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FAQ for Users

An FAQ for regular users of XLiveLessNess. Please notify us if there are any questions not answered here that apply to regular usage of the project or if an answer should be made more clear.

My game crashes. My game does not work. Error. A feature does not work. Multiplayer does not work. Incomplete XLIVE Stubbed Function.

Here is a list of which games that are currently working on XLiveLessNess: GFWL Title/Game Compatibility.

What is Xliveless?

Xliveless is not XLiveLessNess. I called it XLiveLessNess because I wanted to keep it apparent in its name that it is an xlive.dll replacement. Unfortunately Xliveless as a project name is already taken, and since it sets out to achieve a similar goal, the added 'ness' establishes that XLLN really aims to be free from GFWL while providing an equivalent feature-rich experience.

What is XLiveLessNess / XLLN?

It is a replacement for Games For Windows / Games For Windows Live (GFWL). That is (for clarity), you cannot use XLiveLessNess and GFWL at the same time. Xliveless is a different project and is not the same thing as XLiveLessNess. Xliveless does not restore any online functionality and has limited support for attempting to replicate GFWL functionality which leads to issues or crashes in the games themselves. XLLN tries to replicate GFWL functionality such that the game itself does not know it is not actually running on the real GFWL.

What is Games For Windows / Games For Windows Live / GFWL / xlive.dll?

Games For Windows is a gaming platform by Microsoft. It is basically Xbox Live for PC. Games that do not use/have any online functionality are typically just called "Games for Windows" games. For short people mostly just refer to it as Games For Windows Live (GFWL). GFWL is represented by a single file installed on your computer. This file is called xlive.dll and typically exists in C:\Windows\SysWOW64\xlive.dll for 64-bit operating systems or C:\Windows\System32\xlive.dll for 32-bit. This file can be completely replaced by another that implements the service in a similar way. See How to install for more info.

How do I install XLiveLessNess / xlive.dll?

Per Game

Place the XLLN files in the same folder that the game is installed in. So this could be the same folder as GAME.exe, GAME.exe.cat and GAME.exe.cfg.

Global / All Users

If you do not want to install GFWL or want to install XLiveLessNess for use for all users of the computer, you can put the XLLN install files into C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ if you have a 64-bit Operating System or C:\Windows\System32\ for 32-bit.

At this point, installing globally for all users is not recommended. Eventually it will be the recommended installation method once XLLN supports more games and better handles XLLN-Modules and configuration files.

Does multiplayer work?

XLiveLessNess supports the ability to play LIVE or local games on a LAN or over the internet. That is you can play:

  • a LIVE game over a LAN
  • a LIVE game over the internet
  • a local / LAN game over a LAN
  • a local / LAN game over the internet

All you need to do is specify the IP address to broadcast to when trying to play over the internet or none at all and it will broadcast to the LAN of the chosen network adapter.

How do I play online?

XLiveLessNess by itself does not connect to any online servers. It is decentralised and does not rely on an internet connection to function or support multiplayer functions in games. XLLN will try its best to simulate online environments. Therefore you can play games locally without internet yet multiplayer LIVE lobbies will still be possible. You can also use the direct IP / broadcast address functionality to connect to people or hub servers over the internet. It is possible to create local / LAN game lobbies and have other users connect to it over the internet without using a tunnelling network such as Radmin VPN, Hamachi, or Evolve. Just keep in mind you will need to forward your ports in order to host a game.

How do I port forward? How do I forward my ports? How do I host a game online / over the internet?

If you are on a shared, public, school, college, university, work, enterprise or mobile hotspot network, then you will likely struggle to port forward at all. You will probably need to rely on UPnP support. If you are on a home network with access to the Modem, then you will need to navigate to its configuration (usually accessible through a web browser and with an administrator login) and add a new port forwarding mapping. You will also need to know what ports the game uses in order to forward the correct ones. This is a topic that needs additional work on in order to improve user experience at a project level.

Is there UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) support?

Not yet. It will likely be added as an XLLN-Module.

Is there IPv6 support?

Yes.

Can I add friends? Can I send private messages to other users? Can I earn achievements?

These features are the lowest of the low priority. They also suggest requirements for a centralised server to hold this data which is against the core purpose of XLiveLessNess. This could be done as part of an XLLN-Module however.

Is there voice chat support?

Not yet. It will likely be implemented as part of an XLLN-Module. Add Voice Chat support

Can I see ping / network connection speed?

Not yet.

Can I invite friends to my game?

You can only invite users to your game on a LIVE hosted lobby. This feature is not done yet.

What are some of the executable launch parameters / flags available in XLiveLessNess?

All available execution parameters can be found documented in the Help > About menu on the XLiveLessNess Guide window.

Can I play splitscreen? Can I sign in / login multiple local accounts? Can I sign in guest accounts? Can I have 4 players?

Although XLiveLessNess has been programmed to support multiple local accounts just like on an Xbox, the games themselves have not been built with this in mind and will in most cases not recognise the extra accounts. It is however possible to hack the game to add this support as part of an XLLN-Module (this is particularly true in games that were ported from a console that previously had multiple local player support).

How do I create an account?

You do not need to sign up anywhere. No email required. Just use the XLiveLessNess Guide menu to choose a username, whether you want to login as a LIVE enabled account, if you want to automatically login next time, and click Login to save for next time.

What are the XLLN-Hub files for? (.elf / .exe)

This is a console-based (Hub) server used for relaying broadcast packets from other XLLN clients / Titles. Therefore, the IP & Port of the Hub host should be entered as a Broadcast Address in the guide menu of XLiveLessNess on a running Title for it to be used. This will/should relay LIVE and LAN based game lobbies to others that have also connected to the same Hub server.

Note that the server's code is targeted for a POSIX based OS. So for Windows users, you will need to install a compatibility layer such as Cygwin (.exe) or run a virtual machine with *nix / Linux (.elf). Alternatively, if the distributed binaries are not compatible with your machine you can pull down the repository and use the make file to build it yourself.

Why can't I connect to the XLLN-Hub server anymore? Why does the XLLN-Hub server stop working after a while?

There are no keep-alive packets / threads implemented currently for Hub servers, so after 2 minutes from the last time the user/instance contacted the Hub server it will remove the connection from its list of active users/instances. Typically the LIVE server browser does not contact the Hub server so you will need to 'wake it up' by hosting a LIVE game or attempting to search for or host a LAN/local game/lobby from within the Title. This will be fixed sometime in the future.

How do I enter IPs / domain names and Ports in the Broadcast Address textbox?

All addresses are comma , separated. Do not use spaces at all. The IP and corresponding Port are separated with a colon :. Since IPv6 uses colons in its format, IPv6 addresses need to be enclosed in square brackets [ and ].

So an example of a comma separated list of a domain name, IPv4 (local address broadcast) and an IPv6 address is as follows:

glitchyscripts.com:1100,192.168.0.255:1100,[2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334]:1100

Why is the Broadcast Address textbox really slow and laggy?

The input to the textbox is applied as you type, so it will attempt to parse and lookup any IP address after you have typed a colon :. Try to type out any IP / domain addresses first before typing the port. The GUI is a work in progress and inputting the Broadcast Address is planned to be done differently in the future.