How to Set Up a Left 4 Dead Game Server on a VPS Server

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Setting up a Left 4 Dead VPS game server is very similar to setting up game server VPS hosts for a multitude of other online multi-player games. Because Left 4 Dead uses the same base server software as Counter Strike and Team Fortress, among others, setting up a server to run it is nearly identical.

First, make sure that the game server VPS host you choose is fast enough for the amount of players you are counting on having. Processor speed, memory, bandwidth, and connection speed are all important factors. For every ten potential players that will be participating, try to get about 700 MB of memory, a connection of around 500 kilobytes per second, and from 100-200 GB of bandwidth. Any less than these amounts per sets of ten players will cause your game play to be slow and full of glitches.

Left 4 Dead runs on the Source Dedicated Server software, which is available for Windows, Mac, or Linux game server VPS hosts. You can download and install this software on your Left 4 Dead VPS game server using the HLDS update tool. If your server is a Mac or uses Linux, download the Linux HLDS update tool. If you will be using a Windows server, this HLDS update tool, originally used with Counter Strike.

Download that file directly to your hard drive and use it to install the Left 4 Dead files from the Valve server. For Windows, if you installed the HLDS update tool directly in your primary hard drive, the command will look like this:

C:HLServerhldsupdatetool -command update -game l4d_full -dir C:HLServer

It will take quite a while to download and install as the game files are very large.

Next, you must configure your server. Here is a list of basic Left 4 Dead server configuration commands that you may want to look at. It’s, of course, not necessary to use them all, but that file will give you a good idea of different tweaks you can add to change various Left 4 Dead settings and restrictions on your server.

Once the game is downloaded and installed and your server is configured correctly, it’s simply a matter of running the game on your VPS server. You can start it straight from the command line if you are familiar with that interface. If not, create a shortcut to the srcds.exe file straight in your Left 4 Dead home directory.