Hey, we're planning to push the next Garry's Mod update next week on 2017-07-10. There's quite a lot of changes, so if you're running a server you'll probably want to at least try it out.
The update may not look like much, but I'm hoping that these internal changes are going to help us bring some more interesting updates in the future.
Pre-release Steam Branch
The Pre-Release Steam branch for Garry's Mod has been updated and contains all the changes that will be included in the next update. It is backwards compatible with the current version of the game, so if you are using it you'll still be able to connect to servers that haven't updated.
There will be instructions at the bottom of this post on how to join the Pre-Release branch.
Changelog
Windows builds of the game now use the Visual Studio 2017 C++ Runtime. This should hopefully not affect anybody, but could perhaps break some third-party binary modules.
Linux builds of the game now depend on GLIBCXX 3.4.19. You may run in to some issues if your server's C++ runtime is a decade out of date. Steam should handle this for you if you're just playing the game.
Game Changes
NEW - Preset support for Utilities menus
NEW - 'Quick Preset' button - allows for easier access to the preset system
UPDATED - Weapons no longer turn upside-down when zooming in too far
UPDATED - Improved support for CS:GO/Portal 2/TF2 maps
UPDATED - Game returns to DirectX 9 mode if '-dxlevel' is not specified in the command-line
UPDATED - Improved relationships between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 NPCs
UPDATED - Demos, saves, and duplications menus can now list items that the user is subscribed to
UPDATED - Addons menu can now manage multiple addons at once (e.g. bulk unsubscribing)
UPDATED - Improved behaviour of collisions between players and 'no collided' entities created by tools
FIXED - Odessa no longer has female voices
FIXED - Fixed errors caused by the spawn menu's search feature not having access to certain directories
FIXED - Fixed many crashes related to NPCs trying to use non-existent entities
FIXED - Checkboxes and ratio buttons in HTML panels are now displayed properly on Linux/macOS
FIXED - Half-Life Icthyosaur can now cause damage
FIXED - Half-Life Tentacle NPC no longer continues playing sounds after being removed
Lua API Changes
NEW - Entity:PhysicsInitStatic( ... )
NEW - Entity:RemoveCallback( ... )
NEW - Entity:GetCallbacks( ... )
NEW - CLuaEmitter::IsValid( ... )
UPDATED - Entity:PhysicsInit* methods now return either true or false based on success
UPDATED - Entity:Remove() can no longer remove the world
UPDATED - Weapon:IsScripted() will now return false instead of no value when ran on non-scripted weapons
UPDATED - Player:Give( ... ) no longer fills a player's gun with ammo when asked to not give ammo to players
UPDATED - Entity:GetBoneCount() and Entity:GetBoneParent( ... ) will now return -1 on failure
UPDATED - Entity:TranslateBoneToPhysBone( ... ) will now return -1 on failure
UPDATED - Entity:SetSaveValue( ... ) now returns false on failure
UPDATED - Entity:DispatchTraceAttack( ... ) will now trigger an error when passed invalid parameters
UPDATED - Entity:HasBoneManipulations() and Entity:HasFlexManipulatior() return false on failure
UPDATED - Entity:GetBrushPlaneCount() will now return false on failure
UPDATED - Entity:GetFlexScale( ... ) now always returns 1 on failure, rather than just sometimes
FIXED - Entity:GetBrushPlaneCount() and Entity:GetBrushPlane( ... ) now work on brush entities
FIXED - PathFollower:Compute() no longer leaks Lua references
Hammer Changes
UPDATED - Improved performance of 2D/3D views
UPDATED - 2D views are now rendered during scroll operations, rather than after
UPDATED - Increased max render distance from 10,000 to 32,000
UPDATED - Vertices no longer need to be in the exact same location to be merged
FIXED - Blended textures are now rendered correctly - it should be identical to in-game
FIXED - Model browser no longer freezes after being opened multiple times
FIXED - Overlays no longer flicker when rendered in 3D shaded mode
FIXED - Scrollbars on 2D views are now correctly sized when zoomed in
Other Stuff
NEW - The '-notty' startup parameter on Linux servers will send console output directly to stdout
UPDATED - Added more information to crash dumps (.mdmp files)
UPDATED - r_eyes_* console variables are no longer saved
UPDATED - Explosion effect no longer creates sounds - this doesn't mean that explosions are silent
UPDATED - Bots can no longer be created before the InitPostEntity hook has ran
UPDATED - Improved how serverside ragdolls are handled on the client - hull traces can hit them now
FIXED - Fixed crash that occurs when console variables created by Lua are removed too early on level change
FIXED - Fixed late loading of memory allocator on Linux causing the game to crash for some people
FIXED - Impulse 200 command no longer crashes when the player has no active weapon
FIXED - Fixed prediction errors when firing weapon_357
FIXED - weapon_357 now has the 'revolver' holdtype
How to Switch Between Branches
Exit the game
Right click on Garry's Mod in Steam and select Properties
Go to the Betas tab and select your desired branch
None - This is the normal version of the game
Pre-Release - This is the next update
Dev - This is a bleeding edge version of the game, expect it to contain more bugs than usual
If you want to set up an SRCDS instance using the Pre-Release branch, see this article: https://wiki.garrysmod.com/page/Hosting_A_Dedicated_Server.
May 2017 - Security Hotfix
An update has been released which fixes an issue that allows malicious clients to cause game-servers to crash. If you don't want this to happen to your server, you should update it.
All dedicated servers should be updated through either your Game Server Provider's control panel or SteamCMD.
Edit:
If it says 'content file is locked', contact Steam Support for help.
http://support.steampowered.com/
Your free antivirus is most likely deleting the game or update files causing it all to die. Add Steam to your AV exclusions, restart Steam, and try updating again.
April 2017 Update Hotfix
A new client update has been released!
The entire change log is as follows:
Fixed a crash related to certain models and model detail setting
Fixed another crash related to decals
Fixed a very common crash to do with .png material unloading
Fixed a very old and common crash during loading screen when loading a map from an addon
Set r_radiosity back to 3 by default because 4 breaks community maps too much
Stopped reserved_spot from ever being created as it breaks ladders
This should improve client stability after previous update.
The update will be automatically downloaded when you restart your game.
Servers only need an update if they want the ladder fix.
April 2017 Update
A new update has been released!
The most notable changes here are bug fixes and performance improvements related to shadows.
Third-Party binary modules (or cheats) that use the internal ILuaInterface interface may no longer function after this update. Any binary modules using the official ILuaBase interface should not be affected.
The update will be automatically downloaded when you restart your game.
Servers do not need to be updated before you can play on them, but it is highly recommended to update your servers to receive the latest features and bug fixes.
Thanks to everybody who helped with testing the update and reported bugs/problems.
Currently, the update is planned for the 17th of April.
Pre-release Steam branch
The Pre-release Steam Beta branch for Garry's Mod has been updated and contains all the changes that will be included into the next update.
You can see the full change list for the next update as well as how to join or leave the Pre-release branch here:
http://wiki.garrysmod.com/changelist/prerelease/
The update is currently compatible with all servers, so you can help us test it, enjoy its many benefits like crash fixes and performance improvements at the same time!
Help us test it!
We ask you, players and modders alike, to help us test this update so that there will be as few problems as possible on release.
We urge you to spend as much time as convenient for you in single player, testing your addons and whatnot or playing on multiplayers servers, and report any issues you find that did not happen before here:
https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/
Or at least in the comments of this announcement.
If you own a Garry's Mod server, we highly recommend you test your server on the Pre-release branch. Information about using experimental branches on dedicated servers can be found here:
http://wiki.garrysmod.com/page/Hosting_A_Dedicated_Server
February 2017 - Security Hotfix
An update has been released which fixes an issue that allows malicious clients to cause game-servers to crash. If you don't want this to happen to your server, you should update it.
All dedicated servers should be updated through either your Game Server Provider's control panel or SteamCMD.
The December 2016 Update is Live
Hey everyone, the update is going live right now. This time around we’ve mostly got bug fixes, but also some changes to the server browser.
The update will be automatically downloaded through Steam when you restart your game.
All servers will need to be updated before you can play on them.
It can take up to 15 minutes for the update to actually get picked up by Steam, so if your game hasn't updated yet, give it a while.
Please do not panic if when you join a server you get "Server is running an older version of the game" - this just means that the server has not yet been updated.
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The December Garry's Mod update is coming very soon
Hello everyone!
The next update for Garry's Mod is coming soon.
Currently, the update is planned for the 19th of December at 13:00 GMT.
Pre-release Steam branch
The Pre-release Steam Beta branch for Garry's Mod has been updated and contains all the changes that will be included into the next update.
You can see the full change list for the next update as well as how to join or leave the Pre-release branch here:
http://wiki.garrysmod.com/changelist/prerelease/
This update will be mandatory. (i.e. Servers will have to update)
Help us test it!
We ask you, players and modders alike, to help us test this update so that there will be as few problems as possible on release.
We urge you to spend as much time as convenient for you in single player, testing your addons and whatnot, and report any issues you find that did not happen before here:
https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/
Or at least in the comments of this announcement.
If you own a Garry's Mod server, we highly recommend you test your server on the Pre-release branch. Information about using experimental branches on dedicated servers can be found here:
http://wiki.garrysmod.com/page/Hosting_A_Dedicated_Server
October 2016 Update #2
A new update has been released!
This update is optional. However, I'd recommend that you update any servers you are running.
Clients will automatically update via Steam when the game is restarted.
The update just fixes a few bugs and isn't all that exciting. You can view the changelog @ http://www.garrysmod.com/2016/10/28/october-2016-update-2/
