Configuration¶

Server Initialization¶

In order to use a dedicated server, you need to enter commands. You can enter these commands, yourself, when the dedicated server starts, or you can have the dedicated server enter them for you for less of a hassle. This is achieved by the init.txt file. Using an init.txt file is strongly recommended.

Note

Your dedicated server has two init.txt files: One is opened when the Halo Dedicated Server starts up, located in the server folder. The other file is loaded when SAPP loads, located in the SAPP folder.

Server init.txt¶

This file is opened when the server starts. The Halo dedicated server (and client) can read init.txt files with LF (Unix) or CRLF (Windows) line endings. Your server’s init.txt file should contain the load command so that SAPP can be loaded upon startup.

If SAPP is not loaded, the dedicated server will function as a normal dedicated server, with no SAPP features being available. You may want to have a server name, specify max players, specify whether or not the server is public (broadcasts to lobby), a mapcycle timeout to reduce time between games, and an rcon password.

Caution

You can place the load command anywhere in the init.txt file, but SAPP commands will not work unless SAPP is loaded.

Example Server init.txt¶

sv_name "!!!@@@_dancing_warthogs_@@@!!!"
sv_maxplayers 16

sv_public 1

sv_mapcycle_timeout 3
sv_rcon_password haloce42

load

SAPP Configuration¶

After starting up and loading SAPP for the first time, it will create a number of files and folders ready to be edited. You do not need to use or know all of the files for a working server. You can use the files command to list these files.

SAPP init.txt¶

This file contains commands that are loaded whenever SAPP is loaded, and it is automatically generated if it is nonexistent when SAPP has loaded. Most settings in SAPP get destroyed when SAPP is unloaded. Scripts also need to be loaded via commands; they do not automatically get loaded. You can further customize SAPP by using many of its commands, then storing these customizations here so they are run every time SAPP is started. These commands do not have to be SAPP commands.

Avoid putting commands in here that will end the game, such as mapcycle_begin, sv_mapcycle_begin, sv_map, map, etc. Players may become frustrated if the game ends prematurely when reloading SAPP.

A very useful command to include here would be the no_lead 1 command, to enable no- lead. Some other useful commands would be sapp_console 1 to override sv_status and chat_console_echo 1 to see player chat messages in console.

Example SAPP init.txt¶

no_lead 1

sapp_console 1

chat_console_echo 1

Map Cycle¶

If you are going to use a mapcycle, using SAPP’s mapcycle provides more control over when they are available, having some entries work only when a certain number of players are in-game. Halo’s stock mapcycle is still another option.

Halo’s mapcycle requires that you use sv_mapcycle_add for each map, then use sv_mapcycle_begin.

SAPP’s mapcycle only requires that mapcycle_begin and sapp_mapcycle 1 be used, while having the mapcycle stored in mapcycle.txt (see Map Cycle and Map Vote for information).

Other SAPP Files¶

Note

If you choose to utilize all of SAPP’s features, you should keep your modifications as non-gameplay intrusive as possible, or else people may get frustrated when playing on your server.

File	Usage
admins.txt	Stores v2 admin information. See Admin Management.
alias.txt	Stores aliases of players with same CD hash. This requires collect_aliases to be enabled.
areas.txt	Stores areas from the area command. These areas are per-map.
commands.txt	Stores custom commands. See Custom Commands
events.txt	Stores events that run commands when specified requirements are met. See Events.
init.txt	Stores commands that are executed when SAPP is loaded. Not to be confused with the init.txt in the server folder. See SAPP init.txt.
ipbans.txt	Stores information of IP bans, such as length and time. See General Commands.
locations.txt	Stores locations from the loc command. These are per-map.
lua (folder)	Stores lua scripts. These scripts can be loaded with the lua load command. See Lua Scripting
mapcycle.txt	Stores your mapcycle. Begin the mapcycle with mapcycle_begin. See Map Cycle
mapvotes.txt	Stores a list of games that players can vote on. See Map Vote
sapp.log	Created when SAPP’s logging feature is enabled. This file stores logs.
users.txt	Stores v1 admin information. See Admin Management.