Better Mod Manager

Better Mod Manager

Adds a "Mods" tab to the game menu: switch your UE4SS mods on and off and change their options while playing.

Features

• lists every UE4SS mod with thumbnail, author and version, including mods that know nothing about this one
• enable or disable mods with a checkbox, open their folder or Workshop page with one click
• supported mods show their options right in the menu: toggles, sliders, selections, dropdowns, text, colors with a color picker, and hotkeys
• changes apply immediately and are saved per mod, they survive mod updates
• a reset button per option and per section
• "Hotkeys" page with every hotkey in one place, rebindable, with a warning when two mods or the game use the same key
• hotkeys of unsupported mods are found in their scripts and listed read-only

Mods made for DarnMenu are supported too: a mod that registered a DarnMenu schema shows up with its options, and changes are written to the file that mod already reads. Toggles, selections, numbers with a range, text and hotkeys work; custom widgets such as lists and records still have to be edited in DarnMenu itself.

Requirements

UE4SS Experimental (Palworld)

Configuration

Optional. List width, font sizes, thumbnail sizes and where descriptions are shown can be changed in the "Mods" tab itself, under "Better Mod Manager". Texts, remaining sizes and the known keys of the game are in Scripts/config.lua inside the mod folder. Every field is documented in the file.

For mod authors: make your mod compatible

Your mod loads a small library from the Better Mod Manager folder and registers its options. Nothing is copied into your mod, and the Better Mod Manager stays optional: without it the load simply fails and your mod runs on its config file.

local scripts = debug.getinfo(1, "S").source:gsub("^@", ""):match("^(.*)[/\\]")
local cfg = dofile(scripts .. "/config.lua")

local library = loadfile(scripts .. "/../../BetterModManager/Scripts/modconfig.lua")
if library then
    local settings = library().register({
        id = "MyMod",
        name = "My Mod",
        description = "What the mod does.",
        thumbnail = scripts .. "/thumbnail.png",
        enabledKey = "Enabled",
        config = cfg,
        options = {
            { key = "Enabled", type = "toggle", label = "Enabled" },
            { key = "Strength", type = "slider", label = "Strength", min = 0, max = 1, step = 0.05,
              description = "Explains the option to the player." },
            { key = "ToggleKey", type = "hotkey", label = "Toggle", onPress = function() end },
        },
        onChange = function(key, value) cfg[key] = value end,
    })
    settings.apply(cfg)
end

• id is the only required field. Everything else is optional.
• Pass your config table as config: options take their defaults from it, and players without the Better Mod Manager keep editing the file.
• onChange runs in the game thread whenever the player changes a value. settings.values always holds the current values.
• Hotkey options are bound by the library and call onPress. Do not call RegisterKeyBind for them yourself.
• Ship your thumbnail inside Scripts, the game only installs that folder.
• Do not copy modconfig.lua into your mod. Loading it from the Better Mod Manager folder keeps every mod on the installed version.

Supported field types

Every field with a key takes label, default and description. The value type is what your mod reads from settings.values. [table] [tr][th]type[/th][th]shows[/th][th]fields[/th][th]value[/th][/tr] [tr][td]toggle[/td][td]on/off switch[/td][td][/td][td]boolean[/td][/tr] [tr][td]slider[/td][td]number on a slider[/td][td]min, max, optional step and format (Lua format string for the shown value, e.g. "%d %%")[/td][td]number[/td][/tr] [tr][td]select[/td][td]left/right selector[/td][td]choices, optional labels shown instead of the raw values[/td][td]the chosen entry[/td][/tr] [tr][td]dropdown[/td][td]dropdown list, better for many choices[/td][td]same as select[/td][td]the chosen entry[/td][/tr] [tr][td]color[/td][td]hex input and swatch, a click on the swatch opens bars for hue, saturation and brightness[/td][td][/td][td]"RRGGBB"; ModConfig.rgb(value) turns it into { R, G, B, A }[/td][/tr] [tr][td]text[/td][td]one line of text[/td][td]optional maxLength[/td][td]string[/td][/tr] [tr][td]hotkey[/td][td]key the player can rebind, also listed on the "Hotkeys" page[/td][td]onPress, called by the library when the key is pressed[/td][td]key name from the UE4SS "Key" table, "" = not bound[/td][/tr] [tr][td]preview[/td][td]empty canvas your mod fills in onPreview, e.g. to show the effect of the options[/td][td]height, optional sticky to keep it above the scrolling options[/td][td]none[/td][/tr] [tr][td]header[/td][td]section title with a reset button for the options below it[/td][td]label[/td][td]none[/td][/tr] [tr][td]note[/td][td]a line of explanatory text[/td][td]label[/td][td]none[/td][/tr] [/table] Nested config values work too: a key "Offset.X" reads and writes config.Offset.X.

A complete, commented template mod is installed with this mod: Mods/NativeMods/UE4SS/Mods/BetterModManager/Scripts/template/MyMod. Copy the folder, rename it and start from there. All fields of every option type are documented at the top of Scripts/modconfig.lua.

Credits

Thanks to A New Darn for DarnMenu, his groundwork was partly used for this mod.

Notes

Client-side UI mod, tested in single player. Never changes save files.