Weapon Sling

A physical weapon sling for BONELAB. The strap is a real rope you can grab with both hands, stretch, and wear on your body, and your gun hangs from it and swings.

Version 0.18.0. Please report problems with the exact lines from MelonLoader/Latest.log that start with [Sling].

Features

• Other players see your straps (0.18.0, Fusion). With Fusion in a server, the straps that hang on you or whose gun is in your hand are sent to the other players (about 8 times a second, 12 rope points and the look of each strap, at most 3), and players who also have Sling see them drawn on your body with the same look: model, color, charms, patch. They are drawn only, nothing is simulated for them (no collisions, sounds or pulling). Two switches in Settings > Other players (Fusion) turn sharing and seeing off. Without Fusion nothing changes. Not compiled or tried in the game yet, and never tried with other players: if it fails to build, build.bat builds without this part by itself; 0.17.0 and 0.16.0 are the fallbacks.
• Shared hardware (0.17.0). Fittings, adjusters and charms of the same kind, finish and wear are now built once and shared by all straps (and by the fitting room), so a new strap, a second strap or a switch back to a look you used a moment ago costs less. Only the shapes are shared; every strap still has its own band, materials and colours. Nothing was compiled or tried in the game yet; 0.16.0 and 0.15.0 are the fallbacks. This is the last planned feature version: the next ones should only fix bugs.
• Four new strap models and a fitting room (0.16.0). Color and look > Strap model > Model has four more: car seat belt (a wide thin band with a satin sheen, stripes along the edges, chrome swivels and a ladder lock), studded leather (stitched leather with a row of steel studs down the middle), bead chain (round steel beads on a wire, carabiners) and knotted rope (twisted rope with five knots tied in it, brass snap hooks), and four themes that use them (Racer, Biker, Pearls, Sailor). Fitting room (Strap model > Fitting room (on / off)): a strap hangs in the air in front of you on a thin bar, with no gun, and shows every change you make in the menu at once (model, color, charms, patch, wear) from every side. You cannot grab or wear it, it is not remembered and it gets no dirt; it follows you when you walk away and goes away when the level changes. Not compiled or tried in the game yet; 0.15.0 and 0.14.0 are the fallbacks.
• A Russian menu, and dirt that builds up (0.15.0). The BoneMenu can be shown in Russian (Settings > Language, popups and tips; English stays the default; the change shows after a restart; if your game's menu font has no Cyrillic letters, the way back to English is marked in Latin letters). Straps get dirty with use: worn, held and fired straps gather dirt that shows as the wear levels, for each gun on its own and remembered; Color and look > Dirt and cleaning sets the speed and washes one strap or all of them. Not compiled or tried in the game yet; 0.14.0 and 0.13.0 are the fallbacks.
• Three new spots, a place for every gun, and a look button (0.14.0). New wear spots: lower back, left shin and right shin (off by default; 14 spots in all), two new carry presets, and a gun that remembers where it hangs: its spot catches the strap from a little farther away, a gun that hung on two spots goes on both again, and a gun nobody has worn yet is sized up (a pistol is favoured at the hips, a rifle at the shoulders and the back). Next of the saved looks goes round your three look slots, with a button of its own if you like. Six short tips for the first steps, which can be switched off. Switches: Wear spots > Where a gun hangs, Color and look > Paint and look slots, Settings > Popups and tips. Not compiled or tried in the game yet; 0.13.0 and 0.12.0 are the fallbacks.
• More to hang and wrap (0.13.0). Six new charms (rubber duck, die, lighter, key card, horseshoe, medal), four new patches (skull, radiation, lightning, your own picture), stitches that glow in the dark, four new tape patterns (leopard, flames, scales, digital camo) and two new tape finishes (glows in the dark, reflective). Two sliders for the buzz strength. The charms and buckles jump a little when the gun is fired; the mod looks for the shot event by itself, so check the log or support.txt if nothing happens. Not compiled or tried in the game yet; 0.12.0 and 0.11.0 are the fallbacks.
• Shadow, swing and both shoulders (0.12.0). While the strap is worn, a soft shadow lies on your body under it (switch it off if your own body is not drawn in the game). Charms, buckles and the adjuster swing a little when you move and settle again. A new switch hangs the strap on both shoulders at once. The hand that holds the gun now feels the strap pulling too. Objects the mod might leave behind after a level change are cleared away (and there is a button for it). Switches: Settings > Realism and comfort > Light, shadow and motion, Mounts and hook > Both shoulders at once, Safety and backups > Clean up objects left behind. Not compiled or tried in the game yet; 0.11.0 and 0.10.0 are the fallbacks.
• A big round (0.11.0). Wrap tape has 11 patterns (new: net, zigzag, a printed CAUTION) and 19 colors, four wear levels (dirt, frayed edges, wrinkles and blisters), a loose end that lifts off the part, tape that is pulled off turn by turn by the eraser and undo, and a color of new wraps that can follow the gun. The strap gets reflective and glow-in-the-dark stripes, 6 more metal finishes (nickel, copper, titanium, blued steel, rose gold, aged brass with a green patina) and 6 more themes. New carry presets switch the wear spots for a rifle on the back, across the chest, a chest rig or a sidearm. The mod now times itself and gets simpler when it is slow, has a self-test, settings backup / restore / reset and one support file (Settings > Guns, sharing and diagnostics > Safety and backups). Not compiled or tried in the game yet; 0.10.0 is the fallback.
• More tape, and a safer mod (0.10.0). Wrap tape has 16 colors, 8 patterns (plain, stripes, camo, checks, carbon, cloth, chevrons, dots), a matte / satin / glossy finish and a thickness setting, and an eraser mode: aim at a wrap and press the trigger to take just that one off. The beam dot turns red where the tape cannot fit. Numbers typed into the settings file by hand are put back into range at start, the strap rope puts itself right after a teleport, a single hiccup no longer switches haptics, button reading or the mounts off for good (it takes five failures in a row), guns.txt is written safely (with a backup) and one bad line no longer loses the others, quick draw pulls the same at any frame rate, and the diagnostics report now says how much time each part of the mod uses. Settings > Guns, sharing and diagnostics > Most straps at the same time (1 to 8).
• Tape that hugs the part (0.9.1). Wrap tape now follows what you can see, not only the invisible collision shapes: it lies snug on the part, goes around corners with a small round, climbs steps and follows cones, and each turn overlaps the one before with a thin step and shadow. It is lit like the strap, so it changes with the light. On a short part the tape gets narrower and uses fewer turns instead of hanging over the end.
• Hands and loose objects (0.9.0). The strap also rests on your hands and on loose objects (crates, bottles, another gun) instead of passing through them. Only the strap moves. Switches: Settings > Realism and comfort > What the strap lies on.
• Move the strap in one motion (0.9.0). Hold the strap in one hand and an item in the other; when they are close a cyan dot shows on the item. Squeeze the trigger: the strap is on that item, the old one is let go, and a worn strap stays on the same spot of the body.
• Two-point sling (0.9.0). With the strap worn, take hold of another part of it and bring it to a second wear spot: it hangs on both, with its own clip and click. Yank the second clip to free only it, yank the first to take everything off. Switch: Wear spots > Mounts and hook > Second point.
• Weight and swing (0.9.0). A heavy gun pulls the strap harder: it sags lower, swings longer and tugs at the hand, a light one hangs firmer. Settings > Strap physics > Weight (0 = as before).
• Marks on the strap (0.9.0). Near a strap, small dots show what is what: green where it is fixed to the gun, yellow the length adjuster, orange the clip on your body, and a faint dot where your hand would grab. Settings > Realism and comfort > Marks on the strap.
• The strap lies on the gun (0.8.0). It no longer passes through the gun it hangs from: it drapes over the stock and the barrel and stays on top of the gun. Only the strap moves, never the gun. Switch: Settings > Realism and comfort > What the strap lies on > The gun it hangs from.
• Mounts on your body, and a hook that clips on (0.7.0). The wear spots have real fixtures: a D-ring on a tab, a round ring or webbing loops. They appear while you hold a strap (or always, or never: Wear spots > Mounts and hook). Bring the strap close and its clip flies to the ring, swings about the bar and clicks shut; taking the strap off opens it again. A worn strap lies on your torso instead of passing through it.
• Reacts to the world (0.7.0). The strap follows the light of the level, creaks, rattles or rustles with its material, makes the controller hum when stretched, and lets go of your body when pulled hard enough (Breakaway).
• Lettering, patches and wear (0.7.0). A name tape or a patch on flat bands, lettering on the dog tag (pick a preset or write your own in tag.txt), four wear levels, eight themes that set a whole look at once, sixteen charms with a second one beside the first, neon modes, many pictures from a folder, and looks you can share as a short line.
• Realistic look. Everything is lit from where your head is, so metal, leather and fabric change as you move: sky and window reflections in the steel, brass and chrome, a soft sheen on fabric, real thread stitching along the edges of leather, padded and wide straps, band ends folded around the hardware (except the riveted claw hook), fine textures (twill webbing, leather grain, quilting, braid, rope fibre), glowing neon and polished steel chain.
• Physical strap with fifteen looks and real hardware. Tactical webbing (the first model: flat band, flat rings, slide buckle), simple line, leather (thick stitched leather, brass claw hooks, tongue buckle with a keeper and a holed tail), padded (quilted cushion, quick-detach swivels, triglide with a tail), paracord (snap hooks and a cord lock), twisted rope (wound strands, snap hooks, thread whipping), chain (60 links, shackles), neon, cobra weave (thick striped band, screw-gate carabiners), bungee (thin elastic cord, snap hooks, cord lock) wide combat (wide band with a centre stripe, shackles, ladder lock), car seat belt (wide thin band, edge stripes, chrome swivels, ladder lock), studded leather (a row of steel studs on stitched leather), bead chain (round steel beads, carabiners) and knotted rope (twisted rope with five knots, brass snap hooks). Bands have thickness and rounded edges, narrow toward the fittings, and the loose tail of the adjuster lies on the band and bends with it. Switch in Color and look > Strap model. It sags when slack, pulls tight and gets a little thinner when stretched.
• Pick the hardware yourself. Color and look > Hardware and stripes: end fitting (ring, quick-detach swivel, snap hook, claw hook, carabiner, shackle), adjuster (none, slide, triglide, ladder lock, tongue buckle, cord lock), metal finish (steel, black, brass, gold, chrome, gunmetal), stripes and an accent colour.
• Eleven textures: webbing, plain, woodland / desert / urban / snow camo, cobra weave, braid, neoprene, carbon, or your own picture. Fifteen charms (two can hang at once): dog tag, carabiner, tassel, cartridge, skull, gold coin, key, whistle, magazine, grenade, flashlight, bell, feather, compass, glow stick.
• Strap length per gun (Strap length: longer, shorter, automatic; remembered) and smart length (longer guns get longer straps). Three look slots and Paint ALL straps. A metal clank when the strap snaps taut. Hold Grip and the trigger at the adjuster and slide your hand along the strap to change its length (away from the gun = longer). Surprise me picks a random look.
• Two-handed grab. Squeeze Grip with an empty hand next to the strap to hold that point. Hold two different points with two hands to stretch it.
• The gun hangs from the strap. While you hold the strap, the gun is carried by it and swings on it.
• Wear it anywhere: left or right shoulder, neck, chest, belly, back, left or right hip, left or right thigh, left or right shin, lower back, or a custom spot you save yourself. Each spot can be switched on or off and moved with sliders. All enabled spots work at once; the nearest one to your hand catches the strap. The popup tells you where: Sling attached - Belly.
• Hint dots show the enabled spots while you hold a strap, and the spot about to catch it lights up.
• Take it off. Grab the strap at its spot and yank it away. You get a popup: Sling removed.
• Manual calibration. Put the strap ends exactly where you want them: a small laser with a dot, place the REAR end, then the FRONT end. The strap appears between the two dots.
• Colors and looks. RGB sliders, presets (black, sand, olive, red, blue, white, camo), match the gun's color, webbing / plain / camo textures, or your own picture (UserData/WeaponSling/strap.png). Paint a single strap without changing the others.
• Wrap tape. Aim at any part of the gun and press the trigger: colored tape winds around it. As many wraps as you want, 19 color presets plus your own RGB, 15 patterns, three finishes, four wear levels, a loose end, adjustable width, turns and thickness, and an eraser mode. A/X switches the color while you aim, B/Y undoes. Tape stays on the gun and is remembered per gun.
• Gun memory. Calibration, paint (the whole look: model, color, texture, charm, hardware) and tape are remembered per gun. Optionally the strap is attached automatically when you pick that gun up again.
• Cross-body mode. A shoulder strap that also pins to the opposite hip (a manual second point works on any two spots).
• Quick draw. With the strap worn, squeeze the trigger with an empty hand near the wear spot and the gun flies to your hand.
• Auto-fit length to the wear spot and your body size.
• Lies on the floor. A dropped or thrown gun leaves its strap lying on the ground instead of sinking into it (can be switched off).
• Feedback. Controller buzz and a click sound when the strap goes on or comes off.
• BoneMenu settings for everything. Changes apply instantly and are saved.

How to use

1. Pick up a gun (or any item), then open BoneMenu > Sling > Attach strap to last held item. A strap appears on it. (Or use Calibrate strap on last held item to place both ends yourself.)
2. Grab the strap with an empty hand (Grip). Hold it with one or both hands.
3. Bring the held strap to a wear spot (the dots show where). It attaches. Yank it away to take it off.
4. Trigger with an empty hand near the wear spot calls the gun to your hand.

Two points, moving the strap, marks

• Second point. Wear the strap on one spot. Then grip another part of the strap (at least three links from the first clip) and bring your hand to a different wear spot (move the hand away from the spots first if you grabbed inside a catch zone): the dots show where, the strap clips on. A message tells you if the spot is the same or too far for the strap.
• Move the strap to another item. Grip the strap with one hand, hold an item without a strap in the other, bring the strap point to the item (a cyan dot lights up on it) and squeeze the trigger on the strap hand. A new trigger press is needed, so holding the trigger while coming close does nothing.
• Marks. Green = the strap's ends on the gun, yellow = length adjuster (grip + trigger), orange = the clip on your body (pull it away to take the strap off), faint blue/white = where your hand would grab. They fade in as an empty hand comes within 40 cm.

Mounts and the hook

Sling > Wear spots > Mounts and hook. Mounts on the body: Auto (shown while you hold a strap and where one hangs), Always or Off. Mount style: D-ring on a tab, round ring or webbing loops. Hook animation switches the clip flying to the ring and snapping on/off (off = instant attach). Breakaway sets how hard a worn strap has to be pulled before it lets go (Off / Easy / Normal / Hard). Mounts follow the spot sliders, so after you move a spot, the ring moves with it.

Lettering, patches, wear and themes

Sling > Color and look > Strap model has Second charm and Themes; Hardware and stripes > Wear, patches and lettering has Wear, Patch on the band, Neon glow and the lettering buttons. The game menu has no text box, so lettering comes from a list of presets (Lettering: next / previous) or from the first line of UserData/WeaponSling/tag.txt (Lettering: read tag.txt; a slash starts a new line on the dog tag). Letters are A-Z, 0-9 and a few signs.

Sharing a look, many pictures, diagnostics

• Sling > Settings > Guns, sharing and diagnostics > Share my look copies a short line of numbers and writes UserData/WeaponSling/look_export.txt. Take a look reads one from the clipboard, or from look_import.txt.
• Put several PNG files into UserData/WeaponSling/pictures; Color and look > Color > Next picture / Previous picture steps through them (choose the texture MyPicture).
• Write a diagnostics report writes what the mod found (shader, light source, settings, pictures) to the log and UserData/WeaponSling/report.txt. Please send it with a bug report.

Calibration

1. Hold the gun or put it down in front of you, then BoneMenu > Sling > Calibrate strap on last held item, and close the menu.
2. A laser with a dot comes out of your hand. Aim at the rear end spot of the gun and press the trigger. A blue dot stays there.
3. Aim at the front end spot and press again. The strap appears.
4. B / Y button: one step back (cancel at the first step). The laser comes from the hand that is not holding the gun, so the trigger never fires it.

If the laser does not point where your hand points, use Sling > Laser and calibration > Laser test and change Laser direction and Laser tilt until it matches.

Wrap tape

1. Pick up the gun, then BoneMenu > Sling > Wrap tape > Start wrapping, and close the menu.
2. A thin beam comes out of the hand that is not holding the gun, with a ring that shows where the tape would go.
3. Aim at a part of the gun and press the trigger. The tape winds around that part. Do it again on other parts or on the same part.
4. A / X on the beam hand: next color. B / Y: undo the last wrap (press again with nothing left to end the tool). The tool also ends after a few minutes without use, or with Stop wrapping.
5. Colors are in Wrap tape > Tape colors (16 presets under More colors and Even more colors, or your own RGB). Pattern, finish, width, turns, gap, thickness and winding axis are in Wrap tape > Shape and pattern. If a wrap goes around the wrong way, set Wind around to one of the item's axes. Reset the tape settings puts all of it back to normal.
6. Eraser mode (on the Wrap tape page): the beam turns red, and the trigger takes off the wrap you aim at (the dot turns white when there is a wrap under the beam) instead of making a new one. It is switched off every time the game starts.

The beam uses the same hand, button, direction and range as calibration (Settings > Laser and calibration). The tape is fitted to the visible mesh of the part when the game lets the mod read it, and to the collision shapes (adjusted to the mesh bounds) when it does not; the log line [Sling] Wrap tape on ... says which. Gap to the part (default 1 mm) moves the tape away from or toward the part.

Strap models and charms

Sling > Color and look > Strap model: Model picks the look, Next model steps through them, Charm on the strap and Second charm hang charms from it, Show hardware (in Hardware and stripes) switches the metal parts off, Surprise me picks a random look. A strap you painted keeps its own model (Paint strap on last held item saves it for that gun); Strap follows global look (in More look options) releases it.

Custom wear spot

Sling > Wear spots > Lower body > Custom spot > Save here. Hold your hand where you want the strap to hang; the position is saved after 4 seconds.

Your own strap picture

Put a PNG named strap.png into UserData/WeaponSling, then choose the texture MyPicture (or the preset My texture) in Sling > Color and look, then press Reload the chosen picture under Color > Color. The picture is stretched once along the strap, so a long, thin image works best (for example 512x16). Colors multiply the picture, so use the White tint if you want it unchanged.

Requirements

• BONELAB on PC (Quest is not supported).
• MelonLoader and BoneLib (installed automatically by mod managers).

Multiplayer (Fusion)

The gun's position is synced by Fusion itself, so other players see the gun hanging and swinging. Since 0.18.0 Sling also sends your straps (the ones on your body or in your hands, at most three: their rope in 12 points and their look) through Fusion's module system, and shows the straps of other players who have Sling too. Players without Sling see nothing of this and are not disturbed by it. Your strap is still simulated only on your own client; what the others see is a drawing of it, which glides to every new packet and follows the head of its player. Where the strap meets the gun on their screen can be a few centimetres off, because avatars differ in size.

Fusion is not required. To build the Fusion part yourself, Fusion must be installed (Mods/LabFusion.dll) when you run build.bat; if the build with it fails, the script builds without it and says so.

Known limitations

• The strap does not pull on you or your hands, only on the gun.
• The strap lies on the floor and against walls, and (when Strap lies on the body is on) on your torso, which is approximated as an ellipse around the body spots. It lies on the gun it hangs from too (when Strap lies on the gun is on). It passes through your arms, loose props and other players.
• Where the body spots are is a rough estimate from your head position. Use Body size and the per-spot sliders to fit them to you.
• If you do not calibrate a gun, the strap ends are picked automatically from its model (on the underside, rear and front) and may sit oddly on some items.
• If the game does not let the mod read a gun's meshes, the tape follows the collision shapes and may look boxy or sit a few millimetres off. Up to 12 wraps per gun.
• Up to 4 straps at a time by default (Settings > Guns, sharing and diagnostics > Most straps at the same time, 1 to 8). Straps are removed when the level changes (remembered guns get their strap back on pickup if auto-attach is on).

Files and settings

• Settings: BoneMenu > Sling, saved in UserData/MelonPreferences.cfg under [Sling], [Sling_Style] and [Sling_Wear].
• Remembered guns: UserData/WeaponSling/guns.txt (plain text, safe to delete).
• Other files in UserData/WeaponSling: strap.png and the pictures folder, tag.txt (your lettering), look_export.txt / look_import.txt (sharing looks), report.txt (diagnostics).
• If a controller button is not detected on your setup, check the log for the line Readable bool/float/int members and set GripMethod, TriggerMethod, PrimaryMethod or SecondaryMethod in the config.