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Halo Online Guide v2.2 (Dedicated servers, splitscreen, and more)

Arnox

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5,285
So, before I start, note that this is a small guide and not a full guide. I've seen some issues that seem to persist beyond what I can suggest. Alright now, with that out of the way, let's get started on...

INSTALLATION

1. Since we're on a real man's forum and not some fucking pussy sub-reddit, I can give you download links for the MS23 build of Halo Online which is required for installation. Here: http://intosanctuary.com/index.php?topic=5432.0

2. Download the extract the ElDewrito 0.6 Updater to the folder you installed the game in and run it. (If the file doesn't seem to be downloading, delete your Mediafire cookies and try again.) Click the Update button. You're done!

SERVER BROWSER WOES

If you're having problems with the server browser simply not working, try another server browser.

1. Open dewrito_prefs.cfg in your game folder.

2. The very first line should say Game.MenuURL "http://scooterpsu.github.io/"

3. Change the URL in the quotes to http://rabidsquabbit.github.io or one of the URLs of the server browsers listed in the sidebar.

4. If all else fails, use the Vicelio server browser in your web browser to find an IP.

SPLITSCREEN SETUP

We're gonna use an open source program written by wolfincommand here to do most of the heavy lifting for us.

1. Download and extract the exe into the game install folder.

2. Run it. This will create a seperate dewrito_prefs file for each separate window to be run.

3. The position boxes designate where the lower leftmost corner of a window will be. So if I had a screen resolution of 1440x900, an x position of 0 and a y position of 720 (with the window sized at 720x540) would put the window in the upper left corner of the screen with no cutoff. As to the recommended size, if you're just doing two-player splitscreen, I'd highly recommend a max 4:3 ratio on the window size. (720x540 for each if you had a 1440x900 monitor) Otherwise, you'll have to do with 640x480 if you want each window to be equal sized unless you have a 1080p monitor, in which case, do 700x525.)

4. So when you've got everything all put in, launch the windows you need by pressing the "Launch Game x" buttons.

5. Now for controls. Press the "Home" button on your keyboard to get to the main settings including controls. Keep in mind that if any of the windows use a keyboard and mouse for control, that window will need the focus. The controllers can do fine without it. However, before anything, make sure at least one window is set to be a gamepad. Usually player two.

6. Now to connect! Host a multiplayer lobby in one window and make sure in the host settings, it's set to be online. And for all the other windows, press the "~" key to open the console. Type in server.connect xxx.xxx.xx.x where "xxx.xxx.xx.x" is the IP of your computer. To find this out, simply google, "what's my IP". Now you're ready to go! Pick a map and gametype and you're off.

QUICKEST WAY TO GET FRIENDS TO JOIN YOUR GAME

1. Host a multiplayer lobby and make sure in the host settings, it's set to be online. Look up your IP via google as mentioned above. Now have your friend(s) type in server.connect xxx.xxx.xx.x where "xxx.xxx.xx.x" is the IP of your computer.

2. You're done! Well, if they can't join, they either mistyped it (likely) or the router of the host probably doesn't support UPnP and thus, you'll need to port forward ports 11774 through 11777. All of them both TCP and UDP.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DEDICATED SERVERS

First up, all the server files you need are in the server directory in the mods folder of your game installation folder. If you'd like, you can create your own dedi server shortcut as well instead of using the .bat in the folder. Just right click eldorado.exe and click Create Shortcut. Then open the shortcut properties. Look at the Target path. Outside of the quotes, put " -launcher -dedicated -minimized" without quotes.

Assuming you're hosting this on your own computer and you have Windows 10, you can make use of the multiple available desktops and run the dedi server on another desktop while keeping your main desktop clear for everything else so you don't accidentally switch to it. However, this was the easy part. Now, the kinda hard part. Actually setting up the server how you like it. The first thing to keep in mind is that the dedicated server MUST have either the Vetoing or Voting system enabled in the dewrito_prefs.cfg. If neither of them are enabled, the server will simply halt and not put anyone into a game at all.

Now, to start, go into your dewrito_prefs.cfg and look at the Server. variables specifically. Set them how you like. Most of them are pretty self-explanatory. If you're wondering about any of the variables, just go into the game console and type in "help <variable>" without quotes where <variable> is the variable you need help with. The main thing you need to decide though is if you want the Veto or the Vote system.

The Veto system works off a fixed "playlist" where basically, you make a list of map and gametype variant pairs. These pairs are what the party decides to be vetoed or not. You can set how many times in dewrito_prefs, if at all, the party can veto a pair before it forces a pair into play. This is also the system that will allow you to run a server that runs only one map variant and gametype variant 24/7. Enable this system if you want stricter control of what plays on your server.

The Vote system works by a list of map variants and a list of gametype variants. The two lists must have at least two map variants and two gametype variants in them or else the server will declare both lists invalid and run a default list instead, regardless of what you entered in. Assuming that the lists are declared valid though, the vote system will select one random map from the map variant list and one random gametype from the gametype variant list to generate an entry to vote on. You can specify how many entries it will generate to vote on and how many times, if at all, the party can vote for none of them in dewrito_prefs. You can also specify if certain gametype variants should only have certain maps available to vote on for them. For example, you may want to restrict the Capture The Flag variant to only run on Valhalla and Reactor. Enable this system if you want to give the party more control and variety.

Once you make your decision, head into the server folder for some heavy configuration. What you need is a valid veto.json or vote.json file depending on what you decided on. The examples already provided in this folder are kinda garbage and don't work. Just ignore them. Instead, here's two much better examples I put into Pastebin.com for a veto and vote json file. Edit them to taste. Keep in mind that for some reason, if you point to an in-built gametype in your json instead of a custom one, it will error out and just dump the party into Slayer. To get around this, just make "custom" gametype variants of all the in-built variants and you should be good to go. Remember, when editing jsons to put in commas after entries and no comma after a list is finished. Also, know that veto.jsons must have at least two pairs in them, even if they're both exactly the same.

Once you have that all finished and running, you can connect to your own server using one of three methods. You can just browse for it in the Server Browser. You can use the Server.Connect command using the public IP address for the server. Or if you're on the PC that is hosting it, you can do "Server.Connect 127.0.0.1" without quotes.

Lastly, Rcon. Now, regardless of if you have UPnP on your router or not, you NEED to manually forward the 11776 port for your PC in order to have it work. Make sure, again, that you forward it for your specific PC if you have more than one device connected to the router. You can set the Rcon password in your dewrito_prefs file. Once you've done all that, you can use an Rcon client to issue any console command to your server regardless of where you are. (I highly recommend this one.) Use 11775 for the server port and, again, 11776 for the Rcon port. To get your server IP, make sure you're on your host computer and simply google "What's my IP?"

Now that you have Rcon, you can do a bunch of useful and cool stuff. Type "help" without quotes for a complete list of commands. You can use Game.Stop to quickly end the session and immediately return everyone to the lobby. Honestly though, you should just use Game.End to gracefully end the session. Type "Server.ListPlayers" without quotes to get a quick list of everyone and their "index" numbers. You can use these index numbers to quickly refer to a player in a command. So say, you want to kick Chad who has an index number of 5, then you'd just have to type in "Server.KickIndex 5" without quotes. Unfortunately, I don't know if there's a way to specify multiple players per command. All your bans are kept in banlist.txt in your server folder.

If you'd like to change the map and gametype variants in the json on the fly without having to restart the server, just make the changes you'd like, save it, then type into the console without quotes "Server.ReloadVotingJson" or "Server.ReloadVetoJson" if you're using the Veto system. If you'd like to apply the changes immediately, simply type "Game.End" without quotes. And there you go. Have fun with your new dedi server!

OTHER STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

1. To clear all items off of a map in Forge mode, open the console with "~" and type Forge.Canvas in the console.

2. Use server.connect xxx.xxx.xx.x to connect to a custom IP.

3. Map and gametype variants are in the "mods" folder of your game installation folder. dewrito_prefs.cfg holds all your personal settings.

4. If the game is loading incredibly slow for you, open dewrito_prefs.cfg and set the fpslimiter to 0.

5. You can mute anyone by double-tapping the Tab key or whatever the scoreboard button is and right-clicking on the offending player's name.

6. If assassinations are enabled, you can still do a classic assassination by simply tapping melee instead of holding it down. Keep in mind though that it's a little sensitive. If you hold the button down even a bit too long, the game will think that you wanted a modern assassination instead of a classic one.

7. You can edit the HUD colors in dewrito_prefs.cfg or by going into the console. These are the lines you should edit:
Graphics.CustomHUDColorsEnabled 1
Graphics.CustomHUDColorsPrimary #xxxxxx
Graphics.CustomHUDColorsSecondary #xxxxxx

Use a hex color picker online to get the code for the hue you need.

-

And that's all. Time to finish the fight! Again.
 

Vendor-Lazarus

Arch Disciple
Sanctuary legend
Messages
936
Can't get it to work at all..

Got the Halo Online folder (1.106708 cert_ms23 ..your link didn't work for me so I hope it's not different), extracted ElDewrito's two files into it and ran it. You didn't say to update so I didn't at first. Just tried to start with Eldorado.exe. Nothing happened. Tried to update through the ElDewrito updater, but it got an error just 1% or so before finishing. And thanks to my cap, the update took 45 minutes. I will try it again when I have the time, but for now I'm stuck.
 

Arnox

Master
Staff member
Founder
Messages
5,285
Vendor-Lazarus said:
Can't get it to work at all..

Got the Halo Online folder (1.106708 cert_ms23 ..your link didn't work for me so I hope it's not different), extracted ElDewrito's two files into it and ran it. You didn't say to update so I didn't at first. Just tried to start with Eldorado.exe. Nothing happened. Tried to update through the ElDewrito updater, but it got an error just 1% or so before finishing. And thanks to my cap, the update took 45 minutes. I will try it again when I have the time, but for now I'm stuck.
If you tried getting it earlier than 2 days ago, then yeah, that link had expired. There's a new one now. What was the error in question though?
 

Vendor-Lazarus

Arch Disciple
Sanctuary legend
Messages
936
Arnox said:
Vendor-Lazarus said:
Can't get it to work at all..

Got the Halo Online folder (1.106708 cert_ms23 ..your link didn't work for me so I hope it's not different), extracted ElDewrito's two files into it and ran it. You didn't say to update so I didn't at first. Just tried to start with Eldorado.exe. Nothing happened. Tried to update through the ElDewrito updater, but it got an error just 1% or so before finishing. And thanks to my cap, the update took 45 minutes. I will try it again when I have the time, but for now I'm stuck.
If you tried getting it earlier than 2 days ago, then yeah, that link had expired. There's a new one now. What was the error in question though?
I tried it right after you refreshed it. ,) The page just wont work for me. Might be my browser.
The error says "patch failed2". also something like "make sure no files are modified.." something something.

I found another link on the r/haloonline reddit to the files themselves (TPI?) and will try it soon.
https://old.reddit.com/r/HaloOnline/wiki/index/download#getstarted
102mb took even longer than 45 minutes. But I got there in the end.
 

Arnox

Master
Staff member
Founder
Messages
5,285
Vendor-Lazarus said:
Arnox said:
If you tried getting it earlier than 2 days ago, then yeah, that link had expired. There's a new one now. What was the error in question though?
I tried it right after you refreshed it. ,) The page just wont work for me. Might be my browser.
The error says "patch failed2". also something like "make sure no files are modified.." something something.

I found another link on the r/haloonline reddit to the files themselves (TPI?) and will try it soon.
https://old.reddit.com/r/HaloOnline/wiki/index/download#getstarted
102mb took even longer than 45 minutes. But I got there in the end.
Let me know if you need anymore help.
 

Vendor-Lazarus

Arch Disciple
Sanctuary legend
Messages
936
Arnox said:
Vendor-Lazarus said:
I tried it right after you refreshed it. ,) The page just wont work for me. Might be my browser.
The error says "patch failed2". also something like "make sure no files are modified.." something something.

I found another link on the r/haloonline reddit to the files themselves (TPI?) and will try it soon.
https://old.reddit.com/r/HaloOnline/wiki/index/download#getstarted
102mb took even longer than 45 minutes. But I got there in the end.
Let me know if you need anymore help.
Ok. I'm stuck. Help!

I have the ms23 (unmodified I think), but I can't update.
The TPI files I got say they are directx ones and I don't want to change those just now.
All my games work as they should. Especially the more fiddly ones.
 

Arnox

Master
Staff member
Founder
Messages
5,285
Vendor-Lazarus said:
I have the ms23 (unmodified I think), but I can't update.
The TPI files I got say they are directx ones and I don't want to change those just now.
All my games work as they should. Especially the more fiddly ones.
TPI files? wut?

Just download the game from my link (try IE/Edge), download the updater, and run it to patch the game.
 

Signa

Libertarian Contrarian
Sanctuary legend
Messages
764
Do you have a dedicated server to run this on? I can get my media server hosting if you need me to
 

Arnox

Master
Staff member
Founder
Messages
5,285
Signa said:
Do you have a dedicated server to run this on? I can get my media server hosting if you need me to
Yep. Got my own dedi server. Got it working and ready a long time ago.
 

xMaskedYoshi

Outlander
Messages
8
I got to reading about the split screen program you have mentioned in the guide here. Is that split screen for one monitor with 2 players, or 2 monitors? If this question even makes sense. Also I was wondering if you have like a google drive link to some Maps and or gamemode variants?
 

Arnox

Master
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Founder
Messages
5,285
xMaskedYoshi said:
I got to reading about the split screen program you have mentioned in the guide here. Is that split screen for one monitor with 2 players, or 2 monitors? If this question even makes sense. Also I was wondering if you have like a google drive link to some Maps and or gamemode variants?
I don't think the splitscreen program works for dual monitors, but it does support 4 player splitscreen.

I have some custom gametype and map variants, but I don't have a drive link to them. I still need to pick a storage solution for us that would allow us to host content some companies may not like.
 

xMaskedYoshi

Outlander
Messages
8
Arnox said:
xMaskedYoshi said:
I got to reading about the split screen program you have mentioned in the guide here. Is that split screen for one monitor with 2 players, or 2 monitors? If this question even makes sense. Also I was wondering if you have like a google drive link to some Maps and or gamemode variants?
I don't think the splitscreen program works for dual monitors, but it does support 4 player splitscreen.

I have some custom gametype and map variants, but I don't have a drive link to them. I still need to pick a storage solution for us that would allow us to host content some companies may not like.
Ohhh I see. I forgot about stuff like that. I assume dropbox, google drive, etc would be outta option huh?
 

Arnox

Master
Staff member
Founder
Messages
5,285
xMaskedYoshi said:
Arnox said:
I don't think the splitscreen program works for dual monitors, but it does support 4 player splitscreen.

I have some custom gametype and map variants, but I don't have a drive link to them. I still need to pick a storage solution for us that would allow us to host content some companies may not like.
Ohhh I see. I forgot about stuff like that. I assume dropbox, google drive, etc would be outta option huh?
Well, if it's just map and gametype variants, those can be hosted on any solution, no problem. But like, if we wanted to host MS23 on Google Drive or something, they would probably take it down quickly.
 

xMaskedYoshi

Outlander
Messages
8
Arnox said:
xMaskedYoshi said:
Ohhh I see. I forgot about stuff like that. I assume dropbox, google drive, etc would be outta option huh?
Well, if it's just map and gametype variants, those can be hosted on any solution, no problem. But like, if we wanted to host MS23 on Google Drive or something, they would probably take it down quickly.
Ahh I see. Hmmmmm. This will be a hard bypass.
 

Arnox

Master
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Founder
Messages
5,285
xMaskedYoshi said:
Arnox said:
Well, if it's just map and gametype variants, those can be hosted on any solution, no problem. But like, if we wanted to host MS23 on Google Drive or something, they would probably take it down quickly.
Ahh I see. Hmmmmm. This will be a hard bypass.
I still have the original MS23 build saved though, so all I need is the permanent storage solution to upload it to.
 

xMaskedYoshi

Outlander
Messages
8
Arnox said:
xMaskedYoshi said:
Ahh I see. Hmmmmm. This will be a hard bypass.
I still have the original MS23 build saved though, so all I need is the permanent storage solution to upload it to.
So what exactly is the MS23 file in particular? Like this halo game isn't in development right? So why would it be such a big idea to upload this?
 

Arnox

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5,285
xMaskedYoshi said:
So what exactly is the MS23 file in particular? Like this halo game isn't in development right? So why would it be such a big idea to upload this?
ElDewrito is written entirely as an "update" for the early MS23 version or build of Halo Online. You use the build to do a completely clean install of ED. There were later builds of Halo Online, but the ED team went with MS23 because it was the latest build that still had a lot of things that were taken out in later builds. Then Microsoft decided to be dicks and restrict all access to the MS23 build, thereby hamstringing ED a lot.
 

xMaskedYoshi

Outlander
Messages
8
Arnox said:
xMaskedYoshi said:
So what exactly is the MS23 file in particular? Like this halo game isn't in development right? So why would it be such a big idea to upload this?
ElDewrito is written entirely as an "update" for the early MS23 version or build of Halo Online. You use the build to do a completely clean install of ED. There were later builds of Halo Online, but the ED team went with MS23 because it was the latest build that still had a lot of things that were taken out in later builds. Then Microsoft decided to be dicks and restrict all access to the MS23 build, thereby hamstringing ED a lot.
Ohh I gotchya. Wow that really sucks.
 

Arnox

Master
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Founder
Messages
5,285
xMaskedYoshi said:
Arnox said:
Just add them same as any standard map.
I'll give it a try. Everytime I've tried doing that it forced the game to load defaults. So maybe it was just my coding?
You don't need to move any map files from their original folders either. Just give the json file the filename of the custom map without extension.
 

xMaskedYoshi

Outlander
Messages
8
Arnox said:
xMaskedYoshi said:
I'll give it a try. Everytime I've tried doing that it forced the game to load defaults. So maybe it was just my coding?
You don't need to move any map files from their original folders either. Just give the json file the filename of the custom map without extension.
That's what I thought before. I tried like 2 days ago. I guess I just missed a comma or something in the coding. I just tried with 15 maps, and all works perfect.
 

Arnox

Master
Staff member
Founder
Messages
5,285
xMaskedYoshi said:
Arnox said:
You don't need to move any map files from their original folders either. Just give the json file the filename of the custom map without extension.
That's what I thought before. I tried like 2 days ago. I guess I just missed a comma or something in the coding. I just tried with 15 maps, and all works perfect.
Alright. Let me know if you have any questions then.
 
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