Links and folders

Games often have buttons that open a website (a Patreon page, the developer’s site) or a folder (extra content). The Switch can do neither from inside a game.

The notice#

Instead of failing, rpynx shows a notice over the game:

• For a website: “This link opens a website, which the Switch cannot show here. To visit it, open this address on a phone or computer:” followed by the address.
• For a folder or file: “This opens a folder or file on a computer, which the Switch cannot do:” followed by the path.

The OK button is selected; A closes the notice, and so do + and L with the default mapping. The game goes on.

Why it is needed#

Before the fix, in run 24:

• a website link did nothing at all: Ren’Py’s open_url() tried Python’s webbrowser, which has no browser on the Switch, and stayed silent;
• Forbidden Fantasy’s “deluxe” button ran subprocess.Popen(["xdg-open", folder]), and the game stopped with OSError: horizon does not support processes.

Now renpy.open_url, webbrowser.open* and subprocess.Popen of xdg-open, open, explorer or start show the notice. Other Popen calls behave as before: the Switch cannot start processes, so a game that needs them will stop with an error. In run 25 both the website link and the “deluxe” button showed the notice, and OK closed it.