Development environment

Gmod.NET Runtime can run in so called Development environment. If Development environment is on Gmod.NET Runtime can load modules from any location, not only garrysmod/lua/bin/Modules folder. This can improve one's inner dev loop performance since modules can be loaded directly from the .NET project output folder.

Development environment is on if game's or server's process environment variable DOTNET_ENVIRONMENT is set to Development. This is a common way to enable Development environment in .NET world.

To set an environment variable for a game process you need to start it from a command line. Here is an example using Powershell Core on Windows:

cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GarrysMod"
$env:DOTNET_ENVIRONMENT='Development'
.\bin\win64\gmod.exe

There is also an example of starting Garry's Mod dedicated server with Gmod.NET in Development environment on Linux using bash:

cd ~/steam/steamapps/common/GarrysModDS
export DOTNET_ENVIRONMENT="Development"
./srcds_run_x64

After Development environment is on, one can load module by its absolute path using dotnet.load Lua function like this:

dotnet.load([[C:\Users\glebc\source\repos\TestModule2\bin\Debug\net5.0\TestModule2.dll]])

Warning

Running under Development environment is less secure since Lua scripts can try to load .NET components from anywhere on your PC. Use only trusted Lua scripts and DO NOT join untrusted servers as a client while Development environment is on.