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The Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine
Ren'Py development takes place on the master branch, and occasionally
on feature branches.
Getting Started
Ren'Py depends on a number of Python modules written in Cython and C. For
changes to Ren'Py that only involve Python modules, you can use the modules
found in the latest nightly build. Otherwise, you'll have to compile the
modules yourself.
The development scripts assume a POSIX-like platform. The scripts should run
on Linux or macOS, and can be made to run on Windows using an environment
like MSYS.
Nightly Build
Nightly builds can be downloaded from:
Note that the latest nightly build is at the bottom of the list. Once you've
unpacked the nightly, change into this repository, and run::
./after_checkout.sh <path-to-nightly>
Once this script completes, you should be able to run Ren'Py using renpy.sh,
renpy.app, or renpy.exe, as appropriate for your platform.
If the current nightly build doesn't work, please wait 24 hours for a new
build to occur. If that build still doesn't work, contact Tom (pytom at bishoujo.us,
or @renpytom on twitter) to find out what's wrong.
The doc symlink will dangle until documentation is built, as described
below.
Compiling the Modules
Building the modules requires you have the many dependencies installed on
your system. On Ubuntu and Debian, these dependencies can be installed with
the command::
apt-get install virtualenvwrapper python-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev \
libavresample-dev libswresample-dev libswscale-dev libfreetype6-dev libglew1.6-dev \
libfribidi-dev libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-gfx-dev \
libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libjpeg-turbo8-dev
We strongly suggest installing the Ren'Py modules into a Python
virtualenv. To create a new virtualenv, open a new terminal and run::
mkvirtualenv renpy
To return to this virtualenv later, run::
workon renpy
After activating the virtualenv, install cython and future::
pip install -U cython future
Then, install pygame_sdl2 by running the following commands::
git clone https://www.github.com/renpy/pygame_sdl2
pushd pygame_sdl2
python fix_virtualenv.py $VIRTUAL_ENV
python setup.py install
python setup.py install_headers
popd
Next, set RENPY_DEPS_INSTALL To a :-separated (;-separated on Windows)
list of paths containing the dependencies, and RENPY_CYTHON to the name
of the cython command::
export RENPY_DEPS_INSTALL="/usr:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/"
export RENPY_CYTHON=cython
Finally, use setup.py in the Ren'Py module directory to compile and
install the modules that support Ren'Py::
pushd module
python setup.py install
popd
Ren'Py will be installed into the activated virtualenv. It can then be run
using the command::
python -O renpy.py
Documentation
Building
Building the documentation requires Ren'Py to work. You'll either need to
link in a nightly build, or compile the modules as described above. You'll
also need the Sphinx <https://www.sphinx-doc.org>_ documentation generator.
If you have pip working, install Sphinx using::
pip install -U sphinx
Once Sphinx is installed, change into the sphinx directory inside the
Ren'Py checkout and run::
./build.sh
Format
Ren'Py's documentation consists of reStructuredText files found in sphinx/source, and
generated documentation found in function docstrings scattered throughout the code. Do
not edit the files in sphinx/source/inc directly, as they will be overwritten.
Docstrings may include tags on the first few lines:
:doc: section kind
Indicates that this function should be documented. section gives
the name of the include file the function will be documented in, while
kind indicates the kind of object to be documented (one of function,
method or class. If omitted, kind will be auto-detected.
:name: name
The name of the function to be documented. Function names are usually
detected, so this is only necessary when a function has multiple aliases.
:args: args
This overrides the detected argument list. It can be used if some arguments
to the function are deprecated.
For example::
def warp_speed(factor, transwarp=False):
"""
:doc: warp
:name: renpy.warp_speed
:args: (factor)
Exceeds the speed of light.
"""
renpy.engine.warp_drive.engage(factor)
Translating
For best practices when it comes to translating the launcher and template
game, please read:
https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?p=321603#p321603
Contributing
For bug fixes, documentation improvements, and simple changes, just
make a pull request. For more complex changes, it might make sense
to file an issue first so we can discuss the design.