VeniceEXT

As we briefly mentioned in the Modding overview page, VeniceEXT is VU's scripting system. It's what lets you modify control game behavior, allowing you to create new experiences. If you want to know how to use VeniceEXT to create mods, refer to the Your first mod guide and the more in-depth VeniceEXT guides. You can also find a full VeniceEXT API reference here.

Lua engine

VeniceEXT is a Lua-based scripting system using Lua 5.4. That means that (for the most part) it follows everything outlined in the Lua 5.4 reference manual. However, there are some differences which we'll explain here.

Available libraries

Not all Lua standard libraries are available by default, and some may have some features disabled. More specifically, the following libraries are available:

• table
• string
• math
• os
• coroutine
• package
• utf8

The following library methods / properties are not available:

• dofile
• load
• loadfile
• string.dump
• package.config
• package.cpath
• package.loadlib
• package.path
• package.searchpath
• os.execute
• os.exit
• os.getenv
• os.remove
• os.rename
• os.setlocale
• os.tmpname

It should be noted that while the package library is present, the require call works differently from standard Lua. For more information refer to the Splitting your code guide.

Added functionality

VeniceEXT also introduces some additional functionality in the form of additional library methods or other built-in functionality. More specifically, the following library methods have been added:

string.starts(a: string, b: string): bool

Returns true if string a starts with string b. Returns false otherwise.

string.ends(a: string, b: string): bool

Returns true if string a ends with string b. Returns false otherwise.

json.encode(value: any): string | (nil, string)

Returns a JSON encoding of the provided value. The following value types are supported:

• bool
• int
• float
• string
• nil
• Vec2
• Vec3
• Vec4
• Quat
• LinearTransform
• QuatTransform
• AxisAlignedBox
• Guid
• A table of with any of the above types as values (or another table)

If the value could not be encoded then this function will return nil followed by an error message.

json.decode(value: string): any | (nil, string)

Decodes a JSON string value into a Lua value or table. If decoding fails, this function will return nil followed by an error message.