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How To: Setup a UT3 Internet Server

Update 2: It has come to my attention, while trying to play UT3 myself after many years, that the GameSpy aspects of the game no longer function due to the incompetence of IGN and the concept of DRM’d games. There’s a pretty good chance that nothing about setting up a UT3 Server, other than for LAN play, will work anymore since the GameSpy servers have been taken offline. This means no logging into the GameSpy account for you or your server, so no online authentication, leaving only offline play.

Update 1: I have updated the links that were broken, and some formatting & informational changes.

Surprisingly there are no complete blog postings or forum topics that tell you how to set up a UT3 Internet Server from start to finish…so here we go (this guide will primarily focus on a Windows install, but I will include as much info as I can for Linux):

1. Open the ports

To play online, you’ll need not only the the UT3 ports, but also the GameSpy ports. Be sure to open these ports on your network firewall as well as your localhost (Windows Firewall, Linux Firewall, etc.).

UDP

  • 6500 (Query)
  • 6515 (Dplay UDP)
  • 7777 (Port for UT3 – default is 7777, you can change in server setup)
  • 13000 (Port for UT3)
  • 13139 (Custom UDP Pings)
  • 27900 (Master Server UDP Heartbeat)

TCP

  • 3783 (Voice)
  • 6667 (IRC)
  • 28900 (Master Server List Request)
  • 29900 (GP Connection Manager)
  • 29901 (GP Search Manager)

2. Dedicated Server Package

You can get the Windows package from the EpicGames.com thread or directly from fileplanet. You can get the Linux package here.

3. Install the Server

Once you finish downloading, unzip it to a temporary location. Then run SetupUT3.exe and follow through the install process.

4. The Server’s GameSpy Account

Before you’re able to do anything, you need to load the original game, and create an account that the server will use. Every instance of online UT3 requires a GameSpy account to play.

  1. Load the game (and log out if automatically logged in)
  2. Hit Create Profile at the bottom of the login screen
  3. Type in credentials for your Server’s new account
  4. Hit Create Profile and then login with those credentials to verify they work.
  5. Log out of the game

5. The configuration script

I made my configuration script using a tool from other user-generated content websites. However, both websites I used have gone 404, so you’ll have to use the UT3 wiki, or use mine below as a starting point. Once I had my configuration script, I then went to inspect the command line options and customize them according to the wiki.

Here’s a grouped-breakdown of the different options present in the command line string.

Server

  1. Port: 7777
  2. Login: <the new account you just created>
  3. Password: <the password for your new account>
  4. Server Description: <use this website to create a description>

Players

  • Max Players: ## (max on the server)
  • Min. Players: ## (min real-players, not bots, before a match begins)
  • Number of Bots: ## (number of bots in the game – bots quit as humans join, unless configured to be vs humans)
  • **Public Connections: ## (max number of advertised connections)
  • **Private Connections: ## (reserve slots for local connections – i.e. you host the internet game on a server in your network, and you’re playing on another computer local to the server)
  • **Open Public Connections: ## (max number of public connections)

** These I’m not really sure about the descriptions. “Public Connections” does show max advertised for the server, but not sure about the others)

Game Setup

  • Game Mode: <choose your game type>
  • Map Name: <be sure to choose an appropriate map for the game type. Find your maps available here in the configuration line for your game mode. I’ll get to that configuration further down.>
  • Goal Score: ## <max frags/caps before next map>
  • Time Limit: ## <time limit for the map>
  • Versus Bots: #.# <here’s where you decide if it will be humans vs bots>
  • Bot Skill: ## <1-6 bot skill, 1: Novice – 6: Godlike>

Game Flags

  • Force Respawn: <make the user respawn upon death>
  • Pure Server: <game mode is forced on all maps, even maps belonging to other game modes>

Mutators

  • Choose the mutators you want for the map

Community Options

  • Allow Join in Progress: <allows people to join mid-game>
  • Allow Invites: <allow users to invite others to the game>
  • Uses Presence: <tell the Master Server that a user is playing on this server>
  • Allow Join via Presence: <allow friends of a user to follow the user currently playing on the server>

Server Options

  • Advertise Server: <show it in the server browser>
  • Report Stats
  • Is LAN Only: <only a lan server?>
  • Is Dedicated: <is it a dedicated server?>

Passwords

  • Game Password: <password to join the server>
  • Admin Password: <admin joining password>

Once you’ve decided what you want to use for those settings, check the wiki for their appropriate values and update them in the command line, and you should have something like what you see below. Your command line will be all bunched up into one line, but broken out by “?” it should look something like this (for a Vehicle CTF):

ut3.exe Server
vCTF-Suspense?
ServerDescription=116000104000101000045000115000112000111000116000
MaxPlayers=12?
MinNetPlayers=1?
NumPlay=4?
NumPublicConnections=12?
NumPrivateConnections=2?
NumOpenPublicConnections=12?
GoalScore=3?
TimeLimit=20?
VsBots=1.5?
BotSkill=4?
PureServer=1?
bAllowJoinInProgress=True?
bAllowInvites=True?
bUsesPresence=True?
bAllowJoinViaPresence=True?
bShouldAdvertise=True?
bUsesStats=True?
bIsLanMatch=False?
GamePassword=playme?
AdminPassword=bigbawls
-Port=7777
-Login=SurvurBocks
-Password=sekratshiz
-log=DedicatedServer.log

  • Note the red line of text: The previously used (but now 404) tools had “NumPublicConnections” twice. You need to change it to “NumPrivateConnections” if that is the case for you – that was an error in the script creator’s website.
  • Also note the orange line of text: If you’re not using the default 7777 port number as described above, then change that information here.
  • The blue lines of text are the server logins to play the game
  • The green lines of text are the GameSpy credentials for your server.

5b. Optional: Map Voting with DefaultGame.ini

If you’d like to allow for map voting, or at least a map rotation, here’s how you’d do that:

  1. Locate the dedicated server files (e.g. “C:\Program Files\Unreal Tournament 3 (Dedicated)”) and navigate to “.\UTGame\Config”
  2. Change the Window’s File Properties on the DefaultGame.ini to remove “Read-Only” and then open it in Notepad and search for “bAllowMapVoting”
  3. Find your map-cycle-list here.
  4. Make sure that your Game Mode is shown in the .ini file with maps to cycle through. On my server, the Vehicle CTF did not have a map rotation already in the .ini file, and I had to add it.

6. Batch file to Load the Server

To make things easy on yourself, you’ll probably want to create a batch file to load the server with a single click. Here’s how you do that:

  1. Open Notepad.exe
  2. Start off changing to the directory containing the dedicated server files
  3. Then enter your command line from above
  4. You should now have a batch file of 2 lines like the example below
  5. Save this file as something like start_ut3_vctf.bat where ever you want to keep your server batch files. All you’ll have to do is double-click the file to start your server.
  6. When the batch file runs, it should call the ut3 console and start processing the attributes. When the last line says “Log: GAME PATH IS UTVehicleCTFGame_Content” (or whatever type of game you’ve chosen) then your server is up, and ready to be searched for in the Server List. You’ll have to play around with the filter to find your server.

Example batch file

cd "C:\Program Files\Unreal Tournament 3 (Dedicated)\Binaries"
ut3.exe Server vCTF-Suspense?ServerDescription=116000104000101000045000115000112000111000116000?MaxPlayers=12?MinNetPlayers=1?NumPlay=4?NumPublicConnections=12?NumPrivateConnections=2?NumOpenPublicConnections=12?GoalScore=3?TimeLimit=20?VsBots=1.5?BotSkill=4?PureServer=1?bAllowJoinInProgress=True?bAllowInvites=True?bUsesPresence=True?bAllowJoinViaPresence=True?bShouldAdvertise=True?bUsesStats=True?bIsLanMatch=False?GamePassword=playme?AdminPassword=bigbawls -Port=7777 -Login=SurvurBocks -Password=sekratshiz -log=DedicatedServer.log

That’s all!

That’s all there is to setting up the server…at least that’s all there was to setting up mine. Happy Fraggin’!

Concluding Remarks

I originally wrote this post in January of 2008, which is a lifetime ago on the internet. I don’t run my server anymore – but when I did, the method described above worked, and I followed these instructions verbatim to ensure that I wasn’t leaving anything out.

Unfortunately, I can’t provide individual support for everyone trying to setup their server. This blog post is my documentation for everything I did, step-by-step, without doing anything extra or different from what’s here. So if you have trouble getting your server up, just play around with things and scour the internet for solutions. I’m sure after over 5 years someone else has encountered the same issue you’re having.

By [[Neo]]

I am a web programmer, system integrator, and photographer. I have been writing code since high school, when I had only a TI-83 calculator. I enjoy getting different systems to talk to each other, coming up with ways to mimic human processes using technology, and explaining how complicated things work.

Of my many blogs, this one is purely about the technology projects, ideas, and solutions that I have come across in my internet travels. It's also the place for technical updates related to my other sites that are part of The-Spot.Network.

42 replies on “How To: Setup a UT3 Internet Server”

This worked for me…sort of…see, other people can now join my server, but everytime i try i get kicked from the internet (using wireless internet) and i cant reconnect to my router unless i reboot the router.

dunno if i did something wrong to where the router is seeing 2 connections from same comp and is kicking me or something…not sure…help?

@shivaxi – I’m not sure what’s going on with that – if you’re running the server from the same computer you’re trying to play on that won’t work, and could be the problem. You have to run the server from a different computer than your game is being played on.

@Jeff – see above, though I don’t know if it will help much – but could be the reason. If that is not the issue, then chances are you mis-typed the attribute for the server setup, or you didn’t set the particular password you’re expecting to see…when I join, I have a player password and an admin password – so it prompts me and friends when we connect, and based on the password I type in I get that particular set of abilities (admin or player). Double check your server call string (the long ass set of attributes and values) to make sure the password ones are spelled/typed right. If you have to, back up your current one, and create a new one.

Sorry for the late response – the blog apparently didn’t notify me of new comments to be moderated.

hey there! i’ve successfully managed to get my server up, running and playable fine.. but for some reason it’s not reporting stats!

I’ve been playing on my own server with my friend now for the last few weeks, and using bUsesStats=True, yet our leaderboard doesn’t show our kills / deaths / other stats changing

Is there a server port i should have open for this? I’ve forwarded all above ports on my router and my PCs firewall is turned off, and nothing seems to be blocking any connections.

Could you please help? 🙂

P.S. Thanks for the port list! helped a lot 😀

@DevilChild Hey man, you’re welcome. Glad the post could help. Unfortunately, I haven’t done anything with Server stats, so I don’t have any instructions for you. I actually don’t run my server very often, because my friends and I don’t play the game that much (half the friends are too busy to play, the other half don’t have good enough computers for the game).

I’m assuming you have done a search for what the stats are actually supposed to look like, and how one goes about accessing them. The only thing I’ve got would be to tell you that they’re available in-game under Community -> Leaderboard and also online at enemydown.co.uk from a quick search I did. Hope that helps.

hey, yeah thats what i mean 😛 after playing a few games and ending up with a few hundred kills, even after a few weeks the stats on the leaderboard and enemydown.co.uk arent changing.. so i have no clue why 😛

i’ve been regularly checking enemydown.. but sadly even after disabling the computer firewall it doesnt update my kills or deaths etc..

thanks for the quick reply! any clue where i could go for this, if you can’t help? 😛 not really incredibly important, just after lots of hard “work” xD be nice to have myself a little further up the leaderboard.

Sorry man…I got nothin’. Like I mentioned above, I haven’t done anything to set up server stats for the players on my own server, so I’m not sure how to go about it, or what all it takes.

If I can find the time, I’ll look into it and see if I can find something, but right now, your guess is as good as mine.

Is it the same ports to host a game from within UT3, i.e. not running a dedicated server, but to select host a gane under multiplayer? I have a BT home hub, and I’ve opened all the ports above and forwarded them to my PC, then I have Trend Micro Internet Security, and I have opened all the same ports for incoming traffic. But I still get the message that my setup might not be suitable for hosting…..any ideas?

You would think they would make this easy to make their game grow faster?

Thanks

Ian.

Yes, I would think they’d make this easier to increase popularity. But to be honest with you man – I run my server very rarely these days, and everything that I did to get it to work was posted in the instructions up there – so that’s all I really know :-/ I don’t have enough experience setting it up to provide any customized tech support with it.

I’d find the appropriate thread/forum at the epicgames.com forums and see if anyone there knows anything more.

Sorry man.

I followed this tutorial, and now i can’t open ut3.
I’m not sure who’s fault it is, but as a warning, be careful.

@Fijut: I’m pretty sure you missed a step, because several people have followed it, and gotten it to work as far as it was meant to take them. I even took mine down, and rebuilt it according to only these steps when I wrote the post.

I do know that you can’t run the server and play the game on the same computer – so maybe that’s where things went wrong for you. *shrug*

can’t run and play? oh.

anyway, i deleted my orignal user inis to see if the problem worked, it didn’t. So i deleted the ut3 dedicated folder, and the game ran again fine.

I ran the server bat but the server doesn’t appear on the list, and to top it off, my inis reset themselves so i’ve lost some of my config.

I think the problem was caused because after running the bat it asked to update inis… this is probably where i went wrong and clicked yes, since i assumed it would update the ut3 dedicated inis and not my own.

That is correct…updating the init, or whatever it asks you does reset some stuff. I learned that the hard way too, and not just once. So just tell it no, as I’m sure you figured out.

the problem is, now if i host from in the game the normal way, i can’t see my server in the list anymore, when before i could but no one else can…

Well, I think I had that problem too, until I forwarded all the ports properly on the server and the firewall/router for my network.

I know that for the counter strike source server that I put up, it took a couple days for it to appear on the master server list.

So check your ports, and give it a couple days of running, and see what happens.

I don’t really run mine anymore, because my friends and I have been playing on the CS:S server, so I’m not much Live-Help really…just have instructions for how I got mine going.

Hi!

Sry for my english but Iam from Austria.

My Server runs great but one thing is really amusing.
When we go to my server, the indicator of onlineplayers in server-browser is ok.
But on maprestart or a new map starts, the indicator goes down to 0 from 12 online players.
When a new player come to us or one goes away, the indicator goes up to right players number.
My Server runs on Linux and have UT3 Dedicated 1.3 beta patch with exploit fix on it.
Same problem with 1.2.
I havent an idea whats the solution.
I hope anyone can help!

Yours sincerely
TylerD0815

@TylerD0815 that is most likely because the number shows those who are actually in the game, not those that have a connection to the server. Once they join, they get added to the number of people in the game. It is normal operation – nothing you can fix about that.

First, thanks for answer!
But also when e.g. 3 people play in game, the number shows nothing after mapchange (0/12).
Also during play the match! (0/12)
Only a newone comes, or someone go away. -> then the indicator goes to real number.
This cant be normal i think.
Otherwise was clearly why most servers are empty! 🙂

I’m not sure then, man. Like I mentioned in the post towards the bottom, I don’t run my server anymore, and never had to work through some of these issues that other people are having. I suggest some google searches and maybe try posting on the UT3 forums. That’s what I had to do in order to come up with the various steps to make the server. I just compiled it all in one blog posting for people to get a starting point and working server up.

Sorry I couldn’t help you. If I come across the answer though, then I’ll be sure to update the posting.

I think the guy that wrote the configuration script generator that you used took it down or relocated it. It’s a 404 from here. I looked around, but didn’t seem to find it anywhere on his site.

Great post. Hopefully this’ll save me some time.

I’m having trouble with loading the .bat.

When I load it all it does it open then close right away, I even tried your settings with the same results.

At the end of the .bat file, type: Pause
Then it won’t close out, and you’ll be able to see the error message it’s giving – chances are it can’t the file you’re telling it to look for.

Everytime I create a server, people manage to join in and stuff, but my friend can’t see my server on the list, also, then when he creates a server in the campaign mode (which is what we want to play first), I can’t see his server, but when he creates a server in duel mode, I can see it on the list, but it keeps “connecting…”, but never actually does.

Any ideas? (Maybe he should open the ports himself?)

I don’t know for sure; but I do know that if he’s creating the server, then he needs to open the ports on his end as well.

One of my friends wanted to create a server and it did the same thing on his computer, where I could see it, but it wouldn’t get past the “Connecting…” screen. I think his solution was to turn off his firewall completely, and that let me in just fine – however this is obviously not ideal.

I would try having him turn off his firewall, because he seems to be the one having connection issues (whether it’s out to your computer, or in to his), and see if that fixes it. If it does, then you know the issues is with the ports. Beyond that, you might try posting in the EpicGames forums for more help, since as I mentioned above, I don’t really run my server anymore.

Hope that gets you pointed in the right direction. If you get it figured out, come back and post a reply so others that might have the same issue will know what to do also.

How can I setup a server welcome text which display each time when the players join the server?
For example: “Welcome to China WASDCN UT3 Server. If you have any question about UT3, please visit our website. http://bbs.wasdcn.com.”

I don’t know anything about a Greed server, or Titan mutator. As I mentioned in previous comments and at the end of the post, I haven’t run my UT3 server in years, and can only provide the instructions that I’ve posted for this article. A Google search for something like “ut3 start server with titan mutator enabled” might get you started.

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