PK3 Referencing

This page explains what pk3 referencing means, how you can mess with it and why you should care (or not care) if you host a server and enable HTTP- or UDP-Downloads.

A referenced pk3 file is a file that the server offers to a player to download before connecting. Say you load a map called jedicouncilgc (triggers my nostalgic feels) and it is in a file called jedicouncilgc.pk3, the file will automatically be referenced because players need it to play on the server. For JK2MV this means a player, who is connecting to the server, sees a popup window which asks him for permission to download the file. The player can still refuse to do so (but shouldn't 😁). All files currently unused are not referenced and thus will not be offered for download.

You can view the currently referenced files of your server by viewing the value of the sv_referencedPakNames cvar.

Auto-Referencing

A file is automatically referenced in the following cases:

1. A .bsp file is loaded from it (and thus it is expected to be a map)
2. cgame.qvm or ui.qvm is loaded from it (expected to be a clientside)
3. pk3 is located in fs_game != base (standard jk2 behavior)
   All others need to be referenced manually by the use of ref_forcelist.txt.

However, the algorithm which tries to decide whether a pk3 file is needed or not needed for a player isn't perfect and this is why Reflists exist:

Reflists

You may have pk3 files you never want to be downloaded, or e.g. files which contain new saber sounds which - by default - aren't referenced by the server but you still want your players to download them. This is where JK2MV's reflists are very helpful.

ref_whitelist.txt

If this file is found in base or in your current fs_game directory only files listed in it are ever going to be referenced.

ref_blacklist.txt

If this file is found in base or in your current fs_game directory all files except for the ones listed in it can be referenced.

ref_forcelist.txt

If this file is found in base or in your current fs_game directory pk3 files listed in it are always referenced, no matter whether they are in use or not. Please note that players are never forced to download the file. They can always deny to download it.

A example list:

base/ffa_bigmap.pk3
base/ffa_tmbj.pk3
DS-Online/clientside.pk3

You can use all of these files together. However, you should avoid using ref_whitelist and ref_blacklist together.