Getting Started

Note

See Installing Custom Content for details on code mod pathing.

Offical code mod examples are available here: https://github.com/bigsnake09/ExamplesNG

Library vs raw CS files

Code mods can be provided as either pre compiled libraries or by creating cs files in your code mods folder. The ingame C# compiler uses .NET 3.5 so it’s reccomended you create pre compile libraries as you’ll have access to the latest C# features with .Net 4.6.

Setup a development environment

Install Visual Studio

• Download the Visual Studio Community Installer: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/
• Run the installer and make sure you tick .NET Desktop Development and Game development with Unity
• Let Visual Studio install and then open it

Create Visual Studio Project

With Visual Studio installed and opened we can now create a project:

• Navigate to File -> New -> Project
• On the left hand side make sure you have Visual C# selected
• In the middle make sure Class Library (.NET Framework) is selected
• At the bottom make sure Framework is set to .NET Framework 4.6
• Set your projects location and name and then click OK

Link BallisticNG Dlls

In order to start programming for BallisticNG your project must link to the game’s libraries so Visual Studio knows that your code is actually supposed to be referencing something.

On the right hand side of the screen you will see a panel called the Solution Explorer.

• In the solution explorer expand your project
• Right click the References option entry and then cllick Add Reference
• On the window that pops up click browse
• Navigate to your BallisticNG folder, the BallisticNG_Data folder and then the Managed folder
• Multi-select Assembly-CSharp.dll, BallisticSource.dll and BallisticUnityTools.dll and then open
• Click browse again
• From the same Managed folder, select every DLL that contains UnityEngine in the name and then open
• Make sure all items in the reference window are ticked and then click OK

That’s our references in, but now we need to tell Visual Studio not to export them with our built code mod:

• Under the Solution Explorer you will see a properties tab
• In the Solution Explorer expand the References entry and then select every reference
• In the Properties panel set Copy Local to False

Visual Studio might freeze for a moment as it procceses all of the DLLs.

Build/Install Code Mod

To build your code mod all you need to do is right click the project from the Solution Explorer and then click Build. This will output a DLL to the bin/Debug where the project is located.

To install the code mod, create a new folder in your BallisticNG/User/Mods/Code Mods folder with the same name as the DLL file and then copy the DLL into that folder. To update your mod, just replace the DLL file in that folder (make sure the game isn’t running when you do).