NovelRT is a cross-platform, flexible Visual Novel and 2D game engine. It is aimed at designers and developers alike, however many of the designer tools and features we have on our roadmap have yet to be implemented.
Currently, NovelRT supports the following in its base form:
- Graphics LLAPI
- Audio LLAPI
Current features in development include:
- C++ HLAPI
- Fabulist narrative scripting language support
For information on Fabulist, check it out from here.
Currently there are no binary distributions of the engine as of yet, and we are still in our early alpha for almost everything.
If you wish to attempt to build a basic visual novel with the existing C++ API, you must first install the following dependencies:
- CMake 3.19.8
- Doxygen 1.8.17 (if building docs)
- Freetype 2.12.1
- GLFW 3.3.7
- glm 0.9.9.9
- gtest/gmock 1.11.0
- libpng 1.6.35
- libsndfile 1.0.30
- Microsoft GSL 4.0.0
- OneTBB 2021.5.0
- OpenAL 1.21.1
- spdlog 1.10.0
- Vulkan SDK 1.3.211.0 (if you require debug/validation layers) OR
- Vulkan Loader 1.3.211 + Vulkan Headers 1.3.211 (+ MoltenVK 1.1.9 - macOS only)
If you are compiling on Linux, please note - we do not support GCC at this time. Please use Clang instead. Please also note all supported compiler profiles can be found here. Contributions for new profiles are welcome, however we will only be accepting profiles for first-party platforms.
These instructions are based on the Conan package manager. you can download Conan from here.
First, you must install the dependencies. Using Ubuntu 20.04 there are extra requirements on top of Conan. With those dependencies, it looks something like this:
sudo apt install clang libgl-dev xorg-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-render-util0-dev libxcb-xkb-dev \
libxcb-icccm4-dev libxcb-image0-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-sync-dev \
libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxcb-xinerama0-dev xkb-data libxcb-dri3-dev libxcb-util-dev python3-pip \
Then, install Conan and our configurations should you require them:
pip3 install conan
conan config install https://github.com/novelrt/ConanConfig.git
If you are building from a command line terminal, clone NovelRT and set up the build folder like so:
git clone https://github.com/NovelRT/NovelRT.git
mkdir -p NovelRT/build
cd NovelRT/build
conan install .. --build=missing --profile linux-clang10-amd64
If you would like to change any of the settings prior to building, pass them in like so:
conan install .. --build=missing --profile linux-clang10-amd64 -o NovelRT:buildtests=False -o NovelRT:documentation=False -o NovelRT:buildsamples=False -o NovelRT:buildinterop=False
(Please note: the above command shows the only four options we support at the moment - anything else is considered unsupported at this time.)
Then you should be able to configure and build the default setup, like so:
conan build .. --build-folder .
If you would like to build using CMake instead, you can configure and build, like so:
cmake ..
cmake --build . -j
Prerequisites:
- You must set up Python 3(if you have not done so already).
- Windows 10 x64
- Either:
- Visual Studio 2019 w/ "Desktop development with C++" Workload,
- Visual Studio 2022 w/ "Desktop development with C++" Workload, OR
- Build Tools for Visual Studio 2019/2022 w/ "Desktop development with C++" Workload
- CMake 3.19 or above (note: Do not use the included one with Visual Studio at this time! It is outdated as of this time of writing and is considered incompatible.)
(32-bit builds will not be supported at this time.)
Please download Python 3 (x64) from here or from the Microsoft Store. Once that is done, install conan and our configurations should you require them:
pip install conan
conan config install https://github.com/novelrt/ConanConfig.git
If you are building from a command line terminal, clone NovelRT and set up the build folder like so:
git clone https://github.com/NovelRT/NovelRT.git
cd NovelRT
mkdir build
cd build
conan install .. --build=missing --profile windows-vs2022-amd64
If you would like to change any of the settings prior to building, pass them in like so:
conan install .. --build=missing --profile windows-vs2022-amd64 -o NovelRT:buildtests=False -o NovelRT:documentation=False -o NovelRT:buildsamples=False -o NovelRT:buildinterop=False
(Please note: the above command shows the only four options we support at the moment - anything else is considered unsupported at this time.)
Then you should be able to configure and build the default setup, like so:
conan build .. --build-folder .
If you would like to build using CMake instead, you can configure and build, like so:
cmake ..
cmake --build . -j
When you open the NovelRT folder in VS2019 or VS2022 for the first time the CMakeSettings.json file will contain incorrect values.
Change the buildRoot value to ${projectDir}\\build and the installRoot to ${projectDir}\\install and restart Visual Studio this will make sure that it uses the same build path as the CLI commands.
You can delete the out folder in the NovelRT root as well as we won't use it anymore.
Afterwards right click on the conanfile.py file in the root and click the Run conan install windows-vs2022-amd64 option. (Respectfully, use the windows-vs2019-amd64 option when building with VS2019.)
This runs the conan install command from the section above to regenerate the files we need to build with cmake as Visual Studio wiped the output from earlier.
Then regenerate the cmake by clicking regenerate on the yellow warning ribbon on the top of Visual Studio.
Prerequisites:
- Python 3 x64 (installed via Homebrew or run as any user other than root)
- XCode 12
- XCode Command Line Tools matching the installed version
- CMake 3.19.8
NOTE: Until native Metal support is introduced at a future time, it is highly advised that you install Vulkan SDK version 1.3.211.0 as a prerequisite to configuring/building NovelRT. The instructions below will indicate directions assuming that the Vulkan SDK is already installed in a non-system path. If it is not installed, NovelRT's build system will try to vendor the required libraries, however this will dramatically increase the build time.
First, install Conan and our configurations should you require them:
pip3 install conan
conan config install https://github.com/novelrt/ConanConfig.git
If you are building from a command line terminal, clone NovelRT and set up the build folder like so:
git clone https://github.com/NovelRT/NovelRT.git
mkdir -p NovelRT/build
cd NovelRT/build
conan install .. --build=missing --profile macos-appleclang12-amd64
If you would like to change any of the settings prior to building, pass them in like so:
conan install .. --build=missing --profile macos-appleclang12-amd64 -o NovelRT:buildtests=False -o NovelRT:documentation=False -o NovelRT:buildsamples=False -o NovelRT:buildinterop=False
(Please note: the above command shows the only four options we support at the moment - anything else is considered unsupported at this time.)
Once you have installed the Conan dependencies, ensure that the terminal performing configuration of NovelRT runs the source setup-env.sh from within the Vulkan SDK directory.
If you have an Intel Mac you can configure the cmake files like so:
cmake ..
However, if you have Apple-Silicon Mac (M1, M2, etc), you must add an additional flag to the configuration command, like so:
cmake .. -DCMAKE_APPLE_SILICON_PROCESSOR="arm64"
If Vulkan SDK is not installed in a system path and the setup-env.sh file did not properly add the required environment variables, you can specify the NOVELRT_VULKAN_SDK_PATH to your local Vulkan SDK location as such:
cmake .. -DNOVELRT_VULKAN_SDK_PATH=/Users/youruser/Vulkan SDK/1.3.216.0/macOS
Please ensure that the path includes the macOS folder, otherwise finding the proper libraries will fail.
Once NovelRT is configured, you can build it like so:
cmake --build . -j
To run the samples, you will need to navigate to the folder the executable resides in, and launch from there. This is due to how macOS and CMake handle's RPATHs.
Examples will be placed here when we have created some. In the meantime, we advise asking us directly on our discord (invite URL above and below).
First off, if you want to contribute, thanks!
If you would like to contribute to the development of NovelRT, please see our contribution guide here. If this doesn't answer any questions that you have, feel free to reach out to us on Discord to discuss what you can work on - we greatly appreciate it!
NovelRT and everyone contributing (this includes issues, pull requests, the wiki, Discord in all forms, etc.) must abide by our code of conduct, which can be found here. Instances of abuse, harrassment or otherwise unacceptable behaviour must either be reported to a NovelRT Developer via direct message on Discord or by contacting us via email.
Unless otherwise specified, all files are copyright © Matt Jones and Contributors. Licensed under the MIT Licence (MIT).
See LICENCE in the repository root for more information.
You can reach us directly via our discord, or you can post your question as an issue on the appropriate repository (but honestly asking us directly might be easier).