HLTV Documentation Version 3.1.1.1/4.1.1.1 Content ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Overview 2. Spectating Games 3. HLTV Basics 4. Broadcasting Games 5. Recording HLTV demos 6. Larger Broadcasts 7. HLTV Configuration 1. Overview ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Half-Life TV offers the ability to have an unlimited number of spectators watching online games. They can follow the game just like they would as a spectator on the game server. Spectators are invisible to players and can't interact with the running game in any way. Each spectator can choose any view position or choose any player to track individually. To have the most enjoyable spectating experience, spectators can enable the Auto-Director mode. Then the camera is changed automatically so that only interesting scenes are shown from a suitable viewpoint. Thus the spectator can lean back and won't miss any relevant action. All the time, spectators may communicate between each other using the standard HL chat system. Most popular Half-Life MODs are supported like Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic, Day of Defeat and many others. HLTV providers have full control over their HLTV system, may change number of spectator slots, add text messages or change the HLTV logo. The broadcast is delayed by a customizable amount of time, by default 30 seconds. This ensures that the playing teams can't use HLTV to get any usable information about their opponents. Providing a single HLTV server for up to 100 spectators is an easy task and doesn't need any changes in default configurations. Installing a larger HLTV network for thousands of spectators needs some more planning time and experience about required bandwidth and CPU/RAM demands (see chapter 6). 2. Spectating Games ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To watch a HLTV game, start Half-Life, open the Multiplayer menu and select 'Find Servers'. To search for currently broadcasted games, choose the 'Spectate' section and hit 'Refresh All'. After the list has been updated, double click on the server you want to spectate and you'll be connected. If computer game leagues announce important matches to be broadcasted via HLTV, they often provide IP:Port addresses of their HLTV servers. Instead of searching them via the server browser, you can also go to the 'Favorites' folder and add the HLTV address to your server list by pressing the right mouse button. Otherwise, you can also open the console window and use the 'connect' command to spectate a certain game. For example: connect 192.168.130.42:27020 The default HLTV port number is 27020, but may be changed. It should always be included in the given address, since commonly this port number is different from the default port number 27015. You can spectate the game in different modes: Chase Cam, First Person, Free Look, Map Overview and Map Chase. The easiest way to change modes is to press the JUMP key (default SPACE). Alternatively you can use the spectator menu, which can be enabled by pressing the DUCK key (default CTRL). Here you can customize your personal view style and enable the Auto-Director Mode. Press USE (default E) to cycle through the different Picture-In-Picture modes. The following HL console commands can be used to customize spectator settings: spec_autodirector <0|1> - turns Auto Director mode on or off spec_drawcone <0|1> - shows your view cone in map overview mode spec_drawnames <0|1> - shows player names under their icons spec_drawstatus <0|1> - shows game information (time, map etc) spec_pip <0|1> - turns Picture-In-Picture mode on or off spec_menu - opens the spectator menu spec_help - shows a help screen spec_mode <1-6> [<0-4>] - set the main view mode, seconds parameter is the PIP mode. Not all combinations are valid. Main modes are: 1 : Locked Chase 2 : Free Chase 3 : Free Roaming 4 : First Person 5 : Map Overview 6 : Chase Map Overview PIP modes are: 0 : PIP off 1 : Free Chase 2 : First Person 3 : Map Overview 4 : Chase Map Overview 3. HLTV Basics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The core of the HLTV broadcasting system is the HLTV server, also called HLTV proxy. The HLTV executable is a console application that works much like a HL dedicated server. To broadcast a game running on a certain game server, the HLTV proxy connects to this server just like a normal player. Spectators connect themselves to the HLTV proxy and the game data stream is relayed through the HLTV proxy to all connected spectator clients. The next figure shows a basic HLTV configuration: HL Game Server -> HLTV Proxy => Spectator Clients The number of clients that one HLTV proxy can serve depends on available hardware and network resources. Theoretically, a single proxy can hold a maximum of 255 spectator clients. But be careful, even a proxy with 100 spectator clients needs a full 2 MBit line to run smoothly. If more spectator slots are needed, the required network load must be distributed over multiple HLTV proxies. The first HLTV proxy connected to the game server is called the Master proxy, which sets the general broadcast settings like game stream delay or packet rate. All other HLTV proxies linked to this proxy are the Relay proxies. Their total number and link order is not restricted, they may form a chain or tree of proxies. Most important is that their location is in different networks to ensure a balanced bandwidth usage. -> HLTV Relay Proxy 1 => Spectator Clients HL Game Server -> HLTV Master -> HLTV Relay Proxy 2 => Spectator Clients -> HLTV Relay Proxy 3 => Spectator Clients 4. Broadcasting Games ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's assume the most simple configuration, a single HLTV proxy in a LAN environment. This is a very common situation and the default HLTV settings doesn't need to be changed. Choose a dedicated computer as your HLTV proxy and install the Half-Life Dedicated Server, which also includes all files needed by a HLTV proxy. This isn't needed if Half-Life is already installed. Start the HLTV application (HL icon with a small camera) and the HLTV console will open, showing some initialization messages (if that takes a long time, HLTV maybe can't resolve some IP addresses, then start HLTV with the '-nodns' command line option). Then the console is ready to accept your commands, here we use '>' as the console prompt. First give your HLTV proxy an unique name: >name "My HLTV Proxy" Let's assume you have started the proxy on host 192.168.1.2 and the game server, you want to spectate is running on host 192.168.1.3:27015. Then connect the HLTV proxy to this game server by typing: >connect 192.168.1.3:27015 After a few seconds HLTV will be fully connected and ready to serve spectator clients. Use the 'status' command to verify that the HLTV proxy has connected properly : >status --- HLTV Status --- Online 00:23, FPS 79.0, Version 2435 (Win32) Local IP 192.168.1.2:27020, Network In 1.7, Out 1.0, Loss 0.00 Local Slots 128, Spectators 0, Proxies 0 Total Slots 128, Spectators 0, Proxies 1 Source Game Server 192.168.1.3:27015, Delay 30 Server Name "Half-Life dedicated server" Time 01:35, Game "valve", Map "maps/rapidcore.bsp", Players 1 The 'status' command shows your own IP address, HLTV system cycles per second, total incoming and outgoing network traffic in kB/sec. Local slot and spectator numbers your HLTV proxy is providing, total numbers are the sum of all slots & spectators on all proxies broadcasting this game. The game source can be a game server, another HLTV proxy or a demo file. 5. Recording HLTV demos ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HLTV demo files are like normal recorded games in Half-Life, but you can choose any view point, view mode or player to chase during replay. To play back a HLTV demo, a HLTV proxy is not needed. Just start Half-Life and type in console "playdemo <demoname>" or "viewdemo <demoname>" (viewdemo offers more options during playback like fast forward/backward, pause & slowmotion). To record a HLTV demo, connect the proxy to a game server (see last chapter) and type in console: >record <name> All ...
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