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Mod loading pipeline

What the Play button does, step by step.

Game not running#

1. Overlays of switched-on mods are laid over rom (only folders whose name matches a switched-on DLL).
2. Steam is asked to start stormworks64.exe (the steam:// link). If that link is not registered, the executable in the configured game folder is started directly.
3. Once the process exists, the launcher waits for the load delay (default 5 s).
4. The version patch is loaded, then every switched-on DLL, through the injector.
5. When the game ends, overlays are restored.

Game already running#

Switches are applied in place: mods the launcher loaded earlier and that are now off are unloaded (swinject unload --mod), switched-on mods are loaded, and mods already in the game are skipped.

Inside a mod DLL#

See Mod lifecycle: target check, LoadLibraryW, in-process check of SHA-256 and signatures, then sw_mod_start().