Editing Modding Tutorials/Folder structure

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In this tutorial you will explore Rimworld's folder structure.<br/><br/>

=What you'll learn=

You'll learn what content folders starting from your RimWorld starting location have and what use they might have in modding.<br/><br/>

=Base game folder structure=

* '''Mac users''': [[Installing_mods#Installation|Installing Mods]] details how to enter your Rimworld directory.<br/>

==The RimWorld****** root==

In your Rimworld install directory, you can find five folders, some text files and your RimWorld******.exe file:<br/>

  RimWorld*******/
    Data/
    Mods/
    MonoBleedingEdge/
    RimWorld******_Data/
    Source/
    Readme.txt
    RimWorld******.exe
    Version.txt
    ...

We will focus on the four main folders for modding:
* Data
* Mods
* RimWorld******_Data
* Source

Some of the files are pretty self explanatory; Readme.txt contains a readme, Version.txt contains the version string and the .exe starts the game. <br/>
You don't need to bother about all the other files and directories to start your modding journey.<br/><br/>

==The Mods folder==
{{Main|Modding Tutorials/Mod folder structure}}<br/>

The Data folder contains a Core folder with most if not all XML files used by Rimworld:<br/>

  RimWorld******/
    Data/
      Core/

Mods you download will be placed in the Mods folder:<br/>
  RimWorld******/
    Mods/

Each mod's folder may contain the following folders:<br/>

{| class="wikitable"
! Folder !! Contents !! Description
|-
| [[Modding Tutorials/Mod folder structure#The About folder|About]] || ''About.xml'' and ''Preview.png'' || These files are used in the in-game mods list. They contain some info about the mod and an unformatted text description.
|-
| [[Modding Tutorials/Mod folder structure#The Source and Assemblies folders|Assemblies]] || Custom .DLL files || Mods with custom C# code have a .DLL file in this folder.
|-
| [[Modding Tutorials/Mod folder structure#The Defs folders|Defs]] || All defs || All XML code is stored in this folder, usually further categorized in subfolders and -files.
|-
| [[Modding Tutorials/Mod folder structure#The Languages folder|Languages]] || All translations || Every language file contains a DefInjected folder with a translation for everything in the game.
|-
| [[Modding Tutorials/Mod folder structure#The Patches folder|Patches]] || All patches || All xpath PatchOperations are stored in this folder.
|-
| [[Modding Tutorials/Mod folder structure#The Textures and Sounds folders|Sounds]] || All sounds || Even though the main game's sounds are stored in compressed resource files, mods might use a folder for them.
|-
| [[Modding Tutorials/Mod folder structure#The Source and Assemblies folders|Source]] || Assemblies' source code || Mods with an Assemblies folder might store source code for the C# code in here.
|-
| [[Modding Tutorials/Mod folder structure#The Textures and Sounds folders|Textures]] || All textures || The main game uses compressed resource files to store textures, but most mods store textures here.
|}<br/>

==RimWorld******_Data folder==

This folder contains a few files which are important for the base game but not necessarily important for modding it:<br/>

  RimWorld******/
    RimWorld******_Data/
      Managed/
      Plugins
      Resources/
      level0
      mainData
      output_log.txt
      resources.assets
      resources.assets.resS
      sharedassets0.assets
      sharedassets1.assets

These files are; .DLL's which contain the game code, compressed resource files containing the game graphics and audio, several files automatically generated by Unity which contain settings and such, a copy of Mono and a Steamworks .DLL.<br/>

What you might at one point be interested in are the Managed/ folder and output_log.txt, which contain .DLL's required for writing custom C# code and a more detailed version of the game's debug log.<br/><br/>

==Source folder==

This folder contains a small amount of the game's C# source code:<br/>

  RimWorld******/
    Source/
      RimWorld/
      Verse/

These can be seen as tiny examples someone might use to get started with C# modding.<br/>
Anyone interested in bigger chunks of the source code is better off [[Modding Tutorials/Decompiling source code|decompiling it]] by themselves.<br/><br/>

=Next up=

*[[Modding Tutorials/Mod folder structure|Mod Folder Structure]]

[[Category:Modding tutorials]]