Modding support

DISCLAIMER: THIS PAGE IS IN DEVELOPMENT, INFORMATION STATED HERE MIGHT NOT BE COMPLETE OR CORRECT AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

EmptyEpsilon allows you to apply a mod that can temporarily replace assets and scripts used in EmptyEpsilon. A mod's contents are "overlayed" over the game's resources, scripts, and packs directories. This means when the game looks for a file, it first looks in the mod directory. If the file exists there, EmptyEpsilon uses it instead of the files in the resources, scripts, or packs directories.

This allows mods to replace scripts, images, sounds, music, 3D models and textures, and GUI images that are used by the game, without needing to modify the game's default contents. Anything not defined by the mod uses EmptyEpsilon's default assets. This makes it easier to create, distribute, and switch between different sets of content while still able to rely on default assets.

Enabling a downloaded mod

1. Download and extract a mod. (If someone has an example, please use it here.)

2. On Windows, copy the mod's folder into the resources/mods folder.

   On Linux or macOS, copy the mod's folder into the ~/.emptyepsilon/resources/mods directory, which you might need to create. ~/.emptyepsilon is a hidden directory inside your user account's home directory.

3. Add the mod to options.ini:

   mod=folder_name
   

Your mods folder can contain multiple mods, and the mod preference determines which mod is applied.

How mods work

For example, with a resources/mods folder structure like this:

resources/mods/:
 |- mod1/
 |- mod2/
 \- mod3/ 

you can add

mod=mod2

or run EmptyEpsilon with the argument

EmptyEpsilon mod=mod2

and EmptyEpsilon with prioritize files in mod2, and will ignore mod1 and mod3.

Creating a mod

To create a mod, place the files you want to add or use as overrides into a folder, and then place that folder in the resources/mods folder. Mods have a more streamlined folder structure than EmptyEpsilon itself.

Mod folder structure

A mod folder is the equivalent of the resources, scripts, and packs folders all at once, so whatever is in the mod's top folder is equivalent to being in all of those subfolders. If you want to override an existing asset, you must place it at a similar relative path within the mod.

For example, if you have a mod installed to resources/mods/custom_mod, then:

• the default GUI image resources/gui/widget/SelectorArrow.png will be overridden by the mod's file located at resources/mods/custom_mod/gui/widget/SelectorArrow.png
• the default script scripts/factionInfo.lua will be overridden by the mod's file located at resources/mods/custom_mod/factionInfo.lua

If you intend to override a file contained in an encrypted pack file, see Model and texture paths in PACK files for the equivalent paths.