Red Orchestra 2 Steam Workshop

Modding

Long before the Steam Workshop, Tripwire (which grew from modding roots) has been very supportive of the modding communities that have grown up around their games. From maps, to mutators (which covered new weapons, gameplay changes and more), to Total Conversions that completely changed the game. None of that has changed, and Tripwire continues to support those communities as much as possible. To that end, Tripwire has decided to implement Steam Workshop, a better method for modders and those who would use them to upload, find, and use content!

Getting Started With Workshop

As of September 2012, Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad has supported Steam Workshop. Workshop allows modders to easily upload their content for a game and make it available for all the people that own it. For end users (not mod makers), it offers a one click solution to find mods that they like for a game they own, and always have it be up to date and ready to play on any machine they may play the game on.

The only thing modders and players need to access and use Red Orchestra 2 and the Workshop is to have Steam, and own Red Orchestra 2. The Workshop and the SDK are free to all owners of the game.

Players looking for instructions on how to subscribe, download and use workshop content should skip to player section of this article.

Modders

In The Editor

This section will cover the new additions to the editor that allow modders to upload their content to the Workshop. This section will not cover how to use the Red Orchestra 2 Editor. Players can find more in depth tutorials and pages on that here.

Modders opening up the Red Orchestra 2 editor will now find new entries under the tools list.

The new entries are:

Update Steam Workshop Upload

Upload File(s) to Steam Workshop

Uploading New Files

The first thing modders will want to do, is to upload their maps and mutators to the workshop for the first time. To do this they need to select

Upload File(s) to Steam Workshop

When they have done so they will be presented with the following 'Upload Box'

Uploading

Once the player is familiar with the Upload Box, they need to fill it out and select the file(s) for upload. This includes the maps, textures, static meshes, and .u files associated with their content.

An example of a filled out and ready to upload map can be found in the image below for TE-Apartments

After filling out the Upload Box and hitting the upload button, the player will be informed that the content is uploading in the example below:

The upload will either end in success, and the modder will receive the message:

Upload Successful

or in an error in which case the modder will see:

The Upload Has Failed

In which case the modder will need to debug why, and try again.

Updating Existing Content

Modders wanting to update their content that they already have uploaded to the Workshop can do so. This will allow players of their content to automatically be updated to the latest version without having to do anything on their own.

To do so, modders need to select the

Update Steam Workshop Upload

option from the tools list. After doing so they will be presented with a list of content they have uploaded previously.

File:RO2WorkshopUpdate.jpg

After selecting the content they would like to update, they will be presented with the Upload box already filled out with the previous settings and files used to upload that content. They can make the needed changes (if any) and proceed to upload.

Known Errors to Avoid

All content uploaded to the Workshop must follow the following rules:

All content uploaded (including the preview image for the content) must be contained within the Red Orchestra file directory. 
Content uploaded can only be the following file types: Maps (.roe), Texture, Static Mesh, and Script (.u).
Content may be uploaded from the existing file structure, or mappers can create their own sub Map folders for their content.

Maps With and Without Supporting Packages

Without Supporting Packages

If your map does not have supporting packages, and a player is NOT subscribed to your content (and thus obtains it from a redirect), the game will recognize different versions of the map with the same name and should properly load the right map on the client that is on the server.

With Supporting Packages

The engine should also recognize different package versions of the same name, and be able to load the proper version. However there is currently a bug where the game will not load the right version of the package which will see the end user in an "infinite load". If the end user hits escape during this they will see a package mismatch.

To workaround this issue, there is an easy way to change package names between versions. To do so follow these instructions:

1) Load your package

2) Select an object and hit Control A to select everything in your package

3) Right click (you may be prompted that you are about to load the number of objects in the package if there are many objects, hit OK) and select Move or Rename Package

4) Give a new name for your package and hit "OK"

5) You will now have to "OK" a change for every object in your package

6) SAVE YOUR PACKAGE AND MAP (in that order) or your map will not be referencing your new package the next time you load it.

7) If you have multiple packages return to step 1 for your next package. If you do not, you should be done now with a new package that your map references with no further work required.

On Steam

After a successful upload of content to Steam, modders have the ability to view their content in the workshop and change some settings related to it.

By going to Steam, Community, Workshop, modders and players will find an option to navigate Killing Floor Workshop files. Modders will also find an option to view

Your Workshop Files

Your Workshop Files

Following this link will present the modder with a list of content that they have uploaded.

My Workshop Files

Selecting individual content will allow them to view the current workshop settings for it and make changes.

Workshop Item Page

Items that can be changed on the item's workpage include

Title & Description
Add and edit Images & Videos
Delete
Change Visibility - Hidden, Friends Only, and Public

Mutators

With this update, a change has been made to the game that was needed to make mutators show up on the client mutator list. This requires modders to include a .ini file that need to be included and distributed with their mutators.

Example ROMutator.ini (with configurable options)

[ROTestMut.ROTestMut]
bMyBooleanSetting=False
MyStringSetting=
MySliderSetting=0.000000
MyOptionSliderSetting=0.000000
MyNumericRangeSetting=0
MyComboBoxSetting=
MyComboBoxSetting2=0

[ROTestMut ROUIDataProvider_Mutator]
ClassName=ROTestMut.ROTestMut
FriendlyName=RO Test Mutator
Description=RO Test Mutator Desc things are working

The required section is the ROUIDataProvider_Mutator section. Some mutators may not have configurable settings.

Players

Navigating The Workshop

With the introduction of the Steam Workshop to Red Orchestra 2, players now have a new way to browse, find, and subscribe to community created content that they like. There are two main ways to navigate to the Killing Floor part of the Workshop. From the Steam Library when Killing Floor is selected and by navigating directly to it from the Steam Community.

• 
• 

Or via the Red Orchestra 2 main menu with the "Steam Workshop" button

This will take you to a new menu which will allow you to play with existing and new workshop content, as well as having a link to browse the workshop itself from the in game overlay.

Once browsing the Red Orchestra 2 Workshop, players can use filters to narrow down the content they are looking for.

After a piece of content has been selected in the workshop, all the player needs to do is subscribe to the content to have it always available and updated. This is done with one click of the subscribe button.

Players can also vote for and leave comments for the contents creators in the workshop.

Downloading

After a player has subscribed to content that interests him, the next step is to launch the game. When the game is launched, it will check for new and updated subscriptions and download them. A message with the status of the current download will be displayed in the main menu.