Halo 5 Local Server Official Thread

Games Halo 5: Guardians
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The highly anticipated Halo 5 Local Server app will be released later this afternoon (11/2) at approx. 2PM PT. We’ll have an official page going live at the same time that will include everything you need to know as well as the link to download the application (this post will be updated with the link once available). Please use this thread to post your questions and feedback about the Local Server app!

Here’s some helpful info as well as a few important known issues / troubleshooting tips we’d like you to be aware of. Please see the following post for current Frequently Asked Questions.

OVERVIEW
Halo 5: Guardians Local Server provides a new way to create, host and play custom multiplayer games in Halo 5: Guardians on Xbox One on a local network. Using this simple application, players can host a local dedicated server on a Windows 10 PC connected to the same network as Xbox One consoles for low-latency Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer matches.

Benefits of this app include:

  • Faster connectivity for low-latency multiplayer matches in Halo 5: Guardians for Xbox One - Easy setup - simply launch the app, join the custom server in the game, and play! - Significantly reduces internet bandwidth requirements - Closely replicates tournament setups used for esports events like Halo Championship Series and Halo World ChampionshipsLOCAL SERVER REQUIREMENTS

  • Windows 10 PC that meets or exceeds system requirements listed below - Local network connection for host PC and Xbox One consoles with Internet connectivity - Xbox Live membership for each Xbox One consoleNote: This tool is designed specifically for console play on Xbox One, and does not work with Halo 5: Forge on Windows PC.

PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Minimum Spec:

  • Intel Core i5 (Haswell) at 2.2 GHz or AMD Ryzen 3 at 3.1 GHz - 4GB RAM - DX11 or higher - Suitable for up to 8 playersRecommended Spec:

  • Intel Core i7 (Skylake) at 3.3 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 at 3.2 GHz - 8GB RAM - DX11 or higher - Suitable for up to 16 playersINSTALLATION & OPERATION INSTRUCTIONS

  • Download the Halo 5: Guardians Local Server Application HERE, and install - Launch the Local Server app on your PC - Configure the local server name (Optional) - Log into Xbox Live and launch Halo 5: Guardians on the Xbox One console(s) - Navigate to “Custom Game Browser”, select your local server and join the fight!
    KNOWN ISSUES / TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS
    If you’re unable to see your local server in the Halo 5 custom game server browser:

Verify your Xbox and PC are on the same subnet of your LAN.

  • On the Xbox, go to Settings -> Network -> Network Settings -> Advanced Settings. Take note of your IP address and your Subnet mask. - On your PC, open Settings -> Network & Internet -> “View your network properties” near the bottom of the page. For your network adapter, take note of your IPv4 address. - Look at your subnet mask. In most scenarios it will be 255.255.255.0. What this means is that if the first three groups of numbers of the IP addresses are the same, they are considered to be on the same subnet. So if your Subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 and your Xbox IP Address is 192.168.1.50 and your PC IP Address is 192.168.1.30, they are on the same subnet. If your subnet mask is anything different, please contact your network administrator for further assistance.Local Server may be using the another network adapter on your PC – This is generally seen if you have a Hyper-V Network Adapter Installed. There are 2 ways to fix this:

  • You can disable any network adapters you are not currently using. To do this: - On your PC, open Settings -> Network & Internet -> Change Adapter Options -> Right click on any adapter you are not actively using and click “Disable”. You can re-enable them later if you’d like by right-clicking the disabled adapter and selecting “Enable”. - If you’d rather not disable adapters, you will need to force Windows to prioritize the network adapter you want the Local Server to use. To do this: - On your PC, open Settings -> Network & Internet -> Change Adapter Options -> Right click on the adapter you’d like the Local Server to use (for a recommended setup with a hard-wired connection, you should generally use “Ethernet” adapter) -> Properties. In the Properties panel, click, on “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” and click Properties. Click “Advanced…”. At the bottom of the Advanced Settings screen, un-check “Automatic metric” and in the “Interface metric:” box, type 1. Windows will then have this adapter be the default adapter used.Performance issues on some 6-core Processors
    *We’ve recently discovered some performance issues on some processors when playing with a large amount of players. While we investigate, we recommend setting the CPU affinity for the processor to be set to 4 physical cores.*To do this:

  1. Open task manager.
  2. In the Processes tab, right-click “halo5server.exe” and select “Go to details”.
  3. Then right click “halo5server.exe” -> Set Affinity. Un-check everything except CPU 0, CPU 2, CPU 4, CPU 6. This will force the server to run on only 4 physical cores. Please note that you will need to do this each time you launch the server.
    Issues with renaming the server
    If you do not see your PC name by default in the Server Name text box, there is an issue that prevents the server from being renamed. It will default to your PC’s name, and you will be able to play on it still. However, if you wish to use a custom name and you are in this state, please close and restart the server until you see your PC name get populated into the text box by default, and you should then be able to rename the server successfully.

See next post for Frequently Asked Questions.

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Halo 5 Local Server - FAQ (Nov. 2)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why do I need an internet connection to use this?
An internet connection is needed to log into Xbox LIVE and start up a match. Once in the match, an internet connection is required to generate our post game carnage report.

Does Halo 5: Guardians Local Server support Halo 5: Forge?
We designed Halo 5: Guardians Local Server to work exclusively with Halo 5: Guardians on Xbox One. Games played with Halo 5: Guardians Local Server can load any custom maps and modes created in Halo 5: Forge.

What happens if I lose internet connection during a game?
Your game will complete as normal but you will not receive a Post Game Carnage Report. Also, any stats that would normally go to the stats API will not be uploaded. You will not be able to start new matches until internet connectivity is restored.

Can I download stats from my Halo 5: Guardians Local Server games?
Yes! Stats for Halo 5: Guardians Local Server games are available through our Halo Public API developer program, available at: https://developer.haloapi.com/

Does Halo 5: Guardians Local Server require Xbox Live Gold?
No! All Xbox Live users, Gold and Silver, can use Halo 5: Guardians to play games on a Halo 5: Guardians Local Server

Do I need a PC to run Halo 5: Guardians Local Server, or can I use a tablet or laptop?
All PC form factors that meet the minimum system requirements can run Halo 5: Guardians Local Server. To support a smooth experience in games with more than 8 players, review the recommended system requirements above.

Who can Play on my Halo 5: Guardians Local Server?
Connectivity is restricted to the local area network. Additionally, the PC running Halo 5: Guardians Local Server and all Xboxes running Halo 5: Guardians must share the same subnet. Consoles will not be able to see or connect to your local server if they are on different subnets, or outside your network (e.g. over the Internet). The local server will be available to all consoles on the subnet.

How much bandwidth do I need when using Halo 5: Guardians Local Server?
By using Halo 5: Guardians Local Server, all gameplay traffic will stay within your local area network. The amount of bandwidth will vary based on how many users are present. For a 16 player game, approximately 10 Mbps of bandwidth is required between the local server and all Xbox consoles.
By keeping the core gameplay traffic within the local area network, Internet bandwidth requirements are reduced. During gameplay in a 16 player game, up to 2 Mbps of Internet bandwidth is used by the local server.

How many Local Servers can I run on my PC at a time?
You can only have one active Halo 5: Local Server running on a PC at a time.

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What about the scenario where I run the Halo 5: Guardians Local Server app on my PC, type in a server name, click the arrow, and nothing happens. No error message. No beep. No spinning cursor. Nothing. It’s as if the arrow button doesn’t work.

4

> 2533274806049951;3:
> What about the scenario where I run the Halo 5: Guardians Local Server app on my PC, type in a server name, click the arrow, and nothing happens. No error message. No beep. No spinning cursor. Nothing. It’s as if the arrow button doesn’t work.

Same issue

5

> 2533274806049951;3:
> What about the scenario where I run the Halo 5: Guardians Local Server app on my PC, type in a server name, click the arrow, and nothing happens. No error message. No beep. No spinning cursor. Nothing. It’s as if the arrow button doesn’t work.

same

followed all the above troubleshooting steps
rebooted, run as administrator, all the usual win10 stuff as well

6

> 2533274806049951;3:
> What about the scenario where I run the Halo 5: Guardians Local Server app on my PC, type in a server name, click the arrow, and nothing happens. No error message. No beep. No spinning cursor. Nothing. It’s as if the arrow button doesn’t work.

Are your specs up to par with the minimal requirements? I was having the same issue, but I’m now forced to consider that my FX-8350 processor is the reason it wont start. I’m surprised the requirements are so high for this app. Then again, there’s a line of text in-game stating that an icon will appear for servers being hosted on an under-spec machine, so one would think you could still host a server with the potential for some issues.

Edit: I got it working on my rig! Turns out Avast decided to flip the firewall to the Public Network setting instead of the Private Network setting after a Windows update; a flip of the switch and my server popped up on the in-game server browser! I also checked the resource monitor and can confirm that you should be fine running this on specs lower than the minimum listed here. My FX-8350 is no Ryzen processor, but it sure as heck wasn’t taxed by the server app at all. The server ran fine in game and I didn’t even get the symbol in the server browser that indicates an under-spec server. I still can’t change the server name, but that’s a minor issue.

This system still doesn’t hold a candle to built-in LAN play that doesn’t require any internet connection at all, but it’s a good move for what little could be done in Halo 5’s case. Here’s hoping all future Halo games have proper LAN support built-in! In the meantime, thank you 343i for listening to the community and going out of your way to add this option to Halo 5!

7

Having the same issue as above, clicking the arrow does nothing (is it designed to do anything/bring you anywhere in the first place?)
IP Subnet looks good, PC should be able to at least start a server with one person… Do we need to use Ethernet cables? If so, why doesn’t it say that?

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ATTENTION ALL USERS: YOU MUST CONNECT YOUR COMPUTER PHYSICALLY TO THE XBOX ONE VIA ETHERNET CABLE. Have no idea why it doesn’t say that, people are mislead into believing it works over wifi.

9

Well this is disappointing… My PC isn’t up to specs. I guess I won’t be doing this :frowning:

This is a great feature and I’m glad it’s here, but in future titles, could you put back in real LAN please as well aka have an option like it used to be in older Halo games. More people would use that feature then this as this is also a lot of tech savvy stuff that most people wouldn’t do. People need a simple set-up aka how it used to be. Thank you

Glad to see LAN is still being supported in some form or faction. LAN rules!

10

Sounds like y’all are having issue listed in the known issues section of OP around renaming server:

Issues with renaming the server
If you do not see your PC name by default in the Server Name text box, there is an issue that prevents the server from being renamed. It will default to your PC’s name, and you will be able to play on it still. However, if you wish to use a custom name and you are in this state, please close and restart the server until you see your PC name get populated into the text box by default, and you should then be able to rename the server successfully.

For y’all that can’t rename your servers, are you seeing your server in the browser in H5?

11

> 2533274806049951;3:
> What about the scenario where I run the Halo 5: Guardians Local Server app on my PC, type in a server name, click the arrow, and nothing happens. No error message. No beep. No spinning cursor. Nothing. It’s as if the arrow button doesn’t work.

Same. Have tried all of the troubleshooting tips listed. When I click the two buttons on the right, I get a Windows error.

12

> 2533274857450565;11:
> > 2533274806049951;3:
> > What about the scenario where I run the Halo 5: Guardians Local Server app on my PC, type in a server name, click the arrow, and nothing happens. No error message. No beep. No spinning cursor. Nothing. It’s as if the arrow button doesn’t work.
>
> Same. Have tried all of the troubleshooting tips listed. When I click the two buttons on the right, I get a Windows error.

Are you seeing your server listed in the ‘Host Server’ section in Halo 5?

Also, ske7ch posted a lot of information in his OP that may be useful:

> 2780570662795584;1:
> Issues with renaming the serverIf you do not see your PC name by default in the Server Name text box, there is an issue that prevents the server from being renamed. It will default to your PC’s name, and you will be able to play on it still. However, if you wish to use a custom name and you are in this state, please close and restart the server until you see your PC name get populated into the text box by default, and you should then be able to rename the server successfully.

If you continue to see issues, please try closing the app and giving it a restart. If this doesn’t help, could you reply back with more information on how you have your network setup so that we can help you troubleshoot?

13

The Halo 5 Local Server App closes the moment I open the app. (The app appears and after a second it automatically closes). I don’t know what to do since I meet all the requirements.

14

I’m not seeing the local server in the browser in H5. Both my PC and XB1 are physically connected via Ethernet cables through a router and the firewall on my PC is allowing UDP and TCP connections for the local server app. I also verified I can ping my XB1 from my PC. What other information do you all need to get this working for us?

15

Alright so I just attempted an octagon with my housemate, which obviously had us on the same network connection and subnet mask, the issue was when connecting to my local server application during the game there was issues which I thought were only apparent during xbox live; issues like ‘heavy aim’ are still relevant and ‘frame rate’ drops… a possible fix would be to get an Xbox One X with higher processing power but not everyone could afford such a commitment. Just was wondering if you could check it out? Does the Server Host Computer need to be connected via ethernet?

16

> 2533274806698520;5:
> > 2533274806049951;3:
> > What about the scenario where I run the Halo 5: Guardians Local Server app on my PC, type in a server name, click the arrow, and nothing happens. No error message. No beep. No spinning cursor. Nothing. It’s as if the arrow button doesn’t work.
>
> same
>
> followed all the above troubleshooting steps
> rebooted, run as administrator, all the usual win10 stuff as well

Just to reiterate, that’s a known issue with the app. If you launch the app and you don’t see a name populate, your server is still up and running! It defaults to your PC name, and should broadcast itself as an available server to any xbox’s running Halo 5: Guardians in the custom game menu.

If you want to rename your server and the name isn’t showing up, the current work around is just to close and relaunch the server app until the PC name populates. If it doesn’t show up first time, it generally only takes a few restarts. We know this sucks, and are looking into if its possible to fix (its an issue with the winform front end we’re using).

Hope this helps!
-Chager

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> 2533274873826144;13:
> The Halo 5 Local Server App closes the moment I open the app. (The app appears and after a second it automatically closes). I don’t know what to do since I meet all the requirements.

Hey Roberto,

We’ve only seen issues like this a handful of times in our testing, specifically around 1) some specific modules being missing on the server 2) incorrect cert from uwp (store stuff) or 3) server being run on a machine without a DX11 capable GPU.

1 thing you can try that would eliminate 1 & 2 would be to uninstall and reinstall the server. This would wipe out any errors with missing modules or certs from the store. IF you’ve done that and are still having the same issue, can you PM me a txt version of your dxdiag so we can dig in further?

Thanks,
-Chager

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> 2533274793493727;14:
> I’m not seeing the local server in the browser in H5. Both my PC and XB1 are physically connected via Ethernet cables through a router and the firewall on my PC is allowing UDP and TCP connections for the local server app. I also verified I can ping my XB1 from my PC. What other information do you all need to get this working for us?

Hey JonJon,

Sounds like there’s a chance you’re hitting the network adapter issue from above (based on how you described your setup seems that you’re on the same subnet). Can you try these instructions (pasted from above) and see if that resolves it? If it doesn’t PM me and there’s a few other additional things we could do to help.

Version:1.0 StartHTML:000000330 EndHTML:000005588 StartFragment:000004165 EndFragment:000005485 StartSelection:000004165 EndSelection:000005475 SourceURL:https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/6e35355aecdf4fd0acdaee3cc4156fd4/topics/halo-5-local-server-official-thread/d5596cbd-3b76-4d70-83d0-f1e804fac1db/posts?page=1Halo 5 Local Server Official Thread | Halo 5: Guardians | Forums | Halo - Official Site

Local Server may be using the another network adapter on your PC – This is generally seen if you have a Hyper-V Network Adapter Installed. There are 2 ways to fix this:

  • You can disable any network adapters you are not currently using. To do this: - On your PC, open Settings -> Network & Internet -> Change Adapter Options -> Right click on any adapter you are not actively using and click “Disable”. You can re-enable them later if you’d like by right-clicking the disabled adapter and selecting “Enable”. - If you’d rather not disable adapters, you will need to force Windows to prioritize the network adapter you want the Local Server to use. To do this: - On your PC, open Settings -> Network & Internet -> Change Adapter Options -> Right click on the adapter you’d like the Local Server to use (for a recommended setup with a hard-wired connection, you should generally use “Ethernet” adapter) -> Properties. In the Properties panel, click, on “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” and click Properties. Click “Advanced¦”. At the bottom of the Advanced Settings screen, un-check “Automatic metric” and in the “Interface metric:” box, type 1. Windows will then have this adapter be the default adapter used.Thanks,
    -Chager
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> 2533274873172929;15:
> Alright so I just attempted an octagon with my housemate, which obviously had us on the same network connection and subnet mask, the issue was when connecting to my local server application during the game there was issues which I thought were only apparent during xbox live; issues like ‘heavy aim’ are still relevant and ‘frame rate’ drops… a possible fix would be to get an Xbox One X with higher processing power but not everyone could afford such a commitment. Just was wondering if you could check it out? Does the Server Host Computer need to be connected via ethernet?

Hi Syn,

Local DS is designed to work with the full spectrum of current Xboxes that support Halo 5, so while getting an Xbox X would be awesome, you shouldn’t be seeing these issues. You don’t need to connect the PC to the xbox physically via Ethernet cable (wifi works as well) but depending on your model you would might see better perf. Specifically though, the heavy aim and frame rate drop aren’t consistent with network latency more than PC perf. Are you seeing these things specifically when you play local server games via a PC or are you seeing the same issues when you play multiplayer on xbox live as well?

One thing we can do to narrow down root cause would be for you to send me your dxdiag via notepad text over PM. That way the team here can see if there’s any red flags that could cause the issues you’re seeing.

Thanks,
-Chager

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> 2533274815533909;9:
> Well this is disappointing… My PC isn’t up to specs. I guess I won’t be doing this :frowning:
>
> This is a great feature and I’m glad it’s here, but in future titles, could you put back in real LAN please as well aka have an option like it used to be in older Halo games. Very least. More people would use that feature then this as this is also a lot of tech savvy stuff that most people wouldn’t do. People need a simple set-up aka how it used to be. Thank you
>
> Glad to see LAN is still being supported in some form or faction. LAN rules!

Totally agree with bringing back LAN. I have been saying it for years. LAN is the only reason I bought Gears 4. Having LAN in games doesn’t stop me from having an Xbox Live subscription or buying other games. I still do. A lot! So for Heaven’s sake bring it back in future software titles. I have refused to buy Forza since LAN is not supported and I’ve come to the conclusion that I will likely do the same with Halo in the future if it doesn’t come back. I much prefer Halo to Gears but I will stick to Gears if it means I can play my games the way that I want to play them and any time that I want to.