Hexen II Server (Docker)

This repository provides a Dockerized Hexen II (1997) dedicated server. It runs h2ded, the dedicated server of Hammer of Thyrion (uHexen2) 1.5.9, built from source into the image, with your Hexen II game data. The Portal of Praevus mission pack and mods (-game) are supported. The image builds on lancommander/base. It supports file overlaying using OverlayFS.

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Features

• Hammer of Thyrion 1.5.9 h2ded for Linux, built from source, matching Hammer of Thyrion 1.5.9 clients
• The server's name, map, game mode, limits and skill are environment variables, written into a config file the server execs at startup
• Game data copied from Windows or DOS (DATA1/PAK0.PAK) works as-is: the server gets lowercase links to it
• Supports file overlaying using OverlayFS (no file copying required)

Docker Compose Example

services:
  hexen2:
    image: lancommander/hexen2:latest
    container_name: hexen2

    ports:
      - "26900:26900/udp"

    volumes:
      - ./config:/config

    environment:
      HEXEN2_SERVER_NAME: "My Hexen II Server"
      HEXEN2_MAP: "ravdm2"

    user: root
    cap_add:
      - SYS_ADMIN
    security_opt:
      - apparmor:unconfined

    restart: unless-stopped

The in-game LAN browser (Multiplayer → Join a Game → Search for local games) finds servers by broadcast. That needs the container on the LAN itself (macvlan/ipvlan, or network_mode: host); with port mapping, clients join by IP (connect <ip> in the console).

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Game Files

The image contains only the h2ded binary. Copy the data1/ folder of a Hexen II install into config/Server/: pak0.pak and pak1.pak, patched to Raven's 1.11 update (Hammer of Thyrion's h2patch does that), plus the progs.dat/progs2.dat game code that ships with Hammer of Thyrion if you have it. A whole Hammer of Thyrion install directory works too; the Windows files in it are ignored. The server stops with an error if data1/pak0.pak is missing.

For Portal of Praevus, also copy portals/ (with pak3.pak) and set HEXEN2_PORTALS=1. For a mod, copy its folder next to data1/ and set HEXEN2_GAME.

Linux h2ded opens files by their lowercase names. If the copied files are uppercase, a startup hook links the game folder (data1 → DATA1) and the files and folders directly inside it (pak0.pak → PAK0.PAK) to lowercase names in Overlay/. Files deeper down (for example maps/RAVDM1.BSP) are not linked; rename those.

Clients need Hammer of Thyrion (or another engine speaking the same protocol). The server uses protocol 19 (Raven/MP/1.12) by default; HEXEN2_PROTOCOL=18 (Raven/H2/1.11) lets the original 1.11 game join, but doesn't work with the mission pack. HexenWorld is a different game and protocol; this image doesn't run a HexenWorld server.

Directory Layout (Host)

.
└── config/
    ├── Server/            # Game data: data1/pak0.pak, data1/pak1.pak, portals/, mod folders
    ├── Overlay/           # Your files, layered on top of Server/ (data1/server.cfg, generated lancommander.cfg, lowercase links)
    ├── Merged/            # Overlayfs merged view (auto-created, the server runs here)
    └── Scripts/
        └── Hooks/         # PowerShell scripts run at container lifecycle hooks

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Environment Variables

These are in addition to the base image's variables. The settings are written into <HEXEN2_GAME or data1>/lancommander.cfg on every start. Settings left empty are left out, so you can set them in server.cfg instead.

Variable	Description	Default
HEXEN2_GAME	Mod folder (-game), empty for plain Hexen II (data1)
HEXEN2_PORTALS	1 runs the Portal of Praevus mission pack (-portals); needs portals/pak3.pak
HEXEN2_PORT	-port (game port)	26900
HEXEN2_MAX_PLAYERS	-dedicated <n>, the player slots (fixed at startup, 2 to 16)	16
HEXEN2_PROTOCOL	-protocol: 18 (Raven 1.11), 19 (Raven/MP 1.12) or 20 (UQE 1.13); empty uses h2ded's default (19)
HEXEN2_SERVER_NAME	hostname	Hexen II Server
HEXEN2_MAP	First map (ravdm1 to ravdm5, demo1, village1, ...)	ravdm1
HEXEN2_DEATHMATCH	deathmatch: 0 off, 1 on	1
HEXEN2_COOP	coop: 1 for co-op. Turning it on also sets deathmatch 0	0
HEXEN2_TEAMPLAY	teamplay: 0 off, 1 teams by player color, with no team damage	0
HEXEN2_FRAG_LIMIT	fraglimit (0 = none)	20
HEXEN2_TIME_LIMIT	timelimit in minutes (0 = none)	15
HEXEN2_SKILL	skill, monster difficulty for co-op: 0 easiest to 3 hardest	1
HEXEN2_RANDOM_CLASS	randomclass: 1 gives players a random class on every respawn in deathmatch
HEXEN2_SAME_LEVEL	samelevel: 1 replays the current map instead of exiting
HEXEN2_NO_EXIT	noexit: 1 kills players who touch an exit in deathmatch
START_EXE	Launcher	/usr/local/bin/hexen2-server
START_ARGS	Extra command line, inserted before +map (e.g. +sv_gravity 600)

Hexen II has no map rotation of its own. When the frag or time limit is reached on a deathmatch map, the stock game code restarts the same map. A map with an exit changes to the next map when a player takes it.

h2ded has no remote console (rcon) or server password.

See Documentation/Docker.md for more detail.

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Building

The image is built FROM lancommander/base:latest by default. A build stage compiles h2ded from the Hammer of Thyrion source release:

Build arg	Description	Default
UHEXEN2_VERSION	Hammer of Thyrion release to build (the uhexen2-<version> tag)	1.5.9
UHEXEN2_SHA256	Expected SHA256 of the source tarball (empty skips the check); clear it when changing the version	the 1.5.9 tarball's
BASE_IMAGE	Runtime base image	lancommander/base:latest

h2ded is built without user directories, so everything it writes lands next to the game data in Overlay/ instead of ~/.hexen2. Patches/h2ded-stdin-eof.patch stops it from busy-reading stdin once it hits end-of-file, which is the case under Docker. The version built is in /opt/uhexen2/VERSION and in the server's startup log.

docker build --build-arg BASE_IMAGE=lancommander/base:local -t lancommander/hexen2:local .

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License

Hexen II is a trademark of Raven Software / id Software. Its game data is not included and is distributed under its own license. Hammer of Thyrion is GPLv2. This repository contains only Docker build logic, a source patch and helper scripts licensed under MIT.