Modding:Modding Efficiently: Difference between revisions

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** Use break points for debugging.  
** Use break points for debugging.  
** You can use edit&continue feature of Visual Studio to modify code while the game is running!
** You can use edit&continue feature of Visual Studio to modify code while the game is running!
** If you don't already use the [https://github.com/anegostudios/vsmodexamples/blob/master/RedirectLogs.cs RedirectLogs] mod during testing to see the log output live in the Visual Studio output window
** If you are working with shaders, you can reload them with <code>.reload shaders</code>
** If you are working with shaders, you can reload them with <code>.reload shaders</code>

Revision as of 09:14, 14 October 2018

Modding and even Game development itself usually requires a lot of trial & error. The more time you can save on those iteration times the better, as it accumulates quickly. Besides being quick to start up, VS offers a bundle more tricks to help you mod fast and efficiently. Here are some of the tricks every serious modder should use:

  • Use macros! Switching from/to creative/survival mode and /time set day bound to a keyboard shortcut is a must have. Hit CTRL+M to open the macro manager which will let you set those up!
  • Don't fully restart the game to test out changes! In 95% of cases its enough to just leave the game world and rejoin
  • Don't reload at all if you are doing trial&error on textures and shape files. These can be reloaded with the commands .reload textures and .reload shapes. The latter may require you to place&remove a block so that the chunk gets redrawn
  • Set up a quickstart.bat script, that contains e.g. VintageStory.exe -oTestWorld -p3 - this will insta-launch you into a super flat creative world named "TestWorld"
  • Leave your mod unpacked in the mods folder! No need to zip it up, i'll load up just fine unpacked :-)
  • Use .tfedit to modify the lookings of your item/block inside the GUI, Hands or on the ground
  • Use the error reporter activated via /errorreporter 1 to save yourself the work of finding and scouring through the log files for problems. This feature will make it so that a dialog pop ups during start up of the game if any errors were encountered.
  • If you are a doing programming tasks
    • Use break points for debugging.
    • You can use edit&continue feature of Visual Studio to modify code while the game is running!
    • If you don't already use the RedirectLogs mod during testing to see the log output live in the Visual Studio output window
    • If you are working with shaders, you can reload them with .reload shaders