Does this mod engine requires steam to be installed in system?

[Skystapper]

I have tried 0.6.0, 0.5.0 and none seems to work. no confinguration toml are being created

[lichenophile]

I think it might, I tried running with:

me3 launch -e "V:\Games\Elden Ring Nightreign\Game\nightreign.exe" -g nightreign -p seamless-with-mods

and got the result:

 INFO launch: me3::commands::launch: resolved game game=Game(Nightreign) app_id=2622380
 INFO launch: me3::commands::launch: found steam app launcher launcher="V:\\Games\\Elden Ring Nightreign\\Game\\nightreign.exe"
 INFO launch: me3::commands::launch: wrote attach config attach_config_file=NamedTempFile("C:\\Users\\Yulia\\AppData\\Local\\garyttierney\\me3\\cache\\.tmpc6EcXY") attach_config=AttachConfig { game: Nightreign, natives: [Native { path: ModFile("C:\\Users\\Yulia\\AppData\\Local\\garyttierney\\me3\\config\\profiles\\nightreign-mods\\natives\\SeamlessCoop\\nrsc.dll"), optional: false, enabled: true, load_before: [], load_after: [], initializer: Some(Function("modengine_ext_init")), finalizer: None }], packages: [Package { id: "Visible Weapon Categories", path: ModFile("C:\\Users\\Yulia\\AppData\\Local\\garyttierney\\me3\\config\\profiles\\nightreign-mods\\packages\\Visible Weapon Categories"), load_after: [], load_before: [] }], suspend: false }
 INFO launch: me3::commands::launch: creating profile log folder log_folder="C:\\Users\\Yulia\\AppData\\Local\\garyttierney\\me3\\data\\logs\\seamless-with-mods"
 INFO launch: me3::commands::launch: temporary log file created path="C:\\Users\\Yulia\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\.tmp0qQ7Yv.log"
 INFO launch: me3::commands::launch: running injector command injector_command="V:\\Modding\\Nightreign\\ModEngine3\\bin\\me3-launcher.exe"
 INFO run: me3_launcher: Launcher started
 INFO run: me3_launcher: Parsed launcher args args=LauncherVars { exe: "V:\\Games\\Elden Ring Nightreign\\Game\\nightreign.exe", host_dll: "V:\\Modding\\Nightreign\\ModEngine3\\bin\\me3_mod_host.dll", host_config_path: "C:\\Users\\Yulia\\AppData\\Local\\garyttierney\\me3\\cache\\.tmpc6EcXY" }
 INFO run: me3_launcher: Starting game at "V:\\Games\\Elden Ring Nightreign\\Game\\nightreign.exe" with DLL "V:\\Modding\\Nightreign\\ModEngine3\\bin\\me3_mod_host.dll"
ERROR run:require_steam: me3_launcher::steam: error=Steam is required to run this game

My copy of the game is not part of my steam library (I'm using "OnlineFix"), and me3 may require that it is :(

[lichenophile]

While it seems kinda off to see modding projects take a stance on this sort of thing. I can understand that not blocking unofficial setups may look the same as supporting these setups (or more accurately, a specific subset of these set-ups). Possibly threatening a sort of nebulous anxiety to some developers.

I also think it a cool concept that people have ownership of (and a right to control and modify) their game libraries, and how the communities that make it ensure the historical survival of these games and their functionality through whatever tragedy, be it personal like impoverishment, natural disaster, censorship, war - or even the unthinkable - online services shutting down.

I ideally believe FOSS conceptually aims not to act as an enforcer on propriety software's behalf, or to refortify the reliance on proprietary services. That concept is also, at the same time, compatible with rejecting to provide support to non-official installation methods, and similar scenarios.

But in this case at least, we don't need any mod manager to load mods with nightreign afaik, so the rhetoric doesn't really matter much.

Ultimately, me3 being open-source, we've already been done a solid for getting free code to manipulate ourselves and I respect the repo owners agency on how they're comfortable doing things.

[Dasaav-dsv]

As the author of the commits introducing these features, they are aimed at improving the overall user experience, but without necessarily accommodating cracked copies. It is a side effect of the implementation, but not the intention, like pointed out above by @garyttierney:

1. The launcher loads steam_api64.dll from the game directory and calls SteamAPI_Init to verify that subsequent Steam API calls from the game executable succeed, so it will not be shut down. An error message is shown to to the user. For context, before the check was added, the application shut down without communicating with me3, leading to undesirable errors on the communication channel instead. (For example, serde error: invalid value: integer 36, expected Ok or Err).
2. SteamAPI_Init is hooked by the mod host DLL as a blocking initialization point that is in a suitable lifecycle point, after CRT initialization. There is nothing more to it, it does not do any additional verification, the function just has to be called by the game. This will happen regardless of steam_api64.dll having been stubbed by a crack.

The first check is helpful for the average user who owns a licensed copy of the game. In the future, a CLI flag --skip-steam-check or similar will be added to skip it.

On a personal note, I did not add it with the intention of preventing piracy, but I don't value supporting it as much either. The technical reasons like incompatibilities (like this one), and not having the setup to test it, make accommodation a low priority issue in my eyes. My opinion may be in contrast with yours and @garyttierney, but it won't get in the way of the current stance of me3 on the issue (like adding that CLI flag).

[garyttierney]

Ultimately, me3 being open-source, we've already been done a solid for getting free code to manipulate ourselves and I respect the repo owners agency on how they're comfortable doing things.

FWIW, patches are welcome to change the reliance on Steam. Like Dasaav mentioned, hooking Steam is simply a shortcut to a solution that works both for games encrypted with SteamDRM and those that aren't

[Dasaav-dsv]

--skip-steam-init landed in v0.6.0-prerelease in #226