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Getting Started.md

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🏠 pokebot-gen3 Wiki Home

❓ Getting Started

Supported Operating Systems

Windows MacOS Ubuntu Debian PopOS Arch Linux

  • Windows
  • MacOS
  • Linux, tested and confirmed working on the following distros:
    • Ubuntu 24.04
    • Debian 12
    • Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS
    • Arch Linux

Requirements

Windows

  • Python 3.12 Windows installer 64-bit
    • Tick Add Python to PATH when installing Python

MacOS

Note: brew requires Homebrew to be installed.

Linux

  • Python 3.12 or sudo apt install python3.12
  • Install the following packages with apt or appropriate package manager: sudo apt install python3-distutils python3-tk libmgba0.10 portaudio19-dev
  • If libmgba0.10 is not available on your distro, you can manually install the mGBA 0.10.x .deb package which includes libmgba0.10

Download the Bot

Stable Releases

Visit the releases page for the latest stable releases, download the pokebot-DATE.zip file.

The bot has an auto-updater that will check for new stable releases, once a day.

Dev Releases

Expand

To download the latest dev releases, go to the top of the repo page > click the green Code button > Download ZIP.

Alternatively, if you'd like to be able to easily pull the latest dev releases, use git:

  • Install GitHub Desktop (you don't need an account)
  • Click Clone a repository from the Internet...
  • Use repository URL https://github.com/40Cakes/pokebot-gen3.git and choose a save location on your PC
  • Click Clone
  • Any time there's a new update, you can pull the latest changes by clicking Fetch origin, then Pull origin

Optional

  • Windows Terminal - recommended for full 🌈colour🌈 and ✨emoji support✨ in the console output
  • Notepad++ - recommended for syntax highlighting while editing .yml config files

Use a venv (optional)

Expand If you're using Python for any other projects, it is **highly recommended** to use a virtual environment (`venv`) to isolate these packages from your base environment.

Once Python is installed, set up a venv, open a shell in the bot directory and enter the following command:

python -m venv .

A venv may be “activated” using a script in its binary directory (bin on POSIX; Scripts on Windows). This will prepend that directory to your PATH, so that running python will invoke the environment’s Python interpreter and you can run installed scripts without having to use their full path. The invocation of the activation script is platform-specific (<venv> must be replaced by the path to the directory containing the virtual environment):

Platform Shell Command to activate virtual environment
POSIX bash/zsh
fish
csh/tcsh
PowerShell		 $ source <venv>/bin/activate
$ source <venv>/bin/activate.fish
$ source <venv>/bin/activate.csh
$ <venv>/bin/Activate.ps1
Windows cmd.exe
PowerShell		 C:\> <venv>\Scripts\activate.bat
PS C:\> <venv>\Scripts\Activate.ps1

Once activated, run the bot (your shell should show (venv) if activated correctly):

(venv)$ python ./pokebot.py (POSIX)

(venv) PS C:\> python ./pokebot.py (Windows)

Run the Bot

  • Place some official Pokémon .gba ROMs into the ./roms/ folder
  • Double click pokebot.py or run python pokebot.py in a terminal and follow the on-screen steps to create and/or select a profile

The bot ships with the default mGBA input mapping, see here for the default mapping, or customise them to your preference.

You must ensure you are able to escape battle 100% of the time, otherwise the bot will get stuck. If you have a save from mGBA that you'd like to import and use with the bot, then you will need to import the save state.

This bot is still in development, as such, functionality is subject to change - always make sure you back up your ./profiles/ folder before updating your bot!

Import a Save

  • In mGBA (standalone), run a game and load into the save file
  • File > Save State File... > Save
  • Double click pokebot.py or run python pokebot.py in a terminal > type a profile name > click Load Existing Save
  • Open the save state file you just saved
  • A new bot profile will be created in the ./profiles/ folder, and launched

Debugging (advanced)

Expand

The bot supports auto-starting a profile and can also be launched into a "debug" mode which will open an extra pane next to the emulator to aid bot development.

The debug tabs includes information such as currently running game tasks and callbacks, emulator inputs, as well as information about recent battles, player status, current map, daycare and event flags.

positional arguments:
  profile               Profile to initialize. Otherwise, the profile selection menu will appear.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -m {MODE_NAME}, --bot-mode {MODE_NAME}
                        Initial bot mode (default: Manual)
  -s {0,1,2,3,4,8,16,32}, --emulation-speed {0,1,2,3,4,8,16,32}
                        Initial emulation speed (0 for unthrottled; default: 1)
  -nv, --no-video       Turn off video output by default
  -na, --no-audio       Turn off audio output by default
  -t, --always-on-top   Keep the bot window always on top of other windows
  -d, --debug           Enable extra debug options and a debug menu

Use environment variable POKEBOT_UNTHEMED=1 with debug mode as ttkthemes causes major lag with complex UIs.