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CS2 server plugin

CS:DM uses a Valve Server plugin (VSP) to communicate with CS2 and control the demo playback.

Why?​

For CS:GO, we use the -netconport launch option to communicate with the game and VDM files to control the demo playback.
Unfortunately, VDM files don't work with CS2, and the -netconport launch option works only with the -tools launch option available only on Windows.

As a workaround, we use a VSP that communicates with CS2 through a WebSocket connection and mimics VDM files by reading a JSON file.

Developing​

Requirements​

Windows​

Visual Studio 2022 with the component Desktop development with C++.

Linux​

sudo apt install make build-essential

Building​

The binary will be placed into the static folder located in the project root.
CS:DM copy/paste the binary into the CS2 game folder when the game is launched.

Windows​

  1. git submodule update --init --recursive
  2. Open a Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt and navigate to the project folder
  3. msbuild cs2-server-plugin.sln
note

You can also build the project from Visual Studio.

Linux​

  1. git submodule update --init --recursive
  2. make

Installation​

CS:DM automatically installs the plugin when CS2 is launched.
It does the following:

  1. The plugin binary is copied from the static folder to the game\csgo\csdm\bin CS2 folder.
  2. A reference to the plugin is added to the file game\csgo\gameinfo.gi:
SearchPaths
{
	Game_LowViolence	csgo_lv // Perfect World content override

+	Game	csgo/csdm
	Game	csgo
	Game	csgo_imported
	Game	csgo_core
	Game	core
  1. CS2 is launched with the launch option -insecure

Uninstallation​

CS:DM automatically uninstalls the plugin when CS2 is closed.

  1. The gameinfo.gi file is restored.
  2. The plugin binary is deleted.

The plugin restores the gameinfo.gi file when the game starts, but if necessary, CS:DM does it as well to ensure it's restored even if the game crashes.

Logging​

Logs are visible in the CS2 console with the prefix CSDM.
On Windows, you can also start the game with the -tools launch option to access the VConsole that allows filtering the logs.

If CS2 crashes at startup and the console unavailable, you can use the LogToFile function to write logs into a file csdm.log.
On Windows the log file is located in game/bin/win64, and on Linux in game/bin.

Updating the sdk​

The plugin is built against the AlliedModders SDK.

  1. git submodule update --remote
  2. Build the project deps/hl2sdk/interfaces/interfaces.sln in Release mode
  3. Build the tier1 project in Release mode
  4. Replace tier1.lib and interfaces.lib with the newly built ones in deps/hl2sdk/lib/public/win64
  5. Reset any changes git submodule foreach git reset --hard && git clean -fd