Add a Custom Loading Screen to GMod

When a player joins your Garry's Mod server, the game can show a web page while their addons and files download. The panel's Loading screen tab designs that page for you: a logo, a background slideshow, music, rules, a staff list and a progress bar, with a live preview beside the editor. We host the page and point the server at it, so you don't need a web host or any code.

How it works

Garry's Mod shows a custom loading screen from a web address set in the sv_loadingurl console variable, as the Facepunch Garry's Mod wiki describes. When you publish from the tab, we host your design at a page on our site and write sv_loadingurl into garrysmod/cfg/server.cfg for every start. If the server is running, the same command goes to it straight away, so the next player to join already gets the new screen. The panel manages that one line, so change the loading screen in the tab instead of editing the line by hand.

Build it

Open your server and go to the Loading screen tab, under Content. The editor has eight steps along the left, each with Back and Next, and the preview on the right. Every change saves as a draft as you go, and nothing reaches players until you publish.

1. Preset. Pick a look to start from. A preset restyles the page and keeps your own text, logo, images and music. A message with Undo appears after you choose one.
2. Style. Choose the layout and font, then the text and accent colours. The Panels and Lists sections cover how the boxes, rules and staff are drawn.
3. Background. Choose Images, Animated or Colour. Images take up to 8 slides, which you can drop in or pick from Garry's Mod's own scenes. Each picture must be PNG, JPG or WEBP and up to 2 MB, and 1920 x 1080 looks sharpest.
4. Header. Set the title, tagline and logo, and where the logo sits.
5. Content. The sections are About, Rules, Staff, Info, Messages and Discord. You can list up to 15 rules and 12 staff. A staff member's Steam ID shows their avatar and Steam name, and a name you type wins.
6. Extras. Switch on a welcome card for the joining player, the last week's player counts, and music.
7. Progress. Show or hide the progress bar, and choose a Line, Pill or Segments style.
8. Publish. Check the list under Fix before publishing, then publish.

Add music

In Extras, choose A link and paste a direct link to an .ogg or .mp3 file. The tab says .ogg plays on every branch of the game and that YouTube and Spotify links won't play. Or choose A file on your server, upload an .ogg or .mp3 in the File Manager, and pick it with Pick a file. Players then stream it straight from your server. The preview plays no sound, so check it by joining.

Publish

On the Publish step, make sure Use this loading screen is on, then press Publish and confirm. The tab says every player sees it from their next join, within a minute. A Live at link shows the page's address once it is live.

To undo unpublished changes, press Revert to live. It throws the draft away and returns the editor to what players see now. To go back to Garry's Mod's own screen, switch Use this loading screen off and publish. The tab then writes an empty address.

Common problems

1. Players still see the default screen. You haven't published yet, or the switch on the Publish step reads Turned off. Turn it on and publish.
2. The Publish step lists problems. Each one has a button that jumps to the step to fix.
3. An image is refused. Check it is a PNG, JPG or WEBP under 2 MB.
4. The music doesn't play. Use a direct .ogg or .mp3 link, or a file on your server.

Checked against the Facepunch Garry's Mod wiki and our panel, October 2026.