rbxpack

rbxpack is a CLI tool that makes it simple to handle developing and distributing a game across launchers of old Roblox (2006-2012) clients. Supported launchers are Novetus and Only Retro Roblox Here.

Features

Basically, rbxpack does a few different things:

Init project

Run rbxpack init to set up the rbxpack.json config file, containg metadata about the project.

• ProjectName: A short, (preferably all lowercase alphanumeric) name of the project for internal use (name of the assets folder).
• FriendlyName: The project name, used in ORRH asset pack metadata.
• Description: The project description, used in ORRH asset pack metadata and Novetus map metadata.
• Author: The project author, used in ORRH asset pack metadata.
• Version: The project version, used in ORRH asset pack metadata.
• Clients: An array of clients the project works for, used in ORRH asset pack metadata and which clients to link to.
• ProjectRbxl: The name of the rbxl file. For example, HappyHome.rbxl.
• Links: An array of objects containing data about launchers to link to:
  • ClientsDir: The directory containing clients in the launcher.¹
  • MapsDir: The directory containing maps in the launcher.

Clients array syntax

The Clients config field uses ORRH's syntax:

• CLIENT: Only enables for CLIENT. For example, 2012L.
• !CLIENT: Disables for CLIENT. For example, !2012L.
• *: Enable for all clients.

Link to launchers

rbxpack allows you to develop your game outside of a specific launcher, and even develop your game in multiple launchers simultaneously. Store a project folder containing your game and assets anywhere, and link it to a launcher's clients and maps directories with rbxpack link add. rbxpack will then:

• Symlink your project folder to the launcher's maps folder
• For every client listed in the config, rbxpack will symlink your project's assets folder to under the client's content folder, using the project's configured internal name + an identifier suffix. For example, the "bloxparty" project can access assets/grass.png in Roblox Studio with rbxasset://bloxparty-rbxpack/grass.png.

Bundle project for distribution

Running rbxpack build will repack your game and assets for Novetus and ORRH's unique directory structures, writing to build/novetus and build/orrh directories in your project.

• Rewrites asset URLs and asset file names where necessary
• Minifies the RBXL file's XML and Lua contents to reduce size (TODO!)
• Generate ORRH asset pack metadata and Novetus map description metadata
• Compresses the RBXL to .rbxl.bz2 (for Novetus) and .rbxl.gz (for ORRH)
• Compresses the generated assets folder to a .zip for distribution

Footnotes

1. rbxpack is trying to get to the content directory of the client. ORRH stores its actual clients in subfolders of the Clients directory: ./data/clients/CLIENT/Player, unlike Novetus. rbxpack will detect this, so use ORRH's general clients directory and don't worry.npm ↩