Rise & Fall Launcher ⚔️

Next-generation, high-performance desktop launcher & profile manager for Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War.

Rise & Fall Launcher is an unofficial, community-driven open-source project.
Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Midway Games, Stainless Steel Studios, or any of their subsidiaries.

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⚡ Core Features

• 🚀 GPU-Accelerated Native GUI: Built upon @gpuix/react and Bun, compiled to a compact standalone Windows executable using the Deno v8 engine with zero runtime overhead and rapid startup.
• 🎮 Automated Game Installer & DirectX Setup: Single-click streaming installation with chunk verification, automated archive extraction, and integrated dgVoodoo2 DirectX wrapper for smooth rendering on modern GPUs.
• 🛠️ Native Go Settings Engine (raf-settings.exe): High-speed companion CLI built in Go 1.23 that interfaces directly with the Windows Registry (HKCU\Software\Midway Home Entertainment\Rise and Fall) for automated sanitization, export, and import of game configurations.
• 🧩 Multi-Profile Management & Playtime Tracking: 5 isolated profile slots allowing instant switching of resolution, launch arguments, and mods, paired with persistent playtime tracking and session history.
• 🔄 Non-Intrusive Self-Updater: Background release polling via GitHub Releases API, unobtrusive toast notifications on new updates, and atomic binary replacement without interrupting gameplay.
• 🐳 Containerized Cross-Platform Build System: Fully automated build pipeline managed by build.py and Dockerfile, allowing developers on Linux, macOS, or Windows to compile Windows binaries consistently via Docker.
• 🎧 Discord Rich Presence: Real-time presence reporting game status, match state, and elapsed play duration to your Discord profile.

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📥 Installation & Downloads

Stable Releases

Grab the latest release package from the GitHub Releases page:

1. Download RiseAndFall-launcher_v<VERSION>.zip.
2. Extract the archive into any preferred directory.
3. Run raf-launcher.exe.

Bleeding-Edge Dev Builds

Every commit pushed to the develop branch automatically compiles development binaries with developer console logging enabled:

• Head to GitHub Actions (Develop Pipeline).
• Select the latest successful workflow run and download the raf-launcher-windows-dev-x64 artifact.

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🛠️ Building from Source

Prerequisites

Ensure the following tools are installed on your workstation:

• Bun >= 1.2 (JavaScript runtime, package manager & test runner)
• Go >= 1.23 (Required to compile packages/raf-settings)
• Docker (Recommended for cross-compiling via container)
• Python 3 (Required to run the build orchestrator build.py)
• Deno Canary (Optional, only required if compiling directly on host without Docker)

1. Clone Repository

git clone https://github.com/kotop21/RiseAndFall---launcher.git
cd RiseAndFall---launcher

2. Install Dependencies

bun install

3. Build Go Settings CLI

cd packages/raf-settings
go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o raf-settings.exe .
cd ../..

# Place binary into launcher runtime directory
mkdir -p dist/bin
cp packages/raf-settings/raf-settings.exe dist/bin/

4. Run in Development Mode

Launch the application with live reload and developer console enabled:

bun run dev

5. Run Typechecks & Tests

Execute the comprehensive test suite (68+ tests, logging silenced automatically):

# Run tests and TypeScript verification in one command
bun run prebuild

# Run test suite only
bun test

6. Compiling Windows Executable

Method A: Automated Containerized Build via Docker & Python (Recommended)

The project includes a unified build orchestrator (build.py) and Docker environment (Dockerfile). This approach ensures a reproducible environment by running Deno Canary v8 inside a container without needing Deno installed on your host machine:

# Development build (console terminal enabled)
bun run build
# Or directly via Python:
python3 build.py

# Production release build (no console window)
RELEASE=1 bun run build
# Or directly via Python:
RELEASE=1 python3 build.py

What build.py does automatically:

1. Validates Docker daemon availability.
2. Checks and fetches the @gpuix Windows native addon (gpuix-native.win32-x64-msvc.node) from npm if absent.
3. Injects API_URL configuration from .env or process environment.
4. Generates version metadata via bun run scripts/generate-version.js.
5. Bundles React/TS into dist/build/ and prepends N-API runtime glue (scripts/runtime-napi.js).
6. Builds the Docker builder image from Dockerfile and compiles raf-launcher.exe using Deno Canary v8.
7. Outputs ready-to-run artifacts in dist/.

Method B: Direct Host Compilation (Without Docker)

If you are running on Windows and have Deno Canary installed natively:

# 1. Generate version metadata
bun run scripts/generate-version.js

# 2. Bundle source code with Bun
bun build index.tsx --outdir dist/build --target node \
  --external @gpuix/native-darwin-arm64 \
  --external @gpuix/native-darwin-universal

# 3. Prepend N-API runtime glue
cat scripts/runtime-napi.js dist/build/index.js > dist/build/bundle.js

# 4. Compile standalone Windows binary via Deno (Release Mode)
deno compile \
  --allow-all \
  --no-check \
  --no-npm \
  --no-terminal \
  --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc \
  --engine v8 \
  --icon assets/icon.ico \
  --output dist/raf-launcher.exe \
  dist/build/bundle.js

# 5. Copy Windows native addon
cp node_modules/@gpuix/native-win32-x64-msvc/gpuix-native.win32-x64-msvc.node dist/

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🏛️ Technical Architecture & Project Structure

Directory / File	Description
app/	Top-level application layout (App.tsx) and orchestrated view controllers (MainView, SettingsView, InstallView, WelcomeView).
components/	Modular, decoupled UI components partitioned by domain (settings/, install/, main/, welcome/, ui/, icon/).
lib/	Core domain services: binary updater, config persistence, process management, Windows registry client, error handling, and logger.
packages/raf-settings/	Go 1.23 CLI binary source for Windows Registry configuration export, import, and sanitization.
build.py	Python build orchestrator executed via bun run build. Coordinates Docker builds, N-API injection, and binary compilation.
Dockerfile	Debian-based Docker container setup with Deno Canary v8 for cross-compiling the standalone Windows binary.
lang/	Localization dictionaries supporting English (en.json), Ukrainian (ua.json), and Russian (ru.json).
scripts/	Automation scripts for runtime version generation (generate-version.js) and N-API bootstrapping (runtime-napi.js).
test/	Comprehensive bun:test test suites covering config migrations, updater logic, registry CLI discovery, and error normalization.
assets/	Application branding, icons, light/dark logos, and interface preview captures.
.github/workflows/	GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines (dev.yml, main.yml, release.yml).

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🌐 Community & Language Policy

To maintain clear and efficient collaboration, this project enforces a strict language policy:

Important

Official Project Communication Languages: English (EN) and Ukrainian (UA).

• All GitHub Issues, Pull Requests, Discussions, commit messages, and review comments must be written exclusively in English or Ukrainian.
• Submissions in other languages will be politely requested to be translated or may be closed without review.

Join our community and follow updates:

• Bug Reports & Feature Requests: GitHub Issues
• Discussions & Feedback: GitHub Discussions

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📄 License & Legal Notice

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).

• Source Code: You are free to inspect, modify, and redistribute this software under the terms of the AGPLv3.
• Game Assets & Trademarks: Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War and related names, logos, and game assets are trademarks and copyright of Midway Home Entertainment, Stainless Steel Studios, and their respective owners. This project is a non-commercial, fan-made utility designed to enhance compatibility and user experience on modern computing platforms.