Building MO2 & Plugins

Introduction

ModOrganizer2 is made of multiple repositories that can be found under the ModOrganizer2 Github organization. There are various type of repository, the three most important ones being:

• cmake_common is a CMake-only repository that contains many useful functions used by many MO2 repositories.
• uibase contains the ModOrganizer2 C++ API.
• modorganizer contains the main code for ModOrganizer2.

Other repositories include either libraries used by MO2, MO2 plugins (games, installers, etc.) or small executable files that are shipped with MO2 (custom LOOT CLI, nxmhandler, etc.).

Requirements

In order to build most of MO2 components you will need CMake, Visual Studio and Qt. See below for the exact list of components:

• cmake - All MO2 components are CMake based.

• Visual Studio with the following components:

  • Desktop development with C++

    • Windows Universal C Runtime
    • C++ ATL for latest v143 build Tools (x86 & x64)
    • C++ /CLI support for v143 build Tools (Latest) (for OMOD and FOMOD installers)
    • Windows 11 SDK (get latest)
    • C++ Build Tools core features

  • [optional] For repositories using C++/CLI

    • Desktop .NET desktop development (for repositories using C++/CLI).
    • .Net Framework 4.8 SDK
    • .Net Framework 4.7.2 targeting pack (OMOD targets 4.8 but VS still requires the package for other .Net components)

• Qt

  • Check mob.ini for the appropriate version.
  • Depending on which components you want to build, you may need the following components:
    • Qt WebEngine (display nexus pages)
    • Qt Image Formats (display images in image tab and preview)
    • Qt Positioning (required by QtWebEngine)
    • Qt Serial Port (required by Qt Core)
    • Qt WebChannel (required by QtWebEngine)
    • Qt WebSockets (Nexus api/download)

Building individual components or your own plugins

Building in standalone mode

MO2 components can be build in standalone mode, i.e., without having to build their dependencies first. In order to do so, MO2 relies on VCPKG with its own registry. You can use the standalone mode to build MO2 official plugins, your own plugin or the main MO2 code.

• ⚠️ The vs2022-windows-standalone preset uses the standalone features defined for VCPKG. This will install dependencies from MO2 VCPKG registry using the baseline defined in vcpkg.json or vcpkg-configuration.json. You need to make sure that the baseline matches your MO2 version, and if not, you should update it.
• ⚠️ The code below can be used to build uibase itself but modifying the API will most likely results in non-working plugins or MO2 itself. If you intend to modify the API, you should use mob itself. But this can be used to modify internal uibase code.

The instruction below can be used to build in standalone mode:

# choose the folder where you want the code to be
mkdir C:\dev\mo2
cd C:\dev\mo2

# clone the repository you want to build
git clone git@github.com:ModOrganizer2/modorganizer.git .

# use the standalone preset 
# - PATH_TO_YOUR_MO2_INSTALL should point to your own MO2 installation
# - MO2_INSTALL_IS_BIN is necessary, otherwise the output installation will be wrong
cmake --preset vs2022-windows-standalone `
  "-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=C:\Qt\6.7.3\msvc2022_64" `
  "-DMO2_INSTALL_IS_BIN=ON" `
  "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${PATH_TO_YOUR_MO2_INSTALL}" 

# build and install
cmake --build --preset vs2022-windows-standalone --config RelWithDebInfo --parallel 16 --target INSTALL   

Building in standard mode

In order to build MO2 components en standard mode, you need to build the MO2 dependencies before. For most components, you will only need to build cmake_common and uibase first, but for the main MO2 code, you will need multiple dependencies and we recommend using standalone mode or mob in this case.

To build a plugin in standard mode:

# choose the folder where you want the code to be
mkdir C:\dev\mo2
cd C:\dev\mo2

# clone cmake_common
git clone git@github.com:ModOrganizer2/cmake_common.git

# clone uibase and build it
git clone git@github.com:ModOrganizer2/modorganizer-uibase.git uibase
cd uibase
cmake --preset vs2022-windows `
  "-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=C:\Qt\6.7.3\msvc2022_64;..\cmake_common" `
  "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=.\install"
cmake --build --preset vs2022-windows --target INSTALL

# clone the plugin you want to build and build it
git clone git@github.com:ModOrganizer2/modorganizer-game_bethesda.git game_bethesda
cmake --preset vs2022-windows `
  "-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=C:\Qt\6.7.3\msvc2022_64;..\cmake_common;..\uibase\install\lib\cmake" `
  "-DMO2_INSTALL_IS_BIN=ON" ` 
  "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=.\install"
cmake --build --preset vs2022-windows --target INSTALL

Building with mob

See mob for details.