/gib

A simple TUI application for automating the installation of BepInEx on macOS

Primary LanguageTypeScriptISC LicenseISC

gib

Usage statistics for gib from the jsDelivr CDN

gib (tobey's Guided Installer for BepInEx) is a TUI application for automating the installation of BepInEx, the popular modding framework for Unity games.

Running gib in the Terminal

Currently only macOS is supported, as the process of manual BepInEx installation is exceptionally cumbersome on this operating system.

gib aims to automate whatever it can, and hold your hand through whatever it cannot.

Supports both Intel-based and Apple Silicon chips.

Usage

TL;DR

Just run the following command in Terminal:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/toebeann/gib/gib.sh | bash

This command will make sure that bun (a speedy JavaScript runtime) is installed, then install and run the latest version of gib with it. If you're curious how it all works or want to verify the source code is safe, check gib.sh and index.ts for details.

If you get stuck, refer to the below walkthrough.

Walkthrough

Tip

If you run into any unexpected issues while following these instructions or need further assistance, please feel free to send a DM on discord to toebean (that's me) explaining the issue and I'll reply when I remember to check my message requests.

Note

These usage instructions were written for macOS Sonoma. The instructions below should work for other versions of macOS, but there may be some slight differences.

Prerequisites

  • You'll want a Finder window open at the folder where the game is installed.

    • If you own the game on Steam (i.e. you didn't add the game to Steam as a non-Steam game), find the game in your library, then right-click it and select Manage -> Browse local files.

    • For the Epic Games Launcher, find the game in your library, then right-click it and select Manage. In the window that opens, look for the folder icon and click it.

    • For games you typically launch with Spotlight, search for the game as usual in Spotlight, and when the game is highlighted in the drop-down, hold ⌘ until the icon changes to Finder. With ⌘ still held down, press Enter.

  • You'll want a copy of BepInEx downloaded and unzipped in your Downloads folder.

    If you're unsure where to get BepInEx from, try a Google search for [game name] bepinex pack, e.g. for Subnautica, I would search for:

    Subnautica BepInEx pack

    Where available, it is always advised to use a popular pack of BepInEx which has been tailored to the specific game you're trying to mod.

    If you can't find a BepInEx pack for the game, then the latest stable version of BepInEx from their official GitHub repo will do. You can find it here - scroll down to the Assets section, then download the file with "unix" or "macos_x64" in the name, e.g. BepInEx_unix_5.4.22.0.zip, BepInEx_macos_x64_5.4.23.2.zip

    Make sure it is unzipped in your Downloads folder after downloading it, as presently gib requires this. By default, Safari will have unzipped it for you. If you use other browsers, simply open the .zip and macOS should unzip it for you.

    Go ahead and open a Finder window in the unzipped BepInEx folder, so that you can see the file run_bepinex.sh.

    Leave this Finder window open - you'll want to come back to it later.

    A screenshot of Finder window open at the location of BepInEx's run_bepinex.sh

Tip

In some cases the shell script to load BepInEx may be named something else, e.g. start_game_bepinex.sh - in this case you will need to rename it to run_bepinex.sh for gib to recognise it.

Running gib

  1. Open Terminal from Launchpad or Spotlight (press ⌘ Space, type terminal and press Enter).

    Searching for Terminal with macOS Spotlight

  2. Copy the command from the TL;DR section above and paste it in your terminal window with ⌘ V, then press Enter to run it.

    Running gib in the Terminal

  3. Now, simply follow the instructions in the terminal to install BepInEx to your game!

Tip

You can press ⌃ C at any time in the terminal to abort.

Tip

If you ran into any unexpected issues while following these instructions or need further assistance, please feel free to send a DM on discord to toebean (that's me) explaining the issue and I'll reply when I remember to check my message requests.

Caveats

  • Only native macOS applications are currently supported.

    • Support for Windows apps on macOS (e.g. via CrossOver or Wine) is being considered.

    • Support for other operating systems is being considered.

  • Only BepInEx 5 is currently supported. Support for BepInEx 6 is being considered.

  • Users on Apple Silicon sometimes report that their game performance seems to diminish with only BepInEx installed. This is due to the fact that BepInEx is built for Intel-based chips, and therefore your Apple Silicon chip needs to run it through Rosetta. Unfortunately, there is nothing gib can do to resolve this, since BepInEx does not currently support Apple Silicon. If you find the performance impact too drastic, your only other option might be to use a Windows emulator like Parallels Desktop, Wine via Whisky or HyperPlay etc., and then install and run the Windows versions of both the game and BepInEx.

Known issues

  • If the shell script to launch BepInEx is named something other than run_bepinex.sh (e.g. start_game_bepinex.sh), gib will not recognise it. I plan to fix this in an update. In the meantime, you can workaround this by renaming the shell script to run_bepinex.sh as needed.

  • Relative paths are currently not supported and providing them will lead to strange issues. If you encounter an issue after having provided a relative path, please run the script again, this time providing absolute paths. You can provide absolute paths easily by simply highlighting the file in Finder, pressing Option Command C, then Command V in terminal to paste.

License

gib is licensed under the ISC License.