Source Mod Installers

Extra thanks to Garry Newman for relaying the basics of a mod installer.

For this, you need NSIS and HM NIS Edit.

Note:To automate the file list, use the NSIS Script Wizard in HM NIS Edit, then copy the list to your setup.nsi.

Note:You might want to be sure to include a ZIP-compressed version of the mod as a download. This will make it so people who are uneasy with EXE files able to get the mod.

Code from setup.nsi

!define PRODUCT_NAME "Mod's Name"
!define PRODUCT_VERSION "Release Version"
!define PRODUCT_PUBLISHER "Mod Team/Company Name"
!define PRODUCT_WEB_SITE "Mod Website"

!define APPID 220

!define MODDIR "Mod's root directory"
;(i.e. cstrike)

!define LOCALDIR "C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods"
;This value should be set depending on the PC this will be compiled under

!define MUI_ICON "Installer Icon"
;This is the location on the local computer where the icon for the installer executable is.

!define FULL_GAME_NAME "Full Game Name"
;This is the name of the game defined in gameinfo.txt
;Remove all colons from this (as well as any other invalid char in a file name)

!define DESKICO "Desktop Icon"
;This is the location on the local computer where the icon for the desktop icon for the game is.
;The icon name must be the same as the one in gameinfo.txt
;Remove all colons from this (as well as any other invalid char in a file name)

;Uncomment this if you do not wish to have a custom desktop icon:
;!define NO_DESKTOP_ICON

;Uncomment this if you want to use ZipDLL
;The zip file should be in the LOCALDIR for this
;!define ZIPDLL


;======DO NOT EDIT BEYOND THIS POINT======

!ifdef ZIPDLL
	!include "zipdll.nsh"
!endif

var ICONDIR
var STEAMEXE

!include "MUI.nsh"
!define MUI_ABORTWARNING
!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_COMPONENTS
!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_INSTFILES
!insertmacro MUI_LANGUAGE "English"

Name "${PRODUCT_NAME} ${PRODUCT_VERSION}"
OutFile "Setup.exe"
ShowInstDetails show

Section "Mod Files" FILES
	SetOverwrite ifdiff
	SetOutPath "$INSTDIR"
!ifdef ZIPDLL
	File "${LOCALDIR}\${MODDIR}.zip"
	StrCpy $R0 "$INSTDIR\${MODDIR}.zip"
	ZipDLL::extractall "$R0" "$INSTDIR"
	Delete "$R0"
!else
	File /r "${LOCALDIR}\${MODDIR}"
!endif

!ifndef NO_DESKTOP_ICON
	SetOutPath "$ICONDIR"
	File "${DESKICO}"
!endif

SectionEnd
!ifndef NO_DESKTOP_ICON
Section "Desktop Shortcut" SHORTCUT
	SetOutPath "$DESKTOP"
	CreateShortcut "${FULL_GAME_NAME}.lnk" $STEAMEXE \
		'-applaunch ${APPID} -game "$INSTDIR"' "$ICONDIR\${FULL_GAME_NAME}.ico"
SectionEnd
!endif
Page custom Finish
Function Finish
  MessageBox MB_OK|MB_ICONEXCLAMATION "Steam must be restarted for the game to show on the games list."
FunctionEnd
Function .onInit
	ReadRegStr $R0 HKLM "Software\Valve\Steam" InstallPath
	ReadRegStr $R1 HKCU "Software\Valve\Steam" SourceModInstallPath
	IfErrors lbl_error 0
	StrCpy $INSTDIR "$R1\${MODDIR}"
!ifndef NO_DESKTOP_ICON
	StrCpy $ICONDIR "$R0\steam\games"
	SectionSetFlags ${SHORTCUT} 0
	StrCpy $STEAMEXE "$R0\steam.exe"
!endif
	SectionSetFlags ${FILES} 17
	Return
	lbl_error:
		ClearErrors
		SectionSetFlags ${FILES} 17
FunctionEnd

See Also

• Steam 3rd Party Mod Support
• NSIS Wiki
• ZipDLL plug-in —  Zip decompression support
• UnTGZ plug-in —  Gzip &  Bzip2 decompression support
• @icon sushi
• NSIS Basic Installer dodbits.com

It's a great free icon application. Supports XP icons.

• IconXP

It's a great icon application with a trial version available