Baldur's Gate 3 Script Extender vs BepInEx

Baldur's Gate 3 Script Extender adds Lua and Osiris scripting support for mods in Baldur's Gate 3. A mod can enable Lua with a feature flag and load bootstrap scripts for the client and server. The extender keeps separate Lua states for the game server and each client, and its console can run Lua code and registered console commands. Configuration options provide Lua and Osiris debugger interfaces with configurable listening ports, and logging options can write Osiris activity, runtime output, story compilation and compilation errors to files. An EnableAchievements option can re-enable achievements in modded games. SendCrashReports defaults to true and uploads minidumps to a crash report collection server after a crash. Installation involves extracting DWrite.dll into the game's bin directory. The extender updates when the game launches by downloading and applying an update. It supports Windows and Linux via Proton, but does not run on game versions older than patch 5; new versions target the latest game version. It is free to obtain under a license that includes the MIT License and a Commons Clause restriction on selling the software or substantially derived products and services.

BepInEx is a plugin and modding framework for Unity Mono and IL2CPP games, as well as .NET Framework games such as those built with XNA, FNA, and MonoGame. It provides configuration and logging, runtime method patching, and in-memory assembly patching. Runtime patching uses Harmony, including HarmonyX and MonoMod; in-memory patching uses Mono.Cecil with UnityDoorstop. The installation guide lists Windows, Linux, and macOS, though supported operating system versions and architectures depend on the build and game. Setup is manual: download the appropriate build and put its contents in the game’s root folder. Official binaries are available as stable and bleeding edge builds; the documentation recommends stable in most cases and notes that bleeding edge builds tend to be buggier. The project is open source under LGPL-2.1 and links to guides for users and developers. Compatibility has limits: stable releases are available only for Unity Mono, BepInEx 6 documentation remains a work in progress, and BepInEx 5 plugins do not yet work with the 6.0.0 pre-release.