Performance
Two objections get raised about a 41 MB prop pack, and they are not the same question. Answering one does not answer the other.
Streaming weight
41 MB is the size on disk, not the size in memory.Props are requested when they are needed — a station's model loads when it is placed, not when the server boots. The 146 files exist so that several players can cook at once without sharing a texture state; they are never all resident at the same time. A server with one barbecue out is streaming one barbecue.
For scale: 41 MB is a fraction of a single vehicle pack, and most servers already run several.
The part that genuinely costs something is the first join, where the player downloads the pack once and it is then cached. That is a one-off, and it is the same trade every content resource makes.
CPU cost
This is what resmon measures, and it is unrelated to the numbers above — resmon reads script time, not streaming.
The resource is idle when nobody is near a station. The only sustained loop runs during placement, while the ghost preview follows your aim and raycasts the ground — it ends the moment you place or cancel.
What to measure yourself
If you want your own numbers, resmon 1 and read the hz_cook line in four states:
| State | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Server idle, far from any station | the resting cost |
| Standing next to an unlit station | the cost of a placed prop |
| A lit station with food on the grill | the cooking loop |
| While placing a station | the ghost preview and its raycast — the only Wait(0) |