FastDL and loading screen for Garry's Mod servers

In short

FastDL lets your players download maps, models, materials and sounds at full speed from Nexthosting instead of slowly from your server. You switch it on in the panel under FastDL with a single switch, without web space of your own; it is included in the price. You design a loading screen (Ladebildschirm) for free in the loading screen generator and add one line to server.cfg.

FastDL

Without FastDL, players download all files that do not come from the Steam Workshop directly from your game server when joining – and it sends them only very slowly. With a lot of custom content, joining then takes minutes. With FastDL, players fetch these files from a fast download address.

panel.nexthosting.net/server/…/fastdl

1234567

The FastDL page uses your server’s files to calculate how much faster joining becomes.

1. Switch FastDL für diesen Server (FastDL for this server)
2. Current state, here “FastDL ist ausgeschaltet.” (FastDL is switched off)
3. Beitrittszeit für neue Spieler (join time for new players) – calculated from your server’s files
4. Comparison Ohne FastDL (without FastDL) and Mit FastDL (with FastDL)
5. Leitung des Spielers (player’s connection) – calculation for 16, 50, 100 or 250 Mbit/s
6. Gut zu wissen (good to know)
7. Grenzen (limits): up to 10 GB per server, a single file up to 1 GB

Switch on FastDL

1. Open FastDL in the Verwaltung (management) group – or use the one-click setup “FastDL” on the Übersicht (overview).
2. Switch on FastDL für diesen Server.
3. Nexthosting makes your files available and enters the address into your server.cfg automatically.
4. From the next map change or restart, players download via FastDL. Your server is not restarted for this.

How a file reaches the player

1. ▶File is on your server
3. 2Syncnew and changed files regularly
5. 3Server announces the fileresource.AddFile in Lua
7. ✓Player downloads fastfrom the FastDL address

What is made available

Made available	Stays on your server only
Maps, materials, models, sounds, fonts (resource), particles – also from addons and game modes	Lua files, settings, databases

So that players download a file

The game requests the current map by itself. Everything else your server has to announce, with resource.AddFile in Lua. Many addons and game modes already do this. An example:

-- garrysmod/lua/autorun/server/downloads.lua
resource.AddFile("materials/meinserver/logo.png")
resource.AddFile("sound/meinserver/willkommen.mp3")

Workshop content does not need FastDL. Players download it directly from Steam if you announce it with resource.AddWorkshop:

resource.AddWorkshop("1234567890")  -- ID of the Workshop addon

Anyone who knows the address can download

The FastDL address is not listed publicly, but your server tells it to every player who joins. Only make content available that you are allowed to distribute this way.

Switch off FastDL

If you switch FastDL off, Nexthosting removes the address from server.cfg again. The files remain retrievable for up to 48 hours, because a running server keeps announcing the address until the next map change. If the server is paused, locked or deleted, the provision ends immediately.

Design a loading screen

With the GMod Loadingscreen Generator you design a loading screen that players see while joining – with rules, Discord address and real loading progress. No web space and no code needed, free for Nexthosting customers.

nexthosting.net/gmod-loadingscreen-generator

1

The generator on nexthosting.net. You log in with your customer account.

1. Loadingscreen erstellen (“create loading screen”)

What the generator can do:

• five designs that stay readable from 4:3 to 21:9
• rules, tips, team and a greeting with the player’s Steam name
• Discord, TeamSpeak, website and Workshop as text
• background image or slideshow, logo, music (MP3 or OGG)
• real loading progress, German and English
• up to 10 loading screens per customer account, view statistics, pause, export and import

1. Open nexthosting.net/gmod-loadingscreen-generator and click Loadingscreen erstellen – or in the panel on the Übersicht, click Gestalten (“design”) next to “Ladebildschirm”.
2. Log in with your Nexthosting customer account.
3. Choose a design and enter your content. The preview shows straight away how it looks.
4. Publish the loading screen. The generator shows you a line with sv_loadingurl.
5. Copy this line into garrysmod/cfg/server.cfg – in the panel’s editor.
6. Restart the server.

This is roughly what the line looks like – always use exactly the line from the generator:

sv_loadingurl "https://…/your-loading-screen"

Later changes in the generator go live immediately; you no longer have to touch server.cfg for them. The loading screen also works on servers that do not run at Nexthosting.

Frequently asked questions

Is FastDL worth it for my server?

Look at the Beitrittszeit für neue Spieler calculation on the FastDL page. If you use almost only Workshop content, the difference is small. If you have many custom maps, models or sounds, new players save a lot of time.

Players download slowly despite FastDL.

FastDL only takes effect from the next map change or restart. Files that your server does not announce with resource.AddFile are not downloaded by players at all. Single files over 1 GB and anything over 10 GB per server are not made available.

The loading screen does not appear.

Check that the sv_loadingurl line is in server.cfg exactly like that and that the server was restarted afterwards. If the line appears twice, the last one applies.

Further reading

• Set up Garry’s Mod
• Templates, mods and modpacks
• Backdoor scanner and player management
• Files, editor and SFTP