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rafal1137 edited this page Sep 18, 2023 · 57 revisions

Frequently Asked Questions.

General questions

What is ET: Legacy?

ET: Legacy is an open source project based on the code of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory which was released in 2010 under the terms of the GPLv3 license.

There are two aspects to this project:

  • An updated game engine, ET: Legacy, which aims to fix bugs and security exploits, remove old dependencies, add useful features and modernize its graphics while still remaining compatible with ET 2.60b and as many of its mods as possible.
  • A new mod, Legacy, which aims to add many useful features and improvements while staying close to the original gameplay, as well as being lightweight and extensible through Lua scripts.

See About.

What about compatibility?

ET: Legacy is aiming to remain backwards compatible with ET 2.60b servers and as many of its mods as possible.

There are, however, some limitations:

ET 2.55

ET 2.55 is not supported.

As Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory version 2.55 is not open source, we can't support this game version with all necessary fixes of security exploits. Only the latest 2.60b version is supported.

There are good reasons as to why the official game download and the official source are only available as 2.60b: 2.55 clients are outdated, bugged and insecure! Like Splash Damage and Id Software, we do not recommend their use!

PunkBuster

PunkBuster is not supported.

Before the GPL release, the PunkBuster code parts of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory were stripped from the source code. Therefore, ET: Legacy does not and will never be able to work on servers where PunkBuster is enabled. On the plus side however, there is no system-wide, permanently running, potentially lag inducing service installed.

Note that PunkBuster support for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory has been discontinued since 2011.

ETPro mod

ETPro mod is only compatible on the server, not on the client side.

The built-in Anti-Cheat of ETPro prohibits all client game version binaries except ET 2.60(b) clients from connecting. As a server admin you can, however, run ETPro mod on an ET: Legacy server. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that either the ETPro source code or that a new ETPro version will be released, whitelisting ET: Legacy binaries. Therefore, it is doubtful that ET: Legacy and ETPro will ever be compatible.

Note the Legacy mod provided with ET: Legacy aims to be a viable and up-to-date alternative. Give it a try!

macOS

macOS is barely compatible.

  • macOS is only compatible with mods that provide mac binaries, like our default Legacy mod. However, at least for Legacy, the binaries are only compatible with macOS 10.9 Mavericks or better, and some newer version of macOS are troublesome.

  • macOS 10.15 Catalina dropped support for 32 bit compatibility, breaking most mods compatibility. At this time, the official ET: Legacy binaries are not compatible either.

  • Apple deprecated OpenGL in 2018, which will inevitably end macOS support in the near future. While we could implement their Metal API, we don't have the resources to upgrade our renderer. Please consider using Bootcamp instead.

  • Omni-bot is not compatible with macOS and you will therefore not be able to spawn bots on a local server.

  • M1 Mac isn't natively supported. You must run ET: Legacy with the Rosetta compatibility layer.

See Compatible Mods.

Linux and Windows 64 bit

Linux and Windows 64 bit is only compatible with 64 bit mods.

Linux and Windows 64 bit ET: Legacy clients can only connect to servers running mods providing a 64 bit version, like our default Legacy mod.

Note that if you want to be able to play 32 bit only mods, you should install the Linux or Windows 32 bit version. Don't forget to install the required 32 bit libraries on your 64 bit machine!

See Compatible Mods.

What about security?

There are good reasons to run ET: Legacy on dedicated ET servers! The genuine ET engine code for 2.60b hasn't been touched by any developer since 2006. ET: Legacy fixed all known security issues and exploits which have been detected since creation of ET 2.60b:

You can find all changes in our Changelog. If you are aware of a security related bug, don't hesitate to let us know about the issue!

How does Legacy compare to ETPro?

The default Legacy mod provided with ET: Legacy aims to be a viable and up-to-date alternative to ETPro. It isn't a carbon copy, but does integrate all useful features for competitive games, along side other modern features for a more user-friendly experience.

Improvements

Along countless bug fixes, some other issues that were left unfixed for many years have slowly become part of the game mechanics over time, but we are still striving to fix these bugs when it makes sense. Such examples include:

  • Visible leaning: it is not possible anymore to simply wait around a corner while being completely invisible.
  • Smaller hitboxes: body boxes have been lowered to shoulder level. It is not possible anymore to get body hits when missing headshots.
  • Mandatory explosions: explosions display cannot be disabled entirely anymore, but the effects have been reworked to be less intrusive.

Shortcoming

In comparison with ETPro, Legacy currently lacks the following:

  • ETTV support: ETTV is unfortunately not open source. Therefore, we would have to rebuild its functionality from scratch. There are plans for a similar ETLTV feature, however, due to other priorities and most of all Twitch, it hasn't been fully implemented yet.

  • Anti-Cheat system: The open source nature of ET: Legacy makes it practicably impossible to implement a traditional Anti-Cheat (which can be bypassed anyway). We however implemented the Anti-Wallhack feature by Laszlo Menczel for the Q3 engine. We are also shipping a Lua based server administration module by default to help manual administrative work.

Why not putting this project on Steam? This would surely revive this game!

While the engine and game source code have been released under a free and open source license, the original assets (3D models, textures, sounds, etc.) were not. ET: Legacy still relies on the original, proprietary assets covered by the original EULA. We are thus legally unable to put it on Steam without prior legal agreement, or without replacing all the assets with our own work to make ET: Legacy entirely stand-alone first. The required workload to make this happens is huge (see #218), but feel free to contribute if you want to see this happening one day.

We have tried to contact the IP owners asking for the release of the original game assets under a license permitting use, modification and redistribution, but without much success.

See Open letter.

When will the next version be released?

There is no ETA and it will be released when it is ready. You can however help make it happen sooner by becoming involved in the project. Check the current milestone to get an overview of what needs to be done before the next release.

Installation

It is essential that you read our INSTALL.txt file that is shipped with the latest binaries.

There are a few technicalities that you should consider before installing ET: Legacy.

Original game assets

As mentioned above, ET: Legacy is not entirely stand-alone as it still relies on the original game assets. These can't be packaged with our official release because of restriction imposed by the original EULA.

In order to run ET: Legacy, you'll need to copy assets from an original Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory installation.

Our installer do it for you, but you can also manually download them legally and for free from the official Splash Damage website.

Make sure the following genuine Wolf: ET files are copied to the etmain folder of your ET: Legacy installation directory (fs_basepath):

  • pak0.pk3
  • pak1.pk3
  • pak2.pk3

Only add the files to your fs_basepath! Having them in both the fs_basepath and fs_homepath will lead to an error.

Legacy mod technically only requires the pak0.pk3 file, but some third party mods might additionally require the pak1.pk3 and pak2.pk3 files.

See Path and File Structure.

Can I overwrite my previous Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory installation?

No. Don't try to overwrite an existing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory installation. Choose a different folder! Also, do not try to overwrite a previous ET: Legacy version. Uninstall it first!

See Installation.

Can I install ET: Legacy alongside the original Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory installation?

Yes. You can install both as if they were separate games.

Can I have multiple installations in parallel?

Yes. It is possible to have multiple installations of both Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and ET: Legacy at the same time, or multiple installations of ET: Legacy at the same time.

Note however that all ET: Legacy installations will share the same fs_homepath by default.

See Path and File Structure.

I want to play ET: Legacy on my Linux system. Which version should I use, 32 or 64 bit?

It depends. If you only want to play Legacy mod, or one of the other mods provided in 64 bit, install the 64 bit version. If you want to be able to play third party mods that are only available in 32 bit, install the 32 bit version. In that case, you will have to install all required libs in 32 bits, including the entire graphics stack.

See Compatible Mods.

I want to install ET: Legacy on my Linux server. Which version should I use, 32 or 64 bit?

It depends. If you only want to install Legacy mod, or one of the other mods provided in 64 bit, install the 64 bit version. It is much simpler. If you want to install a third party mods that is only available in 32 bit, then install the 32 bit version. In that case, you will have to install all required libs in 32 bits.

See Compatible Mods.

Setting up

Can I use my ET config files for ET: Legacy?

No. This is likely to produce unwanted side effects, as many cvars have been deleted, changed or added. See List of Cvars. We have constantly removed unused cvars from the code and because any cvar from your config file is processed at runtime the game does not benefit if you use config files containing more cvars definitions than required. Literally hundreds of cvars have been removed from the original code while we have added a few.

Why is the field of view different on Legacy mod?

On Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, the default cg_fov of 90 value gives a "correct" horizontal field of view on old 4:3 screens only. As widescreen resolutions were not on the market yet, different aspect ratios were never taken into account by the game and players had to use a cg_fov value of 106.27 (16:9 screens) or 100.39 (16:10 screens) to get a "natural" horizontal field of view of 90 degrees.

On Legacy mod, the default cg_fov value results in a natural horizontal field of view, regardless of the actual aspect ratio of the screen.

Why can't the particles effect be disabled on Legacy mod?

The particles effects (cg_wolfparticles) were allowed to be turned down because not all computers might have had the graphical power to display them. Some other smoke effects were still enabled by default for everybody because they were critical to the gameplay (f.e. covops smoke). However, it is clear that in modern days many players disable particles to have a gameplay advantage (f.e. to see better through explosions). The purpose of that cvar doesn't exist anymore, but was still used as a "basic" wallhack.

In addition to being mandatory, the particles effect has been reworked to be less visually intrusive. It should therefore provide a good balance between fair and pleasant gameplay.

My FPS are poor compared to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. What do I do?

By default ET: Legacy sets the game resolution to the used OS desktop resolution. This wasn't the default behaviour of vanilla ET and the resolution set by ET: Legacy might be higher compared to vanilla ET especially when widescreen devices are plugged in. But higher resolutions require more calculations and as result FPS may not be satisfactory anymore.

  • If you want to compare FPS (ET vs. ET: Legacy), choose the same resolution as used in vanilla ET.
  • If you want to increase FPS in general, lower the game resolution but keep your aspect ratio.

I don't like any of the default HUDs layout. Can I use my own?

Yes. The HUD can be personalized. See Set-up-Features.

Troubleshooting

General issues

ERROR: Connection aborted - corrupt/duplicate official pak file server installation

This is a server side issue and clients can't fix it. In most cases there are duplicate .pk3 files in fs_homepath and fs_basepath on the server. Admins should remove the files from fs_homepath.

See Path and File Structure.

Unknown Event: 129

When you have a dll of a mod in fs_homepath and you connect to a server the very first time, this dll in fs_homepath is used instead of the server dll, causing different events from that server. Remove the file in fs_homepath.

Axis players hear allied sound announcements and vice versa

Same reason as for the Unknown Event issue.

ERROR: VM_Create on UI failed

This can have two causes. Either your game didn't install correctly or your Windows username contains non-ASCII characters. For the first case, make sure you installed your game correctly and that the proper path and file structure is preserved. For the second case, you can move your Documents folder out of /User/ to work around the invalid characters. Do this in the properties of the Documents folder.

Mouse movement is too slow/fast! I cannot aim!

Go to the Options menu and adjust your Mouse sensitivity. It is different from ET 2.60b.

Windows issues

Visual C++ Redistributable

Make sure to have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable Package (x86) installed.

The Windows installer will propose you to install it if it is not detected on your machine.

Linux issues

I can't connect with the Linux 64-bit client

As mentioned above, Linux 64 bit clients are only compatible with mods providing a 64 bit version. Opt for the 32 bit version if you want to play other mods.

See Compatible Mods.

No sound - audio driver not found

If you get the following, ensure you have PulseAudio installed.

SDL audio driver is "(UNKNOWN)"
SDL_OpenAudio() failed: No available audio device

Don't forget that you might need to have 32 bit sound libraries installed as well (f.e. libasound).

Tilde key (~) does not open my console!

Use SHIFT + Esc key combination. This should work on any keyboard layout!

Client crashes directly on startup

SDL might not detect a valid graphical mode automatically. Start ET: Legacy with:

./etl +set r_fullscreen 1 +set r_mode <MODE_NUMBER>

Replace <MODE_NUMBER> with the right resolution integer from r_mode but don't use r_mode -2.

I can't connect to True Combat: Elite servers on linux

You are probably missing libstdc 5.

I'm getting a segmentation fault on startup with 32-bit client

Ensure you have 32-bit SDL2 package installed for your specific distribution.

macOS issues

Compatibility

See Compatibility section above.

etl.app can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer

See macOS.

FS_InitFilesystem: Original game data files not found. [...] /private/var/folders/...

See macOS.

Anticheats compatibility

silEnT

Newer silEnT mod whitelists only old official ET: Legacy releases. If you connect to a silEnT mod server with the latest ET: Legacy client or a client compiled from source, then the admins may tell you that they get a lot of warnings about your client.

Nitmod NxAC VIOLATION: [UNKNOWN_CLIENT_BINARY]

Nitmod servers blacklist new ET: Legacy official releases. You need to ask the server admin to configure NxAC properly.

See NxAC Setup Tutorial.

Nitmod NxAC VIOLATION: [UNEXPECTED CVAR SCAN DATA]

NxAC Client Cvars Scanner searches for some cvars which were unused or obsolete and therefore removed from ET: Legacy.

If you get errors such as the following, you might have to create a dummy cvar, f.e. seta r_nv_fogdist_mode "GL_EYE_RADIAL_NV".

NxAC: CVAR_VIOLATION
Cvar: r_nv_fogdist_mode INCLUDE NV ()

Although we do keep several dummy cvars in the source code to remain compatible with W:ET 2.60b, in this particular case a better solution would be to contact the server admins or N!tmod authors and tell them their anticheat is badly configured.

Server Browser List is Empty

From time to time original Master Server is not accessible (etmaster.idsoftware.com) and we cannot do anything about it here. And that is why ETL comes with own master (master.etlegacy.com) so when you run into that issue with your ETL Client make sure you have correctly set cvars:

sv_master1 etmaster.idsoftware.com
sv_master2 master.etlegacy.com

and if issue still persist run etl client with extra param

etl +set sv_master2 master.etlegacy.com
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