RPG Maker XP/VX/VX Ace (mkxp-z)

Background

Open-source cross-platform player for (some) RPG Maker XP / VX / VX Ace games. A very heavily modified fork of mkxp. RGSS on steroids with a stupid name.

Author/License

The mkxp-z core has been authored by:

• mkxp-z

The mkxp-z core is licensed under:

• GPLv2

A summary of the licenses behind RetroArch and its cores can be found here.

Requirements

Currently, the mkxp-z core requires hardware that supports OpenGL 2.0 or later or OpenGL ES 2.0 or later.

BIOS

Some RPG Maker games require RTPs (Run Time Packages), which are stock assets intended to be shared between games.

There is one standard RTP for each RPG Maker version supported by the mkxp-z core (XP, VX, VX Ace), which can be downloaded from https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/run-time-package.

The RTPs are distributed as Windows installers and need to be extracted before they can be used by the mkxp-z core. They can be extracted on many different operating systems using innoextract. The installers are also runnable in Wine, although innoextract is more convenient.

Once extracted, the RTP files should consist of a directory which contains two subdirectories named "Audio" and "Graphics" and possibly other files and subdirectories. The directory that contains the "Audio" and "Graphics" subdirectories should be renamed to "Standard" (for RPG Maker XP), "RPGVX" (for RPG Maker VX) or "RPGVXAce" (for RPG Maker VX Ace) and placed into the "mkxp-z/RTP" subdirectory of the frontend's system directory. If done correctly, the directory structure should look like this:

[system directory]
└── mkxp-z
    └── RTP
        ├── RPGVX
        │   ├── Audio
        │   ├── Fonts
        │   ├── Game.ico
        │   ├── Graphics
        │   ├── RGSS200J.dll
        │   ├── RGSS202E.dll
        │   └── RGSS202J.dll
        ├── RPGVXAce
        │   ├── Audio
        │   ├── Fonts
        │   ├── Game.ico
        │   └── Graphics
        └── Standard
            ├── Audio
            ├── Game.ico
            └── Graphics

The three files named Game.ico and the .dll files listed in the above directory tree are not required by the mkxp-z core. Feel free to delete them if you want.

Extensions

Content that can be loaded by the mkxp-z core have the following file extensions (see the Usage section for instructions on how to load games):

• .ini
• .json
• .rxproj
• .rvproj
• .rvproj2
• .mkxp
• .mkxpz
• .zip
• .7z

RetroArch database(s) that are associated with the mkxp-z core:

• RPG Maker
• RPG Maker thumbnails

Features

Frontend-level settings or features that the mkxp-z core respects:

Feature	Supported
Restart	✔
Saves	✔
States	✔
Rewind	✔ *
Netplay	✔ *
Core Options	✔
RetroAchievements	✕
RetroArch Cheats	✕
Native Cheats	✕
Controls	✔
Remapping	✔
Multi-Mouse	✕
Rumble	✕
Sensors	✕
Camera	✕
Location	✕
Subsystem	✕
Softpatching	✕
Disk Control	✕
Username	✔
Language	✔
Crop Overscan	✕
LEDs	✕

* Because RetroArch does not currently support rewind or netplay with cores that use threaded audio, rewind and netplay currently require disabling the "Threaded Audio" core option. This core option is enabled by default for better performance and for closer similarity to the original RPG Maker runtimes, which also use threaded audio.

Directories

The mkxp-z core's library name is 'mkxp-z'

The mkxp-z core saves/loads to/from these directories.

Frontend's Save directory

Directory	Description
mkxp-z/Saves/[game title]	This is the directory where the game's save files are saved to. The exact contents of the directory vary depending on the specific game being played.

Frontend's System directory

Directory	Description
mkxp-z/Fonts	Any fonts that the game uses that are not found in the game files will be loaded from here as a fallback. Supported file extensions for fonts are .otf and .ttf. The names of the font files do not matter since the mkxp-z core matches fonts based on the font family name stored in the file.
mkxp-z/RTP	This is where RTPs are loaded from. See the BIOS section for more details.

Geometry and timing

• The mkxp-z core's core provided FPS is 40 (RPG Maker XP) or 60 (RPG Maker VX, RPG Maker VX Ace).
• The mkxp-z core's core provided sample rate is 44100 hertz.
• The mkxp-z core's base width is 640 (RPG Maker XP) or 544 (RPG Maker VX, RPG Maker VX Ace).
• The mkxp-z core's base height is 480 (RPG Maker XP) or 416 (RPG Maker VX, RPG Maker VX Ace).
• The mkxp-z core's max width is 640 (RPG Maker XP) or 544 (RPG Maker VX, RPG Maker VX Ace).
• The mkxp-z core's max height is 480 (RPG Maker XP) or 416 (RPG Maker VX, RPG Maker VX Ace).
• The mkxp-z core's core provided aspect ratio is 4:3 (RPG Maker XP) or 17:13 (RPG Maker VX, RPG Maker VX Ace).

Usage

There are three ways to load games using the mkxp-z core:

• Load the Game.ini or mkxp.json.
• Create an empty file with the file extension .mkxp in the same directory as Game.ini and/or mkxp.json, and load that. This is intended to make it easier to deal with save states in RetroArch, since RetroArch's save states are named after the file you load as the game, so if you load Game.ini or mkxp.json, all the save states for every game will be named "Game" or "mkxp", which is really inconvenient.
• Put the game into a zip or 7z archive with file extension .mkxpz, .zip or .7z and load that. Please note that the files inside the zip or 7z archive should be uncompressed if possible, especially .rgssad/.rgss2a/.rgss3a and .otf/.ttf files inside the archive, or the game will lag quite a bit from trying to seek compressed files. The game will still run, though, just very slowly.

There is currently no way to load preload scripts or postload scripts. Support for preload/postload scripts will be added in the future.

Core options

The mkxp-z core has the following option(s) that can be tweaked from the core options menu. The default setting is bolded.

Settings with (Restart) means that core has to be closed for the new setting to be applied on next launch.

• Runtime: RGSS Version (Restart) [mkxp-z_rgssVersion] (inherit|default|1|2|3)

  Specify the RGSS version to run under. By default, mkxp will try to guess the required version based on the game files. If this fails, the version defaults to 1. Changes will take effect after the core is reset.

• Runtime: Save State Size (Restart) [mkxp-z_saveStateSize] (64|66|68|70|72|74|76|78|80|82|84|86|88|90|92|94|96|98|100|102|104|106|108|110|112|114|116|118|120|122|124|126|128|132|136|140|144|148|152|156|160|164|168|172|176|180|184|188|192|196|200|204|208|212|216|220|224|228|232|236|240|244|248|252|256|264|272|280|288|296|304|312|320|328|336|344|352|360|368|376|384|392|400|408|416|424|432|440|448|456|464|472|480|488|496|504|512|528|544|560|576|592|608|624|640|656|672|688|704|720|736|752|768|784|800|816|832|848|864|880|896|912|928|944|960|976|992)

  Maximum size of each save state, in mebibytes. If the game uses more than this much memory, save state creation will fail. Changes to this setting will not take effect until the core is unloaded.

• Video: Subimage Fix [mkxp-z_subImageFix] (inherit|default|enabled|disabled)

  Work around buggy graphics drivers which don't properly synchronize texture access, most apparent when text doesn't show up or the map tileset doesn't render at all. (default: enabled for systems using OpenGL ES, disabled on other systems)

• Video: Framebuffer Blitting [mkxp-z_enableBlitting] (inherit|default|enabled|disabled)

  Enable framebuffer blitting if the driver is capable of it. Some drivers carry buggy implementations of this functionality, so disabling it can be used as a workaround. (default: disabled on Windows, enabled on other systems)

• Audio: Threaded Audio (Restart) [mkxp-z_threadedAudio] (enabled|disabled)

  Use a worker thread for rendering the audio instead of rendering in the main thread, if possible. Reduces audio crackling, especially on systems with slow file system access speed. Changes to this setting will not take effect until the game is closed.

• Audio: MIDI Chorus [mkxp-z_midiChorus] (inherit|enabled|disabled)

  Activate "chorus" effect for midi playback.

• Audio: MIDI Reverb [mkxp-z_midiReverb] (inherit|enabled|disabled)

  Activate "reverb" effect for midi playback.

• Audio: SE Source Count (Restart) [mkxp-z_SESourceCount] (6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|41|42|43|44|45|46|47|48|49|50|51|52|53|54|55|56|57|58|59|60|61|62|63|64)

  Number of OpenAL sources to allocate for SE playback. If there are a lot of sounds playing at the same time and audibly cutting each other off, try increasing this number. Changes will take effect after the core is reset. (if this value is also set in the game's mkxp.json, the maximum of the value set here and the value in mkxp.json will be used)

Joypad

RetroPad Inputs	RGSS Inputs
	Input::C
	Input::B
	Input::A
	Input::X
	Input::UP
	Input::DOWN
	Input::LEFT
	Input::RIGHT
	Input::L
	Input::R
	Input::SHIFT
	Input::CTRL
	Input::Y
	Input::Z
	Input::ALT
X	Input::LEFT and Input::RIGHT
Y	Input::UP and Input::DOWN

Mouse

RetroMouse Inputs	RGSS Inputs
Mouse Cursor	Input.mouse_x and Input.mouse_y
Mouse 1	Input::MOUSELEFT
Mouse 2	Input::MOUSERIGHT
Mouse 3	Input::MOUSEMIDDLE
Mouse 4	Input::MOUSEX1
Mouse 5	Input::MOUSEX2
Wheel Up	Input.scroll_v
Wheel Down	Input.scroll_v

External Links

• mkxp-z GitHub Repository
• Libretro mkxp-z Core info file
• Report Libretro mkxp-z Core Issues Here

(Related cores)

• RPG Maker 2000/2003 (EasyRPG)