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Community Expression

By default, many dedicated servers disable custom spray logos to save bandwidth or prevent the display of inappropriate content. If you wish to allow your community to use their custom decals, you must explicitly enable the upload and download protocols.
Reading TimeDifficultyLast Updated
4 minutesBeginnerJanuary 2026

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1. Server Configuration

Add the following lines to your server.cfg to allow the exchange of spray files: 
sv_allowupload 1    // Allows the client to send their spray to the server
sv_allowdownload 1  // Allows other clients to download that spray from the server
decalfrequency 30   // Time in seconds between spray uses (prevents spam)

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2. Troubleshooting Visibility Issues

If players report that they cannot see other people’s sprays:
  1. FastDL Conflict: If you use a custom sv_downloadurl for large maps, the game may attempt to look for temporary spray files on the web server (where they don’t exist).
  2. Client Settings: The player may have disabled decals in their local video settings (r_decals 0).
  3. Steam Cloud: Sometimes Steam fails to sync a player’s local temp.vtf spray file to the server.

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Content Control

There is no automated way to “filter” sprays on a dedicated server. Enabling sv_allowupload is an all-or-nothing setting. If you find your server being abused by trolls, the only solution is to disable the feature or move to an administrative “Spray Tracer” plugin.

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Last Updated: January 2026 | L4D2: Decals enabled.