The Long Dark MSBuild extensions

A NuGet package providing MSBuild extensions for The Long Dark modders.

This project aims to make it easier to build and test The Long Dark mods. It provides the following features:

• Auto-detection of the TLD install directory.
• Automatic configuration of reference paths and references for the project.
• Custom targets for the build process:
  • Build AssetBundle files
  • Zip the ModComponent directory
  • Copy mod DLL and ModComponent files to the TLD Mods for faster debugging and tests
• Custom run target for Visual Studio to start the game directly from the IDE.

See CHANGELOG.md for notable changes between versions.

See also the NuGet package page.

Check out TLDModTemplate for a mod template using this package.

Getting started

Right click on your project in Visual Studio and select the Manage NuGet packages... menu item. From there, search for Kardyne.TLDBuildExtensions and you should find the package.

Or add this to your .csproj file, anywhere after the initial import:

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="Kardyne.TLDBuildExtensions" Version="1.0.0"/>
</ItemGroup>

You may need to reload the solution for the changes to take effect.

Usage

Customization

To customize project parameters such as the path to the TLD directory or the path to the Unity Editor, create a Directory.Build.props file at the root of your project or solution and add:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
	<PropertyGroup>
		<TLDDir></TLDDir>
		<UnityEditorPath></UnityEditorPath>
		<UnityProjectRelativeDir></UnityProjectRelativeDir>
		<ModComponentRelativeDir></ModComponentRelativeDir>
	</PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Below is the description for the parameters with their default values:

Parameter	Default value	Description
TLDDir	See TLDDir	Absolute path to the TLD root directory
UnityEditorPath	ProgramFiles\Unity\Editor\Unity.exe	Absolute path to the Unity Editor executable
UnityProjectRelativeDir	Unity\	Relative path (from project root) to the Unity project directory
ModComponentRelativeDir	Distributable\	Relative path (from project root) to the ModComponent directory

Note: for default values, ProgramFiles depends on the environment variable of the same name and is set by the system. It includes the correct drive letter.

TLDDir

The default value is set to the Steam folder if found in the default library. The location of the Steam install is saved in the Windows registry which contains the default Steam library folder. If your Steam TLD install is not located in this library, see Customization.

By reading and parsing the UnrealEngineLauncher library file (usually at ProgramData\Epic\UnrealEngineLauncher\LauncherInstalled.dat), we can retrieve the folders of games installed through EGL. If the Steam install has not been found, it will use the Epic folder if it exists.

References

If the TLDDir property is set and the directory exists, three sub-directories are added as reference paths to the project:

• TLDDir\MelonLoader
• TLDDir\MelonLoader\Managed
• TLDDir\Mods

Then, the following references are added:

• Assembly-CSharp
• Il2Cppmscorlib
• Il2CppSystem
• MelonLoader
• ModComponent
• ModSettings
• UnhollowerBaseLib
• UnityEngine
• UnityEngine.CoreModule

Build

In Visual Studio, running the Build command will trigger the extensions included in this template:

• Build AssetBundle files
• Copy these files to the ModComponent directory
• Zip the directory to create the .modcomponent file
• Copy the ModComponent file and the and the mod DLL to the TLD Mods directory when in Debug configuration.

The additional components are triggered only as needed by following Incremental builds guidelines.

Run

If the TLD install directory was found automatically (see TLDDir), a custom run target is configured depending on which install was found. This makes it possible to build the mod, have the custom targets copy the resulting files to the TLD mods directory and then launch the game directly from the IDE using the Start button in Visual Studio.

Known issues and limitations

Auto-detection

Auto-detection of TLD directory is only reliable for the Epic Games Launcher for now. You can override values as explained in Customization if it does not work. You may need to do this before opening the solution in Visual Studio or the project may not open at all.

Auto-detection of the Unity Editor executable may run into the same issues.