Sandbox
| Developers | |
|---|---|
| Facepunch Studios | |
| Engines | |
| Source 2 | |
| Release dates | |
| Windows | April 28, 2026 |
| Taxonomy | |
| Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
| Pacing | Real-time |
| Perspectives | First-person, Third-person |
| Controls | Direct control |
| Genres | Sandbox |
| Art styles | Stylized |
Sandbox (stylized as S&box) is an upcoming sandbox game being developed by Facepunch Studios as a spiritual successor to their debut title, Garry's Mod. Though Sandbox was announced in September 2017 as an Unreal Engine 4 project, the developers intended to code it in an "engine agnostic" way so that they could easily switch to Source 2 if the latter engine became available for them to use.[1][2] After three years of intermittent development, Sandbox was transferred to the Source 2 engine in October 2020.[3]
General information
- Article on the official Valve Developer Community wiki
- Official GitHub repository
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
| Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam (upcoming) |
- All versions require Steam DRM.
- An open preview version of the game is currently available here. Users must sign in through Steam on website to claim access to the preview.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| Windows | <path-to-game>\core\cfg[Note 1] |
| Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/590830/pfx/[Note 2] |
Save game cloud syncing
| System | Native | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Steam Cloud | Approx. 9.31 GB available. |
Video
| Graphics feature | State | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Widescreen resolution | |||
| Multi-monitor | |||
| Ultra-widescreen | |||
| 4K Ultra HD | |||
| Field of view (FOV) | 60-120° via the "Default Field of View" slider. | ||
| Windowed | |||
| Borderless fullscreen windowed | |||
| Anisotropic filtering (AF) | |||
| Anti-aliasing (AA) | Forced 2x to 8x MSAA. | ||
| High-fidelity upscaling | FSR 1 [4] |
||
| Vertical sync (Vsync) | |||
| 60 FPS and 120+ FPS | Cap can be adjusted with the fps_max console command. |
||
| High dynamic range display (HDR) | See the glossary page for potential alternatives. | ||
| Color blind mode | See the glossary page for potential alternatives. | ||
Input
| Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Remapping | ||
| Mouse sensitivity | ||
| Mouse acceleration | ||
| Mouse input in menus | ||
| Keyboard and mouse prompts | ||
| Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
| Controller | ||
| Controller support | Steam Input API is used to handle general Controller Support (InputSystem), it must be manually implemented on a per-game basis by developers. This includes Button Prompts and Device-specific feature sets such as Motion Sensors. |
|
| Full controller support | ||
| Controller remapping | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | |
| Controller sensitivity | ||
| Controller Y-axis inversion |
| Controller types |
|---|
| XInput-compatible controllers | supported via Steam Input API. | |
|---|---|---|
| Xbox button prompts | ||
| Impulse Trigger support |
| DirectInput-compatible controllers |
|---|
| PlayStation controllers | DualShock 4, DualSense, DualSense Edge supported via Steam Input API. |
|
|---|---|---|
| PlayStation button prompts | ||
| Motion sensors support | ||
| Light bar support | ||
| Adaptive trigger support | ||
| DualSense haptic feedback support | ||
| Connection modes | Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth), Wireless (DualShock 4 USB Wireless Adapter) | |
| Nintendo controllers |
|---|
| Tracked motion controllers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Button/gesture prompts |
| Other controller(s) | supported via Steam Input API. | |
|---|---|---|
| Additional button prompts |
| Additional information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Controller hotplugging | ||
| Input prompt override | ||
| Haptic feedback | ||
| Simultaneous controller+KB/M |
| Steam Input | ||
|---|---|---|
| Steam Input API support | Steam Input API is supported, but it's used to handle general Controller Support (InputSystem), it must be manually implemented on a per-game basis by developers. | |
| Steam Input prompt modes | SIAPI Button Icons |
|
| Steam Deck button prompts | ||
| Steam Controller (1st gen) button prompts | ||
| Motion sensors support | Camera, Gesture, Cursor Must be manually implemented on a per-game basis by developers. |
|
| Official controller preset(s) |
Audio
| Audio feature | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Separate volume controls | Global volume, music and voice chat. | |
| Surround sound | ||
| Subtitles | ||
| Closed captions | ||
| Mute on focus lost | ||
| Royalty free audio |
Localizations
| Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English |
Network
Multiplayer types
| Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local play | ||||
| LAN play | ||||
| Online play | 32 | |||
Connection types
| Type | Native | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Peer-to-peer | Used when self-hosting lobbies as well as dedicated servers.[5] | |
| Dedicated | ||
| Self-hosting | ||
| Direct IP |
VR support
| Headsets | State | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenXR | [6] | ||
| SteamVR | This game might be playable through SteamVR's support for the OpenXR API. | ||
| Oculus VR (LibOVR) | |||
| Windows Mixed Reality | This game might be playable with the OpenXR for Windows Mixed Reality. | ||
| Devices | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tracked motion controllers | See Input for details. | ||
| Traditional controller | See Input for details. | ||
| Keyboard/Mouse | |||
| Hand tracking | |||
| Miscellaneous devices |
|---|
Other information
API
| Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Direct3D | 11 | |
| Vulkan |
| Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows |
Middleware
| Middleware | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Physics | Box3D | Box3D is a modified fork of Rubikon designed to be constantly updated[7]. It replaced the original Rubikon with the July 2025 update.[8] |
| Audio | Steam Audio | |
| Interface | Panorama, Qt | |
| Input | SDL3 | Updated from SDL1 with the June 2025 update.[9] |
| Multiplayer | Steamworks |
System requirements
| Windows | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Recommended | |||
| Operating system (OS) | 10 | 11 | ||
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Core i5-7500 AMD Ryzen 5 1600 | Intel Core i7-9700K AMD Ryzen 7 3700 |
||
| System memory (RAM) | 8 GB | 16 GB | ||
| Storage drive (HDD/SSD) | 12 GB | 50 GB | ||
| Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 AMD Radeon RX 570 4 GB of VRAM | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 AMD Radeon RX 6600XT 8 GB of VRAM |
||
- A 64-bit operating system is required.
Notes
- ↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%,%PROGRAMDATA%, or%WINDIR%might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStoreon Windows Vista and later (more details). - ↑ Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in
~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/590830/. - Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (590830) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
References
- ↑ Sandbox Game - Information - last accessed on 2017-09-06
- ↑ S&box could become Garry's Mod 2 but is 'nowhere near that yet,' says GMod creator - last accessed on 2020-10-30
- ↑ New Engine - last accessed on 2020-10-30
- ↑ March 2022 - News - s&box - last accessed on 2022-03-05
- ↑ S&Box wiki - Dedicated Servers - last accessed on 2023-03-29
- "Players connect through your server's Steam ID, so there's no need to worry about port forwarding or anything."
- ↑ s&box blog post: July [2024 Update] - last accessed on 2024-10-11
- ↑ "S&Box has a new physics engine. It now uses Box3D instead of Rubikon" - last accessed on 2025-10-24
- ↑ July Update - last accessed on 2025-08-20
- ↑ June Update - last accessed on 2025-08-20