CoderTrevor's Adventures in Deep Rock Galactic Modding

Journey 0: Gotta go fast!

By the end of this journey, you'll have a development environment that lets you get into your mod with a simple hotkey.

In my opinion, having minimal time between making a change and seeing results is the secret sauce of an enjoyable software project. By putting in a little bit of effort upfront, you'll be able to iterate on your mod quickly and avoid wasting time. It may seem like it only takes a little bit of time to package and run your project manually, but it adds up!

This lesson is Windows-specific, but the concepts will apply to any system. If you're on Mac or Linux, I recommend doing some research to see what's available to speed up your workflow. Please let me know what you find and I'll update this guide.

If you get stuck anywhere along the way, here is how my project folder looks after completing this journey. Note that you'll need to change DRGModdingAutomationScripts\Configs\LocalConfig.ini to match the UE4 and DRG install paths on your system.


Part 1: Setting up FSD-Template & DRG modding automation scripts

These repositories will do all of the heavy-lifting of setting up a project and getting it packaged and running quickly. Follow the instructions on the FSD-Template GitHub page to get started.


Part 1a: Get the files onto your local machine.

I think most of my audience is probably comfortable navigating GitHub and checking out projects. If that's not the case, let me know and I'll expand this section.


Part 1b: Configure DRG modding automation scripts.

This is really easy. First, navigate to your project folder and then open DRGModdingAutomationScripts\UtilityBats and then run MakeDefaultConfigFiles.bat.

Next, go up one folder and open Configs\LocalConfig.ini in your favorite text editor.

Change the first line to ProjectFile=..\FSD.uproject. Change the next two lines as needed. On my system, the file ends up looking like this:

ProjectFile=..\FSD.uproject UnrealEngineLocation=C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.27\ SteamInstall=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Deep Rock Galactic\

Now, go back to the DRGModdingAutomationScripts directory and run QuickTestMod.bat. When you see (F = file, D = directory)? press "f". You should now see your mod launched!

Part 2: Using AutoHotkey to launch your mod with a hotkey

Download and install AutoHotkey version 1.1. Then, download and save this file to your project directory.

For reference, here's the contents of this script:
; The next four lines are providing by AHK when creating a new script #NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases. #Warn ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors. SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%\DRGModdingAutomationScripts ; Ensures a consistent starting directory. ; This allows the script to be edited more easily while it's running. Ctrl-s will save it and reload it. ~^s:: reload return ; If the active window belongs to the Unreal Editor #IfWinActive ahk_class UnrealWindow ; Respond to win-p #p:: ; Assume the name of the folder this script is in describes the project and present a ; traytip to the user saying this project is being packed. SplitPath, A_ScriptDir, dir, TrayTip, Packing, %dir% ; Use DRGModdingAutomationScripts to pack and run the script Run, QuickTestMod.bat WinWaitActive ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass Send f ; When the console window closes, stop displaying the tray tip WinWaitNotActive ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass TrayTip return

When this script is running and the Unreal Editor is open, you can hold the windows key and press p and your mod will immediately be packed and launched!

I chose win-p as the hotkey in part because it doesn't do anything in the Unreal Editor. You can change the script and choose any hotkey you want. Check the help for AutoHotkey for more information on defining hotkeys.

A final note about Autohotkey - It's really cool and I encourage you to learn how to use it to automate your other tasks. However, with its functionality comes some downsides. It's a popular choice among cheaters, so I should let you know that if you find you can't launch some of your favorite games, check to make sure this script isn't running and exit it by right-clicking on the "H" icon in the taskbar.


That's it! I hope you'll enjoy being able to quickly iterate on your mods with next to no effort. Check out the next journey when we get to some actual modding.