Changelog

What's new in Vaerune, release by release. The app shows the latest note too, from the same version pill near your library's Downloads button.

Vaerune 1.0

2026.08.29

Vaerune 1.0. One desktop app to run dedicated game servers for any game that ships one. Install, host, monitor, mod, back up, and update from a single Steam-styled window.

Host anything

  • Any dedicated server. Steam games install via steamcmd. Non-Steam games like Minecraft (Java & Bedrock), Vintage Story, Terraria, and Mindustry download directly. Or just point Vaerune at a folder you already have. Over 200 curated games (the popular ones boot-verified end to end), plus a live searchable index of Steam's whole dedicated-server catalog, and you can define your own custom game profile for anything we have not curated yet.
  • Zero-setup Add-a-Game. Search, pick, done. Art, config, and prerequisites are handled for you.
  • Multiple instances. Run several servers of the same game side by side, each with its own world, config, mods, and ports.

Keeps your servers alive

  • Never drops players. Your game servers keep running through app updates, restarts, and crashes. Vaerune re-adopts them automatically, so a deploy never boots your players.
  • Odin. The all-seeing watcher that restarts a managed server if it crashes or after a reboot, with crash-loop protection so a broken server can't spin forever.
  • Self-healing dependencies. If a server crashes on launch because a runtime is missing or the wrong version (Java, .NET, Visual C++, and more), Vaerune reads the crash, installs the exact version needed, updates the launcher, and tells you to hit Launch again. No hunting down installers.

Mods, monitoring, and upkeep

  • Mod Store. A real storefront across CurseForge, Thunderstore, mod.io, Modrinth, Steam Workshop, and Nexus Mods, with big cover-art tiles, global cross-game search, one-click install straight to your server, a per-game manager (enable, disable, uninstall, and install from file), and a download queue. Every mod has its own page now: screenshots, the full description, every version and file with its game versions and dates, and what it needs or clashes with.
  • Live monitoring you can trust. Real player counts and names, cross-checked against the server's own console activity so an empty-looking server with people on it can never fool you, and Vaerune asks before you stop a server that might have players online. Health status, CPU and RAM, latency, and a live event log that tells you exactly who did what, including whether an action came from you or a remote session.
  • Config, backups, and updates. Curated Basic and Advanced settings per game, world and config backups with restore, and scheduled update windows with in-game countdown announcements. Pause and resume updates anytime, or update now to skip the countdown when no players are connected. Download-based servers like Minecraft now update reliably.
  • Take your servers with you. Export any server as a reusable template and move backups between machines, including to and from your rented cloud servers. A rented server now installs its game automatically the moment the box comes online.

Get players connected

  • One-click port forwarding. The connectivity panel calls out exactly which ports a server needs reachable and opens them on your router over UPnP in one click (with your real public IP shown as proof). It turns green when the ports are open and stays green across restarts; a built-in guide covers manual forwarding if your router has UPnP off.
  • Editable public IP and port (for example a playit.gg tunnel), plus LAN and DNS addresses, each a click to copy.

Built to feel like home

  • Steam-styled dark UI with full-bleed game art, tray controls, start-with-Windows, and firewall and DNS helpers. The game list sorts A to Z and its width is yours to drag.
  • Per-server custom art, settings that never reset on launch, and finished installs that land in the Downloads list like any other download.

New in this update (2026.08.29)

  • Scheduled restarts are dependable. A scheduled restart of a server that takes a while to shut down (Rust, 7 Days to Die, DayZ, Valheim) could freeze Vaerune's background service until the app was restarted, and the server never came back on its own. Both are fixed, and restarts now show up in the event log like every other start and stop.
  • Stopping a server stops all of it on Linux. Games launched through a helper script (Palworld, Valheim and most Linux servers) kept running after Stop, and every restart quietly started another copy. Fixed on desktop and on rented servers, and it also covers classic servers like Sven Co-op whose launcher used to restart them behind Vaerune's back.
  • Crash protection stays armed. Stopping a server and starting it again, or a backup that failed before it began, silently switched off Odin's crash watch until you flipped it back by hand. Both now re-arm themselves, and the event log says so.
  • Backups capture the real save files on Linux. 7 Days to Die and Valheim keep their worlds outside the game folder on Linux; backups used to come back empty there. They now capture and restore the actual world.
  • Reinstalling a game works the first time. After uninstalling a game, a fresh install could refuse its first start with a warning about a missing world. The stale record is cleaned up with the uninstall.
  • Linux installs show real progress. Installs and updates on Linux showed no progress and raised a false "may be stuck" warning on big downloads. They now show every step, with speed and time left, exactly like Windows.
  • Fresh Minecraft servers keep their world. Installing a Minecraft server on Linux could stop it in the middle of creating its world, and every later start crashed. Vaerune now waits for the server to finish its first start and asks it to stop politely.
  • Vintage Story and other .NET games start on Linux. The server was launched with the wrong .NET runtime path and quit at once; Vaerune now points it at the runtime it installed for you.
  • Source games start on a fresh Linux box. Garry's Mod, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike: Source and friends get the 32-bit runtime they need (installed for you on a rented server), Team Fortress 2 uses Valve's 64-bit launcher, and Insurgency's launcher is repaired on start.
  • Servers no longer stop right after they are installed. A background step that prepares a fresh server's settings could stop the server if you pressed Start while it ran. Installing now finishes that step first, and Start always wins.
  • Time left stops bouncing. The download countdown now runs on a steady average and only changes course when your speed really changes, instead of jumping ten seconds up and down every tick.
  • Source-engine servers start on Linux. Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, Garry's Mod and other Source games now launch the way Valve intends on Linux (through srcds_run), so they find their libraries, and an install whose launcher went missing repairs itself on Start.
  • Windows installs the runtimes games need. Vaerune now installs the Visual C++ and XNA runtimes when a game needs them (Unity, Unreal and Terraria servers on a fresh PC used to close silently without them).
  • Linux tells you what is missing. A server that dies on a missing system library now says which one and how to install it, instead of "exited unexpectedly". Rented servers ship with the common libraries preinstalled.
  • Minecraft: Java Edition starts again on Windows. The launcher was quietly reset to an older Java before every start; it now keeps the Java the server was set up with. Vanilla Minecraft worlds are no longer refused because the Nether and End folders are missing.
  • Palworld starts without Steam running. The server used to wait for the Steam client; Vaerune now gives it what it needs.
  • Small fixes. Vintage Story starts on Linux; the update button no longer says "Already up to date" when an update is pending; the phone app's account sheet and banners fit the screen; on Android, plans link to vaerune.com.
  • Downloads show every step. Installs and updates now show each step of the job (check files, download, verify, install) with its own progress bar, speed and time left, instead of one bar that jumped around. Download speed and the downloaded total count network bytes only, and non-Steam games like Minecraft and Terraria show real download and unpack progress instead of a spinner.
  • The installed app verifies as signed. Vaerune.exe is now signed after packaging, so the copy on your disk passes a signature check, not just the installer.
  • Servers start reliably the first time. A few games (like Terraria) could crash the moment they were first started, before their config file had finished being written. The config is now in place before the server ever launches.
  • Delete your account in the app. Settings has a Danger zone now: deleting your account cancels your subscription, cancels and destroys rented servers, and releases your tunnels, exactly as the Terms promise. Servers on your own PC are never touched.
  • Fewer surprises. Coming back to the phone app no longer repaints everything; a tunnel that missed its sign-in on an app update comes back on its own; the reachability helper says plainly when a shared (CGNAT) connection needs the tunnel; a world you wiped in Vaerune starts fresh without a false crash loop; and Minecraft Java repairs its own launcher if the library moved.
  • The Terms screen stays accepted. Accepting the Terms and then opening the QR scanner could bring the Terms screen straight back. Accepting now sticks the first time.
  • Vaerune Tunnel stays up for good. A tunnel that had run for more than a day could quietly lose its address, and restarting it sometimes failed with "the relay box could not complete the allocation". Tunnels now renew themselves in the background and old relay entries are cleaned up before a new one is made.
  • Minecraft Java shows its player count. Java servers were stuck on "player count unavailable"; they now answer with a real number, like every other game.
  • Quieter, clearer status. 7 Days to Die no longer pops its own blank console window (Vaerune is the console), the sidebar shows game icons sharp instead of stretched, and the status line says "player count unavailable" instead of a bare "unavailable" that read as the server being down.
  • Servers update reliably now. Download-based servers like Minecraft (Bedrock and Java) could get stuck trying to update, looping without ever installing the new version. That is fixed. You can also hit Update now to update immediately, skipping the countdown when no players are connected.
  • Your rental settings actually stick. Setting a server name, join password or player limit at checkout could quietly do nothing: the box started up while those settings were still being written, so it came up on the game's defaults instead of yours. The settings are now written before the server ever starts.
  • Cancel without losing your world. Cancelling a rental now takes a snapshot of your world before the box is released, and keeps it for 30 days. Change your mind and your save is still there. The box itself stops costing you money within hours rather than lingering.
  • Palworld is rentable. It joins the rental catalog with a server config that works on a real box, bringing the list to 30 games.
  • Updating is one screen now. The update window stays a single screen from download through install, with the app icon above the wordmark, instead of handing you between windows.
  • Space Engineers starts on a clean PC. It needs Microsoft's C++ runtime and used to quit without saying so, which looked like a broken install. Vaerune now installs that runtime alongside the server.
  • Barotrauma is rentable. It now installs with a working server config and is listed so friends can find it. A Barotrauma server you run on your own PC stays private unless you say otherwise.
  • Rentals are easier to place and name. The rental picker shows a measured ping for each region, you pick your server's address at checkout, and cancelled servers no longer clutter your list.
  • Sign-up works again, and the agreements read in the app. Creating a profile was being refused on every surface for a short window; that is fixed. The Terms and Privacy Policy now open right inside the app (no browser detour) and you accept them once, on the same screen.