Sometimes one of the hardest parts of becoming a modder is knowing where the hell to even start. So I made this section to aid the new to begin their modding experience.
There are of course multiple field to mod in Bully. I will cover each of them with a different starting plan for newbies.
www.xfire.comXfire is used by a lot of the modders here. I suggest downloading it then adding people I put by each section to aid you. You can add me (DaBOSS54320) for any section of the guide, though scripts is my specialty.
A) Scripts
B) Skins/Models
C) Configuration
Script ModdingInterested in Script modding? My favorite. Popular scripters on xfire would be: DaBOSS54320, c00ld0c26, SWEGTA, madmancorp, tuffjtags
In Bully the scripting language used is LUA version 5.0.2. LUA is a fairly easy scripting language. When compiled, these LUA scripts are made into .LUR files. The .LUR files are then run by the game. You cannot read a .LUR file with a text editor (it's just a bunch of BS if you try) only a LUA source file. The game cannot run a LUA source file, only the compiled .LUR files. To convert or 'compile' you will need a compiler. The only one available at the moment for Bully scripts is one by Fred Tetra and presented by |XF|- MadmaN [AR]
Download hereNow you have a compiler, great. But what use is that if you don't even know how to make a LUA script? Download the sample script I have created for this tutorial
hereUse the compiler (Tutorial for compiler included with the download) to compile the script you just downloaded 'sample.lua' into 'ArcRace1.lur' after that we will need to put it into the Scripts.img archive. This archive contains all of the games scripts. We will be removing the script 'ArcRace1.lur' (The arcade race game in the boy's dorm) and then putting in it's place our custom script, which we named the same thing. Now when the game looks for 'ArcRace1.lur' it will find something different (and hopefully funner) then an arcade race, which will be your mod. How to open this Scripts.img archive? With an IMG editor of course! There is 3 IMG editors used around bully modding community. 1) The one by GTA Garage, this one isn't good for Bully but works anyway. It shouldn't be used but is anyway. 2) The Bully IMG editor made by MadmaN. 3) Another IMG editor made by MadmaN that is more complex and isn't made with a GUI. Not sure if the 3rd one is released fully yet but a few modders have it. I suggest the 2nd option, which you can get
hereOpen the tool, locate the 'Scripts.img' file found in your Bully directory (folder), and open it up. It now lists all of the game's scripts. Navigate to 'ArcRace1.lur' and removed it by a left click or clicking on it and pressing the 'delete' key. Then, go to Action>Add and add the new 'ArcRace1.lur' file we compiled from our 'sample.lua' script. Close the application (Important or the game will crash on loading) and then start up the arcade machine in the boy's dorm. The script for our modded script should now activate. It isn't a big script so all that will happen is you will be transitioned to the outside of the boy's dorm, given full health, and a new dog fighting style. If this dosen't happen, it means an error has occured and you should retry the steps above before moving on.
Now we have assured that we can compile and move around scripts, so now we need to actually make said scripts. Learn LUA 5.0.2 to do so. I suggest either the official 5.0.2 documentation or my tutorial.
LUA 5.0 DocumentationDaBOSS's TutorialIf you chose my tutorial, you will already know how functions work with Bully. If you read the LUA documentation, it says nothing about Bully. To use with Bully, you'll need to know about what functions can be called in Bully and which ones need to be made in your scripts. For this I suggest reading the 2nd half of my tutorial as well as my tutorial has original LUA seperate of how to implement it with Bully.
If you've done everything above successfully your at a good start. Now talk with other modders, get involved in the forums, and you will be able to further your bully scripting skill. Right now you probably only know basics, and from here it is up to you to learn new functions to call in Bully, and everything else like that. Not everything is discovered yet either, in fact not even close. Try to discover new things your self by investigating Bully's files. Look in some scripts in the Scripts.img and edit them via a HEX editor (search it) or a text editor. It will look weird as it's compiled. The only way to really read the scripts right would be to decompile them first. This is a hard task, so I suggest you don't get into that until you become a better modder and think your up to the task. Looking via HEX or a text editor at compiled scripts will still reveal function names and a bit of the code of the scripts. This is a good way to find new functions, from there the only difficult part is finding out what parameters to use and ways to use it.
Other 2 sections coming soon. I already spent about a 20 minutes writing that ^ so I'll finish other 2 sections later.
