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Manual Installation

This page walks you through manually installing individual components of AlyxLib for your addon if you are not using any setup applications.

Wherever you see {addon_name} replace it with the name of your addon.

Please take note of which addon directory is mentioned for each file list (content vs game).
content refers to Half-Life Alyx/content/hlvr_addons/{addon_name}/
game refers to Half-Life Alyx/game/hlvr_addons/{addon_name}/

AlyxLib scripting

Copy the following AlyxLib folders/files to your addon game folder:

  • scripts/vscripts/alyxlib
  • scripts/vscripts/game/gameinit.lua [for auto loading during testing]

Important

Always remove the above files before uploading your addon to the workshop. Uploading these files might cause your addon to break future versions of AlyxLib.

If using VSCode, you can copy the snippet files to your .vscode folder:

  • .vscode/alyxlib.code-snippets (for VSCode snippets)
  • .vscode/vlua_snippets.code-snippets (for VSCode snippets)

Create the main init file for your addon in the game folder:

  • scripts/vscripts/{addon_name}/init.lua 
    -- alyxlib can only run on server  
if IsServer() then  
    -- Load alyxlib before using it, in case this mod loads before the alyxlib mod.  
    require("alyxlib.init")  

    -- execute code or load mod libraries here  

end

Create the scalable init support files for your addon in the game folder:

  • scripts/vscripts/mods/init/000000000.lua [workshop init file] 
    -- Rename this file to the ID of your workshop item after upload.
require("{addon_name}.init")
  • scripts/vscripts/mods/init/{addon_name}.lua [local init file] 
    require("{addon_name}.init")

If using VSCode, add the following settings to your .vscode/settings.json file:

{
    "Lua.workspace.library": [
        "${addons}/HLA-VScript/module/library"
    ],
    "Lua.runtime.version": "LuaJIT",
    "Lua.runtime.builtin": {
        "coroutine": "enable",
        "debug": "enable",
        "io": "disable",
        "math": "enable",
        "os": "disable",
        "package": "enable",
        "string": "enable",
        "table": "enable",
        "utf8": "disable",
        "bit": "enable",
        "bit32": "disable",
        "jit": "disable"
    },
    "Lua.type.weakUnionCheck": true,
    "Lua.type.weakNilCheck": true,
    "Lua.diagnostics.disable": [
        "inject-field"
    ],
    "Lua.workspace.checkThirdParty": false,
    "Lua.diagnostics.ignoredFiles": "Enable",
    "Lua.workspace.useGitIgnore": false
}

Debug menu

If you want to use or develop the debug menu while testing, you will need to copy the following files into your addon content directory:

  • panorama/layout/custom_game/alyxlib_debug_menu.xml
  • panorama/scripts/custom_game/alyxlib_debug_menu.js
  • panorama/scripts/custom_game/panorama_lua.js
  • panorama/styles/custom_game/alyxlib_debug_menu.css

Panorama

To develop your own Panorama panels with AlyxLib, copy the following files into your addon content directory:

You will also need to install AlyxLib scripting files to send data to the panels.

  • panorama/scripts/custom_game/panorama_lua.js
  • panorama/scripts/custom_game/panoramadoc.js [for intellisense]

Git

If you are using Git, you will need to add the following files to your .gitignore file:

# Source 2 ignores

/_bakeresourcecache/
*bakeresourcecache.vpk
__pycache__

# AlyxLib ignores

scripts/vscripts/alyxlib
scripts/vscripts/game/gameinit.lua
.vscode/alyxlib.code-snippets
.vscode/vlua_snippets.code-snippets
panorama/scripts/custom_game/panorama_lua.js
panorama/scripts/custom_game/panoramadoc.js

panorama/layout/custom_game/alyxlib_debug_menu.xml
panorama/scripts/custom_game/alyxlib_debug_menu.js
panorama/styles/custom_game/alyxlib_debug_menu.css