Alien Swarm

Template:Infobox Alien Swarm is a top facing shoot 'em up game on the Source (game engine).

Issues And Fixes

Crashes and overheating

• CPU Overheating Issues: This threads walks you through running a simple stress test on your CPU to help you identify whether your cooling equipment is doing it's job.

• Fix for temp problems/crashing: This threads dictates how VSynch and multi-core rendering can be adjusted to eliminate problems relating to overheating and crasing. This tip can also increase performance.

• Swarm.exe has stopped working: If you're having problems with Swarm.exe crashing, this Steam Support thread may help you if the problem's related to Shaderapidx9.dll. You can check if Shaderapidx9.dll is the cause of the problem by following the instructions on this thread.

Ping & Latency

• Windows 7 Ping Spikes (Fix): This thread explains how to disable a network-throttling feature shipped with Windows 7. It's more likely to fix ping-related problems, but has been reported to assist in FPS also.

• WLAN Optimizer: If you play over a wireless connection, you may occasionally experience 'lag spikes' due to Windows checking periodically for new wireless networks. Using this program, you can disable the 'background scan' and improve your gaming wireless experience.

• Hosting? Do everyone you meet a BIG favor. PLEASE!: When people connect to your listen server, their client has a "rate" setting. By default it is set at 20,000 (bytes/second). If you're home internet cannot upload 60,000bytes/second (3 people connected) then you're going to have to set a sv_maxrate, to limit each player's rate so that everybody gets their own dedicated chunk of bandwidth, instead of their computers fighting for a piece.

Graphical Tweaks

Custom resolution (and multi-monitor/eyefinity/surround resolution):

For steam:

Right click the game, click "set launch options", enter "-h #### -w ####"

Replace "h"(height) and "w"(width) with the resolution such as "-h 1920 -w 1080"

Without steam:

Right-click the games short-cut, go to properties, in the target box after the path and "", enter the above.

Mods And Utilities

Custom Mod/Map/Addon Release-Thread

Improvements

Multiplayer (5-6 players)

When there are 6 players, 6th can not choose a class, so 5 players will be used in this guide.

Create a file server.cfg to

\Steam\steamapps\common\alien swarm\swarm\cfg

with the next content:

//Name of the server
hostname "aliens on a plane"
//You know what this does
rcon_password <password here>
//Set the rate for your server (mine doesn't go above 45 in game)
sv_maxupdaterate 60
//this command is not a must
sv_unlag 1
//self explanatory
sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0
//this will set the maxplayers
maxplayers 5
//set this the same as maxplayers (NOTE: this will revert after your server is up!)
default_maxplayers 5

After this is done, you need to start the server. Do so, by opening CMD and then starting the server from there (you do NOT want to run the server from the .exe, it will not load the server.cfg!). In CMD, type the following (change it according to your likings):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\alien swarm\srcds.exe" -console -game swarm +ip xx.xxx.xxx.xx -port 27015 +exec server.cfg +map lobby -autoupdate

I created a .bat file on my desktop, so it's easier to run and you don't have to remember anything. After your server is running you can check by typing "maxplayers" into the CMD window. The output should look something like this:

maxplayers
"maxplayers" is "5"
"mininum_maxplayers" is "1"
"absolute_maxplayers" is "6"
"default_maxplayers" is "4"
"max_splitscreen_players" is "1"

If you can't use that window for any reason at all, you can also check the serverbrowser. Open your game and in the console, type "openserverbrowser" and navigate to LAN.

Source: Steam Forums

General Information

Console Commands

Games running on the source engine can utilize Source Engine Console Commands for various tasks. Also check this list of useful Alien Swarm console commands

Useful Links

• Alien Swarm Official Group
• Alien Swarm Steam forum