Serious Historical Gmod server content download questions

Hudson · Mar 10, 2024

I'm trying to write about the history of players downloading content for Garry's Mod, and had a couple of questions that I'm hoping people can answer.

Players would automatically download server files when connecting to a server, so why would a player see errors that could be fixed by downloading a Steam Workshop or SVN content pack?

Did servers ever instruct players to use Toybox, or sites like garrysmod.org and gamebanana to download server content?

MaXenzie · Mar 10, 2024

Hudson said:
Players would automatically download server files when connecting to a server, so why would a player see errors that could be fixed by downloading a Steam Workshop or SVN content pack?

gmod just utterly fumbles at trying to download things through the loading screen, basically

Postal · Mar 10, 2024

Hudson said:
Did servers ever instruct players to use sites like garrysmod.org and gamebanana to download server content?

yes

Matty · Mar 15, 2024

God I remember back when I had to download like 12gbs of content for a garrysmod server through mediafire at <1mb/s
I'd have to start the download at 1am so i could use the uncapped internet since we had a 250gb cap and the amount of shit my dad and sister downloaded in the day would obliterate it.

Northgate · Mar 15, 2024

Matty said:
God I remember back when I had to download like 12gbs of content for a garrysmod server through mediafire at <1mb/s
I'd have to start the download at 1am so i could use the uncapped internet since we had a 250gb cap and the amount of shit my dad and sister downloaded in the day would obliterate it.

i still remember using a fuckton of svn tortoise or whatever it was called, it was crazy

also downloading from that one garrysmod site, garrysmod.org or something? memories man..........

Matty · Mar 15, 2024

Northgate said:
i still remember using a fuckton of svn tortoise or whatever it was called, it was crazy

also downloading from that one garrysmod site, garrysmod.org or something? memories man..........

holy shit svn tortoise
bro fuck that program LOL I swear to god that shit was probably why so many of my harddrives bricked
garrysmod.org was the G O A T tho

Northgate · Mar 15, 2024

Matty said:
holy shit svn tortoise
bro fuck that program LOL I swear to god that shit was probably why so many of my harddrives bricked
garrysmod.org was the G O A T tho

the memories of downloading shitty mods with your slow ass internet connection I even played on an acer laptop back in the day that died every hour or so due to overheating while I was playing early rp servers (i think this was before darkrp)

rob · Mar 15, 2024

Northgate said:
the memories of downloading shitty mods with your slow ass internet connection I even played on an acer laptop back in the day that died every hour or so due to overheating while I was playing early rp servers (i think this was before darkrp)

I played on my Dad's laptop back in Lemonpunch - early Neb

Hudson · Mar 22, 2024

Thanks for the replies.

One more specific question - am I right in saying that the automatic download when connecting to a server would leave those files in your garrysmod folder? As opposed to the files disappearing when you finished the session.

ovxy · Mar 22, 2024

Hudson said:
One more specific question - am I right in saying that the automatic download when connecting to a server would leave those files in your garrysmod folder? As opposed to the files disappearing when you finished the session.

Yes, but in a separate folder iirc

Ond · Mar 22, 2024

Hudson said:
Thanks for the replies.

One more specific question - am I right in saying that the automatic download when connecting to a server would leave those files in your garrysmod folder? As opposed to the files disappearing when you finished the session.

Yes, seperate folder titled downloads iirc

These files were often the source of bloat and slow running games due to the insane size they could reach - you could only clear them out by either uninstalling your game or wiping the files manually

Blackquill · Mar 22, 2024

I also wanna mention this because it's fucking hilarious

Up until a certain point, simply unsubbing from a workshop addon wouldn't actually delete the files from your computer. So you'd have an entire folder full of shit you thought you had gotten rid of. This was remedied later by adding a command. I believe it was something like cleanup_gmas in the console.

It might've gotten integrated as an automatic thing in later updates but I remember when people discovered this, there were so many people going "wow no fucking wonder my gmod was like 200gb"

Chester · Mar 22, 2024

I remember some servers used to ask you to DL a whole fkn content pack of varying sizes (usually 3+ gb) from Mega, or MegaUpload as it used to be, and it would take an eternity to download cos capped speeds. That and Scottish internet.

Think when I joined LP it was mainly Steam Workshop tho. I remember downloading addons thru SVN Tortoise and thinking it was revolutionary

Some servers pre-2012 just made you download all the content from the server auto-downloader when you connect.

Edit: and having to download map files separately because auto-downloading them from servers had a 10% chance of working

Northgate · Mar 22, 2024

Chester said:
I remember some servers used to ask you to DL a whole fkn content pack of varying sizes (usually 3+ gb) from Mega, or MegaUpload as it used to be, and it would take an eternity to download cos capped speeds. That and Scottish internet.

Think when I joined LP it was mainly Steam Workshop tho. I remember downloading addons thru SVN Tortoise and thinking it was revolutionary

Some servers pre-2012 just made you download all the content from the server auto-downloader when you connect.

Edit: and having to download map files separately because auto-downloading them from servers had a 10% chance of working

Reminds me when I wanted to play Gmod Tower, didn't they have a seperate client entirely just to download it?

Chester · Mar 23, 2024

Northgate said:
Reminds me when I wanted to play Gmod Tower, didn't they have a seperate client entirely just to download it?

LOL yeah you had to download Gmod Tower through SVN Tortoise or any other similar SVN client

God that unlocked a core memory

'77 East · Mar 25, 2024

Hudson said:
Did servers ever instruct players to use Toybox

frankly I don't remember that ever happening, most content came from SVN or an auto-downloader back in the day (from what I recall)

sometimes it was better to just have map-only enabled and to run around with css/episodic content only so you could shoot gigantic floating errors since a few servers decided to give their epic donator/admin groups custom models and stick everyone else with basic hl2 citizens

Serious Historical Gmod server content download questions

Hudson

Electron

MaXenzie

Sexually attracted to robots

Postal

Molecule

Matty

Proton

Northgate

:D

Matty

Proton

Northgate

:D

rob

‎

Hudson

Electron

ovxy

infamous instigator

Ond

Rictal-Approved

Blackquill

Administrator

Chester

custom title

Northgate

:D

Chester

custom title

'77 East

`impulse-approved