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Plugin Loading

The next step is loading zBassMusic.dll to the Gothic memory, so it activates. There are several ways of doing it depending on your environment and expectations. Some methods are global for the whole Gothic installation where the plugin will always load indifferently if you start mod A, mod B or the original game. Other methods make it possible to isolate the plugin to a single mod, so it doesn't mess with others.

During the development, it's fine to use global methods on a local installation but when you are going to ship the mod to other players, you should select an option with isolation. You never know if the player has a clean Gothic only for your mod or a giga-directory with hundreds of GothicStarter entries, so you don't want to break someone's game by loading unsolicited DLLs globally.

Union 1.0m

This method requires the player to install Union. Good option if your mod already uses other Union plugins and the runtime is there.

Global Method

Choose either ZIP or VDF. Both work the same.

From ZIP release:
Copy zBassMusic.dll, UnionAPI.dll, bass.dll, bassmidi.dll, bassopus.dll, bassflac.dll
To <GOTHIC_DIR>/System/Autorun/

From VDF release:
Copy zBassMusic.vdf
To <GOTHIC_DIR>/Data/

Isolated Method

The isolated method is possible if you are placing your mod in <GOTHIC_DIR>/Data/ModVDF and declare .mod file in YourMod.ini.

From VDF release:
Rename zBassMusic.vdf to zBassMusic.mod
Copy zBassMusic.mod
To <GOTHIC_DIR>/Data/ModVDF/

In YourMod.ini add an additional file to [FILES].VDF key:

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[FILES]
; NOTICE DOUBLE SPACE!
; If you use multiple VDF files, 
; you have to separate them with TWO spaces
VDF=YourMod.mod  zBassMusic.mod

Standalone System Pack

It's possible to load zBassMusic on a clean Gothic with only System Pack using pre.load file but it's always global.

Global Method

From ZIP release:
Copy zBassMusic.dll, UnionAPI.dll, bass.dll, bassmidi.dll, bassopus.dll, bassflac.dll
To <GOTHIC_DIR>/System/

Create pre.load file in <GOTHIC_DIR>/System/ with content: 

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zBassMusic.dll

Standalone Ikarus

Not supported now

In the current release, we are hooking early into Gothic initialization, so Ikarus would load the plugin too late. In future releases, we may provide an alternative initialization that would be possible at any moment.

If you are using Ikarus in your scripts, it's possible to load dynamically any DLL using LoadLibrary("AnyLib.dll") function. The function is conveniently provided by Ikarus and this method is always isolated.

Isolated Method

From ZIP release:
Copy zBassMusic.dll, UnionAPI.dll, bass.dll, bassmidi.dll, bassopus.dll, bassflac.dll
To <GOTHIC_DIR>/System/

In your Startup.d add to Init: 

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func void INIT_GLOBAL()
{
    Game_InitGerman();
    LoadLibrary("zBassMusic.dll");
    // ...
}

Validate

To check if zBassMusic was loaded you can either look into ZSpy for strings like:

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zBassMusic 0.1.3 Release (build: 2024-05-20T10:21:26, branch: feature/cleanup, revision: 466f67cedf3c23bfb6aa555f90653f67bb61742a)

Alternatively, you can try to call one of the externals in your Daedalus scripts, for example:

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    func void INIT_GLOBAL()
    {   
        BassMusic_SetFullScriptControl(false);
        // ...
    }

If you get an error about missing external, then zBassMusic wasn't loaded, so you have to double-check if the chosen loading method was executed correctly. If you don't see any error, that means everything is fine and we can proceed to music definitions.