Revision as of 20:56, 4 April 2024

< Modding Tutorials

This is a short list of programs that are useful for making mods. Most of the options listed here are free, but if you have development experience and have a favorite IDE, then by all means use what you're familiar and/or comfortable with!

XML Editors

While XML files are simple text files, basic Windows Notepad lacks any kind of syntax highlighting and rich text editors such as WordPad will insert invisible characters that are not recommended for machine-readable data files. The following are basic code editors that are recommended for writing or editing XML files:

Software	OS	Description
Notepad++	Windows	Light-weight editor with extension support. Adding the "XML Tools" plugin is recommended for editing XML files, as it adds additional validation and error-checking.
Visual Studio Code	Linux/Windows/Mac	A text editor with emphasis on productivity and extension support. Also has an excellent XML plugin.
Sublime Text	Linux/Windows/Mac	Natively supports many programming languages and markup languages, and its functionality can be extended by users with plugins - A brief overview of its functionality can be found here and a full course here
XML Notepad	Windows	XML-oriented editor with a lot of features you will most likely never use in Rimworld modding
Geany	Linux/Windows/Mac	Extremely lightweight text editor with syntax highlighting and some other basic features oriented towards XML and code editing.

IDEs

Writing C# code for custom assemblies requires not only code editing capability but also the ability to compile raw code into executable code. This is generally best done in an Integrated Development Environment that has a compiler built-in.

Software	OS	Description
Visual Studio	Windows/Mac	Microsoft's flagship IDE and strongly recommended if you are running Windows. The Community Edition is free for individuals and small teams, and does everything you need to make a RimWorld mod assembly out of the box.
SharpDevelop	Windows	Free IDE specifically made for C#
Xamarin	Windows/Mac	It's free but you need to register to download it. Xamarin is an open-source platform for building modern and performant applications for iOS, Android, and Windows with .NET. Avaliable as an extension to Visual studio 2022 and 2019
Rider	Windows/Mac/Linux	Unless you're a student it costs, but offers a lot of tools across all platforms.

Whichever IDE you choose, make sure it's capable of compiling for .NET Framework 4.7.2. If you for whatever reason don't have this framework installed, you can download it here.

C# Decompilers

See Decompiling source code

Graphics Software

For making textures you will need graphics software. Any image editing program should work, and if you have an alternative to the following links that's probably okay:

Software	OS	Description
Photofiltre Studio	Windows	Functional software with very little user interface clutter for its applications. Doesn't support pen tablet, and has a 100% free (non-trial) version called Photofiltre
Inkscape	Linux/Windows/Mac	Free vector graphic program with a steeper learning curve due to the vector based image editing. Vector graphics can look better than bitmap graphics in Rimworld
Photoshop	Windows/Mac	Paid software with a trial version. Rimworld's original graphics are made in Photoshop (they're .PSD files)
GIMP	Linux/Windows/Mac	A free, open-source alternative to Photoshop that's been around since 1998. GIMP has a large user community, with great list of tutorials on the official sites
Krita	Linux/Windows/Mac	A free digital painting software. Better suited than GIMP for painting and should feel like home pretty quick for Photoshop users.

Audio Software

Recording your own audio for mods might be too much to ask, but editing audio is always possible. This can be done with the following software or your own alternative:

Software	OS	Description
Audacity	Linux/Windows/Mac	Audio editing software with many tutorials online, lots of useful functionality and a relatively readable interface

Next up

XML File Structure starts you off with the XML side of modding.
Setting up starts you off with the C# side of modding. Knowledge of the XML part can and will be very useful.

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 =IDEs=
-C# code is best edited in an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to make the process of editing code, managing a solution's content and compiling its projects both easier and faster. Any IDE for C# will probably work just fine, so here's a list of suggested editors:<br/><br/>
+Writing C# code for custom assemblies requires not only code editing capability but also the ability to compile raw code into executable code. This is generally best done in an Integrated Development Environment that has a compiler built-in.
 {| class="wikitable"
 ! Software !! OS !! Description
 |-
-| [http://www.visualstudio.com/ Visual Studio] || Windows/Mac || Very extensive IDE with paid, trial and free versions. Any of these versions will probably work, so you might as well take [https://www.visualstudio.com/products/visual-studio-community-vs Visual Studio Community] which is free for individuals and small teams. Always the most up-to-date
+| [http://www.visualstudio.com/ Visual Studio] || Windows/Mac || Microsoft's flagship IDE and strongly recommended if you are running Windows. The [https://www.visualstudio.com/products/visual-studio-community-vs Community Edition] is free for individuals and small teams, and does everything you need to make a RimWorld mod assembly out of the box.
 |-
 | [http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/Download/ SharpDevelop] || Windows || Free IDE specifically made for C#
@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 |}
-Whichever IDE you choose, make sure it's capable of compiling for .NET Framework 4.7.2. If you for whatever reason don't have this framework installed, you can download it [https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-framework/net472 here].<br/><br/>
+Whichever IDE you choose, make sure it's capable of compiling for .NET Framework 4.7.2. If you for whatever reason don't have this framework installed, you can download it [https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-framework/net472 here].
 =C# Decompilers=

Difference between revisions of "Modding Tutorials/Recommended software"