Building

After making changes, you need to build the ROM to test them.

Using VS Code

With Visual Studio Code focused, press Ctrl+Shift+B (Cmd+Shift+B on macOS) to build the ROM.

If you set up your project using Nix, use Ctrl+Shift+P > Tasks: Run Task > Build Mod (Nix) instead, so the build runs inside the Nix environment.

The output ROM is at ver/us/build/papermario.z64. See Running below for how to load it.

Building manually

If you prefer to build from the command line, or if the VS Code task isn't working:

Windows

Open a terminal in the project folder and run:

.\tools\configure.bat
.\tools\build.bat

configure.bat downloads the compiler toolchain (on the first run) and creates a build.ninja file. You only need to re-run it if you add or remove source files. build.bat builds the ROM.

macOS/Linux

Make sure git and curl are installed, then run:

./tools/configure.sh
./tools/build.sh

configure.sh downloads the compiler toolchain (on the first run) and creates a build.ninja file. You only need to re-run it if you add or remove source files. build.sh builds the ROM.

Using Nix

nix develop

This builds (or downloads, if cached) the cross-compiler toolchain, build tools, and all other dependencies using Nix. You need to be in this shell for the following commands to work.

./tools/configure.sh
ninja

Note

If you're experiencing a weird build issue (e.g. after updating DX), try ./tools/configure.sh --clean (or .\tools\configure.bat --clean on Windows) to delete previously-built files and start fresh.

Running

Load ver/us/build/papermario.z64 in an emulator. We recommend the accurate emulator ares. For real hardware, copy this ROM to a flashcart.

Caution

If you don't regularly test with ares and/or real hardware, your mod may not work correctly for others.