Garry's Mod

Garry's Mod (GMod)
Garry's Mod logo
Developer(s)	Garry Newman and Team Garry (Facepunch Studios)
Publisher(s)	Valve Corporation
Designer(s)	Garry Newman
Engine	Source (Build 4295, 11 August 2010) based on id Tech 1
Version	1.0.0.129 (17 October 2011[1])
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows[2] Mac OS X[2] Linux[3] (Server Only)
Release date(s)	December, 2004 (original release) November 29, 2006[2] (Steam release)
Genre(s)	Nonlinear, sandbox Physics game
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Media/distribution	Digital download (via Steam)[2]
System requirements PC: OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 Processor: 1.7 GHz Processor 512 MB RAM Graphics: DirectX 8.1 level Graphics Card (Requires support for SSE) Mac: OS X version Leopard 10.5.8 Snow Leopard 10.6.3 1GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8 or higher, or ATI X1600 or higher[2]

Garry's Mod (officially abbreviated to GMod) is a sandbox physics game using the Source engine. Garry's Mod has been available on Steam's content delivery service since November 29, 2006.^[2] Despite being a standalone game, Garry's Mod requires the user to own at least one game on Steam based on the Source engine, such as Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Portal, or Team Fortress 2.^[2] It is also commonly used for the creation and publishing of videos^{[4][not in citation given]} on YouTube, mainly from Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Portal and Left 4 Dead.

Gameplay

Although Garry's Mod is usually considered to be a full game, it has no game objective and players can use the game's set of tools for any purpose. Garry's Mod allows players to manipulate "props" – various objects that players can place in-game. Props can be selected from any installed Source engine game or from a community created collection. The game features two "guns" – Physics Gun and Tool Gun for manipulating objects. The Physics Gun allows objects to be picked up, adjusted and frozen in place. The Tool Gun is a multi-purpose tool for performing various tasks, such as combining props, attaching them via ropes, and creating controllable winches and wheels. The Tool Gun is also used to control add-ons created by the community.

Another popular Garry's Mod concept is ragdoll posing. The player can create a ragdoll model from a Source game and pose it using a variety of tools.^[5] This is a popular tool for making fan-made videos.

Garry's Mod takes advantage of the Source engine's modified version of the Havok Physics Engine,^[6] which allows players to build contraptions that follow the laws of physics.

Multiplayer

Garry's Mod supports multiplayer gameplay on dedicated game servers. Players can build contraptions together and communicate via text or voice.

A popular multiplayer modification for Garry's Mod is "Roleplay" game type, often referred to as "RP".^[7] A player participating in a RP game selects an occupation or position in society (for example, as a member of Combine in a RP game based around Half-Life 2).

User-created content

Garry's Mod features a wide range of mods and addons that can be created using Garry's Mod's implementation of the Lua scripting language, which allows users to create their own weapons, entities, game modes, and other modifications.

There are many examples of features created by Garry's Mod's addons. Game rules and features can also be modified to suit a particular game mode or genre. Players can create their own weapons, ranging from melee weapons, to firearms, to indirect weapons, such as airstrikes. Weapon models and skins can be reused from either existing Source engine games or from the community created list. Players can create "scripted entities" and "scripted tools" that can interact with the player directly in-game or allow manipulating objects from in-game menu respectively. Players can also create scripts for non-player characters in Lua.

Different models, skins, and maps can be added to the game. Multiplayer game servers will automatically attempt to send any custom content to the client when they connect.^[8]

Fretta contest

In winter 2009/2010, a contest was held for Garry's Mod by the game's developers to create the best new game mode using a programming framework called "Fretta".^[9] Fretta, Italian for "hurry", allows developers to quickly and easily create new game modes for Garry's Mod with commonly required functionality already implemented so the developers can focus on unique aspects of their game modes. Fretta was inspired by a similar fan created framework "Rambo's Simple Gamemode". However, for inclusion in Garry's Mod, Newman decided to rewrite it with input and contributions from the original author and other developers.^[10] The winners of the contest range from a recreation of the Mafia party game to an aerial combat game mode.^[11] The contest winners have been included in Garry's Mod with their own Steam Achievements.^[12]

Three of the winning games have been shipped, Trouble in Terrorist Town, Dogfight Arcade, and Prop Hunt .^[13]

Toybox

On September 7, 2010, Newman added a feature called the "Toybox" to Garry's Mod. It utilizes the Amazon S3 service to download third party content, such as weapons, props, maps, or models, directly to the users' machine while in game. In an interview with GMod news, Garry Newman said that "One of GMod's biggest draws is the amount of third party content. I want to make it easier for people to utilize that. I really want to move away from having to download files from websites and drag them to folders, that’s old school. So that’s what I’m heading towards. Maps, models, saved games etc, all saved on the cloud and accessible with a click. Everything should be accessible from in-game. If it isn’t, I’ve failed."

See also

• PHWOnline

References

1. ^ "Garry's Mod Update Released". Steam. Valve Corporation. http://store.steampowered.com/news/6533/. Retrieved 2011-12-11. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "Garry's Mod". Steam. Valve Corporation. http://store.steampowered.com/app/4000/. Retrieved 2010-06-24. 
3. ^ "Linux Setup Instructions". http://wiki.garrysmod.com/?title=Linux_Dedicated_Server_Setup. Retrieved 2010-10-16. 
4. ^ "Garrys Mod". ModDB. http://www.moddb.com/games/garrys-mod-10. Retrieved 2008-06-16. 
5. ^ "Ragdoll Posing - GMod Wiki". http://wiki.garrysmod.com/?title=Ragdoll_Posing. Retrieved 2010-05-05. 
6. ^ "List of Available Games". http://www.havok.com/index.php?page=available-games. Retrieved 2010-05-05. 
7. ^ "Relentless RP". http://relentlessrp.com/. Retrieved 2011-05-02. 
8. ^ "Garry's Mod Lua Wiki - Resource.AddFile". Team Garry. 10-2008. http://wiki.garrysmod.com/?title=Resource.AddFile. Retrieved 2008-10-05. 
9. ^ "Garry’s Mod – Fretta Game mode Contest". http://www.halflife2.net/2009/12/01/garry's-mod-fretta-gamemode-contest/. Retrieved 2010-06-06. 
10. ^ "Fretta Gamemode Base". http://www.garrysmod.com/?dont_buff_my_pylon=1394. Retrieved 2010-06-06. 
11. ^ "Fretta Contest Winners (2)". http://frettacontest.facepunchstudios.com/. Retrieved 2010-06-06. 
12. ^ "Fretta Contest Winners". http://www.garry.tv/?p=1773. Retrieved 2010-06-06. 
13. ^ "Two of the game modes are being shipped.". http://www.garrysmod.com/news/?p=11779. Retrieved 2010-08-03. 

External links

• Official website
• Official discussion board
• Official wiki
• Official content sharing website
• Garry Newman's personal blog