A compact dinput8.dll proxy loader for Nioh 3 that automatically loads DLL mods from the plugins folder and generates detailed crash reports to make debugging easier.

What This Mod Does

It proxies the original system dinput8.dll, so the game’s normal behavior remains intact.
It scans <game root>/plugins and loads any plugin DLLs found there.
It calls each plugin’s nioh3_plugin_initialize entry point.
It installs an unhandled exception logger and writes crash diagnostics for troubleshooting.

Installation For Players

Place this mod’s dinput8.dll in the Nioh 3 game root, in the same folder as the game .exe.
Create a plugins folder in the game root if one does not already exist.
Put your DLL mods inside the plugins folder.
Start the game.

Log File

Log file name: NIOH3PluginLoader.log
File location: your Windows Documents folder

Troubleshooting

If a plugin does not load:

Confirm the DLL is located in <game root>/plugins.
Make sure it exports exactly nioh3_plugin_initialize.
Check NIOH3PluginLoader.log for load or initialization errors.

For Mod Authors

The loader runs each plugin on the main thread after the game finishes DRM decompression and is about to enter WinMain. At that stage, you can do signature scanning, patching, and similar work directly in DllMain.

You may export this function, although it is not required:

cpp

constexpr uint32_t NIOH3_PLUGIN_API_VERSION = 1;
struct Nioh3PluginInitializeParam {

    uint32_t loader_api_version;

    uint16_t game_version_major;

    uint16_t game_version_minor;

    uint16_t game_version_patch;

    uint16_t game_version_build;

    const char* game_version_string;

    const char* game_root_dir;

    const char* plugins_dir;

};

extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) bool nioh3_plugin_initialize(const Nioh3PluginInitializeParam* initialize_param);

Uninstall

Delete dinput8.dll from the game root.
Optionally remove the plugins folder and any plugin DLLs.

Source Code

GitHub: https://github.com/kassent/NIOH3-Plugin-Loader

DLL Plugin Loader