Support for Itch.io launcher

[Rolv-Apneseth]

As far as I can tell, adding support for this will require adding a dependency to be able to read sqlite databases as the only place I can find data about what Itch has installed is under ~/.config/itch/db/butler.db - in the games and install_locations tables. Not ideal but I'll consider it.

If anyone knows another place to find this data that would be great.

[enticedwanderer]

I was just looking at this. The only alternative I have found is to bind directly against the APIs itch.io provides. There are a few implementations of people who have attempted this, such as scratch-io. Unfortunately, after testing with it to cobble together a quick script to integrate into rofi games, it only reports installed games that have been purchased for real currency (i.e. not free), at least in my testing. The work around is to go against collections, but that requires a particular setup for each user which would be iffy at best.

Itch.io games should have a manifest like steam does, but unfortunately this is not enforced. So almost 20+ visual novels I have there (and are fairly popular in their niche) do NOT come with a manifest when installed. I'm suspecting that's also why they are not listed under "installed" through scratch-io.

So I think sqlite is indeed the only way right now. After looking at it, the thumbnail urls are remote and 315x250 generally. They correspond to the latest update to the game and not even necessarily to the thumbnail of the game, which is also an issue. So one would have to actually take the main image from the web page for the game, which thankfully is in indexed in the db. What's actually installed is in the caves table which can be joined with games. There's a bit of a syntax there to detect the launch command (executable on windows or script/interpreter on linux.).

Example query from me:

sqlite> select g.title, g.url, g.cover_url, il.path as base_path, c.verdict from caves c, games g, install_locations il where g.id == c.game_id and il.id == c.install_location_id;

Burrows|https://nikkonator5000.itch.io/burrows|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE1NjE1NTI3LmdpZg==/original/eJBUAh.gif|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/burrows","totalSize":1172312431,"candidates":[{"path":"Burrows-0.17-pc/Burrows.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Echo|https://echoproject.itch.io/echo|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIxNjgyNDkucG5n/315x250%23c/8s%2BnVP.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/echo","totalSize":758011939,"candidates":[{"path":"Echo-1.01-linux/Echo.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":2184,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Arches|https://echoproject.itch.io/arches|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzU3MzU3NzUucG5n/315x250%23c/zkuY8c.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/arches","totalSize":688328495,"candidates":[{"path":"Arches-1.0-linux/Arches.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Echo: Route 65|https://echoproject.itch.io/echo-route-65|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzI0MDQ1NTAucG5n/315x250%23c/C3YoMZ.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/echo-route-65","totalSize":254054413,"candidates":[{"path":"EchoRoute65-1.01-linux/EchoRoute65.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":2184,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Adastra|https://echoproject.itch.io/adastra|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIxNjg2NjAucG5n/315x250%23c/72oqIu.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/adastra","totalSize":317017049,"candidates":[{"path":"Adastra-17-linux/Adastra.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":2042,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Interea|https://echoproject.itch.io/interea|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzU2NjgyNDkucG5n/315x250%23c/YNJ%2Bv5.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/interea","totalSize":358762650,"candidates":[{"path":"Interea-0.4-linux/Interea.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1443,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Khemia|https://echoproject.itch.io/khemia|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzQyMzk1MzgucG5n/315x250%23c/2Tw77L.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/khemia","totalSize":419836378,"candidates":[{"path":"Khemia-0.4-linux/Khemia.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Remember the Flowers|https://jerichowo.itch.io/remember-the-flowers|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzc5MTA0NDgucG5n/315x250%23c/8tZTkB.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/remember-the-flowers","totalSize":1068008454,"candidates":[{"path":"RemembertheFlowers-0.17.91-linux/RemembertheFlowers.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Since November|https://keithballard.itch.io/since-november|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIxMDgzNDgyLnBuZw==/315x250%23c/tgOQzq.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/since-november","totalSize":423291267,"candidates":[{"path":"SinceNovember-1.01-pc/SinceNovember.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Glory Hounds|https://echoproject.itch.io/glory-hounds|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzk2NDgxNzQucG5n/315x250%23c/dCbzQb.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/glory-hounds","totalSize":624214595,"candidates":[{"path":"GloryHounds-5.0-linux/GloryHounds.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
GameOver|https://azulookami.itch.io/gameover|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIzNjI0MDMxLmpwZw==/315x250%23c/BOPXkI.jpg|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/gameover","totalSize":222373743,"candidates":null}
SbArPg|https://teamzorro.itch.io/sbarpg|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIzNzM5ODMxLnBuZw==/315x250%23c/Y3EG9J.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/sbarpg","totalSize":1511239748,"candidates":null}
The Smoke Room|https://thegoodnightfellowship.itch.io/the-smoke-room|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE4NzIwMzQ4LnBuZw==/315x250%23c/m%2B42qd.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/the-smoke-room","totalSize":835258274,"candidates":[{"path":"TSR-37-pc/TSR.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Undefeated|https://undefeatedvn.itch.io/undefeated|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE0Nzk1MDY0LmdpZg==/original/7obvRu.gif|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/undefeated","totalSize":373327197,"candidates":[{"path":"Undefeated-1.0.1-linux/Undefeated.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Lyre|https://atmac.itch.io/lyre|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE0MTkxMjY4LnBuZw==/315x250%23c/zKz%2BjJ.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/lyre","totalSize":736173723,"candidates":[{"path":"ProjectLYRE-1.20.1-linux/ProjectLYRE.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
After Class|https://andehp.itch.io/afterclass|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIxNDYyNzQzLnBuZw==/315x250%23c/Z5gfPd.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/afterclass","totalSize":942396739,"candidates":[{"path":"AfterClass-Itch-v0.13.01i-a01-pc/AfterClass.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Shelter (Furry Visual Novel)|https://rausmutt.itch.io/sheltervn|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzQyNzQ5MzMuZ2lm/original/7T0OQe.gif|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/sheltervn","totalSize":522129125,"candidates":[{"path":"Shelter-v.45.5_public-pc/Shelter.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1599,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Rain Check|https://radstudiosfvn.itch.io/raincheck|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE2OTIwNjg1LnBuZw==/315x250%23c/9yz9uK.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/raincheck","totalSize":570771288,"candidates":[{"path":"RainCheck-13.0-public-pc/RainCheck.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Repeat (Visual Novel)|https://shirokoi.itch.io/repeat-visual-novel|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE3MTg4MDUyLnBuZw==/315x250%23c/WsLCnx.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/repeat-visual-novel","totalSize":310099876,"candidates":[{"path":"Repeat-0.8.1.3-linux/Repeat.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Limits|https://drakes64.itch.io/limits|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzQ0ODAxMDQuZ2lm/original/VC3Xod.gif|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/limits","totalSize":378192034,"candidates":[{"path":"Limits-1.13.1-linux/Limits.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1660,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Soulcreek|https://ryuovn.itch.io/soulcreek|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIzNzU3Njg2LnBuZw==/315x250%23c/QSYrYa.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/soulcreek","totalSize":874232208,"candidates":[{"path":"Soulcreek-1.0-pc/Soulcreek.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1443,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
All Under Control VN|https://hyenanoises.itch.io/all-under-control-vn|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIwMjEzNDQwLmpwZw==/315x250%23c/xT0Ajy.jpg|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/all-under-control-vn","totalSize":1074921977,"candidates":[{"path":"AllUnderControl1.0-1.0-pc/AllUnderControl1.0.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
UNDER | HEAVEN|https://faintlyspotted.itch.io/underheaven|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIwMDI5Mjg5LmdpZg==/original/lW4tku.gif|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/underheaven","totalSize":524845038,"candidates":[{"path":"UnderHeaven-3.1-pc/UnderHeaven.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Aim to Capture|https://mysteryjamgames.itch.io/aim-to-capture|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIxNzY2OTAxLnBuZw==/315x250%23c/lmVx42.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/aim-to-capture","totalSize":1051025006,"candidates":[{"path":"ATC-0.1.2-pc/Aim to Capture.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1663,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
Echo Interactive Short Story: Benefits|https://echoproject.itch.io/echo-benefits|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzI1MTE4MjkucG5n/315x250%23c/ZlPUHb.png|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/echo-benefits","totalSize":120608472,"candidates":[{"path":"Benefits-0.1-linux/Benefits.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1443,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}
L'automne|https://the-bjakery.itch.io/lautomne|https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE0MzkyODIwLmdpZg==/original/eZuf0c.gif|/home/alex/.local/share/itch|{"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/lautomne","totalSize":1063024341,"candidates":[{"path":"lautomne-.4-pc/lautomne.sh","depth":2,"flavor":"script","size":1660,"scriptInfo":{"interpreter":"/bin/sh"}}]}

[Rolv-Apneseth]

Awesome, thanks for looking into it @enticedwanderer. Yeah I'll probably add a dependency for reading sqlite files then, when I have time to implement this.

If there are no images listed locally then I probably won't have support for images here, as that's what I've done for other launchers. Can maybe add another field somewhere for storing links to images.

I see most games in that query have a candidates: [{path: launch_script which I'll have to locate, but some don't (e.g. GameOver). Is that cause it's not installed?

[enticedwanderer]

I believe those games didn't have manifests when uploaded by their maintainers, so itch.io doesn't know how to run them. I have them "installed" but it really means they are just downloaded. You get a tar ball that you can unpack and deal with yourself. Launching from itch.io only opens the folder where it is. I would just skip/ignore them and expect to find launch_script and concatenate it's location with the install location for a full path.

The other issue is that you could have multiple candidates there sometimes (i.e. when updates show up for a newer version). Even though I have multiple versions of some of them, the candidate list only shows the latest for me in db, so I suppose that's good. I'm not sure how the candidate list gets updated but as long as there's one you can show the first. Itch.io does not remove older versions, or update in place (it doesn't know anything about game structure and often save games etc. are embedded with the game assets and itch.io doesn't want to touch that).

I think it's okay to not include images as supported, at least not in first pass. If someone cares, they can go to Steamgriddb and create custom entry associations in a config for rofi-games. In fact there could be some helper script in rofi games or rfd to help with just that, i.e. prepopulate stuff missing thumbnails from there by helping me search, select, download and cache locally, but that's out of scope here.

[Rolv-Apneseth]

I would just skip/ignore them and expect to find launch_script and concatenate it's location with the install location for a full path

I would probably ignore them if there's no easy way to know how to launch them, and just let the user create a custom entry if they use rofi-games.

Itch.io does not remove older versions, or update in place (it doesn't know anything about game structure and often save games etc. are embedded with the game assets and itch.io doesn't want to touch that).

I see. Well, like you said, getting the latest one is probably fine, and any manual management of saves etc. will need to be handled by the user.

In fact there could be some helper script in rofi games or rfd to help with just that, i.e. prepopulate stuff missing thumbnails from there by helping me search, select, download and cache locally, but that's out of scope here

Yeah out of scope here, but thank you that's a good idea. I wonder how much functionality would be required for it to be useful though. Sounds like it could get quite complicated. Though, if you know of any existing solutions which can be passed e.g. a game title, it might be easy to parse that from rgd.

[Rolv-Apneseth]

I'll probably have a look at this soon, just want to also note this PR here for the future reference (if it gets merged). We'll have to rely on the list of "candidates" for now.

[Rolv-Apneseth]

Do you have any experience with Rust @enticedwanderer ? Would you be able to test if the changes in that branch work for you? There are a couple of examples that can be run but I can give exact instructions if you need (and are willing to test it out).

[enticedwanderer]

I just did some testing. I've re-compiled the lib_game_detector with the PR branch, pointed the rofi-games to the local library and temporarily replaced the system installed one. Had to make one small change for incomplete enum match:

diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 4218afe..cb8d60b 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ rust-version = "1.89"
 [dependencies]
 tracing = "0.1"
 rofi-mode = "0.5"
-lib_game_detector = { version = "=0.0.25", default-features = false }
+#lib_game_detector = { version = "=0.0.25", default-features = false }
+lib_game_detector = { path = "../lib_game_detector", default-features = false }
 tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.3", features = ["env-filter"] }
 toml = "0.9"
 dirs = "6.0"
diff --git a/src/data.rs b/src/data.rs
index 670422f..5519cf8 100644
--- a/src/data.rs
+++ b/src/data.rs
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ impl GameWithData {
             }
             MinecraftPrism => "Prism Launcher",
             MinecraftAT => "ATLauncher",
+            ItchIO => "ItchIO",
         }
     }
 }

This correctly starts the itchio parser, prints a few errors on the 2 entries in my butler.db with missing verdict data but doesn't actually result in any itch.io results? But then I realized I had hide_entries_without_box_art = true in my config. Once I removed that all the entries did show up, along with a massive log spam of:

...
ERROR rofi_games: 251: path to box art for 'Adastra' does not exist
ERROR rofi_games: 251: path to box art for 'After Class' does not exist
ERROR rofi_games: 251: path to box art for 'Aim to Capture' does not exist
ERROR rofi_games: 251: path to box art for 'All Under Control VN' does not exist
ERROR rofi_games: 251: path to box art for 'Arches' does not exist
ERROR rofi_games: 251: path to box art for 'Burrows' does not exist
...

I've also tested the 2 entries with the missing verdict data. They were correctly identified and skipped.

DEBUG lib_game_detector::linux::launchers::itch: 146: Itch.io - butler DB file exists at "/home/alex/.config/itch/db/butler.db": true
...
ERROR lib_game_detector::linux::launchers::itch: 70: Itch.io - failed to parse verdict for 'GameOver': Parsing Error: Error { input: ",\"totalSize\":222373743,\"candidates\":null}", code: TakeUntil }
ERROR lib_game_detector::linux::launchers::itch: 71: Itch.io - verdict for 'GameOver': {"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/gameover","totalSize":222373743,"candidates":null}
ERROR lib_game_detector::linux::launchers::itch: 70: Itch.io - failed to parse verdict for 'SbArPg': Parsing Error: Error { input: ",\"totalSize\":1511239748,\"candidates\":null}", code: TakeUntil }
ERROR lib_game_detector::linux::launchers::itch: 71: Itch.io - verdict for 'SbArPg': {"basePath":"/home/alex/.local/share/itch/sbarpg","totalSize":1511239748,"candidates":null}
...

I uninstalled the two entries from the itch app, verified they were cleaned up and restarted rofi-games. That resulted in the error lines being gone as expected.

I've launched a few games from ItchIO source, they all start correctly (for the most part). For a lot of them I need to override the execution command to set an environment variable (wayland vs x11 issues) for them to be visible at all (they do run regardless). Example:

[[entries]]
title = "The Smoke Room"
path_box_art = "/home/alex/.local/share/itch/_entries/thesmokeroom.png"
path_game_dir = "/home/alex/.local/share/itch/the-smoke-room/"
launch_command = "sh -c \"export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11; /home/alex/.local/share/itch/the-smoke-room/TSR-37-pc/TSR.sh\""

I would like if there was a way to specify an environment variable without having to specify the launch command by hand every time. Maybe there is and I missed it? The manual art is associated correctly and shows up when invoking rofi-games as expected.

Is there anything else you want me to test?

[Rolv-Apneseth]

ERROR rofi_games: 251: path to box art for 'Burrows' does not exist

I'll investigate when I get to updating rofi-games, thank you. I assume that's an issue not just with these changes.

ERROR lib_game_detector::linux::launchers::itch: 70: Itch.io - failed to parse verdict for 'GameOver': Parsing Error: Error { input: ","totalSize":222373743,"candidates":null}", code: TakeUntil }

Sorry, yes, forgot about those entries. I'll maybe make that one a warning.

For a lot of them I need to override the execution command to set an environment variable (wayland vs x11 issues) for them to be visible at all (they do run regardless)

I see. Specifying that manually every time would be annoying. Is that set within the Itch launcher somewhere? Maybe we can parse it. Otherwise, would being able to set env vars for games using a config entry be somewhat better? I could look into that.

Is there anything else you want me to test?

No, thank you. It was just to confirm things are working.

[enticedwanderer]

For a lot of them I need to override the execution command to set an environment variable (wayland vs x11 issues) for them to be visible at all (they do run regardless)

I see. Specifying that manually every time would be annoying. Is that set within the Itch launcher somewhere? Maybe we can parse it. Otherwise, would being able to set env vars for games using a config entry be somewhat better? I could look into that.

It's not set anywhere in itch client. I have to wrap the itch client with export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11; manually so anything it launches will override which rendering engine is used. So consider it a rofi-games feature request to specify in the config, per entry, a list or better yet a map of environment variables. I just want to avoid having to hardcode the whole launch command (which is what I'm forced to do right now) since it changes with each verdict data from itch.io when the game is updated. This will also allow customization/overriding the behavior of all other games too if needed.

You certainly shouldn't have to bundle this feature with itch.io support.

[Rolv-Apneseth]

t's not set anywhere in itch client. I have to wrap the itch client with export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11; manually so anything it launches will override which rendering engine is used.

Alright. I'll look into specifying env vars for each entry in the config for rofi-games after getting this merged then.

This will also allow customization/overriding the behavior of all other games too if needed

I'm not sure if it will be useful for games from other launchers, as they are generally launched with laucher_cli <game_id>. If, e.g., Steam is already running, I believe this just notifies the process to launch the game, which I don't think would forward the specified env var. Can't hurt to have the feature there in case though, since it will be very useful for Itch games.

Thanks a lot for your help with everything by the way.

[enticedwanderer]

I'm glad I can help. I love rofi and by extension rofi-games and use it for everything I can! Thank you for supporting and extending it's features!