How to add a header image to your Rust server

The requirements

A header image gives players a quick visual impression of what your server is about, which matters in a list that is otherwise a wall of text. Rust is unusually strict about the file.

Publicly accessible

Hosted on a website anyone can reach. The URL must be direct and must not sit behind any form of authentication or login.

Exactly 512 x 256 pixels

This is the size, not a limit. Anything else will display distorted or fail to load.

PNG format

Good quality at a reasonable file size, and the format the game expects.

Hosting the image

The most common reason a header image never appears is the hosting rather than the image. Your server is not a browser: it makes a request and expects an image back.

Many file sharing services, given their normal share link, return a web page with a preview and a download button. That page is what your server receives, and since it is not a PNG, nothing displays.

Test before you configure. Paste your URL into a private browser window. If the raw image fills the window, your server will get the same thing. If you see a page with a download button, it will not.

Adding it to your server

1. Log in to the control panel

   Access the control panel with your credentials.

2. Open Game Services

   Click the Game Services tab. This lists all the game servers on your account.

   

3. Select your Rust service

   Find your Rust server in the list and click it.

   

4. Stop the server

   Click Stop before making changes. Editing config on a running server means your edit is overwritten when it shuts down.

   

5. Open Configuration Files

   Go to the Configuration Files section.

   

6. Edit server.cfg

   Open server.cfg with the text editor. Take a backup first if you have anything in there you would not want to retype.

   

7. Add your header image

   Add this line, with your own URL in place of the example:

   server.headerimage "https://files.eugamehost.com/storage/uploads/eugamehost-rust.png"

   Make sure the URL points directly at the image file and ends in .png.

8. Save and restart

   Click Save and Exit, then start the server. The image appears once it is back up.

   

Designing one that works

512 by 256 is a wide, short banner, and it is usually seen small. A design that looks good at full size can be unreadable where it actually appears.

Keep text large and short

Server name and maybe one line. Anything smaller than that will not survive being scaled down.

High contrast

Dark text on a busy screenshot disappears. Use a solid block behind any text you need people to read.

Say what the server is

Wipe schedule, rates, or the one thing that makes it different. A logo alone tells a player nothing useful.

Leave the edges alone

Do not put anything critical right against the border, in case of cropping.

Check it at small size

Scale your design down to a quarter and look again. That is closer to how it will be seen.

When it does not show

Wrong dimensions

Check the file is exactly 512 x 256. Close is not close enough.

Not a PNG

A JPG renamed to .png is still a JPG. Re-export it properly.

URL returns a page

Test in a private browser window. If you see anything other than the raw image, so will the server.

Host requires a login

Private links and authenticated hosts will refuse your server exactly as they would refuse a stranger.

Server not restarted

The config is read at startup. Until it restarts, nothing changes.

Host went down

An image on an unreliable host disappears from your listing whenever that host has a bad day. Use somewhere dependable.

A header image is one of three things that make up your listing. The others are your description and your tags, and all three are worth getting right before you start advertising.