[TIPS] How to improve your sandbox server

intro
We have all played with a group of friends in the sandbox game mode at some point, but it is so much fun that we decided to take it to another level and we decided to create a server for other people to have fun.
But, not everything is rosy, there will be people who will come to the server and begin to destroy the server in many ways, crashing it.
In this post I will show you different ways to avoid internal server problems and how to do it a little faster.

Without addons
there are some cvars that garry's mod contains by default, many of these are useful to avoid performance issues within the server and for players.

• sbox_maxballoons 600 (Default) - This cvar is to limit the amount of balloons that users can place, I recommend leaving it at 4, because the balloons are already quite powerful and placing many will make the server start to have problems.
  
• sbox_maxdynamite 50 (Default) - This cvar controls how many dynamites the players can put, I recommend deactivating it leaving it at 0, because it gets annoying and lowers the players' fps.
  
• sbox_maxemitters 100 (Default) - This cvar, like the previous one, becomes annoying, but it is interesting to use it, so if you want, you can leave this cvar at 4 or even 8.
  
• sbox_maxlights 50 (Default) - This cvar limits the amount of lights that players can put on, this is generally pretty fun to use, but it becomes annoying when they start to place 20 of these things, so I would recommend leaving it 1 or maximum 2.
  
• sbox_maxprops 2000 (Default) - With the name of this cvar we know what it does, but in case you don't know, it limits how many props the player can put, the server is designed to support props hitting each other, I've already done this before, but this isn't designed to calculate when props are on top of each other, I recommend leaving it at 100 or 150.
  
• sbox_maxvehicles 25 (Default) - the famous cars of the gmod, I personally would stop like that, if not for there is a potential danger in letting players put such amounts of cars, I have discovered that just by placing 3 cars on top of the other, the server can crash with just 4 clicks from the creator tool. So I recommend leaving it at maximum 2 until you find an addon that remedies this.
  
• sbox_playershurtplayers 1 (Default) - This activates and deactivates the pvp between the users, I know that many will leave the pvp activated for the players to have fun, but I leave it here in case they have problems controlling the players.
  

With addons
There are many addons that you can use to optimize your server. I can't say that X addon is better than all, but I can mention some addons that can help you manage your sandbox server and make it more fun. (This section is done assuming you have ulx and ulib installed on your server)

• FPS Booster I have used this addon before and it is quite simple to use, it is also compatible with the m9k, this addon can deactivate simple aspects of your garry's mod but that add greater performance.
  
• Anti rash & Lags - System This addon helps you improve the performance of your server in internal aspects, such as preventing an infinite loop of props collisions, which for those who do not know, is when the server has to do some collision calculations to see what the props will do , but this causes the server to keep calculating collisions infinitely.
  
• Anti Lag System Redux - Optimization This addon limits the draw distance for players and helps optimize fps. The description is quite short, but it is what it does.
  

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20-10-2021, 11:59 PM

user100real Wrote: intro
We have all played with a group of friends in the sandbox game mode at some point, but it is so much fun that we decided to take it to another level and we decided to create a server for other people to have fun.
But, not everything is rosy, there will be people who will come to the server and begin to destroy the server in many ways, crashing it.
In this post I will show you different ways to avoid internal server problems and how to do it a little faster.

Without addons
there are some cvars that garry's mod contains by default, many of these are useful to avoid performance issues within the server and for players.

• sbox_maxballoons 600 (Default) - This cvar is to limit the amount of balloons that users can place, I recommend leaving it at 4, because the balloons are already quite powerful and placing many will make the server start to have problems.
  
• sbox_maxdynamite 50 (Default) - This cvar controls how many dynamites the players can put, I recommend deactivating it leaving it at 0, because it gets annoying and lowers the players' fps.
  
• sbox_maxemitters 100 (Default) - This cvar, like the previous one, becomes annoying, but it is interesting to use it, so if you want, you can leave this cvar at 4 or even 8.
  
• sbox_maxlights 50 (Default) - This cvar limits the amount of lights that players can put on, this is generally pretty fun to use, but it becomes annoying when they start to place 20 of these things, so I would recommend leaving it 1 or maximum 2.
  
• sbox_maxprops 2000 (Default) - With the name of this cvar we know what it does, but in case you don't know, it limits how many props the player can put, the server is designed to support props hitting each other, I've already done this before, but this isn't designed to calculate when props are on top of each other, I recommend leaving it at 100 or 150.
  
• sbox_maxvehicles 25 (Default) - the famous cars of the gmod, I personally would stop like that, if not for there is a potential danger in letting players put such amounts of cars, I have discovered that just by placing 3 cars on top of the other, the server can crash with just 4 clicks from the creator tool. So I recommend leaving it at maximum 2 until you find an addon that remedies this.
  
• sbox_playershurtplayers 1 (Default) - This activates and deactivates the pvp between the users, I know that many will leave the pvp activated for the players to have fun, but I leave it here in case they have problems controlling the players.
  

With addons
There are many addons that you can use to optimize your server. I can't say that X addon is better than all, but I can mention some addons that can help you manage your sandbox server and make it more fun. (This section is done assuming you have ulx and ulib installed on your server)

• FPS Booster I have used this addon before and it is quite simple to use, it is also compatible with the m9k, this addon can deactivate simple aspects of your garry's mod but that add greater performance.
  
• Anti rash & Lags - System This addon helps you improve the performance of your server in internal aspects, such as preventing an infinite loop of props collisions, which for those who do not know, is when the server has to do some collision calculations to see what the props will do , but this causes the server to keep calculating collisions infinitely.
  
• Anti Lag System Redux - Optimization This addon limits the draw distance for players and helps optimize fps. The description is quite short, but it is what it does.
  

Client-side optimization
If you are someone who likes the server but you do not have a pc to have a good experience, I also have some tips for that case.

• Set all settings to low - Maybe everyone knows them but in case they don't, they have to go to the configuration section of the garry's mod menu, in video go to advanced options and set all the settings to low.
  
• Set screen resolution - Generally lowering the resolution of the screen helps a lot in improving the fps of your Garry's mod, but if not, there are other methods.
  
• Disable unnecessary addons - It is possible that the server where you are playing has not ordered the addons of its collection in the best way, you can go to see addon by addon which you think is necessary to remove and increase performance. but in situations like this it is impossible to optimize it.
  
• Use a cfg - In steam there are many articles that can help you choose which configuration can be used to optimize your garry's mod. Here is an article that I found on steam, I remind you that there are many more than the one I will show you. Gmod FPS Boost Guide