This fork is not a takover, not a resurreccion of the original project, and not a replacement.
This is just a personal fork, don't take it seriously.
You are highly encouraged to fork/clone it and do whatever you want with it.
Don't depend on it as the main source.

🔴

Original README

You can find the original README here: README.md

How to use the emu

Always generate the interfaces file using the find_interfaces tool.
Generate the proper app configuration using the generate_emu_config tool.
If it doesn't work try the ColdClientLoader setup.

You can find helper guides, scripts, and tools here in this wiki: https://github.com/otavepto/gbe_fork/wiki/Emu-helpers
You can find instructions here: README.release.md

Compiling

One time setup

Cloning the repo

Clone the repo and its submodules recursively

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/otavepto/gbe_fork.git

It is adviseable to always checkout submodules every now and then, to make sure they're up to date

git submodule update --recursive --remote

For Windows:

You need Windows 10 or 8.1
Install Visual Studio 2022 Community: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/
- Select the Workload Desktop development with C++
- In the Individual componenets scroll to the buttom and select the latest version of Windows XX SDK (XX.X...)
  For example Windows 11 SDK (10.0.22621.0)
(Optional) Install a GUI for Git like GitHub Desktop, or Sourcetree
Python 3.10 or above: https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/
After installation, make sure it works
```
python --version
```

For Linux:

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS: https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Python 3.10 or above

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa -y
sudo apt update -y
sudo apt install python3.10 -y

# make sure it works
python3.10 --version

Building dependencies

These are third party libraries needed to build the emu later, they are linked with the emu during its build process.
You don't need to build these dependencies every time, they rarely get updated.
The only times you'll need to rebuild them is either when their separete build folder was accedentally deleted, or when the dependencies were updated.

On Windows:

Open CMD in the repo folder, then run the batch script

build_win_deps.bat

This will:

Extract all third party dependencies from the folder third-party into the folder build\deps\win
Build all dependencies

Additional arguments you can pass to this script:

-j <n>: build with <n> parallel jobs, by default 70% of the available threads
-verbose: output compiler/linker commands used by CMAKE

On Linux:

Open bash terminal in the repo folder, then run the bash script

sudo ./build_linux_deps.sh

This will:

Install the required Linux packages via apt install (compiler + build tools/libraries)
Extract all third party dependencies from the folder third-party into the folder build/deps/linux
Build all dependencies

Additional arguments you can pass to this script:

-j <n>: build with <n> parallel jobs, by default 70% of the available threads
-verbose: output compiler/linker commands used by CMAKE
-packages_skip: skip package installation via apt install and continue build
-packages_only: install the required Linux packages via apt install and exit (don't rebuild)

Building the emu

On Windows:

Open CMD in the repo folder, then run the batch script

build_win.bat release

This will build a release build of the emu in the folder build\win\release

Arguments you can pass to this script:

release: build the emu in release mode
debug: build the emu in debug mode, which writes events to a log file, and includes .pdb files,
check the debug build readme: README.debug.md
clean: clean the build folder before building again, otherwise the script will retain everything from previous builds

-j <n>: build with <n> parallel jobs, by default 70% of the available threads
-verbose: output compiler/linker commands

-lib-32: prevent building normal steam_api.dll
-lib-64: prevent building normal steam_api64.dll

-ex-lib-32: prevent building experimental steam_api.dll
-ex-lib-64: prevent building experimental steam_api64.dll

-ex-client-32: prevent building experimental steamclient.dll
-ex-client-64: prevent building experimental steamclient64.dll

-exclient-32: prevent building steamclient steamclient.dll
-exclient-64: prevent building steamclient steamclient64.dll
-exclient-ldr-32: prevent building steamclient loader (32) steamclient_loader_32.exe
-exclient-ldr-64: prevent building steamclient loader (64) steamclient_loader_64.exe

+exclient-extra-32: build the 32 bit version of the additional dll steamclient_extra.dll which is injected by the client loader
+exclient-extra-64: build the 64 bit version of the additional dll steamclient_extra64.dll which is injected by the client loader

-tool-itf prevent building the tool find_interfaces
-tool-lobby: prevent building the tool lobby_connect

+lib-netsockets-32 (experimental): build a standalone networking sockets library (32-bit)
+lib-netsockets-64 (experimental): build a standalone networking sockets library (64-bit)

+lib-gameoverlay-32 (experimental): build a standalone stub/mock GameOverlayRenderer.dll library (32-bit)
+lib-gameoverlay-64 (experimental): build a standalone stub/mock GameOverlayRenderer64.dll library (64-bit)

On Linux:

Open bash terminal in the repo folder, then run the bash script (without sudo)

./build_linux.sh release

This will build a release build of the emu in the folder build/linux/release

Arguments you can pass to this script:

release: build the emu in release mode
debug: build the emu in debug mode, which writes events to a log file, and includes .pdb files,
check the debug build readme: README.debug.md
clean: clean the build folder before building again, otherwise the script will retain everything from previous builds

-j <n>: build with <n> parallel jobs, by default 70% of the available threads
-verbose: output compiler/linker commands

-lib-32: prevent building normal 32-bit libsteam_api.so
-lib-64: prevent building normal 64-bit libsteam_api.so

-exp-lib-32: prevent building experimental 32-bit libsteam_api.so
-exp-lib-64: prevent building experimental 64-bit libsteam_api.so
-exp-client-32: prevent building experimental steam client 64-bit steamclient.so
-exp-client-64: prevent building experimental steam client 64-bit steamclient.so

-client-32: prevent building steam client 32-bit steamclient.so
-client-64: prevent building steam client 64-bit steamclient.so

-tool-clientldr: prevent copying the tool steamclient_loader

-tool-itf-32: prevent building the tool 32-bit find_interfaces
-tool-itf-64: prevent building the tool 64-bit find_interfaces
-tool-lobby-32: prevent building the tool 32-bit lobby_connect
-tool-lobby-64: prevent building the tool 64-bit lobby_connect

+lib-netsockets-32 (experimental): build a standalone networking sockets library (32-bit)
+lib-netsockets-64 (experimental): build a standalone networking sockets library (64-bit)

Building the tool `generate_emu_config`

Navigate to the folder tools/generate_emu_config/ then

On Windows:

Open CMD then:

Create python virtual environemnt and install the required packages/dependencies
```
recreate_venv_win.bat
```
Build the tool using pyinstaller
```
rebuild_win.bat
```

This will build the tool inside bin\win

On Linux:

Open bash terminal then:

Create python virtual environemnt and install the required packages/dependencies
```
sudo ./recreate_venv_linux.sh
```
You might need to edit this script to use a different python version.
Find this line and change it:
```
python_package="python3.10"
```
Build the tool using pyinstaller
```
./rebuild_linux.sh
```

This will build the tool inside bin/linux

Using Github CI as a builder

This is really slow and mainly intended for the CI Workflow scripts, but you can use it as another outlet if you can't build locally.
You have to fork the repo first.

Initial setup

In your fork, open the Settings tab from the top, then:

From the left side panel select Actions -> General
In the section Actions permissions select Allow all actions and reusable workflows
Scroll down, and in the section Workflow permissions select Read and write permissions
(Optional) In the section Artifact and log retention, you can specify the amount of days to keep the build artifacts/archives.
It is recommended to set a reasonable number like 3-4 days, otherwise you may consume your packages storage if you use Github as a builder frequently, more details here: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/learning-about-github/githubs-plans

Important note:

In any of the following trigger methods, when you run a workflow (build script), the dependencies will be cached to decrease the build times of the next triggers, and avoid unnecessary/wasteful build process.

This will cause a problem if at any time the third-party dependencies were updated, in that case you need to manually delete the cache, in your fork:

Go to the Actions tab at the top
Select Caches from the left side panel
Delete the corresponding cache

Manual trigger

Go to the Actions tab in your fork
Select one of the Workflow scripts from the left side panel, for example Emu build (Windows)
On the top-right, select Run workflow -> select the desired branch (for example dev) -> press the button Run workflow
When it's done, a package (called build artifact) will be created for that workflow.
Make sure to select the workflow again to view its history, then select the last run at the very top to view its artifacts

Automatic triggers

The following are special branches, pushing any code to them will trigger the build Workflow scripts:

ci-build-emu-linux*: any branch matching this pattern will trigger the Linux build of the emu
Example of a valid branch name:
- ci-build-emu-linux
- ci-build-emu-linux-test1
- ci-build-emu-linux_trial
ci-build-emu-win*: any branch matching this pattern will trigger the Windows build of the emu
Example of a valid branch name:
- ci-build-emu-win
- ci-build-emu-win-test_x
- ci-build-emu-win_feature_y

ci-build-gen-linux*: any branch matching this pattern will trigger the Linux build of the script generate_emu_config
Example of a valid branch name:
- ci-build-gen-linux
- ci-build-gen-linux-test1
- ci-build-gen-linux_trial
ci-build-gen-win*: any branch matching this pattern will trigger the Windows build of the script generate_emu_config
Example of a valid branch name:
- ci-build-gen-win
- ci-build-gen-win-test1
- ci-build-gen-win_trial

ci-build-all: pushing code to this exact branch will trigger all builds

(Optional) Packaging

This step is intended for Github CI/Workflow, but you can create a package locally.

On Windows:

Open CMD in the repos's directory, then run this script

package_win.bat <build_folder>

build_folder is any folder inside build\win, for example: release
The above example will create a .7z archive inside build\package\win\release

On Linux:

Open bash terminal in the repos's directory, then run this script

package_linux.sh <build_folder>

build_folder is any folder inside build/linux, for example: release
The above example will create a compressed .tar archive inside build/package/linux/release

Languages

C++ 91.2%

C 7.6%

Python 0.7%

Lua 0.3%

Batchfile 0.1%

README.md

🔶 This is a fork

Original README

How to use the emu

Compiling

One time setup

Cloning the repo

For Windows:

For Linux:

Building dependencies

On Windows:

On Linux:

Building the emu

On Windows:

On Linux:

Building the tool generate_emu_config

On Windows:

On Linux:

Using Github CI as a builder

Initial setup

Important note:

Manual trigger

Automatic triggers

(Optional) Packaging

On Windows:

On Linux:

Building the tool `generate_emu_config`