CHECKLIST

Ok, this small checklist or should i say guide is done by using 1 skin of mine. Following stuff applies to every skin out there, excluding the parts which list this skin textures, materials, models, location, etc.

Im sort of starting in a way that you tried already to install skin - didnt work. Now keep reading so you know what went wrong.

If you see red ERROR running around, check these:



sv_allowdownload is set to 1 on server.cfg
mani_skins_auto_download is set to 1 on mani_server.cfg
cl_downloadfilter is set to all on YOUR PC CONFIG


Unlike you would think, cl_downloadfilter defines what files you want to download from the server, not the files you dont want to download.

After these are ok and you have restarted the server AND your game, check that you have everything set up ok in the material & model listings under ~/mani_admin_plugin/skins/ at public_ct.txt, public_t.txt, admin_ct.txt and admin_t.txt (or if you use reserved skins, in those). Things to check on are the slashes //

Lets say your public_t.txt looks like this:
"Zombie Terrorist" zombie_t_guerilla.txt

Not like this:
//"Zombie Terrorist" zombie_t_guerilla.txt

If its without the slashes, everything is ok so far.

zombie_t_guerilla.txt IN ~/mani_admin_plugin/skins/public_t/ should look like this:

materials/models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.vtf
materials/models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.vmt
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.dx80.vtx
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.dx90.vtx
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.mdl
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.phy
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.sw.vtx
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.vvd

Not like this:

aterials/models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.vtf
materials/models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.vmt
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.dx80.vtx
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.mdl
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.phy
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.sw.vt
models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.vvd

3 Basic errors. Copypaste went wrong. missing 1 letter, in this case m, causes server to crash on startup to error Host_error: Bad string. Also its missing 1 line completely which is models/player/ics/zombie_t_guerilla/t_guerilla.dx90.vtx and missing that will cause ERROR sign to everyone using DirectX 9.X. Also there is one letter, which is x missing from the end of t_guerilla.sw.vt and this results into ERROR sign too or server crash on startup. Most likely it will crash.

You also need to make sure that the files listed in the listings above are on correct places. If they are in wrong directory or missing completely, server wont start or skins wont work. In another words, in cstrike directory there are 2 subdirectories called materials and models. The files listed above must be in there or its no go for the skins. Under materials directory, there is also a subdirectory called models. Do not put the model files under this. Model files go into ~/cstrike/models/etc not ~/cstrike/materials/models/etc

So, in short after skin installation, server wont start (crashes on start) -> material listing are wrong or you havent even uploaded the files into correct directory! This is why you cant change the directory structure ever. You cant do things like change the ics directory into yournick -> no go. Skins wont work.

Everything up is ok, but you cant see the skins in menu or set them in-game to a player?



You got everything ok now dont you? No you dont ;)
Problem is that if the server loads up, you cant use the skins. Reason is that you still have those 2 slashes // inside of that public_t.txt file and skin didnt load at all. Now you go back to start and keep reading again. If you dont have the lines in front of the skins, continue.

Now you must check the following cvars in mani_server.cfg. Yes dig it up and find the part that says skins stuff. Go below there, not too low. When you found it, check these settings:

mani_skins_admin set to 1 (no harm done here, even if you would not be using admin-skins except you get 2 extra settings on the settings menu. Ill explain more in a moment. Keep reading.

mani_skins_public 1 (We allow players to use the skins. Yes we do so set it to 1)

mani_skins_force_public 0 (Generally BAD IDEA to have as 1 if you use more than 1 skins per side so leave it to 0)

mani_skins_setskin_misc_only 0 (Admin stuff, do you want admins to set all skins on players via ma_setskin or just misc skins, set to 1 or 0, up to you)

mani_skins_auto_download 1 (This should be familiar to you already. Set to 1!)

mani_skins_reserved 1 (If you have player immunity set up on a server and you have listed some skins on reserved_ct/t folders, allow immunity players to use them or not? Usually yes so set to 1)

mani_skins_force_choose_on_join 1 (Pay attention, this controls the perhaps most important setting on your server. Valid options are:
0 = Do nothing.
1 = Pop up the skin menu where player skins are listed (or admin, or reserved, or immunity)
2 = Pop up the settings menu. This is the one i mentioned earlier.

We set this to 1 because we want players to know that there are custom skins on the server and they can be used by everyone. Besides, option 2 comes up when you write settings into in-game chat anyway and it also shows some other options, depending on your mani-admin-plugin setup.)

mani_skins_random_bot_skins 0 (Bots get random skins from the menu listing? Noooo, we dont use bots unless we run some special mod that requires bots. Most people disconnect if they see bots so you just kill your server with them.)

Conclusion



Now you should have this skins used on this example, installed and running ok on your server. Incase you are wondering, there is no such skin on public share atm on my site. It was a custom made so stop looking.

¨ If you still have problems, dont e-mail me. I cant help you or if i can, i may not have time. Go to mani-admin-plugin forums, especially into SKINS forum to get help and maybe i can helo you through it if i have time, or someone else.

Anonymous: BOO YOU SUKC, GTFO AND LEARN T0 D0 SKINS PROPERLY!

No, it is you who suck. Learn to install them and use proper english. People might help you better if you dont talk to them disrespectly. I admit that there are skins that dont work but i didnt do them. Even if you see a skin under /ics/ dir, someone else might have done it and obviously failed misrebly or tried to edit some of my skins and screwed up even more badly.

Incase i missed something, something seems to be wrong or something like that. Contact me. You know the address. Atleast should know.

12th of January, 2007
- ics, ics@ics-base.net