• Introduction
• ...What is it?
• Developing for the Gamecube
• ...How do I even start?
• Downloading GRRLIB
• ...Where do I get it from?
• Installing GRRLIB
• ...How do I get it to a useable state?
• Using GRRLIB
• ...What essentials do I need to know to get going?
• Gamecube and Wii incompatability
• ...I upgraded and now my programs won't compile properly!?
• Using GitHub
• ...What is this Git thing that the L337 devs keep talking about?
• Credits
• ...Who do I thank for all this free stuff?
• Licence
• ...When you say "free" do you actually mean something else?

GRRLIB is a C/C++ 2D/3D graphics library for Wii application developers. It is essentially a wrapper which presents a friendly interface to the Nintendo GX core.

This document is written to be viewed with equal clarity in either a web browser or a text editor.

As of v4.1.0, GRRLIB is supplied as a standard C/C++ library (aka. archive) called 'libgrrlib'. Because GRRLIB processes JPEG and PNG images, it requires the installation of the 'libjpeg' and 'libpngu' libraries. 'libpngu', in turn, requires 'libpng' and 'libpng' requires 'libz'. GRRLIB has FileIO functions to allow real-time loading and saving of graphical data, and thus requires 'libfat'. GRRLIB also has the possibility to use TrueType fonts, so 'libfreetype' is also required.

libgrrlib          <- 2D/3D graphics library
+-- libfat         <- File I/O
+-- libjpeg        <- JPEG image processor
+-- libpngu        <- Wii wrapper for libpng
    +-- libpng     <- PNG image processor
        +-- libz   <- Zip (lossless) compression (for PNG compression)
+-- libfreetype    <- TrueType font processor

Do not progress until you have installed and configured devkitPro. Guides are and assistance are available at http://forums.devkitpro.org

If you have just performed a clean (re)install on your Computer, be sure to reboot before you continue.

You are invited to use "the latest Git master version" of this fork at all times.

This document will presume that you have downloaded "the latest Git master version" to a folder called grr, located on your desktop.

In order to add Gamecube support to GRRLIB, you'll need to use the latest Git master version of GRRLIB for Gamecube. Don't worry, you're there right now.

This guide has been updated for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows support.

GRRLIB is supplied as source code libjpeg is supplied as source code libpngu is supplied as source code libpng is supplied as source code libz is supplied as source code libfreetype is supplied as source code libfat is supplied with devkitpro (Ie. preinstalled)

The easy way is to install GRRLIB and all the required libraries in a single command. On Windows, open cmd, by typing cmd in the windows search box and launching the first result. On Linux, launch your favorite terminal app. On Mac OS X, you'll find the Terminal app in /Applications/Utilities/

On Windows type the following, and press enter at the end of each line:

  cd Desktop\grr\GRRLIB
  make clean all install

On Linux/Mac OS X:

  cd ~/Desktop/grr/GRRLIB
  sudo make clean all install

This process may take some time depending on the speed of your Computer.

If you used the method above the following steps are not required, GRRLIB is installed and you are ready to start developing Wii homebrew games.

If you want, you could install the libz, libpng, libpngu, libjpeg and libfreetype libraries in a single command. On Windows:

  cd Desktop\grr\GRRLIB\lib 
  make clean all install

On Linux/Mac OS X:

  cd ~/Desktop/grr/GRRLIB/lib 
  sudo make clean all install

After everything is installed, simply put

    #include <grrlib.h>

at the top of your .c/.cpp file and use the functions as required

You will also need to add

  -lgrrlib -lfreetype -lfat -ljpeg -lpngu -lpng -lz

to the libs line in your makefile

...Remember the order of the libraries is critical. You may (need to) insert other libraries in the middle of the list, you may need to add others to the start, or even the end - but do not change the order of the libraries shown here.

You do NOT need to place /anything/ in the folder there your project source code sits

If you would like to see a working example of this, you can look at the example found in: ~/Desktop/grr/examples/template/source

Due to this modified version of GRRLIB being patched throughout in order to support the gamecube, having both the gamecube and wii version installed on the same computer has not been tested and is not supported. The external libraries, such as freetype, jpeg, png, etc that come with this version of GRRLIB are built with all of the Wii options stripped out, and as such they may or may not be functional on Wii.

GitHub allows the developers to submit changes to the code in such a way that these changes can be easily monitored, quickly merged together with other changes. and (if necessary) reverted.

It also allows the power-users to gain access to the latest (often "in-test") features.

To obtain the "cutting edge" codebase for Gamecube GRRLIB go to https://github.com/capz/GRRLIB/tree/master

1. Create a folder to hold the code (e.g. Desktop/grr)
2. Click the Download ZIP button if you don't have the proper tools installed on your PC or Clone the following URL https://github.com/capz/GRRLIB.git

All official (Wii) releases can be found here https://github.com/GRRLIB/GRRLIB/releases Unofficial Gamecube releases can be found here https://github.com/capz/GRRLIB/releases

Official Wii GRRLIB: https://github.com/GRRLIB/GRRLIB#credits Gamecube-patched fork: capz

GRRLIB is released under the MIT Licence. If we had chosen the GPL licence you would be +forced+ (legally required) to release your source code. But in the spirit of "free as in FREE" we have left you with the +option+ to release your source code.

GRRLIB do +request+ that you tell others about GRRLIB by naming it in the credits of your game/application. And, if you +choose+ to do that, we encourage you to use the logo to achieve it; You can find the logo here: http://grrlib.santo.fr/wiki/images/logo.png