Advanced Mann-Conomy: How to idle with multiple accounts

[TheGreatDave]

[QUOTE=zomgqwert;36707256]I've been using this method for a while, and today when I'm about to do my weekly session, I got this on all three of my accounts when trying to go into text mode.

Executing listen server config file listenserver.cfg
Initializing Steam libraries for secure Internet server
Failed to load Steam Service
ServiceStart: failed to start

Then after about a minute or two it automatically closes.

I am not exactly sure what is causing it. I use this as the launch option:

-textmode -nosound -nopix -novid -nopreload -nojoy -sw -maxplayers 2 +sv_lan 1 +map "itemtest"

Anyone have any idea what may be causing this?[/QUOTE]

Think I'm having the same issue. I get this

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Je10g.png[/IMG]

And then the window just closes. It was working yesterday just fine.

I've deleted my idle account's Steam folders and their folders within Steamapps, doesn't seem to change anything.

e: can't start a local server in-game either, game just crashes to desktop.

[zomgqwert]

OK I think I may have found the problem. After my classes I decided to check what may be causing the problem, then I remembered that about 2 nights ago, I enabled the Steam Beta Update on my Steam client. So I checked if that might be causing the problem; and I was right.

It appears that the beta update messed up the way that the TF2 server contacts the Steam Service; most likely it doesn't recognize the newer version of the service and it is looking for the older version.

Now the question is, TheGreatDave, do you also have the Steam Beta Update? If so, try disabling that and report back if that is the case. If not enabled, then there might be something else going on.

[TheGreatDave]

I did. You're a lifesaver, that fixed it for me too :)

[drdevicemd]

Is there any way to copy Steam settings from one intstall to another? I'd rather not open each Steam Settings manually and turn off the ads after quitting a game, disable beta participation, and the like.

[SiScus]

Hello all. It's my first time i write here and i wanna explain you a big problem with tf2 and sandboxie:
when i try to start my idle accounts with sandboxie, it runs all perfectly since the step "searching max 24 player" in the hl2 prompt windows, then hl2 has a crash and all end. Even if i try to run normal account (=without "textmode") with sandboxie, all goes perfectly since the main screen with the menu, then all crash again with hl2.exe error. I followed all the instructions with the site and the .bat file to run the accounts works fine, but there is this hl2.exe everytime. What should i do?

PS: barely forgotten, everything works fine without sandboxie (-texmode, running tf2, everything)

[CdeMonkey]

[QUOTE=CdeMonkey;36706091]Just got this error: "STEAMAUTH: Client Kailarious recieved failure code 1". Any fixes?[/QUOTE]

Anyone?

[JoeFabooch]

thanks

[idler9]

Will any server work for idling?

I'm currently maxing out at around 14 idlers at a time as they end up failing to attach a port to each game.

So running a dedicated server would fix that.

Just not sure if I run a stock standard server, with a basic map would work.

[irukandji]

A stock standard server sucks for idling, after testing it myself.

You need an idle cfg, metamod+sourcemod and other plugins for respawn/class spawn in order to provide some "reality" to your accounts.

[idler9]

But surely just joining an itemtest map which I've been doing is the same thing?

[ric20007]

Just create a server with a specific account, and make all the other accounts connect to the "server account", with this you save alot of ram.

My server account settings: [QUOTE]+exec idle.cfg -heapsize 131072 -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -replay_enable 0 -nohltv -tvdisable -nojoy -width 640 -height 480 +sv_password 1234 -sw -port 29015 +sv_lan 1 +map itemtest +maxplayers 35 +mp_idledealmethod 0[/QUOTE]

All the other accounts, they connect to the account above: [QUOTE]+exec idle.cfg -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -nohltv -nojoy -tvdisable -width 640 -height 480 -port 23 +password 1234 +connect 192.168.1.2:29015[/QUOTE]

+connect 192.168.1.2:29015 You need to change this IP to match your local ip adress

[idler9]

How do I make a server with them parameters/settings?

Make a shortcut to source server? Seems to create a web link when I try.

Do I need to actually make a idle.cfg? Or will running a shortcut with the above info auto create it?

Thanks a lot for the help :)

[ric20007]

You put that parameters in the bat file of your idle account
No need for a dedicated server.

[SiScus]

For my problem don't anyone know the solution? :(

[irukandji]

[QUOTE=idler9;36734782]How do I make a server with them parameters/settings?

Make a shortcut to source server? Seems to create a web link when I try.

Do I need to actually make a idle.cfg? Or will running a shortcut with the above info auto create it?

Thanks a lot for the help :)[/QUOTE]

An idler.cfg takes away some of the sources reload (memory, etc).

And a dedicated server is the way to go.

Previous quote:

[QUOTE=irukandji;34065994]This is how my HL2 processes end up after 20 min of running. They fluctuate abit, but overall, they use 2.2gb memory and 30-40% processing power, inside vmware.

Here's a screenie here:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/mkyNj.jpg[/IMG]

Once again, all clients are connected to a custom dedicated server, that runs in the same vmware image... I'm limited to running 15 clients max, because I connect them all to the dedicated server and all ports are used.

Also, I didn't use any special dxlevel commands for client idle launch. I might try that in the future, but since I'm "sitting" on 8gb of RAM, it's not actually a problem for meh.

Yeya, cuz Mr. Bison agrees![/QUOTE]

[CdeMonkey]

I'm running into some problems in trying raBBish's method. I can't find more than one steam or steamapps folder in my file tree, so I can't really set a path to anywhere else. Anyone know where to look for that kind of thing.

Also, when I try the method of setting up and then connecting to a server with multiple accounts, all of the host accounts fail to connect to my own server. I suspect that it's because I didn't enter the right port number, anyone know where to find this?

[zomgqwert]

[QUOTE=ric20007;36734736]Just create a server with a specific account, and make all the other accounts connect to the "server account", with this you save alot of ram.

My server account settings:

All the other accounts, they connect to the account above:

+connect 192.168.1.2:29015 You need to change this IP to match your local ip adress[/QUOTE]

Thank you for that. I was wondering that myself since running a separate server for each is very resource consuming, and only idling in 3 accounts used up about 3GB of my RAM.

Also SiScus, does it give you any error messages besides the HL2.exe has stopped working? Try to check on the command prompt window to see if it gives you anything specific. There might also be a log somewhere where you can view what went on when it crashed, though I am not sure where its location might be. There might be a command that enables logging that you could add to the startup parameters.

[SiScus]

[/QUOTE]Also SiScus, does it give you any error messages besides the HL2.exe has stopped working? Try to check on the command prompt window to see if it gives you anything specific. There might also be a log somewhere where you can view what went on when it crashed, though I am not sure where its location might be. There might be a command that enables logging that you could add to the startup parameters.[/QUOTE]

Despite i can't find the log files, i can say you that everytime it isn't any error before the crash, just i make start the game (-textmode or normal mode) and crash in the menu mode. Maybe it's the cache allocation or something else. Really don't know. My environment is 64-Bit, but also my sandboxie version (the 7.2) is for 64-Bit

[JoeFabooch]

[QUOTE=gambler;36408638]This problem usually happens when a idle account start updating when there are other accounts using the TF2 files. All accounts will try to validate the TF2 files over and over. My fix for it is copying all the TF2 gfc files from my main steamapps folder to the copy of steamapps folder that's shared with the idle accounts. So when a update is out, don't open more than one account or that bug will happen. And terminate all idle accounts, don't just close the game, else all accounts will try to update it.

It happened only that day, the item server probably had a bad patch[/QUOTE]

I copied and replaced the files from main steamapps to the copy of steamapps folder and still getting the same problem. Any suggestions?

[SiScus]

Ok i tried to run the normal tf2 without sandboxie...when i do this, i have the string (in textmode): Steam config directory: c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\"accountname"\team fortress 2\platform\config....well this is the step that make the hl2.exe in sandboxie crash...how can i fix it?

[zomgqwert]

[QUOTE=SiScus;36744326]Ok i tried to run the normal tf2 without sandboxie...when i do this, i have the string (in textmode): Steam config directory: c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\"accountname"\team fortress 2\platform\config....well this is the step that make the hl2.exe in sandboxie crash...how can i fix it?[/QUOTE]
Not very sure if it might be the problem, but did you give it full access permissions for the entire drive in the sandbox settings for accessing the files? If that is where the sandboxed version is crashing, it might not have proper access to some of the necessary files.
Also, regarding the log, I think that if you add "+log on" into the startup parameters, you might get the log file that way. (If it is the same command as a server configuration.)

[idler9]

can someone please link my directly to the idle.cfg? look through a lot of the pages and I didn't spot it .

Really need to push more than 15 at a time haha, should be able to near double that once set up correctly.

So E:\Steam\Steam.exe -applaunch 440 +exec idle.cfg -heapsize 131072 -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -replay_enable 0 -nohltv -tvdisable -nojoy -width 640 -height 480 +sv_password 1234 -sw -port 29015 +sv_lan 1 +map itemtest +maxplayers 35 +mp_idledealmethod 0

?

That's too long for a normal steam shortcut, will be using my main account as the server, sanboxes to connect to it. But I will just remove some of the things like -novid etc.

[B]EDIT AGAIN: [/B]Ok so I got the server and idlers working together, idlers have dropped by at least half the RAM usage :D

But an idle.cfg would be nice still, although I haven't been using one to begin with so I'm not sure what advantage it will have.

[crashlapine]

[QUOTE=idler9;36746086]can someone please link my directly to the idle.cfg? look through a lot of the pages and I didn't spot it.[/QUOTE]

sometime back, I packed together the idle.cfg with a map i made in hammer
[url=https://dl.dropbox.com/u/14573214/tf2/IDLE.rar]here's the whole thing, some might find the map useful[/url]

map's made of 5 faces, a triangular prism, to cut down from 6 faces/box shape of most maps
pretty unnoticeable memory loss, but as long as we're cutting corners, why not

otherwise here's the code

//cl commands
cl_smooth 0
cl_detaildist 1
cl_detailfade 800
cl_ejectbrass 0
cl_show_splashes 0


//mat commands
mat_compressedtextures 1
mat_bumpmap 0
mat_clipz 0
mat_filterlightmaps 0
mat_filtertextures 0
mat_mipmaptextures 0
mat_softwarelighting 1
mat_specular 0
mat_picmip 2
mat_parallaxmap 0
mat_showlowresimage 1
mat_queue_mode 2
mat_aaquality 0
mat_antialias 0
mat_reducefillrate 1
mat_hdr_level 0
mat_hdr_enabled 0
mat_hdr_level 0
mat_hdr_manual_tonemap_rate 0
mat_use_compressed_hdr_textures 0
mat_disable_bloom 1
mat_bloomscale 0

//r commands
r_fastzreject -1
r_threaded_particles 1
r_threaded_renderables 1
r_decal_cullsize 1
r_drawflecks 0
r_drawmodeldecals 0
r_dynamic 0
r_lod 0
r_WaterDrawReflection 0
r_WaterDrawRefraction 0
r_waterforceexpensive 0
r_cheapwaterend 1
r_threaded_renderables 1
r_threaded_particles
r_shadowrendertotexture 0
r_rootlod 2
r_lod 2

//lod commands
lod_TransitionDist 1

//dsp & snd commands
dsp_enhance_stereo 0
snd_mixahead 0.7

//other commands
fps_max 60
muzzleflash_light 0
ai_expression_optimization 0
sv_forcepreload 1

echo "MaxFPS Config Loaded"

[idler9]

Oh so it's basically just a MAX FPS config, thought it was a "idle" specific one.

[irukandji]

[QUOTE=idler9;36746365]Oh so it's basically just a MAX FPS config, thought it was a "idle" specific one.[/QUOTE]

It turns out into an idle.cfg when you place all the server and plugin commands.

This cfg should let your ds and sourcemod plugs consume less memory resources so you can load more accounts within your memory parameters.

I run 10-15 accs @ 3-3.5 gb memory. It's doable...

But I always run them in vmware, to better assess the resources.

[idler9]

Currently running 22 plus the server on 8gb. Could easily push for more but I haven't edited all the other batch files yet so this will do for this session.

Around half at 110MB, some at 70Mb. The other half is still 240MB so I can push them down easily enough.

42(two clusters) in one session would be nice, will try that later.

What's the maximum slots a server can host? :quagmire:

[irukandji]

I can't push it past 15 accs since the connections take all the opened ports. Past 15 accs, I just get no-available-port errors and clients cant connect.

I guess the culprit is my PPoE broadband connection.

[ric20007]

I've been getting the bad challenge error and the accounts can't connect once that line appears, any ideas to solve it ?

[Boben]

[QUOTE=ric20007;36751101]I've been getting the bad challenge error and the accounts can't connect once that line appears, any ideas to solve it ?[/QUOTE]
Restart only.
[QUOTE=irukandji;36750819]I can't push it past 15 accs since the connections take all the opened ports. Past 15 accs, I just get no-available-port errors and clients cant connect.

I guess the culprit is my PPoE broadband connection.[/QUOTE]
-port 29015

[idler9]

[QUOTE=irukandji;36750819]I can't push it past 15 accs since the connections take all the opened ports. Past 15 accs, I just get no-available-port errors and clients cant connect.

I guess the culprit is my PPoE broadband connection.[/QUOTE]

I used to have the same issue, but I don't get it now that I run a dedicated.