Will clients automatically download missing maps when connecting to my server?

Question

Suppose that I am hosting a multiplayer LAN server for CS-Source and I have many downloaded maps. Should all the clients have the map with them or while loading will it get copied from server (my machine) to clients automatically?

Answer 1

If you have set the CVar sv_allowdownload to 1 in your server config files, clients will automatically download missing maps when connecting to your server.

Keep in mind that download is quite slow so I really suggest, for LAN parties, to copy the whole map package to each client before start playing. You can use one or more USB key and pass to all participants or a shared folder on the server.

EDIT

If I remember well there is no option in GUI for this setting. But it is quite easy to add it in config files. Open server.cfg of your Counter Strike Source dedicated server and add the line:

sv_allowdownload    "1"

Be sure that there aren't other lines with this setting, otherwise delete them.

Check also that other clients have

cl_allowdownload    "1"

in their config.cfg.