rlvm: A RealLive interpreter for Linux and OSX.
INTRODUCTION
rlvm is a Free Software reimplementation of the VisualArt's KK's
RealLive interpreter. It is meant to provide Linux and Apple users with
a compatible, portable interpreter to play VisualArts games,
specifically those released under the Key label. It is licensed to you
under version 3 or later of the GNU General Public License as published
by the Free Software Foundation.
rlvm is meant to be a compatibility utility; it is not an excuse for
copyright infringement. Please do not acquire games from BitTorrent /
Share / {insert name of popular P2P app in your locale}.
Special thanks to Jagarl for the first work on reverse engineering the
RealLive interpreter and for Free software licensed source code for
decoding their file formats, to Richard 23 for figuring out features
added to RealLive for Little Busters, to \{jyuichi} for help with Kud Wafter, and to Haeleth for creating rldev, along with answering all my dumb questions about the internal workings of the RealLive system.
STATUS
rlvm currently plays the following games to their completion:
Japanese Edition Games |
Status |
English Fan Patch Status |
Kanon Standard Edition |
OK |
NDT's patch |
Air Standard Edition |
OK |
(None) |
CLANNAD |
OK |
(Not supported) |
CLANNAD (Full Voice) |
OK |
Licensed |
Planetarian CD |
OK |
Licensed |
Tomoyo After |
OK |
(None) |
Little Busters |
OK |
(Untested) |
Kud Wafter |
OK |
(None) |
US Edition Games |
Status |
Planetarian |
Works; buy here |
For more details, please read STATUS.TXT.
rlvm is now at the point where enough commands are implemented that
other games may work. The above is only a list of what I've tested
first hand or what I've been told.
rlvm has an implementation of rlBabel; English patches compiled with
Haeleth's rlBabel should line break correctly. I've successfully tested
it with the Kanon patch from NDT.
rlvm supports KOE, NWK and OVK archives for voices, along with ogg
vorbis voice patches which follow the convention
/z.ogg.
Fullscreen can be entered by pressing Alt+{F,Enter} on Linux and
Command+{F,Enter} on Mac.
Please report bugs on [the GitHub bug tracker][bugtracker].
[bugtracker]: https://github.com/eglaysher/rlvm/issues
## USING RLVM
By default, rlvm is a GUI program. Start it by double clicking on the
icon [OSX] or selecting it from your Applications menu [Linux]. You will
then want to select the folder that contains the SEEN.TXT of the game
you want to play.
If you are using Ubuntu or OSX, rlvm makes an effort to find a system
Japanese Gothic font. If rlvm is complaining that it can't find a font,
it will also look for the file "msgothic.ttc" in either the game
directory nor your home directory. If you are using Linux, you can
manually specify a font with the --font option.
On Linux, you can also manually start rlvm from the command line,
optionally passing in the directory containing the SEEN.TXT file:
$ rlvm [/path/to/GameDirectory/]
The rlvm binary should be self contained and movable anywhere, though
the build system does not have an install target.
If you don't have the file "msgothic.ttc" in either the game directory
nor your home directory, please specify a Japanese font on the command
line with --font.
## COMPILING RLVM
You will need the following libraries/utilities:
- The [scons][scons] build system (Note: the scons in MacPorts has been
reported to not work)
- [boost][boost] 1.40 or higher
- [SDL 1.2][sdl] (and optionally, [SDL_image][sdl_image], and
[SDL_mixer][sdl_mixer], though there are copies included in the source
distribution if you don't already have them installed.)
- [freetype][freetype]
- GNU gettext
[scons]: http://www.scons.org/
[boost]: http://www.boost.org/
[sdl]: http://libsdl.org/download-1.2.php
[sdl_image]: https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/release-1.2.html
[sdl_mixer]: http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/release-1.2.html
[freetype]: http://www.freetype.org/
### COMPILING UNDER LINUX
Make sure that freetype-config and sdl-config are in your `$PATH`. The
current SConscripts are fairly naive and may need editing to point to
the correct location of some header files. Future versions will have the
build system refined. You should be able to type:
$ scons --release
in the root and have a complete build. The unit tests will automatically
be built and can be run by typing:
$ ./build/rlvm_unittests
They should all pass.
There is no convenient install feature (I am not sure how to do that in
scons). rlvm will work (without icons or localization) in place. If you
wish to use rlvm in place, the binary is in:
$ ./build/rlvm
For packagers, the debian/install file contains a mapping of where files should be copied to. I agree that there should be a better long term solution, though it currently escapes me.
### COMPILING UNDER OSX
In addition to freetype-config and sdl-config needing to be in your
`$PATH`, (like when compiling under Linux), the Sconscripts assume you use fink to manage your unix programs and that fink is installed at /sw/, though they also try to check for Darwin Ports. You may need to edit the SConscript files if using something else.
To build an OSX application, type:
$ scons --release --fullstatic
which will build rlvm.app in the build directory. The resulting OSX
application will ask you for the location of the game with a native
dialog.
To build a dmg file for distribution, type:
$ scons --release --fullstatic --dmgname="rlvm "
## KNOWN ISSUES
Little Busters' baseball doesn't work because it is implemented as a
Windows DLL instead. For the same reason, the dungeon crawling minigame
in Tomoyo After does not work.
## GETTING INVOLVED
Little Buster's baseball minigame appears to be implemented by a DLL,
not RealLive bytecode. Figuring out what its doing is the first step to
getting it working.
## DONATE
Have you found rlvm useful? I accept donations in bitcoin at the following address: 3Ee9s6BzmSZQK2yf4DU3p8vk1ttrsnFoQ2