I came up with a solution! Just use Code: "E:\Program Files\Steam\steam.exe" -applaunch 440 -textmode as a shortcut's target. (ofc change to path to yours steam.exe) -applaunch 440 makes it launch tf2. Don't worry, it won't launch another copy of steam's client, it'll just run tf2 in textmode! Hope I helped you, guys ;-)
Ok, this is just awesome Anyone measured the difference in cpu usage using textmode? You can still continue to switch from server with the steam browser fortunately To create a startup shortcut: open a new textdocument, paste the following line in it: E:\Games\Steam.exe -applaunch 440 -textmode +connect 88.198.69.251:27030 -nosound Of course adjust to use you specific path to steam.exe Save the document and rename it to join_am1.bat So change the .txt extension to.bat Doubleclick and your done
So this way runs tf2 without steam actually loading tf2 up? Instead in a cmd window? If so that's awesome, will try this at home later
I just had a quick try and here are the results: normal mode 800mb memory used and ~16-17% cpu usage text mode 726mb memory used 2-3% cpu usage
No need to do it like that, Doel. Shortcuts (or links as named in some language versions of windows) work without any problems. I guess it's a question whether you want to have "tf2_am1,tf2_am2,tf2_2fort" as little scripts (batch files) or shortcuts. I like shortcuts more, at least I've got the steam icon then.
There is something like a noprecache startup option so it won't load any models, bring the memory down as well.
It's looking good . By the way, it could be good for admins to be able to kick other admins, to prevent servers to be full with 5/6 fillers that no one can kick...
Or maybe adding a few more slots for admins (24/24 for players +2/24 for admins or something like that )
This textfilling works perfectly. One thing, is there a way to get it run on a machine where TF2 wouldn't start? My Hyper-V server has a Standard VGA driver loaded (required) so TF2 refuses to start. Textmode didn't work either so if anyone has a suggestion how to solve this..... And no, I can't load the manufacturers drivers for the GPU, that would cause my Hyper-V server to stop running its VM's.
For those interested in text-mode filling, I found the following launch options: -nopreload -nopreloadmodels Dont really know the difference between them as the missing files seem to be the same in both cases. Anyway, here are the results After 5minutes filling with -nopreload : ~580MB memory used After 5minutes filling with -nopreloadmodels : ~596.6MB memory used Only 200MB saved in both cases, it's not that much...
I tried too, but wasnt interesting. To be honest it was worst, 605MB memory used after 5minutes filling ^^ Edit: I'm not sure about the solution I'm going to write, but you should give it a shot. Here are a few things that I found:
Khadgar - Does your game say its currently unavailable on the your server? I had that too when I tried to install it on our server a month or so ago. Will try this later on - hopefully it will work
Qball once made a program for this stuff, it was a nice program, I tested it out. Qball: Do you still have it? Wanna share it with the rest?
Yeah I wrote a small program a while ago, but can't find any trace of it now. I also wrote GUI which can launch tf2 in text-mode and connect to the server. I'll check if I have it somewhere at work.