)

2. Copy the DLL's as desribed above and start the game as described above.

The load sequence will be:

bw-admin -> game-loader -> actual game

Linux:

======

1. Setup BW-Admin as per the BW-Admin instructions (copy bwadmin's .so

file to the mod directory)

2. Copy the SO files as desribed above EXCEPT copy the Game-Loader

file as gamei386.loader.so

3. Copy the bw-admin.cfg into the mod directory and modify/add a line

to the file that reads: dll = gamei386.loader.so

4. Start the game as described above

For example, to run BW-Admin with both Xatrix and Night Hunters Xatrix

(NHX) servers at the same time, your xatrix folder should contain:

gamei386.so (BW-Admin)

gamei386.loader.so (Game-Loader)

gamei386.xatrix.so (original Xatrix)

gamei386.nhx.so (Night Hunters Xatrix)

The load sequence will be:

bw-admin -> game-loader -> actual game

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Note: If you do not specify game_dll on the command line, Game Loader will

automatically try to load gamei386.real.so.

Not much testing has gone into this, so please send any questions or

comments to: [email protected].