Garry's Mod

Garry's Mod, or GMod for short, is a "sandbox" mod for the first-person shooter computer game Half-Life 2. It allows the player to manipulate objects and experiment with the physics, often with interesting results thanks to the Source engine's physics engine. The construction of complex machines within the game could be said to be a contemporary spin on the Rube Goldberg machine principle.

The current version of Garry's Mod is version 11, which still receives regular updates via Steam. An older, unsupported version, 9.0.4, is available as a free download at download.com among other places. Version 11, now known simply as Garry's Mod, has been available for purchase on Steam since November 29, 2006 for $9.95 (excl. tax.) It requires at least one Source engine game in the user's account to play, and therefore is offered in a reduced-price bundle with Counter-Strike: Source or Team Fortress 2 for those who do not meet that criteria.

Overview
Garry's Mod is a game modification, created by Garry Newman, and a successor to JBMod the original sandbox Half-Life 2 modification. While GMod does not possess any actual gameplay value in a traditional sense, it enables the player to freely manipulate all of the objects and features of the Source engine except for the background features. This has allowed an extensive community to build up and create mods and mini-games within GMod. GMod can be used as a map editing tool that interfaces with Valve Software's proprietary editor Valve Hammer Editor to add furniture and small items through its first person interface, letting users graphically interact with their map. GMod 9 is the last free version of the modification, and was last updated to version 9.0.4 on the 27th of November 2005. Garry's Mod (previously known as GMod 10), the first commercial iteration of the mod, has been released through Valve Software's game management platform Steam, at a cost of $9.99 USD. It was released on 29th November 2006.

Garry's Mod
The newest version of Garry's Mod was released on Steam, Valve's content delivery system, on November 29, 2006. Most players familiar with Garry's Mod previous to its commercial release refer to it as Garry's Mod 10. The game costs $9.95 (excl. tax,) however it requires a Source engine game to run. Garry's Mod is available as a bundle with Counter-Strike: Source for $24.95 USD. Essentially, almost all functionality within Garry's Mod (tools, constraints, shaders, menus, etc.) is powered by Lua and therefore can be customized or created by the player.

New features and changes include:


 * More versatile camera tool.
 * Appearance of thrusters can be altered, right down to the effects.
 * Player models now visible in vehicles.
 * Color-wheel within bloom and color-gun toolmodes.
 * The Physics Gun is able to move any entity. (Except for other players and the map itself)
 * Improved client-server interaction.
 * Reworked motion-blur.
 * Hydraulic tool-gun.
 * Motor tool-gun: allows props to automatically rotate. Controllable with the number-pad.
 * Winch Constraint tool-gun: a constraint that allows control of a length of rope at set speeds with the number-pad.
 * Keep upright tool-gun
 * Hoverball tool-gun: attaches hovering balls to objects and hovers them at set heights. They will allow players to make more complex flying machines as well as aid in steering such objects.
 * A Morphing Effect that allows the player's view to be distorted, in a watermarked position on the screen, this is still beta.
 * A higher-quality Depth of field effect with a more intuitive interface. Can select the focal point by clicking at the point.
 * The new spawn menu has a configurable system of categories and filters from a base list of all of the resources available and will also automatically generate icons for spawnable items, eliminating both the need to produce icons for every object in the world and keep up with new releases, and concerns about not covering third-party creations.
 * From the videos and screenshots, it appears that the connections are now dynamic.

According to The Steam Review, Valve has given Garry Newman, in exchange for 50% of the profits from Garry's Mod, the full Source engine source code to overcome the limitations of the free Source SDK.

GMod 9
Several basic 'gamemodes' are included with the mod, with fairly self-explanatory names like "Build to the Top" and "Melon-racing". Lua Scripting has been implemented into the mod, which allows players to create their own gamemodes and weapons (SWEPs - Scripted WEaPons) by the Garry's Mod community.

Stock tools
Manipulates, rotates and freezes objects in mid-air, everything from ragdolls (used to create comics and ragdoll poses, with interesting results) to props. It is a slight edit of an original unused script in Half-Life 2's code. It uses the skin of the supercharged Gravity Gun and the slightly altered icon of the Tau Cannon. A new gun introduced in Garry's Mod that replaced the crossbow in earlier versions of the mod. The Tool Gun allows the player to use the many tools in the game such as; Rope tool, Weld tool, Balloon tool and the Thruster tool.
 * Physics Gun
 * Tool Gun
 * Face Poser
 * Gives the player the ability to adjust the faces of ragdolls, and was first seen in Version 6a.


 * Paint Gun
 * A tool-gun which gives the player the ability to paint decals such as blood, bird excrement, beer splash, alien blood and other substances onto different surfaces such as walls, objects and ragdolls.


 * Spawn Menu
 * The player can spawn items into the map by using the spawn menu (opened by pressing and holding the Q key). This menu gives the player access to most physical objects, such as rocks or furniture, and character ragdolls, such as enemies and characters.


 * Camera Tool
 * Hides the weapon and HUD, and takes a screenshot when the player clicks the mouse, making screenshots easier to take.


 * Post-processing effects
 * There are a number of post-processing effects that can be utilised in Garry's Mod. Some examples are depth of field - a blur effect that simulates how a camera/eye lens focuses on different distances. Bloom: an effect which causes light to spread; or 'bloom' this effect is an important component of HDR rendering. Not all graphics cards support these features.


 * Rope Tool
 * Allows the player to make a rope between two physics such as; Walls, Ragdolls, NPC's and Props. The player can set how wide the rope should be.


 * Weld Tool
 * Allows the player to weld two objects together or to weld an object to a wall or so. Also it is called the weld tool, all it does is attach one object to another so they move with each other.


 * Pulley tool
 * The pulley tools takes four steps. The first step is selecting the object to be attached to one end of the pulley. The second and third shots are anchors for the constraint, where the rope must go through. (The pulleys) The last step is selecting the other end of the constraint.


 * Axis tool
 * The axis tool creates a point on which an object will rotate.


 * Ball socket tool
 * The Ball Socket tool lives up to its name: It creates ball-and-socket joints on which an object can pivot and rotate in any direction.


 * Balloon Gun
 * Attaches floating balloons to all kinds of objects. The upward force of a balloon can be altered. The balloons themselves used to be watermelons that had been altered to fall upwards, i.e. as if they were filled with helium. As of GMod 9, the watermelons have shiny, flat color textures to appear as balloons, as opposed to previous versions where they were merely watermelons with different colors. in Garry's Mod 10, a proper balloon model will be used instead of re-textured and recolored watermelons.


 * Thruster Tool
 * Attaches thrusters that can be controlled by the number-pad. They are essential in the function of flying contraptions and applications where land vehicles are simply not efficient with wheels.


 * Wheel Gun
 * Attaches rotating wheels to anything. Once applied, the player can control the direction and speed of the wheels. There are many different types of wheels, ranging from actual car tires to saw-blades and barrels.


 * Color Gun
 * Allows players to change the colors of objects using RGB sliders.


 * Material Gun
 * Changes the textures of objects. Can be used in conjunction with the Color Gun.


 * Magnet Tool
 * Converts ordinary objects, regardless of their materials, into magnets which attach to any object or ragdoll. This tool also has a few interesting side effects, such as making breakable props unbreakable, removing all constraints from a prop and unfreezing frozen props when used. The magnetism can be altered via a slider. Note that the magnet does not attract objects.


 * Dynamite Tool
 * Creates infinitely reusable remote explosives that can be set off with a button on the keyboard. These have many uses including cannons and traps.



Gmod 10 Mods
There are countless Lua scripted modifications for Garry's mod. These can be ranging from simple mods with increased life or speed, to incredibly complex gamemodes.

There are basic categories

Roleplay (RP)
Roleplay is a gamemode that tries to simulate Actual Life and its concepts (Jobs,Taxes, etc.). Each player can also own doors and vehicles. Each Player can have his own job which has its own purpose. There are also a selection of pre-made jobs that have special abilities. The types of jobs available on the server depends on the Admin's decisions and the gamemode. These classes include.

The Mayor: The leader of Civil Protection and the Overwatch, unarmed.Elected Official. Can declare martial law

Cops/CP/Civil Protection: Cops enforce the laws of the server with any means that are allowed by the server's rules. Armed usually with a pistol, battering ram, and an arrest/stun stick. This job selection is usually the most abused by servers.

Overwatch: An upgraded cop, armed usually with an assault rifle, battering ram, pistol, and arrest/stun stick.

Gangster: The opposite of the cop, can buy drug labs and other equipment. Unarmed.

Mob Boss: The Leader of the gangsters, can buy drug labs and other equipment, unarmed.

Gun Dealer: Can sell guns to other players, on most servers Gun Dealers are required to have a licence to buy heavier weapons (Machine Guns,Assault Rifles, and Grenades). Unarmed.

Citizen: The base job, usually receives no pay on most servers. Unarmed.

There is also a selection of RP Variants. These include

DarkRP: Base Gamemode.

LightRP: A lest restrictive Version of Dark RP

RPDM/Mississippi Script/ WCARP: Roleplay Deathmatch, available only on the WCA servers. Is more like a "base wars" gamemode and also allows more freedom than other RP gamemodes. The concept is for the players to kill the others and destroy the other bases in "Raids"

Criticism
Roleplay gamemodes have been criticized by members of Garry's Mod Community to be too restrictive on the players and gives the power for players to abuse their job. Such examples as players with the CP or OW job tend to go on a killing spree. This has been countered with the "Demotion Vote" allowing players to demote other players who have such jobs. There has also been criticism to the fact that RP gamemodes to tends to give too much power to the server admin, allowing them to activate "Martial Law" and allow abusive players to keep their jobs.

Zombie Survival (ZS)
Zombie Survival is a popular Multiplayer game played with Garry's Mod the aim is, as a human to fight off a zombie horde with weapons. The player usually start off with a "battle axe" handgun or "peashooter" handgun and a knife. The player upgrades their weapons and health depending on how many Zombies they kill. If the player gets killed, they turn into a Zombie for the remaining time on the map. (Unless the player get 4 kills to become a human again.) of the level. If all humans die, Zombies win. If time runs out, humans win. Counter Strike: Source is needed to play the game.

Melonracer
Melon racing is when the player is water melon racing other water melons.(has been proven to work on gm_construct as well as the standard melon racer map)

GMod 10
Since the release of the commercial version over Steam, support for version 9 has been discontinued. Although version 10 is nearly identical to 9, modifications to the base program gave players the ability to write various "addons" using a slightly modified version of Lua, as well as the fact that GMod no longer required Hammer. Although most of the addons are concentrated on one site, some of the most prominent and frequently updated ones moved on to using Subversion (a.k.a. SVN) for distributing the newest version. These releases use a client program (independent from GMod) to download the newest version from a central repository. Examples include:


 * Wiremod adds a huge amount of tools to create automated contraptions that require no user input for increased functionality over stock tools (which work by numpad). The amount of possibilities is nearly limitless, including auto-tracking turrets, functioning bidepal mechs, etc. It is the only addon that is known to be updated daily.
 * Stargates also appeared in GMod. The pack included (aside from the gates) teleportation methods, hand-held weapons, energy shields and cloaking. The current version is revision 44, although 45 is being made at the moment.
 * The Phoenix-Storms model pack (a.k.a. PHX) was created as a general-purpose alternative to stock objects for construction. Current version number is 3.
 * The SpaceBuild Model Pack (SBMP) took on the example of PHX to create a vast array of props suited for spacecraft construction. Recently the pack received a major overhaul, both in content (large amount of ship-mounted weapons compatible with Wire) and in name (now it is SpaceBuild Enhancement Project). Since it is constantly updated with new content (it is one of the biggest addons, weighting around 300-400 MB), it hasn't been designated with a version number and officially still an alpha version. Like PHX, it also received heavy criticism from experienced builders, but it also has a strong team of supporters.
 * Some players were frustrated that none of the stock tools/weapons were able to destroy contraptions. To this end, GCombat was created as a base platform for damaging props. It is the most widely used damage system.
 * Resource Distribution is a platform for collecting certain resources for various uses. One of its descendants is Life Support which gather resources to allow survival in hostile environments. Although they work well on their own, they are widely used in SpaceBuild, a gamemode with maps that enable players to colonize multiple planets and the space between. Currently, version 2 of these addons is officially discontinued, with version 3 undergoing open beta testing. The newest versions received much criticism, including the major redesign of the RD core (resource nodes must be created manually due to framerate issues with RD2) or the fact that in SB3, gaseous resources are now finite. Also, RD3 lacks backward compatibility and it conflicts with previous versions.
 * Combat Damage System (CDS) is a damage platform designed to work with Life Support. Although it directly competed with GCombat for a while, it fell out of favor due to its complexity and the fact that with CDS installed, SpaceBuild became very hard due to props disintegrating from the coldness of space (remember, it is LS-based).

When Episode Two came out, GMod was updated to the new engine, causing some players to dub the newest version "GMod 11". It is possible that the next version will be based on the Left 4 Dead engine (some people requested it on the forums), but no official statement exists. Also, GMod 10 was the only version so far to be extensively pirated, with no success. All warez editions are extremely outdated, causing addons to no longer function. Some people still ask for help with these versions on the official forums, only to get themselves banned.

Garry's Mod is one of the few Valve-supported mods that doesn't use the Valve Anti-Cheat system (it would conflict with the large amount of Lua coding), although there was a debate in the forums whether it should be enabled or not, with Garry giving an ominous response.

Influence on popular culture
GMod has also become a tool for users to create music videos, comics and other forms of Machinima. For example the web-comic Concerned, which parodied Half-Life 2, was made using GMod.

It is currently the most popular third party modification for Half-Life 2 with online player counts beating popular Half-Life mods such as The Specialists and Sven Co-op. Many different "Mini Mods" have been made by users. An example is "Wooden Wars", where teams make vehicles or buildings out of wood, and then add weapons made up of anything from gas canisters with thrusters on, to shells launched from "home made" cannons. They then destroy the other team's work. It was even featured on the G4 series X-Play during a Half-Life 2 special episode as the best mod for the game.

Community
More so than other games, Garry's Mod has a thriving internet community based around the game. There are multiple forum websites and servers.

Awards
Garry's Mod 9 has won three Mod of the Year awards:
 * 1) GameSpy: PC Mod of the Year 2005 (December 2005)
 * 2) PCGamer US - Best Mod 2005 (January 2006)
 * 3) ModDB: Mod of the Year! (January 2006)

Movie making
Many users on Garry's forums, Facepunch Studios, have used Garry's Mod to create movies. Some examples:


 * The most famous of them all, War of the Servers. It is also one of the longest, being over 100 minutes long.
 * Dr. Strangeman Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Plant The Bomb, a 39-minute two-parter parody/remake of a similarly named satire.
 * The Idiots of Garry's Mod, a well-known collection of parodies and random silliness.
 * Left 4 Farts, a hilarious parody of Left 4 Dead.