#1 Mod Support Addition (Fast & easy to add, benefits everyone)

[FirefightGI]

I would like to note that I have been a daily user of Unity for about 5 years now using it for both non-commercial and commercial work and have followed the game since kickstarter. That said I'm a game dev, I like modding.

 

One of the major blockers for me making an external mod toolkit with a nice GUI is the fact that we need the Unity editor to create asset bundles to add to the game. Now I have tried to reverse engineer Unity's asset bundle system but without much luck. So instead of modders requiring a whole game engine in order to import content consider this:

 

https://assetstore.unity.com/package...-package-91777

 

TriLib: it's $25 package from the Unity Asset Store, I have used this A LOT, it can be set up in under an hour.

 

What it does is allows the runtime import of 3D models including rigged characters and animations.

 

A barebones implementation would be a command or XML argument to lookup a file path to send to TriLib.

 

Better yet would be an in-game editor/automated system/XML params to enforce that things are set up correctly i.e. things oriented, parented right, scripts attached

 

 

This would do 2 things

1) Modders can eventually ditch having to have the right version of Unity installed to create asset bundles.

2) Modders would not have to decompile your game files and have access to the source art assets/prefabs to look at how things are oriented.

bonus 3) Replace existing art via xml?

 

In my experience using TriLib in projects you may have to create a way for imported models to persist such as keep them in a pool tagged "don't destroy on load" and/or a mod file format that can store "prefab" like info so models don't have to go through the setup process each time the game is loaded. i.e. convert them to XML with the path for the 3D model stored.

 

 

 

I have not posted in pimp dreams since like 2016 so idk if the devs will ever see this in the flood of posts, but if this is to be implemented please feel free to ask me questions about the system in a modding context since I have implemented it a few times in commercial projects. or just hire me for a month...