Hey! This README is for those looking to work on the code. For actual plugin documentation, you’ll want to look at the website at https://mikes.software/sst/ or ask for help in a relevant speedrunning community.
NOTE: Please read and understand LICENCE before redistributing this software!
════ Compiling ════
Windows: • Install the Windows 10 SDK and MSVC toolset via the Visual Studio Installer (if you don’t care what else gets installed, installing the C++ Desktop workload should be fine). • Install native Clang from https://clang.llvm.org (NOT MinGW/MSYS2 Clang!). • Run compile.bat (in lieu of a better build tool, to be added later).
Linux: • Install Clang (and LLD) via your system package manager. Technically, GCC should be able to compile most of this too, but we are currently relying on a Clang-specific extension or two, and GCC in general doesn't get tested nor used for binary releases, so it's probably not worth wasting time on. • Install 32-bit glibc and libstdc++ libraries and associated C headers if they’re not already installed. • Run ./compile (in lieu of a better build tool, to be added later).
NOTE: Linux code should compile now but still crashes on cvar registration and almost none of the features usefully work. In other words, it needs quite a lot more development before it's of use to anyone.
════ How and where to install ════
IMPORTANT: If your game supports multiplayer, always launch with -insecure as a launch option before loading this plugin! Newer Source builds shouldn’t let you connect to a server with plugins loaded or even let you load plugins without insecure mode at all, but older ones do, at which point you might still get VAC banned. ALWAYS launch with -insecure or load the plugin AT YOUR OWN RISK OF BEING BANNED!
Very old Source builds load plugins from the top-level bin/ folder, while relatively modern builds load them from the mod-specific directory, e.g. left4dead2/, hl2/. Left 4 Dead and later branches ALSO try to load from the top-level game directory where the EXE is, if other paths don’t work.
Since this plugin is designed to be universal, a reasonable recommendation is to
always put it in bin/ and then use the command plugin_load ../bin/sst. The way
the paths work out, that always works no matter what, thus taking all the
thought out of it. It’s also a sensible way to share the plugin between multiple
mods in an engine installation, where relevant.
It’s additionally possible to back out of the game installation with ../../
etcetera and load from anywhere you want, as long as it’s not on a different
Windows drive letter. This is especially handy if you’re building from source
and don’t want to copy it over every time.
Note: some very old (and very new) Source builds don’t have a plugin_load command. For the time being, these versions are unsupported.
Thanks, and have fun!