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DOC-02 · Dev environment

Set up the environment

Six steps, in this order. Every tool is extracted into the game root with its folder structure intact, and every step ends with a check you can see. A tool that failed to hook without telling you looks exactly like a mod that does not work.

None of this installs the mod

The six steps below set up the environment the mod is developed in. They do not install the mod, because the mod has not been released: there is no package, no Nexus page and no archive to extract. Follow them if you want to build against the same setup, or read them to see what the mod runs on. If that changes, this page will change with it.

  1. 00

    Check the game before installing anything

    Find the installed version of Cyberpunk 2077 in the launcher properties, or in bin\x64\Cyberpunk2077.exe → Properties → Details. Then check for Phantom Liberty: if archive\pc\ep1 does not exist, the expansion is not installed.

    Write both down before you touch any tool. You need the RED4ext and redscript versions that match your patch, and that is not always the newest release in the repository.

    VerifyYou have two facts written down: the patch number, and whether the expansion is installed.

  2. 01

    RED4ext — the native loader

    Extract the release into the game root and keep the archive’s folder structure. It adds a red4ext\ folder and a loader DLL in bin\x64\. Nothing else on this list works until this one does.

    VerifyLaunch the game once, then check that red4ext\logs\ exists and holds a log with no load errors. If the folder never appears, RED4ext is not hooking, and every later problem comes from that.

  3. 02

    redscript — the compiler

    Extract into the game root, keeping the folder structure. redscript compiles every .reds file under r6\scripts\ each time the game starts. Prefer a stable tag over a preview one: previews are the development branch and carry no stability guarantee.

    Verifyr6\logs\redscript_rCURRENT.log appears after a launch. Compilation errors show up there with a file name and a line number. If the log is missing, the problem is RED4ext, not the scripts.

  4. 03

    Codeware

    Extract into the game root, keeping the folder structure. It ships scripts under r6\scripts\Codeware\ and a RED4ext plugin. Dynamic entity spawning, the ink UI and the observers all come from Codeware, so a half-loaded Codeware looks exactly like a broken mod.

    VerifyCheck that Codeware’s own scripts compile cleanly in redscript_rCURRENT.log before any of your code depends on them.

  5. 04

    TweakXL

    Extract into the game root, keeping the folder structure. It lets you declare records as .yaml files under r6\tweaks\, not only as binary tweak files. That is how the fleet vehicles and the uniform items are declared.

    VerifyOn launch, TweakXL writes its own dated log with the number of records and flats it loaded. A count with no errors above it means it worked.

  6. 05

    Input Loader

    Extract into the game root, keeping the folder structure. It lets a mod register its own keybinds. Without it, r6\input\ncpdfr.xml does nothing at all.

    VerifyThe mod’s keys respond in game. If every bind is dead while the rest of the mod runs, Input Loader is the missing piece.