1.7-1.7.1 VAC unable to connect & other

whenever i try to connect to a server within 2 minutes or instantly i get disconnected having the reason be that i cannot connect to the VAC servers and i have an engine error when i try to host the game

i just started and this seems good but i cant play

 

Had the same prob.
Solutions:
1. Go to your empiresfolder and change the following entry
"SteamAppId" in \XXX\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods\Empires\gameinfo.txt from 320 to 215.
2. Starting empires will force steam to download the "Source SDK BASE" files.
After that, you should be able to join an create empireservers without prob.

If you want to create a server in other multiplayer source games (DoDs, CSS, ..)
you have to do the following things (as long as valve didnt fix this hl2dm bug on their own):
·Load the specific hl2dm application (empires, dods, css)
·switch to desktop (alt+tab) and
·overwrite the 2 dlls in the Steam\SteamApps\????\half-life 2 deathmatch\bin
folder:
vstdlib_s.dll
tier0_s.dll
with their "originals" from the Steam folder
·Switch back to the hl2dm application and create the game as regular.

Note that steam automatically overwrite the exchanged files after every restart of the hl2 dm application. And in addition to that it is not stopped by some windows write protection. So you have to overwrite the files again, every time you started the hl2 dm application.

Hf

 

Can't you just set the files as read-only? I do that when I need to modify the liblist.gam file of Team Fortress when I want to host a modded server.

 

Do you mean the windows flag which can be set @ the file property?
(Rightclick on the file -> Properties: writeprotected/read only ./ )
Steam doesnt notice this one... it just delets the files without any message....

 

That's Windows for ya.

Oh, immutable files exist in Windows, but as far as I can tell even administrators can't choose whether or not a file is immutable.

 

load the file as a program or something.. if some other program is using it windows wont delete the file

seeing as they are dll's load them into the memory
like so: RUNDLL32.EXE <dllname>,<entrypoint> <optional arguments>
Windows cant delete stuff that is being used by windows so if you add this as a startup-thingie all is fine (it will start up always though)

 

This wont help, cause steam HAS to overwrite the files in order to run hl2dm correctly. If it detects a "wrong" file on startup and cant change it, it simply dont start the application.

 

thanks for the help, ill try to connect to a server but i was unable to flat out play the game so i tryed creating a server, ill post if it does not work


still get the VAC error and the error when i try to create a server

Engine Error

Unable to load authentication library, Exiting...


then i get a hl2.exe error

The instruction at "0x242115a7" refrenced memory at "0x0d9985e0". the memory could not be "read"

 

Reinstall Half-Life 2 and make sure HL2: Dm is installed.

 

The instruction at "0x242115a7" refrenced memory at "0x0d9985e0". the memory could not be "read"

exactly the same one as when I try to load a map that doesn't exist

 

Ask Valve tech support and/or send .mdmp file to Krenzo.

 

Are you sure that you are running empires with the Source SDK BASE files? You may check this with a process explorer showing the loaded (used) files by the hl2.exe. If they are mainly located in the source sdk base folder you did all what i know to do, to fix this prob.
If they are located in the folder "half-life 2 deathmatch" you have to execute the above help correctly.
I dont know why it should not work that way described above, but you could try another way then:
·Create a shortcut to empires on your desktop
(this can be accomplished by clicking with the right mousebuttons on the empires icon in steam and selecting the "Create desktop shortcut")
·Modify the target entry part " -applaunch xxx" to "-applaunch 215"
·Run empires via that shortcut.

If it doesnt run although you are using the Source SDK Base version, plz post the filesize of :
vstdlib_s.dll (here 325KB)
tier0_s.dll (here 221KB)
in your steamfolder and check out if there are some copies of these files in the folder "SteamApps\XXX\source sdk base\bin".
Source SDK Base is normaly using the 2 dlls located in the steamfolder.
However HL2Dm uses it´s own *_s.dll files (different version!) since the last hl2dm update.

 

yeh i got it to work using some of the comments posted thanks for the help, now i hope i can pwn you in-game