Installing Metamod:Source

This article will guide you through a Metamod:Source installation.

Normal Installation

Valve sometimes makes changes in their games that break Metamod:Source between releases. When this happens, you may need to install a snapshot versions of Metamod:Source. You can see if this is required on the Required Versions page.

1. Download Metamod:Source.
2. Extract the package to your game folder. For example, for Counter-Strike:Source, you would have cstrike/addons/metamod after extracting. If you are uploading to FTP, extract the files locally before transferring to your server's game folder.
3. Restart your server.
4. Type "meta version" in your server console (or RCON). You should see a line like: "Loaded As: Valve Server Plugin." If the command is not recognized, see the sections below.

Custom VDF File

Metamod:Source 1.10.0 and later include a metamod.vdf file for easier installation on most games. If you have trouble getting it to load, go here to generate a VDF file specific to your game. This file should be placed into your server's addons directory.

Known setups that require this step:

1. Left 4 Dead 1
2. 3rd party mods using the Source SDK Base.
3. Listen servers (created with the in-game "Create Server" option) for non-english game clients.

GameInfo

Note: This is normally not needed - if you do not understand what this is, do NOT do this unless instructed to. The above instructions are sufficient to install Metamod:Source for 99% of servers.

Metamod:Source 1.4.2 and lower used an older method for loading itself. The advantage of this method was that Metamod:Source could be loaded before the actual game mod, which gave it a small amount of extra functionality. This functionality was never used by plugin developers, and Steam updates kept overwriting gameinfo.txt files, so we switched to a different loading mechanism.

However this loading mechanism may still be desirable if you run into backwards compatibility issues, or you have a plugin which takes advantage of the early-loading mechanism. If this is your case, here are the gameinfo.txt directions below:

• Open the file in the mod folder called "gameinfo.txt". You will see a few lines at the bottom like this:

  SearchPaths
  {
  	Game				|gameinfo_path|. 
  	Game				cstrike
  	Game				hl2
  }
  

• Add a line after the "{" sign but before all of the "Game" entries that looks like this:

  GameBin				|gameinfo_path|addons/metamod/bin
  

• If you're using Windows, you may need to use a backwards slash (\) instead.
• You're done! To test whether it worked, restart your game server and type "meta version" in the server console. You should see a line that says "Loaded as: GameDLL (gameinfo.txt)." If it doesn't recognize the command, the installation probably failed. If the "Loaded as:" line says something else, gameinfo.txt was probably not modified correctly.
• For more information or documentation, see Category:Metamod:Source Documentation

The gameinfo.txt loading method is supported as a legacy feature only. The patcher tool is no longer provided. You can mark gameinfo.txt if you absolutely want to protect it from being overwritten.

We will continue to make sure Metamod:Source can load via this method for as long as the Source Engine allows it. However, we will concentrate more on supporting the new loading mechanism for general use.