Call of Duty (CoD) Dedicated Server

[James Bourne]

How To Run Call of Duty Dedicated Server (CoD DS) as a FireDaemon Service

If you are looking for the Call of Duty 2 Dedicated Server HOWTO, it can be found here. This HOWTO is for the original Call of Duty only.

Call of Duty Dedicated Server can be run as a Windows Service using FireDaemon. This is how to set it up:

1. Install Call of Duty into the directory of your choice (eg. C:\Program Files\Call of Duty). Then apply the v1.5 retail patch which can be sourced from here.

2. Install FireDaemon Pro. FireDaemon can be downloaded from here.

3. Create a dedicated server configuration file (eg. dedicated.cfg). This file needs to be placed in the Main directory (eg. C:\Program Files\Call of Duty\Main). This file should optimally contain at least one map cycle definition. A map cycle is defined by one variable which stores a list of maps and game types. Pay close attention to the quotation marks and make sure your map cycle is inside them. Here is an example dedicated server map cycle configuration:

set sv_mapRotation "gametype sd map mp_brecourt
gametype re map mp_carentan
gametype bel map mp_dawnville
gametype tdm map mp_depot
gametype dm map mp_harbor
gametype sd map mp_hurtgen
gametype re map mp_pavlov
gametype bel map mp_railyard
gametype tdm map mp_rocket"

4. Start FireDaemon.



5. Click on the "Create a new service definition" button in the toolbar (or type Ctrl+N) and enter the information into the fields as you see below. Obviously adjust paths to suite your installation. Pay special attention to the Parameters list.



The Parameters list defines how the dedicated server is to start. There are multitudes of other parameters, but the basic three you need to get your dedicated server going are:

+set dedicated
Valid values are 0, 1 or 2. 0 = Normal Multiplayer, 1 = Private Dedicated Server, 2 = Public Dedicated Server

+exec
Name of your map cycle configuration file to execute.

+map_rotate
This kicks off the map cycle.

More information on dedicated server cvars can be found here and here.

6. If you want to observer your dedicated server running, click on the FireDaemon settings tab, and check Interact with Desktop.



7. Your done! Click on the Install button and your CoD DS should startup and run your map cycle!