FrostMod

FrostMod is a client-side toolkit for MX Bikes.

Features

• Live mod reload - drop in a track, bike, or skin and it shows up in-game instantly without restarting the game.
• Server-browser spam filter - hide ad / cheat-shop / "ghost" servers from your list. Purely client-side, nobody else is affected.
• In-game overlay - a small status hint that shows FrostMod is live and reports each reload.
• Proximity voice (Mumble) - riders on the same server hear each other from where they actually are. FrostMod publishes your position through Mumble's Link interface; Mumble does the voice. See docs/MUMBLE.md.
• FrostServer (dedicated servers) - a server-side companion plugin that publishes the track a server is running plus its mxb-mods.com download link, so a client can fetch and install that track without leaving the game. The server side ships now; the one-click client download button is in progress. See FrostServer.

Build

Windows x64 only. MinHook is fetched automatically during configure.

You need Visual Studio Community 2026 with the Desktop development with C++ workload, and CMake. Open the x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2026 (a normal Command Prompt won't have cl.exe on PATH), then from the project root:

cmake -B build -A x64
cmake --build build --config Release

This outputs frostmod.exe (the launcher you run) and frostmod.dll to build\bin, plus the frostserver.dll / frostserver.dlo / frostserver.exe server-side companion (see FrostServer).

Usage

Run frostmod.exe. It waits for mxbikes.exe, injects frostmod.dll, and stays open as a console - listing the mods it finds and streaming its log.

• Reload mods - drop a .pkz into your mods folder, then press R in the console, or F8 in-game to open the FrostMod menu and pick Reload.
• Filter servers - on by default. Tune the rules in frostmod_serverfilter.yaml (created next to the binaries, with docs, on first run), or pass --no-filter-servers to turn it off.
• Quit - Q or Ctrl+C.

Full command-line reference — every flag, key, and file — is in docs/USAGE.md.

You can also run it as a PiBoSo plugin: drop frostmod.dlo into MX Bikes' plugins folder (next to mxbikes.exe) and the game loads it at startup — no injector needed. Run frostmod.exe --install-plugin to copy it there for you. In plugin mode the in-game overlay renders through the game's sanctioned Draw() callback. See docs/PLUGIN.md.

FrostServer (dedicated servers)

FrostServer is FrostMod's server-side companion — a separate deliverable for people who run an MX Bikes dedicated server. Drop frostserver.dlo into the server's plugins folder and it publishes, over a tiny read-only HTTP API, the track the server is currently running and a mxb-mods.com link to download it (you set the per-track links in frostserver.yaml). A FrostMod client can then fetch that link and install the track — via the MXB App — so players join without hunting the map down and restarting the game.

A standalone frostserver.exe serves the same API with no game attached, for testing (frostserver.exe --track "Some Track Name"). Full HTTP contract, config format, and setup are in docs/FROSTSERVER.md.

The server side (this) ships now. The one-click Download this map button in the client's server browser is the next step.

Troubleshooting

"Is this a virus?" — my antivirus or SmartScreen flagged FrostMod

No, FrostMod isn't malware. It's open source under the MIT license, so you can read every line in this repo — and if you'd rather not trust a prebuilt binary at all, you can build your own from that source. The release binaries aren't code-signed yet (see Code signing below), so Windows will warn about them — but a warning isn't a detection. Two things can show up, and neither means the file is infected:

• SmartScreen "unknown publisher" / "not commonly downloaded." Expected — the binaries aren't signed yet, and this is a reputation prompt, not a malware detection. Click More info → Run anyway.
• A heuristic / "behavioral" antivirus hit (often a generic name like Injector, HackTool, or Wacatac). To load mods live, frostmod.exe injects frostmod.dll into mxbikes.exe (the classic CreateRemoteThread + LoadLibraryA technique) and hooks a few game functions. That's what a mod loader has to do — but it's also what some malware does, so signature-less behavioral engines sometimes raise a false positive. FrostMod touches no file outside its own folder, makes no network connections of its own beyond the optional GitHub update check, and never persists itself anywhere except the login entry you explicitly opt into with --install-startup.

If you'd rather nothing be injected at all, run FrostMod in plugin mode: it loads through MX Bikes' official PiBoSo plugin API (frostmod.dlo in the plugins folder, or frostmod.exe --install-plugin) with no injection and no remote thread, which almost never trips antivirus. See docs/PLUGIN.md.

To be certain the binary is genuine:

• Build it yourself from source (see Build) and run your own DLL — the surest check of all, and it sidesteps the "unknown publisher" prompt.
• Only download from the official GitHub Releases page — never a re-upload or mirror.
• If your AV still blocks it, add an exclusion for the FrostMod folder and/or report the false positive to your vendor so they can whitelist it.

For the full picture — which VirusTotal engines flag it and why (spoiler: only the machine-learning ones, never the signature-based engines like Defender/Kaspersky/ ESET), plus copy-paste templates for disputing it with each vendor — see docs/antivirus-false-positives.md.

Injection fails / "access denied" / the DLL never loads

frostmod.exe has to open mxbikes.exe to inject. Run it as the same Windows user as the game, and elevated (Run as administrator) if the game runs elevated — otherwise injection fails with an access error. Or sidestep injection entirely with plugin mode (above).

Nothing happens / no log output / the overlay never appears

• Check frostmod.log (next to the binaries, or %TEMP%\frostmod.log if that folder is read-only) — it records what the DLL is doing.
• The overlay only shows once the game starts calling its present/draw hook; give it until you reach a menu or the track.
• Make sure the folder holding the binaries is writable — the DLL writes its log and flag files there.

"… is already loaded (another injector running?)"

You already have FrostMod (or another injector) attached to that game process. Quit the other instance, or fully close and relaunch MX Bikes, then start frostmod.exe once.

--update fails or says the DLL is locked

Close MX Bikes first. Windows locks frostmod.dll while the game has it loaded, so the updater can't overwrite it. Then re-run frostmod.exe --update.

The game isn't detected

FrostMod waits for mxbikes.exe by default. On a different executable (e.g. GP Bikes) point it there with --process gpbikes.exe.

Code signing

FrostMod's Windows binaries are not code-signed yet, so Windows will show "unknown publisher" / SmartScreen warnings — see Troubleshooting for why that's expected and how to confirm a download is genuine.

Signing is on the roadmap. The plan is a free certificate from the SignPath Foundation, which sponsors open-source projects — they declined for now because FrostMod doesn't have enough traction / download history yet, so the intent is to re-apply as the project grows. A paid code-signing certificate (a recurring yearly cost) is the fallback if that stalls. Until signing lands, build from source or download only from the official GitHub Releases page.

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Bundles MinHook (BSD 2-Clause); see THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt.