Setup mod on Steam

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Mod files

In order to launch your mod, the necessary files need to be created in your steamapps folder. Source SDK 2013 provides some base files for you in the game/ directory. This folder contains all the necessary assets, binaries and scripts for your mod, the most important being gameinfo.txt, bin/client.dll and bin/server.dll.

• Singleplayer: Copy the directory from <your mod>/sp/game/mod_hl2 (or mod_episodic) to <steam_path>/steamapps/sourcemods/<your mod>
• Multiplayer: Copy the directory from <your mod>/mp/game/mod_hl2mp to <steam_path>/steamapps/sourcemods/<your mod>

Restart Steam after this step and you will find your mod listed in your Steam library. Every time you rebuild your binaries, you will need to make sure to copy them to your mod directory under sourcemods/ before you launch your mod.

Symlink mod directory

It would get tedious to copy over the mod directory every time we build our binaries, so instead we can symlink our mod_ folder so that it is always up-to-date. First, delete the folder we created in the previous step under sourcemods/ (if you have no other mods installed, this directory should be empty now).

• Open up your terminal (Windows: cmd.exe, OS X: Applications/Utilities/Terminal, Linux: xterm or terminal)
• Navigate to directory <steam_path>/sourcemods/
• Create a symlink to your mod directory
  • Windows: mklink /J <mod_name> <path_to_source>/<sp|mp>/game/<mod_hl2mp|mod_hl2|mod_episodic>
  • Linux: mkdir <mod_name> && sudo mount --bind <path_to_source>/<sp|mp>/game/<mod_hl2mp|mod_hl2|mod_episodic> <mod_name>

Now, every time you update assets or rebuild your code in your game/mod_ directory the changes will automatically be there the next time you launch your mod.

Change output directory

You can change the output directory of your binaries to something other than mod_hl2, mod_episodic or mod_hl2mp by right clicking Project -> Properties -> Build events -> Post build events and changing the paths as desired. This must be done for both Client and Server.

Example

if not exist "..\..\..\game\MY_MOD\bin\." mkdir "..\..\..\game\MY_MOD\bin\."
copy "$(TargetDir)$(TargetFileName)" "..\..\..\game\MY_MOD\bin\.\$(TargetFileName)"
if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto BuildEventFailed
if exist "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).map" copy "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).map" ..\..\..\game\MY_MOD\bin\.\$(TargetName).map
copy "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).pdb" ..\..\..\game\MY_MOD\bin\.\$(TargetName).pdb
if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto BuildEventFailed
goto BuildEventOK
:BuildEventFailed
echo *** ERROR! PostBuildStep FAILED for $(ProjectName)! EXE or DLL is probably running. ***
del /q "$(TargetDir)$(TargetFileName)"
exit 1
:BuildEventOK

Problems with running your mod

If, at startup, after the intro video, your mod crashes while Steam is active, but it runs without problem if Steam is shut down, then you follow these instructions:

1. - to Open file steam_api.h (src\public\steam)
2. - Find this and DELETE/COMMENT (Lines 551 - 562):

	m_pSteamMusicRemote = SteamClient()->GetISteamMusicRemote( hSteamUser, hSteamPipe, STEAMMUSICREMOTE_INTERFACE_VERSION );
	if ( !m_pSteamMusicRemote )
	{
		return false;
	}
	
	m_pSteamHTMLSurface = SteamClient()->GetISteamHTMLSurface( hSteamUser, hSteamPipe, STEAMHTMLSURFACE_INTERFACE_VERSION );
	if ( !m_pSteamHTMLSurface )
	{
		return false;
	}