Installation - "Master" (gameserver)
Copy ettv.x86 to the same directory your etded.x86 is located.
Start your gameserver as normal, but run ettv.x86 instead of etded.x86.
Set some cvars:
ettv_sv_maxslaves (default 0, no slave connections allowed)
Number of ettv slaves allowed to connect.
Note: Slave slots are always reserved, like private slots.
ettv_password (default "", no slave connections allowed)
Password for ettv slaves.
Must be set, or no slaves will be able to connect!
b_ettv_flags (default 1)
1 = prevent slaves from being callvote kicked
2 = grant shoutcaster status to slaves
values can be added together, eg 3 for both features.
Players may now connect to your gameserver as normal.
Installation - "Slave" (broadcast server)
Copy ettv.x86 to the same directory your etded.x86 is located.
Copy tvgame.mp.i386.so to the same directory as your etpro/qagame.mp.i386.so is located.
Set some cvars:
sv_maxclients
Number of spectator clients to allow. This number is only limited by available cpu and memory.
Some guidelines when provisioning a broadcast server:
100 spectator slots will require ~ 128mb ram. Use com_hunkmegs to set this.
100 spectator slots will require ~ 768kbyte/sec (6mbits), roughly 6kbyte/sec per client
100 spectator slots will take ~ 80% cpu of a Xeon 2.2ghz
Each slave will require ~20-40kbyte/sec from the master.
ettv_clientname (default "ETTV")
Playername the slave will use when connecting to the master, eg "ETTV-xyz"
Now start your slave server by running ettv.x86
Tell the slave server to connect up to the master server:
tv connect master.ip.address:port ettv_password(required) g_password(if the master has a g_password set)
If you have configured everything correctly, the slave should connect to the master.
Clients should now be able to connect to the slave and spectate the game in progress.
This is a "live broadcast" with no delay.
To tell the slave to disconnect from the master:
tv disconnect
You may record the match in progress to a file, with the command:
record <demo name>
If you omit the demo name, ettv will start recording using a filename of demoXXXX
where XXXX is the first available number starting from 0000.
Demos will stop recording when a map changes.
To stop recording a demo:
stoprecord
To play back a recorded demo:
demo <demo name>
To check the status of an ettv slave:
tv status
This will tell you if the slave is connected to a master, or if it is currently
playing back a demo.
ettv is able to automatically continuously record demos, creating new demofiles when the
map changes. To do this, set the cvar ettv_autorecord to 1. ettv will start
recording demos with the name demoXXXX where XXXX is a number starting at 0000 and incrementing
on each map change.
Server admins may find it useful to use the demo recording feature of ettv to record matches,
instead of requiring individual players to record them. An ettv demo records everything that
happens on a server, including all player viewpoints.
How to create delayed feeds:
Autorecording demos is the first half of the process for delayed feeds. Typically you would
run a passworded slave server with the smallest number of sv_maxclients possible. No spectators
should connect to this server. The only purpose of this slave is to connect up to the master
and record the match to sequentially numbered demofiles.
Now start up a slave, and tell it to broadcast the demo being recorded.
demo demo0000
If you wait approx. 60 seconds after the master begins recording before issuing this command
to your slaves, then you have a 60 second delay on your broadcast.
If you want slaves to automatically switch to the next demo when the end of the demo is reached
(eg on a map change), you would set the cvar ettv_autoplay to 1. If a slave is playing
demo0000 and it reaches the end, it will then try to play demo0001 and so on.
Disadvantage of this method: It is not automated in ettv itself, though admins can script it.
Advantage of this method: You may run multiple broadcast servers from the same single demo
stream.
Automated delayed feeds will be supported in a future version of ettv.
Troubleshooting:
The slave server must be running the same fs_game setting as the master server.
The slave server must have a copy of every map pk3 the master server is using.
If the master server loads a map the slave server doesn't have, the slave will get stuck.
Spectators will be forced to download any custom pk3 you are using.
It is a good idea to keep the master server pk3 list to a minimum.
If you are using the autorecord/autoplay feature for running delayed feeds, you will usually
want to make sure you clear out the demos directory first. Autorecording will start numbering
demofiles using the first available number, so if you have old recorded demos then ettv might
start recording from eg demo0017. If your scripts expect to start playback from demo0000
then you might end up broadcasting a game recorded at some earlier date...
Miscellaneous
Slaves may send chats to the master with the command msay
Slaves may list players on the master with the command players
Performance tuning
Spectator servers with large numbers of clients (eg >100) will push the OS very hard with
huge amounts of UDP traffic. The default OS buffer settings for Linux are inadequate
and can hurt performance, causing lag and/or disconnects.
If you get messages like
NET_SendPacket ERROR: No buffer space available to 192.168.120.142:27960
Then you definitely need to increase your kernel network buffers.
Large spectator servers should increase the kernel buffers.
The following commands should be issued as root on linux:
echo "524288" > /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max
echo "524288" > /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max
FreeBSD can try this:
sysctl -w net.inet.udp.recvspace=65535
sysctl -w net.inet.udp.maxdgram=57344
sysctl -w kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=8388608