Ren’Py includes an updater that can automatically download and install updates to a Ren’Py game hosted at a website. This can be useful in keeping a large game up to date.
The Ren’Py updater works by automatically performing the following steps:
The Ren’Py updater shows an updater screen during this process, prompting the user to proceed and allowing the user to cancel when appropriate.
The updater requires that you provide your own hosting. You should be able to download the update files by going to the appropriate URL directly, and your server must support HTTP range queries.
(This means paying for web hosting, as “sharing” sites tend not to support the required features.)
Updates are built automatically when distributions are built. To build an update, set build.include_update to True in options.rpy. This will unlock the “Build Updates” option in the “Build Distributions” section of the launcher. Check this option, and Ren’Py will create the update files.
The update files consist of:
You must upload all these files to a single directory on your web server.
To cause an update to occur, invoke either updater.update or the updater.Update action.
To customize the look of the updater, you may override the updater
screen. The default screen is defined in common/00updater.rpy.