Skip to content
Start a test

ReHLDS reference

ReHLDS, the reverse-engineered Half-Life dedicated server for Counter-Strike 1.6: what it is, how to install it, and its settings and commands.

An unofficial reference maintained by Hostsrc. Built from the ReHLDS source and README at commit 550f2d6; descriptions adapted from the README (MIT, the ReHLDS Contributors, see Credits). The official project is ReHLDS on GitHub (external site, opens in a new tab).

ReHLDS is a Half-Life dedicated server engine rebuilt by reverse engineering the original HLDS (build 6152/6153), with many defects and potential bugs found and fixed on the way. It also gives mods and plugins an extended API, which ReAPI, ReGameDLL_CS and Metamod-R build on. It is made by the ReHLDS Contributors and released under the MIT licence.

Install

ReHLDS works with the official pre-anniversary HLDS (engine version 8684 or lower) that steamcmd downloads. It does not work with the old 5xxx builds from hldsupdatetool.

  1. Download HLDS with steamcmd, from the steam_legacy branch:

    app_set_config 90 mod cstrikeapp_update 90 -beta steam_legacy validate

  2. Download a ReHLDS release from ReHLDS releases (external site, opens in a new tab). Linux releases are signed with GPG; the ReHLDS README has the key and how to check a download.

  3. Replace the original engine_i486.so (Linux) or swds.dll (Windows) with the ReHLDS one. On Windows you can also copy swds.pdb, the debug information.

The binaries need a CPU with SSE, SSE2 and SSE3, and use SSE4.1 and SSE4.2 when they are there.

Compatibility

ReHLDS is not binary compatible with the original HLDS: it is built with other compilers. Plugins that analyse the engine's machine code, such as Orpheu, probably won't work with it.

In this reference

  • Settings: every cvar ReHLDS adds, with its default, values and the first ReHLDS release that has it.
  • Commands: the console commands ReHLDS adds.
  • xHLDS, our fork of ReHLDS, keeps all of these and adds its own.

We also maintain xHLDS, our ReHLDS fork, with its own docs.

Something wrong or unclear on this page? Email office@hostsrc.com or tell us on Discord (external site, opens in a new tab).