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Set the banner with BannerLink= and the welcome text with ServerMOTD= in the server’s active configuration, then restart the dedicated server. Use a 512×256, 32-bit, non-interlaced PNG. The image may be hosted locally in KFGame/Web/images or served from a direct external image URL.
For a hosted Killing Floor 2 instance while you apply these settings, Godlike.Host provides game servers with its own game panel, SFTP/FTP access, up to three free backups a day with restore, and 24/7 support. Its Killing Floor 2 plans list 10, 20 and 30 slots; Survival is a 6-player mode and Versus Survival an up-to-12-player mode (Tripwire’s Killing Floor 2 wiki, archived 11 Jul 2026).
The most common reason a banner does not appear is an empty ServerMOTD. Killing Floor 2’s documented configuration expects both a banner link and non-empty MOTD text before it displays the welcome screen.
What controls the Killing Floor 2 welcome screen
The welcome screen has two separate settings:
| Setting | What it controls | Example |
|---|---|---|
BannerLink |
The image shown on the welcome screen. It can be a local relative path or an externally hosted direct image URL. | BannerLink=/images/server_motd.png |
ServerMOTD |
The message-of-the-day text displayed with the welcome screen. | ServerMOTD=Welcome to our server! |
Both values belong in the active server configuration, normally KFGame/Config/PCServer-KFGame.ini. A hosting panel may use a per-instance copy or generate the file from its own settings, so the filename and location can differ. Always edit the profile that the running server actually loads.
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Prepare the banner image
Use the supported dimensions and encoding
Export the banner as a PNG measuring 512×256 pixels. The hosting guidance for this setting specifies a 32-bit, non-interlaced PNG. These constraints are safer than uploading a large promotional graphic and relying on the game to resize it.
- Canvas: 512 pixels wide by 256 pixels high.
- Format: PNG.
- Color depth: 32-bit.
- Interlacing: disabled (non-interlaced).
- File name: use a simple name such as
server_motd.png, with no spaces.
Killing Floor 2 Update 1144 included a Web Admin fix for client crashes associated with high image resolutions. That historical issue is another reason to keep the file at the documented size instead of uploading an oversized source image.
Check the final file before uploading
- Open the exported PNG in an image editor and confirm the pixel dimensions are exactly 512×256.
- Inspect the file information to verify 32-bit color and disabled interlacing.
- Rename it to a short, predictable filename, for example
server_motd.png. - Open the file locally to ensure it is not corrupt or accidentally saved as a different format with a
.pngextension.
Choose where to host the image
You have two practical hosting choices. A local file removes dependence on a third-party host but requires access to the server files. An external direct URL is convenient when a game panel does not expose the web directory, but the server must be able to fetch that URL.
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| Method | Control | Reliability dependency | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local file | Full control over the file and path. | Depends on the server’s own files and configuration. | Self-managed servers and installations where you can upload files. |
| External direct URL | Image is maintained at the hosting address. | Depends on DNS, availability, protocol support, and the host returning the image itself. | Panels or servers where placing files under KFGame/Web/images is inconvenient. |
| WebAdmin settings | Convenient interface for entering the same values. | Still depends on the selected local or external image source. | Administrators who have WebAdmin enabled and prefer not to edit an INI manually. |
Method 1: host the banner locally
Copy the PNG into the web image directory
- Stop the dedicated server before changing its files.
- Open the server’s
KFGame/Web/imagesdirectory. - Copy your 512×256 PNG into that directory. For the examples below, the filename is
server_motd.png. - Confirm the file is readable by the account that runs the server process.
The local path is relative to the game’s web root. It is not a filesystem path and must begin with a forward slash:
/images/server_motd.pngSet the local path and MOTD
In the active PCServer-KFGame.ini, set both values:
BannerLink=/images/server_motd.png
ServerMOTD=Welcome to our Killing Floor 2 server!The accepted Steam configuration guidance describes this exact arrangement: place the image in KFGame/Web/images, then reference it with the relative /images/... path. Do not enter the operating-system path to the file, such as a drive letter or a full server directory; the game expects the web-relative path.
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When the local method fails
- Check capitalization in both the filename and path. A mismatch can prevent the file from being found on case-sensitive systems.
- Make sure the file is directly under
KFGame/Web/images, not in a second nestedimagesfolder. - Keep the leading slash in
/images/server_motd.png. - Verify that the panel is not rebuilding the server profile from a template and removing your copied file.
Method 2: use an external image URL
Copy the direct image address
An external value for BannerLink must point directly to the PNG bytes. When you paste the address into a browser, it should display the image itself, not an HTML gallery, login page, preview page, or download form.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchA direct URL commonly ends in the image filename, but the extension alone is not proof. Test the exact address in a private browser window and confirm that it loads without signing in. If the host redirects through an interstitial page, the game may receive HTML instead of an image.
Enter the URL in the INI
Use the complete address after BannerLink= and keep the MOTD non-empty:
BannerLink=https://example.invalid/server_motd.png
ServerMOTD=Welcome to our Killing Floor 2 server!The address above is only a syntax illustration; replace it with the direct URL from your chosen image host. Do not add quotation marks around the value unless your panel specifically requires them.
HTTP versus HTTPS
Older community instructions used http, while newer examples use https. The available guidance does not establish one protocol as universally supported by every Killing Floor 2 server build. Test the exact direct URL with your build. If an HTTPS address fails while the same image is available over HTTP, or vice versa, record the working form for that server and keep the URL unchanged until you deliberately test another one.
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Edit the server configuration manually
- Stop the server or use the panel’s configuration editor so that a running process cannot overwrite your changes.
- Open the active
KFGame/Config/PCServer-KFGame.ini. If your installation uses a different profile filename, open the file associated with the instance you start. - Find the existing
BannerLink=andServerMOTD=entries. If they are absent, add them in the server configuration section used by your installation. - Replace the old banner value with either the local path or direct external URL.
- Enter a non-empty MOTD. A blank value can prevent the banner from appearing even when the image link is valid.
- Save the file without changing its
.iniextension or character encoding. - Start the server again so the dedicated-server process reloads the configuration.
A minimal configuration looks like this:
BannerLink=/images/server_motd.png
ServerMOTD=Read the rules before joining.Do not assume that editing a similarly named file is enough. Many panels maintain separate profiles for separate instances, and some regenerate INI files when you press Save or Restart. If a change disappears, identify the profile shown for that instance in the panel and edit it through the panel’s Configuration Files view.
Configure the welcome screen in WebAdmin
When WebAdmin is enabled, you can enter the same settings through its Welcome Screen page instead of editing the INI directly. Open the WebAdmin interface on the server’s configured port (the common setup uses port 8080), then navigate to:
/ServerAdmin/settings/welcome- Sign in to WebAdmin with an administrator account.
- Open the Welcome Screen settings.
- Enter the direct image URL or the local relative path in the banner field.
- Enter a non-empty MOTD in the message field.
- Save the settings.
- Restart the dedicated server if WebAdmin does not apply the change immediately.
WebAdmin is a configuration interface, not a separate image host. A preview inside WebAdmin only proves that the interface can retrieve or display the value; it does not guarantee that every connected game client will receive the image. Test from an actual game client after restarting.
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Game-panel and Docker installations
Game panels
For a managed server, open the panel’s Configuration Files area, select the active Killing Floor 2 server INI, set BannerLink and ServerMOTD, save, and restart the server. The panel’s own editor is preferable when it generates per-instance files, because a manual edit in an inactive file will have no effect.
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Docker-based servers
Docker-oriented Killing Floor 2 configurations expose the same concepts through environment variables. The documented names are:
| Purpose | Variable | Value example |
|---|---|---|
| Banner image | KF_BANNER_LINK |
/images/server_motd.png |
| Welcome text | KF_MOTD |
Welcome to our server! |
Set those variables in the container definition or compose file used to launch the instance, then recreate or restart the container according to your deployment method. Changing a host-side INI that the container does not mount will not change the running server.
Restart and verify the result
The dedicated server reads its configuration at startup. Saving an INI or WebAdmin form without restarting can leave the old values active.
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- Join the server with a client and wait for the welcome screen to load.
- Confirm that the MOTD text appears and that the banner is displayed with the expected proportions.
- If the screen is blank, test the image address independently and work through the troubleshooting branches below.
For a local banner, the final path should be exactly the relative path you entered. For an external banner, the server and clients must be able to reach the host without authentication or a browser-only redirect.
Troubleshooting: banner or MOTD does not appear
The entire welcome screen is missing
- Check that
ServerMOTDcontains at least one character. The documented hosting workflow requires a MOTD for the banner to work. - Confirm that you edited the active server profile rather than a backup, default, or inactive instance file.
- Save the file through the panel if the panel manages configuration files.
- Restart the dedicated server after saving.
The MOTD appears but the image is blank
- Verify the
BannerLinkvalue for spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. - For a local image, confirm the file is under
KFGame/Web/imagesand the value begins with/images/. - For an external image, paste the exact URL into a browser and ensure it returns the PNG itself rather than an HTML page.
- Check that the server can reach the external host and that the host does not require a login, token, cookie, or expiring session.
- Try the protocol that your server build accepts. Historical examples differ between HTTP and HTTPS.
WebAdmin preview works, but players see no banner
WebAdmin may be running in an environment that can preview the URL even when the game client or dedicated-server process cannot retrieve it. Recheck that the value is a direct image URL, that the server has outbound access, and that no redirect leads to a login or gallery page. Then restart and test with a real client.
The local path returns nothing
- Use the web-relative path, not an absolute filesystem path.
- Keep the initial slash:
/images/server_motd.png. - Move the image directly into
KFGame/Web/imagesif it is in a subfolder. - Match the filename exactly, including uppercase and lowercase letters.
The server or WebAdmin becomes unstable
Replace the image with a 512×256, 32-bit, non-interlaced PNG. Update 1144 documented a Web Admin crash fix related to high image resolution, so oversized images are an avoidable risk even if a modern installation appears to accept them.
Quick Recap
Changes revert after a restart
- Identify whether the panel generates the INI from a template.
- Edit the instance shown as active in the panel, not a global sample file.
- Use the panel’s Save action before restarting.
- For Docker, change
KF_BANNER_LINKandKF_MOTDin the container definition and recreate the container if required.
Practical maintenance checklist
- Keep a copy of the approved 512×256 PNG so you can restore it quickly.
- Use a stable filename and avoid renaming the file without updating
BannerLink. - After changing hosts, test the direct image URL before restarting the server.
- Document whether your installation works with HTTP or HTTPS rather than assuming the result from another server.
- After every panel or container update, verify that the active configuration still contains both
BannerLinkand a non-emptyServerMOTD.
Quick reference
| Goal | Required value |
|---|---|
| Local banner file | Place the PNG in KFGame/Web/images. |
| Local banner setting | BannerLink=/images/server_motd.png |
| External banner setting | BannerLink= followed by a direct image URL. |
| Welcome text | A non-empty ServerMOTD= value. |
| Image format | 512×256, 32-bit, non-interlaced PNG. |
| Apply changes | Save the active configuration and restart the dedicated server. |
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