Remove Ammo from Dropped Guns

A Fallout 4 F4SE (Fallout 4 Script Extender) mod which removes ammo from guns dropped by NPCs and puts it in their inventory, so you don't have to loot and then drop every gun to get all the ammo. I had some trouble getting everything set up to update my mod to F4SE 0.7.1, and an example like this would have made things a lot easier. Disclaimer: I don't have much experience with C++ and I mostly just messed around until everything worked, starting fromRyan-rsm-McKenzie/ExamplePlugin-SKSE64.

Requirements

• Visual Studio (I used 2022, but I think anything 2013+ should work)
  • Desktop development with C++
• CMake 3.18+ (I used 3.29.3)

Building

1. Create an empty directory, open a Command Prompt window, navigate to your directory and run the following commands:

git clone https://github /ScottyDoesKnow/AmmoRemover
git clone https://github /ianpatt/common
git clone https://github /ianpatt/f4se
cmake -B common/build -S common -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=extern common
cmake --build common/build --config Release --target install
cmake -B f4se/build -S f4se -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=extern f4se
cmake --build f4se/build --config Release

2. Open <your directory>\AmmoRemover\AmmoRemover.sln
3. Set solution configuration to Release
4. Set f4se to build as a static library
   • Right click f4se, Properties, General, Configuration Type: Dynamic Library -> Static Library
5. Build ALL_BUILD
6. Build AmmoRemover
7. AmmoRemover.dll should end up in <your directory>\AmmoRemover\x64\Release

Install on Build

Modify the path in CustomMacros.props to point to your Fallout 4 directory (mind the trailing backslash), then enable the Post-Build Event on the AmmoRemover project to have it copy AmmoRemover.dll and AmmoRemoverDefaults.ini to <your Fallout 4 directory>\Data\F4SE\Plugins on successful build.

Notes

• Don't clean the solution or you'll have to run the cmake commands (and follow the steps after it) again.
• The other solution configurations don't build unless you delete all the folders other than AmmoRemover and run the commands (other than git clone AmmoRemover) with different --config values. I've only tried Debug and Release.
• The cmake commands hardcode some values, so it'll break if you move or rename your directory.
• I haven't touched INSTALL or ZERO_CHECK to see what they do.

Troubleshooting

If you run into build errors, it could be due to changes to F4SE. To fix this:

1. Open a Command Prompt window, browse to <your directory>\common and run:

git reset --hard 66149ee

2. Browse to <your directory>\f4se and run:

git reset --hard b7a144c

3. Browse to <your directory> and run the cmake commands again.
4. Follow the steps in the Building section from step 2 onwards.

If this works, feel free to create an issue letting me know.