Roll your server
...with Blackjack and hookers!
Hosting your own Quake World server is not mandatory, but since not many of existing welcome hackers,
I wrote down some notes for anyone who wishes to have their own.
There are two mainstream server setups:
The mvdsv is dominant game engine choice for Quake World server.
It's
extremely lightweight
and by default
it comes with the KTX mod which gives you basic quality of life features.
FTEQW is its own beast. This all-in-one package is more
extensibile and supports clients that mvdsv don't
(like QuakeSpasm, Ironwail, vkQuake or original WinQuake).
0. Prerequisites
Both options require you to have VPS (obviously) with GNU\Linux installed. I would personally
recommend either Debian or Rocky linux, latter of which will be this tutorial aimed at.
I would also highly recommend running your server containerised.
Running a managing more configs and/or services of this nature outside of Docker can be messy.
Follow your distro specific documentation for installing docker properly. For
Rocky linux it would be this
doc.
Last thing, you will need official content files (.pak files) with game textures, models and so on.
Luckily, the game
costs less than cup of coffee,
so this should not be a real problem. EDIT: the game just got 30 year anniversary update which gives you
additional single player content.
With that cleared, let's...
1.a mvdsv + KTX setup
On your VPS in non-root users home, create directory qwhvh and inside
it create these subdirs:
mkdir qwhvh qwhvh/id1 qwhvh/ktx qwhvh/demos qwhvh/logs && cd qwhvh
Copy your PAK0.pak and PAK1.pak files from Quake game files
inside the id1/ dir.
Easiest way to do it (if you don't have SFTP already established) is to temporarily
upload them on the web and curl them directly to the directory.
When done, create main config files for the server.
touch ktx/server.cfg docker-compose.yml Dockerfile
Bellow, I will paste working configs for these three files.
Dockerfile:
FROM debian:bookworm-slim AS build
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
build-essential cmake git ca-certificates libcurl4-openssl-dev && \
rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
WORKDIR /src
RUN git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/QW-Group/mvdsv.git && \
cd mvdsv && \
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release . && \
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
RUN git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/QW-Group/ktx.git && \
cd ktx && \
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBOT_SUPPORT=ON . && \
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
FROM debian:bookworm-slim
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
libcurl4 ca-certificates && \
rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
useradd -m -u 1000 qw
WORKDIR /qw
COPY --from=build /src/mvdsv/build/mvdsv ./mvdsv
COPY --from=build /src/ktx/build/qwprogs.so ./ktx/qwprogs.so
COPY --from=build /src/ktx/resources/example-configs/ktx/bots ./ktx/bots
RUN mkdir -p id1 qw ktx demos logs && chown -R qw:qw /qw
USER qw
EXPOSE 27500/udp
ENTRYPOINT ["./mvdsv", "-port", "27500", "-game", "ktx", "+set", "sv_progtype", "1", \
"+set", "sv_progsname", "qwprogs", "+maxclients", "12", "+exec", "server.cfg"]
docker-compose.yml:
services:
qwhvh:
build: .
container_name: qwhvh
restart: unless-stopped
mem_limit: 1g # hard cap the container to use at most 1 GB RAM
mem_reservation: 256m # soft target to keep it around 256 MB
dns: # pin explicit DNS servers for the container (more in pt 3. Known issues)
- 1.1.1.1
- 8.8.8.8
ports:
- "27500:27500/udp" # Quake World (mandatory) 27500 is standard but you may choose your own
#- "28000:28000/tcp" # QuakeTV (optional)
volumes:
- ./id1:/qw/id1:ro,Z
- ./ktx:/qw/ktx:Z
- ./demos:/qw/demos:Z
- ./logs:/qw/logs:Z
server.cfg: (note, change placeholder values)
hostname "yourserver.example" // the server's display name, shown in the clients' server browser
sv_admininfo "your-email" // admin contact info
serverinfo welcome "hello world" // this will be printed on master server NOT to players
sv_speedcheck 0 // speed-hack detection
sv_minping 0 // don't punish low/odd pings
sv_kicktop 0 // kdetect specific packet-abuse exploit
sv_unfake 0 // detects "fakeshaft"/aim-deception packet tricks
sv_cheats 0 // engine built-in console cheats off (no god/noclip/give)
allow_download 1 // master download switch
allow_download_skins 1 // allow downloading custom skins,
allow_download_models 1 // models,
allow_download_sounds 1 // sounds,
allow_download_maps 1 // maps,
allow_download_demos 1 // and recordings
// KTX
set k_allow_fbskins 1 // allow fullbright skins
set k_allow_hud 1 // allow custom HUDs
set k_allow_fakeshaft 1 // allow fakeshaft (essential)
set k_allow_hideplayers 1 // allow client-side hiding of players
set k_allow_pext 1 // allow protocol extensions
set k_allow_scripts 1 // allow client scripting
// bots (frogbots)
set k_fb_skill 7 // bot skill 0-20; 7 is default
set k_fb_chat 0 // set to 0 otherwise it clutters the chat
set k_defmode ffa // FFA is standard for HvH
set k_free_mode 5 // who can call free modes (5 = all)
set k_allowed_free_modes 255 // which modes are allowed (255 = all, incl. FFA)
set k_motd1 "welcome to yourserver" // line1
set k_motd2 "hack vs hack" // line2
set k_motd3 "happy gibbing" // line3
set k_motd_time 5 // all 3 lines stay shown for 5 seconds
set k_maxclients 6 // optional? the Dockerfile and docker-compose seems overide this
set k_maxspectators 6 // same as above
sv_forcespec_onfull 1 // when players full, extra joins become spectators
-
rcon_password "CHANGE-ME" // your password for managing server from the client
sv_crypt_rcon 1 // encrypt rcon traffic so the password isn't sent in the clear
sv_phs 1 // potentially-hearable-set sound optimization
setmaster master.quakeservers.net:27000 // master server set to quakeservers, but you may add more
floodprotmsg "Easy easy now" // message shown to players who trigger flood protection
floodprot 4 4 10 // max 4 messages per 4 seconds, then mute for 10 seconds
map dm3 // starting map
To configure the game modes, we need to build the container first.
From inside the qwhvh directory run:
docker compose build --no-cache
Now we may modify the game mode configs as
the KTX generated the files needed. These can be found in
ktx/configs/usermodes/.
Check out example game mode configs in the
KTX project repository.
Let's start the server.
docker compose up -d
Then open the game ports on firewall.
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=27500/udp --reload
And open the port in VPS application firewall settings
in your account dashboard as well.
That's it. Happy hacking!
1.b FTEQW setup
NOTE: For the purposes of this tutorial, I will assume that you didn't decided to run
both mvdsv and FTE servers at once. If you did however, don't forget to change the
server root directory name and port numbers, otherwise you would run into problems.
On your VPS in non-root users home, create directory qwhvh and inside
it create these subdirs:
mkdir qwhvh qwhvh/id1 qwhvh/id1/maps && cd qwhvh
Copy your PAK0.pak and PAK1.pak files from Quake game files inside the id1/ dir.
Easiest way to do it (if you don't have SFTP already established) is to temporarily
upload them on the web and curl them directly to the directory.
When done, create main config files for the server.
touch id1/server.cfg docker-compose.yml Dockerfile
Bellow, I will paste working configs for these three files.
Dockerfile:
# ---- BUILD STAGE ----
FROM debian:bookworm-slim AS build
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
build-essential git ca-certificates \
zlib1g-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev && \
rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
WORKDIR /src
RUN git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/fte-team/fteqw.git
RUN cd fteqw/engine && make sv-rel -j$(nproc)
FROM debian:bookworm-slim
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
zlib1g libpng16-16 libjpeg62-turbo ca-certificates && \
rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
useradd -m -u 1000 qw
WORKDIR /qw
COPY --from=build /src/fteqw/engine/release/fteqw-sv ./fteqw-sv
RUN mkdir -p id1 && chown -R qw:qw /qw
USER qw
EXPOSE 27500/udp
ENTRYPOINT ["./fteqw-sv", "-basedir", "/qw", "+set", "sv_port", "27500", "+exec", "server.cfg"]
docker-compose.yml
services:
qwhvh2:
build: .
container_name: qwhvh
restart: unless-stopped
mem_limit: 1g # hard cap the container to use at most 1 GB RAM
mem_reservation: 256m # soft target to keep it around 256 MB
dns: # pin explicit DNS servers for the container (more in pt 3. Known issues)
- 1.1.1.1
- 8.8.8.8
ports:
- "27500:27500/udp" # Quake World (mandatory) 27500 is standard but you may choose your own
#- "28000:28000/tcp" # QuakeTV (optional)
volumes:
- ./id1:/qw/id1:ro,Z
server.cfg ( I am not sure how to do comments in this config, but the titles are pretty selfexplanatory...)
hostname "your server"
sv_cheats 0
ruleset_allow_fbmodels 1
ruleset_allow_in 1
deathmatch 1
teamplay 0
timelimit 10
maxclients 14
maxspectators 6
map dm4
Now we are ready to build.
docker compose build --no-cache
And start the server.
docker compose up -d
Let's not forget to open the port on firewall.
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=27500/udp --reload
And open the port in VPS application firewall settings
in your account dashboard as well.
That's it. Happy hacking!
2. Customizing the server
Maps
Most common way to customize your
server in competetive hack vs hack is adding custom maps and textures.
To add custom map, simply curl the .bsp file you want from the
quakeworld.nu map index
directly to your maps directory.
For both server setups that would be:
curl -o qwhvh/id1/maps/custom-map.bsp https://maps.quakeworld.nu/all/custom-map.bsp
3. Known issues
Sometimes the server shows offline status, but is actually running. Logs show Setting nomaster mode and
SV_BroadcastUpdateServerList: No master servers configured, repeated on every restart.
The container simply lost DNS resolution and can't turn master server FLDN into an IP,
and keeps falling back to "nomaster". This occur when
no explicit DNS servers are marked down in docker-compose.yml or if something on the host
disrupts Dockers networking (firewall reload or cronjob).
To fix this, simply re-build the container.
