Pokémon Soul.Link

Setup

Setup

Tutorial Videos

For those who prefer the dulcet tones of Failstream's voice to the monotonic inner voice you use when reading stuffy documentation, might I suggest the Tutorial Videos?

Installation

Requirements

There are two sets of requirements: those of the original EverOddish PokeStreamer Tools, and those required for Pokémon Soul.Link. If you've been using PokeStreamer Tools for a while, well, look at you. Always one step ahead. I authorize you to skip the next five-line subsection, assuming you know which version (32-bit or 64-bit) of the emulator you are using. If you don't, well, I guess we'll find out shortly, won't we?

PokeStreamer Tools requirements

  • Windows operating system
  • An emulator with Lua scripting support

Pokémon Soul.Link requirements

Optional
  • LuaSocket 2.0.2 32-bit - The included LuaSocket binaries in /lua/ are 64-bit versions (as they're harder to come by). If you are using a 32-bit emulator, you will need to download the 32-bit version and replace the 64-bit versions.
  • Discord - Required for SoulLink live linking functionality
  • Merging tool - when updating to the latest version of the Pokémon Soul.Link, incoming changes may conflict with changes you've made to your config. A merge tool can be helpful in resolving those conflicts.
    • Meld - A simple, clean tool for comparing files/folders with decent merge capability
    • VS Code - Overkill if you are only using it for merging, but on top of making merging very easy, it's the best text editor I've found

Set Up the Emulator

If you've been using the EverOddish scripts successfully, there's nothing new you need to do here. If you're starting up from scratch, there are a couple files not included with each emulator that are required.

VBA-RR

You may need not to do anything to set up VBA-RR, but a common error (and one that I ran into twice) that might occur is the "white screen" glitch when loading the ROM.

To fix the white screen glitch:

  1. Download vba-over.ini and extract the zip (download link)
  2. Place the ini file in your VBA-RR folder
  3. Close and reopen the emulator
  4. In the Options / Emulation / Save Type menu, make sure Automatic and Flash 64 are checked (some sites say to use Flash 128, but that didn't work for me)

DeSmuME

EverOddish did a great job documenting how to do this, so I'm just gonna do a little shameless copy pasta. (I've removed the bits that aren't applicable anymore.)

  1. Download the latest release of DeSmuME: http://desmume.org/download/
  2. Make note of whether you downloaded 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x86-64) DeSmuME
  3. Download the Lua DLL that matches your DeSmuME: Lua Windows Binaries
    • lua-5.1.5_Win32_dll14_lib.zip for x86 DeSmuME
    • lua-5.1.5_Win64_dll14_lib.zip for x86-64 DeSmuME
  4. Extract lua5.1.dll from the .zip file to the same folder where your DeSmuME_0.9.11_x86.exe or DeSmuME_0.9.11_x64.exe is
  5. Rename lua5.1.dll to lua51.dll

Download the Repository

  1. Open command prompt by pressing + r and running cmd.
  2. Navigate to the folder (using cd) you will want to install the server to. (This is the parent directory; running the next command will create a folder named PokeStreamer-Tools automatically. Yeah, I never changed the name...)
  3. Run git clone https://github.com/dfoverdx/PokeStreamer-Tools.git

Now open up the directory in Windows explorer (to make the next step easier), and then cd into the the node server's directory. This is where you will do the vast majority of things related to the server.

cd PokeStreamer-Tools
start .
cd node

Download Pokémon Images  

I strongly recommend you use the zip located here as it includes all the required images named the way my script expects them to be named (i.e. numbered by PokéDex number).

Download and extract this to your newly cloned directory's /pokemon-images/ folder. If you're using the zip above, you'll need to move all the sub directories from /pokemon-images/PKMN.NET Sprite Resource 4/Pokémon/ to /pokemon-images (such that the BW folder is at /pokemon-images/BW), or if you're a masochist, you can change the values in config.

Navigate to /node and run setup.cmd. This script copies over the Arceus forms (haha, good luck getting him without cheating), and renames some misnamed Giritina images. It also does something with Spikey-Eared Pichu that I'm sure is very important. You should only have to do this once unless you reset/overwrite your images folder.

All images in the specified image directories (config.advanced.json has a list of which directories these are) are loaded into memory by the server. This isn't a problem for the images in the suggested ZIP (~5MB depending on which generation), but if you use larger ones, you may run into some memory difficulties.

If you have previously used PokeStreamer-Tools, you may remember that the images needed to be in the same location as the Lua scripts. This is no longer the case.

Install Dependencies

The server depends on a bunch of external libraries. Downloading and installing these is an arduous task. It requires you press six keys.

npm i
Troubles installing node-sass / issues with node-gyp

node-sass relies on node-gyp and node-gyp is a royal pain in the Butterfree. If npm i (or later in this tutorial, build.cmd) is throwing a fit with a message about node-sass or node-gyp, you have a few options, any of which may or may not work (because of the Butterfree I just mentioned). After you have tried any of these steps, you must run build.cmd again.

  1. The easiest solution is to reinstall node via the .msi file. Odds are it will say that node is already installed; just click the Change button. When it asks if you want to install Tools for Native Modules, check the box.

    Check the box to install Tools for Native Modules

    After node finishes reinstalling, a command prompt window will appear. It suggests closing all other programs during the install. I don't know if this matters, but considering how finicky node-gyp is, I wouldn't take any chances. Once you've made this dire decision and followed through with your commitment, close the command prompt window. It will ask if you want to allow Powershell to run with elevated permissions (like it does anytime you install something in Windows). Click yes (obviously). A blue[1] command prompt[2] window called Powershell will appear and begin to install stuff. Let it do its thing. This will take a couple minutes. In the meantime, go get some coffee. Change a baby's diaper[3]. Complete a Nuzlocke run. Go wild. The sky's the limit.

    If all goes well, open up command prompt, navigate back to /node, and re-run npm i. If not, or if it still doesn't work, try the second solution below.

  2. The second solution is to follow the steps at https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#on-windows.

    After you've finished, close every command prompt, open a new command prompt, navigate back to /node, and re-run npm i. If it still throws a fit, try restarting your computer, and re-run npm i. If it throws a fit after that, try performing a rain dance, and re-run npm i. If it's still not working, try sacrificing a virgin[4], and re-run npm i.

  3. If you have your source on a separate drive (i.e. not c:\), odds are you're going to see an error message like

    error MSB4019: The imported project "E:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the
<Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.

    If you have installed Visual Studio 2015+ (not VS Code), boot up the VS Installer and make sure that VC++ 2015.3 v14.00 (v140) toolset for desktop is installed.

    Visual Studio Installer Individual Components VC++ Toolset

    Now you'll need to make sure that the VCTargetsPath environment variable is set.

    echo %VCTargetsPath%

    If this prints an empty line, run

    dir "c:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\v140\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.props"

    This should show that the file is found.

    If it is not...

    If it is not, then you have not installed VS build tools properly. Hang your head in shame. If you are convinced that you installed it properly and that the file simply isn't where it should be (either because you installed Visual Studio to a different directory or drive or because something else is weird), run

    c:
cd c:\
dir /s Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.props

    where c: is the drive you installed Visual Studio to.

    Choose the directory that includes v140. This is important. Later versions do not work. I've tried. Use this directory in the next step.

    Assuming the file is found, first, give yourself a pat on the back. Not a strong one, but enough to feel like you achieved at least something today. Next run,

    setx VCTargetsPath "c:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\v140"

    If you get a permission denied error, you'll need to run command prompt as administrator and run the setx command again.

    Close command prompt and reopen it. Run echo %VCTargetsPath% to ensure that the value was saved. Navigate back to /node and rerun npm i.

  4. There are several possible solutions suggested on this Stack Overflow question: How to solve 'node-gyp rebuild' issue on Windows 10?

    The one I'd try first, simply because it's simplest, is running

    npm install --global --production windows-build-tools

If none of those solutions work, I honestly don't know what to tell you. I've only successfully gotten node-gyp to work when it wasn't working once, and I lacked the foresight to write down what steps I took.

How to Update to the Latest Version

In the future, when there's an exciting new release hot off the--uhhh... github. Hot off the github. Well, when there is and you're dying to get your hands on it, in Command Prompt, navigate to the PokeStreamer-Tools/node directory and run:

git stash --include-untracked
git pull
npm i
git stash pop

When running git stash pop, depending on what kinds of edits you made, in particular to config.json, the command might say something about merge conflicts.

If you downloaded VS Code for your merge tool...

Run:

code .

Then press ctrl + shift + g (by default) to open the Source Control panel. At the top will be a list of files with a C next to them.

When you click on each of those files, VS Code will show you the changes made in the update as green lines, and changes you've made in blue. Above the green lines you can click a variety of buttons to helping you figure out what the final version should be.

VS Code merge screenshot

Once you've made the appropriate changes, just save each file.

It's a little complicated to explain in text, especially when I have no idea what kind of background you, dear user, have with coding. I did a quick search through YouTube and came up with this video. It might be helpful. It might not be.

If you downloaded Meld for your merge tool...

Run:

git mergetool --tool meld

I'm not too experienced with Meld, myself, but running that command should bring up a window with three panels. Those panels should show you the changes from the update, the changes you made before the update, and the resulting file that you need to fix up.

Meld screenshot

May the odds be ever in your favor.

If you've tried your best to use a merge tool, and still haven't gotten it working, hit me up on Discord.

It's time to Build! Build!

  1. probably ↩︎

  2. ish ↩︎

  3. Your own baby's diaper, and even then only as needed. Pokémon SoulLink does not condone changing a stranger's baby's diaper. Seek permission first. That said, Pokémon SoulLink doesn't not condone this behavior. The lawyers insisted upon this footnote. Those sourpusses. ↩︎

  4. Better make it two virgins, just to be safe. ↩︎