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All about the RCON connection feature

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Rasmus Mecklenburg edited this page Nov 4, 2025 · 3 revisions

DemoMan is able to send commands to TF2 through the RCON (Remote CONsole) protocol.

What commands does DemoMan send?

DemoMan only sends the following commands to TF2:

  • echo: to see if the connection works, DemoMan sends an echo command every five seconds. This is used to display the RCON status in the sidebar.
  • playdemo: to instruct TF2 to start playing a specific demo

How does this work?

For RCON to work, TF2 needs to be running and started with specific launch options.

These tell TF2 to start listening for RCON commands on a certain port, protected by a certain password.

How do I set up RCON?

  • In DemoMan, click on the RCON indicator on the sidebar.
  • Click on "Set up RCON"
  • Copy the launch options
  • In steam, add these to the launch options of TF2 (how?)
  • Start TF2

The indicator should now display "Connected".

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