calendar_today 8/1/2024 people garry chat_bubble 61 visibility 44k

July Update

Give Me That

We're open now. Anyone can go to the give-me-that page and add s&box to their steam account.

I posted the link to the give-me-that page last week, just on discord. I didn't think anyone would take that much notice. I thought people would share it with their friends that wanted to join their development teams.

What happened is that gmod 2 is ready got posted everywhere, 50,000 people used the link, tried to play gmod 2 and got angry as fuck.

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Disaster

garry

The game side of things was not ready for this kind of scrutiny. Our lobby system had a bug where a lobby could get in a toxic state, where the game wouldn't load, leading to a black screen. This happened when the lobby host got swapped to a joining client, without any game info. Unfortunately I had written it so people auto joined the most populated lobby for a game - which ended up always being this toxic one with a bunch of people sitting at a black screen getting pissed off.

When people got in a game they realised that most of them were spewing errors. When they joined a map they had no toolgun, or spawn menu.

Fair to say we didn't leave them with a good impression.

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Bright Side

garry

Finding and fixing these bugs had to happen eventually. And this enabled us to do that. It would have been great if we could have done it without leaving a sour taste in the mouths of so many people, but also without this amount of players this wouldn't have been possible.

And this wasn't the only bug. The burst of usage helped us fix a bunch of other bugs too. And the backend didn't get overwhelmed, everything scaled up really well.

And the thing that we've been working on, the thing that has been our priority - the engine - has been praised a lot for how easy and straight forward it is to use.

The worst part of any criticism is when you know it's true. And while a lot of the criticism was true, there were a lot of misunderstandings there, that I hope I can clear up in this post.

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Explaining S&box

garry

For me, s&box is about minimizing regret. Unity has been good to us, but I regret that we didn't always have our own engine being developed in the background. I regret that the Garry's Mod community mostly have to leave Garry's Mod if they want to make money from the things they create in it.

So in my mind, s&box is broken into 3 sections.

The Engine

The engine is the core of it. If nothing else works - we have the engine. I would like Facepunch to have an engine that we can use to create our own games. One that isn't Unity. One that we fully control.

It would be great if our work goes into improving our engine. I don't want to pay Unity $500k every year so I can then pay my own staff to optimize and fix their engine.

The long term goal is to be making all of our games on s&box, and to have expanded so the engine works on mobile/console/etc.

The Platform

A Garry's Mod type platform, where there's a list of games and you can jump between them. But this time providing a way for the game developers to monetise.

Monetisation needs to be handled carefully. Everything you download on ios/android app store turns out to require a subscription. Every roblox game is pay to win. We need to do better than that. Let people make money, but don't let it get predatory.

For this to work we need games that get people sticking around. We're making games that will try to do that, and we'll be making an official sandbox mode too. We're also trying to encourage game creation by doing Game Jams.

Standalone

In Garry's Mod, if you made a popular game, the next step was to abandon the community and make a new version in Unity or Unreal. That fucking sucks.

We want to let you use the s&box engine to create games, export them, give them away for free or put them on Steam.

We don't want the burden of collecting royalties or license fees. The platform and our own games should make us money. That should be our incentive. We shouldn't be taxing your hard work, because having you use our engine is of benefit to us. I would also like to offer some assurance, legally, that we can't change the rules further down the line, when we get jealous about how much money everyone is making.

We obviously need officially Valve to say yes to this, but Valve are cool, they get it, I don't think they're gonna say no. They just need to know what they're saying yes to - so our aim is to put a demo together and see what we can do.

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Game Jam 2

garry

The main criticism with the last game jam was that it was closed access. That was a valid criticism, but it was also on purpose. We wanted to code and test the contest system in a controlled manner.

This time it's obviously open to everyone. The prize money pool is now £40,000 - which is double the previous jam.

I understand the concern that old games can be re-entered. Obviously the fact they've worked on a game for 6 months vs your 30 days is going to be in our minds when reviewing them.. so don't worry about that.

And ultimately - don't worry, this isn't the last game jam. Treat this as a warm up if you want to.

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Dedicated Server

garry

The dedicated server work has begun, you will find a sbox-server.exe in the game folder now. This is a work in progress, and isn't fully functional right now. I feel like there's a few reasons people want a dedicated server right now, and I want to talk about them.

Monetisation

They maybe think that the only way to monetise their game is via a VIP system on a dedicated server. That's fine, but I view this as an old fashioned notion. We will provide other, better ways to monetise in the future.

Serverside Code

So maybe you're writing a gamemode and want to write into a database or something on your server, so the game is long lasting. You don't want people to get the database credentials. Yep. That's fine. I don't think we have a way for you to write serverside code right now though.

I suspect though, that if you're running code on your server, it doesn't need to be sandboxed and whitelisted anymore. I suspect that by doing that you can do whatever you want - like read a config file, or environment variables, or load other assemblies. So I don't see this being a big problem, it's just a goal we need to reach.

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Benchmark System

garry

I worry about performance regressions a lot. We should always be getting more performant, not less.

So we made a benchmark system. It runs a bunch of tests on every version we build, and submits it to our backend. That way we can track the performance of each version, and see how it changed over time.

If performance has gotten worse, it's easy to go back and find the version that fucked it, and revert.

If we're trying to make performance better, it's now provable whether that is working. You would be surprised how many optimization assumptions you make that change absolutely nothing.

We also get startup and shutdown times. Here you can see a simple cache in a low level system took startup time of our cubes scene from 9 seconds to 2 seconds.

We get a bunch of lower level information. The garbage collector in modern c# isn't a load of shit like whatever Unity uses, but this shows us how many heap allocations of each object type were made in each test, too.

You can run the benchmark by running benchmark.exe in your game folder. It's our intention that eventually all of your results will be listed on this site, which will let you track whether we've made things better or worse, or how different hardware configs change things.

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Citizen Removal

garry

We hear you loud and clear. You hate the citizen player model. You hate their sausage head. You hate their round eyes. You hate their fat hands.

We will be removing the citizen and replacing them with a generic humanoid character.

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Reverse-Z

matt

We've implemented the Reverse-Z Depth Buffer technique, which is now standard in every game engine.

This brings a massive improvement to depth buffer precision, drastically reducing z-fighting and allowing depth-based screen-space effects like SSR (Screen Space Reflections), SSAO (Screen Space Ambient Occlusion) to be much more accurate.

This is essential as we push for the creation of larger open worlds in the engine.

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Standalone Exporter

alex

We mentioned above our plans for s&box - including the ability to export your game as its own executable.

We've been working hard on this. We have it at a point where you can export a game as its own executable, with its own steam app ID, with functional multiplayer, and without a s&box requirement on the user's end.

Standalone games support everything you'd expect, including VR, local storage, and can have their whitelists disabled.
The trade-off here is that standalone games have no access to the platform - which means you can't use our backend to load assets at runtime, or post scores to the backend leaderboard, etc.

This is a super basic feature set and we'll obviously expand on this as time goes on.

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Terrain

matt

We've been progressing and iterating on Terrain, improving on the stability and user experience.. Our ultimate goal is to create something to allow large open worlds easily and procedurally.

We've recently added:

• Box3D physics (faster, more stable)
• Terrain Material physics (sand or grass would have different footsteps, bounciness, etc.)
• Importing heightmaps and splatmaps
• PBR materials with auto packing
• Cloud Terrain Materials
• Custom shader API and a material override
• Documentation!

Height blending materials creates much more realistic blends between materials.

Holes for caves.

The most obvious thing that's missing right now is foliage, grass & trees. We're working on that now.

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Indirect Lighting

Sam Pavlovic

One of the most crucial aspects of creating an immersive scene is lighting, until now our Scene system had really flat lighting and some things would not show up as you were editing.

Lighting in the editor should now be much improved. Cubemaps and indirect lighting are generated in the Scene viewport as you work, so what you see is what you get.

You shouldn't have to compile your map to see good lighting; you should be able to drop into a scene and see something nice right away.

The goal should be to make the editing experience as seamless and interactive as possible, yet not heavy on your system's resources.

You can choose to have this calculated when the probe is dirty or even as a fully dynamic lighting solution, there's a test scene that showcases dynamic indirect lighting.

This whole indirect lighting stuff applies for Volumetric Fog as well:

Future

This solution currently works fine but doesn't have the granularity for fine details that VRAD3 or a full global illumination solution would give, that'd be the next iteration.

A lot of people have concerns for performance or that quality would not be as good as a baked lighting solution, being interactive doesn't mean we can't choose to precompute lighting, just that it shouldn't be a blocking step, and that the artist has full control if they want it dynamic.

I'd avoid traditional UV lightmaps in favor of a solution that's unified between objects, geometry and volumetrics and doesn't need artist input. There's been some good research done on DDGI and sparse voxel textures that strike a fine balance between performance, memory usage, and fidelity, which I'm exploring next.

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Editor Keybinds

Carson

You can now remap all of the Shortcuts in the Editor through the Preferences menu.

You can also create shortcuts for your own editor tools/libraries. Below is an example of how that is done. Adding or removing a shortcut attribute will register/unregister it appropriately when hotloading.

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Physics Updates

Layla

Source 2 uses an internal physics engine called Rubikon. S&box now uses Box3D.

This is still pretty much Rubikon, made by the same people but a version that we can get constant updates to. This has already proved valuable for getting quick bug fixes.

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VR - OpenXR

alex

Our VR system now uses OpenXR for its backend, rather than SteamVR.
The main benefits to this are that we get loads of control over everything, we can expand our feature set much further, and we're able to support a much wider range of devices.

There are no major changes to functionality on the user side right now - if VR worked for you before, it'll still work the same now.

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Model Animation Preview

Layla

Model animation parameters can be previewed directly in the asset inspector. This is useful for seeing how a model is animated when you download one from asset party.

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Particle Improvements

garry

I've been working with the community to improve our particle systems. A bunch of features have been added, like trail renderers, start delays, model renderer, light renderer, spin forces and pull forces.

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Sprite Tools

Carson

We have been working on a 2D Sprite Library that allows you to create 2D Sprite Resources that hold individual animations each with their own Origin, Frame Rate, Broadcast Events, and Attachment Points.

I've also made a video that shows how to get started with these tools so you can make some 2D games of your own. Here's an example of a project using these tools:

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Tileset Editor

Carson

Within the 2D Sprite Tools, I've been working on an editor that allows you to divide a sheet into a grid of tiles, and then quickly delete/move/resize them to fit your needs.

Once you have a 2D Tileset Resource you will then be able to select the Tileset Tool to create individual Layers (each with their own tileset if you wish) and Paint to them.

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Nicked (HC1)

devultj

We developed a first-person shooter we initially developed in a week for a challenge. We have continued to develop and polish the game into a solid FPS framework.

A sub-goal was to push the human characters, which we'll be improving on in the months to come.

The source code is available on GitHub.

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Battlebugs

Carson

A brand new 1v1 turn-based strategy game where your goal is to destroy all enemy bugs by slowly revealing their positions on the board. The game is inspired by Battleship, but instead of attacking a specific cell by calling it out, players must launch physics based projectiles using different consumable attacks.

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Pixels

ex.conna

A chaotic pixel painting game where everyone can place one pixel every few seconds on a massive shared canvas.

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Sausage Survivors

ryleigh

A top-down 2D roguelite inspired by Vampire Survivors. Originally made in the Entity system, the game has now been re-created using the 2D Sprite Tools.

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Bomb Royale

ex.conna

A top-down bomb survival game where you must blow up your enemies and be the last man standing!

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Summary

garry

Lots of big, bold moves this month. Lots of plates spinning. It feels like sink or swim time for the platform. We either have to make it work, or give up on it. We're going to give it our best shot, but at the end of the day, if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work.

I am expecting August to be a quieter month. We have a hackweek, then I'm on holiday for a week (so the team have a Holiday Challenge), then we have the gamejam ending.

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Comments

Miliviu

Aug, 8 2022

Seeing Terry die is sad, we'll see what the future bring us!

Pukes

Mar, 3 2022

RIP Terry

Asphaltian

Aug, 8 2022

530

they removed terry, it's over

Arcev

Oct, 10 2022

My terry balance is running low. Soon no more...

Paths

Aug, 8 2023

why did you let them bully you into this? your artstyle was unique and innovative and now your just going generic gmod 2, im really dissapointed man

Grafis

Jul, 7 2022

160

Well this is quite sad.
Terry was one of the things making S&box .. S&box.
Without it . I think this is just another sandbox user generated content platform..
Like 'Core' . Or something like that.

I mean its your game, you can decide what you do, but there is a better option.
Just making realistic and normal models for players and games can easily change them if they wanted.

Domkri λ

Sep, 9 2021

345

It's so good to hear someone takes care of community work and want to give us best tools possible!

brouwrt

Oct, 10 2023

130

R.I.P Terry....

Titanovsky

Sep, 9 2021

Everything is good except the Terry situation.

I'm glad you've listened and are walking your line, giving people really interesting opportunities.

The thoughts on monetization and server-side code are very interesting.

Novostranger

Jul, 7 2022

390

Rip to a goat

some ...

Oct, 10 2021

If I can't customize the face look on a human model like in fallout4 then deleting terry its crap

Luca

Aug, 8 2021

Genuinely very happy about the switch to human models, the dedicated server stuff, the terrain tools and, well, basically everything else in this update.

Very relieved about the direction in which everything is going.

Jul, 7 2021

420

You lost me when you killed Terry. Do better, Newman.

popcar2

Nov, 11 2022

Really exciting stuff this update! Finally being able to try S&box myself has also been a neat experience. I warmed up to the sausage models but I think trashing them is the right move, they're creative but they would never appeal to a mass market. For a lot of people, the player looking goofy is reason enough not to play. Also, the model makes a lot of shooter games awkward since the head is massive. Having a sniper or deagle in TTT meant you can basically one-shot everyone easily.

impostor

Sep, 9 2021

i'd be so unbelievably happy if the part about terry dying wasn't a joke

The MAZZTer

Jul, 7 2024

I use Unity at work on projects and with all the uncertainty about Unity's future I've definitely been keeping an eye on s&box. Hearing there are plans for exporting standalone projects is perfect timing! This potentially opens the door for us to use s&box if we feel the need to shift from Unity so I definitely will be keeping an eye on what you guys are doing.

Lots of great stuff already including usage of modern .NET runtime (Unity won't have that for a year or two IIRC) and conforming more closely with modern .NET standards (example: using properties instead of public fields).

Krokonut

Aug, 8 2022

terry is kil

Kinsou76

Sep, 9 2022

Terry is Great, screw the hater

FreshDoktor

Nov, 11 2022

Why remove Terry 🥺 Nobody is forced to use the model and i think the majority love him :( #freeterry

Timendo

Jul, 7 2024

Just chiming in that, I loved Terry. Haters gonna hate, it was unique. Maybe have the option for either? It was funny :)

smt

Jul, 7 2022

any chance in keeping terry but just also having a more normal humanoid? he's pretty unique, even if he's a bit of a freak

JSG

Jul, 7 2022

I actually liked Terry but Im well aware that Im in a minority...I guess people dont like how similar to a minion his head is but I dont think thats much of an issue.

Rising Revolt

Jul, 7 2024

don't cave into the little kids aren't going to give a single shit about this game. I get the terry model looks ugly but genuinely quite stylized and I feel like fits this game. The people bashing right now legit dumb ass kids who watched there fav tuber call this garry's mod 2.

Luigi

Nov, 11 2023

Can terry be at least an option in the update that's supposed to remove him?

Xx.P3t3rGr1ff1n.xX

Aug, 8 2022

It's so s&over

BandanaSlate

Aug, 8 2022

I think the time from when Terry was added to the moment he was removed should be called the Terry Era

Siasur_

Sep, 9 2021

I'm sad that Terry is about to be removed from S&box. I think most of the people who don't like him, are the people that still haven't got into their head that S&box is not GMod but on Source2 but it's own project.

SharpMars

Jul, 7 2021

110

fly high sweet prince 😭🫡

twistedillusion #fixtf2

Feb, 2 2023

what, people liked terry? i hated him, he looked like a cartoon character with realistic features slapped onto it

Coping Kobold

Jul, 7 2022

I liked that Terry had a unique style, but I also did not like the style that had been created. He's like an Aardman character without any of the charm. I hated how his sausage fingers didn't match the first-person model.

What I think you should be doing is allowing custom playermodels. And not just as part of a game. Players want to be able to choose a playermodel from the S&Box cloud and use that in any game, as long as that game allows custom playermodels.

Biozeminade

Jul, 7 2021

Wow so the reused content from Tub is now actually cut content! I really enjoyed playing around with him and customizing him, he helped make the game have an identity in a sense.
Rest in power, Terry you will legit forever be missed.

Thank you 5-year-olds who want this game to be nothing but Garry's Mod 2, Terry had twice the class than all of you ever will, combined.

Cain

Aug, 8 2021

Glad to see the sausage model is leaving, as for server side code people want to actively protect there code base prob not what you want to hear it doesn't really matter if your copyright protected if they live in Russia or something they don't give a fuck. Even in gmod were the problem server are blacklisted they just directip connected so nothing really changed. I do agree p2w is dogshit system that plagues servers we've seen in minecraft and roblox. Minecraft made rules but at the end of the day people will monetize how they want it should be up to the players to boycott these things if you truly want an engine people want to use, you don't want to impose rules no other engine does, even tho you win in the court of public opinion you lose developer willingness.

Kon

Jun, 6 2024

I signed in just to say that thank god that hideous sausage man is finally gone. Genuinely cannot understand how anyone liked it in the first place - I think it's more that everyone just got used to it as the years went by. The fact that it was the face of s&box for so long is, frankly, an embarrassment. With the switch to realistic player models, people will finally be able to take this project seriously.

24R3

Mar, 3 2023

that terry guy must have been a really nice guy, you all miss him so much

EL JOSHO

Jul, 7 2022

PLEASE HAVE TERRY AS AN ALTERNATIVE OPTION HE IS GREAT

Gaungy

Jul, 7 2024

Good move, Terry being moved away from the game is what I would consider to be the right call. Most people here seem to be stuck in a bubble on agreeing with Terry. The last thing as a player I want to be is terrified of the character that every single person is using. More model freedom in terms of basic human features would benefit a long way and I think there is a really bright future ahead.

Strawberry

Aug, 8 2024

pweez don't kill tewwy uwu

Spiral Unstable

Jul, 7 2024

I like Terry.
But more options probably wouldn't hurt.

local_ERA

May, 5 2023

UNBAN ME FROM THE DISCORD SERVER GARRY, PLEASE!!!
i am so sorry and want to appeal man

IRU

Aug, 8 2024

It's so happy to change player modeling

Delco Goblin

Jul, 7 2022

Has anyone else noticed that Terry haters are incapable of writing a coherent sentence?

Wilson

Dec, 12 2022

I liked the art style of Terry but just didn't like that he had no neck. It meant the hitboxes for FPS games were always going to be different from the default humanoid.

For the game I was working on I wanted dedicated servers for fairness. It's easy to cheat in games that have client side hit reg.

simo250

Apr, 4 2023

Plz don't kill off Terry he has so much character. Humanoid characters are good for a main character but Terry was the face of sandbox for so long. Keep him in the game as a back up choice plz Garry :(

Archer Rat

Jul, 7 2022

As of right now, Terry is still a valuable development resource and I believe that he should never be fully removed from the engine, just strongly de-emphasized instead and not shown on the main menu.

impostor

Sep, 9 2021

Terry is.... LOST MEDIA??

Meowcino

Feb, 2 2023

I'm looking forward to seeing the Standalone export feature develop, I think it's a very interesting direction. :)

GogoLeDozo

Oct, 10 2022

It's over guys

Virginia (THE STATE)

Sep, 9 2022

The Reflection Upon a Grave

Hath thou not a mind to take beauty?
Hath thine eyes ceased to be, that they might never know the image of God?
Hark not the words of a dying kind: they who defy sanctity
Rejoice at the death of Terry
Not a soul hither or whither dither. . .
Besets, by Terry, their rose to wither

nmhrr

Sep, 9 2023

Dude

Terry’s legacy on the game s&box is marked by his innovative contributions and his dedication to the community. As a pioneering figure in the game’s early days, Terry made a lasting impact through several key areas:

Modding Innovations: Terry was renowned for pushing the boundaries of what was possible within s&box. His custom mods introduced new gameplay mechanics, features, and assets that expanded the game’s versatility. His work inspired a new wave of modders to experiment and build upon his ideas, setting a high standard for creativity and technical skill.

Community Engagement: Terry was a central figure in the s&box community, known for his willingness to help others and share his knowledge. He regularly participated in forums, tutorials, and livestreams, providing valuable guidance and support to both newcomers and seasoned modders. His approachability and willingness to mentor others helped foster a collaborative and supportive environment within the community.

Content Creation: Beyond mods, Terry’s contributions included creating engaging content such as maps, models, and scripts that became integral parts of the s&box experience. His work was often featured in official showcases and became popular among players, enriching the game with unique and memorable experiences.

Feedback and Improvement: Terry was also instrumental in providing feedback to the developers of s&box. His insights into gameplay balance, performance, and user experience helped shape the direction of updates and improvements, ensuring that the game evolved in a way that met the needs and desires of its player base.

Terry’s legacy in s&box is remembered fondly as a blend of innovation, community spirit, and dedication. His influence is evident in the ongoing success and vibrancy of the game, as his contributions continue to inspire and enhance the experiences of players and creators alike.

Werewolf Jorts

Feb, 2 2023

terry, taken too soon. godspeed, you ugly sausage son of a bitch
it is ultimately facepunch's choice but just think of the BRAND RECOGNITION dude. think about the MARKETABLE PLUSHIES you could sell. we're talking terry branded male enhancement supplements here

Eye Of Cthulhu

Jul, 7 2023

never forget

Uncle Terry

May, 5 2023

terry is gone and i am eternally grateful

Falcon

Aug, 8 2022

S&Box seems to be in a critical state, but I have no doubt that Garry will be able to steer the ship to shore, creating a great game engine. He is very community friendly, which is a benefit to all of us.

CallMeTerryv2

Oct, 10 2023

really loving the preview animation and new physics look amazing!!

namelessrando

Jun, 6 2024

Imo the time where removing Terry makes sense has kinda passed by this point- he's become a pseudo-mascot of the game. But he's also kind of an off-putting design. I would propose a compromise: keep Terry in the game, but make the generic humanoid the default character.

Daley

Aug, 8 2021

Glad Terry is gone. I feel like it was something that was going to hold the game back. Having a baseline model, that can be used in serious as well as silly games, is a good choice.

whuss

Feb, 2 2024

Standalone export is a great idea. Currently the size of the empty standalone game is 1 gb. Hope you are working on reducing the export file size)

mistopportunity

Aug, 8 2024

Roblox has made it far with a default player model that is 100x worse than a sausage man. I don't think Terry would hold the game back.

nico

Nov, 11 2023

EVEN IF THEY MAKE TERRY AS OPTIONAL
TERRY IS ONE OF THE THINGS THAT GIVES IDENTITY TO THE GAME, OTHERWISE IT WOULD BE COMPLETELY GENERIC, JUST ANOTHER ROBLOX

tokyomegaplex

Aug, 8 2024

removing terry is a terrible mistake. if you just made him not default that would be fine but removing him? why?? give me the option at least.

i'm going to be honest, I havent used s&box but have been really looking forward to. terry to me was a symbol that these devs know whats up. they actually have a sense of humor and some unique personality. it was dumb, but it was a huge draw for me. removing this is a huge disappointment and really makes me a lot less excited to use s&box. in a world of unbelivably boring microsoft/facebook "avatars" and character designs that aim to be as inoffensive as possible (and yet to me and others somehow become more offensive than anything), terry really made this project stand out. it makes me worried that s&box devs will make safer choices and choose to be more restrained in the future, which is a bummer and a turn off.

i hope this mistake is revered, or terry is at least brought back as an option everyone can use.

ボレアリス

Sep, 9 2024

who/what is this "Terry" that you all write about in the comments?

(ah, got it)

removing Terry is a good decision