Tophe's Arma Dedicated Server Tool (TADST)

[Llano 11]

Updates should get the latest version.

Otherwise it's here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=en

Does anyone else have .NET problems with this?

Hi!

Would it be possible to see the source code?

[Tankbuster 1747]

Tophe,

Can you do anything for servers that use headless clients with your tool?

[tophe 69]

Tophe,

Can you do anything for servers that use headless clients with your tool?

Don't know much about headleass clients. What is it you need to be done?

[Tankbuster 1747]

Don't know much about headleass clients. What is it you need to be done?

After the server has started and loaded a compatible mission, fire up a client session with a crafted shortcut line.

Note that the client must be a steam root client, so cloning game directories (like I do for multiple servers) and starting the client from there won't work. I'll post up the details of my shortcut line when I get home.

[sauz 10]

I can't seem to use any RCon tools while hosting with the TADST tool.. any suggestions?

[StankyKneePads 1]

Trying to use your utility to launch / host Arma 3 on a dedicated machine:

I am able to get it to the point where My server will show up in the server list from my client machine / PC I play from but, it always says ping 2500 and is stuck on "creating"..

I believe I followed your instructions correctly, just applied the same to Arma 3.

My host machine is on Windows Server 2012, with older hardware but seems to meet requirements as a host server.

I know it can't be my connection causing problems I have hosted Arma II co-ops numerous times with great pings from my friends. Mind you, I was using the built in multiplayer configurations when I was hosting the Arma II games.

Anyone's help would be appreciated.

[Edit]

Please disregard: Fixed

Not sure precisely which one of these things I did that actually fixed it but:

Went into my router and modem and opened port 2302 and on the server I went into Windows Firewall and gave arma3sever.exe permission for inbound and outbound traffic.

Although before I connect with my client computer it still shows "creating" and the 2500 ping, haven't had anyone join yet to see what their in game pings are. Mine is of course 0 (zero)

Host Filter "B13" if anyone would care to join just to test your ping for me and pm me your results.

Edited July 24, 2013 by StankyKneePads
[Problem Fixed]

[Hud Dorph 22]

Your servers ping seems fine, from here Denmark ping 156.

[flx_king 10]

Hi there Tophe.

First of all thanks for this useful tool. Keep up the good work.

I've spotted a few bugs and I got some suggestions you may want to take account of.

Bugs:

- When restarting TA2DST and reloading a profile that had "Require Build" and "Kick Duplicates" under Server Rules tab set, the values are not set / displayed. They are still set in the config file but not displayed in the GUI.

- Same thing as above happens when you set "onUnsignedData" and "onHackedData" under "Server Scripts" tab.

- "Terrain Grid" and "View Distance" is never set in the actual server profile. No matter what values set they're always viewDistance=1600; and terrainGrid=10;

- When using the Arma2OA beta build of the server. "expansion; expansion\beta; expansion\Beta\Expansion" are always checked under the "Mods" tab when restarting TADST and reloading the profile. Even if I uncheck one of them and save the profile.

- "Tooltips" checkbox value and "Run as is" checkbox value under "Server Details" are not reloaded / saved properly for the selected profile

- When unchecking "Tooltips" checkbox under "Server Details" tab and saving the profile the checkbox gets set to checked again.

- When setting "Launch as is" checkbox to checked under "Server Details" tab and saving the profile the checkbox gets set to unchecked.

Suggestions:

- Add an option to set the "requiredSecureId= 1 or 2 (Request clients joining to provide a secure ID token (2 to force this))" setting in the server config.cfg.

- Add an option to set the "maxPacketSize (class sockets { maxPacketSize=1400;};)" setting in the server basic.cfg

- Do not set the "expansion" mod folder checkbox as checked by default when detecting a beta server build. Since only "expansion\beta; expansion\Beta\Expansion" is actually needed when launching a beta server.

- Allow the "Codec Quality" setting under "Server Details" tab to be set to 30 which is the current maximum value for this setting.

- Use the proper -beta commandline switch instead of adding the "expansion\beta; expansion\Beta\Expansion" folders to the -mod commandline switch when detecting beta build

Best regards flx_king

[DeadlyPancakes 10]

Why did you remove the option to spawn stuff and such? :( I liked being able to fire up my server and spawn a jet to fly around with.

EDIT: Nevermind, All I had to do was to download the old wasteland file, sorry :p

EDIT 2: I was able to spawn a heli but it said user performed an illegal action or something along those lines. Now I'll probably get banned

Edited July 29, 2013 by DeadlyPancakes

[tophe 69]

Hi there Tophe.

First of all thanks for this useful tool. Keep up the good work.

I've spotted a few bugs and I got some suggestions you may want to take account of.

Bugs:

- When restarting TA2DST and reloading a profile that had "Require Build" and "Kick Duplicates" under Server Rules tab set, the values are not set / displayed. They are still set in the config file but not displayed in the GUI.

- Same thing as above happens when you set "onUnsignedData" and "onHackedData" under "Server Scripts" tab.

- "Terrain Grid" and "View Distance" is never set in the actual server profile. No matter what values set they're always viewDistance=1600; and terrainGrid=10;

- When using the Arma2OA beta build of the server. "expansion; expansion\beta; expansion\Beta\Expansion" are always checked under the "Mods" tab when restarting TADST and reloading the profile. Even if I uncheck one of them and save the profile.

- "Tooltips" checkbox value and "Run as is" checkbox value under "Server Details" are not reloaded / saved properly for the selected profile

- When unchecking "Tooltips" checkbox under "Server Details" tab and saving the profile the checkbox gets set to checked again.

- When setting "Launch as is" checkbox to checked under "Server Details" tab and saving the profile the checkbox gets set to unchecked.

Suggestions:

- Add an option to set the "requiredSecureId= 1 or 2 (Request clients joining to provide a secure ID token (2 to force this))" setting in the server config.cfg.

- Add an option to set the "maxPacketSize (class sockets { maxPacketSize=1400;};)" setting in the server basic.cfg

- Do not set the "expansion" mod folder checkbox as checked by default when detecting a beta server build. Since only "expansion\beta; expansion\Beta\Expansion" is actually needed when launching a beta server.

- Allow the "Codec Quality" setting under "Server Details" tab to be set to 30 which is the current maximum value for this setting.

- Use the proper -beta commandline switch instead of adding the "expansion\beta; expansion\Beta\Expansion" folders to the -mod commandline switch when detecting beta build

Best regards flx_king

Thanks flx_king! That's great input. I'll get working on those points next week!

[sauz 10]

How am I supposed to use an rcon tool while using tadst? Do I have to add parameters to anything?

[tophe 69]

How am I supposed to use an rcon tool while using tadst? Do I have to add parameters to anything?

Not sure, gotta look into the whole Rcon thingy. Never used it. I hope to have it figured out within two versions.

[sauz 10]

Not sure, gotta look into the whole Rcon thingy. Never used it. I hope to have it figured out within two versions.

Looking forward to seeing that implemented!

Thanks for all your hard work! Tool is awesome!

Side note: if anyone knows how to use rcon with tadst, I would appreciate if you could come to my ts and explain it! ts3.phenomenalgaming.tk

[tophe 69]

Looking forward to seeing that implemented!

Thanks for all your hard work! Tool is awesome!

Side note: if anyone knows how to use rcon with tadst, I would appreciate if you could come to my ts and explain it! ts3.phenomenalgaming.tk

If anything needs to be added to the configs, you can always generate your configs, edit them and then launch with the "run as-is" box ticked.

[Tankbuster 1747]

OK... here's how I run a headless client (also known as HC). I'll give some thoughts on how DST might handle and implement this feature. I have no experience with writing applications for Windows, so feel free to disregard almost everything I say.

I'm envisaging an extra tab on the DST window.

In the extra parameters box of DST, I put localClient[]={127.0.0.1}; This is because my HC runs on the same box as the server.

Then from the desktop (on the server box (it's Server 2008)), I have a shortcut to the game exe with the following in the properties target field;

"F:\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Servers\Domination Public\arma3.exe" -localhost=127.0.0.1 -connect=localhost -port=2342 -client -nosound -name=DCSlot -mod=@stable

Notes:

*1 I don't run the server from game root because I run both stable and dev servers. This is so steam can update dev without interrupting the servers. Others may not do this, but the option would be essential, IMO.

*2 I load the entire root addons directory as an addon because the server insists on loading the BI addons from game root, not from the install where I run the server exe from unless I use the @stable mod. Again, others may not do this, but it is, for me, a required feature as I run both dev and stable. I do the same for my dev server.

*3 Also note that the name (DCSlot) has to be the same as the slot name in the mission SQM or the HC won't get into the right slot automatically. We must be able to supply it - the default won't work - server admin will have to drag the HC player into his slot manually, which is a PITA.

*4 The port number must be the same as the server. Not sure if this needs to be specified separately from the server tab.

*4 The target string can also supply a password for passworded servers, but the last time I tried it, it didn't work - the server rejected even correct passwords and as this is on our public server, I've not tried it since.

The 'start in' field (of my desktop shortcut properties) has;

"F:\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Servers\Domination Public"

In the 'run' field of the shortcut, I specify 'normal window', though others may prefer 'minimized'.

Lastly, I've found there needs to be no pause between the headless client starting and the server starting, the HC can even start first and it happily waits until the server is up and then joins, but a configurable pause between the server starting and the HC starting might be a nice feature.

DST makes my server admining duties MUCH simpler than they would otherwise do. I hope you can make it even better with these bits and bobs.

[SavageCDN 231]

Great post Tankbuster!!

Some notes:

-not sure if -localhost=127.0.0.1 is required in the startup params for the HC.. unless that's an Arma 3 thing only. Our HC is setup for Arma 2 and does not require it however we do have -connect=127.0.0.1 as a param

-password param does work in Arma 2 setup.. make sure the password is NOT in quotes ie: -password=12345

[mal_wilson 10]

Hi i was wondering do mods have to be in a special folder or something for some reason I canot get any of my moded servers "like ace" to work vanilla works fine and when i run the game and make a non dedicated server with the same mods and the same map it works fine is their something that i am missing? Anyways when i launch it it gives me a infinite mission read from bank error/waiting for host but it works fine on a non dedicated server with the same mods. Sorry if its really obvious to you i am sorta new to the dedicated server thing.

[SnR 1]

All goes into MP missions. Then hit refresh in TADST.

[Tankbuster 1747]

Great post Tankbuster!!

Some notes:

-not sure if -localhost=127.0.0.1 is required in the startup params for the HC.. unless that's an Arma 3 thing only. Our HC is setup for Arma 2 and does not require it however we do have -connect=127.0.0.1 as a param

-password param does work in Arma 2 setup.. make sure the password is NOT in quotes ie: -password=12345

Thanks Sav. I'll try the password thingy again on my private server and report back.

[Tankbuster 1747]

-password param does work in Arma 2 setup.. make sure the password is NOT in quotes ie: -password=12345

Tested. Not working in Arma 3. :(

[SavageCDN 231]

Tested. Not working in Arma 3. :(

Hmmmm... I'm not setup to test the HC in A3 yet.. did you try it with quotes as well? Seems odd that it would not work... maybe it's an axed feature :p

[LondonLad 13]

Hmmmm... I'm not setup to test the HC in A3 yet.. did you try it with quotes as well? Seems odd that it would not work... maybe it's an axed feature :p

Server Password and attempting to connect with HC doesn't work at the moment (A3) - Its a known bug and Dwarden is aware of it.

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=9106

[SavageCDN 231]

Ah great thanks LondonLad.

[mal_wilson 10]

Alright i got the mods working but now im getting a no entry bin\config.bin/cfgingameUI/MPTable.shadow on startup of the server and ingame when i try to play a fellujah mission i get a "no bin cfg formations east"

edit: "no bin cfg formations east" seems to be an error with a mission set and i fixed the shadow error by using the arma 2 folder as a mod thanks for the help :)

Edited August 13, 2013 by mal_wilson
rewording + update

[dragon zen 16]

Great Work, very easy to use, thanks bro!