[MasterOfTheXP]

Originally Posted by Malachi What would be a good way to be more careful?

Heh, good question. My statement wasn't very descriptive.

But I mean, for example, as Sreaper suggested, you could potentially check which clients have cl_downloadfilter set to all/nosounds, and then set up a sprite TempEnt, and only send it to those clients. That might work...I'm not sure how flexible sprite TempEnts are.

Also, if you run a server with only a low amount of custom maps like I do, you can just pack the sprite file(s) into the map, and all clients in the game will be guaranteed to have it. I'm pretty sure I haven't gotten a crash by doing this yet.

[Malachi]

Originally Posted by MasterOfTheXP This appears to simply be an unfortunate issue with displaying sprites.

This open GitHub issue seems to be the same as mine:
[ALL][HL2DM] Game crash with setting "cl_downloadfilter none" on server with custom files (sprite .vtf) #1596

[Malachi]

Originally Posted by MasterOfTheXP ...set up a sprite TempEnt, and only send it to those clients.

Ok, thanks!

[404UserNotFound]

Originally Posted by MasterOfTheXP Heh, good question. My statement wasn't very descriptive. But I mean, for example, as Sreaper suggested, you could potentially check which clients have cl_downloadfilter set to all/nosounds, and then set up a sprite TempEnt, and only send it to those clients. That might work...I'm not sure how flexible sprite TempEnts are. Also, if you run a server with only a low amount of custom maps like I do, you can just pack the sprite file(s) into the map, and all clients in the game will be guaranteed to have it. I'm pretty sure I haven't gotten a crash by doing this yet.

I was gonna suggest using that cl_downloadfilter method, because it'd work in a similar fashion to Dr. McKay's Advanced MOTD include file, where it checks to see if the client can view HTML MOTDs based on checking that convar.

I also wanted to try my hand at reviving the TF2 Donator Recognition plugin ages ago but I ran into the issue of sprites causing crashes so I gave up on it.

[friagram]

Checking the cvar doesn't always help, since sometimes clients just fail to download the file (http times out, bz2 files does not decompress and remove itself)


I'm fairly certain that this bug exists with hud/ui elements and particles as well, as clients often will crash in droves on certain maps under specific circumstances (degroot keep), or when loading particles incorrectly (we have seen this with taunt and new item particle effects)

[Malachi]

Originally Posted by friagram Checking the cvar doesn't always help, since sometimes clients just fail to download the file...

Is there a way to check if a file exists for a client?

[Malachi]

Originally Posted by abrandnewday I also wanted to try my hand at reviving the TF2 Donator Recognition plugin ages ago...

As our community relies on it, I have my own fork that I maintain on GitHub.

[Powerlord]

Originally Posted by Malachi This open GitHub issue seems to be the same as mine: [ALL][HL2DM] Game crash with setting "cl_downloadfilter none" on server with custom files (sprite .vtf) #1596

It might be worth emailing Valve directly instead, especially if they've ignored the bug on GitHub.

I'd recommend the TF2 Team even though it's not TF2 specific bug as fixing it in TF2 will likely get the fixes pushed to HL2M, DoD:S, and CS:S in the next engine sync.

[Malachi]

Originally Posted by Root_ You might want to give it a shot https://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=233549

I have now tested this out, and for some reason it doesn't work reliably. I'm still trying to figure out why.