Mattie Casper

March 14, 2008

PyCon 2008, Chicago

Counter-Strike and Source are registered trademarks of Valve Corporation. The author is in no way affiliated with Valve
Corporation, but is a fan of their work.
 Background
 Demo
 Goals and Results
 Future Possibilities
 Pain Points for Embedding
 More Information
 Special Thanks
Source engine and EventScripts
 Half-Life
• released by Valve in 1998
• Active modding community
 Counter-Strike
• First released in 1999
• Still popular: 70,000 players
 Source engine
• Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source
• Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines
• Portal, Team Fortress 2
Source SDK-based C++ plugin
Initially a shell-like language
Philosophy
• Customize servers
• Friendly community
• Focus on ease-of-use for new scripters
EventScripts 2.0 with Python support
Used by a third of all Source servers
~12,000 servers and ~1,200 addons
 Dedicated Server
Player1 addon1.py

Rented server instance

addon2.py
Player2 (Wild, Wild) EventScripts
Internet
...

Player3
Rented server instance addonN.py

Player4
Popcorn in Counter-Strike: Source
Embedding Python in EventScripts
 Goal
• Easy to read and learn
 Results with Python
• Already a good beginner language
• Dynamic nature allows complexity to be hidden

Before

After
 Goals
• Cross-compile for Windows and Linux
• Support rented game servers
 Results
• Library loading from a plugin shared object
 Delay loading on Windows
 RPATH on Linux
• Python path issues (/lib)
• Compilation issues
• Directory names with colons
 Goal
• Maintain game responsiveness

 Results
• Acceptable performance with shell language
• Python
 Bytecode is order of magnitude faster
 Psyco for native compilation of bottlenecks
 Goal
• Don’t feed the hackers. (Game servers are
attacked for sport.)
 Results
• No access to Python from the game console
• Scripters are warned against eval/exec
• Unrelated denial of service exploit found
 Goals:
• Many addons loading independently
• Addons should not impact one another
 Results
• Loading addons as modules (from packages)
• Register event listeners with central manager
• Continue after isolated exception
• Threading is not so hot
 Performance poor when multiple addons thread (GIL)
 Embedded apps have no real recourse
Improving Python and EventScripts
eXtensible Admin
es_install
EventScripts classic to bytecode
Lower level SDK wrapper
Auto-update mechanism
 Threading – GIL hurts
• Embedding apps can’t fork easily
• App users don’t write C extensions
 Embedding – Increase priority
• Improve documentation
• More examples, samples, tutorials
 API Documentation – Modernize
• Full pages for functions with examples
• Allow user comments
 Viper for SourceMod by Zach Kanzler

 EventScripts resources
• mattie.info/cs - Downloads
• addons.eventscripts.com – Addon Database
• python.eventscripts.com - Documentation
• www.eventscripts.com – Documentation
 Helen Casper, Glenn Davis, Ted Shroyer,
Don Lafferty, Michael Barr
 Awuh0, british.assassin, cagemonkey,
Cap’tain ta race, Chun, Colster, Einlanzers,
Errant, GODJonez, GoodfellaDeal,
HitThePipe, ichthys, Lobe, Mbchrono, McFly,
mikesrevenge, murpher, Nicolous, RideGuy,
Saul, sn4k3, SumGuy14, SuperDave,
TIM3PORT, Wonder, [NATO]Hunter,
[YG]Gordaz
Shoot ‘em up.