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The Content Delivery Dilemma

A primary frustration for many Garry’s Mod participants is excessively long “Joining Server” durations or the presence of disruptive red “ERROR” markers. These issues almost exclusively originate from an unoptimized or misconfigured content delivery system - the technical pipeline used to synchronize assets between the server and the client. To ensure your community has a smooth experience, you must strategically choose between WorkshopDL and FastDL. This guide walk you through the technical trade-offs of both methodologies.

Difficulty

Intermediate

Time

8 Minutes

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Technical Performance Breakdown

Selecting the correct delivery architecture depends on the uniqueness of your server’s assets and your administrative resources.
Instructs the game client to download compressed .gma files directly from Valve’s global content delivery network (CDN).
  • Strategic Pros: Negligible technical maintenance; uses Steam’s massive bandwidth; requires no external web hosting.
  • Strategic Cons: Players must download the entire addon archive even if the server only uses a single model; assets are subject to Steam’s occasional maintenance outages.
  • Implementation: Add +host_workshop_collection to your Startup Settings and use resource.AddWorkshop in your Lua scripts.

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Decision Matrix: Which should you choose?

For the vast majority of community servers, WorkshopDL is the superior choice due to its stability and ease of use.
  • Use WorkshopDL if: You are using community-made weapon packs, player models, or common maps found on the Steam Workshop. This is the optimal path for 95% of modern GMod projects.
  • Use FastDL if: You possess proprietary, “Private” content that you do not wish to publish to the public Workshop (e.g., custom community-branded textures, private donor models, or specialized UI sounds).

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Need Extra Help?

If you encounter any issues, our support team is ready to assist:

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Last Updated: January 2026 | GMod: Delivery optimized.