Modding Tutorials/Decompiling source code

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This page was originally created by Alistaire.

The base game provides a bunch of code snippets in ../Source/, relative to your Rimworld installation. Since this isn't a lot, one might want to take a look at the game's full source code:

Decompiling source code

ILSpy

One method is to use ILSpy. This software is recommended because its settings are correct on a clean install. It is for Windows only, but you can compile it yourself as a CLI application for Mono framework on OS X and Linux, see (This issue) or (This issue) on GitHub for more info.

1. Download ILSpy (Download Binaries) and extract it to a directory of your choosing. Optionally create a desktop shortcut;
2. Either: associate the .dll extension with ILSpy:
   1. Navigate to Assembly-CSharp.dll in ../Rimworld***_Data/Managed/, relative to your Rimworld installation and with *** being a version number;
   2. Right-click "Open with" and select a standard program. Navigate to your ILSpy installation and double-click ILSpy.exe, tick the checkbox and accept;
   3. Double-click Assembly-CSharp.dll,
3. Or: open ILSpy and open a .dll:
   1. Open ILSpy;
   2. Go to File -> Open or press Ctrl+O, navigate to ../Rimworld***_Data/Managed/, relative to your Rimworld installation and with *** being a version number;
   3. Select Assembly-CSharp.dll and confirm,
4. Click the "+" next to Assembly-CSharp (***), you will now see a list including the items Rimworld and Verse;
5. Take your time to look through the source code, to make yourself familiar. If you ever need the source code, open ILSpy again:
   1. Ctrl+Shift+F or Ctrl+E opens the search bar which can be used to search through all loaded assemblies;
   2. Ctrl+F opens a search bar for the currently opened decompiled class.
      
      

Zhentar released an optimized version of ILSpy that decompiles iterators. It can be found here.

MonoDevelop

MonoDevelop is capable of decompiling DLLs, albeit using clumsy initial settings. It is Linux only, otherwise you have to download Xamarin Studio which doesn't have a decompiler.

1. Download MonoDevelop and install it;
2. Either: associate the .dll extension with MonoDevelop:
   1. Navigate to Assembly-CSharp.dll in ../Rimworld***_Data/Managed/, relative to your Rimworld installation and with *** being a version number;
   2. Right-click "Open with" and select MonoDevelop as standard program;
   3. Double-click Assembly-CSharp.dll,
3. Or: open MonoDevelop and open a .dll:
   1. Open MonoDevelop;
   2. Go to File -> Open, navigate to ../Rimworld***_Data/Managed/, relative to your Rimworld installation and with *** being a version number;
   3. Select Assembly-CSharp.dll and confirm,
4. Very important: search for a dropdown called "Visibility" and change it from "Only public members" to "All members";
5. Very important: search for a dropdown called "Language" and change it from "Summary" to "C#";
6. Click the "+" next to Assembly-CSharp (***), you will now see a list including the items Rimworld and Verse;
7. Take your time to look through the source code, to make yourself familiar. If you ever need the source code, open Assembly-CSharp.dll again.
   
   

See also

• Writing custom code shows a broad overview of C# coding.