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HLTV Spectator FAQ

"How do I spectate a game?"
Start HL, open 'Multiplayer' menu, select 'Spectate Games', press 'Update'. Wait until Half-Life has found all currently broadcasted games. Select an interesting game and hit the 'Spectate' button. Enjoy the game and press DUCK (CTRL by default) to open the spectator menu to change settings and switch view modes. If you got a HLTV proxy address you want to watch, open console and enter "connect ProxyIP:ProxyPort", eg "connect 192.168.130.38:27020".


"How to replay HLTV demos ?"
The HLTV proxy saves recorded demos in the HL main directory. If you want to replay them with the HL client, you have to copy the demo file into the correct Mod directory (eg \cstrike), otherwise 'playdemo' will stop with 'Error: couldn't open'. You can also use 'viewdemo ' instead of 'playdemo ' to have a much more user friendly demo player interface (press F2).


"How can I set my view mode preferences ?"
Use the following commands to set your spectating preferences:

spec_mode <1-6> [<1-4>] - sets main (chase locked, chase free, free look, first person, map, map chase) and PiP mode (chase free,first person,map, map chase)
spec_drawnames <0|1> - player names in overview mode off/on
spec_drawcone <0|1> - view cone in overview mode off/on
spec_drawstatus <0|1> - game status off/on
spec_autodirector <0|1> - auto director mode off/on
spec_pip <0|1> - Picture in Picture mode off/on
spec_help - shows help text/screen
spec_menu <0|1> - disables/enables spectator menu
spec_decal - HLTV commentator sprays a proxy custom decal


"Can't see the small inset window"
The small inset window activated by pressing the USE key is only in Direct3D or OpenGL mode available, not Software rendering.


"Graphical glitches in spectator mode"
Some video card drivers don't work properly with the new HLTV spectator mode. Objects looks like having trails or whole screen is covered with black lines. Then maybe try in console "gl_ztrick 0". Sometimes ESCAPE and 'Resume Game' helps.


"Players are in no/wrong team"
Shortly after connecting to HLTV, player appears to be in the wrong team in scoreboard and the icons are grey instead red or blue. That's ok, wait for a new round, then everything should be correct.


"Can I zoom the overview map ?"
You can rotate the overview map with mouse, move the map with MOVELEFT and MOVERIGHT and zoom in/out by pressing FORWARD/BACK keys.


"How can I join the game in HLTV mode"
Lower the console and type "joingame". If that fails, this feature is disabled by the proxy admin.


"WARNING: UDP_Opensocket: setsockopt ID_multicast_loop: WSAENOPROTOOPT " Ignore this warning, it's spit out by non-WinNT clients and has nothing to say. It's just a developer warning and has nothing to do with voice, HLTV or any other problem.


"I only see a green grid as overview"
If the overview files (*.txt and *.bmp) in the \overviews directory are missing for the current map, HLTV shows a green grid instead. Check if your installation was complete or download the missing overview files from my site (HLTV HiRes Packs) and extract them into the right Half-Life\Mod\overviews directory :
CS_HiResHLTV.zip - Overviews for CS HLTV (15.1 MB)
HL_HiResHLTV.zip - Overviews for HLDM HLTV (8.4 MB)
TFC_HiResHLTV.zip - Overviews for TFC HLTV (7.4 MB)
CPL_Overviews.zip - Overviews for CPL maps (1.4 MB)

"Can't understand commentator voice" Because game sound may be too loud, commentator voice is hard to understand. Set client cvar "voice_overdrive 32" to get a clearer voice. Also setting "voice_scale 2" is a good thing.