Chromium Web Renderer

<warning>This page is a work-in-progress. Additions and improvements are welcome.</warning>

<title>Chromium Web Renderer</title>

# Description

Garry's Mod includes the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) web rendering engine. As of 2025 it is **CEF 86** on almost every GMod build, replacing the former **Awesomium** (Chromium 17).

The web renderer is used by the Main Menu, <page text="Loading Screen">Loading URL</page>, and the <page>HTML</page> / <page>DHTML</page> panels.

<warning>Awesomium is still used on some Linux systems. See [versions](#versions) below for details. CEF will replace this last remaining Awesomium integration in future.</warning>

# Versions

Since 2025, GMod is using CEF 86 on all supported platforms and <page text="branches">Dev Branch</page>, except for Linux's `main`/`dev` branches where it still uses Awesomium. 

On all MacOS and some Linux systems, GMod crashes on launch. Third-party utility GModPatchTool, which updates CEF to version 137, fixes the launch crash on these platforms.

## By Platform/Branch

| Platform [Branch] | Included Web Renderer | Status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Windows** (all branches) | **CEF 86** | Stable |
| **Linux** [`main`/`dev`] | **Awesomium** (Chromium 17) | Crashes on load for many users but works for others. Will be replaced with CEF when Gmod's 64bit Linux builds reach dev. |
| **Linux** [`x86-64`] | **CEF 86** | Crashes on load. Requires GModPatchTool to run the game, which updates it to **CEF 137**. |
| **MacOS** (only exists in `x86-64` branch) | **CEF 80** | Crashes on load for all users. Requires GModPatchTool to run the game, which updates it to **CEF 137**. |

## By Web Engine

| Web Renderer | Used by | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Awesomium** (Chromium 17) | **Some Linux** users on `main`/`dev`. | _No Windows users._ _No Mac users._ |
| **CEF 86** | **All Windows** users at a minimum (all branches). | _Likely no Linux users._ _No Mac users._ |
| **CEF 137** | **All MacOS** users need `x86-64`+GModPatchTool to run the game. **Most Linux** users, via `x86-64`+GModPatchTool. **Some Windows** users optionally use GModPatchTool, not required to run game. | - |


# Web development

## Detecting browser

Don't base browser support on detecting a specific Chrome version (eg 86) or branch, as this won't be accurate for some users and for future GMod updates.

Check for Awesomium instead. Example:
```js
var IS_AWESOMIUM = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf("awesomium") != -1; 
```
If `IS_AWESOMIUM` is true, you can run your legacy fallback code, or show a warning message about how the user needs to be using CEF.

If `IS_AWESOMIUM` is false, the user is running at least CEF 86 or any future newer version. You can safely run your more modern code or modern feature detection.

## Supported features

CEF 86 is from 2020 and is much more up-to-date than Awesomium (2012), but is still outdated and missing some functionality that is considered baseline today.

While developing, use sites such as [Can I Use](https://caniuse.com/) and [MDN Web Docs](https://developer.mozilla.org/search) to search for features/functions. They will list if those features are supported in Chrome 86 (for CEF) or Chrome 17 (for Awesomium), if you need to use a prefixed version or older version of the standard, if there are any bugs to be aware of, etc.

## Known bugs
This category will be updated as soon as possible; if you wish to view bug reports regarding the Chromium version, you can visit [GitHub](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3A%22Dependency%3A%20CEF%22).


| ID | Title |
|:-----|:-------|
| [#6982](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/6982) | [HTML] Using currentTime in a playing video |
| [#6928](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/6928) | Menu not showing up on x86 branch, near-instant out of memory error on 32 bit, from Ubuntu fresh install |
| [#6921](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/6921) | Failed to load main menu - Chromium GPU process crash on fresh install |
| [#6882](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/6882) | libcef.dll crashing gmod |
| [#6577](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/6577) | Can't launch the game(Windows 11, first time play, no addon) |
| [#6530](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/6530) | IME is invisible when typing in DHTML |
| [#6529](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/6529) | DHTML's text composition system events are broken |
| [#5878](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/5878) | DHTML Text Form has unexpected behavior |
| [#5644](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/5644) | Video can't be viewed when embed to website. |
| [#5439](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/5439) | Garry's Mod x86-64 chromium + 64-bit binaries crash |
| [#5092](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/5092) | [x86-64] [Linux] Game crash on Steam Linux Runtime |
| [#4930](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/4930) | CEF click events not firing in vuejs app |
| [#4677](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/4677) | no ui on x86 version on linux |
| [#4541](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/4541) | DHTML:IsLoading slowness causes javascript to execute prematurely |
| [#4464](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/4464) | Linux 64bit Letters are numbers in input boxes |
| [#4414](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/4414) | Some characters cant be typed by non-qwerty layouts in chromium panels |
| [#3994](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/3994) | Inconsistent CEF keyboard shortcut implementation on x86-64 branch |
| [#3992](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/3992) | CEF image color is washed out on macOS |
| [#3543](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/3543) | chromium javascript sees symbol keyboard keys as 0 in onkeydown and onkeyup |
| [#3542](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/3542) | chromium OnKeyCodePressed isn't being called anymore |
| [#3148](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/3148) | no mp4 support in the CEF build used in the Dev branch. |
| [#3119](https://github.com/Facepunch/garrysmod-issues/issues/3119) | Awesomium/In-game-browser HTML5 support |

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