A complete decompilation of Retro Engine v5 and v5Ultimate.

We do not own the Retro Engine in any way, shape or form, and this project would not have been possible had they not developed RSDKv5(U) in the first place. Retro Engine is currently owned by Evening Star; we highly urge you to follow & support their projects if you enjoyed this project of ours!

We do not condone using this project as a means for piracy in any form. This project was made with love and care for the source material and was created for purely educational purposes.

• Added a built-in mod loader and API allowing to easily create and play mods with features such as save file redirection and XML asset loading, supported by all sub-versions of v5U.
• Added a built-in shader compiler for backends/platforms that support it.
• Added various other backends to windows aside from the usual DirectX 9 backends

This guide assumes that Sonic Mania has already been installed from PortMaster and is working

• Flash a new sd card with ArkOS

Note: this method does not work on rg351p/m using ArkOS final, even after updating to Wummle fork

• Activate dev mode on ArkOS

• From terminal, compile Sonic Mania source using the following commands

Note: access terminal either by SSH or by launching terminal on ArkOS device and plugging in usb keyboard - refer to faq for your device in ArkOS wiki

Note: by default, terminal will launch at /home/ark/ and the compiled files will be created in subfolders of this Linux partition, so it may be necessary to retrieve the files using SSH sftp file browser or use terminal to copy them to Windows-compatible EASYROMS partition

• Clone the repository

git clone --recursive https://github.com/romadu/RSDKv5-Decompilation

• Install dependencies

sudo apt install libtheora-dev

• Change directory into repository

cd RSDKv5-Decompilation

• Compile the source

make DEBUG=0 STATIC=0 SUBSYSTEM=SDL2 PLATFORM=Linux

• When the build finishes, copy both files from /ark/home/RSDKv5-Decompilation/bin/Linux/SDL2

  • Game.so
  • RSDKv5

• Replace those two files in PortMaster Sonic Mania installation

Note: to copy these files using terminal

• use the following to copy them to /roms/ports/sonicmania/ on EASYROMS partition so they can be accessed from pc

mkdir -p /roms/ports/sonicmania && cp ./bin/Linux/SDL2/RSDKv5 /roms/ports/sonicmania/ &&  cp ./bin/Linux/SDL2/Game.so /roms/ports/sonicmania/

• use the following to copy them to /roms2/ports/sonicmania/ on second sd card to overwrite files from existing PortMaster Sonic Mania installation, for devices supporting second sd slot

mkdir -p /roms2/ports/sonicmania && cp ./bin/Linux/SDL2/RSDKv5 /roms2/ports/sonicmania/ &&  cp ./bin/Linux/SDL2/Game.so /roms2/ports/sonicmania/

• Launch Sonic Mania (using your normal SD card and cfw option) and Sonic Mania Plus should launch

Note: you can compile upstream source for latest updates by:

• recursively clone both RSDKv5 and Sonic Mania Decompilation repositories and

• replace Game symlink by copying Sonic Mania folder from Sonic Mania Decompilation to RSDKv5 respository and renaming the copied folder to Game

• Modify line 114 in DummyCore.cpp by converting it to a comment, as shown, to fix compile error

  https://github.com/romadu/RSDKv5-Decompilation/blob/45d1216d00fd5cad4c9cd2e4bd2e5c138d487bbe/RSDKv5/RSDK/User/Dummy/DummyCore.cpp#L114

• Clone the repo recursively, using: git clone --recursive https://github.com/Rubberduckycooly/RSDKv5-Decompilation.git or if you've already cloned the repo, run inside: git submodule update --init

• Windows
• Mac
• Linux/Switch
• Android

Currently, the only officially supported platforms are the ones listed above. However, the backend is very modular, so the codebase is very multiplatform.

However, since release, there have been a multitude of forks made by the community (keep in mind that many of these ports are still a WIP!:)

• WebASM by heyjoeway

• New 3DS by SaturnSH2x2

• Wii U by Radfordhound

• Wii U by Clownacy

• Vita by SonicMastr

• and a general optimization fork by smb123w64gb

A: Try turning on VSync in settings.ini.

A: Submit an issue in the issues tab and we might fix it in the main branch. Don't expect any major future releases, however.

A: There is! You can find RSDKv3 here and RSDKv4 here.

A: Absolutely not. This project took about 1 and a half years to do, and between the last two and this one, we're done with decompiling, at least for the time being. Please do not expect any more decompilations from us, Sonic or otherwise!

• Chuli for leading ModAPI development, porting to other platforms, general decompilation assistance, helping me fix bugs, tweaking up my sometimes sloppy code and generally being really helpful and fun to work with on this project
• The Weigman for creating the asset bases such as the header and icons (originally made for RSDKv3 and v4, modified by Chuli)
• Everyone in the Retro Engine Modding Server for being supportive of me and for giving me a place to show off these things that I've found

Join the Retro Engine Modding Discord Server for any extra questions you may need to know about the decompilation or modding it.