CounterStrike Source is my one and only favorite computer game that I play but unfortunately I will no longer have time to play because my wedding is in a month’s time and there is so much to do! So please pardon me if I did not post here for a day or two and also for being less active in forum.

Playing the game is fun but maintaining a server is one big headache mainly because everything is not properly documented. For example, I have a non-steam CSS client which is downloaded from DigitalZone and I normally can only play in China server because those servers accepts non-steam clients. If I were to play in original STEAM server, I’d get kicked out with the message “STEAM validation rejected”. CounterStrike Source server has a method of identifying players which is through STEAM ID. You will get a unique STEAM ID when you purchase the original game. One of the reason why STEAM ID exist is for server administrators to ban players permanently from the game if they are caught hacking or cheating.

Anyway, I help one of my friend to maintain his Counter-Strike Source server which is running in a linux server. I’ve spent A LOT of time in researching on how to make a CSS server accept non-steam players and I didn’t want to forget how to do that, so I am posting it here.

There are 2 parts in making a non-steam server. First part is to make the server accept non-steam and cracked clients. Once you’ve done that, any players can start joining but they won’t have STEAM ID. That could be a annoying problem because you can only ban a player’s IP address and the player could bypass that ban by reconnecting their internet connection to get a new IP address. The second part is essential which is to install esteamation so that your server can assign a unique STEAM ID to the non-steam player.

Currently I know that there are 2 tools to make the server NON-STEAM. You can either use REVOLUTiON Emulator (RevEmu) or ViTYAN’s Universal Patch (VUP). As for assigning unique STEAM ID, you will have to use eSTEAMATiON which is also created by ViTYAN. I will show you how to do it on a Linux server. If you have a Windows server, the steps should be similar except with different file names. If you haven’t download the Source Dedicated Server files, you should refer to this website on how to do it. If you’ve followed exact instructions, the root of the Source Dedicated Server folder is srcds_l.

How to install REVOLUTiON Emulator (RevEmu)
1. Download the latest version of RevEmu and extract to a folder. You should see rev.cfg and steamclient_linux.so file.

2. Edit rev.cfg with notepad and remove the hash # from Logging, ExternalModule and VUP. Upload rev.cfg to the root of the Source Dedicated Server folder.
configure rev.cfg

3. On the server, go to /srcds_l/bin/ and rename the steamclient_i486.so file to steamclient_valve.so.

4. On your computer, rename the steamclient_linux.so (from the RevEmu package that you downloaded) to steamclient_i486.so and upload to /srcds_l/bin/

How to install eSTEAMATiON
1. Download eSTEAMATiON and extract.

2. On the server, go to /srcds_l/bin/ and rename the libsteamvalidateuseridtickets_i486.so file to vlvticket_i486.so

3. On your computer, upload libsteamvalidateuseridtickets_i486.so file from\LINUX\Source Engine\ to /srcds_l/bin/

4. Upload the cfg folder from LINUX folder to /srcds_l/

With REVOLUTiON Emulator and eSTEAMATiON installed, you can now start your counterstrike source server and begin accepting non-steam or cracked CSS clients. I prefer to use RevEmu over VUP because it doesn’t involve in patching and modifying the files in server. Moreover, VUP is a command line tool which might be confusing on how to use it. Here are the steps if you want to use VUP.

How to install ViTYAN’s Universal Patch (VUP)
1. Download VUP and extract.

2. On your server, go to /srcds_l/bin/ and download engine_i486.so to your computer.

3. Run the command vup86 -esteamation-prep engine_i468.so. If engine_i468.so is not in the same location as vup86.exe, then you’ll have to define the location for the engine_i486.so.
Running VUP

4. If everything goes well, you should see the message “ALL FILES HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY PATCHED. HAVE FUN!!!”. You should also do the same for engine_amd.so and engine_i686.so file on your server. When you’re done patching the engine_*.so files, upload them to /srcds_l/bin/ overwriting the original ones.

Please use EITHER RevEmu or VUP but not both because it can cause instability to the server by crashing it randomly. Remember that RevEmu and VUP does the same thing but using different method. By allowing non-steam players join your server, you can expect a busy Counter-Strike Source server. You will also notice an increased amount of cheaters that uses hacks but you can ban them permanently if you have eSTEAMATiON installed.

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