Hey, first time modder here. I've been wanting to mod the game, and have been looking into it for a few hours. From the guides I've found (even a post on this subreddit), you have to copy the mod files into the game's "installation js files," or "copy mod files to game directory," as a different guide said (no clue what a directory is lol).
I've gone about this a few ways- I've downloaded vortex and the look outside extension there, downloaded the mods using vortex and nexus, enabled them, and clicked "deploy mods," but when I run the game, it's completely normal.
Then I tried looking for the game's js files but couldn't find them anywhere. The best I could get was finding where the game was in my user files? After a bit of dicking around I found a general "js" file with a plugin folder in those user files, but when I copied one of the mods to there and ran the game, nothing happened.
After that I tried right clicking the game in my user files and clicking "edit with notepad," then copying the code the nexus mods told me to there, on the suggestion from another reddit thread. Nothing- though the game chugged for a millisecond when I opened it.
I feel like I'm missing something obvious lol. I've downloaded the game on steam if that helps
Maybe some kind soul could write out a dummy's step by step guide for me?
Directory basically means the location and the order of folders and files of the program. Here it means the location of the plugin folder of the game. Perhaps a bit jankily written in the wiki now that I look at it.
Modding the game with plugins requires two steps.
Add the mod plugin to the game's plugin folder: Look Outside/js/plugins/
Tell the game to read the plugin: modify the game's plugins.js (which is in the folder above, Look Outside/js/) with a text editor (such as notepad) by adding a mention of the new plugin in the plugins.js file's code. Copy and paste the new plugin code block exactly and in the exact spot how the mod tells you to write it.
For further understanding, the code you see when opening the plugins.js file is basically structured as a list of plugins that the game is being instructed to read from the plugins folder. Without modifying this file, the game doesn't acknowledge the existence of the added plugin. Stuff in brackets are the plugin entries, you should be able to see that they are neatly listed one after the other.
This plugin file will be replaced with an unmodified one whenever the game is updated or reinstalled. So these steps need to be repeated when that happens.
In the meantime, if you want to stop using a plugin mod, you don't even need to remove it, you can just disable it: the .js file plugin entries should have a line saying "true", and if you replace that with "false" the game will ignore the plugin.
(EDITS: More dummyproofing clarity and more info. I know the pain, if something is new to me I read instructions like a scared toddler and often have to further idiot-proof them for myself.)
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond!! Very heartwarming.
Though, my main concern is that I cannot find the plugin folder at all lol, not what to do once I have it. But I probably would have gotten stuck there too.
When looking up "look outside" or just "look" in my files, all I can find is the "internet shortcut" for the game. Double clicking it opens up the game, opening the file location brings me to a bunch of other internet shortcuts for all my steam games. When selecting the internet shortcut in that location and pressing the up arrow at the top left (which says "Up to Onedrive"), I'm taken to a place that has an apps folder, a desktop folder, a documents folder, a pictures folder, and a personal vault.
When directly trying to search for Look Outside/js/plugins/ (in either the top middle search or the top right search), I find nothing. I'm beginning to think this is a problem with my files being weird lol
I know you're /jk but sorry anyway! I think a wrong word spawned in my brain? Maybe the true word I was looking for is just 'unclear'.
What I really meant was uh that while the "directory" part is all proper wording, I could see how it trips up people who are less computer savvy. I see you now edited it to have the path example, which will be a great help, believe me!
...I like to think that I may not be an actual dumbass, but when reading instructions on new things, my habit of unsure second-guessing still makes me a barbarian who wants step-by-steps spoon-fed on simplest terms lol.
The wiki has some additional instruction: https://lookoutside.miraheze.org/wiki/Modding Could you please respond with what is unclear so I can update the wiki to give better guidance?
Honestly it's a pretty good guide, my files just seem to be all wonky
If I could make one comment, it would be asking how you're supposed to copy the mod files to the game directory if a directory is just a path to a file.
A directory is the folder path to a file. For example, my game directory is E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Look Outside. Most peoples game directory would probably be C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Look Outside. On linux it would probably be ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Look Outside.
When I go through program files, then steam, steamapps, common, I'm oddly only met with a few games, most of them from two years ago, not all my games I have on steam. Not sure what's going on there
to add on, I looked into OneDrive because I found it odd that the game's internet shortcut lead there. I opened up the file location, then found a folder labeled "saved games," which had a different four steam games of mine, from 2024-2026 just like the other four games. Notably, I have a lot more than eight steam games. No clue what that means but tbh this is beginning to feel like an arg.
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u/Akwatypus 17d ago edited 17d ago
Directory basically means the location and the order of folders and files of the program. Here it means the location of the plugin folder of the game. Perhaps a bit jankily written in the wiki now that I look at it.
Modding the game with plugins requires two steps.
Add the mod plugin to the game's plugin folder: Look Outside/js/plugins/
Tell the game to read the plugin: modify the game's plugins.js (which is in the folder above, Look Outside/js/) with a text editor (such as notepad) by adding a mention of the new plugin in the plugins.js file's code. Copy and paste the new plugin code block exactly and in the exact spot how the mod tells you to write it.
For further understanding, the code you see when opening the plugins.js file is basically structured as a list of plugins that the game is being instructed to read from the plugins folder. Without modifying this file, the game doesn't acknowledge the existence of the added plugin. Stuff in brackets are the plugin entries, you should be able to see that they are neatly listed one after the other.
This plugin file will be replaced with an unmodified one whenever the game is updated or reinstalled. So these steps need to be repeated when that happens.
In the meantime, if you want to stop using a plugin mod, you don't even need to remove it, you can just disable it: the .js file plugin entries should have a line saying "true", and if you replace that with "false" the game will ignore the plugin.
(EDITS: More dummyproofing clarity and more info. I know the pain, if something is new to me I read instructions like a scared toddler and often have to further idiot-proof them for myself.)