Managing addons

Addons and resource packs add to Viewpoint, and you stay in charge of them from the settings window. You can turn any of them on or off while you play, without restarting the game, and you can see what each one does before you say yes.

You’ll find them in two places:

• Addons are in Advanced, Addons.
• Resource packs are in Graphics, Resource Packs.

Shaderpacks work a little differently and have their own page.

Install an addon

1. Get the mod that contains the addon, usually from the Steam Workshop.
2. Enable that mod and Viewpoint in the game’s mod list.
3. Start the game. Viewpoint only looks for addons in mods that were on when the game started. If an addon offers functions to Lua, you may see “Viewpoint is checking N addons” for a few seconds.
4. Open the settings window and go to Advanced, Addons.
5. Your new addon is in the Inactive column. Every new addon starts there, so nothing runs until you choose.

Find your way around the page

The page has a search box and two columns. Inactive on the left holds what’s installed but off. Active on the right holds what’s on, with the top card going first.

Each card shows the name, a description and a line like v1.2.0 · by Someone. If a description gets cut off, rest the pointer on it for a couple of seconds to read the rest. A grey square just means the author didn’t include a picture.

Point at a card and its buttons appear:

Button	What it does
Green tick, where the picture was (Inactive)	Turns it on
Red minus, where the picture was (Active)	Turns it off
Info, top right	Shows everything about the addon
Settings, the cog at the bottom right (only when active)	Opens the addon’s own settings

Double-clicking a card also turns it on or off.

Beside the search box, Addon VRAM Usage adds up the video memory your active addons asked for when they started. It’s what they’re allowed to use, not what they’re using right now, and Viewpoint doesn’t put a limit on it. An addon that draws and doesn’t name an amount counts as 64 MiB.

If Viewpoint refuses something, such as turning on an addon when an addon it needs is off, a line at the top of the page tells you why and then fades after a few seconds.

Two small marks are worth knowing. A dot beside the name means the addon has changed since you accepted it. A word beside the name, such as Suspended, means it’s in a state other than plain on or off. Point at the word to find out why.

Turn an addon on

1. Click the green tick, or double-click the card.
2. Read the dialog. It shows the addon’s label, the reasons for that label, and everything the addon asks for. Long lists scroll, and nothing is ever cut.
3. To say no, click Cancel or press Esc. To say yes, wait for Accept to light up, rest the pointer on it for a moment, and click.
4. The card moves to the Active column.

The short wait on Accept is deliberate, so that a stray click can’t agree to something you haven’t read. If the addon changes on disk while you’re reading, Viewpoint shows you the dialog again.

A Red addon asks twice: after Accept… you get a second button, Switch on a Red addon, with the same wait. That’s because a Red addon can do things outside Viewpoint’s control.

Your yes covers that version only. If an update asks for more, Viewpoint asks you again.

Viewpoint remembers what was on and in what order, and turns it all back on next time you start the game. There are two exceptions. An addon that needs your consent again stays off until you click its green tick, and an addon that Failed to start isn’t tried again automatically.

Turn an addon off

Click the red minus or double-click the card. The addon stops straight away. Any hooks it put into the game come out at the next safe moment, which is the main menu, a loading screen, or a paused single-player game with the window open. The card tells you when that has happened.

Choose the order

Drag a card up or down in the Active column, or use the arrows on its left. An arrow is dim when the card can’t go any further that way. When you drag, drop on the top half of another card to land above it, or the bottom half to land below it.

Order matters when two addons want the same thing. If they change the same model, tile or hook, the one nearer the top wins. Some things can only belong to one addon at a time, like the camera or the reticle. The addon nearer the top gets it, and the other addon’s card tells you who has it. Order has the details.

See what an addon does

Click Info on the card to get these tabs:

Tab	What you’ll find
Overview	The description, the author, and the versions it supports
Trust	Its label and why it got it, what it does with Lua and shaders, its signature, and the ZombieBuddy policy
Permissions	What it asks for
Hooks	Each place it hooks into the game or Viewpoint, how often that runs, how long it takes, and how many calls were skipped
Files	Its folder, its storage limit, and what it downloaded this session
Changelog	What changed since you accepted it, and the author’s own notes
Performance	What it costs to run

Many addons also have a settings page, behind the cog on an active card. Some split it into sections. Click a title at the top of the page to switch between them.

Block a single hook

If one hook is causing trouble, you can block just that one and keep the rest of the addon.

1. Open Info, then Hooks.
2. Find the hook and click Veto.

From the next safe moment, the game runs as if the addon never had that hook. Allow again undoes it.

What the labels mean

Every addon gets a label from Viewpoint’s automatic check of its Java code. It describes what the check found in this version. It isn’t a promise about what the code will do, and Lua isn’t checked at all.

Label	How it looks	What it means
Normal	Like any other card	The code only uses parts of Viewpoint that have been reviewed.
Amber	Amber name and icon	The code uses things that haven’t been reviewed, which includes drawing with OpenGL. Turn it on if you trust the author.
Red	Red name and icon, on a red card	The code can do things outside Viewpoint’s control. It stays off until you allow it, so only do that for authors you trust.

Point at the icon or the name to read what the label means. The full wording is on the Labels page.

A card may also tell you that an addon draws over the whole screen, or that any mod’s Lua can call its Java. It’s worth reading those lines before you turn it on.

You might also see two other marks. Unmanaged is a mod that loads its own Java outside Viewpoint, so Viewpoint can’t turn it off or show you what it does. Cannot be checked is an addon that Viewpoint couldn’t check, so it won’t start.

What the states mean

State	What’s going on
Incompatible	It doesn’t match your game or your version of Viewpoint. The card says which version it needs.
Refused	Its files are wrong, or its requirements go round in a circle. It won’t start, and the card says why.
Inactive	It’s off. If the card gives a reason, something is holding it back, like a required package that’s off.
Checking	Viewpoint is checking the jar and its signature in the background. It carries on when that’s done.
Awaiting consent	You clicked the green tick, and it’s waiting for your answer.
Active	It’s on.
Active: hooks pending	It’s on, and its hooks go into the game at the next safe moment.
Failed	It didn’t start. The card says why.
Suspended	Viewpoint stopped it for this session, because it hit an error or the server doesn’t list it. Turn it on again to restart it.
Needs an update	It uses a part of Viewpoint that no longer exists, so it won’t start. Ask the author for an update.

Accept an update

When an addon updates, its card gets a dot. Click Info and open Changelog to see the author’s notes and a list of what changed, with a mark on anything that asks for more than before.

• If it asks for more, the addon stays off and the card says why. Click the green tick to read the dialog and accept. The dot goes away when you accept.
• If it doesn’t, the addon keeps running as it was. It picks up the new files the next time you turn it on or restart the game. Until then the card says Update available. It applies at the next enable or restart. The dot goes away once you’ve opened Info.

Downloads

An addon has to ask you before every download. The dialog shows the addon’s ID and name, the host, the full address, where the file will be saved, and its size. The file’s real extension is picked out in orange, so photo.png.exe can’t pass itself off as a picture.

Nothing is kept until you click Accept. If you click Deny too many times, the addon can’t ask again until you restart the game. You can see each download in the addon’s Files tab.

Check what an addon costs

Info, Performance shows the memory and video memory the addon uses next to what Viewpoint estimated from its files, how long its hooks and drawing take, and its history over your last 8 sessions.

To measure its cost on your graphics card, click Measure GPU cost. For about 20 seconds Viewpoint draws the addon’s models and hides them in turn, so stay still until it finishes. The result carries over to later sessions.

The history stays in a file on your computer and never leaves it. Clear the usage file deletes the history of all addons.

Resource packs

Resource packs change models and art, and contain no code. They live in Graphics, Resource Packs, and the page works just like the Addons page, with the same two columns, the same buttons and the same ordering. If two packs change the same sprite, the one nearer the top wins. Older Viewpoint model packs appear here too, with a legacy flag.

Playing on a server

• Addons that only change what you see or hear (side=client) stay on when you join a server.
• Addons that change gameplay (side=gameplay) are Suspended if the server doesn’t list them.
• Hooks only go into the game at the main menu or on a loading screen.

Note

Viewpoint shows a disclaimer in the settings window and the first time you turn on an addon. Please read it before you turn one on.