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Making Your Game Work Without the RTP
an RM2k/3 tutorial by Brickroad
Something a lot of RM2k/3 users might not realize is that people without the RM2k/3 editor and RTP might not be able to play their games. In this tutorial you will learn how to make sure anyone can download and play your RM2k/3 game, even if they don't have the actual software installed.
Step One: Make sure everything is imported.
Every resource your game uses should be in the proper directory. Ensure that all graphics and music your game uses are actually there, even unedited RTP files. The reasoning is simple: if you're using some RTP files and the player doesn't have the RTP installed, or has an RTP installed that is dissimilar to your own, the game will crash once it tries to access the missing files.
There's a handy program out there called RMTool which will scan your project folder and tell you not only which files you're using but haven't imported, but also which files you've imported but aren't using. Use this information to gather up all the resources your game calls for that are still in the RTP folders and import them, then prune away any files you've got hanging around not in use.
Get into the habit of importing every single resource you use right from the editor as you go. It's easy to miss a seldom-used sound effect or monster sprite, especially if you have a really huge RTP full to bursting with every file imaginable.
(Note: RMTool isn't available for download on RMN yet, but I'm told it will be soon. I'll make sure this tutorial is updated with the relevant download information once it becomes available. In the meantime you can Google it pretty easily.)
Copy Harmony.dll from the RTP folder into your game's folder.
Step TWo: Replace all the default stuff.
When you start a new RM2k/3 project, a lot of graphics in the database are automatically populated with stuff out of the RTP. Even if you don't use some of these 'default' resources, they can still cause crashes if someone with a different RTP (or no RTP at all) tries to run the game. Most people replace stuff like heroes and monsters anyway, but keep in mind there's stuff tucked away back in the System tabs too. Make sure you change out the default vehicle graphics and all the system sound effects and BGM, even the ones you aren't using, to something in your game directory.
Here's a list of tabs you'll want to check to make sure you haven't overlooked anything: Hero, Class, Skill, Monster, M. Groups, Condition, Animations, Animations 2, System, System 2. 'System' is the biggie, since any game you load checks for the vehicle graphics from that tab before almost anything else. Even if your game doesn't have an airship or a boat, if those boxes on the System tab are still showing the RTP defaults, your game will crash if there's no RTP to pull from. If you're using any of the RTP stuff, make sure the fields in the database point to the files in your game's directory, and not in your RTP.
Step Three: Trick the game.
Even if all your resources are imported to the proper places, and there's not a shred of RTP left in your database, your game STILL won't run without the RTP. That's because, for some reason, by default an RM2k/3 game won't run unless the player has the RTP installed. You can get around this by tricking the game into thinking it has.
Use Notepad, Wordpad or some other text editor to open the file 'RPG_RT.ini' from your game's main directory. Drop down to the first empty line and add this:
This will trick your game into thinking the system has the RTP installed, even if it doesn't.
It's not hard to see why people don't realize these problems exist: you can't really test for it. After all, you already have the RTP installed on your own system, which is presumably where the game was built. Even after following these steps, try testing your download on another computer without RM2k/3 installed (or get someone to try it for you). Then everyone will be able to enjoy your brilliant masterpiece, not just the guys with the same pirated software as you.