Astroneer ModdingKit

This is an SDK for modding Astroneer. It was last updated for Astroneer version 1.36.42.0 (MEGATECH).

Usage Guide

Visit the astroneermodding.readthedocs.io website for more information on using this kit.

Linux Usage

It is possible to build the Unreal Engine for Linux (Ubuntu) and use the Modding Kit to develop mods. Please note that this is a very advanced topic. You can follow the following instructions:

1. Download the source code for the Unreal Engine 4.27. Follow this guide: https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/downloading-source-code-in-unreal-engine

   • You can clone the Unreal Engine source code for 4.27 by executing the following on the command line: git clone -b 4.27 https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine.git

2. Build the engine. Follow this guide: https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/blob/4.27/Engine/Build/BatchFiles/Linux/README.md

3. In your directory of choice, execute git clone https://github.com/AstroTechies/ModdingKit.git && cd ModdingKit.

4. If you would like to also build the ModDeployer plugin, additional steps are required. The required steps are provided below. Otherwise, skip to step 5.

   • Download appropriate clang+llvm-11.0.1 binaries for LLVM 11.0.1 from GitHub for your particular distribution: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/releases/tag/llvmorg-11.0.1 (for latest Ubuntu, you can use the ubuntu-20.10.tar.xz binaries)

   • Navigate to the folder where the .tar.gz was downloaded in a terminal window and execute the following commands:

     export NEW_LIBCPP_PATH="$HOME/.llvm-libcpp-11.0.1"
     mkdir -p $NEW_LIBCPP_PATH
     tar --wildcards --transform='s#^.*/##' -xvf clang+llvm-11.0.1-*.tar.xz -C $NEW_LIBCPP_PATH **/libc++*
     

     This will extract libc++ binaries from the .tar.xz file into the ~/.llvm-libcpp-11.0.1 directory. If you would like, you can change NEW_LIBCPP_PATH to point to a different directory, but you will have to modify the NEW_LIBCPP_PATH variable in the Plugins/ModDeployer/Source/ModDeployer/ModDeployer.Build.cs file to reflect the change.

   • Skip to step 6.

5. If you would like to skip building the ModDeployer plugin, uncomment (remove the // at the start of) the line DisablePlugins.Add("ModDeployer"); in Source/Astro.Target.cs and Source/AstroEditor.Target.cs and continue.

6. Execute /path/to/your/engine/directory/Engine/Build/BatchFiles/RunUAT.sh BuildCookRun -Build -Project=$(pwd)/Astro.uproject on the command line. Replace /path/to/your/engine/directory/ with the root path of your built copy of the Unreal Engine.

7. Launch the Unreal Editor as normal. If desired, you can do this either via the graphical user interface or via the command line: /path/to/your/engine/directory/Engine/Binaries/Linux/UE4Editor $(pwd)/Astro.uproject

   • If you receive a prompt that says "This project was made with a different version of the Unreal Engine," choose "More Options..." and "Skip conversion."

Note: material assets and mesh assets cooked on Linux often do not work properly in-game. A workaround is not currently known. It is currently recommended to only cook assets on Windows, if possible.

Kit Generation Guide

If you are interested in re-generating the Source directory on your own, e.g. for updating it to a future version, the process is as follows. This is not needed to make mods, and should only be done by advanced users.

1. Dump a set of UHT-compatible headers with UE4SS. You may wish to reference this guide for further information: https://docs.ue4ss.com/guides/generating-uht-compatible-headers.html.

2. Build and execute the the UE4GameProjectGenerator commandlet on 4.27 with the dumped UE4SS headers, an Astro.upluginmanifest file extracted from an Astroneer game .pak file, and the .uproject file provided in this repository. You may need to modify the Astro.upluginmanifest file by hand to remove the AstroTests plugin.

3. Make sure that your local copy of the kit is up-to-date. Execute the process_game_dump.py file in your local copy of the kit with the game project directory you specified in the previous step as the first parameter:

python process_game_dump.py <game project directory from previous step>

4. You're done!

5. If the kit now fails to compile, you may need to modify or add your own entries to the dump_modifiers.json file and repeat step 3 to correct the compilation error.

Contributions

Please feel free to submit issues or pull requests to this project. It is requested that you modify the LICENSE.md file as part of your pull request to provide a license agreement for any files or directories that you contribute to the project.