SM64 Coop DX launcher assets: fonts, images, and sounds

The SM64 Coop DX Launcher is a full graphical application built on SDL2. Its user interface relies on a set of external asset files — fonts, images, sound effects, background music, and a mod database — that must be present on disk before the launcher starts. These files are intentionally shipped separately from the binary so they can be updated or replaced without recompiling the launcher. All assets are loaded from a single directory under your XDG data home.

Asset directory

~/.local/share/sm64coopdx/assets/

This path is derived at runtime from the XDG data_dir (typically ~/.local/share) and is the only location the launcher searches. The directory must exist and be populated before the first run.

Installing assets

Copy the assets/ directory that ships alongside the launcher binary into the expected location:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/sm64coopdx/assets
cp -r assets/* ~/.local/share/sm64coopdx/assets/

Run this once after extracting the launcher archive. If you update the launcher to a new version, re-run the copy to pick up any new or changed asset files.

The source assets/ directory referenced above is the one bundled with the launcher release — it lives next to the sm64coopdx-launcher binary in the downloaded archive.

Required asset files

The table below lists every file the launcher loads from ~/.local/share/sm64coopdx/assets/. All paths are relative to that base directory.

Asset path	Type	Purpose
`fonts/SuperMario256.ttf`	TrueType font	All in-launcher text rendering
`splash.png`	PNG image	Full-screen splash graphic shown on startup
`vinyl_disc.png`	PNG image	Animated spinning vinyl disc in the music player
`sm64coopdx/logo.png`	PNG image	SM64 Coop DX logo displayed on the main screen
`sm64coopdx/icon.png`	PNG image	Window icon (shown in taskbar / title bar)
`background.png`	PNG image	Main background wallpaper
`sounds/navigation_sound.wav`	WAV audio	Sound effect played when navigating menus
`sounds/splash_sound.wav`	WAV audio	Sound effect played during the splash screen
`ogg-sounds/`	Directory	Background music tracks (`.ogg` files)
`database_sm64coopdx.json`	JSON	Mod download database (~1,100+ community mods)

If any required asset file is missing, the launcher will fail to load and log an error to stderr. The most common cause is forgetting to run the cp -r assets/* step after a fresh install or update.

Asset details

Font
Images
Sounds
Music
Mod database

The launcher uses a single font file, fonts/SuperMario256.ttf, for all rendered text. It is loaded at three sizes defined in the launcher configuration:

Constant	Size	Use
`FONT_SIZE_DEFAULT`	42 px	Main headings and menu items
`FONT_SIZE_MEDIUM`	28 px	Sub-headings and descriptions
`FONT_SIZE_SMALL`	18 px	Status text and small labels

The font file must be present before the SDL2 TTF subsystem initialises; a missing font prevents the launcher from rendering any text at all.

All images are loaded as SDL2 textures via SDL2_image. The launcher expects standard PNG files at the exact paths listed in the table above.

splash.png — displayed for at least 3 000 ms during the splash screen phase, with a 500 ms fade transition.
vinyl_disc.png — rendered as an animated spinning disc in the music player widget. The disc rotates at 90.0 degrees per second (VINYL_ROT_SPEED), with the angle recalculated every frame.
sm64coopdx/logo.png — the game’s logo, drawn prominently on the launcher’s main screen.
sm64coopdx/icon.png — passed to SDL2 as the window icon. It appears in your desktop taskbar and window title bar.
background.png — the full-screen background wallpaper drawn behind all UI elements.

Sound effects are short WAV files loaded through SDL2_mixer:

sounds/navigation_sound.wav — plays each time you move the selection cursor in a menu.
sounds/splash_sound.wav — plays during the splash screen animation.

Both files must be present. A missing sound file prevents SDL2_mixer from loading the sound channel and logs an error.

Background music is stored as OGG Vorbis files in the ogg-sounds/ subdirectory. The launcher:

Scans the directory for all .ogg files at startup.
Builds a playlist from every file found.
Selects a track at random and begins playback.
Automatically advances to the next random track when the current one finishes.

Two compile-time constants govern playback behaviour:

Constant	Value	Meaning
`MUSIC_VOLUME`	`28` (≈ 0.22 × 128)	SDL2_mixer volume level (0–128 scale)
`TRACK_COOLDOWN_S`	`1.0` second	Minimum time between track changes

You can add, remove, or replace .ogg files in this directory to customise the music without recompiling anything. An empty ogg-sounds/ directory is valid — the launcher will simply run silently. The directory itself must exist.

database_sm64coopdx.json is a JSON file that powers the launcher’s built-in mod browser. It contains metadata for over 1 100 community mods scraped from GameBanana, including names, descriptions, download URLs, and checksums.The launcher parses this file at startup to build its search index. If the file is missing, the mod browser will be empty but the rest of the launcher continues to function normally.

Some entries in the database link to GameBanana mod pages rather than direct ZIP archives. These mods are marked requires_manual_download and excluded from the in-launcher one-click install flow. Visit the linked page to download them manually.

Directory layout reference

After a correct installation the asset tree should look like this:

~/.local/share/sm64coopdx/assets/
├── fonts/
│   └── SuperMario256.ttf
├── sm64coopdx/
│   ├── icon.png
│   └── logo.png
├── sounds/
│   ├── navigation_sound.wav
│   └── splash_sound.wav
├── ogg-sounds/
│   ├── track1.ogg
│   └── track2.ogg          ← any number of .ogg files
├── background.png
├── database_sm64coopdx.json
├── splash.png
└── vinyl_disc.png

Troubleshooting missing assets

Check the error message

Run the launcher from a terminal to see stderr output:

./sm64coopdx-launcher

Asset load errors are printed to stderr with the full path that was expected. This tells you exactly which file is missing.

Verify the assets directory exists

ls -la ~/.local/share/sm64coopdx/assets/

If the directory does not exist, re-run the install step:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/sm64coopdx/assets
cp -r assets/* ~/.local/share/sm64coopdx/assets/

Check individual files

Cross-reference the directory listing against the required files table above. Pay attention to subdirectories — fonts/, sounds/, sm64coopdx/, and ogg-sounds/ must all be present.

find ~/.local/share/sm64coopdx/assets/ -type f | sort

Re-copy from a clean archive

If files appear corrupted or incomplete, extract a fresh copy of the launcher archive and re-run:

cp -r assets/* ~/.local/share/sm64coopdx/assets/

The copy is non-destructive for files not present in the source — existing files will be overwritten with the shipped versions.

Get Started

Configuration

Features

File Reference

Troubleshooting

SM64 Coop DX launcher assets: fonts, images, and sounds

Asset directory

Installing assets

Required asset files

Asset details

Directory layout reference

Troubleshooting missing assets

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Configuration

Features

File Reference

Troubleshooting

Documentation Index

​Asset directory

​Installing assets

​Required asset files

​Asset details

​Directory layout reference

​Troubleshooting missing assets

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Asset directory

Installing assets

Required asset files

Asset details

Directory layout reference

Troubleshooting missing assets