intro.md

Intro

Beat Saber is made in Unity 2018 using C# with .NET framework 4.6.

Download the latest version of Visual Studio Community.

There are multiple templates that you can choose to install.

BSIPA

DaNike includes a modding template if you intend to make your plugin using BSIPA. Simply grab the template .zip from the latest release!

IPA

If you wish to use the older IPA, the BS Plugin Template by Kyle1413 includes more options to guide you, as well as a basic use case of CustomUI. We will be using this for the Mod Tutorial, however intend to upgrade to BSIPA in the near future.

However, if you wish to go more barebones, here is the older Beat Saber Plugin Template by RQ.

Template setup

Install Instructions:

1. Open C:\Users\You\Documents\Visual Studio 2019\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C#.
2. Drop in BeatSaberIPAProjectTemplate.zip. You do not need to extract the contents here, dropping the zipped file will work.

After you have place the zip file in the correct directory, open Visual Studio 2019 and create a new project. You should see the Beat Saber Plugin Template in the Visual C# section. Create a new project using the template.

If you intend on making a mod to be published to BeatMods, you will have to rename the assembly to your mod. Using the default assembly name won't cut it!

To rename the assembly:

1. In the Solution Explorer panel, double click on Properties.

2. Change the text in the textbox Assembly name.

While you're at it, make sure your Target Framework (Shown above) is above 4.6, if you're using BSIPA. You can just set it to the highest in that dropdown, such as 4.7.1.

Changing copy directory

If you are using Kyle1413's BS Template, it comes with a built in post-build event that attempts to copy your built file to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Beat Saber\Plugins

If your Beat Saber install is located here, no worries. If not, we need to change this.

1. Under Project, click on <Project Name> Properties... at the very bottom of the dropdown.
2. In the menu that pops up, click Build Events
3. Replace the last directory in the Post-build event command line (The directory should look like the one above) with the directory to your Plugins folder.
4. Save and exit that menu.

If the template you're using does not have a build event, add copy /Y "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).dll" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Beat Saber\Plugins\$(TargetName).dll" to the Post-build event. Match your Beat Saber install folder if you have a different one.

Check out the code

In the solution explorer, double click on Plugin.cs to open it up. You should see something like this. It'll look different depending on the template, but should look similar.

Note the red squiggly underlines. This is means Visual Studio can't find our references.

Fixing references

To do this, right click on References in the Solution Explorer, and select Add Reference...

This will open the Reference Manager window, and you can browse to find the DLL files that are missing. Most of these files will be located within \<Beat Saber directory>\Beat Saber_Data\Managed

(For IPA, use IllusionInjector and IllusionPlugin. For BSIPA, IPA.Loader is all that you need)

Some Libraries are located in the Plugins folder as well. Check there for any libraries you forgot to add.

The most popular libraries located in the Plugins folder include:

• Async Twitch
• Beat Saber Utils
• CustomUI

Can't find your Beat Saber directory? See install folder.

Compiling the plugin

If you have fixed all of the references in the project, on the top menu bar press Build -> Build Solution or CTRL + SHIFT + B

Your compiled DLL should appear in the \Bin\Debug folder of your project, or copied over to your Plugins folder, depending on what template you use.

You can then copy this DLL into the Plugins folder within your Beat Saber directory.

Moving forward

Check out the example mod tutorial.