Installation¶

PracLab consists of two independent layers that can be deployed on demand:

Layer 1 (required): PracLab.dll — the CounterStrikeSharp C# plugin that provides all commands and UI.
Layer 2 (optional): PracLabReplayEngine.dll/.so — the Metamod C++ plugin that provides frame-level movement recording/playback. When not deployed, only the .record/.replay family commands are unavailable; other features are unaffected.

Build artifacts can be downloaded from the Release page, or compiled from source — see the Developers guide.

1. Prerequisites¶

Dependency	Version
CS2 server	Latest
CounterStrikeSharp	1.0.371+
Metamod:Source	Latest stable

2. Deploy Layer 1 to the CS2 server¶

Assume the CS2 server root directory is <CS2> (the directory that contains csgo/):

2.1 Copy plugin files¶

<CS2>/csgo/addons/counterstrikesharp/plugins/PracLab/
├── PracLab.dll
└── lang/
    ├── zh-CN.json
    └── en.json

2.2 Copy config files¶

<CS2>/csgo/cfg/PracLab/
├── config.cfg                 # Master toggle + default language
├── prac.cfg                   # Practice-mode ConVars
└── dryrun.cfg                 # Competitive-mode ConVars (used by .dryrun)

The repository's cfg/PracLab/ directory already contains default configs — simply copy the whole directory.

2.3 Start the server¶

On startup, the console should show:

[PracLab] Load: executing...
[PracLab] HH:mm:ss Core default language: zh-CN, plugin enabled: True (hotReload: False)
[PracLab] HH:mm:ss Core registered 9 map change commands, route table has XX keys

Players can type .prac in chat to enable practice mode.

3. Deploy Layer 2 to the CS2 server¶

3.1 Copy the shared library¶

Windows:

<CS2>/csgo/addons/PracLabReplayEngine/bin/win64/PracLabReplayEngine.dll

Linux:

<CS2>/csgo/addons/PracLabReplayEngine/bin/linuxsteamrt64/PracLabReplayEngine.so

3.2 Copy the Metamod VDF and gamedata¶

The repository's replay-engine/configs/ directory provides ready-made files:

<CS2>/csgo/addons/metamod/PracLabReplayEngine.vdf         # Windows
<CS2>/csgo/addons/metamod/PracLabReplayEngine.linux.vdf   # Linux (rename to .vdf)
<CS2>/csgo/addons/PracLabReplayEngine/gamedata.json       # Signature scan config

3.3 Verify¶

Start the server; the console should show:

[PracLab] HH:mm:ss Replay engine detected: PracLabReplayEngine loaded

Or run .currentrecord in the PracLab console — if it says "replay engine not loaded", Layer 2 is not properly deployed.

4. Upgrade & Rollback¶

Operation	Steps
Upgrade Layer 1	Overwrite `PracLab.dll` and `lang/*.json` etc.
Upgrade Layer 2	Stop the server → overwrite `PracLabReplayEngine.dll/.so` → start the server (Metamod plugins do not support hot reload)
Rollback	Replace with the older files; config files are backward compatible