Another Interesting Question

[thejerk]

Is it possible to initialize a pk3 while the server's running? That is, say I want to add a bazooka mod to the game. Can I do that without restarting? And if so, is there a way to reset the bazooka to CKR?

[breakaway]

That's an excellent question, one I've been wondering for a while myself but never thought to ask...

[thejerk]

Bumping in hopes of getting some thoughts on this... BUMP BUMP BUMP BUMP.... keep this alive, plz. I really would like to know an answer to this. See, another issue I have is the possibility of initializing a particular gameplay mod only for one map (for instance, no snipers for a CTF map). Doing so would really help me out with some issues we've had with certain maps and also help with setting up special event nights.

BUMP BUMP BUMP BUMP! :D

[SgtD]

I'm not sure this is possible as the game only reads the PK3 file on initial startup. Granted I'm no expert so i could be wrong.

[thejerk]

Well, that's what I'm thinking too. But it doesn't hurt to find out from those who've been around Quake-based engines long enough, or detailed enough, as to what they think.

Seems to me that there must be a script in the engine itself that tells the game to look for these files for initialization. Also, from what I understand of sv_pure (even if it's not working properly now), it tells the engine which of these files to ignore/use when joining a server. So logically speaking, maybe there's a way to tap into that same script from rcon? Or from a cfg script?

[SgtD]

True enough! Sure would beat having to restart every time!

[CrowKing]

Without the source code, I can't tell you with certainty, but what I've found is that the game, on loading, inventories all the entities and such and I don't think it does so again. Also, it write locks the files (even if it is just reading from them), so you can't overwrite a file once the server is loaded up. This would prevent you from replacing an existing mod.

However, it seems that many of the particulars of the game are not persistent between maps, and they are re-loaded on each map change. So in theory you could add a new pk3 file to the main directory and have it recognized by the server. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen in practice because, as noted above, the server doesn't seem to re-inventory the files in main after loading.

ck

[SeanTheGreat]

from my experience, ive tried this you have to shut down the server, then add it, and then turn it back on..

well it wouldnt work when i loaded a new map for me..

[SgtD]

It must save the inventory list someplace. Maybe the trick is figuring out where and maybe editing the list itself, adding the new MOD to it.