This page is unlisted by choice

This page is just about making bulleted lists of topics to actually write on and not really useful information on its own, I thought it would be better to keep it unlisted so that only the people really checking the wiki would find it.

Anyone is welcome to add to list to help everyone else identify locations on the wiki they think should either be rewritten / updated / or just created in the first place.

The only ask is that you only remove topics if they are seen as irrelevant to Garry's Mod - like something that is already better documented on the valve developer wiki or if you finished doing that update yourself.

Overview

Player Guides

Contains guides aimed towards first-time or novice Garry's Mod players.

The goal of these pages is to efficiently educate a new player in the basic concepts of Garry's Mod so they can get to the fun as quickly as possible!

If you find a Playing page missing, using unexplained and confusing terminology, pages that are for developers, or pages that might confuse a new player rather than educate them, please:

list them here with a brief explanation of the issue.

Developer Guides

Provide crucial documentation on the game's core concepts and processes.

Many of Garry's Mod and the Source Engine's most-used features rely on hard-coded assumptions and requirements that are not easy or practical to self-discover.

Because of this, it is very important that the Developers section contains guides that clearly outline both the basic What & Why of a topic.

These pages should be written with the understanding that the reader may have zero prior experience with the Source Engine, game modding, programming, modeling, image editing, ..

Not all topics can be easily written with all audiences in mind;

In these cases, pages should include links and references to resources that would help an interested reader in "coming up to speed" on the topic's prerequisites.

If a page in the Developers category is missing, out of date, hard to read, poorly formatted, unfinished, needing an example or any other issue that prevents it from being useful to readers, please:

list it below and write a short explanation of what might be fixed.

Developer Reference

These pages document the usage of specific:

• Functions
• Enums (E.g. TEAM and RENDERGROUP)
• Hooks
• Structs (E.g. ENT and GM)
• Libraries (E.g. surface and net)

Developer Reference pages have multiple goals depending on the reader:

• Novice readers should be able to quickly understand what the page's subject is tangibly used for so they can easily determine if it is applicable to their use case and worth investing further time to better understand it.

• Advanced and expert readers should be able to either quickly refresh their memory, or rapidly come to understand the subject's available options, caveats, bugs, and known pitfalls.

If you see a Developer Reference page that is missing, poorly worded, confusing, lacking a clear example, or is otherwise in need of an update, please:

list it here and briefly explain the problem.

Player Guides

Getting Started

• Entry

Sandbox Tools

• Entry

Gamemodes

• Entry

Server Hosting

• Entry

Other Topics

• Entry

Developer Guides

Getting Started

• Entry

Lua Programming

• Entry

Game Systems

• Entry

Gamemode Creation

• Entry

HUD and User Interface

• Entry

Scripted Entities and Weapons

• Need a page outlining and explaining what a Scripted Entity is
  • A novice reader should come away from the page understanding:
    • What a Scripted Entity is
    • What the ENT table is
      • What parts are required, and what parts are optional?
      • Where and when the ENT table is valid
      • Why the ENT table is only valid there
    • How to modify the presentation of Scripted Entities by modifying the ENT table's values
    • How to modify the behavior of Scripted Entities by overriding functions
    • How Scripted Entities are registered "under the hood"
• Need a page outlining and explaining what a Scripted Weapon is
  • A novice reader should come away from the page understanding:
    • What a Scripted Weapon is
    • How Scripted Weapons relate to Scripted Entities
      • Are they the same?
      • Are they different?
      • How are they different?
    • What the SWEP table is
      • What parts are required, and what parts are optional?
      • Where and when the SWEP table is valid
      • Why the SWEP table is only valid there
    • How to modify the presentation of Scripted Entities by modifying the ENT table's values
    • How to modify the behavior of Scripted Entities by overriding functions

NPCs and AI

• Navmesh - generating, adjusting, fixing?

Map and Level Design

• Entry

Models, Textures, and Animation

• Playermodel Creation - a page already exists but more information would be helpful
  • Rigging
  • Weight Painting
  • How bones work on playermodel
• Importing / Creating / Porting models - a nice guide taking you from obj (or similar) to valve dmx / smd would be super helpful

Addons and Steam Workshop

• Entry

Binary Modules

• Creating Binary Modules (pretty sure most of the pages already are out of date)

Other Topics

• Data Storage - Pros and cons of different storage methods for persistent data including:
  • convars
  • data folder files
  • PData
  • sql library
  • external databases (mysqloo)
• Sounds - pros and cons of different sound creation methods:
  • CSoundPatch, created with CreateSound
  • EmitSound and Entity:EmitSound
  • Entity:StartLoopingSound
  • sound.Play, sound.PlayFile and sound.PlayURL
    • By extension, the pros & cons of IGModAudioChannel created via sound.PlayFile and sound.PlayURL
  • surface.PlaySound

Developer Reference

Globals

• Angle
  • Needs useful examples that demonstrate how convenient it is to have a class dedicated to Angles
• Derma_Anim return value structure needs to be documented on a separate page

Classes

• Create entry for the table returned by util.Timer
  • It will need separate pages for each of its functions
  • The util.Timer will need to have its return info updated to match Color's overall formatting

Libraries

Render

• Entry

Hooks

Weapon

• WEAPON:CalcViewModelView
  • The example listed here has absolutely nothing to do with modifying the view model's position or angle. It's arguably doing harm by confusing readers.

Game Events

• Entry

Panels

• Entry

Enums

• Various enum pages are missing descriptions for some or all of their entries. Some clarification on what these enums do would help aid novice and expert developers alike.
  • The following pages are missing descriptions:
    • BONE enum
    • CAP enum
    • COLLISION_GROUP enum
    • CONTENTS enum
    • DISPSURF enum
    • GESTURE_SLOT enum
    • HULL enum
    • IN enum
    • kRenderFx enum
    • PLAYER enum
    • PLAYERANIMEVENT enum
    • RENDERMODE enum
    • SCHED enum
    • SIGNONSTATE enum
    • SOUND enum
    • STUDIO enum
    • TEXTUREFLAGS enum
  • Some pages (like SNDLVL enum) may be self-explanatory. Other pages (like ACT enum) may be too large to bother adding descriptions for every enum available. As such, add descriptions to these pages may not be necessary.

Structs

• Entry

Shaders

• Entry