Love.js - A Direct Emscripten Port

[Davidobot]

Hey awesome work on love.js! Can the README of the repo describe what's the difference between the original love.js?

Cheers! There is no code difference. It's meant to be a direct version update. Anything that doesn't work is probably down to wrong ES compiler settings on my part...

[Stifu]

Davidobot, please help me get your version of love.js working. I tried to follow the instructions but I just don't get it.

Among the stuff I tried:
- Download and unzip "love.js-master.zip"
- Open Visual Studio Code (that's what I usually use when I need to work with npm, but I suck at this)
- Open the "love.js-master\src\release" folder from Visual Studio Code
- Open the Terminal
- npm install (which does a bunch of things)
- love.js .\mygame.love .\myoutputfolder (this just hangs the terminal somehow)
- love.js C:\fullpathto\mygame.love C:\fullpathto\myoutputfolder (same result as above)

I also tried npm install love.js (even though that's not what the readme.md says), and it seems to install something but then I can't manage to call it.

Help? Thanks.

[Davidobot]

Davidobot, please help me get your version of love.js working. I tried to follow the instructions but I just don't get it.

If the love.js call doesn't work for some reason, you can just refer to index.js directly.

So while cd-ed into the directory where love.js is :

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./index.js path/to/game.love path/to/folder

[Stifu]

Thanks, but I'm still stuck. From what I see, love.js and index.js are not in the same folder, and from what I understand, index.js internally calls love.js. index.js is in love.js-master, and love.js is in love.js-master\src\release. So I suppose I should just go to the right folder (and make it my working directory) depending on whether I want to use index.js or love.js.

I'm not even sure what tool to use to cd into the right directory. What do you use? I tried Visual Studio Code (gets stuck after each love.js or index.js command for some reason, forcing me to kill the terminal) and the Node.js or Windows command prompts (both ask me which program to use to open the .js file, and I don't know).

Edit: hmm, maybe I should use Node.js as the application to run the js file. I tried that, but when I do, Node.js opens with a prompt that says "Love file or directory:" (as if it ignored my command parameters which already specify that). I tried putting the full path to my .love file in there, but that only results in Node.js closing instantly. I wonder if that could be due to it not running with admin privileges or something.

[Davidobot]

Thanks, but I'm still stuck. From what I see, love.js and index.js are not in the same folder, and from what I understand, index.js internally calls love.js. index.js is in love.js-master, and love.js is in love.js-master\src\release. So I suppose I should just go to the right folder (and make it my working directory) depending on whether I want to use index.js or love.js.

The proper folder to be cd-ed into is love.js-master. You're getting confused between love.js the node package and the file. The node package is just called love.js and running the command love.js just runs index.js under the hood. The love.js file found in src/release is the love binary compiled to JS.

I'm not even sure what tool to use to cd into the right directory. What do you use? I tried Visual Studio Code (gets stuck after each love.js or index.js command for some reason, forcing me to kill the terminal) and the Node.js or Windows command prompts (both ask me which program to use to open the .js file, and I don't know).

Um, any terminal where you have access to node should be fine. I use the New Windows Terminal

Edit: hmm, maybe I should use Node.js as the application to run the js file. I tried that, but when I do, Node.js opens with a prompt that says "Love file or directory:" (as if it ignored my command parameters which already specify that). I tried putting the full path to my .love file in there, but that only results in Node.js closing instantly. I wonder if that could be due to it not running with admin privileges or something.

Good, that means it's working. Just specify the .love file and output folder as command line arguments to running ./index.js

[Stifu]

The proper folder to be cd-ed into is love.js-master. You're getting confused between love.js the node package and the file. The node package is just called love.js and running the command love.js just runs index.js under the hood. The love.js file found in src/release is the love binary compiled to JS.

Yeah, I'm pretty confused. So that means the node package is just optional, if I understand correctly. I'll ignore it then.

Good, that means it's working. Just specify the .love file and output folder as command line arguments to running ./index.js

As I said, my command arguments seem to get ignored.
I run this, for example:

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.\index.js C:\zabuyaki.love C:\Zabuyaki

Result: it asks me which program should be used to open index.js, and when I pick Node.js, the new Node.js prompt asks me "Love file or directory:", but no matter what I type in there, the prompt gets closed instantly and nothing happens.

Sorry for being dumb. By the way, I'm on Windows 7, I wonder if that could be a problem.

[Davidobot]

when I pick Node.js, the new Node.js prompt asks me "Love file or directory:", but no matter what I type in there, the prompt gets closed instantly and nothing happens.

How about if you pick node to the default program? Or call from the node terminal (why does Windows have so many?!)

"npm install" installs dependencies so it's not optional, as far as I'm aware.

Sorry for being dumb. By the way, I'm on Windows 7, I wonder if that could be a problem.

No worries at all. This exchange could be useful to others. If you'd like, you can pm me the file and I can do the conversion for you, to even test if the game will run in Web.

[Stifu]

How about if you pick node to the default program?

Oh, that changes things a bit! Instead of opening a new Node.js window, this makes everything stay in the Node.js command prompt.

Here's what I get:

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C:\Users\Blabla\love.js-master>.\index.js --title Zabuyaki C:\zabuyaki.love C:\Zabuyaki
Love file or directory: C:\zabuyaki.love
Output directory:
C:\Users\Blabla\love.js-master>

It does not matter what I put in "the Love file or directory:" line, then it just shows "Output directory:" without letting me type anything there, then puts me back from where I started. In other words, I think it does the same thing as it did when I manually picked Node.js as the program to run JS files, except now it's all displayed in a single window and it doesn't auto close anymore once it's done.

Or call from the node terminal (why does Windows have so many?!)

Yeah, that's already what I do by default.

"npm install" installs dependencies so it's not optional, as far as I'm aware.

I think I'm good on that side. My node_modules folder is filled with 205 folders for a total of 20 MB.

No worries at all. This exchange could be useful to others. If you'd like, you can pm me the file and I can do the conversion for you, to even test if the game will run in Web.

Thank you. Well, I think we're close to getting it to work, so let's keep trying.
Maybe I should just record a video of everything I'm doing and send it to you. Maybe then you'll see what I'm doing wrong.

Edit: done recording that video, and sent it to you. Thanks.

[Davidobot]

Edit: done recording that video, and sent it to you. Thanks.

I'll post it here because I think it's useful for everyone. Once you install Node, make sure it's included in PATH (such that you can run node and npm in normal terminal).

Then, after running npm install just run

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node index.js game.love game_folder

Windows by default apparently doesn't run .js files properly. Even from the Node terminal.

EDIT: I also updated the github readme. Doing npm link makes the command love-js (I renamed it) globally-accessible.

[Stifu]

Once you install Node, make sure it's included in PATH (such that you can run node and npm in normal terminal).

I double checked and that was already the case.

Then, after running npm install just run

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node index.js game.love game_folder

This worked! Hooray! Thank you very much.

EDIT: I also updated the github readme. Doing npm link makes the command love-js (I renamed it) globally-accessible.

That's cool. I hope that helps other people.