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Garry's Mod

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
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Although this product has been released, it remains under active development - information may change frequently and could be outdated or irrelevant.
Garry's Mod
Garry's Mod cover
Developers
Facepunch Studios
Publishers
Valve Corporation
Engines
Source
Release dates
Windows December 24, 2004[Note 1]
Windows November 29, 2006[Note 2]
macOS (OS X) September 23, 2010
Linux June 5, 2013
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person, Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Sandbox, FPS
Art styles Realistic, Cartoon
Themes Contemporary
Garry's Mod on HowLongToBeat
Garry's Mod on IGDB
Garry's Mod on MobyGames
Garry's Mod on Wikipedia

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game needs a fix to work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later (see API for details).

Key points

Extensive modding community, including Steam Workshop integration.
Many online servers require resources from other Valve games.

General information

GitHub Issue Tracker for Garry's Mod
Official wiki
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Steam
Icon overlay.png
The developer's custom DRM added in an update, may cause error messages stating "Unable to shade polygon normals" and dumping the user's Steam ID to the error log.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
All versions require Steam DRM.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use the -novid command line argument[citation needed]

Improve performance

It's recommended to use both fixes listed at the bottom.
Use 64 bit branch and multicore support.[1]
  1. Right click on Garry's Mod in your Steam library and click Properties.
  2. Go to the Beta section and change it from None to x86-64 - Chromium + 64-bit binaries.
  3. Wait for Steam to download the new binaries (~190MB of data).
Use autoexec.cfg commands
  1. Go to the <path-to-game>\garrysmod\cfg and open autoexec.cfg
  2. Paste those lines and save the file:
gmod_mcore_test 1
mat_queue_mode 2
cl_threaded_bone_setup 1
cl_threaded_client_leaf_system 1
r_threaded_client_shadow_manager 1
r_threaded_particles 1
r_threaded_renderables 1
r_queued_ropes 1
r_queued_decals 1
r_rootlod 0
mat_picmip -10
r_lod 0
cl_new_impact_effects 1
cl_burninggibs 1
mp_usehwmmodels 1
mp_usehwmvcds 1
fps_max 0 
This method will not only improve performance, but may also improve the graphics a bit.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\garrysmod\cfg[Note 3]
macOS (OS X)
Linux <path-to-game>/garrysmod/cfg
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\garrysmod\saves[Note 3]
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings
Video settings
Advanced video settings
Advanced video settings

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
HUD size does not scale with resolution.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Borderless windowed support has been added in the February 2019 update.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 8x MSAA and 16xQ CSAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Double buffered [2]
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
300 FPS cap by default. With console, can change fps_max up to 1000; use 0 for uncapped framerate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.

Input

Input settings
Input settings

Audio

Audio settings
Audio settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Over-all game volume and separate music slider.
Surround sound
7.1, 5.1 surround sound, 4 speaker surround.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
"Silence the audio while the game window is in the background" check box.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Bulgarian
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
16 Use Nucleus Co-op.
LAN play
128
Online play
128

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Dedicated Server software is available under Tools in the Steam client.
Direct IP
Open the console (~) and enter connect followed by the IP and port.

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 27014-27050
UDP 3478, 4379-4380, 27000-27030
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

Issues fixed

Black and purple textures and giant red models

See Missing models or textures.
Frequently featured contents come from just a bunch of other Source engine based games (Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two).
You can download the Garry's Mod content specified above as an addon. However, you'll have to find the download site on your own since it contains copyrighted content.

Game crashes at title screen

Use the +connect 1:1 command line argument[citation needed]

Notes

When the game opens, it will take you to a Connecting to Server screen. After a few seconds it should dissappear and take you to the title screen. It will then freeze for a few seconds, then function normally.
Sometimes you may need to press Alt+Tab then go back into the game for this to work.

Hosting a listen server

Start listen server[citation needed]
To host a server while playing, one must be able to forward ports and enter a console command.
  1. Forward the ports 27015 and 27005
  2. Enter sv_lan 0 in the console
  3. Press "Play Multiplayer" and select a map
  4. Others should now be able to join

Notes

In order for your server to show up on the server list, you must change sv_region to a value corresponding to your region.

Could not load library client (Linux)

Additional Libraries[citation needed]
  • Install the appropiate lib32 gconf package (libgconf-2-4:i386 for debian-based systems, libgconf-2.i386 for rpm-based distros, and lib32-gconf on the AUR for arch users).

Game changes microphone gain at launch

Modify configuration file[3]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open config.cfg.
  3. Find the line voice_mixer_volume, it should be near the bottom of the file. If the line doesn't exist you may create it.
  4. Set the value to whatever you prefer your mic volume to be, I set mine to .5 which translates to 50% gain.

Notes

Removing the line does not work.
This will set a fixed value, and might not be a solution for people who are using dynamic gain which Windows (or other applications) automatically adjusts.
Disable exclusive control of microphone (Windows)[4]
  1. Right click on the speaker icon located at the tray bar.
  2. Select Recording devices.
  3. Double click on your microphone in the newly opened window.
  4. Go to Advanced and untick Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device.

Notes

Most applications ignores this, and many users are reporting that it isn't working.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
OpenGL 2.1 OS X and Linux only.
Shader Model support 2, 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
For 64 bit, see Improve performance.
macOS (OS X)
For 64 bit, see Improve performance.
Linux
For 64 bit, see Improve performance.

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok Heavily modified variant.
Audio Miles Sound System
Input SDL
Cutscenes Bink Video
Multiplayer Steamworks

Console commands

Games running on the Source engine can utilize Source Engine Console Commands for various tasks.
Enabling the console in Source games[citation needed]
  1. Launch the game
  2. From the main menu select Options
  3. Select the Keyboard tab
  4. Click the Advanced button
  5. Check the box next to Enable developer console (~)
  6. Click Apply

Notes

Press ~ to open the console.
Some commands may first require you enabling sv_cheats. You can do so with sv_cheats 1.
Many servers will not allow you to play with cheats enabled, or will disable them upon entering the server.
Users without a US keyboard could experience some problems.

Command line arguments

See this Steam Support Article regarding launch options as well as the relevant Valve Developer wiki page for further information and a list of useful Source engine launch options.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Vista, XP
Processor (CPU) 2 GHz (SSE required)
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 5 GB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 9 level Graphics Card
512 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9 compatible
Other Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor
macOS (OS X)
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Snow Leopard 10.6.3
Processor (CPU) 2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 5 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon X1600
Nvidia GeForce 8
Intel HD 3000
512 MB of VRAM
Other Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor
Linux
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 12.04
Processor (CPU) 2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 5 GB
Video card (GPU) 512 MB of VRAM
Other Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor


Notes

  1. Original Half-Life 2 mod release.
  2. Standalone release.
  3. 3.0 3.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References