PAYDAY 2 For Linux Modding Guide

This is an in-depth guide about modding the Linux Version of Payday 2
This Guide will explain how to use the Bundle Modder and BLT4Linux

Introduction

This in-depth guide will teach you how to install and use both BLT4Linux and Bundle Modder onLinux Platform, which will allow for you to use LUA Mods and Texture/ Music mods on Linux.

Surprisingly enough, Mod Support was added on Linux back in April 2016, with the introduction of BLT4Linux, a Port/ rewrite of the BLT Hook from Windows to Linux. Soon after, Bundle Modder was made Linux Compatible via it's use of the Mono 4.0 runtime. On June 24th, 2017, BLT4Linux added support for the much-requested, much needed and undeniably handy Mod_overrides system for modding, removing much of the need for the Bundle Modder, Overrides was then implemented into the game proper by Overkill themselves early In early-July 2017.

First off, This guide has been made for Debian-Based Platforms in mind (SteamOS, Linux Mint, Debian...duh, and Ubuntu), but CAN work for other distributions, such as Arch and Fedora. OK, now that's out of the way, we can start!

Prerequisites

Like on Windows, certain packages and runtimes need to be installed for Diesel Bundle Modder, BLT4Linux and SUPERBLT to work.

SUPERBLT
An Up-To-Date Linux distribution, like SteamOS, Ubuntu (20.04+) or Linux Mint (20+). Other distro's should also work, but I'm not likely to add support for them anytime soon.
SUPERBLT[gitlab.com].

Both these Lua hooks require you install the following libraries, as well as their development headers;

openssl, libssl 1.1, libssl-dev, libcurl4, libcurl4-openssl-dev, libopenal1, libopenal-data, and zlib1g, zlib1g-dev, zlib1g:i386

These can be found via the package manager, or the script I have provided in my download linked below.

I have included a "prereq-search" script that lets you find any prerequisites on Debian distro's. This saves me hassle, and frankly, I don't know how I didn't think of this sooner. Run via terminal, enter your password when prompted, press ENTER, and accept all downloads it asks for by pressing ENTER again.

SUPERBLT - Setup and Installation

NOTE: If you have downloaded the precompiled SuperBLT Loader prior to December 11th 2021), REDOWNLOAD IT via the link below. It fixes a bunch of errors related to LibPNG strings, while simultaneously disabling mod icons that were crashing the Mod Menu; I cannot stress this enough, Update the loader!

SuperBLT is a successor to BLT and BLT4Linux. What sets this BLT hook apart from the other two is:

• The awesome name.
  
• The ability to listen to custom music that SuperBLT can play in-game
  
• The ability to load custom assets into the game (such as levels, weapons and music!)

Those last two points are quite huge for Linux players, as Beardlib Music Module isn't directly supported anymore by even Regular BLT, and a lot of Beardlibs custom asset functionality just outright doesn't play nicely with BLT4Linux. SuperBLT however, does play relatively nicely with Beardlib, and can currently load everything but animation replacements. Custom Music, Custom Code (XML, Lua and the like) and custom textures used for Custom HUDS, such as VoidUI all work!

This is how SuperBLT works:
SuperBLT works by "hooking" into the PAYDAY 2 binary: "payday2_release", then replacing certain lua files with custom ones. It also adds in custom assets by telling the game to load them as if it were a part of the game itself. Since Payday 2 uses lua as it's coding language, both BLT4L, regular BLT, SuperBLT, and Payday 2 can communicate with each other.

Setting up SuperBLT shouldn't lead to any massive problems on any platform Steam itself supports. For Arch, Manjaro and SELinux (Fedora essentially) users, you will have extra steps to install an extra package and/ or to bypass a few security measures SuperBLT uses. Debian-based folks using Ubuntu, SteamOS or it's derivatives (like Linux Mint) can safely skip the marked steps.

Step 1

Download this Zip file[modworkshop.net], which contains two pre-compiled Linux SuperBLT loaders. For the sakes of this Tutorial and convenience, I have pre-compiled the loader for you to remove that specific annoyance that may turn people off of this guide. The Loader was compiled on Linux Mint 20.3 (Focal), so it may not work for other non-debian OS's. There is also an Arch version for those on steam deck or Manjaro. It also includes a bash script to find libssl1.1-dev. You can search for this in your package manager also.

Step 2

Extract the Zip file to anywhere on your PC that you have read/write access to. The extraction should show you these files, and a single folder named "Mods".

Place the extracted files into the Root directory to wherever you Installed Payday 2. By default, Steam installs itself and it's games to .local/share/steam/steamapps/common/). For me, It's /media/Local_Disk/SteamLibraryLinux/steamapps/common/. This is what the PAYDAY 2 folder should look like after placing the files into that root directory:

Step 3

If you are on a Debian system (Ubuntu, Mint etc.): Copy and Paste this command into your Launch Options for PAYDAY 2:

env LD_PRELOAD="$LD_PRELOAD ./libsuperblt_loader_debian.so" %command% 

If you are on an Arch system (Manjaro, EndeavorOS, Steam Deck) Copy and Paste this command into your Launch Options for PAYDAY 2:

env LD_PRELOAD="$LD_PRELOAD ./libsuperblt_loader_arch.so" %command% 

This is needed so that PAYDAY 2 can find the SuperBLT Hook, or more specifically, the "libsuperblt_loader_X.so" file that's you have extracted to the PAYDAY 2 install directory.

An issue with older versions of the loader was an annoying issue with libcurl4, which caused PAYDAY 2 to crash, and caused endless amounts of grief for me and others to troubleshoot. Because I feel like ranting a bit; it was caused by Steam Runtime overriding the loader, and in increasingly annoying and hard-to-diagnose ways. The latest compiled version (linked at the start of this section) is compiled against a custom version of libcurl within SuperBLT itself. Essentially bypassing Steam Runtime, and fixing issues people had with the loader. LibPNG is also compiled with the loader too, meaning Linux now have Mod Icon support!

Step 5 - For SELinux Users (Fedora essentially)

You'll need to run the game once with SuperBLT set up, let PAYDAY 2 Crash (this is meant to happen!), then add an SELinux exception via the Terminal:
Type: sudo ausearch -c 'payday2_release' --raw | audit2allow -M my-payday2-hook ,followed by sudo semodule -i my-payday-hook.pp. This requires Sudo privileges, so open up a Root session in Terminal, or type sudo -i, then your password, press enter, and you should be ready to go.

Step 6

Run Payday 2!

Step 7

From now on, the steps merge with that of the regular BLT on Windows. Mods in-game can be found in Options -> Lua Mods, and installing mods is exactly like it is for the regular BLT on Windows. http://modworkshop.net/index.php is a good place to find Lua and Texture Mods. Mod Icons now work!

Step 8

Like with Regular BLT and SuperBLT, Mods are extracted and installed to the "Mods" folder we extracted earlier. For Example, WolfHUD[github.com] is installed to /PAYDAY 2/mods/WolfHUD, like below:

Using Mod_overrides

On June 24th, 2017, BLT4Linux added support for the much-requested, much needed and undeniably handy Mod_overrides system for modding, removing much of the need for the Bundle Modder. This system has been present on the Windows version of PAYDAY 2 since late 2014, but has never appeared anywhere else, consoles or otherwise. Somewhere between June - August 2017, Overkill themselves added support for mod_overrides natively for Linux, likely out of embarassment.

Override Mods go into a named folder, which needs to be manually created and named: Mod_overrides in the assets directory of PAYDAY 2 (PAYDAY 2/assets/Mod_overrides). After that, you're set!

The current Limitations of this is that Beardlib can be finnicky, and animation replacements currently do not work. Apart from that, Go wild! Custom levels work for the most part, as does custom music, as well as anything else made with Beardlib.

Recommended Mods

Since this a modding Guide, I may as well leave a few links to a few mods that help a lot of you out. And Since BLT4Linux supports just about any mod the regular BLT Hook runs, your options are well and truly open to you. The only exception is Beardlib, which is kinda spotty at the moment. Anyhoo, Here are a few of my favorites that I personally use:

• WolfHUD[github.com] - A Compilation Custom HUD for Payday 2. If you like having Timers for drills and other technobabble on the screen, then this is the HUD for you. It also means that this Mod alone saves you from downloading approx. 24 other mods, as this HUD incorporates those features, like DrivingHUD and "Buy All Assets", just to name a few. It's also ridiculously customisable, so you can turn off thing you don't want.
  
  
• Reconnect to server[github.com] - adds a key command ("F1" by default) to crime.net to allow to reconnect to a previously disconnected lobby.
  
  
• NGBTOVK[modworkshop.net] (Newbies Go Back To Overkill) - Kicks people using a variety of different variables that you can toggle, though it's largely used to kick new players by the "hours played" variable. Useful if you play higher difficulties, like Mayhem, Deathwish and One-Down, and you want to stop people from joining if they've never played the game before and are joining simply because they want easy money and XP. Also includes it's own anti-cheat (which needs to be disabled or BLT4Linux will cause a lag crash).

If you wanna find more mods for you to use, you can go to Modworkshop [modworkshop.net], which hosts a variety of BLT, texture and music mods. I also maintain a list HERE[pastebin.com] of every mod I use when I play/ stream. Oh yeah, I stream Payday 2 on occasion, so go check me out[twitch.tv] if you want!

[Acenthus]

Dear fellow Bazzite users ignore these they do not work anymore since native linux lost support. Force compatability to Proton 9.0-2 or higher, download the windows file for BLT (WSOCK32.dll), put it at the same place where the payday exe file is, add

WINEDLLOVERRIDES="WSOCK32=n,b" %command%

to the start of your launch options in properties, anything else like -skip_intro should go after.

Also optionally add -SteamMM if you're experiencing connection issues and don't mind losing crossplay function. From there the steps should be identical to the windows modding guide, happy modding!

PS thank you some random black cat for helping me figure this out, also if this doesn't work for you try hank's version below

[monkey]

Issue: the game freezes upon start up when following the instructions correctly

The fix is to not use the option when enabling modern CPU support

Followed the steps perfectly

SPECS

Linux MINT 22.2 X86_64
Linux 6.14.0-37-generic
RX 9070 XT
32GB RAM
AMD RYZEN 7 7700

if the game keeps crashing fiddle about with the modern CPU support settings

[hardrobe]

Heads up for everyone: since this game hasn't been supported for years natively, you must run it on Proton, therefore you must mod it like on Windows.

[moustache]

using Arch, this doesn't work. the game starts up and crashes leaving this message "/home/$USER/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_soldier/pressure-vessel/bin/steam-runtime-launcher-interface-0: error while loading shared libraries: libcurl.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" coincidentally the same message someone had as well. i think this is a missing package, but which one is it? can anyone help? i ran the script as well.

[hank 51111]

hello there. if you seeing this this mean the guild above didn't work same as me, and somehow i manage to make work somehow (idk how it worked).
step 1
use proton 9.0-2
step 2
download the 3 files in the guild above and put them in payday 2 folder
step 3
use
gamemoderun WINEDLLOVERRIDES="wsock32=n,b" %command% -skip_intro
as Launch Option (not sure if it work for all distros but worked on my Linux mint)
then just download a mod and put it in mod folder and start payday 2 and if you see a square that tell you to update on the left that mean it work. have fun

-some random black cat

[FloatingEye]

Also yes everyone who used the launch options in this guide, please try using the one in the modworkshop page, it worked for me.

[FloatingEye]

This works fine (when using the special launch options in the modworkshop page because the normal one doesnt work)

HOWEVER, I cannot join anyone and nobody can join me. They are Windows players and I am on Linux Mint.

[[Linux] Franco]

It didn't work for me. The game does not start when I set the necessary launch options. Can anybody help me?

[Th3Ed]

The guide needs to be updated, at least for fedora. the files from mod workshop don't work on fedora or just needs a way of working that i don't know!

[xXL3N0R3Xx]

simple fix. use anything other than arch. :)