Qbox is the actively-maintained successor to QBCore and the framework we run in our own city. This guide walks you from an empty VPS to a joinable FiveM roleplay server — the same order of operations we use on client builds.
What You Need Before Starting
- A server or VPS — Windows or Linux, 8GB+ RAM recommended for a modded RP city, SSD storage
- A Cfx.re license key — free from the Cfx.re portal
- MariaDB or MySQL — MariaDB 10.6+ is what we deploy; XAMPP works fine for local testing
- Basic comfort with a text editor — most of a server build is editing configs, not writing code
Step 1 — Install txAdmin and the Server Artifacts
Download the latest recommended FiveM server artifacts for your OS. Run the server executable once and it launches txAdmin — the web panel that manages your server — on port 40120. Open it in a browser, link your Cfx.re account, and you’re ready to deploy a base.
Step 2 — Deploy the Qbox Recipe
txAdmin has a built-in recipe deployer. Choose the Qbox recipe and it installs the whole core stack for you: qbx_core, ox_lib, ox_inventory, oxmysql, and the supporting resources, wired together correctly. Point it at your database during the deployment step and let it build the schema.
Step 3 — Essentials Every City Needs
A stock framework is a lobby, not a city. The order we install in:
- Spawn & identity: multicharacter, spawn selector, and an appearance system (illenium-appearance in zones mode is our pick).
- Economy backbone: banking, paychecks, and prices tuned so a delivery job means something. If players hit $100k in a week, your economy is already dead.
- Jobs: police and EMS with MDTs, plus 2-3 civilian jobs minimum at launch.
- Player businesses: this is what keeps a city alive at day 30 — dealerships, restaurants, clubs. It’s most of what our store sells, because it’s what our own city runs.
- World: MLO interiors (conflict-check them!), curated vehicles with sane handling, EUP for your departments.
Step 4 — The Settings Everyone Forgets
onesyncon, and set a realistic slot count — 48 slots you can keep smooth beats 200 you can’t- Raise the streaming budget if you add texture-heavy MLOs and vehicle packs — texture flicker and holes in the map are almost always streaming memory, not “bad MLOs”
- Automated database backups — a nightly mysqldump has saved our city more than once; corrupted InnoDB tables with no dump are a very bad morning
- Restart schedule in txAdmin — every 6-12 hours keeps entity leaks from strangling your tick rate
Step 5 — Test Like a Player, Not a Developer
Make a fresh character. Do a full loop: spawn, get a phone, take a job, earn money, buy a car, store it, log out, log back in. Anything that breaks in that loop breaks for every player on day one. Fix it before launch, not after.
How Long Does This Take?
The honest answer: a weekend to get joinable, three to six months of evenings to get good. That gap is exactly why we offer turn-key server builds — we hand you the finished city and you spend your time on community instead of configs.
