# Virtual Pro Wrestling 64: Recompiled

Virtual Pro Wrestling 64: Recompiled is a project that uses
[N64Recomp](https://github.com/N64Recomp/N64Recomp) to **statically recompile** the
Nintendo 64 game *Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 (Japan)* into a native PC port, running on
the [N64ModernRuntime](https://github.com/N64Recomp/N64ModernRuntime) with
[RT64](https://github.com/rt64/rt64) as the rendering engine. It is the sister
project of
[WCW vs. nWo World Tour: Recompiled](https://github.com/jessetbh/WCWvsNWOWorldTourRecomp)
— VPW64 and World Tour are direct siblings, released seventeen days apart in
December 1997 — and of
[WCW/nWo Revenge: Recompiled](https://github.com/jessetbh/WCWnWoRevengeRecomp),
sharing their runtime stack and conventions.

### **This repository and its releases do not contain game assets. The original game is required to build or run this project.**

> **Status: beta.** The game boots, renders at high resolution, plays music and
> sound effects, takes keyboard and gamepad input through the menus and matches,
> rumbles, and saves persist automatically. See [Known Issues](#known-issues) for
> what's still rough.

<div align="center">
  <img src="docs/screenshots/gameplay.png" width="640" alt="In-ring gameplay rendered at high resolution">
  <br>
  <img src="docs/screenshots/title.png" width="318" alt="Title screen">
  <img src="docs/screenshots/wrestler-select.png" width="318" alt="Wrestler select">
</div>

## Table of Contents
* [System Requirements](#system-requirements)
* [Features](#features)
  * [Plug and Play](#plug-and-play)
  * [Fully Intact N64 Effects](#fully-intact-n64-effects)
  * [Widescreen Support](#widescreen-support)
  * [Easy-to-Use Menus](#easy-to-use-menus)
  * [Controls Tailored to This Game](#controls-tailored-to-this-game)
  * [Controller Pak Saves and Rumble Together](#controller-pak-saves-and-rumble-together)
* [Planned Features](#planned-features)
* [FAQ](#faq)
* [Known Issues](#known-issues)
* [Mods and ROM Hacks](#mods-and-rom-hacks)
* [Building](#building)
* [Libraries Used and Projects Referenced](#libraries-used-and-projects-referenced)
* [Special Thanks](#special-thanks)

## System Requirements

Currently a **Windows** build is provided; other operating systems may be supported
later.

A GPU supporting Direct3D 12.0 (Shader Model 6) or Vulkan 1.2 is required. A CPU
supporting the SSE4.1 instruction set is also required (Intel Core 2 Penryn series or
AMD Bulldozer and newer).

If you have crashes on startup, make sure your graphics drivers are fully up to date.

## Features

#### Plug and Play

Provide your copy of the Japanese release of the game and start playing! The project
loads assets directly from your ROM, so there is no separate extraction or build
step.

#### Fully Intact N64 Effects

Rendering is hardware-accelerated through RT64 at high resolution, with the game's
original visual effects intact — no emulator-style workarounds or hacks.

#### Widescreen Support

With Aspect Ratio set to **Expand** (the default), the 3D scene renders at your
window's aspect ratio with a correctly widened field of view, while 2D interface
elements stay at their original proportions.

#### Easy-to-Use Menus

Press Esc (or your gamepad's Back/Select button) during play to open the config menu:
general settings, graphics settings, full input rebinding for keyboard and controller
(two bindings per input), and audio settings. Menus can be used with mouse, keyboard,
or controller.

#### Controls Tailored to This Game

Like the rest of the AKI wrestling family, VPW64 moves on the N64 **d-pad** and
taunts with the analog stick, so the default mappings are built for that: move on the
left stick *and* d-pad, taunt on the right stick, and the defensive pair on mirrored
triggers. Grapple = A, attack = X, run = B, climb/turnbuckle = Y, switch focus =
bumpers. Keyboard: WASD moves, IJKL taunts, Space/Shift/Q/E/R for the face buttons.
Everything is rebindable in the in-game menu.

#### Controller Pak Saves and Rumble Together

On real hardware VPW64 saves player records to a Controller Pak — which occupies the
same controller slot a Rumble Pak needs, forcing players to physically swap paks.
The port's virtual pak is both at once: saves are always honored and persist
automatically across sessions, *and* your gamepad rumbles during matches. No
juggling.

## Planned Features

* High framerate support (frame interpolation) — see [Known Issues](#known-issues)
* Linux support
* Mod support

## FAQ

#### What is static recompilation?

Static recompilation is the process of automatically translating an application from
one platform to another — here, the game's original MIPS machine code is translated
into C and compiled for modern PCs. For details, see
[N64Recomp](https://github.com/N64Recomp/N64Recomp). **This is not an emulator and not
a decompilation.**

#### How is this related to a decompilation project?

It isn't — no public decompilation of Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 exists. Unlike most
recompilation ports, which borrow symbol names from a decomp, this project generated
its own symbol metadata from scratch via a [splat](https://github.com/ethteck/splat)
disassembly (see `disasm/` and `syms/`), transferring libultra identifications from
its sister project World Tour by machine-code fingerprinting.

#### Is the game in Japanese?

Yes. Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 was only released in Japan, and this port renders the
game exactly as it shipped — menus and wrestler names are in Japanese. (The menus are
straightforward to navigate even without Japanese; the port's own config menus are in
English.) A community English translation patch exists for the original ROM; patched
ROMs are **not** accepted as the game ROM, but a translation may run as a patch mod on
top of the clean ROM if it only edits code in place (untested so far): see
[Mods and ROM Hacks](#mods-and-rom-hacks).

#### Where is the savefile stored?

- Windows: `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Vpw64Recompiled\saves\`

Configuration files and the log file live one level up in the same app folder. Save
data is preserved across updates.

#### Can you run this project as a portable application?

Yes — place a file named `portable.txt` in the same folder as the executable and
saves, config files, and the stored ROM will be kept next to the executable instead.

#### How do I choose a different ROM?

**You don't.** This project is **only** a port of Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, and it
only accepts one specific ROM: the Japanese N64 release
(SHA1 `F9E9FA2ED819C3A39DB5CB6AFECA186F021DB5ED`). **It is not an emulator and it
cannot run any arbitrary ROM.**

You can't accidentally load the wrong file — the launcher validates the ROM before
storing its own copy (so the original file can be moved or deleted afterwards). If the
stored copy ever goes missing or gets corrupted, the launcher simply offers **Load
ROM** again.

## Known Issues

* **Frame interpolation is disabled** (Framerate is locked to Original). Like its
  sister games, VPW64 builds each visual frame from several RSP tasks and submits
  fully composed matrices, which defeats RT64's frame-interpolation heuristics —
  interpolated frames warp geometry. High-framerate support needs game-side
  matrix-group patches and is planned.
* The title screen's pak status reports "a Rumble Pak is inserted" — that's the
  port's virtual pak answering the game's rumble probe, exactly as real hardware
  would with a Rumble Pak in the slot. Saves still work (and persist) regardless.
* Overlays such as MSI Afterburner and other software such as Wallpaper Engine can
  cause performance issues that prevent the game from rendering correctly. Disabling
  such software is recommended.

## Mods and ROM Hacks

This port loads mods in the `.nrm` format used by the N64: Recompiled projects.

#### Installing a mod

Copy the `.nrm` file into the game's mods folder and start the game:

- Windows: `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Vpw64Recompiled\mods\` (or `mods\` next to the executable in portable mode)

New mods are switched on by default. Builds with the in-game **Mods** menu (Settings → Mods)
can also install mods there (**Install Mods**, or drag the file onto the window) and switch
them on and off. Mods are applied when the game starts, so restart after changing them. To
remove a mod, delete its file.

#### ROM hacks as patch mods

A ROM hack can run as a *patch mod*: a mod that holds only a patch against the stock ROM. The
game applies it to your own ROM when it starts, and any game code the hack changes is
recompiled on the fly. It works for hacks that:

- are built on the same ROM this port uses (see the ROM's SHA1 above), and
- change code only inside the game's existing functions (data changes of any size are fine).

Hacks that rebuild or move the game's code, or are made for another revision, need a full
recompile and can't run as patch mods. Only one patch mod can be on at a time; each one keeps
its own saves in `saves\<mod id>\`, apart from the stock game's.

To make one from a hack ROM you have patched yourself (both ROMs must be big-endian `.z64`):

```
python tools\romhack\make_patch_mod.py --base vpw64.z64 --hack my_hack.z64 --game-id vpw64 --id my_hack --name "My Hack" --out my_hack.nrm
```

Run it from a checkout of this repository after building. It reports what the hack changes
and refuses hacks that need a full recompile; see [tools/romhack/README.md](tools/romhack/README.md).
Patch mods can contain the hack's and the original game's data, so **don't share patch mods
you don't have the rights to**: make your own from your own ROMs.

No ROM hacks for Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 have been tested yet; the tool's report will tell you whether one can work.

## Building

Building is **not** required to play — grab a release instead. To build from source,
see [BUILDING.md](BUILDING.md).

## Libraries Used and Projects Referenced

* [N64Recomp](https://github.com/N64Recomp/N64Recomp) — the static recompiler this
  port is built with
* [N64ModernRuntime](https://github.com/N64Recomp/N64ModernRuntime) — the modern
  runtime (ultramodern + librecomp)
* [RT64](https://github.com/rt64/rt64) — the rendering engine
* [RecompFrontend](https://github.com/N64Recomp/RecompFrontend) — launcher, config
  menus, and input stack
* [RmlUi](https://github.com/mikke89/RmlUi) for building the menus and launcher
* [lunasvg](https://github.com/sammycage/lunasvg) for SVG rendering, used by RmlUi
* [FreeType](https://freetype.org/) for font rendering, used by RmlUi
* [SDL2](https://www.libsdl.org/) for windowing, input, and audio
* [moodycamel::ConcurrentQueue](https://github.com/cameron314/concurrentqueue) for
  semaphores and fast, lock-free MPMC queues
* [Gamepad Motion Helpers](https://github.com/JibbSmart/GamepadMotionHelpers) for
  sensor fusion and calibration algorithms
* [DirectX Shader Compiler](https://github.com/microsoft/DirectXShaderCompiler),
  [zstd](https://github.com/facebook/zstd),
  [nativefiledialog-extended](https://github.com/btzy/nativefiledialog-extended), and
  [plume](https://github.com/renderbag/plume) via RT64
* [splat](https://github.com/ethteck/splat) / spimdisasm for the disassembly that
  produced this project's symbol metadata
* [Inter](https://rsms.me/inter/), [Noto Emoji](https://fonts.google.com/noto), and
  [PromptFont](https://shinmera.com/promptfont) fonts (OFL; PromptFont license in
  `assets/promptfont/`)
* [SDL_GameControllerDB](https://github.com/gabomdq/SDL_GameControllerDB) for
  community controller mappings
* [WCW vs. nWo World Tour: Recompiled](https://github.com/jessetbh/WCWvsNWOWorldTourRecomp),
  [WCW/nWo Revenge: Recompiled](https://github.com/jessetbh/WCWnWoRevengeRecomp),
  [Bomberman Hero: Recompiled](https://github.com/RevoSucks/BMHeroRecomp), and
  [Zelda64Recomp](https://github.com/Zelda64Recomp/Zelda64Recomp) as reference
  projects for structure and conventions

## Special Thanks

* [Wiseguy](https://github.com/Mr-Wiseguy) and
  [DarioSamo](https://github.com/DarioSamo) for creating N64Recomp and RT64.
* [RevoSucks](https://github.com/RevoSucks) and the Bomberman Hero: Recompiled
  project, the template for this port's sister projects and therefore for this one.
* The Zelda64Recomp team for establishing the conventions the whole recomp ecosystem
  follows.
* ethteck and the splat/spimdisasm contributors — the disassembly tooling that made a
  no-decomp recompilation possible.