Steam Community :: Guide :: Installing addons without restarting your game

Store Page

Left 4 Dead 2

All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews

Left 4 Dead 2 > Guides > bob's Guides

54 ratings

Installing addons without restarting your game

By bob

A short guide on how to install addons without restarting your game.

Award

Created by

bob
Offline

Category: Modding or Configuration

Languages: English

Modding: Maps

Posted

Updated

6 Jul, 2016 @ 2:49pm

9 Jul, 2016 @ 5:38pm

3,663	Unique Visitors
37	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Text guide

Photo guide

Comments

Text guide

Place the new vpk in your addons folder.

Go to the main menu of Left 4 Dead 2 and enter this into the console:

update_addon_paths

Go to your "add-ons" section of the main menu.

Leave and go back to the main menu.

Your addon should now work.

Photo guide

Do you ever want to add a new map or mod to your game, but you don't want to restart it? Maybe you have some YouTube videos playing or other browser stuff that you don't wish to have to revisit.

Here I found a game with the map White Forest, but I don't have it installed.

Go download the map.

Extract it to your addons folder.

On my Windows PC, I can actually copy and paste the address of the folder into the extract options. Here's my address: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Left 4 Dead 2\left4dead2\addons

Now it's in the folder. Go back to L4D2.

Pull up your developer console, and type in

update_addon_paths

Visit the "add-ons" section of the main menu. This is just to refresh the contents.

Your addon should now work.

Enjoy!

17 Comments

< >

sordado 25 Jul, 2024 @ 2:30pm

i remember there beeing a mod that does that

Pyc 16 Jul, 2016 @ 1:53am

this may not work. example after use this command you can see ERROR model.

$Сектор$Приз$ 14 Jul, 2016 @ 7:37am

фигня

Richard 12 Jul, 2016 @ 11:07pm

I do what john does. You should probably include that to save people time lol

Shao 12 Jul, 2016 @ 3:36am

This can still cause instability, not recommended unless the changes are minor. There used to be this HUD that could allow changes mid game via pause menu and it would cause instant crashes when done.

Zetnus 12 Jul, 2016 @ 1:26am

What happens if you enter update_addon_paths into the console while in a match? Can that be used to reload a model midgame or would it wait until you go back to the main menu / addons menu?

predamonk 11 Jul, 2016 @ 7:12pm

I have a few VPKs and I've never had to restart my game either

Hamzilly 11 Jul, 2016 @ 6:42pm

I've actually never had to restart mine in the first place.

HK-47 10 Jul, 2016 @ 1:31am

I was talking about VPKs, not workshop addons.

bob [author] 9 Jul, 2016 @ 5:39pm

This concerns downloaded vpks, not workshop addons. @Hanzo thanks for noticing the typo, fixed

< >