What mods can do

This page lists what mods can do in OpenReliant. Each line links to where the feature is explained, and to an example mod that shows it, where there is one. Modding and Scripting explain the features in full, and examples/mods holds the examples, with comments in their files.

A mod is a folder or an archive in the game folder's mods folder (A first mod). It never changes the game's files on disk, and players turn mods on and off, and set their order, on the mods screen (The mods screen).

Replace the game's files

A mod can Read Example
Replace any of the game's files by its name: a model, a sound bank, a piece of music, a line of speech, a face, a movie, a mission or a stats table How files are replaced trent
Add files under new names, for its own models, missions and scripts to use How files are replaced teapot
Replace a piece of music, which loops back where the game's does Music
Replace the pilots' faces, with sharper films than the game's if they like, and the lines they say Faces and voices trent
Give lines of speech, briefings and Enriquez's scenes as WAV or MP3 recordings, which play as recorded Lines

Change the look

A mod can Read Example
Replace textures with PNG pictures of any size, or with DDS and KTX2 files compressed already Textures
Give surfaces normal, material and glow maps, lit as today's games light them Material maps
Draw the ships differently in the loadout Textures in the loadout
Replace the interface's shapes, sharp at any window size Shapes
Replace the screens' backgrounds, widescreen ones included Pictures
Replace the interface's fonts with TrueType or OpenType fonts Fonts
Change how surfaces are lit, with GLSL surface and lighting functions Surface and lighting functions cel-shading
Draw post effects over the frame Post effects crt
Replace OpenReliant's own shaders Replacing OpenReliant's shaders

Add ships, weapons and pilots

A mod can Read Example
Add ship types, based on one of the game's or on none, with their own model, cockpit, display pictures and engine sound, offered on the loadout Ship types teapot, interceptor
Add guns, with their own shots, sounds and muzzle flashes Guns bananas
Add missiles, with their own models, offered on the loadout Missiles bananas
Add pilots, with their own faces and voices Pilots bananas
Build models from OBJ or glTF files, and export the game's models as glTF Models teapot, bananas
Change the stats of every ship, gun, missile and pilot, and the game's text The records balance, trent

Missions and game modes

A mod can Read Example
Replace missions, or add new ones, in the standard .DTE format Missions
Start a mission partway, or watch any of its ships, to check it Checking a mission
Run scripts with one mission Kinds of scripts
Say lines on the radio, to add chatter or voice a mission that has none The radio
Set the state of a mission's objectives, for a mission whose script doesn't A mission's objectives
Set the player's target and the mission's primary target, such as the next component to destroy The player's target
Add game modes to the main menu, with rules of their own Game modes arena, interceptor
Add campaigns, with briefing screens and movies Campaigns campaign
Put missions into the game's own campaign, or replace its missions, with each one's briefing, carrier, objectives, date, awards, Enriquez's report and debriefing, the ITAC's news, the landing and the chapter's news, the wing's pilots, and the rules the game applies to particular missions, through the game's rooms and saved games The campaign's missions, Each mission of the campaign
Change the pilots of the ITAC's KILLBOARD, and the missions they join, leave and sit out The KILLBOARD's pilots
Change the stats and the text for a game mode's missions alone, leaving the game's campaign as it is Game modes

Change how the game plays

A mod can Read Example
Hook the game's functions, such as damage, shots, missile launches, orders and the mission script's commands, to change or stop them Hooks rules
React to the mission's events, such as a ship destroyed or docked Mission and engine events rules, tally
Change what the radio says Changing what the radio says arena, teapot
Run a script on each ship of a class or a type Object scripts wingmen
Run a script on each missile in flight, to retarget it or set it off Missile scripts
Run a script on each turret, to choose what it aims at Turret scripts
Give ships orders, and add AI orders of their own Orders, Custom AI orders custom-order, wingmen
Change the AI's combat maneuvers, add new ones, and choose which one a fighting ship flies Combat maneuvers
Move, scale, align, reword or hide the text and pictures inside the game's instruments, such as the speaker's name and face, without replacing them The instruments' parts
Draw the power window's ball in a display of their own The game's instruments
Choose the pilot who flies a ship Objects bananas
Find what's near a ship, and work with positions and angles Where things are wingmen
List a ship's parts and attachment points, and see which are destroyed A ship's parts
Destroy ships, or one of their components, such as a shield generator A ship's parts
Keep data with each saved game and across every game, and run timers Saved games, Storage, Timers tally
Let scripts and mods talk to each other Events, Interfaces wingmen

The display, the menus and the controls

A mod can Read Example
Draw over the flight display and the menus: text, lines, rectangles, the mod's pictures and fonts, and the game's shapes Drawing, Pictures, shapes and fonts dvd, drawing-assets
Add displays to the flight display HUD displays arena, strafe-run
Replace, move and scale the game's HUD instruments, and read what they show The game's instruments hud-layout
Add screens, and replace the front end's Screens, Replacing a screen main-menu, strafe-run
Add camera views Camera views strafe-run
Hear the keys and the game's controls, and add controls the player binds on the controls screen Keys and actions custom-order, strafe-run
Play the game's sounds and music, and Betty's lines Sound
Offer a page of options on the mods screen Options wingmen

Tools for mod makers

Tool Read
sltool, which extracts the game's files, and builds models, face films, lines and archives Tools
Starting and checking a mission from the command line Checking a mission
A console in the game, and scripts that reload as they're saved The console, Reloading
Completion and type checks in an editor Editors
Lines and text drawn in the world, to see what a script does Debug drawing
The log, which says what each mod's files do Log messages
Packing a mod into one archive, with a checksum and a thumbnail Sharing a mod

Not yet

These are planned, each in an issue:

  • Sounds, music and movies in today's formats, and lines of speech in FLAC, Ogg Vorbis or Opus (#496)
  • Campaigns of more than 28 missions (#987)
  • Post effects that read the scene's depth (#633)
  • KTX2 files with Basis Universal data (#637)
  • The loadout's panels and the power ball at any size (#509)
  • Outline fonts for the loadout panels' text and the flight display's small fonts (#520)
  • The game's models exported with all their detail levels and parts (#697)
  • A mission source format, and a visual mission and script builder (#608, #360)
  • Starting a mission partway with the state its earlier parts set (#577)

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