Tobey's BepInEx Pack for Chained Echoes

Important

At present, Steam users must switch to the kickstarteralphabacker beta branch to use this BepInEx pack!

This is a BepInEx pack for Chained Echoes, preconfigured and ready to use on Windows, macOS and Linux (including SteamOS)!

BepInEx is a general purpose framework for Unity modding. BepInEx includes tools and libraries to

• load custom code (hereafter plugins) into the game on launch;
• patch in-game methods, classes and even entire assemblies without touching original game files;
• configure plugins and log game to desired outputs like console or file;
• manage plugin dependencies.

BepInEx is currently one of the most popular modding tools for Unity on GitHub.

This pack's contents

This pack is preconfigured and ready to use for Chained Echoes modding.
In particular, this pack comes with:

• Tobey.FileTree, a configurable BepInEx plugin which logs the game's file tree to aid in troubleshooting issues, and
• the mscorlib.dll assembly for Unity v2020.3.36 as the one shipped with the game has certain features removed. This enables compatibility with Unity Explorer's REPL functionality, as well as any plugin requiring access to the System.Reflection.Emit namespace, among others.

Easy Automated Installation

Important

With just this pack installed, you will not see any changes in-game!

Check the LogOutput.log file in the BepInEx folder to determine whether BepInEx has loaded.

Windows (Vortex)

Vortex is a tool for installing and managing mods on Windows. It can install all kinds of mods for Chained Echoes and other games, including this pack.

1. Install Vortex Mod Manager and the Chained Echoes Support extension if you haven't already. Make sure they're fully up-to-date.
2. In Vortex, simply begin managing Chained Echoes from the Games tab, and Vortex will automatically install the BepInEx Pack for you.
3. Check the 🔔 notifications area at the top right of Vortex:
   • If you see a notification saying "Elevation needed to deploy," click Elevate and authorize the elevation.
   • If you see any other notifications saying "Deployment needed" or similar, click Deploy.
4. Run the game.

macOS (gib)

gib is a command-line tool which automates installation of BepInEx on macOS, as installing it manually is quite cumbersome and error-prone. gib makes it easy.

1. Download Tobey's BepInEx Pack for Chained Echoes. Make sure to unzip it in your Downloads folder if your browser doesn't do this automatically.
2. Open Terminal with Launchpad or Spotlight (press ⌘ Space, type terminal and press Enter).
3. Copy the command from the Usage section of the gib README and paste it into the Terminal with ⌘ V, and press Enter to run it.

If you get stuck, refer to the gib README for help.

Manual Installation

Warning

It is strongly recommended that macOS users install with gib, as manual installation on macOS is extremely tedious and error prone!

Tip

The game folder is the folder containing the game's executable (e.g. Chained Echoes.exe).

Steam users can find the game folder by right-clicking the game in their Steam library and selecting Manage -> Browse local files.

To install manually, follow these instructions:

1. Download Tobey's BepInEx Pack for Chained Echoes.
2. Extract the contents of the downloaded archive into the game folder.
   ℹ️ That just means open the .zip file and drag the files and folders out into the game folder!
3. Depending on your operating system:
   • Windows users: Run the game.
   • Linux & macOS users: Follow the configuration instructions for your operating system below:

Important

With just this pack installed, you will not see any changes in-game!

Check the LogOutput.log file in the BepInEx folder to determine whether BepInEx has loaded.

Configuration on Linux (SteamOS etc.)

1. If you don't own the game on Steam, add it to Steam as a non-Steam game.
2. Make the run_bepinex.sh executable with chmod u+x run_bepinex.sh
3. In Steam, go to the game's properties and set the launch arguments to:

   ./run_bepinex.sh %command%
   

   It may be necessary to replace ./run_bepinex.sh with an absolute path to the script in your game folder.
4. Run the game via Steam.

At this moment you may not see any clear indication that BepInEx is working. It is suggested to test by installing a simple plugin such as ConfigurationManager and then pressing F1 to open the Configuration Manager window.

Configuration on macOS

1. If you don't own the game on Steam, add it to Steam as a non-Steam game.
2. Make the run_bepinex.sh executable in Terminal with chmod u+x run_bepinex.sh
3. In Steam, go to the game's properties and set the launch arguments to:

   "<path to game folder>/run_bepinex.sh" %command%
   

   Make sure to replace <path to game folder> with the path to the folder where Chained Echoes is installed!
4. Run the game via Steam.
5. At this point, you may see a prompt warning you that libdoorstop_x64.dylib cannot be opened because the developer is unverified. In this case:
   1. Open System Preferences.
   2. Go to Security & Privacy and select the General tab.
   3. Towards the bottom you should see a message saying that the program was blocked from opening. Click Open Anyway and confirm the prompt that pops up.
   4. Run the game via Steam.

At this moment you will not see any clear indication that BepInEx is working. It is suggested to test by installing a simple plugin such as Configuration Manager and then pressing F1 to open the Configuration Manager window.

Installing mods

Note

The paths in this section are relative to the game folder, i.e. BepInEx/plugins = [game folder]/BepInEx/plugins, where [game folder] is the path to the folder containing the game's executable (e.g. Chained Echoes.exe).

Steam users can find the game folder by right-clicking the game in their Steam library and selecting Manage -> Browse local files.

Tip

"Extract the .zip" simply means take the contents of the .zip file and put them in the specified location.

For example, if you are told to "extract the .zip" or "extract the contents of the archive" into BepInEx/plugins, then you can simply open the .zip archive by double-clicking on it, then just select everything inside and drag the contents into your BepInEx/plugins folder. Easy!

It is strongly recommended to read and follow the instructions provided in the description of each mod you download.

However, sometimes mod authors don't give good (or any) instructions, or you just can't be bothered to read them (we've all been there). For those occasions, here's a simple reference:

Mod installation by type

Mod type	Where to extract the .zip
BepInEx plugin	BepInEx/plugins
BepInEx patcher	BepInEx/patchers

Mod installation by .zip structure

Folder located in root of .zip	Where to extract the .zip
BepInEx	Directly in the game folder
plugins	BepInEx
patchers	BepInEx

I still can't figure it out!

First, double check and follow the instructions on the mod page. If you still can't figure it out or there aren't any instructions on the mod page, you'll have to get in touch with the author of the mod somehow. Your best bet is usually going to be the Nexus Mods posts tab of that mod. Make sure to check that the question hasn't already been asked and answered.

Useful links for mod authors

• BepInEx: writing basic plugin walkthrough
• BepInEx: useful plugins for modding
• BepInEx: patching game methods at runtime

Issues, questions, etc.

First, please make sure to check that the answer you're looking for isn't already somewhere on this page. Use Ctrl+F to search for keywords.

Second, check the FAQ to see if there is an answer there.

If not, at this moment, you can use the following channels to ask for help:

• Nexus Mods posts tab
• GitHub issues
• BepInEx Discord -- Intended for developers, only technical support for BepInEx itself will be provided. No support for mods.

Licensing

This GitHub repository contains no code or binaries from external sources, only code used to automatically put together a preconfigured .zip of the BepInEx pack.

However, the .zip created by this repository's code contains binaries from the following projects, redistributed without modification and in accordance with their licenses:

Project	License(s)
BepInEx	LGPL-2.1
Tobey.FileTree	LGPL-3.0

The code in this repository is licensed under the LGPL-2.1 license.